1989 Muskrat (Night Force)

Posted on February 19, 2024 by mwnekoman

1989 Muskrat (Night Force)

Collectors really suck the fun out of things, don’t we? The Night Force is one of those subjects: It’s an undeniably cool sub-team, but seeing mass produced children’s toys hit upwards of $200 makes one call so much into question. Are they that rare? Are they that cool? Are they that much better than the normal versions that are barely worth 10% of that? The hype around them makes it hard to really form an objective opinion on the toys, regardless of it’s good or bad.

Muskrat here could be chalked up to one of the more mid-tier Night Force entries. The original ‘88 Muskrat was already an especially strong figure, and this recolor doesn’t change that very much. A major positive is that he now features an extra color, where V1 Muskrat was entirely green with some black details, Night Force Muskrat now has black pants that contrast with his blue vest and various olive details. The olive and black colors are pretty standard fare for the Night-Force, but the dark blue was a more unusual choice, only appearing on Muskrat and Charbroil from the same year. It looks a little Cobra-esque to me, but I like it; it makes the group more interesting for the addition. Also, for whatever it’s worth it’s almost the same color later seen on Battle Corps Muskrat (who I hate).

I think the added color makes him a tiny bit better than V1 Muskrat. Despite that, the difference in quality is negligible, and were it not for the fact that I got this one in a nifty lot, I’d probably never pursue him. He doesn’t really do anything that a normal Muskrat doesn’t already look good enough doing, and I really don’t have a compulsive desire to own everything Night Force like I might feel for Tiger Force or Python Patrol. That’s not to say anything bad about this figure, but he just seems kind of interchangeable with a normal figure, compared to the more theme-heavy sub-teams. I’ve sometimes wondered if Night Force was meant to stand on it’s own a little less, given their limited nature as TRU exclusives and the fact there was barely enough figures to fully crew some of their vehicles.

An oddity about these figures I’ve encountered is that they always have either super-tight joints or broken leg-pins. My Muskrat has a dead knee and Crazylegs had two, but my Tunnel Rat is so tight I get scared posing him. The plastic on the figures feels solid, so it’s not like the Slaughter’s Marauders stuff, it’s just like the plastic tolerances themselves were off. Or maybe I’ve just not been lucky with the four or so figures I own, you guys tell me.

Muskrat includes a Benelli Super 90 shotgun (Some folks call it an M3 or M4, but the M3 wasn’t even produced until ’89.), a machete and a boogie board just like the original, just now all in black. The original had a baby-blue machete, so it’s a bit of an upgrade, though these parts showed up in a lot of places in black. Numerous ‘93 and ‘94 figures had similar accessories, so this one’s not really unique for that. The boogie board is unique, but also not really something I find much value in having, since I never use the green one either.

So the last Night Force Muskrat, with all of his parts, went at auction for $204… Incomplete figures trend between $70 and $50, with the boogie board being the hard part to come by (makes ya wonder about all those machetes and shotguns). The part I find bewildering, is the sort of vacant reasoning for why you’d pay that much for this figure. He’s cool, but for $200 wouldn’t you want an exotic foreign figure, or maybe some odd mail-away? A squad of rarer army-builders? A convention figure? Even with current pricing, there’s a lot of more interesting items you could chase in that price bracket than the Night Force repaint of a relative no-name. The world wonders.

9610737703_77c577d789_c 1989 Muskrat Night Force gi joe

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2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper

Posted on February 12, 2024 by mwnekoman

2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper

I sometimes have wondered what there is for me to say about the Toys R” Us Cobra Infantry Forces, that hasn’t already been said more cogently by someone with more relation to it as an adult at the time. I was around 10 when this set came out, so perhaps the only thing relatively interesting I could tell you is some oddball kid-gripes that are mostly regurgitated sentiments I’ve shared on other topics regarding 2000‘s Joes. Though I guess other than that, Cobra Troopers are cool as crap aren’t they?

