Rarities - Estrela Reaktor - Brazilian Exclusive Fastdraw

Estrela released about 150 unique figures in Brazil.  Most of them were very similar to the Hasbro figures.  But, every figure had subtle differences.  (With the exception of the figures that Estrela made for release in North America like the Slaughters Marauders and some mail aways.)  In the old days, these differences were often ignored.  But, in the past two or so decades, collectors have come to appreciate the subtle color nuances that exist between Hasbro and Estrela made figures.

The biggest difference is often the Brazilian green color.  It is a richer and deeper green color.  It appears on many Brazilian figures from the earliest years through the end of the Estrela line in 1995 or so.  

Below, you can see the Brazilian release of Fast Draw that's named Reaktor.  First, Reaktor is a great name...even if it would seem at home on a He-Man character.  Secondly, you'll note that Reaktor was a member of the Brazilian Battle Force 2000 subset.  He replaces Dodger, whose mold was retained by Hasbro for use in the Sonic Fighters line.  

The most notable difference on the figure is the Brazilian  green on both the figure and his accessories.  There are other color modifications, too, especially the hue of red on his accents.  Overall, though, the figure is darker than the Hasbro made figure.  It allows for easy visual distinction between the versions.

The Top 10 - 2020

 So, 2020 was a weird year.  It was bizarre in that Joe was popular, but also not.  Items that, historically, collectors showed interest in were simply ignored.  Yet, common items that no one would ever care about now get massive attention.  And, in all this, the most popular post in the site's history debuted this year.  Yes, there is a new number one post in this site's long life.  And, you'll never guess what it is.

With that, here's the top 10 posts of 2020 on the site.

10. European Force Tonnerre

The European Force figures have always been solid performers during Rarities Month.  This year, I focused on the one figure that I see the least: Tonnerre.  This orange repaint is weird and odd and lots of fun.  I'd love to someday own one.  Until then, though, Rarities write ups like this one will have to suffice for me.

9. 2006 Viper

Army builders are always popular.  This Viper Pit set, though, has turned into a dud due to the poor quality of the figures.  Despite that, this figure got a lot of page views just due to the Viper name and the fact that it's been 14 years since he was released.  

8. Black Major Cobra De Aco

Black Major figures tend to perform well.  Especially when you consider that I can't promote the profiles of them in many of the largest social media groups.  Despite this blackout, people find the write ups of the figures.  Other Joe bloggers report the same.  The De Aco is a famous figure in its own right and people were interested to see how the Black Major release compared to one of the first foreign figures to really capture the community's attention.

7. 2020 Retro Hiss Tank

This isn't really a surprise.  A classic and iconic vehicle re-offered at retail for the first time in a long time was certain to draw in viewers.  Naturally, you see video reviews from large toy sites that have massively more numbers as they pull in the retail only collector crowd.  But, even Joe collectors wanted to see this one and it dropped into the top profiles of the year.

6.  1987 Fast Draw

I never considered Fast Draw an overly popular character.  But, his profile garnered a lot of attention.  It wasn't the time of year or anything.  In fact, the two profiles the surround Fast Draw (1984 Chameleon and 1997 Ace) were among the lowest performing posts of the year.  So, the popularity is entirely attributable to the Fast Draw figure.

5.  Sgt. Savage P-40 Warhawk

The Warhawk is an incredibly obscure item of which most fans had little recollection.  So, it getting a prominent post attracted viewers.  Some loved the design.  Others hated it.  But, the reality is that Sgt. Savage toys are almost as forgotten as G.I. Joe Extreme and it's getting rarer and rarer to see them in any capacity. 

4. Terror on the Tundra Mail Away Promo

I don't look at a lot of paperwork.  But, little items like this Terror on the Tundra promo tend to be popular.  Most collectors have these things lying around.  But, they aren't something that they take the time to look at.  And, now that some of the items in them have reached astronomical prices, it's interesting to look back at what you could have bought when they were released.

3.  Rarities - Later Series Lucky Bell Power Commandos

While I had a good crop of Rarities posts this year, only two really broke through.  This look at the later series of Power Commandos, though, was the most popular Rarities post of the year.  Again, this showcased a bunch of figures that most collectors were not aware of and, in many cases, had never seen.

