1991 Ice Sabre

Posted on February 13, 2025 by mwnekoman

Reviewing a vehicle where I don’t have all of the pieces, and proceeding to dump on it feels a little bad. For the Ice Sabre though, I don’t mind doing this, because the chin gun and missiles aren’t going to add that much to my experience. Also, between living in the south where I’ll never get more than a few inches of snow per decade, means I’m almost certain to never photograph this thing again for as long as I live here. So let’s get back into the swing of things by once again stating that 1991 was the worst year of GI Joe vehicles.

Among all of the GI Joe vehicle I’ve touched, none are as perplexing and unenjoyable to hold as the Ice Sabre. Armor Bot is unenjoyable to hold too, but it’s appeal is pretty straight forward. The Ice Sabre is not just cumbersome, it’s confusing as to what it’s actually supposed to be. There’s skis, and anti-air guns, and some weird ass rotating cockpit… and that’s basically all there is to it. It looks really busy, but as a premise there’s nothing too exciting going on here. Yet, without having a real interesting gimmick, the thing just flops around wildly if you try to pick it up. It tries to be something more than the WOLF or Ice Snake and fails pretty miserably at it.

The most prominent feature of the vehicle is the 3-man rotating cockpit. As the box describes it: “In seconds, the rotating, 3-man cockpit pivots to place a new, battle-hardened soldier at the controls-” or in other words, a complex mechanical system just for switching drivers. You dump 3 guys into the cockpit and two of them do nothing until one of them needs a nap, which is a pretty bizarre idea. As a toy, it plays worse than it sounds, as there’s nothing really going on in that cockpit. There’s a set of 3 rotating seats, and you can switch them around from the outside using the little orange knob on top. That’s it. Outside of the seats the interior is boring and almost totally devoid of details.

The missile-launcher on the back sucks too. It’s supposed to have some odd gimmick where you can fire a bunch of missiles at once with a little firing pin. I’ve never obtained this piece and don’t plan on it either. The launcher itself is shoddy and broke at one of the connectors just from a gentle touch years ago. There’s a lot of friction placed on the connector posts, which are also rather hallow, so there’s not a lot of integrity in the design.

A prototype exists with a significant number of differences compared to the production toy; so much so that Hasbro even updated the back of the box to reflect this. 3D Joes does a good job of documenting both versions of the box, so you can check that out to see what I mean. Besides a plethora of small changes, metal pins were removed from the front skis and the hinges where my missile launcher broke. Obviously removing the metal made the design much cheaper, and also could explain why those sections are stupidly flimsy.

For better or for worse, it also has a very, very long profile thanks to the skis. The vehicle is narrow and relatively flat, but is closer to 13-ish inches long (didn’t measure it, going by memory). So for something that holds a crew of 3 with 6 more dudes who can pile onto the foot-rails, it takes up a lot of space in return for relatively low play value. Really, this is the biggest flaw with the vehicle is that it really doesn’t do a whole lot. It doesn’t feel as insanely chintzy as the Rat or the Attack Cruiser, but most of it’s play value is focused into the missile launcher and rotating seats, both of which fall flat.

On a good day you can get an Ice Sabre for barely the price of shipping one, so around $10. It’s an obscure and unappealing vehicle like most of it’s contemporaries, so there’s not much demand for it outside of completionists and the oddball 90’s kid nostalgic for it. The one photographed here is my brother’s childhood toy, were it not for that I’d never touch this thing. It’s easily the worst arctic vehicle ever made, and a contender for worst ARAH vehicle. That’s a whopping indictment to make about a vehicle, but this one fails on almost every front. Even the MOBAT (and subsequent CAT), which is a pretty terrible toy, can always fall back on looking nice; whereas the Ice Sabre looks like it was made from refurbished carnival rides.

1983 Action Force Shadowtrak

Posted on May 29, 2024 by mwnekoman

1983 Action Force Shadowtrak

I realized that by coincidence, every toy I’ve posted about for the last month has been red. Not intentionally, but just something that happened. So to cap off May, I’ll finally get around to a post on the Shadowtrak. Action Force vehicles could be kind of hit-or-miss, but the hits tend to be fairly pronounced, as exemplified by this vehicle. Really, the only downside to the Shadowtrak is that it’s a pain in the ass to get a nice one and a handful of Red Shadows to have for it’s crew.

