Funskool T.A.R.G.A.T.

Posted on November 20, 2023 by mwnekoman

Funskool T.A.R.G.A.T.

So as I mentioned before I’m a big fan of the T.A.R.G.A.T. (or as I refer to him henceforth as the TARGAT). He features fun elements from the Alley Viper (flip down visor), he’s basically an astronaut, who’s also kinda like a jet-pack paratrooper kinda thing. Stretch your imagination a bit and you have a fun Cobra/Iron Grenadier that appears out of thin air and begins attacking, and unlike the Annihilator he doesn’t look terrible. Another thing to like about the TARGAT, is that he has a few cool repaints to collect, such as this Funskool figure.

I’m not sure to say that the Funskool TARGAT’s aged like wine, but one figure it has inevitably shown it’s appeal over is the Star Brigade TARGAT, whose color scheme it’s based on. Of course, the reason for this is because the Hasbro figure suffers from GPS, meaning that sooner or later the figure will fully turn to dust, whereas the Funskool figure replaces most of the gold with a copper-colored soft plastic. At a certain point, you’ll be hard pressed to find a V2 TARGAT with intact knee-pins, so a similar alternative is very much a welcomed thing.

I miss the depth of that gold color a little bit, though in many ways the Funskool version is absolutely better than the Star Brigade release. All of the orange details were replaced with yellow ones in most of the same spots. though you lose the painted details on his biceps. Although the head’s left purple, his purple paint applications have been replaced by more of a German Grey color, which looks pretty nice for the added variety, though the purple was quite good originally. He’s also kept the black on his grenades and gold on his visor, with the later color gaining the added benefit of some extra contrast, given that now the visor isn’t painted the same color as the entire figure. For the most part, everything’s pretty similar between the two figures, but different enough to make owning them both pretty fun. Except for the Hasbro one crumbling, that’s not any fun.

It used to entertain me to assign asinine roles to every repaint or variant that came into my possession. For the TARGAT, the original ‘89 release was the basic trooper, with the ‘93 version becoming the officers. The Funskool version became something that was ambiguously a unique character and another generic, and was the TARGAT flight instructor. He’s a senior operator among the Iron Grenadiers and an expert at using the complicated TARGAT flight gear, so he’s responsible for teaching the rest of them tactics and how to use this crap. I like this idea still and mostly associate the figure with that role, but it’s also somewhat frustrating to pigeonhole a figure I have into such a relatively niche role. With that in mind, I sometimes hesitate at creating new repaint characters, at the cost of being more hedonistic with owning recolors that serve no real purpose.

A major flaw of both this figure and the original Star Brigade release is the inclusion of generic 90‘s gear. I think the TARGAT works pretty well with ordinary guns, but the backpack was cool and a defining part of the figure. Included here is a Rock Viper PSG1, the Annihilator’s SMG, the V1 Iron Grenadier’s pistol and a missile-launcher (HEAT Viper, M. Bison, Night Creeper Leader and later Metal Head’s), plus missiles and a stand in eye-searing pink. There’s a lot of variants on the coloring of these, with the colors ranging from red to orange and some looking a little more florescent pink than others, though bright pink seems to be the most common color. I think PINK is probably the worst color you put Joe guns into, but as a novelty it makes him odd at the very least. Plus now you have some guns that might look nice with other pink-clad figures like Banzai- haven’t you always wanted that?

Fortunately this is still one of the more common and less popular Funskool releases, and with a little bit of patience you can get a Funskool TARGAT for around $15. If you’re a Star Brigade fan, he’s a nice alternative to Hasbro’s release, since you can still safely pose him and have a little bit of fun as opposed to sealing him in an acrylic case and waiting for gravity to finish him off. Though, it’s also reasonable to find this figure and the one it’s based on to be horribly garish, but I collect TARGATs so I’m forced to ignore such a notion.

Funskool T.A.R.G.A.T. Links:

The Dragon Fortress

Funskool Scrap-Iron

Posted on September 4, 2023 by mwnekoman

Funskool Scrap-Iron

Scrap-Iron’s always been a favorite character of mine, which I mostly attribute to this Funskool figure I got cheaply early in my collecting years. As a child I was somewhat of a germaphobe, and going into my early teenage years I retained this feature; which closed a lot of doors when it comes to an interest in old toys. For a brief window I only bought MOSC figures, which prompted me to buy more Funskool items than I probably would have otherwise (at the time, I had a very scathing opinion on them). In hindsight this was very good, but I’ve wondered if it hadn’t been for that, if Scrap-iron might’ve been overlooked for every other classic Cobra I could’ve had.