I didn’t buy many GI Joes as a kid. Mainly because I only had enough money to go after one or two toy lines, and for me that was mostly Transformers, Gundam, and ZOIDS (If you remember Zoids, bless your heart.). I didn’t dislike GI Joe either, but it’s lack of contemporary media and questionable retail offerings meant that I never felt compelled to buy new ones when for all intents and purposes, my brother’s tub of figures (along with my small collection of clearance figures) was plenty good enough.

That wasn’t to say I was content with the Joes we had per se, rather, just that the average New Sculpt figure had about as much appeal to me as the worst 90‘s redesign. Swapping Grunt V3 for Grunt V5 is a prospect with little appeal, even then. I knew the GI Joe characters only through Sunbow, which I managed to watch a few times though USA, Toonami and a few old VHS tapes. So the only two things I would want from GI Joe would be the characters I knew, and good looking generics that didn’t need a character, stuff exactly like the TRU 6-packs.

Which is how we get back around to the Cobra Infantry Forces, and why I never bought them as a kid: I never knew about them until they were gone! As egregious as half of them were, these 6-packs were exactly what I wanted from Joe back then. It’s just that I seldom ever went to TRU, so I didn’t even know about these until I saw the stagnant remains of the Green Shirts and Cobra Imperial Procession in late ‘05 or possibly ‘06. I really wanted some generic Cobras and Green Shirts to play with back then, since they were just fun soldier toys and a little more plausible looking than what I had. Instead though, these were made blink-and-miss-it collector items while kids were expected to be more concerned with the likes of Hi-Tech, Coil Crusher and Venomous Maximus.

Anyways, the figures are nice. As far as I’m aware more of the figure is newly tooled than not, as the torso and possibly the legs were new castings based on the original Trooper sculpt. There’s not much of a notable difference besides a bit of bulk on the new one. The arms were swapped for Thunder arms, which was a good choice both for looking the part and also for being some old sculpting from ‘84. Of course, the head is a new sculpt, and in the fashion of the Comic Pack figures, it’s way smaller than the original. It looks weird when you pose them with 80‘s figures, but they’re actually not such a bad match for some of the 90‘s sculpting, which provides a lot of novelty to me still.

The Cobras in the set have some new details, like little patches tampographed on the side of their arms. It looks pretty nice, though I wish they hadn’t done these and the Cobra symbol in such an orange tone. They’re also multi-ethnic, which is pretty cool. At one point I had wanted to collect a lopsided amount of black Troopers, to have as region specific troops in Africa. Never got more than one spare, but maybe one day I’ll go back and do that still. The Officer and Squad Leader from the set have more detail and color variety, though I think the Cobra Troopers may have come out best for taking a simple approach.

Infamously, every figure in the set came equipped with a Rock Viper PSG1 and a SAW Viper backpack. Really, that gun’s not even a bad sculpt, but the excessiveness of giving them to every Cobra Trooper in existence is mildly absurd, I think this is partly what gave the sculpt a bad reputation. It was a lot harder to get decent Joe guns back then, so you can probably thank this 6-pack for Marauder’s Gun Runners even existing today. At least there weren’t any Sound Attack tabs on these.

s-l1600

There’s an alternate set of head sculpts for these that would’ve had removable helmets. Sounds like a cool gimmick, but they looked way worse for it. The first heads were noticeably more pencil-necked than the ones that replaced them, and the helmets looked really wide and lame. Here’s a Forgotten Figures post on some loose samples.

A large appeal of these figures is that they’ve always been Cobras for poor people, essentially. You can get carded sets for around $50, and loose figures (usually sans the PSG1) for $12. Twenty years in and these don’t seem to be spontaneously degrading like a lot of figures from the period, so that’s something you might not have to worry about. They cost a little less than a squad of Troops from The Black Major, and imagine his figures have probably helped keep prices relatively low on these.

2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper Links:

2004 Black Dragon Ninja

Posted on October 24, 2023 by mwnekoman

2004 Black Dragon Ninja

The Ninja Cobra Strike Team set from 2004 should’ve probably been Hasbro’s second best 6-pack from the era. Sadly though, poor mold choices, bad accessories and most of all, absolute shit quality control takes what should have been a classic and downgrades it to a mere passing memory. The Black Dragon Ninja here would be great as a poor man’s Ninja Ku, but he barely works as that, though he’s still probably the best figure in the set.