Despite not being designed initially as a bad-guy vehicle, the Shadowtrak strikes me as almost exclusively being the light reconnaissance vehicle of the Red Shadows. It’s odd too, because the angular design and square glass windshield doesn’t look that far off from what would become a standard look for Joe vehicles come ‘86, like the HAVOC. Still, something about the angular peaks of the design seems oddly communist by way Art Deco. It’s an odd thing to describe, but there’s just something a tad bit alien about it that feels much better as a Red Shadows vehicle rather than anything else.

I remember hearing somewhere that Action Force wasn’t a particularly high-budget toy line. This seems fairly evident with toys like the Shadowtrak, which itself is a repaint of the AF5, and the Q-Force Cosmic Cruiser. Small parts are changed across the toys making them unique, and in the case of the Cosmic Cruiser it was totally re-engineered to be a space ship. They work well in their intended roles, but there weren’t really a whole lot of Action Force toys that were mostly unique identities.

It seats two figures: one facing the back and one driver, though I think it looks perfectly reasonable with three, and you could probably fit five on there if you wanted. The backend is very open and not so restrictive in terms of how figures are seated on it, so there’s room to get creative with how it’s used. It’s armed with a pair of missiles on the side and some adjustable guns that go on both sides of the back. Mine doesn’t have these yet, so you won’t see them pictured here, but it’s a starter that was sent to me for free by one of the kindest GI Joe fans I’ve ever known. I don’t really mind it without those parts, as I just use it as something similar to the LCV Recon Sled, as if the Recon Sled were a good toy, it’d be a lot more like this. Part of what makes the vehicle seem so nice is that it has a pretty detailed parts count, compared to something like the VAMP which is only made of a dozen or so parts in total.

With that said, the Shadowtrak and it’s various repaints are fantastic vehicles that trounce many of Hasbro’s contemporary offerings. That’s a pretty impressive feat when you consider the fact that the Shadowtrak also has to be compatible with arthritic, 5-POA Action Force figures. The overall quality and feel of the vehicle is much more pleasing aesthetically than the more cheap and utilitarian feeling of the GI Joe vehicles. Little things like the eight rubber wheels, the Red Shadows marking on the windshield, the folding seat and weight of the vehicle make it feel more premium in nature.

The non-Hasbro Action Force stuff used to be cheap, but isn’t really any more. Shadowtrak’s are fairly common, but it has a lot of little pieces that are easily lost or damaged, so it’s hard to get a complete one for less than $70, and here in the US you’re going to get eaten up by shipping if it’s coming from Europe (usually around $30). Still, this is a niche collecting interest and you can get good deals on almost anything if you wait long enough. Though if you really want one, it’s probably also something where you won’t do bad buying an example at full price if it’s mint and complete.

action force action man red shadows palitoy gi joe

1983 Action Force Shadowtrak Links:

Forgotten Figures

Blood For the Baron

1987 Pom-Pom Gun

Posted on April 2, 2024 by mwnekoman

1987 Pom-Pom Gun

Happy April Fools nerds, and in the tradition of this blog I highlight something goofy, but in earnest. So here’s the Pom-Pom Gun, part of the Motorized Action Packs. Somewhere between a vehicle and an accessory, each each Action Pack had a wind-up gimmick, where you give it a good few twists and let it do whatever it wants. Most of these look incredibly silly, hence why I chose it for today.

1987 pom pom gun carried gi joe In spite of that, the Pom Pom Gun is only mostly silly? It’s basically just a little motorized gun emplacement, so there’s really nothing terrible about that at face value. About half of the Motorized Action Packs were pretty neat like this, with the real comedy-gold being the Motorized Vehicle Packs from 1988. So there’s sillier things to write about, but I’ve never sought out any of these, and only own this Pom-Pom Gun by chance. Before resellers took over the market, something I used to love about lots was the typical acquisition of some oddity I’d normally never pursue.

It operates in two forms: On the ground with the handles turned backwards or on a figure’s back, connected via a standard backpack peg. On a figure’s back it looks pretty uncomfortable, and I can’t quite imagine anyone firing it this way. Of course, it’s comically heavy even in action-figure form, so good luck getting a figure to stand with it. Hasbro tossed around figure stands so much back in the day, but didn’t seem deem one necessary here.

