2020 Night Force Snake Armor - Black Major

I do not like the Snake armor.  I hated it as a kid and it has been completely and utterly irrelevant to me for over 40 years.  But, one of the things that helps us grow as people it to take another look at something we dislike and try to understand why we dislike and if the circumstances around that dislike warrant another evaluation of our opinion.  It's something good to do with political views, social conventions and even the people in and around your life.  So, when Black Major produced Snake Armors in 2020, I saw an opportunity to pick one up and see if my childhood bias against the toy held up.  In this case, I'm actually looking at a Night Force version of the Snake armor.  I'm not sure why there's a Night Force version.  But, it was cheap and included a Stormshadow repaint I wanted.  And, the base colors are Cobra enough that it solved my need for a sample of the Snake that would help determine if I've been wrong for the last 4 decades.

The Snake came out in 1983.  It was a cheap toy that was meant to fill the price gap between a figure and base vehicle.  At the time, Hasbro ensured Joe toys existed within price points so that G.I. Joe toys were a possibility for any level of gift giver.  And, because of this, my brothers and I got no less than 3 Snakes between birthdays and Christmas in the fall of 1983.  By that point, I was completely engrossed in G.I. Joe and they were the only toys I really played with. So, ostensibly, any Joe toy would have been an awesome addition to my toy room.  But, Snakes were not.  From the get go, I found them useless.  The last thing I wanted was a suit that limited articulation on my figures.  I could easily imagine some force shield that offered all the power of a Snake without limiting my ability to pose the figures any way I wanted.  But, the most damning aspect of the toy was that, in order to use it, it took a figure out of rotation.  Someone had to be inside the suit for the thing to work.

So, now we get the crux of the issue.  Pretty much anyone reading this would say, "What about the exoskeleton included with the Snake that allowed it to be set without a figure?!?".  Usually, this would be prefaced or ended with the word dummy.  (Or, your expletive of choice.)  But, we'll save that.  Because, you see, I didn't know about the exo skeleton piece.  In all three of our Snakes, that little part was tossed with the leftover sprues.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it was the zeal of opening something new.  Or, I was just a moron who missed it.  But, I didn't know this part existed for a many years.  So, this is the part where you call me a dummy.  

But, to be fair, this was not the end of the Snake for me.  In time, certain Cobra figures got broken.  Even as a kid, I could not abide by figures with broken crotches or thumbs.  So, when a Cobra Officer was damaged, it made perfect sense for him to slide into the Snake as the operator.  This allowed me to use the Snake.  But, it also didn't cost me a figure since someone already broken was no longer considered part of my actual collection.  But, even with this addition of a figure, I found the Snake lacking.  Like the MANTA, the Snake didn't stay together all that well when you actually played with it.  And, the lack of poseability still killed it.  In short, the Snake couldn't manage to find a way into my adventures.

In 1984, I started buying the Joe comic.  In short order, I found a local comic book shop and started buying back issues of the Joe issues.   Eventually, I came across issue #19.  Here, Dr. Venom put Kwinn and Snake Eyes into the Snakes and had them attack the G.I. Joe Headquarters.  I had a few problems with this issue.  First, Dr. Venom kept referring the Hiss Tank being "Cobra blue".  As the Hiss was canonically black, I found this a glaring error.  Second, it didn't make sense to me that Kwinn and Snake Eyes would have their bodies controlled, but still have clear enough minds to shoot the locks on the suit.  Finally, it was self defeating to have these invincible suits who could be cracked open by a guy who somehow managed to get a remote controlled machine gun to fire manually.  The upside, though, was that the terrible suits were proven very ineffective.  And, in my mind, my dislike of Snakes as a toy and a concept were codified in the comic forever.

But, at its core, my dislike of the Snake went deeper.  Generally, I was not a fan of robots.  For some reason, I never got the robot bug.  This manifested itself in 1986 when I found the BAT a fairly lame toy and character.  BATs were fun for about 4 minutes before Sgt. Slaughter would slip behind them, shoot them in the back and watch them burst into flame...rendering them absolutely useless.  I was shocked to find my friends and even random kids at the store who LOVED BATs.  I didn't get the fascination with robots.  And, I still don't.  I see collectors going ga-ga over mechs and things and I simply don't understand the appeal.  But, to me, the humanity of the characters was a driving force in my play.  So, even in my days of playing with Star Wars figures, I rarely found the robots interesting.  Monsters and aliens could be given personality.  But, I just didn't click with robots.  And, to this day, I find anything that heavily features robots to be kind of boring.