The funny thing is though, is that rather than being excited and satisfied with carded o-ring joes that didn’t trigger my germaphobia… I was rather unsatisfied. So much so that I got over myself and started buying old stuff, cause I had too much I wanted and Funskool figures seemed pretty lame at the time. Before they were chic, cool and overpriced, Funskool figures came across as toys for cheapskates, since they were generally like Hasbro figures, just with less paint and terrible quality-control. Then at some point the government changed the chemicals they were putting in the water, which is what made us collectively decide that Funskool rules and the neon-90‘s were actually pretty cool!

Funskool’s release of Scrap-Iron is reasonably solid and interesting. For the most part, he’s the same colors as the Hasbro release, though noticeably the blue is somewhat brighter and now his chest is painted flesh-tone instead of red like an undershirt. I’ve always thought this made the figure look like he’s somewhere unbearably hot like a desert or a jungle, so it has it’s charm, although it’s not too convincing. The upper-arms have also been swapped for Toxo-Viper biceps, which I do think is a small upgrade.

The downside in all of this is that the quality of this figure is complete crap. I do know that Funskool made Scrap-Iron’s for a very long time, and some of them were painted better than others (Vehicle pack-ins and certain odd years too.), but this figure was painted like poo. The paint is thin and smeared in several places, and along his collar is a noticeable bubble that I find very distracting. Now that we’re all old and hunting for novelties, it’s easy to sometimes forget why Funskool overstock was a thing into the early 10‘s.

Of course, a place where you don’t loose out in this instance is the accessories. Funskool Scrap-Iron comes with all the parts you’d get with Hasbro Scrap-Iron, and that alone validated this figure’s existence for a long time. That includes his RAR machine-pistol, and his complete rocket launcher system, all in colors similar to the original’s. At a time when this figure only cost $3, these accessories certainly made him worth it, although that’s mostly lost on newer collectors.

I’ve recently made an unfortunate discovery that my Funskool Scrap-Iron has yellowed suddenly. This one’s partially my fault, as unlike with Hasbro’s 2000‘s plastic that turns for no reason, my Funskool Scrap-Iron got nabbed by his launcher’s missiles. When I pulled them out of his bag, they were extremely sticky, meaning they leaked plasticizer, which probably is what discolored my figure. So if you have this guy, I recommend keeping his missiles somewhere else, isolated from any other parts or figures.

The only two Funskool Scrap-Irons that sold recently were BiN’s, that went for $65 each. I find that very silly, but it is what it is. For figures like this one, the sad fact is that a lot of the novelty they provided is lost once they started hitting around $20, and anything past that would be a very questionable purchase. There’s a lot of very interesting international figures you can get for not much more than that, and a mint complete Hasbro figure doesn’t fetch $65, in fact they barely go for $30.

Funskool Scrap-Iron Links:

Forgotten Figures

Funskool Airtight

Posted on April 25, 2022 by mwnekoman

Funskool Airtight

A lot of international Joe figures fall into a general category of “things that are neat to have, but you don’t really need”. That’s a shame, because used to, it was fun to collect odd color variants from across the world and only pay a small premium for it… or no premium at all! Nowadays, things aren’t so fun, and if international figures aren’t mind-blowingly overpriced, they’re harder to come by. This is the gist of common Funskool figures like Airtight.

1985 Airtight is a cool figure and sculpt to begin with, and is one of the best figure’s from arguably GI Joe’s best year. That’s still the case here, and there’s not much lost in the Funskool iteration of the figure compared to Hasbro’s. Mainly, the plastic and paint hues are slightly different tones, which does at the very least make him pair a little better with different Hasbro figures. Personally, I’m fond of how the brighter green looks with Clean Sweep, so this is the Airtight I might use more often with 90‘s Joes.