Deployed to the ground, it actually looks okay. Unfortunately the aforementioned backpack peg faces the front, which is a bit distracting. A figure is required to hold the gun up in a firing position, which makes using it somewhat of a balancing act. The grips are also thicker than I like using, but it might be a little more stable if I wasn’t scared of breaking a thumb on a novelty item 37 years from it’s release.

To the best of my knowledge, these were priced about the same as a figure when they came out: a little less than $3. You don’t get much here for that price (in eighties money, it’d be okay now of course), and it’s odd when you consider that something like Zanzibar with his Air Skiff was only a dollar and a half more. Other decently sized vehicles were only a few coins more expensive than this. For me, it’s pretty hard to imagine a kid going into Sears or wherever and choosing any of the Motorized Action Packs over one of their contemporary vehicles, just for the sheer difference in size. It’s a poor upsell, which I presume is why they opted to start bundling similar items with premium priced figures in the 90‘s (Sonic Fighters and DEF).

If you wait for an auction, you can get one for less than a dollar. If you want one for whatever reason and can’t wait, they sell for around $6. Suffice to say, these are the GI Joe toys nobody ever wanted, not when they came out, and certainly not now. Personally, I might add a few more to my collection; they do have a very nice retro feeling to them, and break up my often stagnant Joe world for a low price. Though, I’ll probably forget I said that in a week or two and never make good on it.

1987 pom pom gun planted gi joe

There’s No Other Content with This Thing, so Here’s my Other April Fools Posts:

2004 Dreadhead Joe-Bob

2001 Big Brawler

1993 Dinohunters Dinosaur

2004 Venom Striker ATV

Posted on March 26, 2024 by mwnekoman

2004 Venom Striker ATV

If you’d believe it, at one point in my life I felt really bummed out that I didn’t pay more attention to the Spy Troops and Valor vs Venom figures. When I started in on 25th Joes in 2007, I discovered the Dollar General single cards that were still floating around, and went around picking up a small collection of those to play with. They weren’t as good as 25th Joes, but for $3 a piece, I was willing to lower my standards. Checking the net, I saw what seemed like a plethora of vehicles that had by then vacated retail, to my regret. The Venom Striker ATV was something that stood out to me, in particular.

Yet, I’m not here to tell you about how this was a lost era of great vehicles, actually the opposite: this thing is lame. Kind of. A common argument you see against the 6-inch scale is “But at that size, you can’t have any fun vehicles!”, which I find funny since Hasbro’s hardly produced a handful of decent designs since ARAH died in ‘94. The Venom Striker ATV is a good example of what I mean, as while the design is relatively simple, it’s also inferior in almost every way to a simple retool of the Ferret from twenty years prior.

The two vehicles are similar in a lot of ways, right down to having almost the same profile, at least when you ignore the gunner station of the back of the Venom Striker. I feel this invites more unflattering comparisons than you’d see for something like the Quick Strike, as while that vehicle had a similar design philosophy, it’s also more unique, so it’s harder to point to something from ARAH to show the 2000‘s design’s inferiority.

Many basic features on the Venom Striker ATV seem to be sacrificed in favor of spring loaded nonsense, sound boxes and missile launchers. At the very least one thing I wouldn’t call the vehicle is cheap, as they loaded down with little gimmicks that certainly cost some money. It’s just that the gimmicks compromise almost every aspect of the vehicle. It’s sound box for example, is problematic in multiple ways: One, is that they put a delicate electronic in a vehicle that’s inherently built around outdoorsy play. ATV’s are something I associate with rolling fast through mud and rivers; something probably damaging to the toy’s electronics. Secondly, the underbody of the vehicle is almost a total square: The cool and aerodynamic frame of an ATV is completely bowdlerized here, represented as something that probably has the ground clearance of a forklift. Thirdly, the wheels don’t turn, and there’s no functioning suspension. The vehicle can only roll straight forward, and due to it’s weight, it can’t even roll very fast. Although it’s much more robust than the Ferret, this one quality alone makes the Venom Striker an embarrassing showing.

