Back in 2001, I recalled a childhood fall day when I was out playing in fresh cut grass with my new Gung Ho figure. It was one of the indelible fall memories of my childhood and one that stayed with me. Where I live, there are about 6 weeks between the middle of September and the beginning of November where the weather is just about perfect. It's warm and sunny during the day. It cools off at night. The leaves haven't fallen, yet. But, things are starting to prep for the winter. This time of year is always very busy for me in my personal life. So, that leaves little time to get Joes out for photos before the leaves fall and the plants disappear until the spring. Thinking about the fall, though, also recalled some other memories from the fall of 1983. Again, Joes played a vital role and they sparked a reverie about the fall season and what it used to mean to me when I was a kid.
In October of 1983, I had some lawn mowing money burning a hole in my pocket. I wanted to splurge. And, I knew that the local Kohl's store had the Dragonfly in stock. I convinced my mother to take me. I found my Dragonfly, bought it and took it home where I assembled it in front of screen door as a gentle fall rain fell outside. My younger brothers, though, were each gifted a figure since my mother didn't want them to be empty handed while I played with my new helicopter. And, Kohl's happened to have two new figures that we didn't get own, Torpedo and Tripwire.
One of the things that's been fun as an adult collector is finding evidence that backs up childhood memories. Back in 1983, the new wave of figures was relatively easy to find. While we didn't get all of them prior to Christmas, we had at least seen every figure at retail...save two. Those two were Tripwire and Torpedo. This was noteworthy because EVERYONE wanted Torpedo. He just looked so cool. But, no one could find him. In the summer of 1983, Kohl's opened stores in Indianapolis. They had a fully stocked toy department. And, it was all freshly shipped stock. There, my friend's mother found a Torpedo that he was given for his birthday in late August. It was the first one we'd seen. But, Kohl's had sold out of their initial figure shipments upon opening. And, Torpedo was long gone by the time we first went to the store that summer. The point is that we now know that Torpedo and Tripwire shipped in the second wave of 1983 figures. So, they did appear at retail at a later date. They were in a case with Destro and Major Bludd. But, everyone already had Bludd from the mail away. And, for some reason, Destro was somewhat easy to find that summer. It was Torpedo who was the white whale. His forgotten casemate, though, was Tripwire.
Tripwire was the least interesting new figure for 1983. He looked cool enough on the artwork on the back of packages. But, he didn't appear in the commercial for the new figures. These were limited to Gung Ho, Snow Job, Airborne and Doc. (With the Battle Bear as the animation was designed for issue #11 of the comic book.) Torpedo captured imaginations just because he was a cool diver. Tripwire, though, wasn't really mentioned. His comic book introduction was somewhat goofy. So, he was just kind of a guy who was there. His figure didn't include a firearm. And, that was always a kiss of death, too.
So, he never really got much use back then. Every now and then, I'd use a landmine for something. But, him detecting them wasn't much fun. In fairly short order, I lost the landmines, too. So, that really limited Tripwire's appeal. I remember placing one of the brown Battle Gear landmines into his pack, first. Then, covering it with 2 remaining green landmines. But, I just couldn't really have that. I could see the brown version and knew my Tripwire was an imposter with incomplete gear. Eventually, though, we ended up with a second Tripwire figure. I then tried to put 4 green landmines into his backpack. The 4th didn't really stay connected if you were playing with the figure. But, that's about the extent of my memories of using Tripwire in his intended specialty.
Where he did find use was as the driver of my APC. It had always bothered me that the APC didn't come with the driver. I'd usually have my VAMP accompanying the APC on missions. So, Clutch wasn't really an option to drive the troop carrier. Tripwire, though, worked well. I thought his helmet and goggles made him look like a driver. And, as I had two of the figures, I'd put one in each seat of the APC. I'd then stock Battle Gear pistols (either Snake Eyes Uzis or Destro's pistols) on the dashboard as the weapons for the faceless minions. Here, they'd have various adventures after the APC had crashed or been overtaken by Cobra. Tripwire was my likely first foray into developing unnamed army builders for the Joe side.
One of the other childhood traditions in the fall was the sudden demand for toys. Stores who never carried toys would fill up entire sections for the holidays. You'd suddenly find Joes at offbeat department or hardware stores. Retail places that would, normally, hide toys in the back corner of the store would move them to a more prominent spot to entice Christmas shoppers. Our local downtown locations of large department stores would open up one of each toy in various lines and set up massive displays to show off the toys. I recall a Star Wars setup as late as 1983 where kids could come up and touch the figures in the displays. While this seems a relic of the age, as recently as the late 2010's, LEGO would do little events in various stores where kids would get a free small set that they could build right there. My boys got a handful of Rogue One LEGO Stormtroopers from one such event.