There still lots about this line I don't know.  But, there will be at least one more new post for Rarities month in 2021 that relates to the Power Commandos, though.

2.  2006 Operation Flaming Moth Range Viper

The Flaming Moth figures have been left behind by collectors.  Those of us around at the time of their release remember the acidic taste of the Club's disdain for us upon the figure's release.  And, we also remember the figures being clearance fodder for years as the club struggled to move them.  But, 14 years later, these figures have become obscure.  So, this profile hit a nerve with the generation of collectors who don't have bitter memories of how truly awful the G.I. Joe club really was.

Despite this figure being the 2nd most popular post of the year, it was viewed more than 2,000 fewer times than the number 1.

1. 1984 Manta

I know, I can't believe it either.  But, the Manta is the most popular post in the site's history.  And, it wasn't due to a viral moment or a spike in popularity in a social media group.  No.  The Manta's rise to the top was simply a sustained excellence over the year.  Even 8 months after it's original publication date, the Manta was still among the weekly leaders in site hits.  It never had a huge surge of visitors.  It's just steadily performed for months.  (If you scroll to the bottom of any page on the site, you'll see the top 5 posts visited in the past week and the MANTA was almost always there in 2020.)  And, in September, it overcame the Rarities post about the unproduced Cobra Island Infiltrate set to become the most viewed post since I returned in 2015.

I can't explain why.  Manta's don't seem all that popular.  The photos for it weren't out of the ordinary.  There's just something about the Manta that's kept it consistently drawing viewers since it first appeared.

So, that's it for 2020.  It was a hell of a year.  Let's hope 2021 is less eventful on all fronts.  I've got some fun stuff ahead for the new year.  Aside from Joe, I'm going to take a look at Spinmaster Batman figures, some new Star Wars releases and, or course, tons of Joe items.  I'll be back to my regular cadence next week and already have the posts mapped out into April.

As always, thanks for spending time here, reading my stuff and leaving your thoughts in the comments.  I appreciate all of you!

1987 Fast Draw

Every now and then, I like to look back at something I wrote in the early 2000's.  I was a wide eyed collector in those days and was full of boundless optimism.  Reading some of my older work makes me wonder what happened over the years.  But, when you think about all that the Joe brand has gone through in that time, it's easy to see why I lost the youthful joy that accompanied even the most mundane acquisition.  Many of those early profiles, though, just graze the surface of why a figure was important to me.  In those days, certain figures still held over much of their significance from either the end of my childhood days in the '80's or my return to collecting as a college student in the '90's.  Returning to a figure allows me a chance to dig a bit deeper as to why a particular figure was important enough to be included among my earliest writings.  In most cases, though, that early enjoyment of the figure has been long eclipsed by newer and better figures that now call my collection home.  Such is the fate of the 1987 Fast Draw.

Fast Draw is one of those figures who looks really cool.  He's colorful, bulky, has tons and tons of amazing gear and was released during one of the last "premier" years of the vintage line.  But, as a toy, he's limited.  Once you get him out of the package, you realize that his missile rig is overly large, is difficult to use and tends to fall apart.  In short, he's one of those figures who looks way better than he actually plays.  And, as a mobile missile launcher, that was hit fate in my childhood collection.  I'd bring out Fast Draw, he's fire his two missiles, usually miss since I didn't want key Cobra equipment destroyed that early in the adventure and then disappear.  It wasn't much of a fate for a figure that, ostensibly, looked great.

In time, though, I found use for Fast Draw.  At first, I had his two hand held missile launch triggers double as pistols.  This was fun for a few hours.  But, it didn't add much to the figure other than a self defense mechanism.  It was as a gunner manning a battle station on the Havoc, SLAM or G.I. Joe Headquarters, though, that Fast Draw found his purpose.  In this role, Fast Draw's heavy suit was not a hindrance.  Instead, it was a vital piece of survival equipment.  Gun stations like the SLAM produced lots of hot and noxious gases.  Without a strong suit with built in recycling gear, any operator would asphyxiate in short order.  Neither running the guns in short intervals nor the gunners dying quickly was a viable option.  So, Fast Draw's sealed suit became the hallmark of Joe gunnery defense stations.  He could survive the blasts for as long as the weapon had ammunition.  And, since gun stations were primary targets of Cobra aircraft and long range weaponry, wearing heavy armor also protected him from nearby explosions.

