1988 Charbroil

I was done collecting Joe in 1988.  I bought a Hardball, Tiger Force Roadblock and Hit and Run.  But, that was it.  My younger brothers, though, managed to still acquire most of the 1988 retail figure run.  There were a couple of figures they didn't own.  Along with figures like Budo, the Hydro Viper and Spearhead, the 1988 Charbroil was also absent.  It's doubtful this was an intentional choice and was just how the cards fell.  While I missed a figure like Muskrat that was not in our collection, though, Charbroil never entered my consciousness.  

I'd sneak my brothers' figures from time to time.  And, guys like Repeater would become, basically, mine after my siblings lost or broke the original gear.  While I desperately wanted them to get a Muskrat, though, I never had any pinings for Charbroil.  In my younger days, I had used Blowtorch.  My best memory was playing with him in the lava rock pumice stone that decorated the ground under the white rose trellis that covered the limestone steps between the first and second terrace in my grandparent's backyard.  Here, Blowtorch melted the rocks onto the Cobra army and the Joes won the day.  But, after that, I found that putting out fires were more interesting play scenarios than starting them.  So, I never had much interest in Charbroil since flamethrowers weren't a big part of my Joe army.  

And, with that, Charbroil was a very late entry to my collection as an adult, too.  I just didn't have any interest in him.  It wasn't until I stumbled upon a nicely priced one at a store in Greenville, South Carolina that I finally pulled the trigger.  And, even after owning him for a year, I barely have any pictures of him and this profile waited more than a year to appear.  None of this points to Charbroil ever being much more than a checkmark on a list that closes out the figures I'm missing from 1988.  Others may disagree, though.  Charbroil does mesh well with other 1988 figures.  And, he's a nice match for 1988 vehicles, too.  So, he definitely wasn't an afterthought to Hasbro.  He's just one of those figures who simply doesn't interest me.  And, that's OK.  

Charbroil is an interesting sculpt just because his head may or may not be the same as the 1987 Knockdown figure.  The head is modified.  But, it's unclear if this was an all new head or if the Knockdown head was modified.  (I suspect it's all new since the Knockdown head later appeared in Brazil.)  Charbroil also has a variant.  He can have either black eyes or red eyes that match his hair.  They appear with similar frequency and one is not desirable over the other.  The biggest issue is that Charbroil's elbows crack.  It's becoming nearly impossible to find one that isn't damaged in this way.  And, if you have one that's still intact, it's pretty much guaranteed that they will crack should you only move the arms a slight bit.

The 1988 series of figures is notorious for being light on the paint applications.  Charbroil, though, both is and is not an example of this.  At its core, the figure features a relatively rare brown base color.  He also features yellow, silver and red accentuating colors.  It is the silver torso, though, where the lack of paints apps are noticeable.  The chest plate is well detailed.  So, having just a couple of painted details would have made Charbroil just about perfect.  Instead, though, the details are lost in the sea of uninterrupted silver.  Charbroil's color scheme isn't often seen on Joes, though.  So, that gives him some sense of individuality.  But, that's about the only characterization that Charbroil actually has.

Charbroil's gear is...weird.  His helmet has bug eyes.  And, it doesn't quite cover his face.  This would be troublesome.  The flamethrower itself is fairly well done.  I don't like it as much as I do the weapon included with the 1984 Blowtorch.  But, the weapon works as intended.  My introduction with it was actually with Ice Cream Soldier in 1995 or so.  So, I actually consider it to be Ice Cream Soldier's weapon instead of Charbroil's.  Charbroil includes a large, silver backpack.  One of the oddities of 1988 was that Hasbro included some holograms on various accessories.  Charbroil's pack was one of them.  While this hologram can be missing, it's far more common to find it still on the back than it to find a similar item attached to loose 1991 BATS.  The final piece of gear is a thick, black hose.  While the idea of a bulky hose is nice: the practicality of it is lost.  The hose is too rigid.  And, it doesn't really fit onto the gun and pack without it being somewhat awkward.  (It should be noted the 2004 is even worse and can't be confused for a vintage hose for this reason.)  So, the whole package is just odd.  Individually, the pieces are nice.  But, when added to the figure, the accessories are tough for Charbroil to use and the figure suffers for it.

Charbroil didn't get a ton of use.  He was first repainted in the Night Force series in 1989.  For a time, Charbroil was the most expensive of that set.  Now, he's even more stupidly expensive.  But, he has been eclipsed by other characters as the most expensive of the Night Force subset.  The figure disappeared after that.  Most of the 1988 figures saw release in both Brazil and India.  But, Charbroil was not among them.  He didn't return until a surprise appearance in the 2004 Anti-Venom set.  This is a solid figure.  But, the replacement helmet takes away from the Charbroil character.  There are two unproduced 2004 Charbroils: a more common light blue figure and a harder to find dark blue figure.  Since he got his gear in 2004, there's really not much more Hasbro could do with the mold.  We've got three solid versions of the character.  That's more than many other, better figures.

Dealers will ask $25 to $30 for a mint and complete with filecard version of the 1988 Charbroil.  These prices are dumb.  Charbroil isn't a popular character.  And, none of his gear is all that tough to find.  So, the only premium to pay for the figure is if he has uncracked elbows.  But, few do.  And, most of the dealers sales feature this affliction but not a commensurate discount.  Left to his own devices, Charbroil is, maybe a $15 figure.  You could piece a nice one together for about 1/2 that if you want to spend some time on it.  And, considering the expense of a 1989 Night Force figure, it's well worth it to just get the original.  But, as a specialty and a character, both Blowtorch and Ice Cream Soldier are better.