1994 Stalker - Around the Web

I found this Stalker figure at retail back in the mid 1990's.  I was immediately taken with the design.  It was true to the Stalker character and included a ton of excellent accessories that were new to me at the time.  Since then, the figure has retained its importance to me.  It's one of the best Stalkers and is a great update to a character who debuted in 1982.  He remains my go to version of Stalker and sees tons of use in various photos.  Here's the best of the figure from around the web.

Stalker Profile - 2000

Stalker Profile - 2013

Stalker on Flickr

Stalker Pre Production at YoJoe.com

Stalker by Slipstream80

Stalker at 3DJoes.com

Stalker by Slipstream80

1983 Ace - Around The Web

I first got Ace for my 10th birthday.  He immediately became a favorite...to the point I lost his helmet twice in the first week I owned him since I took him everywhere.  Both times, I found the helmet and Ace continued to be a key part of my youth.  Eventually, Ace morphed from a pilot into a deep sea diver.  But, time took its toll and Ace faded away: replaced by better pilot figures.  There's a decent amount of content on Ace out there.  So, here's what I found around the web.

1983 Ace Profile

Ace at Toys From the Past

Ace by Flint

Ace at Joe A Day

Ace at 3DJoes.com

Ace By The Michael Mercy

Ace Pre Production at YoJoe.com

2017 Tiger Force Starduster - Factory Custom

Starduster is one of those odd figures who should not work.  But, he does.  When you sum his distinctive appearance with his rarity, though, you get one of the most expensive figures in the entire vintage line.  Had he been released in 1992, no one would care about the figure.  But, the early release year and classic construction combine to make a figure that collectors enjoy.  The character did not appear again until 2007 when he was included in a convention set.  For those who like the character and the figure's design, there was little to track down beyond hard to find and expensive variants that are, basically, the same figure.  In 2017, though, collectors were offered some new Starduster factory custom figures.  Among the rainbow of flavors of Starduster was a Tiger Force version.

This figure has a lot going on.  The black shirt is a great juxtaposition against the yellow pants.  Yes, yellow pants.  But, you don't really notice them because of the black stripes and detailed holster on the figure's legs.  The silver grenade and insignia pin give him some additional color.  The brown bandoleer and gloves, though, are a nice leathery color and provide the final color swash to the figure.  The figure works well with classic Tiger Force figures.  But, it can also be used by itself.  The black torso isn't something you saw often in the vintage Joe line and it works on this figure as it does in most of its appearances.

Starduster includes not just the jetpack, grenade launcher, helmet and visor based on the originals, but also a recolored JUMP gun and cord that connects it to the launcher.  There are some notes on the figure's gear.  First, the jetpack and gun are a deep blue color.  They aren't quite Cobra blue, though.  But, they work with the figure's colors.  The helmet is yellow with the star.  It looks great on the General figure from Red Laser's Army.  The visor is black like the original figure, but is of different plastic and easy to differentiate from an original.  The grenade launcher is somewhat controversial.  It, though, is a much shinier silver than a vintage Starduster launcher.  But, if that isn't obvious enough, the gun has a different handle from the original mold.  There really isn't any way to confuse a vintage Starduster gun from the Black Major versions and the fear around these weapons is massively overblown.

The figure is also available with both Starduster torsos.  You can get both the Duke chest and the earlier Recondo variant chest.  What's odd to me is that I find different colors of the figure to work better with different chest pieces.  For the Tiger Force variant, I prefer the Duke chest.  Things like this are completely subjective.  But, it's nice to have options for the figure construction as it gives you slightly different looks for various occasions.  The figure also has brown hair instead of the black hair from the vintage figure.  Since Starduster wears a helmet, this doesn't bother me all that much.  But, it allows you to use the figure as a different character should you so choose.

The key to this figure is that you get a way to use Starduster in different settings.  I find the earliest Joes to remain among my favorites since they formed a large part of my childhood memories.  Having a chance to add some additional characters and paint jobs in this construction style is great.  I like that so many new figures in the classic swivel head design have come out in recent years.  They allow for far more diverse set ups and have brought some remarkable new color schemes to what is actually a relatively small subset of Joe figures.  While I have found that too many repaints can make a mold stale, there are usually two or three color variants that hold my attention.  For Cobra Troopers, it is the Soldado.  For Cobra Mortal, it is the blue version.  And, for Starduster, it's this Tiger Force version.  For others, that's likely to vary.  But, for some reason, the notion of a Tiger Force Starduster resonated with me.