That said, this figure is not overly exotic or interesting, just different. I’ve never really used him all that much, as despite how cool any Airtight figure is, he’s got a pretty limited specialty. For years I passed this guy up just because I was content with the Hasbro version, and this wasn’t something odd like Sky Diver or Tripwire. I think while he was still cheap my brother got me one as a gift, which I appreciate more in hindsight. A small variation like this wasn’t even worth the $17-ish price of a Russian one that popped up a few years later, but it was neat while these figures were cheap.

You get the same parts as the Hasbro release, including his backpack, sniffer, and two different hoses. The hose for his head on this release apparently doesn’t work very well, but I wouldn’t know since mine is missing it. Save for the lower quality hoses, his parts are nice and basically look like the Hasbro equivalents. That used to be really cool back in the day when a $3 Funskool figure could be used to augment a domestic one, not that anyone can really do that any more.

This figure used to be super common, and technically, he should be one of the most common GI Joe toys in existence given that Funskool produced them for so many years. When you consider the fact that Funskool produced these for multiple countries for upwards of 15 years(or more?), the population of India versus the United States, and the fact that additional Airtights were commonly packed with Funskool vehicles, I can really only imagine just how many of these there are in the world. That said, as big as GI Joe was in ‘85, Hasbro probably did not make as many Airtights as Funskool did.

Today, Funskool Airtight is a $20 figure. Not the most expensive Indian release by far, but an absurd price given how common he still is. Then again, we’re pretty much watching the dollar collapse at the moment, so maybe I should just start convincing myself this is actually a fair price. Either way, I’m glad I acquired one in the good ol’ days when figures were cheap, as modern collecting really doesn’t support whimsical purchases.

Funskool Airtight Links:

Forgotten Figures

The Dragon Fortress

Funskool Beachhead

Posted on March 21, 2022 by mwnekoman

Funskool Beachhead

For whatever reason, Beachhead was among the lot of Funskool figures I had the easy opportunity to obtain, but chose to ignore in the late 2000’s. At that time, I saw Funskool figures as a cheap and decent way to get some carded ARAH figures, but I only wanted ones that were a close approximation of their Hasbro counterparts (Can’t quit kicking myself over that!) such as Flint. Part of this, was because I was still getting over my childhood germophobia, which prevented me from buying loose stuff. If you’d believe it, I also had a fairly strong distaste for lime green, which put me out of Funskool Beachhead for a very long time.

Cut forward to late 2017, when a large crop of Russian release Funskool Joes showed up on eBay. As Funskoolers were already starting to shoot up in price, I didn’t screw around and made a few new acquisitions, even if it meant paying $20 a piece for them. As a recurring theme with Funskool figures, I love the way new figures will show up out of seemingly no where, saturate the market, and then suddenly disappear. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if more odd Funskool items showed up soon, from India or some other country.

Beachhead’s a nice figure, and oddly, a character I don’t use all that often. I think part of it’s that I’m lukewarm on most of Beachhead’s toys, besides the Battle Corps figure. I like the V1 figure a lot, but it’s a notoriously fragile figure, and that often frightens me into not touching him, especially with current Joe prices. While this Funskool figure isn’t a cheap alternative, it’s softer plastic does mitigate most worries over breakage, which is nice, as it’s opened me up to using him more.

If you can get past his ugly head (a staple of a 1986 sculpt), Beachhead provides a lot in his sculpt. My favorite detail in particular is the spare magazines on his chest, which is something you see less often on a GI Joe than a pile of grenades. The baggy BDU looks good too, it makes the figure look a little stocky with his head, but it has a nice commando look to it. It’s generic enough that it could be reused for another character (like Skydiver), but it still has a lot of detail, especially in all of the right places.

The colors are nice here. 13 years ago, I was very irritated by lime green, but I’ve since warmed up to the tone and like it on Beachhead just as well as the original’s darker color. Something refreshing about Funskool figures, is that they tend to have better contrasting colors than their domestic counterparts. The camo on Beachead’s pants is more vivid on this figure, and that’s a nice change of pace.

Included with Funskool Beachhead is all of his original gear: his SMG, satchel, and backpack. Beachhead’s SMG was always a very cool part that was easy for figures to hold. I also consider it an important part for the figure, since it matches with the sculpted magazines mentioned earlier. His backpack is pretty nice and has a lot of detail, although I never liked how boxy it was. I’m also pretty certain his satchel is just slightly more flexible, which comes across to me as a big plus.