With this role, Fast Draw became an army builder in my collection.  I had at least two of them as my childhood play days ended in late 1987.  They were then free to be blown to bits by a missile that perfectly targeted a SLAM.  They might be overrun by Cobra troops and unable to run away fast enough due to the heavy armor.  Sometimes, they'd overheat and perish from the physically demanding work of operating a SLAM.  They had a terrible job.  Doing it perfectly meant that people were safe.  But, a single mistake often resulted in death.  So, gunners had high stress rates which would, sometimes, play out on the battlefield when they'd simply snap and either went beserk on their own side or simply cracked and were unable to perform their duties.  The cultural permeation of the aftermath of war on soldiers from Vietnam of the late 1980's seeped into my Joe world in several, sometimes subversive, ways.  

My other Fast Draw memory was from his introduction in G.I. Joe #60.  This issue appeared in late spring of 1987...right as I was still acquiring new figures from that year.  Seeing a bunch of new Joes in action was a great way to get me excited about missing toys from my collection.  And, the story in that issue was a welcome diversion from the Raptor lead issues of the prior couple of months.  But, when I read the story in #60, it was the artwork that stood out to me.  It was odd and seemed out of place among Joe comics.  A few years later, I was astounded to see #60's placed in important places for sale at comic shops due to the artist of that issue, Todd McFarlane, finding great fame for his later work.  My impression as a young teen was that the art was inferior to what I expected of G.I. Joe.  So, that shows what I know, I guess.  The other part of the issue was Fast Draw extending his hand to General Hawk, only to be rebuffed.  Knowing that Fast Draw was a Joe, I thought it a dick move by Hawk.  But, understanding what Hawk knew at the time, it was a understandable slight.

Fast Draw had his lone release in by Hasbro in the late '80's.  After that, he went to Brazil where Estrela produced an exclusive version for their market.  This figure, named Reaktor, uses the same basic colors as Fast Draw.  However, the green is the darker shade of "Brazilian" green that is common on Estrela figures.  His other colors are slightly different, too.  Side by side, you'd notice a difference in the figures.  But, they serve the same function since their colors are meant to mimic one another.  The mold then disappeared.  Of the 13 other standard carded figures that shared a Brazilian cardback with Reaktor, 8 later appeared in India.  The other 5, Monkeywrench, Tele Viper, Leatherneck, Sci Fi and Mercer did not appear again.  However, Fast Draw did show up again around 1993 when he was part of the Rapid Deployment Force mail away set.  For some reason, he was released without his gear and with two Night Force figures (Shockwave and Repeater.)  It's unknown if these figures were simply overstock from the 1980's Hasbro runs or if Hasbro got the mold back and ran a new set of figures.  Either way, Fast Draw is a character who could have gotten at least one cool repaint.  The mold is good and some new coloring might have really showcased his quality.

Fast Draw's card art has an interesting feature.  It does not actually show the hose from his faceplate to his backpack.  There is a hole on his mask for the hose.  And, a corresponding mark on the pack.  (Though, it does not appear to be a hole for the hose.)  But, the hose is missing.  It wasn't uncommon for early card art to feature items that were late removals from a figure's gear complement.  But, it was rare for something included with the figure to not also show on the card art.  There is also a variant cardback in that some Fast Draw's include printed instructions on the colored "wall" behind the bubble that show kids how to set up Fast Draw's gear.  Others do not.  Figures from 1987 exist in both variants.  So, it's something for Fast Draw collectors to watch out for.

So, Fast Draws aren't really figures that have gotten caught up in the surge of collectibles pricing that has accompanied the pandemic.  While dealers will get $35 for a mint and complete version, you can still get them for around $18.  But, $10 of that is the stupid blue hose.  Without that, the rest of the figure is, maybe $10.  And, you can get high quality, but unaccessorized figures for $5 or less.  So, if you want a figure that's good enough to man a gun statioin on your HQ, Defiant, Rolling Thunder or Slam, Fast Draws are still an option for you.  This is nice since 1987 figures seem to be of a vintage that demands high prices.  So, having an option available for a good price gives me hope that we'll come out of this pricing spike and see things return to something closer to normal.  Until then, I'll enjoy Fast Draw for what he was to me.