These Tiger Force Starduster variants remain available for original price.  You can get them between $10 and $15 depending upon how many different figures you order, how much you pay for shipping and if you take advantage of various sales and promotions.  Your mileage from this figure may vary based on the price you pay.  For me, getting a Starduster in a slightly different configuration is a fun way to add him to more photos and scenarios.  Pricing on vintage Stardusters is getting to the point where I don't want to take my original figure out for photos for fear of damage.  These factory customs help solve that dilemma and allow me to use the character in more diverse arrangements.  I can't ask for much more from a custom figure in this day and age.

1988 Nullifier - Around the Web

The Nullifier was originally intended as a Cobra-La character.  He retains some of the horror of that faction.  But, the figure is heavily armored and works in various capacities.  My younger brother had him and he and his AGP were around for a while.  In fact, my Hit and Run got lost in the ivy of my grandparents' back yard when I had him evading the AGP.  There's some nice content on the Nullifier out there.  Here's the best of the Nullifier from around the web.

Nullifier Profile

Nullifier by Color-Viper05

Nulllifier at Joe A Day

Nullifier by Golden Cobra 79

Nullifier at 3DJoes.com

Nullifier Pre Production at YoJoe.com

Nullifier by toysandtomfoolery

2005 Iron Anvil - Convention Exclusive

I first looked at this figure 5 years ago.  But, I didn't feel that profile really did this figure justice.  The 1994 Viper mold is a design gem that was obscure behind poor color choices in it's only release year.  Seeing the sculpt in fully paint glory showcases how amazing the final years of the Joe line could have been.  And, it also shows how spectacular the 2000's era repaint line could have been were these molds better utilized.  In short, you see a lot of missed potential in those statements.  But, the Iron Anvil figure from 2005 is one of those items that we should celebrate since it exists, is relatively common and remains one of the cheaper convention army builders out there today.

You can not discuss the 2005 convention set without touching upon the controversy that surrounded it.  Many months before the convention, a list started to circulate around collecting circles.  It quickly became the worst guarded secret in all of fandom.  But, it was the list of 2005 convention exclusive figures that were planned.  At the time, Master Collector was weirdly secretive and were quick to discredit the list when it appeared publicly.  But, the final set ended up being pretty much what the list showed.  The Iron Grenadiers had to get a new head that fit onto a Night Viper body.  And, the redone Condor never saw the light of day.  What was odd, though, was that the advance knowledge of the convention theme and possible items actually made the set more desirable and many collectors were given incentive to save up for the set since they had ample notice of the theme.  Despite that glorious bit of marketing intelligence, the leaks were plugged and the convention sets remained under wraps after that...heavily diminishing much collector interest.

The Iron Grenadier set, though, remains many collectors' favorite set of the convention era.  It had a solid theme, was in line with the vintage figures and included figures that were different from the originals, but also were well done.  In many ways, it was a set done right.  And, the Iron Anvils are my personal set highlight.  I've been a fan of the 1994 Viper since I found my first one at retail in 1995.  I found another near the end of the summer and began army building them before I knew what army building really was.  I found the design in the comics and always wanted a repaint of the mold with the green body and golden helmet.  As the mold was new for 1994, it's very possible it would have been repainted in 1995.  But, that didn't happen.  And, as Hasbro was releasing Viper repaint after Viper repaint, it never occurred to them to bring back the 1994 mold to offer collectors something different.  So, the mold's appearance in the Iron Grenadier set felt like someone had finally realized the mold's potential.

Starting with the base black color, the Iron Anvil is designed to work with classic 1988 Iron Grenadiers and the 1988 Destro figure.  He even matches the Iron Grenadier vehicles.  The gold and red highlights would be overwhelming.  But, they are toned down by the grey boots and gloves the figure is wearing on his extremities.  The gold and red, though, both feel somewhat fragile to me.  And, I've never been too keen on using these figures in similar ways that vintage figures are exploited.  I'm not sure if that's just fear or genuine experience from dealing with decades of figures with fragile gold paint.  Overall, though, the figure is just four colors: which is somewhat light for a convention release.  But, showing off the color, zipper and goggles makes the colors seem more complex than they are.  You get to see the details of the figure's sculpt without it being too busy.

The Iron Anvil's accessories are well done.  He includes a grey version of the wicked lightning knife that debuted with the 1988 Hydro Viper but was also released in red with the 1994 Viper.  It's a cool looking weapon and makes the figure a bit more dangerous.  The Iron Anvil's weapon of choice is the sub machine gun that originated with the 1989 Annihilator figure.  Again, it is an under-utilized weapon that is well sculpted and really deserved more releases.  It's also a perfect fit for the figure's specialty of para-trooper.  The final bit of gear is the convention issue backpack and parachute.  This combo of metallic vinyl parachute and recolored Jinx backpack originated in 2002 with the Paratrooper Dusty and remained a convention staple after that.  It's not spectacular.  But, it's not bad, either.  Working parachutes are always fun and this chute's colors match the figure. 

