1993 Roadblock

In 1992, Hasbro did a soft reboot of the Joe line.  They didn't carry forward most of the 1991 series.  And, the 1992 lineup featured an array of top characters.  Almost all of them were excellent updates to the character while still holding some basic traits that were key to the figure's persona.  A full 75% of the basic retail line was heavy hitter characters from the line's heyday.  Among them was a new version of Roadblock.  This new design gave Roadblock the heft that was appropriate for his character.  And, created the best Roadblock figure released up until that time.  In 1993, the sculpt got a repaint.  This update incorporated some brighter colors.  But, they also really accentuated the mold and created an alternate look for Roadblock that's somewhat obscure.

The sculpting on this figure is extremely solid.  The main thing is that Roadblock is bulky.  The character is supposed to be a massive person.  And, this sculpt really gets that across.  Hasbro loved really short sleeves in the '90's.  On Roadblock, they are a design feature that allows his arms to appear larger and more muscular.  But, the real achievement is the head sculpt.  Roadblock's head is the best for the character.  It shows the determination you'd expect from Roadblock.  His furled brow shows that this a character of intensity.  And, as a final bonus, Roadblock features a golden earring.  It helps sell the head sculpt as something just slightly more interesting than what knock off toy lines would do.  The head was also used on both Star Brigade Roadblock versions.  So, it's appeared more than any other Roadblock head and earned its way to the de facto standard for the Roadblock character.

As I hunted down the scraps of the Joe line available at retail stores in the mid 1990's, there were figures who taunted me from the cardbacks of figures I was able to find.  This Roadblock was one of them.  Roadblock was a childhood favorite character from the comic.  I never liked the 1986 version.  And, my 1984 version had been devastated by broken parts and accessories.  So, a new version of the character was something to which I looked forward.  But, like many 1993 releases, Roadblock was simply gone from retail. I never saw one.  And, it was not until I was an adult collector that I was able to finally track down a 1992 version.  With it, I had a Roadblock that was befitting the character I had come to enjoy.  Roadblock quickly filled in as the missing machine gunner in my various photos.  He was the perfect match for the '90's figures that I had come to enjoy.  And, he was also a nice fit with '85 and later figures, too.

The downside to this late acquisition date is that I have no childhood memories of this figure.  Nor do I have associations of memories for when I found him at retail while I was in college.  The first version of the mold to come into my collection was during my heavy acquisition days of the early internet.  He was among a large lot of contemporary figures that just showed up in the mail one day.  The upside, though, is that this figure has always seemed "new" to me.  He was the last version of Roadblock to appear in my collection.  So, I can never really use him enough.  And, more than 25 years since his appearance in my collection, this sculpt remains my preferred Roadblock appearance.

The 1993 coloring is striking.  The dark blue shirt juxtaposed against the neon green highlights makes for a compelling color palette.  The black highlights and details help give the entire visual package some depth.  I'm not a huge fan of the light blue pants.  But, they do work well enough against the figure's dark upper half. The main thing is that the color work and are visually interesting.  This figure pops in photos and has the added benefit of being seldom used by other in the community.  So, his appearance always stands out.  Despite relatively few paint applications, Roadblock makes the most of them and features far more layered coloring than many of his 1993 contemporaries.  I suspect that the mold reuse allowed for a higher paint application budget.  So, the figure didn't get the two-tone treatment that was reserved for many brand newly sculpted parts that debuted in 1993. 

Roadblock's accessories are both good and terrible.  They're terrible because he doesn't include a heavy machine that defines his character.  It's an odd omission.  Especially, since there was a tree in use that featured the overly large 1992 Gung Ho machine gun that would have worked for Roadblock's specialty.  But, if the figure wasn't going to include his "ma deuce", then Hasbro at least chose a weapon tree with solid accessories.  Roadblock got the tree with Hit and Run's rifle and knife, Bullhorn's rifle and Shockwave's pistol.  There is the required spring loaded launcher and missiles, too.  The accessories may not make sense for Roadblock, but it's good gear that's useful for many other figures.  And, it was cast in black plastic.  Making it a solid release, all around.  

