1993 Starfighter

The Star Brigade line overall made some really solid choices in molds to reuse for a space-only themed GI Joe line. The ‘87 POGO getting turned into the Invader, a spacecraft, was a good example of a pretty lame idea being reinvented as something a little more fun. For the Joes, you had the Starfighter, which was a retool of the Stellar Stiletto.

As a kid, and as a kid going into adulthood who never stopped buying toys, I tended to find myself frustrated with a lot of 90‘s items like this. There was always that feeling of knowing what you had was a repaint of an older toy you wanted more, which often made me feel a tad cheated with toys like this. Of course, I haven’t always known about the Stellar Stiletto, so before that point, I was sort of disinterested in the vehicle for thinking it looked cheap.

To that end, there’s elements of the deco I think cheapen the look of the vehicle. I tend to dislike the bright white plastic used for the main hull, it makes me think too much of an unfinished scratch-build made from generic styrene. Of course, nothing screams cheap more than the paper decals that were endemic to all of the post-’91 vehicles. It still makes for a decent space vehicle despite that, but apart from the Star Brigade, it’s not too impressive looking.

As I mentioned, the vehicle has actually been altered from the Stellar Stiletto in several areas, which is interesting. The first and most obvious change, is that the nose-gun has been replaced with a missile-launcher. Second, the entire nose-cone has been changed, and now has been replaced by a piece made from very soft plastic. Third, the tail-wing has been shortened considerably.

Compared to the Invader, I think this repaint has a lot more going against it, and even risks feeling somewhat phoned-in. Despite that, the Starfighter has some good qualities going for it, that make me relatively fond of the vehicle. It’s unique as being the only aircraft/spacecraft in the Star Brigade line, which strikes me as a bizarre and glaring omission. Even when Hasbro introduced new vehicles in ‘94, your choices were Armor-Bot and the Power-Fighters. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that the first year was comprised of cheap repaints, while the second year featured new items that seemed to be unreleased carry-overs from prior years (In the old live-action Battle Corps ad, you can clearly see Duke and Destro fighting around a blue Armor-Bot). Either way, it’s a strange distinction that belongs to the Starfighter, which I think makes it a more important piece in a Star Brigade collection for that reason alone.

Oddly, another nice thing about the Star Fighter is that it actually included a driver. I’ll save my comments on Sci-fi for a day when I do a post specifically on him, but it’s curious he was included at all, as this was at a point when vehicle drivers were increasingly rare.

The Starfighter is not very expensive, nor very rare. A complete one can be obtained for about $25, and ones missing a few parts can be had for even less. The missiles are often missing, but are easy to find from dealers sold on their own. I probably wouldn’t recommend this vehicle to anyone who’s not a Star Brigade nut, but it seems almost inseparable from that group given it’s their only spaceship.