It gets worse: The gun station in the back is spring-loaded, and can’t even be aimed freely on it’s horizontal axis. It’s also fairly flimsy, and the top half off the guns pop off just while posing a figure on it. Another big flaw is the size of the handle-bars: they’re huge! Even the included Cobra CLAWs can barely hold onto either set of handle-bars, and turret controls are also stupidly far apart on top of that. I was shocked when I first obtained the Venom Striker years ago at just how poorly done the turret is, as it feels like it’s the highlight of the vehicle in terms of design, yet it’s also almost deliberately hampered in such strange ways. Playing with this vehicle is like having a corporate suit standing over your shoulder, micromanaging every aspect of how you use it.

Still, I never knew any of how bad this thing is until just a few years ago. I didn’t pay attention to GI Joe when it came out, and a few years after it was gone, I had only crumby photos on a few sites to judge it by. From that, it looked great, and it jived well with a mind that had played a few too many shooter games featuring fantasy ATV’s with big gun turrets in the back. ATV’s seemed like they were really trendy around the time this came out, which really only further calls into question why the quality here is so poor.

So what’s the Venom Striker ATV worth? What’s it “worth” indeed… You can get a BIN with no trouble for $10, though that’s almost always missing the Cobra CLAWs that came with it. It should probably be worth less than that, but auctions are far and few between. Still, this is a shabby vehicle; I enjoy having it as it brings me a since of closure from a curiosity I had years ago, but otherwise it’s probably one of the crappiest 2000‘s vehicles I’ve handled.

Venom Striker Parade gi joe Screw up gi joe

2004 Venom Striker ATV Links:

None… But if you have some cool photos of it somewhere, you can throw ’em in the comments.

1986 LCV Recon Sled

Posted on February 26, 2024 by mwnekoman

1986 LCV Recon Sled

Back in the day before eBay was saturated with flippers desperate for small change, you could get good deals on figure lots. Sometimes this made for some acquisitions one would normally not go out of their way to pursue, like large armies of Frag Vipers. Another time I got a good deal on a lot of Mega Marines, which also featured the LCV Recon Sled, a vehicle I normally would have never touched if it wasn’t tossed in for free.

The LCV Recon Sled is horribly awkward. It looks like you should be able to put a figure on in a few different ways, but most of the time they just fall off if their arms aren’t deeply planted in the little holes under the canopy. When a figure is riding it, their legs always tend to spread out in an odd way that looks unnatural. It’s funny too, because it’s hinged body is supposed to allow for “adjustable riding positions” according to the box, but it doesn’t really change much. Also, elevating the hinge makes a horrible snapping sound, and also makes it balance less well. Pretty lame.

The Joes have a very Rambo perspective on what the word “Recon” means, at least with the three guns the LCV Recon Sled’s toting around. Two machine guns are mounted at the front of the vehicle, and there’s a rotating cannon in the back. Amusingly, the cannon only rotates vertically a few degrees, and the machine-guns are fixed onto the front without moving at all! The fact that the weapons can’t be aimed makes them seem chintzy and more tacked-on, but it probably would’ve been too boring without them.

One of the most perplexing oddities of the vehicle is the date-stamp. It’s right up in the front, with big bold text where you can’t miss it when viewed from that angle. I didn’t realize until recently I’m missing the headlight that goes on the vehicle, but with a flaw like that I’m not sure I’m all too fussed about it. There’s room under it’s main body for the date-stamp, so I’m not sure why they put it in such an ugly spot.

All of these problems aside, I can’t really bring myself to hate it, and there’s a few cool aspects to it too. Most notably it’s a nice aesthetic match to the HAVOC; which is a little odd, since the HAVOC already has a hover-craft, so why does it need a recon bike/sled thing? Either way, it’s nice having a little more of that spacey-military thing they were doing in ‘86. The overall shape is distinct and looks kind of cool, which is more than you can say for the Marauder (Though, that’s digging pretty deep to find something worse.).

There’s something else to it, but I have a hard time describing it: The simplicity of 80‘s Joe, maybe? It’s hard to say anything nice about this thing, but scrolling through the worst ARAH vehicles still makes me jealous of that 80‘s kid experience. Keeping things in perspective, it’s a shitty vehicle, but it’s not that shitty, and it’s something that was cheap enough you could’ve had it for a day you got sick or while visiting grandparents. Go to a WalMart now (practically the last toy store…) and you won’t find anything like this anymore. The sled deserves some ridicule, but modern toys and culture has a sobering effect on the scraps from 4 decades ago.