Sadly, the cheap Russian Funskool figures from five years ago have all evaporated, and the era of the covid-collector has led to figures like this one pricing around $50 to $60. It’s really a matter of time before people go back to doing whatever they used to waste money on (traveling, kayaking, social gatherings that involve copious amounts of alcohol), but for now lockdown noobs are still a thing, and they make fun toys too expensive. If I hadn’t gotten this one back in 2017, I’d definitely wait until the current market dies down.

Funskool Beachhead Links:

Forgotten Figures

The Dragon Fortress

Joe A Day

Funskool Captain Gridiron

Posted on January 18, 2022 by mwnekoman

Funskool Captain Gridiron

Paraphrasing something RTG told me once, even a bad GI Joe figure, it still a good action figure regardless. I think that’s true, and I also think it applies pretty strongly to Captain Gridiron. I actually find it strange that Captain Gridiron isn’t more maligned by the GI Joe community, as while I’ve seen countless jokes pointed at Ice Cream Soldier or ‘85 Bazooka’s shirt, Gridiron probably doesn’t get the grief he deserves. I don’t outright hate him, but he’s incredibly hard to take seriously.

The 1990 GI Joe line-up was pretty fantastic, you had great figures like Topside or Rampart. And silly sports-centric figures, aren’t new to GI Joe either, even with oddballs I’ve liked in the past, like Hardball. Then you’ve got Captain Gridiron, who’s just… inherently silly. I think ever since I was a kid, I’ve been very sensitive to characters that felt like they’re making fun of my intelligence (whether that’s intentional or perceived) and Captain Gridiron has always made me feel that way, maybe more than any other GI Joe figure. It’s difficult to describe what makes me feel this way, but it’s a lifelong viewpoint I’ve had, and it’s shaped my distaste for certain brands; I like my toys to take themselves seriously.

There’s a few factors that differentiate Captain Gridiron from other silly GI Joe figures. The main aspect I see, is that other figures like Hardball, are more earnest in their approach to being a soldier toy with a sports theme, compared to Gridiron, who’s completely over-the-top and is more so rubbing your nose in it. Comparing him to another silly figure, Raptor, I can at least take Raptor a little bit seriously, because that figure is earnest in it’s approach to being a villain, even if the animal motif requires some suspension of disbelief. Gridiron on the other hand, is fundamentally a neon football player with football themed weapons and gear, which is something I have trouble looking past.

Putting all of that aside, he’s an okay figure quality wise, and something that’s extra strange when you own the Funskool version like I do. I got this figure sometime just before prices started to skyrocket on Funskool Joes, and I think the only reason I got him was that I had enough of a notion that prices were going up, that I knew there would be no way I’d bother with him again at a later date.

He’s got the sculpting quality you’d expect from a GI Joe toy, and the sports theme doesn’t do much to get in the way of that. There’s enough detail here like the ribbing on his sleeves or the zippers on his vest that it provides an amount of redemption for an otherwise questionable character. Overall though, I’m tempted to say he looks kind of boring, and the hard-points for his football-grenades really takes away from the look of his leg sculpt. Can’t say I’m sad he never got a repaint besides this one.

The Hasbro release actually had some decent colors, featuring two shades of green and yellow that overlaps with a few contemporaries like Scoop. Funskool turned the colors up to eleven though, giving him more yellow and making his pants orange, notably. There’s also a few other odd differences, like his hair being black now or his vest being a much darker green, gray details were replaced with silver. Among Funskool figures, this one’s more on the unique end.

I hate his parts. Captain Gridiron comes with a rifle, four missiles, two football grenades, two clip-on arm pads, backpack and a helmet with visor. This Funskool version comes with all of the same gear as Hasbro’s, save for the pistol and an extra football, but in different colors. It’s actually a solid upgrade, since now his rifle is made of black plastic, while the missiles are a contrasting orange color. The clear visor on his helmet is a nice touch, but I hate how the helmet looks, and rifle just looks like garbage; easily one of the worst ARAH guns. The football grenades are part of what makes his motif seem so overbearing, and lastly, you’ve got his arm pads, which just seems like a toss-in. It’s amazing he has so many parts and all of them seem to only lessen my opinion of the figure, but I guess that’s just how it is.

