In terms of GI Joe subgroups, it feels to me that even the detested Cobra La is brought up in conversation more than the Battle Force 2000. It’s a weird lot of figures that I think most people would see as ARAH’s low point, and Knockdown is a figure who could represent a lot of what was wrong with this group of figures.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of strange and unpopular figures I’m a huge fan of. I love 90‘s figures, Ninja Force, Star Brigade, I even like Cobra La and most of the Battle Force 2000 figures. However, as a subset, the BF2000 figures often had a few of the problems you see in Knockdown here. Knockdown just suffers the worst from having so many problems and looking like a Flash Gordon reject on top of that.
Starting with the sculpt, Knockdown is an ugly figure. He has an awkwardly large torso, it isn’t as bad as certain 90‘s figures, but it looks ugly to me. The sculpt isn’t very detailed and generally just looks like a generic sci-fi action figure. The majority of this figure was never repainted later in the line, and I find that understandable given that I can’t see him being very useful for much else. As an interesting note, his head was later reused to make Super Trooper, Rapid Fire, and modified into Charbroil. At the very least, the head isn’t terrible and it works for him as well as the other characters.
Next up, his accessories. He comes with a gun, and a helmet. The helmet has a few paint applications and is rather detailed for a vintage Joe bucket. It’s still kinda ugly, but it’s an okay part for what it’s worth. Now, his gun on the other hand is an absolutely terrible part. It’s supposed to be an “experimental ground-to-air pistol”, but it’s not really good for anything. The handle is really thick regardless of if you get the normal or skinny variant, and he has trouble holding it. Besides that, the quality of the sculpt is just terrible. If you compare it to almost any other GI Joe weapon, it’s honestly hard to believe this part is from the same toy line. Most of the BF 2000 had lousy guns like this, and sadly Knockdown is no exception.
It’s probably obvious by now, but I don’t like Knockdown very much. The only reason I own him is because I acquired him in a lot. I can’t find a place for him in my collection other than as a contemporary with other BF2000 figures I like better, so to me, he’s a prop for photos. If I had a Sky-Sweeper, the vehicle he technically drives, I’d likely still opt for a more traditional vehicle driver over him.
With that all said, Knockdowns are really cheap if for some reason the figure strikes your fancy. Complete figures range in price from $3 to $7, but if you look around you can have a great example for the lower price with relative ease. My disdain for this figure aside, that’s a really low value for a vintage figure. Likely, it’s another reflection of the figure’s quality, but it’s hard to really be too serious on a figure that’s barely worth the price of a cup of coffee.
The Viper Pit 