The Black Major Snakes are very well done.  They are of high quality and display nicely.  The paint masks are crisp and the rainbow of colors allow even curmudgeons like myself to find something of interest.  Snake accessories tended to break on the vintage toys.  With the Black Major figures, the risk is still there.  But, the attachments fit snugly and work very well with the arms.  The parts fit together without falling apart.  And, even with the exo skeleton inside, the toy stands and functions just fine.  

There are tons of Black Major paint variants of Snakes available.  A few colors were even metallicized and you can get shining versions that look like Christmas ornaments if you are so inclined.  The original Snake had an interesting life.  Hasbro released the white version in 1983.  Then, in 1985, they repainted it into a blue version.  I have no idea why the Snake got this treatment when other, far better vehicles in the price point did not.  But, the blue Snake exists and is somewhat rare.  In Europe, Palitoy released a red Snake named the Escape Armor for the Red Shadows.  Of course, it's highly desirable and expensive.  Funskool finally released the Snake in the 1990's.  There are various hues, the most famous being a gray version.  Again, this is hard to find and you'll pay a premium for one.  So, for a crappy, crappy toy, there are tons of variants out there.  Yet, there are only two Flight Pods and one real coloring for the CLAW....

Black Major Snakes dried up pretty quickly.  While you can still find them, the initial assortment sold out far faster than I would have thought.  All this proves is that my take on the Snake is the minority opinion in the community and the design is generally well liked.  Less desirable colors of the Snake are still available in the $12 range.  But, some of the most desirable colors almost never appear for sale and will command a premium.  For me, it was easy to get one like this Night Force version because it was more about having one Snake to review than having the right colors.  If you're a Snake fan, that might not be the case.  

1993 Beach Head - Around The Web

I really like the 1993 Beach Head.  I find the design fun and the colors work.  Despite this, I find it difficult to use the figure all that often.  This is mainly due to the heavy use of blue in  the coloring.  It makes him Cobra adjacent and prevents him from meshing well with many other figures.  I've long liked him as a crew member on the 1984 Whale hovercraft.  But, I haven't had mine out in more than a decade.  So, I'm left trying to match up the figure with some of the vehicles that I do have available.  And, the results never live up to the idea of this Beach Head that I have in my head.  

The figure could use one more paint mask.  A little silver would to a long way towards bringing out the details on the mold.  Even a paint mask on his goggles would add a lot to the head.  But, I still like the figure as it is.  I long used him as an army builder.  But, those days are passed and I mostly just pose him as Beach Head among some of his contemporary figures.  

1993 Beach Head Profile

1993 Beach Head at Nekoman's Viper Pit

1993 Beach Head by purple_cobra75

1993 Beach Head by 1990s_gi_joes

1993 Beach Head by HCC788

1993 Beach Head by evilface

1993 Beach head by viper_space

1993 Beach Head by ptytoys2021

1993 Beach Head by Nekoman

1993 Beach Head by Dok Sewage

1993 Beach Head by thedustinmccoy

1993 Beach Head by fun_time_at_serpentorslair

Pythona

I have never seen the G.I. Joe movie.  It was not aired in my local market back in 1987.  In fact, I only learned about it from some friends who lived down the street.  They came back from being out of town and excitedly told me about this crazy movie.  It had real movie stars.  And, it had some weird bugs that turned Cobra Commander into a lizard.  The entire thing was completely unbelievable.  Their devotion to the bit made me think this "movie" was real.  But, in the back of my head, I still thought it was just a practical joke.

Eventually, the movie aired on a local station.  I saw that there were famous performers who starred in it.  But, it was late 1987 and I was pretty much done with Joe.  So, I didn't watch it.  And, in the ensuing 38 years, I've never had interest in rectifying this situation.  I was raised on the comic and my focus on Joe was related to the comic world.  I watched the G.I. Joe mini-series starting in 1983.  But, I didn't really remember any of them.  I watched the daily cartoon when it debuted.  But, again, it didn't really stick.  (And, the one time I tried to watch an episode as an adult, I didn't even last 5 minutes before turning it off.  It's bad.)  The cartoon was kind of an in-and-out experience where I watched it, but didn't care about it.  I have more recollections of the Transformers cartoon than I do the Joe version.  

All that is to say, I really have no background on Pythona.  My only experience with her was from other collectors who made customs or talked about her.  But, frankly, she wasn't a force in the early days of online collectordom.  Cartoon fans were largely drummed out of the community back in the 1990's in favor of comic universe focus.  I mentioned to a friend a few weeks ago that I really do wonder what might have happened had the club not decided to attack the cartoon focused Zartan's Domain website back in the 1990's.  It was the largest and most popular G.I. Joe site of the time.  But, some cretins did a whole bunch of, frankly, illegal stuff to harass the site's owner and, eventually, get him to close down the site.  With it gone, the collector focus turned almost 100% to the comic continuity.  Eventually, this manifested with the Comic Pack toys in the mid '00's.  I do believe that cartoon designs would have garnered more of Hasbro attention had their not been a concerted effort to relegate the cartoon to second tier status.  Just another example of the long history of Joe fans getting screwed over by a few people who happened to have Hasbro's ear.

