1987 Raptor

The 1987 Cobras were terrible.  The Joe design team took a bizarre turn that year.  And, even the figures who turned out to be good were still pretty much oddballs.  While collectors still consider 1987 one of the core years of the line, the reality is that it's one of the weakest lineups of villains in the entire line's history.  Sure, Cobra Commander and the Techno Viper are decent.  But, they lack the panache of the marquee Cobras in a release year.  The triumvirate of Big Boa, Crystal Ball and Raptor is an embarrassing set of headliners for retail's premier action figure line of the '80's.  Today, I'll look at the second worst figure of 1987 and one of the all time turkeys in the entire line: Raptor.

Larry Hama was forced to include the oddball 1987 characters in the comics.  But, with Raptor, he made the most of it.  While Larry didn't hide his contempt for the character, he actually made him useful.  And, if you look at the cover of G.I. Joe #58, Raptor looks cool.  Sure, Hama didn't blink when he had the chance to bury Raptor alive inside the sunken freighter.  And, no one lamented Raptor's terrible demise.  For a shining moment, though, Raptor had a glimmer of potential.  And, from that comic appearance, I had a brief few days where I thought that it might be fun to actually acquire a Raptor figure.  After seeing him on the shelf, though, I shuffled him off to my younger brother while I bought a good figure.

1987 was the pinnacle of my childhood Joe world.  As such, I made sure to find a use for every figure that was released that year: regardless of how bad the figure was.  And, Raptor had stupid uses.  First, I'd make his wings be bulletproof.  He'd wrap them around himself and be invulnerable.  But, he also couldn't move.  So, he was just an immobile cocoon on the ground.   Sometimes, he'd lie there, absorbing bullets and then, as the Joe reloaded, hop up and move a few feet closer before the Joe could start shooting again.  I don't really remember the purpose of this ability beyond giving Cobra another vector of attack on a Joe base and, maybe, letting a Joe kill a big time Cobra every now and then.

Once that got boring, Raptor joined the throng of broken and unloved figures who became nameless terrorists, activists, anarchists and general rabble who would antagonize both the Joes and Cobra.  They'd pop out of the A-Team van: armed with small weapons.  (I called them BRAP weapons after the sound effects from the comic.)  They'd kill some civilians or some nameless army builders and then, themselves, get wasted by the better armed Joes and Cobras.  It was a fun way to let both main factions get easy wins.  And, was also a way for me to show my contempt for bad toys that ended up in my collection.  

The Raptor figure is just...bad.  While Crystal Ball features some really intricate detail work on the mold, Raptor lacks those subtle details that suggest at valid attempt at something cool.  The feather texture on his shoulders and arms doesn't really come across.  And, were it not for the falcon cowl, you'd miss the fact that this guy is supposed to be bird themed.  It is that cowl, though, that is the main cause of derision.  It just doesn't work.  It's way too big.  Part of this is because Raptor's head, in general, is very large.  He features the super large and detailed face that ruined several figures in 1986 and 1987.  Sticking the falcon head above him only makes this defect more pronounced.  Had they tried to make the falcon face cover Raptors (even if the mask was not removable) it would have likely worked better.  Raptor's comic appearance had the falcon head covering be more snug to Raptor's head and the look was far more convincing.  I can't really even give style points for Hasbro trying something different with Raptor because there was just no way the design was ever going to look good.

Raptor's gear sucks.  He includes a falcon with the easily breakable bird feet.  The bird feet didn't work on any of Hasbro's attempts.  And, even the softer plastic tried on Voltar's vulture in 1988 failed to produce a toy that could withstand normal play.  Raptor is then left with only a backpack/wing suit combination.  I'm not sure what the idea is.  The upside is that the fabric is very sturdy.  So, you can use it as a flying suit or just an ornamental addition to Raptor's garb.  But, it doesn't' work in either capacity.  The printed feather pattern wasn't bad for 1987.  It still, though, doesn't convey the effect of Raptor being covered in bird feathers all that well.  The design, using the standard backpack and having the fabric extend to the figure's arms, was interesting.  But, Hasbro never returned to it.  So, even they seemed to understand that the figure was a failure.  With no weapon, Raptor is even more limited.  And, as a kid, that alone was enough to sink him to the bottom of the toy box.

Raptor was used just twice.  After his release from Hasbro, his mold was sent to Brazil.  There, Estrela released a Raptor that is very similar to the Hasbro release.  There are subtle color differences, but that's about it.  Neither Raptor nor his parts were ever used again.  While you can't really say that the mold lent itself to repaints, the reality is that it worked in brown.  Though, I can say that I'd have probably loved a parrot themed repaint in really bright colors.  But, as Raptor is a weak figure and a weaker character, it's probably for the best that he was used just the two times.

I do not understand the 1987 Cobras.  While Cobra had taken a more sci-fi bend in 1986, the 1987 figures were not a logical extension of that shift.  Some of the specialties in 1987 made sense.  But, the figures simply didn't match up.  There were too many animal sidekicks and it seemed that the design team might have been simply burning failed concepts from earlier years.  1987 featured more retail figures that prior years.  So, they team may have not had the time to refine that year's releases.  And, that may the driving force behind the odd inconsistency that we see in the entire 1987 lineup.  But, three of the worst figures in the history of the line debuted in a year that is still considered "core" by most collectors.  That shouldn't be the case.  And, had Big Boa, Crystal Ball and Raptor been released in 1993, they would be universally derided and hated by all of the community.  I was old enough in 1987 that I didn't give the bad toys a pass.  And, that continues to this day as I simply have no reason to ever use any figure in that trio of terrible.

Raptors are weird to price.  Mostly, because he includes the falcon who often features broken feet.  An unbroken Falcon alone will often fetch $20.  But, at the same time, the market price for a mint and complete Raptor with an unbroken Falcon is about $17.  But, figures with either no falcon or a broken falcon will sell in the $12 range.  It's just chaos.  The unbroken falcon is the main thing to look for with a Raptor.  But, the figure is also very susceptible to pain wear: especially on his necklace and belt buckle.  So, check those areas carefully.  Really, Raptor is probably priced about right.  He's super common from Joe's highest production volume year.  And, he's very unpopular: lacking even the kitsch factor popularity of his contemporaries like Golobulus and Crystal Ball.  For me, though, even at cheap prices, the figure just isn't worth it.  The character has so little value and the figure is just bad.  I get what Hasbro was trying to do.  But, sometimes, you just have to eat some sunk costs and give up.  Had they done that with Raptor, no one would be lamenting his absence.