Diorama - The Trojan BAT

Hot Seat picks up the latest supply crate and enlists Fast Draw and Dodger to unload it.

But, the crate comes to life as a hidden BAT explodes from the box.

Hot Seat is quickly taken out.

Fast Draw fails as the BAT moves on to Dodger.

Mutt hears the commotion and arrives just in time.

The BAT is dispatched.

1987 Fast Draw - Around the Web

Unsurprisingly, there's not much content on Fast Draw out there.  He's an obscure character, even if the figure is interesting.  Here's what I found on him around the web.

Fast Draw Profile

Fast Draw at JoeaDay.com

Fast Draw by thedustinmccoy


Fast Draw at Mike's Collection

Fast Draw at Toys Are Cool

Video Review of 1987 Fast Draw

Fast Draw at Joecustoms.com

Fast Draw at GIJoewiki

1987 Fast Draw

1987 is an interesting year for Joes. It's full of many good figures on the Joe side, but contains many of the worst Cobras ever released. 1987, though, was a year of originality for the Joes. While we got a few carbon copy rehashes, they also released a nice group of figures like Fastdraw who were very original, came with lots of accessories, and are still very cool figures. 1987 is widely regarded as the transition year for Joe. With the inclusion of more science fiction and fantasy elements, Joe was maturing past its traditional military roots. While many don't agree with the direction the line took, the journey was what made this the most successful toy line ever. The concept remained fresh for 13 years. That's more than just about any other toy concept can say.

Fastdraw is a very common figure. The reason I make that statement is because everyone I knew back in 1987 had one. If you only had one figure from that year, it was Fastdraw. It must be something about the missile launchers and a body covered in armor that really drew people. He has a nice color scheme that nicely blends all parts of the figure. Of course, the coup de jour is the face mask. Had this figure been release only two years earlier, he would have come with a solidly molded head. Talk about boring! The flip down face mask was a welcome change for the joe line and lead to the many great innovations that would grace the line until the bitter end.

For me, Fastdraw isn't all that much fun with his missile rack. I have one set up for display since he looks so cool, but don't even know if I have the packs for all my others. All I care about is the face mask. If I have that, then the figure is usable. And use them I do: as gunners for just about every stationary, and mounted gun that has its own seat or stand. The heavy armor and nice mask allow this guy to be a nameless, faceless minion who mans the gunnery stations, ready for air or ground assault. Often times, those gun positions are the first things to go, so the gunner would, naturally, have to wear protective armor. With this use, Fastdraw has become vital to my collection. He mans my headquarters, tactical battle platform, howitzers, Whirlwind cannons, and just about every other type of gun you can imagine. I've often said that I like uniformity in my ranks. With several Fastdraws, I'm able to achieve that.

Fastdraws are not hard to find. I buy many large lots of Joes and have about 8 of him. He was a very popular figure in his day since he was so unique and had the cool accessories. Finding him now isn't hard. What is hard, though, is finding him complete. While the face mask, pack, and missiles aren't too tough, the launcher handles can pose a problem. Usually, though, even at least one of those is present. What is really hard to find is the little blue hose that connects from his pack to his helmet. I have one that is in good condition, but have three with broken tabs. The blue hoses, like the Eels breather hose, are very brittle. As such, mint, complete Fastdraws pull a slight premium. Since the figure is so ubiquitous, though, that premium is still very small. He is an easy figure to acquire and I still get them as long as he at least has the facemask. Without that, the figure isn't even good for custom fodder. As I have been acquiring many old vehicles lately, though, this guy has proven valuable to me. He looks good in dioramas and is a nice addition to many displays. As more people discover this guy, expect to see the huge supply of Fastdraws diminish. It will be a shame when that happens, though, as this is a figure that really should be a part of every collection.

Fastdraw is cool, but I have way too many of him. I do, though, use about half of the ones I have. What's your opinion of this figure? Let me know.