I’m rather salty as to this figure at the moment, mainly because a portion of his heel cracked off while trying to photograph him recently. As someone who likes buying copious amounts of aging plastic, I’ve come to accept figures growing more brittle and yellowing as a part of life. Still, there’s a sense of resentment I have as to just how cheap the plastic was on this set. I’ve already had a Red Ninja Viper’s shoulder crumble for no reason, but now this figure is crumbling too. His heel just sort of exploded while trying to balance him on a peg, flying off into the void never to be found again. It was a weird kind of break, as normally I’m used to taking chances with figures that are way more notorious for being fragile (Slaughter’s Marauders, figures with GPS), but this almost exploded like the plastic was under constant stress.

Putting that aside, the Black Dragon Ninja is a pretty cool lookin’ little dude. Like with Argentina’s Ninja Ku, he uses the V1 Storm Shadow mold cast in solid black. Ninja Ku’s gold details have been swapped for white, brown and silver, so the Black Dragon Ninja is certainly more detailed, though the flesh tone and gold makes Ninja Ku still look far more attractive in my eyes. Oddly, the more monotone white and black of this figure makes me think more of Snake Eyes, maybe in an alternate world where SE joined Cobra as their ninja. That’s gimmicky enough I’m surprised it never happened.

I have some minor quibbles with how the figure looks, mainly stereotypical 2000‘s issues like the flesh-tone on his face being too peachy and the Cobra symbol on his chest being a bit too detailed, but really it’s an excellent looking figure. Truth be told, I think it’s my favorite figure from his set. In spite of all of that, is it enough to overcome the quality issues? This figure isn’t even as old as V1 Storm Shadow was when he came out, yet the plastic is already incredibly brittle. The Black Major ninjas from a few years back weren’t exactly the best quality figures he’s produced, but they already had a leg up on this guy for their paint jobs and accessories, at this point I’m not sure I’d buy any more Black Dragon Ninjas.

Accessories are weird on this one. A major flaw of the Ninja Cobra Strike Team, is that it’s a set themed around Storm Shadow repaints, yet you don’t get even one set of V1 Storm Shadow or V2 Storm Shadow parts. The Black Dragon Ninja has a bag from Agent Faces, the comic-pack M-16, and the 3-piece nunchuk from V3 Snake Eyes. I like the bag and the nunchuk isn’t a bad part, but the M-16 is random. A ninja with a gun can be okay, but why not a suppressed SMG? The M-16 was just lazy. It would’ve been nice if someone here had the original Storm Shadow gear, but hey, at least he doesn’t come with a tiny, non-functioning cupid bow like the Red Ninja.

Like many figures from the 2000‘s, you don’t see Black Dragon Ninjas for sale so often any more. These are usually sold incomplete, but I don’t think any of his accessories are complete (or desirable) so that really doesn’t matter. Last figure that popped up for auction, no accessories, only hit $10, which is a lot cheaper than some of the more insane BiN listings I see floating around. If I saw another one for around $10 I might be tempted to buy it, but if I never do, I won’t lose any sleep over it either.

2004 Black Dragon Ninja Links:

1993 Dino Hunters Low-Light

Posted on September 11, 2023 by mwnekoman

1993 Dino Hunters Low-Light

Dinosaurs were to the nineties what ninjas were to the eighties. This is mostly caused by Jurassic Park, and in short order you saw Hasbro branch out and make an exclusive set of figures for Toys R” Us: GI Joe’s Dino Hunters. This was to become a new format of GI Joe releases, where you’d get two repaints and a vehicle as some kind of team, it would’ve resurfaced in 1995 with the Arctic Assault set, but instead that was canceled for Sgt. Savage, a toy line well remembered for it’s high-quality and selling out so fast you’d never dream of seeing them stacked to the ceiling at Toy Liquidators…