A decent LCV Recon Sled runs in the $10 range, for a few more dollars you can get one with the blueprints or even the box. The periscope is usually what’s missing, though it doesn’t really make the vehicle expensive when it’s intact. It’s a lame little vehicle and the pricing still reflects that, though as a freebie I’ve probably gotten my money’s worth out of it.

GI Joe 1986 LCV Recon Sled Beachhead Bazooka Hasbro vintage

1986 LCV Recon Sled Links:

Attica Gazette

3D Joes

2009 Rockslide (Past and Present)

Posted on December 28, 2023 by mwnekoman

2009 Rockslide (Past and Present)

Well guys, I made it almost a whole year of posting on the blog without missing a week (that I can remember). That was until this week though, when I got some kind of fairly bad sinus infection that had me away from doing… much of anything. So with not quite the photos I wanted for one post and not many options for others, I was left asking myself what toys I realistically don’t feel like taking new photos of: the 2009 Rockslide fit the bill almost perfectly.

The Rockslide, formerly known as the Polar Battle Bear, is really a fantastic toy. So when I say I don’t feel like taking new pictures of it, it’s not because I dislike it; rather, it’s just because I’m a boy of the deep south. Outside of a freak stint of snow I got in the 2010‘s, it almost never snows here. So I don’t get to use arctic vehicles very much, and trying to find some method of making fake snow with copious amounts of white powder never turns out the same. Plus if I put that in the yard, the local homeless population might mistake it for free smack.

Hasbro making a skimobile in 1983 was a pretty bold choice, especially given that the only figure that really went with it was Snow Job. It has a nice size to it and is fairly reasonable looking, which is a staple of the early line, but I always do appreciate it. The rotating skis, and linked chin-guns add a good bit of fun to something that could otherwise get tired pretty quickly. It’s easy to take little things like that and the removable engine cover for granted, but when you compare it to a similar item like the LCV Recon Sled, you can see how a niche vehicle like this provides a decent amount of play value, whereas the Recon Sled gets boring… as soon as you touch it.

Of course, this post isn’t about the ‘83 Polar Battle Bear, it’s about the ‘09 Rockslide. So, here’s some weird tidbits about this release: First, the boxart is a new asset for the set, not vintage art. And instead of showing the included Snow Job figure, it shows what’s pretty clearly V1 Frostbite driving it. I assume this is probably an artifact of a canned 25th Anniversary release, since I remember there being computer listings for an entire wave of vehicles we never saw in any capacity. Other than that, it’s basically an unchanged ‘83 Polar Battle Bear, as even the foot-pegs are left in the vintage size. Like with the Snow Job included, the white is a slightly cooler tone than the original, which frankly I like the look of a bit. Also, I think the date stamp was 2002 on the bottom, from that time they gave it a big dumb missile launcher.

Oh yeah, another weird thing about this release is that it’s part of the Past and Present series. Hasbro had planned a full lineup of figures that would be released as Target exclusives (if memory serves), which would give you an original ARAH figure (represented by a 2004 comic-pack repaint) and the present version, which would be an unchanged copy of a ROC Joe. This exciting (not!) little idea never came to fruition after the entire ROC line failed at retail, this set especially. Nothing of value was really lost, though I always thought it was funny that Hasbro had stuff like this planned, but then just a year or so later all of the original o-ring tools fell into a black hole or something.

So the whole boxed set now fetches around $45 to $50, though I assume the, uhhh, “ARAH Rockslide”? -The old one, would probably go for much less on it’s own, but good luck finding one. This is one of those items that was pretty nifty when it came out as being a way of getting a very old vehicle in new, clean white plastic. Most of that appeal is gone now though, since it’s way harder and more expensive to get one of these than a nice vintage PBB.

1992 Eco Striker

Posted on November 28, 2023 by mwnekoman

1992 Eco Striker

1991 was probably the worst year of Joe vehicles ever made, though 1992 wasn’t far off, mainly for continuing a lot of the gimmicks that didn’t really work out from the year before. That includes paper gliders (Air Commandos) and the flimsy Battle Copters, but the new ideas like a Flintstones car and a helicopter that didn’t fit GI Joe figures (Desert Apache) weren’t much better. So after all of that, the year’s Eco Warriors offering of the Eco Striker comes off pretty well by comparison, even if it was the first of many AWE Striker regurgitation to be.

