1993 Outback
V1 Outback is one of my favorite GI Joe figures. He looks cool, he has great accessories, a great character, and in general, fits the part of the kind of moive-like action hero who can sometimes fight big battles all on his own, if your imagination works that way. All of that together makes for a character we should see more often than we do, but his fourth (kinda third) toy from Battle Corps left a lot to be desired.
So originally Outback V3 would’ve been apart of the Eco Warriors, but that sub line was canceled similar to DEF, and it’s releases were moved over to the Battle Corps lineup of ‘93. The colors on this release are extremely bright, which is fairly similar to the tones you typically saw from Eco Warriors. The figure was then promptly repainted into some new colors more similar to the Battle Corps toys, and that’s where you wind up with version 4.
This Outback has a curious look to him, to say the least. For some reason he’s wearing a hardhat now, which makes him look more like a random lumberjack or construction worker. His shirt and pants are also much more on the plain end, and he doesn’t seem to be wearing anything that would protect him from the dangerous chemicals the Eco Warriors would typically encounter. To make him even better, he’s primarily green and khaki, with bright blue and orange details all over, in addition to some little bits of gold and black. I really can’t think of a figure that had more random colors than this one.
Gotta be honest, I find almost nothing redeeming or fun about this figure. A lot of the ‘93 redesigns were on the controversial end, like with Dr. Mindbender or Law, but those toys at least have some interesting visual elements going on with them. This Outback however, just looks really boring. The design is bland and doesn’t really seem to serve a clear purpose. Even the infamous Fishn’ Trip Bazooka from that year looks a lot more appealing than this figure does. In decent colors this mold might be salvageable, but there’s not much potential that was wasted here.
For accessories you get a tree of bright red parts, featuring Hit&Run’s carbine, Big Ben’s LMG, Ambush’s EM2 rifle, two missiles and a figure stand (as well as a blue missile launcher). It’s weird how almost every other Joe included some kind of knife or machete, but the survivalist just comes with random guns. At the very least, they are good guns, so if you’re another individual who’s developed a fondness for bright parts, you could probably find some uses for them. They don’t really make this Outback a good toy though.
Almost every Battle Corps Outback you will find is MOSC. Carded, he’s worth about $14, and loose he’s worth about $9. It’s really funny how heavily certain ‘93 and ‘94 Joes were hoarded by speculators who expected to get rich off of these; the fact that almost every example of this Outback that you find is carded makes me wonder how many kids ever even played with this guy.
The Viper Pit 