Anyways, this isn’t April Fools, though I did use that occasion once to remark on the hilariously bad dinosaur included with this set. Of the four items included, it’s easily the worst, but the Dino-Hunter (that’s the vehicle, it could use a better name) and Low-Light might be tied for the best items in the set. At times, the fluorescent yellow has made me wince at this figure a bit, but past that it’s a really nice repaint, and I like it a lot better than Low-Light V3 (who he’s a repaint of) in a few ways. I know a lot of people consider 1991 Low-Light an underrated figure. I see a lot of that release’s quality and I do like it, but he’s still probably my least favorite Low-Light figure. His appearance just changed so much form his ‘86 design that I could never really recognize it as Low-Light.

Dino Hunters Low-Light on the other hand has a really nice color-scheme and deco. Besides the fluorescent yellow (which does compliment his vehicle really well), Low-Light swaps a lot of the black he had featured on his pants for a nice olive green tone similar to what you’d see on plenty of older Joes, the Tiger Force figures especially. He also has a more emerald green color on his undershirt, so the figure has a nice range of complimenting colors, and it does nicely to make the neon seem less jarring (Compare this to Dino-Hunters Ambush’s orange, which seems way more out of place.).

My favorite painted detail on the figure though, would probably be his eye-brows. His eyebrows are black, not blonde like the rest of his hair. It’s a little touch of continuity between the figures, which implies the black-hair of the ‘91 figure is his natural color, while the original figure and this one show him with bleached hair. It’s one of those little things that you wouldn’t have thought anyone would’ve cared enough to do, given this is a random exclusive repaint at the tail-end of the dying toy line.

For accessories, you get ‘91 Low-Light’s customized uzi and helmet with visor, Airwave’s rifle, ‘91 Mercer’s smaller gun, Skydive’s pistol, and Hit & Run’s knife, and a figure stand. Right down to the color, most of these parts look exactly the same as ‘93 Leatherneck’s. His helmet’s visor is not the same as ‘91 Low-Light’s, it has no paint and is entirely black. Despite that, nearly every single “Dino-Hunters” Low-Light helmet you see for sale is just the common retail release. The uzi is also different, the sculpt was simplified and the stock no longer has hollow sections in the middle (Again, the same as Leatherneck.)

The last complete Dino Hunteres Low-Light sold for a whopping $158, which actually out prices some desirable Night Force figures. I find this grating, as this figure isn’t that rare (there’s always at least a few for sale), and while it’s nice, it’s not $158 nice. Also, the one I have pictured here isn’t mine, it my brother’s that he loans me for photos. So I don’t really have this figure in my own collection. I’d like my own, but there’s no way I’d ever pay that much for it, so bleh.

1993 Dino Hunters Low-Light Links:

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2004 Red Ninja Viper

Posted on November 8, 2022 by mwnekoman

2004 Red Ninja Viper

Most of the TRU exclusive 6-packs from ‘03 through ‘05 were invalidated by the Black Major. Many of these were and still are cool figures, though often flawed in enough ways that a few years of high quality bootlegs could easily replace them. Such is the case with the Red Ninja Viper, as although TBM’s Storm Shadow bootlegs have some quality issues too, these figures are probably even worse. I find novelty value in these figures still, so here’s some paragraphs on what that is.

I was not buying GI Joe toys in 2004, so I missed out on the initial run of this guy as well as all of the other Valor vs Venom releases. I didn’t get to go to Toys R” Us often as a kid, so I didn’t even know about these sets until some time around ‘05. Had items like this been more available to me, I probably would’ve bought them. Back then, I wanted GI Joe figures that looked familiar and somewhat subdued like these, and not the more goofy looking things they were pumping out in the retail line (Venomous Maximus, eww…). That’s not to say I think Hasbro would’ve been better off relying on then 20 year-old molds for the main line, though the direction and overall branding with Valor vs Venom was a mistake that cost them my interest in the line.