If had to chose an old vehicle to give to the Eco Warrior Joes for their subline, I’m not sure I could’ve named a better one than the AWE Striker. It fits the theme, it rolls well, it can carry four figures, light-up front lights, a nicely detailed engine, it really was a toy from Joe’s best year. Which is probably why the Eco Striker stands out as the best toy from one of Joe’s worst years. Sometimes I forget how nice the AWE Striker was just for my strong preference to the VAMP, and also the fact that they really wore out the toy’s appeal with continual recolors and retools for the next thirty years. In 1992 though, it was still pretty fresh.

The bright blue and yellow colors of the Eco Striker make it look very much like a toy, though at least it’s a very attractive looking toy. Blue and yellow are colors that compliment each other very well, and there’s also a bevy of contemporary Joes that feature a lot of yellow and look good with it. The decals also add some hazard stripes to the sides, which I really love the look of even if the yellow loses some of it’s vibrance just from the poor quality of the stickers. Like all the vehicles from it’s era, it has super cheap, paper stickers as opposed to the vinyl kind used on older vehicles. That’s fairly egregious when you consider that it’s a toy where the main gimmick involves water.

As for the big and exciting new feature that the Eco Striker brings to the table: a squirt gun, like with the Septic Tank a year prior. The squirt cannon is easily the worst feature of the Septic Tank, just for being so cumbersome and not really having enough space for a figure to man it. The design of the AWE Striker lends itself to this gimmick much more. It still looks a little too big for the vehicle, but it doesn’t really hinder it’s function that much. As an added bonus, it’s pretty easy to get a decently matching black gun to replace it, so the Eco Striker can be rendered in it’s classic glory with a normal gun. Personally, I wish there were some more newly tooled bits to change it’s look a little more like with the Septic Tank, but this one functions well as it is, so I can’t be too picky.

If you’d believe it, there’s more than one Eco Striker: A new version was released as a 2014 Joecon exclusive, rendered from the Ninja Commando 4×4. I do like that they put together an Eco Warriors set for Joecon, though many of the choices were questionable, like usual. The Ninja Commando 4×4 is a pretty horrible rendition of the AWE Striker. The design removes a ton of parts and simplifies it to an extent that the Joecon version of the Eco Striker just looks like a vintage one that’s missing half of it’s parts. I really don’t know why that exclusive exists, but it’s there.

The last complete Eco Striker sold for a whopping $61, which is a lot more than I was expecting. You really don’t see complete copies for sale all that often, and incomplete ones don’t go for a lot less. I’m not sure I think it’s really worth that, but it is a very cool vehicle, and probably the most memorable repaint of the AWE Striker. If I’m ever in the market for another one, I’ll probably just buy a cheap junker and augment it with similar parts from other AWE Strikers.

1992 Eco Striker Links:

…Nothing besides Yo Joe!, so if you have some Eco Striker pics or a blog post hidden somewhere, feel free to link to it in the comments.

1982 Rapid Fire Motorcycle (RAM)

Posted on August 28, 2023 by mwnekoman

1982 RAM

The RAM is a very simple toy, but probably the best motorbike released in ARAH. It scales well, it has weapons, and enough detail to make it interesting. It’s also very iconic (hate that word, so overused) for how associated it is with the early Joes. Rock&Roll, Breaker, and Duke are all characters I see as being closely tied to the RAM, but it jibes well with figures that came a few years later too.

For a long while I really didn’t appreciate this year of vehicles. Partly, that’s because the 25th Anniversary line provided me with a very nice FLAK, VAMP and RAM, so with only a small collection of First 13 guys, I really didn’t see the point of going back for vehicles that for the most part seemed like downgrades. 15 years later and I still haven’t bothered with a VAMP or FLAK, but the RAM stood out as something that really needed to be with the figures it was designed for. The 25th mold is way more detailed, but big handle-bars don’t really mean much to figures that can’t dream of holding them. I think the added detail also alienates the newer mold a bit, as although it’s nice, it looks out of place with figures that are 25 years older.

The RAM is a really solid vehicle. GI Joe motorbikes tend to not be the most stellar items, from my own experience I don’t like quite of few of the others I’ve handled like the LCV Recon Sled, or the Ninja Lighting, and while I’ve never had one myself, from what I can tell the Silver Mirage is basically just a lousier version of this with copy-pasta missiles all over it. I think a major issue they run into, is that a good bike-ridding pose is somewhat difficult for articulated toys to achieve. Modern toys still struggle at this a bit, and classic o-ring joes especially struggle.