Like I expected, Funskool Gridiron’s have become hard to find… for a fair price. There’s a bunch of nutters trying to hawk this figure for $100 at any given time, which should clue you in on how rare he is (hint: he’s common), but he’s certainly not worth that much. This is a figure people could not give away years ago, and is still very common. I expect an auction would only fetch between $20 to $30, and even that is way more than this figure’s worth.

Funskool Captain Gridiron Links:

Joe A Day

Funskool Rony

Funskool Muskrat

Posted on September 15, 2020 by mwnekoman

Funskool Muskrat

Although not the case as much anymore, at one time a collector could acquire Funskool figures as a sort of “poor nerd’s” toys. Most collectors of the time preferred the superior Hasbro versions, so Funskool releases were seen the same vein as a knock-off. Still, for the economical and less picky collector, it was a fun way to often acquire interesting variants, or if nothing else, a cheap stand-in for an American figure. Sometimes, it was even a fun way to acquire a relatively common figure, such as with this Muskrat.

Amusingly, I had almost forgotten how I got this figure, until I remembered it was at the same time that I got a lot of Funskool Hydro Vipers from some guy who was likely dumping off large amounts of his collection. It’s a little depressing to think about, but buying ARAH figures in the early ‘10‘s was a good time. Everything was super cheap, and nothing was really too scarce either. Of course, the reason it’s sad is because I think a lot of it was from people selling their collections because of the economy, and also o-ring collectors exiting the hobby once it was apparent Hasbro had abandoned them.

1988 figures are kind of like cult classics when it comes to ARAH. They were produced in smaller numbers, the media tie-ins were sparse that year, and not a lot of people talk about half of them. Still, it was an incredibly strong year of figures, certainly an improvement over ‘87. Muskrat’s that kind of figure that’s very hard for anyone to outright hate: he has great colors, fun parts, and a creative specialty. It’s a good balance of being a reasonable looking soldier while still having a gimmick fun enough to make him unique.

Funskool Muskrat is in no particular way different from Hasbro’s Muskrat, besides being made with all the typical hallmarks of a Funskool figure. The figure’s a remarkably similar green color to the Hasbro one, and most of the other paint applications are more or less the same. He’s missing the red stripe that was painted onto his boogie board, but that’s no big deal depending on how you look at it.

For parts, you get the pump-action shotgun, machete, and boogie board from the original release. Besides the machete being silver and the missing stripe on the boogie board, there’s nothing new going on here. With that said, Muskrat was a figure who came with some simple, but really nice parts you saw frequently in the years after his release; both the shotgun and machete were common to 90‘s part trees, and were usually the kind of thing you didn’t mind getting a few extras of given their realistic and easy to use nature.

Comparatively, Muskrats aren’t that hard to get ahold of, still. A good supply of these coming out of Russia still float around the market, and they weren’t produced too long ago, either. Of course, buying from Russia is hard and costly, so that limits how easily you can get one. Overall, I’d say you can get a loose complete figure for less than $15 if you hunt, which is about the same as the Hasbro version right now.

Funskool Skydiver

Posted on April 7, 2020 by mwnekoman

Funskool Skydiver

When I first got into collecting vintage and o-ring figures again, online Joe dealers still had ample supplies of Funkskool overstock. I took a pretty standard approach to this and sought out what I mainly considered to be the best stand-ins for costly vintage figures, like V1 Flint, but one figure stood out to me as being so strange that I had to have him: Skydiver.

A lot of the time you’ll see this figure identified by collectors as Tiger Force Crazylegs, but I really don’t know why people think that. Nothing about the figure identifies him as Crazylegs, or a member of the Tiger Force. The only thing that ties him to either of these concepts is the usage of Crazyleg’s head and gun, with some yellow and black pattern pants that vaguely resembles the poorly done tiger-camo on Funskool Tiger Force Life Line. Skydiver is pretty clearly defined on the card as being his own character.

Note: Image borrowed from Yo Joe, link at the bottom. I’ve spent days looking for my Skydiver card and have no idea where I put it…

Speaking of the card, have a look at that thing! Is he dropping into a volcano? A few Funskool figures were released on non-standard cards like this, which featured unique art and backgrounds. Unique characters like Super Cop, Street Hawk and Super Hero came on cards like this, which I’m somewhat unclear on the significance of.