My most liked aspect of this figure, though, is how well he meshes with other 1993 releases.  Through the end of the vintage line, Hasbro was intent on producing toys that looked great when posed together.  The real reason was that it made the walls of retail figures on sale at you favorite store look good and prevented the figures from all blending together.  The result is that Roadblock looks amazing when posed with his contemporaries.  You can set him with Mega Marines, Eco Warriors, Star Brigade and even Ninja Force and the figure blends right in.  It's a line cohesion that was lost after the vintage years.  And, with toys not really mattering at retail any longer, it's unlikely we'll ever see anything like it again.  Even the various kickstarter lines fail at this and produce too many toys that look alike in terms of colors.  It's not about boldness just to be bold.  It's finding a way to make strong, bright and powerful colors work together with bland tans, blacks and greys.  In 1993, Hasbro was still doing this.  And, the line meshes perfectly well together.  That makes figures like this Roadblock even more useful since he's a perfect companion for so many of his release year brethren.

This Roadblock mold ended up with plenty of uses.  The sculpt debuted in 1992.  In 1993, some 1992 figures were released with new accessories.  So, you can find 1992 Roadblocks on 1992 or 1993 cardbacks.  Then, the coloring shifted to the paint job that's the subject of this profile in 1993.  Hasbro sent the mold to Funskool where it was released in India for many years.  The upside being that the Funskool figure included the discontinued 1992 machine gun.  Hasbro got the mold back from Funskool in 2003 and released Roadblock repaints in 2004 and 2005.  Every version of this mold is useful, fun and great for the character.  You have solidly vintage paint jobs, fun neon paint jobs and very useful, muted paint jobs.  There's something for everyone with this sculpt.

The 1993 Roadblock isn't a terribly common figure to find.  All of the 1993 repaints of 1992 molds tend to be less common than the other, new figures for the year.  It's much easier to find a 1993 Star Brigade Roadblock than it this repaint.  This leads to insane dealer pricing where some ask for up to $45 for a mint and complete figure.  These don't tend to sell, though.  Just the figure seems to sell in the $17 range.  And, the accessories aren't too hard to track down or expensive on their own.  The high price is a function of the limited supply.  And, you don't see this figure being used all that often.  So, it's not popularity driving his pricetag.  I'm torn as to whether the 1992 or 1993 figure is better.  But, that's mostly moot since the 2004 Anti Venom and 2005 HAS repaints are superior to both the vintage colorings.  But, this 1993 is the most fun version of this Roadblock sculpt.  And, that's worth something.

1985 Tele Viper - Random Photos of the Day

The Tele Viper should be a staple of everyone's Cobra army.  And, to a degree, he kind of is.  Pretty much everyone has a couple.  But, they have never taken on the army building cachet of other 1985-1989 Cobra figures.  On the surface, the Tele Viper is done up in Cobra blue with purple highlights.  He matches two of the three classic, Cobra colors.  He was released in a key year and was a staple of both the comic and cartoon.  His gear is very well done and matches the figure, perfectly.  

Every station in a Cobra base or vehicle should have a Tele Viper manning it.  But, that's never occurred to any great degree.  You'll see a Terrordrome with one or two Tele Vipers in it.  But, you'll never seen the entire open bay being operated by a Tele Viper army.  As one off figures, the Tele Viper is a welcomed addition in every collection.  But, he's just not a figure that collectors swarm to like they the equally photogenic Vipers and Crimson Guards.

I suspect part of that is related to Tele Vipers not being "combat" figures.  (You can argue Crimson Guards aren't, either.  But, that doesn't seem to matter to anyone.)  So, they never got the "rows of figures on a metal shelf in an unfinished basement" treatment that was afforded to more revered army building figures.  And, with that, the Tele Viper simply became somewhat of an afterthought in the collecting world.  

It doesn't help that the Tele Viper is weirdly sculpted.  His head seems too big and all his parts just appear to be mis-apportioned.  The figure still works.  He's just not at the same level of parts cohesion that you see on Eels or BATs.

