2004 Comic Pack Snake Eyes - Arctic Gear

I was never a fan of the Anniversary style G.I. Joe figures.  I always thought the chest joint was stupid and ruined the aesthetic of the toy.  There were two times, though, where I was tempted to start collecting the line.  The first was on a random trip to Target.  My local store happened to have both a brand new Hiss Tank and a couple of Python Troopers available.  I thought about how cool it would be to walk into a store and find a vintage combo like this.  (Hasbro never got close in the repaint era.)  So, I thought about getting some.  But, cooler heads prevailed.  And, I then went home and bought a nice vintage Hiss Tank and 3 vintage Python Officers and had them all delivered to my house for under $50...only about $10 more than what the Anniversary toys would have cost me.  (Man, those were the days when it came to vintage pricing.)  The second time was when Hasbro released an arctic version of Snake Eyes based on his appearance in the second issue of the Marvel comic.  The figure looked spectacular.  Everything from the card art to the actual gear included was just perfect.  It was a figure that I had always wanted.  I held him in my hands a couple of times.  But, eventually, passed him and the rest of the Anniversary series by.  Besides, technically, I already had a figure of Snake Eyes in that look from a Comic Pack that had been released in 2004.

The first wave of Comic Packs were highly anticipated by collectors.  Hasbro had a publicity date on the photos.  So, many dealers (who, back then, were also active forum members) had access to them before collectors did.  They tantalized the figures with slavish praise.  When the images were released, the reaction was pretty much in line with the early rumors.  Collectors were in love with the looks and figures selections.  Shortly after the images appeared, the first packs were found in the summer of 2004.  Collectors quickly scooped up the packs at retail.  And, were disappointed a bit.  Many of the figures had quality issues with poor paint, loose joints and the plastic ties used to hold the gear in place in the packaging would mangle hands and strip paint.  On top of that, figures that looked great in the photos weren't quite as good when inspected up close.  In short order, what had been the most anticipated collector themed product since the advent of the Toys R Us multi-figure sets quickly turned into another problematic release that left collectors with something far less than their expectations.

The line, though, had other problems.  Wal Mart didn't buy the initial wave.  The Hasbro brand manager went so far as to warn collectors that they weren't buying them in enough quantity to keep the line afloat.  Despite that, though, Comic Packs continued on at retail through 2005 and were a staple of the DTC offerings.  (The Hasbro guy went so far as to introduce Comic Packs to the Star Wars line where they were much more successful.  Though, they were also much better than the Joe offerings.)   For $10, the three figures and a comic were a retail steal.  But, parents didn't really find them compelling.  I suspect a big part of that was that the toys weren't as visually appealing as other retail offerings of the era.  And, the comic definitely dated the look of the packs at retail.  The upside, though, is that pretty much every Comic Pack outside of the Oktober Guard wave ended up at clearance and discount sellers.  So, it was even easy to get this Snake Eyes and his packmates for $5.  It's a shame cheap toys don't really exist like that any more.

The selling point of the 2nd Comic Pack was the debut of Kwinn.  Kwinn had never been released in the Joe line.  So, collectors were mad to finally acquire one.  The Scarlett in the pack was also a selling point.  She featured a new, more feminine head that featured a sculpted pony tail.  She was given Jinx's body and was the second most desirable figure in the pack.  That left this Snake Eyes as the odd man out.  What's odd to me, though, is that this Snake Eyes is the 3rd best figure of the original 9 Comic Pack figures.  He was just included in a pack with the other two who ranked above him.  As collectors had Snake Eyes fatigue and it was already known there would be yet another Snake Eyes (YASE as it was known at the time.) in the next wave of Comic Packs, they left this figure as the unsung release o his era.  You'd often see him posed with Kwinn, just to make up a comic homage.  But, even in those cases, Kwinn was always the focal point of the photo.  Snake Eyes just didn't resonate with collectors and also didn't seem to have an impact upon casual buyers at retail.

The colors on this Snake Eyes are very well done.  While I'm not sold on their applicability in the arctic, they are visually appealing.  The pea green on the figure's pants is a dead ringer for the colors used in the vintage Night Force and Tiger Force subsets.  You can see how similar it is in one of the photos below.  Seeing this figure as a Night Force Snake Eyes kind of works.  Except, of course, for the fact that no other Night Force figures use the old swivel head molds.  So, it's not a perfect match.  But, it does allow for this figure to be used in different settings than just the snow and ice.  There's still enough black to ensure everyone knows this is Snake Eyes.  And, the parts choices are good enough to establish this as a figure who is supposed to be specific to an environment.

