1985 Battle Gear #3

In very early 1983, I found the first G.I. Joe Battle Gear on a peg at a toy store in Buffalo, New York.  The weapons were similarly colored to the guns included with the carded figures.  But, the helmets and backpacks were drastically different.  In 1984, a new set was released.  This filled in the gaps from the prior year with the inclusion of Zap's bazooka and Short Fuse's mortar.  As 1985 dawned, I was excited for the Battle Gear pack that would surely be released.  The 1984 series of figures were amazing.  And, through heavy play, I had lost gear to Mutt, Firefly, Scrap Iron and Blowtorch, broken gear for Roadblock and simply wanted more Ripcord parachute packs and masks.  The Battle Gear would solve many of my desires for a reasonable price.  Then, though, I found the actual pack that was released.  Looking at the list of figures above, you can imagine my disappointment.  None of the gear I actually needed or wanted was included.  Despite this, we had at least three of the sets in my childhood collection.  And, when reviewed outside the context of my childhood disappointment, this set has some redeeming factors.

The 1985 Battle Gear includes a lot of 1984 gear.  It is also missing quite a bit.  The first Battle Gear pack did not include three pieces: Zap's bazooka and Short Fuse's mortar and stand.  The 1984 release was missing Tripwire's mine detector and all of Torpedo's gear.  1985, though, omitted quite a few pieces of gear.  Included in the set was red versions of: Baroness' rifle, Firefly's rifle and walkie talkie and Scrap Iron's pistol.  There were tan versions of Recondo's backpack and rifle, Spirit's rifle and pack, Roadblock's pack and ammo box as well as Blowtorch's backpack.  There were 4 grey helmets: Mutt's, Blowtorch's, Ripcord's and a standard 1982 style helmet for use with Duke or Roadblock.  There were 2 green battle stands.  And, finally, a deep, rich green array of weapons and gear that include Mutt's pistol, Torpedo's spear gun, Blowtorch's flamethrower, Ripcord's rifle, Zartan's pistol, Duke's binoculars, Thunder's monocular and two new visors.  The visors were not opaque versions of the classic 1982 release.  They featured a nose notch like the goggles included with Thunder.  But, Thunder's piece required his earmuffs and their elongated pegs to affix the visor to the helmet.  These visors were stand alone.  The black version of them is similar to the one included with Starduster.  But, the design debuted in this 1985 Battle Gear set and never appeared again.

What's missing from the set, though, is more notable.  Thunder's earmuff's and visor are absent.  There are no Cobra backpacks at all.  So, Baroness, Firefly, Scrap Iron and Zartan are left unaccessorized.  No animals were included: nixing Freedom and Junkyard.  None of Duke's gear aside from the binoculars (and helmet) is included.  None of the masks included with Mutt, Ripcord or Blowtorch are present.  Roadblock's machine and tri-pod are absent: despite the inclusion of his backpack.  Ripcord's parachute pack is a no-show, as is Mutt's nightstick.  But, the most glaring omission is that there is no repainted Stormshadow gear in the entire set.  In 1985, edged weapons for Joes were nearly impossible to track down.  Getting a repainted Stormshadow sword or two would have been great.  Everyone lost or broke Stormshadow's bow.  But, it's not here.  (It's my guess that Stormshadow was popular enough that kids would get parents to replace that figure entirely so his accessories weren't wanted in Battle Gear that might blow another figure sale.)  It's an appalling amount of missing gear for a set and it started a trend that would continue through the rest of the Battle Gear's retail life.  This was a likely function of the fact that 1984 figures started including more gear and many pieces that were far more intricate than anything that had come before.  But, it was an unfortunate shift for kids of the time.

As 1985 began, I had lost my Zartan's pistol.  Firefly's walkie talkie and backpack cover were long gone.  Mutt's mask and night stick were distant memories.  Roadblock's pack peg was broken, a stand was broken away from his tri-pod and his machine gun had been snapped in two.  A friend I was outgrowing had stolen my Scrap Iron's missile table.  And, Blowtorch's air mask had ripped and was no longer usable.  Of the 10 items I needed to rehabilitate my 1984 Joes, this Battle Gear pack included just 3.

What was great, though, was that the set did include some pieces that were useful.  I loved Recondo's backpack.  I wanted more of my figures to wear packs that carried more supplies.  The neutral color of the pack make it more useful for many other figures.  (It's also still commonly mistaken for Recondo's real gear by dealers who aren't Joe specific since the colors of the pack and the Recondo figure match up.)  Having a few additional walkie talkies was fun since it gave all my figures ways to communicate.  The long range sight devices were another useful inclusion since advance teams always needed them.  (The binoculars also became standard issue in the cockpit of the Whale for Cutter to use at any time.)  Additional Mutt and Zartan pistols were also nice since the color wasn't terrible and small pistols were always getting lost.

The biggest value of this set, though, was realized when I started to take apart my old, broken Joes and frankenstein together some new figures.  At first, Battle Gear helped to simply flesh out figures who had no other gear.  But, as 1985 moved into the summer, I began to paint many of my creations into new designs.  Along with this, I painted accessories.  I didn't want to waste "real" gear on this endeavor.  So, Battle Gear was the logical choice.  My favorite was a Ripcord helmet painted blue with white "fur" lining the edges.  As I used cheap paint, the helmet quickly chipped.  But, this became part of the character of the commander who wore it.  Slowly, that character turned into the leader of the Joes and became the character that is represented by the General Flagg figure today.  I actually still have 2 pieces that I painted as a kid, including that Ripcord helmet that you can see below.

In the days when slightly off condition Joe figures were cheap and plentiful, Battle Gear weapons were far more useful.  Customizers abounded and they were always in search of cheap gear they could paint, cut apart or combine into new pieces.  Battle Gear was a cheap and easy way for the customizers of the early 2000's to build out and re-accessorize their creations.  Now, they are weird colored items that take up space and cross an item off a list.  In this era of factory custom figures, though, things like the helmets, visors and even weapons will match up with some of the figures we've seen.  That has given these sets a new niche in which they have value.  But, there's still so many of them that even new uses does little to move the large surplus of these items that are still out there.

While some individual items from this Battle Gear pack are more desirable than others, the truth is that the entire set is not overly expensive.  You can still get complete sets for around $10.  Duke's binoculars, Zartan's pistol and the green visors are, far and away, the most expensive and desirable items.  And, they are often the pieces most often missing from sets.  But, the non-standard colors and general ubiquity of the gear has left it an undesired piece of Joe collecting.  If you bought collections of figures at any time in the past twenty years, you have plenty of Battle Gear weapons lying around.  I still find the deep green a fun visual treat.  But, they don't really work with any figures.  The childhood disappointment still clouds my vision of this set: 35 years later.  But, you have to give Hasbro credit for understanding that kids lost gear and trying to give them a way to fix that.