Despite my feelings that this figure is underappreciated, I don't really use him, either.  Over the years, he's just appeared in a handful of photos.  And, there's many times when the Tele Viper would have greatly enhanced a scene, but I simply chose not to use him.  I guess the Tele Viper is a figure that I want to like a lot more than I actually do.  That's OK, though.  It leaves a very useful figure as one that's not overdone.

2020 Night Force Snake Armor - Black Major

I do not like the Snake armor.  I hated it as a kid and it has been completely and utterly irrelevant to me for over 40 years.  But, one of the things that helps us grow as people it to take another look at something we dislike and try to understand why we dislike and if the circumstances around that dislike warrant another evaluation of our opinion.  It's something good to do with political views, social conventions and even the people in and around your life.  So, when Black Major produced Snake Armors in 2020, I saw an opportunity to pick one up and see if my childhood bias against the toy held up.  In this case, I'm actually looking at a Night Force version of the Snake armor.  I'm not sure why there's a Night Force version.  But, it was cheap and included a Stormshadow repaint I wanted.  And, the base colors are Cobra enough that it solved my need for a sample of the Snake that would help determine if I've been wrong for the last 4 decades.

The Snake came out in 1983.  It was a cheap toy that was meant to fill the price gap between a figure and base vehicle.  At the time, Hasbro ensured Joe toys existed within price points so that G.I. Joe toys were a possibility for any level of gift giver.  And, because of this, my brothers and I got no less than 3 Snakes between birthdays and Christmas in the fall of 1983.  By that point, I was completely engrossed in G.I. Joe and they were the only toys I really played with. So, ostensibly, any Joe toy would have been an awesome addition to my toy room.  But, Snakes were not.  From the get go, I found them useless.  The last thing I wanted was a suit that limited articulation on my figures.  I could easily imagine some force shield that offered all the power of a Snake without limiting my ability to pose the figures any way I wanted.  But, the most damning aspect of the toy was that, in order to use it, it took a figure out of rotation.  Someone had to be inside the suit for the thing to work.

So, now we get the crux of the issue.  Pretty much anyone reading this would say, "What about the exoskeleton included with the Snake that allowed it to be set without a figure?!?".  Usually, this would be prefaced or ended with the word dummy.  (Or, your expletive of choice.)  But, we'll save that.  Because, you see, I didn't know about the exo skeleton piece.  In all three of our Snakes, that little part was tossed with the leftover sprues.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it was the zeal of opening something new.  Or, I was just a moron who missed it.  But, I didn't know this part existed for a many years.  So, this is the part where you call me a dummy.  

But, to be fair, this was not the end of the Snake for me.  In time, certain Cobra figures got broken.  Even as a kid, I could not abide by figures with broken crotches or thumbs.  So, when a Cobra Officer was damaged, it made perfect sense for him to slide into the Snake as the operator.  This allowed me to use the Snake.  But, it also didn't cost me a figure since someone already broken was no longer considered part of my actual collection.  But, even with this addition of a figure, I found the Snake lacking.  Like the MANTA, the Snake didn't stay together all that well when you actually played with it.  And, the lack of poseability still killed it.  In short, the Snake couldn't manage to find a way into my adventures.

In 1984, I started buying the Joe comic.  In short order, I found a local comic book shop and started buying back issues of the Joe issues.   Eventually, I came across issue #19.  Here, Dr. Venom put Kwinn and Snake Eyes into the Snakes and had them attack the G.I. Joe Headquarters.  I had a few problems with this issue.  First, Dr. Venom kept referring the Hiss Tank being "Cobra blue".  As the Hiss was canonically black, I found this a glaring error.  Second, it didn't make sense to me that Kwinn and Snake Eyes would have their bodies controlled, but still have clear enough minds to shoot the locks on the suit.  Finally, it was self defeating to have these invincible suits who could be cracked open by a guy who somehow managed to get a remote controlled machine gun to fire manually.  The upside, though, was that the terrible suits were proven very ineffective.  And, in my mind, my dislike of Snakes as a toy and a concept were codified in the comic forever.