So the RAM sort of sidesteps some of this by having no handle-bars at all, figures just kind of hug it and play pretend. It’s a side-effect of being designed for toys that didn’t even have elbow pivots, but amusingly I think it works better in practice than some of the later attempts at bikes. The bike features a pair of removable saddle-bags, a kick-stand, and a removable gatling-cannon as it’s other features. It’s somewhat simple, but that’s really all it needs to be, so it excels at doing it’s job very well.

The only real flaw with the RAM is that it’s hard as fudge to find a mint one, which might be another way of saying it’s prone to damage? It has these little posts at the bottom of the bike, and I notice more often than not they’re cracked off (Semi-related: the box photos of the prototype depict these as pegs, but on the toy they’re wider.). The kickstand is also pretty fragile, and sometimes even the gun will have it’s connecting pegs snagged off. To me, it doesn’t really feel fragile, but it’s now upwards of 41-years-old, so I attribute most of this simply to time.

Which leads into pricing: Although the RAM is a very common vehicle, it’s also pretty hard to find a decent, unbroken one. $20 seems to be the average price for a good one, though something I found surprising is that plenty of ones that were broken would still hit around $20. My copy is a damaged one too, but I bought it on a whim at an estate sale years ago, mainly because it was in a vintage Matchbox case I wanted, with a handful of other small goodies for something like $5.

1982 RAM Links:

3D Joes

Joe A Day

1987 Cobra Maggot

Posted on July 31, 2023 by mwnekoman

1987 Cobra Maggot

Although it gets somewhat away from any sort of real-world vehicle, a popular gimmick of the late 80‘s was vehicles that split into smaller items and battle stations. Within the sci-fantasy world of GI Joe, it works incredibly well and made for some classic vehicles, which includes the Mean Dog, the BUGG and the Maggot, among others. All of those toys represent vehicles that could never really exist, but are still very good just for the high amounts of play value they provide to a collection.

I really like artillery items. To me, these have been my favorite GI Joe vehicles since I was a kid, as it acts as a simple objective for either side to be fighting around. I don’t know if this was inspired by video games I used to play, or if I just have a better memory of a few game stages that lined up well with my imaginations, but either way, a vehicle like the Maggot was really all I would need for a play session. Of course I didn’t own a Maggot until I was 16, but that doesn’t matter.

The Maggot splits into three smaller items, which grants you an immobile turret, a front-cab, and a command station. Without the turret, the other two components don’t do a whole lot in a action-oriented sense, but it still provides some fun opportunities. Flipping out the legs and setting up the turret is fun, but the main point is that it reveals the computer station underneath. This is a well detailed and fun little compartment to stick a figure, and it adds a lot of play value to the Maggot as a whole.

With the turret on it’s own, one issue that arises it that it no longer has the ability to aim left or right. For that reason, I much prefer the look and function of the Maggot with all of it’s components together rather than them being separated. While I’m focused on the turret/main gun, something I find frustrating is that mine no longer holds up very well. The gun barrel is given tension by a clip in it’s socket, that I assume has warped just enough over time to no longer hold the gun up on it’s own. Frustrating, but it’s 36 years old, so what can you say.

The front cab is fun too. The idea of it just rolling off on it’s own seems a little funny to me, but I guess it could be used just for towing extra turrets, so one cab could move two guns from location to location. This part of the vehicle has two guns, and the removable engine cover (Under the cover, you can also see the main gun’s loading system, which is neat.). I wish the driver could be hidden a little better inside the vehicle, but it’s alright as is.

I think a strong appeal of the Maggot is the way it looks kind of similar to a WWII German self-propelled gun. The shape of the turret especially reminds me of parts of the Hummel and a little of the Nashorn, mainly for the open-topped design they went with. It does a lot to make the vehicle seem more realistic and grounded, which I think strengthens it’s appeal as something that’s both fun and reasonable looking (rather than something like the Mamba, which is fun, but definitely not reasonable looking).

You can get a complete Maggot for around $30 on a good day, and prices right now aren’t much worse than what I remember from over a decade ago. There’s a radar dish that goes on the front cab’s rear gun, which is usually missing, though it’s not something that seems to carry a ton of value either. There’s enough demand for it that reproductions exist, which of course is another option if you feel like going that route. Regardless, the Maggot is a fun toy that doesn’t cost a lot of money, which probably means it’s still underappreciated.