The Red Ninja Viper has some pretty snazzy colors. He’s very drab and muddy compared to Agentina’s Satan or TBM’s Red Ninja. I’m sure at the time I might’ve been upset he wasn’t brighter and didn’t blend better with my vintage ninjas, but now I have TBM’s figure, so I can enjoy this guy as something different. It appears he has the same paint masks as the Black Dragon Ninja who also comes included in his set. This picks out all of the mold’s important details and even paints his gauntlet and arm-bands a separate color, which is nice. Also featured in his paint job is some ARAHC-style wash or paint-wipes. I think the figure would’ve looked better with clean plastic, but it doesn’t kill it for me.

The real downfall of this figure is that the plastic quality is complete crap. When I acquired my first pair, one of the figures immediately crumbled at the shoulder. Apparently, these having poor quality plastic is a fairly well documented issue, and it definitely lowers them a lot now that TBM’s figures are floating around. I would probably still be army-building this guy right now, but knowing there’s a chance the figure will spontaneously crumble does a lot to point my interest elsewhere. Feeling them in hand, the plastic is shoddier than even something like ‘97 line, and it wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say these are some of the worst feeling figures I’ve ever touched.

For parts, he includes only the bow and arrow from ‘02 Scarlet, ‘93 Snake Eye’s sword and knife, and the curved sword from ‘92 Nunchuck. You couldn’t have found a worse part to give this figure if you tried with the bow and arrow. They’re parts meant for Scarlet’s crossbow, so they look dumb and the figure can’t even use them. A figure like this is hurt for not including the original Storm Shadow accessories, but almost anything else would’ve been better than this. The other parts are okay comparatively, though there’s something to be said for how badly out of place it looks for a figure from nearly the beginning of the line, to be paired with parts from the end.

Red Ninja Vipers seem to hit around $15, usually with some amount of their generic gear (it’s hard to say what a “complete” figure is, since there’s two identical figures in the Ninja Cobra Strike Team, with separate sets of parts). I like the colors on this figure enough that I’m still tempted for more, but the quality being this bad kills that notion for me. Spending that much money on a figure that could crumble just while handling it seems like a really bad idea, especially when TBM figures are out there as an alternative.

2004 Red Ninja Viper Links:

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2003 Dial Tone (Tiger Force)

Posted on January 26, 2021 by mwnekoman

2003 Dial-Tone (Tiger Force)

Hasbro was prone to some curious choices in the 2000‘s, and one clear example of that was the 2003 Tiger Force 5-pack. In general, I think you could easily regard this as a botched set that failed fans in several regards, such as the inclusion of the maligned Big Brawler, the usage of UK Tiger Force colors, or other tired mold choices like Dial-Tone, who saw a glut of repaints at that time. A little more foresight could have made for a superior set that might be more well regarded, but personally what we did get has aged pretty well.

As I mentioned, Hasbro deviated from the original Tiger Force color palette and went for something closer to the UK Tiger Force colors, seen on figures like Hit&Run and Psyche Out. It’s kind of neat, in that it homages rare and costly foreign figures that most of us will probably never own. However, a large part of the novelty with sub-groups like Tiger Force and Python Patrol, is that the figures feature uniform team colors. Dial-Tone does nicely match up with the UK figures and some from the ’04 convention set, but sadly not with the vintage US figures.

There’s a lot of Dial-Tone repaints, and most of them are figures I don’t think are worth having. This figure is on the nicer end of Dial-Tone repaints, as it’s unique and visually interesting. The black and blue make for a nicely dark colored figure offset by the bright orange tiger patterns that make him stand out. There’s quite a few separate colors painted on him, and I’m even tempted to say this might be the most detailed Dial-Tone repaint. I think this figure would be a lot more memorable had they colored him more like the 2015 convention figure, but the colors and paint are still pretty nice here despite that.

The parts are basically the typical 2000‘s junk you’d expect, with a ’91 Red Star rifle and a ‘92 Gung-Ho backpack. While his original gun is somewhat common, I’d have really loved to have gotten ‘86 Dial-Tone’s backpack in black at some point. As he is, this gear is serviceable, but certainly generic.