I think my opinion of this figure is over-inflated.  I love the 1994 Viper.  I wanted to see repainted 1994 Vipers.  And, the Iron Grenadier set was pretty nice.  So, I have a soft spot for this figure where others may not.  Collectors of the 2000's punished Hasbro for releasing any mold made after 1990.  The club fared a little better.  But, they received a lot of criticism for their use of later molds, too.  Everyone would have loved to have seen the Annihilator get released as the Iron Anvil.  (By the way, the Iron Anvil name is stolen from the obscure Iron Panther driver from the ill-fated Sgt. Savage line of toys.)  But, this Viper repaint is a suitable replacement.  Seeing an under-utilized mold was greatly appreciated by me, even if not every collector felt the same. 

Despite this, I don't have too many of these figures in my collection.  While they are great figures and not overly expensive, I'm not a huge Iron Grenadier fan.  And, I usually don't go overboard buying up specialty army builders, especially if they fall outside of my core Cobra vision.  Though, it's not from lack of trying.  Through the years, I've sought to pick up small lots of these guys.  But, I never get around to it.  They were cheap and common and that drove me seek out other opportunities that I feared would not present themselves again.  Even with a sparse few samples in my collection, I don't go out of my way to use the figure.  While I like the 1988 Destro, I see the character primarily as a member of Cobra.  So, him having his own forces didn't make much sense to me.  It doesn't diminish the quality of this figure.  But, it does reduce my desire to own him in bulk.

Like pretty much all the once common convention figures, Iron Anvils have gotten harder to find.  You used to see tons of lots of 3 to 6 of them that would sell for around $10 per figure.  While those days are gone, the figures are still among the cheaper army builders of those early convention sets.  The Iron Grenadier set was well received.  But, many collectors liquidated surplus army builders as a way to recoup costs.  These days, dealers sell the figures in the $30-$45 range.  Few sell at that price.  But, the more limited supply leads to some desperation purchases.  At open pricing, these are $15 figures: which is a very solid price for a figure of this quality.  But, the Cobra transitioning to an Iron Grenadier and the late year mold are mitigating factors in the figure's popularity.  I find they are worth their price, even if it takes a while to get an army.  With convention army builders, you never know what the future holds.  But, this figure hasn't taken off in almost 15 years.  So, I'm not sure why he would now.

1997 Stalker - Around the Web

The 1997 Stalker is one of my favorite repaints.  It used a classic mold that was done right the first time, but did enough different with it that you have an updated take on a classic character.  This version is the perfect combo of good enough to replace a 1983 Stalker if you're missing him while also being a nice complement to the original.  Sadly, Stalker was about the only figure in the 8 figure Star & Stripes set who was created this way.  But, this leaves collectors a great piece to add to their collection today.  There's criminally little content on this figure out there.  But, here's the best I can find of him from around the web.

1997 Stalker Profile - 2012

1997 Stalker Profile - 2000

1997 Stalker by Scarrviper

1997 Stalker at Joe A Day.com

1997 Pre Production at YoJoe.com

Stalker by Slipstream80

X-Ray Eye - Power Commandos

There are many G.I. Joe knock offs out there.  Most were cheap items designed to simply be a military themed alternative for budget minded gift givers.  Some, though, are spectacular in the lengths they went to mimic Hasbro's successful, flagship brand.  The Power Commandos by the Lucky Bell company are one such knock off line.  They not only stole ideas like filecards, package design and characterization, but they also deliberately sculpted their figures directly after existing Joes and even copied Joe accessories and mashed them together to form new weapons that are instantly recognizable to Joe fans.  The effort to do this was commendable and the power commandos remain one of the more ambitious Joe knock off brands.  The first series of figures were packed in 2-packs of one good guy and one bad guy from the "Terror" faction.  Today, we look at the menacingly named X-Ray Eye.

As a kid, I didn't like knock offs.  To me, they didn't work with Joes and looked far too different.  On the cheap knock off figures, the entire ensemble was a poor rip off of Hasbro sculpting.  But, on the better knock offs, it was usually the head and gear that were dead giveaways.  Usually, the heads are not properly sized or lack the details of a Joe head.  The gear may be intricate, but it lacked Hasbro quality.  So, I had very few of these items in my childhood toy room and those that were received as gifts usually ended up lost or destroyed rather quickly.  As a collector, though, I've grown to appreciate what many of these knock off lines attempted to do.  Most made at least a token effort to offer something different from the Joe line.  And, while much of the figure construction still leaves these items absent from my collection, there are exceptions where the figures most closely mimic G.I. Joes.