But, at its core, my dislike of the Snake went deeper.  Generally, I was not a fan of robots.  For some reason, I never got the robot bug.  This manifested itself in 1986 when I found the BAT a fairly lame toy and character.  BATs were fun for about 4 minutes before Sgt. Slaughter would slip behind them, shoot them in the back and watch them burst into flame...rendering them absolutely useless.  I was shocked to find my friends and even random kids at the store who LOVED BATs.  I didn't get the fascination with robots.  And, I still don't.  I see collectors going ga-ga over mechs and things and I simply don't understand the appeal.  But, to me, the humanity of the characters was a driving force in my play.  So, even in my days of playing with Star Wars figures, I rarely found the robots interesting.  Monsters and aliens could be given personality.  But, I just didn't click with robots.  And, to this day, I find anything that heavily features robots to be kind of boring.

The Black Major Snakes are very well done.  They are of high quality and display nicely.  The paint masks are crisp and the rainbow of colors allow even curmudgeons like myself to find something of interest.  Snake accessories tended to break on the vintage toys.  With the Black Major figures, the risk is still there.  But, the attachments fit snugly and work very well with the arms.  The parts fit together without falling apart.  And, even with the exo skeleton inside, the toy stands and functions just fine.  

There are tons of Black Major paint variants of Snakes available.  A few colors were even metallicized and you can get shining versions that look like Christmas ornaments if you are so inclined.  The original Snake had an interesting life.  Hasbro released the white version in 1983.  Then, in 1985, they repainted it into a blue version.  I have no idea why the Snake got this treatment when other, far better vehicles in the price point did not.  But, the blue Snake exists and is somewhat rare.  In Europe, Palitoy released a red Snake named the Escape Armor for the Red Shadows.  Of course, it's highly desirable and expensive.  Funskool finally released the Snake in the 1990's.  There are various hues, the most famous being a gray version.  Again, this is hard to find and you'll pay a premium for one.  So, for a crappy, crappy toy, there are tons of variants out there.  Yet, there are only two Flight Pods and one real coloring for the CLAW....

Black Major Snakes dried up pretty quickly.  While you can still find them, the initial assortment sold out far faster than I would have thought.  All this proves is that my take on the Snake is the minority opinion in the community and the design is generally well liked.  Less desirable colors of the Snake are still available in the $12 range.  But, some of the most desirable colors almost never appear for sale and will command a premium.  For me, it was easy to get one like this Night Force version because it was more about having one Snake to review than having the right colors.  If you're a Snake fan, that might not be the case.  

1993 Beach Head - Around The Web

I really like the 1993 Beach Head.  I find the design fun and the colors work.  Despite this, I find it difficult to use the figure all that often.  This is mainly due to the heavy use of blue in  the coloring.  It makes him Cobra adjacent and prevents him from meshing well with many other figures.  I've long liked him as a crew member on the 1984 Whale hovercraft.  But, I haven't had mine out in more than a decade.  So, I'm left trying to match up the figure with some of the vehicles that I do have available.  And, the results never live up to the idea of this Beach Head that I have in my head.  

The figure could use one more paint mask.  A little silver would to a long way towards bringing out the details on the mold.  Even a paint mask on his goggles would add a lot to the head.  But, I still like the figure as it is.  I long used him as an army builder.  But, those days are passed and I mostly just pose him as Beach Head among some of his contemporary figures.  

1993 Beach Head Profile

1993 Beach Head at Nekoman's Viper Pit

1993 Beach Head by purple_cobra75

1993 Beach Head by 1990s_gi_joes

1993 Beach Head by HCC788

1993 Beach Head by evilface

1993 Beach head by viper_space

1993 Beach Head by ptytoys2021

1993 Beach Head by Nekoman

1993 Beach Head by Dok Sewage

1993 Beach Head by thedustinmccoy

1993 Beach Head by fun_time_at_serpentorslair

Pythona

I have never seen the G.I. Joe movie.  It was not aired in my local market back in 1987.  In fact, I only learned about it from some friends who lived down the street.  They came back from being out of town and excitedly told me about this crazy movie.  It had real movie stars.  And, it had some weird bugs that turned Cobra Commander into a lizard.  The entire thing was completely unbelievable.  Their devotion to the bit made me think this "movie" was real.  But, in the back of my head, I still thought it was just a practical joke.