For whatever it’s worth, there’s a light-skinned variant of this Dial-Tone out there. I don’t find it particularly interesting, as the skin-tone is more on the pasty side, similar to many of the ARAHC figures. I believe it’s the somewhat rarer variant, as I certainly see it floating around much less than the peachy colored one you see photographed here, but I could be wrong on that.

You don’t see these figures as much any more, which makes them a little hard to price. The sealed set he’s featured in only goes for about $100 MISB, and given that at least Wreckage and maybe a few more of his packmates are more popular than him, I’d find it hard to say these are worth more than $20, and an auction might even go as low as $15.

2003 Dial Tone (Tiger Force) Links:

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2004 Big Brawler (Version 4)

Posted on March 19, 2019 by mwnekoman

2004 Big Brawler

Big Brawler’s a name pretty infamous to Joe collector’s who were around in the early 2000‘s. At best, I think he could sort of be described as a meme that represented the low-quality characters that were being created at the time. Some collector’s even seemed to feel somewhat insulted by the character. With that said, there’s some value that can still be gleaned when Big Brawler’s figures are taken at face value.

This particular Big Brawler reuses the part recipe and paint masks from the Tiger Force Big Brawler who came out the year before. In fact, many of the colors are the same as that figure, with the major differences being the color of his shirt, skin, and hair. Clearly, the figure was designed as a part of a set that was meant to be budget priced, and the fact that he’s not changed more can be easily overlooked. Back then it might’ve been less acceptable, but it 2019 without the other figure in my collection, I don’t mind.

His main fault as a figure is that the character is junk, and the paint is just a tad too limited. Particularly, the unpainted bullet belts on his legs just leaves a lot to be desired. At the same time, as he is essentially just a repaint of Salvo, it’s nice to see that Salvo didn’t become yet another ARAH mold that would be forever without a repaint (ignoring the other Big Brawler and Balrog). Of course, I think Salvo is superior to any color variant of this Big Brawler, but it’s still nice for the variety.

BIG BRAWLER started out in Army Intelligence before he was tapped to join the G.I. JOE Team, bringing an impressive catalogue of specialized skills and talents. Equally at home in dense tropical undergrowth as he is in concrete urban badlands, he has survival and observation abilities on a par with jungle cats and feral street criminals. Proficient in small arms, squad-level infantry weapons, and platoon support weapons, BIG BRAWLER also holds rank in several martial arts disciplines. Trained as a psychologist and having participated in several military psychological operations, he knows that as good as you are with a weapon, you can’t win a fight unless you can think three moves ahead of your opponent, and then have a surprise for him!
“Never start a fight you can’t finish, never drink water that a purification tablet won’t dissolve in, and always brush your teeth when you’re in the jungle!”

In other words, Big Brawler’s good at everything he does, and is trained and educated in everything. Also, he’s a psychologist… Man it’s not as bad as his original Rambo-wannabe bio, but this file is just dumb. It also really leaves Big Brawler without too much of a purpose, and definitely as a character to improvise with. I can’t think of much to do with him at the moment besides having him man vehicles and act as squad filler in dioramas.

His only accessory was a silver version of the customized M4 we saw around a few times in the New Sculpt era. It’s actually a pretty nice part, but it’s also extremely generic. I don’t feel like it does much to accentuate a character in need of some added appeal.

I’m having a hard time pricing this version of Big Brawler. I think I got mine in a lot about a year or so ago, but I really don’t remember anymore. And other than that he’s another bad victim of the GI-drought, where there’s nothing showing up on eBay routinely enough for me to say “that much.”. So I’ll assess the figure like this: The character is terrible, and the figure is mediocre. But he’s not badly colored and has the cool novelty of being one of a few Salvo repaints. So if you see him somewhere, he’s a decent addition for around $8, but at that, it’s a figure that any collection could do without.

Gi joe Big Brawler 2004 Valor vs Venom VAMP Toys R Us Exclusive GI Joe ARAH Spy Troops

2004 Big Brawler Links:

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2015 Basilisk (50th Anniversary)

Posted on March 4, 2019 by mwnekoman

2015 Basilisk (50th Anniversary)

The 2010‘s have been a weird time for GI Joe, mainly because of the movies that were meant to revive the brand, but ended up destroying it instead. The GI Joe design team at Hasbro got gutted, leaving only a handful of folks to work on the 50th Anniversary line while the line died a slow death in the back isles of the now defunct Toy’s ‘R Us. And it’s here, where the Cobra Basilisk came to be in the Dessert Duel set.

