1993 Muskrat

In thinking about this figure, I could not remember when, exactly, I found him at retail.  I do know that I bought him at the K-Mart in Bloomington, Indiana.  As I was there to visit a friend when I was on break, it had to be in late 1995 as the calendar was turning to 1996.  My friend from the area had told me there were some Joes at his local store.  So, when I went, I found this Muskrat and the 1993 Mace hanging among the misfit leftovers of dead toy lines that were stored on the back endcap of a aisle that was tucked into the furthest corner of the store.  Upon seeing the two figures, I bought them both.  I paid a whopping $3.44 for each figure.  I took them back to my friend's house, opened them up and found two really oddball figures that were more ridiculous than ingenious.

There's a lot going on with this figure.  Even if you forgive the orange, dark blue and olive/tan color combo, the mold is a weird design.  It almost looks as if Muskrat's chest was originally going to be a diver and he would have included a helmet that would have affixed nicely over the large shoulders and hoses.  Beyond that, though, I'm not really sure what Hasbro was going for in this figure's design.  He's certainly not the swamp fighter from 1988.  The blue and orange color scheme doesn't offer any clues.  So, the figure is really what you want to make of it.  There's enough orange figures in the line that he fits with many 1993 figures, most notably the Mega Marines.  So, there's use for him in that.

The most telling thing about this figure is that he has just one paint application.  His body is blue plastic with orange paint.  His arms feature only the orange color, too.  The figure's waist and lower legs are cast in the tan/olive plastic to break up the blue and orange.  But, they are plastic colors, not paint applications.  None of the details on Muskrat's chest are highlighted.  It's just a sea of orange against the dark blue.  Even in the cheapest days of the early 2000's, figures got two paint applications.  But, in 1993, there's several figures that were skimped on.  Look at the poor 1993 Eel in the photos below where there are zero paint applications on the body and just a red stripe on the figure's eyes on the head.  At least the figures who lost out are fewer in number than those who did get more attention in the paint mask department.  But, one of the reasons why this figure suffers is the lack of painted details.

So, let's talk about accessories.  For a 1993 figure, Muskrat includes a nice array of weapons.  His tree featured the Updraft pistol, the 1992 Shockwave rifle, a small knife and the 1990 Ambush rifle all cast in a nice dark blue color.  The color is probably better for Cobra.  But, they are dark enough to still be useful and they match the figure quite well.  There is the requisite missile launcher and two missiles.  And, to top it off, Muskrat includes a helmet.  The helmet is the same as Mace's, just in a different color.  The calling card of both these figures, though, is that the missile launcher fits onto the helmet and can be worn on the figure's head.  This both looks ridiculous and is also just, well, dumb.  But, in the realm of bad 1993 toy ideas, it's probably not in the top 10.  I'm not sure how the Joe design team came up with the idea of a head mounted missile launcher.  But, it exists on two figures.  We get a laugh out of it today.  And, the generic helmet meant for this purpose deprives the figure of another head covering that might have made Muskrat much more useful. 

Originally, Muskrat was going to be part of the DEF.  DEF was supposed to carry over to 1993.  However, Hasbro decided to cancel the DEF and simply include the figures meant for the subset as members of the standard Battle Corps line.  Muskrat was released in Australia on a DEF card.  And, DEF pre-production cards do exist for the US figure, too.  Many of those early pre-production cards also feature a much brighter green helmet for Muskrat.  It is more of a lime green than the subtle olive of the production figure.  As oddities, the alternate cards are interesting.  But, as the figure is the same, the only real plum is if you can find a bright green helmet.

The 1993 DEF newly sculpted figures ushered in the era of big shoulders and chests on Joe figures.  You'll notice Muskrat's arms are set lower on his chest.  This is a hallmark of the late run vintage Joe figures.  It's doesn't look better than the higher set.  So, there's no real need for it.  But, it's pronounced on figures like Muskrat and even the Headhunter Stormtrooper.  If we knew what Muskrat was wearing, the higher shoulders might make sense.  But, even then, it would be a stretch.  This updated construction can make it difficult to use pieces from earlier years with the later torsos.  And, it shows the Joe line's slow evolution that continued through 1994.  It's possible that by slowly adding bulk and size to the figures, it would have made kids more accepting on things like Replicators, Manimals and other cancelled 1995 designs that would have been bigger and bulkier.  But, the utter failure of Sgt. Savage shows that straying too far from the standard sizing was not a good strategy.

Muskrat's mold died with this release.  Despite the Headhunter Stormtrooper, Gristle, Mace, Bulletproof, Headhunter and Law all appearing in Brazil around 1995, Muskrat did not.  There was no telling where his mold ended up.  It's likely that Hasbro had it available.  But, really, there is no demand for a repaint of this figure.  And, the reality is that the bold color choices are the only thing saving this sculpt.  It would take a remarkable accessory complement to make this Muskrat usable.  So, collectors aren't really missing out on anything by not having another option for this mold available to them.  

Like the rest of the 1993 figures planned for the DEF series, Muskrat isn't as common as the more standard Battle Corps figures.  They were likely shipped together and didn't see the production run of the standard series release.  They are not, though, rare.  Lots of kids had them and the figures were easy to find until the last two or three years.  The figure got a bit pricey for a time in 2020 and 2021.  Now, though, he's dropping pretty fast.  You'll still see dealers get $20+ for a mint and complete figure.  But, he's about an $8 figure if you find one on the open market.  And, you can get carded figures for under $25.  So, that's worth the wait to get the figure for a fair price.  As an oddity, Muskrat is worth less than $10.  But, beyond that, this figure is tough to use and really only gets points for the powerful colors and oddball design.