Eventually, the movie aired on a local station.  I saw that there were famous performers who starred in it.  But, it was late 1987 and I was pretty much done with Joe.  So, I didn't watch it.  And, in the ensuing 38 years, I've never had interest in rectifying this situation.  I was raised on the comic and my focus on Joe was related to the comic world.  I watched the G.I. Joe mini-series starting in 1983.  But, I didn't really remember any of them.  I watched the daily cartoon when it debuted.  But, again, it didn't really stick.  (And, the one time I tried to watch an episode as an adult, I didn't even last 5 minutes before turning it off.  It's bad.)  The cartoon was kind of an in-and-out experience where I watched it, but didn't care about it.  I have more recollections of the Transformers cartoon than I do the Joe version.  

All that is to say, I really have no background on Pythona.  My only experience with her was from other collectors who made customs or talked about her.  But, frankly, she wasn't a force in the early days of online collectordom.  Cartoon fans were largely drummed out of the community back in the 1990's in favor of comic universe focus.  I mentioned to a friend a few weeks ago that I really do wonder what might have happened had the club not decided to attack the cartoon focused Zartan's Domain website back in the 1990's.  It was the largest and most popular G.I. Joe site of the time.  But, some cretins did a whole bunch of, frankly, illegal stuff to harass the site's owner and, eventually, get him to close down the site.  With it gone, the collector focus turned almost 100% to the comic continuity.  Eventually, this manifested with the Comic Pack toys in the mid '00's.  I do believe that cartoon designs would have garnered more of Hasbro attention had their not been a concerted effort to relegate the cartoon to second tier status.  Just another example of the long history of Joe fans getting screwed over by a few people who happened to have Hasbro's ear.

That brings us to this figure, though.  Super7 pretty much has the Joe license because the owner loved the cartoon and the Joe movie.  And, from the ReAction days, the line has always been heavily cartoon favored with a few comic homages tossed in.  So, seeing Pythona isn't, really, a surprise.  The Joe fanbase has, mostly, moved on from the comic vs. cartoon schism of the early days.  Good figure ideas appear everywhere.  But, the cartoon has been eking out popularity gains for nearly two decades, now.  There were some figures in the anniversary era that touched on the animation.  But, Super7's foray into action figures has given the cartoon the representation it missed from the first twenty years of this century.

Personally, I don't much care for the ReAction+ figures.  The human heads look weird and don't mesh with vintage figures.  But, the non-humans are pretty solid.  The overall smoothness and lack of raised details really limits the figures.  But, the colors are spectacular.  All of which adds up to a Pythona figure that looks really nice.  Pythona's design is, by its very nature, smooth and absent of details.  So, Super7's sculpting limitations aren't in play.  Her colors are eye-popping.  And, they are well captured here.  And, Pythona's not supposed to be human.  So, the odd shaping and overblown size of her head work in her favor.  In short, this looks like a good figure.

And, it's likely to be the next Super7 figure I buy.  Normally, I'd have saved up all this bloviating for her profile.  But, there's no guarantee I'll find her at retail.  I'm not going to pay shipping on a $25 figure.  So, I'm going to be dependent upon my local Target store carrying this wave.  I don't much go to Target any more.  I've been 1 time this year to pick up the Star Wars retro pack.  So, I'm not likely to stumble across her on a routine trip to the store.  (All of this assumes, of course, that this wave will even be available at retail.....)  So, there's no guarantee I'll acquire Pythona.  Which, would kind of be a shame.  She's weird and colorful in a way that really appeals to me.  My extent of her usage would be some photos along with the Power Commandos.  But, that's a better fate than most figures I've acquired in the last decade.  The upside is that I'm content with not owning the figure.  She was not a part of the G.I. Joe I ever knew.  So, I have no attachment that would send me spiraling to buy one by any means necessary.  Even though I suspect that she'll find some decent after market appreciation after she's sold out, I'm OK with missing her.  I'd prefer not to, of course.  So, we'll see how things play out over the next few weeks and if she ever shows up via an avenue I'm willing to take to acquire her.