The quality of the X-Ray Eye figure itself is fairly high.  The paint masks are very crisp.  And, you have green, silver, flesh, black, gold, blue and red for a total of 7 colors on the figure.  Very few vintage Joes ever featured that many.  I suspect that the gold paint on the figure's hands is every bit as brittle as gold paint used in the vintage Joe line.  The sculpting is also very precise.  Usually, you'd find soft details on other knock offs.  But, the Power Commandos are so closely modeled after Joe parts that they retain the hallmark Hasbro quality.  It's likely that these molds were either based on or created from actual Joe molds.  You can see the Tele Viper's chest bright as day on X-Ray Eye.

I find the heads to be of two camps.  The covered head, like X-Ray Eye, aren't too bad.  While they are bigger than vintage Joe heads and still look a bit out of place with vintage Joes, you can forgive the flaws since the countenances are covered and the head coverings could hide any number of things.  The human heads, though, are less well done.  X-Ray Eye's packmate, Submarine, has a pretty terrible head sculpt that looks like the knock off he is.  It ruins a figure that is a close proximate for the 1986 Cobra Viper.  X-Ray Eye's head, works, though.  The single eye covering is no more bizarre than any number of Cobras.  And, his colors work in combo to make for a decent looking bad guy.  (Terror characters are supposed to be from outer space.  But, X-Ray Eye has a distinctly human fleshtone which helps ground the character in a more traditional Joe role.)

It is in this capacity that I find value in X-Ray Eye.  Getting a new, named Cobra is now impossible.  Even the foreign releases have been barren for over 15 years, now.  So, figures like X-Ray Eye work as new bad guys who can keep Cobra fresh.  I see his axe as the figure's defining feature.  X-Ray Eye is more or a cross between a Halloween movie villain and a Cobra baddie.  I've gone down the failed executioner road.  But, that limits the character quite a bit.  So, I'm focusing on the axe as an ornamental weapon that only appears in close quarters combat.  Though, I'm sure I'll one day have a photo of X-Ray Eye chopping off the head of some poor Steel Brigade figure.

The Power Commando accessories are extremely odd.  In the CORPS! line, we saw some exact matches for Joe accessories appear: only with subtle differences.  (Flint's pack was missing a grenade.  Blowtorch's pack had a slightly different pattern on the tubes, etc.)  The Power Commandos took that a step further.  Their weapons are almost exact copies of 1/2 of two different Joe accessories.  These two pieces are put together into something new.  Any Joe fan will instantly recognize the weapons as Joe related.  But, will also see how the designers made them different enough to avoid any legal issues.  X-Ray Eye's primary rifle is a combination of the 1984 Baroness' rifle butt combined with the classic 1984 Firefly rifle barrel.  The claw attachment is the BAT claw with a stick added as a wrist attachment.  And, the big axe features BBQ's blade stuck onto Alpine's pickaxe handle.  There are tons more strange hybrids in the line that make the gear worthwhile as an addition to any collection, even if the figure's aren't your cup of tea.

To make collecting Power Commandos more fun, there are some figure variants.  The first wave of figures are common.  But, there were later waves that featured re-releases of the Wave 1 figures.  But, most of the 6 figures featured some type of variant.  For X-Ray Eye, the differences are subtle.  The variant figure features orange boots and a slightly darker red torso.  It's not much of a variant.  But, it exists, nonetheless.  And, if you don't have anything to do, it gives you an unsatisfying variation that will consume way too much of your time trying to find.

I'm not sure of the origins of the Power Commandos.  The figures were manufactured in China by a company named Lucky Bell.  They feature a 1992 copyright date and it seems perfectly logical that they fit into this timeframe.  The cards are all in English.  (Though, the Mexican overstock features Spanish language stickers.)  I am not certain as to where all the figures were released.  Many origins can be traced to South America.  But, this seems to be more a case of a product being dumped into any market that would take it.  The all English packaging lends credence to them being designed for the American market.  But, their similarity to G.I. Joe may have caused them grief at customs when the not coincidental designs were seen and reported to Hasbro.  It's another of those stories that we'll likely never know.

In my early collecting years, all Power Commandos were hard to find and somewhat pricey for what they were.  In the 2010's, though, large amounts of overstock Power Commandos began to appear: mostly in Mexico.  This lead to both greater availability and softer pricing for the first 6 figures.  The series two figures remain both rare and pricey, especially since a couple of them are dead ringers for 1986 Cobra army builders.  You can get a carded X-Ray Eye/Submarine pack for around $20 with a little looking.  You might even be able to find a loose, mint and complete figure for 1/2 that amount.  But, you can also still get a complete set of 6 carded figures for far less.  It's likely those will disappear soon as they aren't as prevalent as they were a couple of years ago.  So, now is the time to acquire these guys as we've seen recent examples of Joe adjacent items rapidly climbing in price as soon as some found stock is absorbed.