Skydiver is made from the body of 1986 Beachhead and the head of 1987 Crazylegs. It’s an interesting parts combo that fits pretty well and looks decent for a paratrooper. Crazylegs and Beachhead both had similarly sized heads, so the proportions don’t look much worse to me. What really sits this figure apart from Beachhead or Crazylegs, is his insane color scheme. All red torso, bright yellow camouflage pants, bright blue belts, everything that could be bright is bright. Still, that colorful and bizarre look is what’s charming about the figure.

For parts, Skydiver comes light with only Crazyleg’s gun and a very cheap parachute. No stock is included for the gun, and the parachute ties around his shoulders: there’s no backpack or anything that it ties or attaches to. It’s a little disappointing that his parts are so sparse, but things like this are sometimes easier to overlook in the general picture of Funskool’s bizarreness. I could try and say “At least the gun’s black!”, but with a figure like this, I’d have probably found it entertaining if the gun were powder blue too.

What prompted me to write about this figure, was discovering the insane new value he’s attained like many other Funskool figures. $100 seems to be the new normal for Skydivers, which is astounding considering a decade ago you could barely give this figure away. I wholeheartedly don’t recommend paying that much for this figure, as he’s neither rare nor particularly exceptional.

Though, it is somewhat of a separate topic, the massive increase in value for Funskool figures is fascinating to me. Technically speaking, these figure are not rare. In fact, many of them are probably some of the most common, most produced GI Joe figures in existence. Yet, a few short years after they were imported en masse, these figures have seen a consistent increase in value across the board, and become far more scarce (on the market). It’s a complete mystery to me why this happened, but it’s also fun to watch how long it lasts.

Funskool Skydiver Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figures

Joe a Day

Funskool Tripwire

Posted on May 14, 2018 by mwnekoman

Funskool Tripwire

Funskool GI Joes seem to be an nearly unending source of interest in the realm of collecting. You have figures that provide high quality repaints such as the Toxo Viper, or interesting alternatives to classics like V1 Flint. Then you have the downright bizarre figures, one such example being this Funskool Tripwire.

In recent years Funskool Tripwire has become a rather sought after figure, almost to the degree of Listen N Fun Tripwire. But in the late 2000‘s heading into the early 2010‘s, he was held in disregard and was a common figure. I still remember my first encounter with him being baffled at the design choices they made, and generally being disinterested in the figure in favor of the more well colored Funskool figures. Back then, I scoffed at the figure for a measly $3, but just a few years later I ended up feeling like I got a deal when I acquired one for $15. It’s a really stunning example of how these figures seem like they’ve just evaporated from the market.

Tripwire is in my opinion, one of the most interesting and odd Funskool figures. He’s decked out in purple, with red, gold, and bright orange details as well as a little flesh color for his face. The paint is rather detailed on this figure, and I have to say he’s more visually interesting than any of the Hasbro Tripwires. His chest also features some large text that says “BOMB SQUAD”, which is probably one of the most memorable details present here.

His accessories are also rather interesting. Although he comes with a backpack and mine detector just like Hasbro’s Tripwire, the parts are not the same. First, his backpack has been modified to feature a peg, so now it connects to his mine detector with a rubber hose. Likewise, the mine detector is totally new. It’s smaller, and it isn’t held the same way as the Hasbro mine detector, as it lacks the perpendicular grip. Interestingly, they painted a few details on it as well. It’s easy to say that this detector is inferior to Hasbro’s, but the fact that it’s a new sculpt makes the figure a whole lot more interesting.

Funskool Tripwire is stupidly expensive. Like I mentioned earlier, at one time you could acquire these with ease for $3. Now, one shows up on eBay maybe once a month or so, and is running $100 routinely. Given that Funskool was known for making extremely large production runs, I don’t think that price will remain forever. Though similarly, I also doubt it’ll ever come down that much. Either way, it’s testament to how interesting he is as a figure.

Funskool Tripwire Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figures

Funskool Flint

Posted on January 1, 2018 by mwnekoman

With Christmas having recently passed, I couldn’t help but find it necessary to talk about a Joe that was a Christmas present of mine. The funny thing is, prior to my teenage years I never really had any GI Joe items I got for Christmas. It wasn’t that I didn’t like GI Joe, but I never seemed to get any as presents. A combination of the DTC and 25th Anniversary lines brought me back into Joe hard around 2007, and in light of that my brother snagged me a Funskool Flint as a present the next year.