I skipped over this set initially in 2015, and I still haven’t bothered with anything past this particular vehicle. Despite that I rarely photograph or write about them, I actually do like the modern GI Joe figures, but my disinterest in the figures in this set has less to do with construction and more to do with the items chosen. The Elite Horseman seems fairly bland, while the Chuckles figure is made up of tooling I saw too excessively back then. That leaves the FOE Striker, which again was a decent repaint of an item I’ve simply seen too much (the AWE Striker). So from the set, the Basilisk was the only item that caught my attention, which simply wasn’t enough to warrant purchasing at retail.

The Basilisk itself is just a repaint of the POC Wolf Hound, which was a retool of the Spy Troops Snow Cat from 2003, or at least I assume. The bottom hull is still date stamped 2002, so at least that part remains unchanged. Meanwhile, the vehicle has seen the addition of a brand new missile launcher unit and Modern Era compatible foot pegs. A vintage loyalist might find the loss of proper foot pegs to be a minor irritation, but personally I don’t fret over it much.

Other than this, I’ve never owned another version of the Snow Cat, so I don’t know first hand what it’s launcher unit was like. Still, I like the changes made to the updated one pretty well. It’s removed the clips on the sides of the unit mount that were highly prone to breakage, and additionally has been given a missile launching gimmick rather than just having the rockets sit there in slots. I think it looks a bit better now since the launcher has a bottom to it and is much less hollow, although the blunt-tipped missiles are a visual down grade over the vintage ones.

But enough about the tooling, what makes the Basilisk interesting? Well, on that end it’s completely subjective. One way you could look at it is that it’s a borderline neon repaint of a GI Joe vehicle as a Cobra one for seemingly no apparent reason. Another way you could look at it is that the Snow Cat is a fairly mundane looking artillery vehicle that, in different colors is more useful once it’s no longer restricted to a certain environment. I’m still up for adding a Snow Cat to my collection at some point, but I think I’ll probably be using this vehicle more than I ever will use the Snow Cat.

With that said, the colors are shockingly bright on this thing. It’s not bad looking at all, but the blue is a much more vibrant color than you typically see on Cobra items. It makes me think a lot of the ‘91 mail-away Ferret, but other than that it barely would match up with anything. The red windshield pushes it a bit in terms of brightness, though I wouldn’t mind this if it were slightly more transparent. Despite it’s appearance, the windshield technically isn’t opaque, but it’s nearly impossible to see a figure through it. I see this as a flaw, though it’s not particularly a major one.

The Basilisk is a weird repaint that most collectors will never covet, much less care about. Right now you can get them around $20, which is a very fair price and for that much the vehicle provides a lot of potential. I imagine in the future the supply of these will continually dry up in line with the 15th Anniversary vehicles and the DTC ones as well, so now’s probably the best time to grab one. Either way, it’s the sort of item destined to drown in the bog of obscurities that GI Joe has been since the mid-2000‘s, but it does provide something different for a collection.

Gi joe cobra basilisk 2015 50th anniversary poc snow cat tru exclusive sdcc

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Tag Archives: TRU Exclusives

1989 Muskrat (Night Force)

1989 Muskrat (Night Force)

1989 Muskrat (Night Force) Links:

2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper

2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper

2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper Links:

2004 Black Dragon Ninja

2004 Black Dragon Ninja

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1993 Dino Hunters Low-Light

1993 Dino Hunters Low-Light

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2004 Red Ninja Viper

2004 Red Ninja Viper

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2003 Dial Tone (Tiger Force)

2003 Dial-Tone (Tiger Force)

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2004 Big Brawler (Version 4)

2015 Basilisk (50th Anniversary)

2015 Basilisk (50th Anniversary)

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