The other right of passage was the Christmas catalogs that showcased the full range of toys that were available that year. Growing up in an urban area, I had access to plenty of stores that were fully stocked. But, for many kids, these catalogs were their only avenue to see the full array of toys that were available. While my parents weren't catalog shoppers, many of my friends' were. I'd go to their houses and find Sears or Penney's catalogs that were full of cool toy photography. What was weird was that, by the time catalogs came out, I usually had most of the toys showcased in them. But, that didn't deter me. I'd stare at the Joe photos and conjure up adventures in my head...even when the actual toys were sitting just a few feet away from me. I'd also look at other toy lines and lament that some of the cool items from them weren't the same scale as Joe toys. I'd also see the various knock off lines with their cheap playsets and think how cool it would be to get a few of them. In that regard, the catalogs left me with memories of things I never, actually owned.
The Tripwire figure you see in the photos below is one I acquired back in the fall of 2000. I went nuts during the final quarter of that year. Aside from the ARAHC figures that were now shipping to retail, I also went on a mission to fill many holes in my collection. As Joes were still cheap, I was buying up lots of childhood collections. In addition, I made my first overseas purchases and imported my first batch of Funskool figures from a seller in Malaysia. It was rare, though, for me to buy a single figure. While shipping was only a buck or two, I just didn't like the inefficiency of buying a single figure. I made exceptions for rarities like the the Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander and the Dino Hunters Low Light or uncommon figures like Super Trooper. But, for some reason, I spent way too much money to buy a lone Tripwire figure. Something about him clicked with me for a brief moment and I had to have him. So, I bought one. And, he became one my earliest subjects for my digital camera when I photographed him on February 20th, 2001.
That interest, though, faded away. Tripwire went into a drawer and rarely came out. One time he did was in 2009. I took a bunch of figures out for some photos in my backyard. For some reason, the lighting was just perfect and I took some of my favorite photos of that era. Tripwire fell in the rocks, though, and got a slight scuff on his nose that you can see in the photos from today. After the 2009 session, I used him, occasionally. But, he was never a figure who grabbed my attention beyond his role of mine sweeper. I've found that you can take a specific kind of photo with Tripwire. And, those tend to come out really well. But, after you've done a couple of him clearing a path for other figures, the genre is played out and it's not something I tend to revisit.
Tripwire's gear is spectacular and also somewhat underwhelming. His packpack with three removable landmines is cool. It's big enough to have an impact on the figure's visual appearance while not being overwhelming. The landmines are the right size and, did they not fit into the backpack, would be much rarer than the actually are. His mine detector is also extremely well done. It has the right look for its purpose. And, if you really pay attention to it, it's one of the more intricately sculpted accessories with coiled wires running up the handle. Being a 1983 release, the attachment between pack and sweeper is a plastic wire that's built onto the end of the detector. This leads to bending, weakness and, often, outright breakage of the cord. In 1984, Hasbro went with softer plastic for accessories that connected to a backpack. And, in 1985, outright replaced the design with black, hollow hoses. This makes Tripwire somewhat dated into his release year. But, the accessory complement made sense for him. The lack of a firearm remains a lament, even 44 years later. But, that's easy enough to fix, today.
Tripwire had quite a few releases. His 1983 figure was released in various countries, but all made by Hasbro. The mold was repainted for release in the European Action Force line as Blades. In 1985, he was the lone Listen & Fun G.I. Joe figure that was released. The orange version is tough to find and expensive. He was then repainted for the Tiger Force subset in 1988. Tripwire then disappeared until 2001 when he was repainted for inclusion in the ARAHC line. As Hasbro was trying to get collectors to abandon the ARAH Joe format, Tripwire was among the recently used molds that was sent to India. He debuted there in 2003 in a purple and orange paint job. Funskool kept the mold and re-released Tripwire in their 2009-2010 lineup, too. The Funskool figure isn't rare. But, it's expensive. Three of the six Tripwire releases being expensive figures (Funskool, Blades and Listen & Fun) is kind of weird. He's not the type of character who we'd associate with having desirable releases. It's odd that he got so many repaints while other, more memorable characters got so few.
1983 Tripwires are cheap. With patience, you can get a high quality and complete version for about $10. Not many 1983 figures can be had for so little. Even if you want one right now, there's lots available in the $20 range. For a solid figure, it's a good price. Tripwire's one of those guys you want to have around as he has specific uses and can look really good in photos. He matches many of the early line vehicles and playsets: making him useful background fodder. For his price, there's no reason to not own one.