Despite the quality of Funskool figures and their cards, opening Flint up that morning was a fun and somewhat surreal feeling. Mind you, I’m a kid of the mid-90‘s, so I totally missed out on most of ARAH, but I still had this feeling of having just time traveled. Those ARAH cards were visually striking in a way that I feel was almost timeless.

The figure itself was also my first time owning a vintage Flint figure. This was just a bit before I began hunting down actual vintage figures off eBay, so I was really excited to have this figure in my collection. As a big fan of the Sunbow cartoon, I always desired having more figures in their classic appearances as opposed to many of the redesigns from the late 80‘s and 90‘s. That’s not to say Flint’s Eco-Warriors or Battle Corps toys weren’t any good, but to me as a kid they didn’t look enough like Flint. It really makes me regret having no prior knowledge of the Funskool figures, as I certainly would’ve bought a lot of them. I wanted things like this during the 2000‘s a lot more than Spy Troops and Valor vs Venom.

As for the figure itself, it’s a fairly decent representation of V1 Flint. So much so that I’ve been content with the figure for a whole decade and never bothered with a Hasbro Flint. The colors are very similar, and although the paint is notoriously messy on certain runs of Funskool figures, I seemingly lucked out and got a fairly clean looking Flint save for the gold paint.

In another nice event, Funskool Flint comes with parts that are remarkably similar to Hasbro’s. Mind you, the plastic is of course somewhat cheaper but visually they do the job rather well. Back in the 2000’s these figures were so cheap that an example like Flint or Scrap Iron was worth buying just for the parts at the humble $3 they ran. For a collector on a budget, this was a great way of getting good parts to give to a Hasbro figure.

I really loved getting this figure a decade ago, especially coupled with a few other Funskool items I got at the same time. Back then however, these figure were dirt cheap. As Funskool figures now routinely run between $10 to $20, I find it increasingly hard to say if they’re worth it most of the time. A few figures provide something unique, but with figure’s like Flint at today’s prices, you’re probably better off sticking with the American version.

Funskool Flint Links:

Funskool Flint Dio by The Dragon Fortress

Yo Joe!

Forgotten Figures

Funskool Tiger Force Lifeline

Posted on July 21, 2017 by mwnekoman

Weird is a synonym for Funskool, and like any other Funskool figure, Tiger Force Lifeline is pretty strange. If his colors were based upon the original 1986 Lifeline, I imagine this would be a mostly mundane release, but that is not the case here.

Lifeline is a favorite figure of mine, like most of the figures from 1986. It was a year of figures with fun gimmicks that provided interesting roles for GI Joe and Cobra. Tiger Force Lifeline provided an interesting version of the character in team specific colors that were also a fun alternative to the original. This version however, looks almost nothing like either of those toys.

The colors are very bright on this figure, palette wise they resemble the 1993 Cyber Viper more so than Tiger Force Lifeline. The differences are exacerbated if you look at the green chest variant I’m showing here. Compared to the Hasbro version, the Tiger stripes have far less definition and look almost more like cheetah spots. Interestingly, there’s some red paint applications on his pouches that the American release never had. It’s pretty nice they painted them, although I think the red on top of his other colors actually serves to make him look even gaudier.

He includes the same parts as the Hasbro release omitting the oxygen mask, albeit in worse colors. Now his case is solid orange, while the gun and backpack are flat grey. Really nothing much to see here, but at least he has most of his original parts, which you can’t say for every Funskool figure. With that said, I don’t think you’ll miss these parts very much if you get one from a vehicle pack-in as I did.

This figure is a novelty, if you want something exotic and foreign looking he does the job well. However, Funskool figures have become something you have to hunt for if you want one at a remotely fair price. Back in the day, I got this figure for something akin to $1, but these days Funskool figures commonly sell for $15 to $20. For that much, it feels hard for me to justify figures like this, but that’s only because I can remember the way things used to be in terms of Funskool pricing. Still, this figure’s appeal is limited to his novelty as a brightly colored international variant, so unless you think that’s cool he’s an easy pass.

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Yo Joe!

Review at OG13

The Viper Pit

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