One of the aspects of Snake Eyes character that I like to explore these days is that of the absolute crazed psychopath.  Snake Eyes is a guy who, without the benefits of his ninja training, would have absolutely shot up a crowded parking lot at a football game in his post military life.  Without the theatre of war, his killing instincts would have consumed him.  But, the ninja training helped to temper his psychotic and violent tendencies.  But, even with those safeguards in place, the completely unhinged Snake Eyes can come out at times.  Someone who kills as indiscriminately as Snake Eyes has will, in time, be unable to value human life.  In his mind, he'll know that someone under his control is still a person.  But, the impulses can overtake him and he'll just kill someone who didn't really need, or even deserve, to be killed.  It makes him an effective special operative.  But, also someone who can't really be unleashed into normal society.  So, Snake Eyes stays on the G.I. Joe payroll so that he doesn't harm civilians who might cut him off in traffic.  Here, he gets enough action to keep his deep psychosis buried.  But, it will come out at times when he's dealing with Cobras.  

That's not a take on Snake Eyes that fits with his movie-hero portrayal that Hasbro wants to push.  But, it's a more realistic view of who Snake Eyes would actually be had he gone through all those traumas in his life.  Larry Hama alluded to the very dark side of Snake Eyes at times in the comic.  And, even when  Snake Eyes was being "heroic", he was doing things that, with a slightly different context, would have him a most wanted criminal.  It also adds a new dynamic to the Joe team.  Because, this Snake Eyes isn't someone the Joes want to befriend.  They keep him at a distance because they realize that people close to him could be the victim of one of his rages should he snap outside of the battlefield.  This brings a level of suspicion to the team as once you question the stability of one operative, you start to have doubts about all of them.  

Snake Eyes gear is fine.  He includes the standard Uzi as well as a black backpack from a mold that originated with the 1991 Dusty.  By 2004, this pack was passe and had been included with many figures.  But, it actually worked in the context of this figure.  He also included the cartoon standard XMLR rifle.  This was always a welcome inclusion.  Thought the rifle was now more common than it had been just a couple of years before, they were still relatively sought after.  So, getting extras was nice.  The figure didn't include the weasel skull necklace.  This was a key selling point of the 2008 Anniversary figure.  But, the Kwinn figure in the pack was wearing the necklace.  It would have been a bit weird to have 2 figures in the same pack wearing the same necklace.  So, you can give Kwinn's necklace to Snake Eyes to complete the look.

Snake Eyes' body construction was pretty basic.   It features the classic 1982 Snake Eyes head on a repainted 1983 Snow Job body...mostly.  The Snow Job body had been used a few times by 2004.  But, it was about the only swivel headed body wearing winter gear that Hasbro ever made.  I've have loved it if Hasbro had attempted something different like the 1989 head on an Iceberg body or something.  But, the fact that Hasbro was willing to release a Snake Eyes that wasn't mostly all black was pretty revolutionary...even as late as 2004.  One little oddity on the mold is that it uses the upper arms from the 1986 BAT.  Despite collector calls for it, Hasbro never released a 1986 style BAT in the repaint era.  Supposedly, the mold was damaged.  However, the figure's waist and legs were used on every Viper repaint that occurred between 1997 and 2005.  And, now, the upper arms appeared on this Snake Eyes.  So, what, exactly, was damaged?  And, with Hasbro very willing to resculpt Scrap Iron, Mutt, Lady Jaye and others, why didn't they just fix the damaged BAT parts and release a figure that would have sold in any incarnation they attempted?  The mismanagement of the Joe line by the early 2000's Hasbro team is so remarkable that it should be studied.

One of the main reasons I wanted to look at this figure is because he is such a perfect candidate for the Super7 ReAction+ line.  Here, a figure could be created in the vein of the anniversary figure where it's an all new sculpt that is, actually, comic accurate.  And, that would be spectacular.  Super7 has stated they plan to mine the obscure for figure releases.  They seem equally likely to look at the cartoon and comic.  The promise that the ReAction+ line gives is that we might see figures like this Snake Eyes.  But, this time, done up properly.  I like to think of an accurate Oktober Guard or weird outfits that Joes wore in specific issues or scenes.  (After Dr. Venom and a real Kwinn, though!)  And, while these could be releases that are considered, we're not going to see them offered in a 3 pack for the cost of a lunch out.  It will suck to acquire a real Oktober Guard over 4 years.  But, at least we'd have them.  The upside to a figure like this Snake Eyes is that it is Snake Eyes.  And, despite best collector efforts, any line is going to need major characters in order to sell well enough to continue for years.  So, we'll see what happens.  No matter how long the ReAction+ line runs, collector desires will never be 100% sated.  But, it would be nice to have one last shot at a few of the also-rans that didn't get the best effort during the repaint era.

While Comic Pack figures did see a significant increase in value during the Joe price upswing between 2018 and 2022, they have come down a bit.  Dealers will still try to get $30 for this Snake Eyes figure...thinking that the pandemic highs are still feasible.  But, you can buy all three of the figures for less than that.  Left to his own devices, this Snake Eyes is, at best, a $10 figure.  Considering it's 20 years old, now, that's probably a relatively fair cost.  At, at the price, I'd get one if I wanted him.  But, I paid $10 for the whole set back in 2004 and thought it was fair then, too.  Right now, I'm pretty much out of the vintage Joe market.  I haven't bought any figures in nearly a year.  I don't miss it, either.  But, that's what happens when you have a large collection focused on the things you like.  Eventually, you run out of new stuff to buy unless you find it stupidly cheap.