I've always felt that most of the vintage Night Force were not improvements over their original figures. They were different. But, not, necessarily, better. There are exceptions, though. And, Sneak Peek is one. The Night Force version is an upgrade over his original figure. And, I like his original figure quite a bit.
My youngest brother had this Sneak Peek after I had aged out of Joe. But, I was familiar with the figure. And, it was still around when I dug all our old toys of the attic in the 1990's. (The Falcon's parts are still in my custom parts bin. But, they're not all there to remake the figure.) There's a nice amount of content on this figure out there.
1988 Night Force Sneak Peek Profile
Night Force Sneak Peek by Slipstream80
Night Force Sneak Peek by Cyko_9
Night Force Sneak Peek at JoeADay.com
Night Force Sneak Peek by Hit and Run
Night Force Sneak Peek by Relinquished1979
Night Force Sneak Peek by Cyko_9
Night Force Sneak Peek by gen_liederkranz
Night Force Sneak Peek by purple_cobra75
Night Force Sneak Peek by cobra_the_enemy
I imagine the meeting about an exclusive offshoot of GI Joe at its peak for TRU went something like this: "Can you do it?" "Sure, we'll color them gray and black and call them Night Force." "Okay cool, sounds good. Send them over."
ReplyDeleteI'm of the age where OG Sneaky was among the first GI Joes I ever got back in '87 (as a seven year old). A year later, my younger brother got NF Sneaky for his birthday (along with NF Falcon as part of the two-pack). I preferred the NF version immediately, and played with him more than I played with OG Sneaky. The OG colors are a massive improvement over the NF colors. Still, that bright green is a bit funky.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that NF Psyche Outs were easier to find and cheaper, for a while. So, back in the early 2000s, I picked up a couple -- one to keep and one to use as fodder. Personally, I find that kit-bashing the NF Sneaky's top half with NF Psychey's bottom half makes for a very nice looking figure.