1987 Cobra Maggot Links:

Forgotten Figure

3D Joes

1989 Tiger Sting

Posted on June 27, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Tiger Sting

Tiger Force vehicles! The Tiger Force vehicle colors are cool and iconic, I love them. I think at one point this used to be a cool alternative opinion that made you different from the crowd, but now everyone loves everything that’s been lathered in bright colors and reminds them of the good times prior to the turn of the century… Which means I can’t be cool just for liking toy jeeps and aircraft in tiger colors anymore.

The Tiger Sting is a repaint of the VAMP Mark II, just in the colorful Tiger Force team colors. I find it interesting that it’s a repaint of the VAMP and not the Cobra Stinger, seeing as how Tiger Force and Python Patrol did a lot of faction swapping; the “Sting” in the name would also make more sense as a Stinger repaint. Maybe there was a miscommunication at the factory? Either way, it’s the requisite repaint of what is probably GI Joe’s most iconic and popular vehicle, so it does the job regardless of what the thinking was behind it.

Speaking of the parts it uses, the domestic release on the Tiger Sting uses a mixture of ‘82 VAMP and VAMP Mark II parts, namely, it uses the upper hull of the original VAMP that doesn’t feature a lot of sculpted details. Later in the UK and a few other European countries, it was released using the upper hull of the VAMP Mark II, with the little shovel and tarp on the hood. I assume the smooth body was used to help the tiger-face decals adhere, so the different parts might negatively impact that.

For me this one’s another childhood item that came from my brother’s collection, not something that I ever picked out for myself. Part of the reason I think GI Joe vehicles really went down in quality towards the end of the line, comes from the fact that most of the vehicles I liked as a kid were repaints of older 80‘s items like the Tiger Sting. The childhood armory featured mostly vehicles released between ‘90 and ‘94. For the most part, my focus was put on the Tiger Sting, the Lynx and the Sky Sharc, whereas I don’t remember ever having much fascination with the Badger, just as one example. A lot of the older vehicles seemed more compact and easy to play with, compared to monstrosities like the Attack Cruiser.

I don’t find the Tiger Force vehicle colors to be all that unrealistic, at least not by GI Joe’s standards of fluorescent grenades, android soldiers and whatever the HISS Driver is supposed to be. During the Korean War, there was a kinda famous M46 Patton painted up with a big goofy tiger face in the front, and at least half of the tank was bright yellow. I remember seeing the thing a long time ago, but now I can’t find anything decent documenting it, at least at a glance. Realism aside, I like the colors because they look nice. The Tiger Force color-scheme is distinct and stands out immediately. With the Tiger Sting here, I really love the way that it’s colors contrast so much against green tones you see around your yard or parks in the Summer, it’s really nice in photos.

Complete Tiger Stings can run around $80, but any small defect can bring that price down to around $50 to $40. Finding one with all of the missiles, the steering wheel, gas cans and no damage to the doors can be some work. I take the liberty of assuming they didn’t make as many of these as they did VAMPs and VAMP Mark II’s, so that probably also affects the pricing. Personally, I think this one’s worth the premium, as it does feel like one of the only Tiger Force vehicles you really need.

The Viper Pit

Tag Archives: Vehicles

1991 Ice Sabre

1983 Action Force Shadowtrak

1983 Action Force Shadowtrak

1983 Action Force Shadowtrak Links:

1987 Pom-Pom Gun

1987 Pom-Pom Gun

There’s No Other Content with This Thing, so Here’s my Other April Fools Posts:

2004 Venom Striker ATV

2004 Venom Striker ATV

2004 Venom Striker ATV Links:

1986 LCV Recon Sled

1986 LCV Recon Sled

1986 LCV Recon Sled Links:

2009 Rockslide (Past and Present)

2009 Rockslide (Past and Present)

1992 Eco Striker

1992 Eco Striker

1992 Eco Striker Links:

1982 Rapid Fire Motorcycle (RAM)

1982 RAM

1982 RAM Links:

1987 Cobra Maggot

1987 Cobra Maggot

1987 Cobra Maggot Links:

1989 Tiger Sting

1989 Tiger Sting