That brings us to this figure, though.  Super7 pretty much has the Joe license because the owner loved the cartoon and the Joe movie.  And, from the ReAction days, the line has always been heavily cartoon favored with a few comic homages tossed in.  So, seeing Pythona isn't, really, a surprise.  The Joe fanbase has, mostly, moved on from the comic vs. cartoon schism of the early days.  Good figure ideas appear everywhere.  But, the cartoon has been eking out popularity gains for nearly two decades, now.  There were some figures in the anniversary era that touched on the animation.  But, Super7's foray into action figures has given the cartoon the representation it missed from the first twenty years of this century.

Personally, I don't much care for the ReAction+ figures.  The human heads look weird and don't mesh with vintage figures.  But, the non-humans are pretty solid.  The overall smoothness and lack of raised details really limits the figures.  But, the colors are spectacular.  All of which adds up to a Pythona figure that looks really nice.  Pythona's design is, by its very nature, smooth and absent of details.  So, Super7's sculpting limitations aren't in play.  Her colors are eye-popping.  And, they are well captured here.  And, Pythona's not supposed to be human.  So, the odd shaping and overblown size of her head work in her favor.  In short, this looks like a good figure.

And, it's likely to be the next Super7 figure I buy.  Normally, I'd have saved up all this bloviating for her profile.  But, there's no guarantee I'll find her at retail.  I'm not going to pay shipping on a $25 figure.  So, I'm going to be dependent upon my local Target store carrying this wave.  I don't much go to Target any more.  I've been 1 time this year to pick up the Star Wars retro pack.  So, I'm not likely to stumble across her on a routine trip to the store.  (All of this assumes, of course, that this wave will even be available at retail.....)  So, there's no guarantee I'll acquire Pythona.  Which, would kind of be a shame.  She's weird and colorful in a way that really appeals to me.  My extent of her usage would be some photos along with the Power Commandos.  But, that's a better fate than most figures I've acquired in the last decade.  The upside is that I'm content with not owning the figure.  She was not a part of the G.I. Joe I ever knew.  So, I have no attachment that would send me spiraling to buy one by any means necessary.  Even though I suspect that she'll find some decent after market appreciation after she's sold out, I'm OK with missing her.  I'd prefer not to, of course.  So, we'll see how things play out over the next few weeks and if she ever shows up via an avenue I'm willing to take to acquire her.

2003 Overkill - Around The Web

Overkill isn't a figure I've ever used with any frequency.  When it was time to reduce my collection in the early 2010's, I even got rid of my vintage Overkill.  The reason was that I had this nice 2003 version and there was no reason to keep two versions of the character.  Now, I regret that decision as the original figure is quite well done.  But, I have some solace in that I kept this 2003 figure and can still enjoy him.

The truth, though, is that I don't really take the time to appreciate this figure.  In fact, my only remaining copy was still packed in his original baggie from the mail away set that shipped in late spring of 2003.  I've taken him out once or twice.  But, that's it.  And, that makes little sense.  Overkill is a cool looking figure who has some really nice gear, fun play features and solid colors.  In short, he's everything I want in a Joe figure.  Yet, he doesn't resonate with me.

Mostly, it's because he's a robot.  I feel BAT's are a poor excuse for a villain.  And, anything that dehumanizes the toll of war should be immediately suspect.  So, that instantly reduces Overkill's usefulness.  But, there's no reason I can't find a better aspect for the figure.  While sentient robots carry a tremendous amount of baggage that extends beyond their role of protagonist or antagonist, you can find some ground where they can be useful.

Recently, I read a quote about how "all the best robots outwardly hate their creators" and that's a line that's stuck with me.  Though, I'm not sure how to make it work.  Overkill is equipped with weapons.  No good person would built a robotic killing machine.  So, Overkill can't be rebelling against his benevolent creators.  So, that leaves him as the evil killing machine created by the most vile villains on earth.  Hating them makes Overkill a bad guy.  And the whole trope of a bad guy turning good is also problematic because no amount of good can overcome a murder.  

So, I now see Overkill as a weapon of last resort for Cobra.  He is activated when the situation is either very dire.  Or, it can be carefully controlled.  Overkill is an unrequited killing machine.  And, once activated, will not really discriminate about his victims.  Cobra Commander, of course, doesn't really care about some friendly fire casualties among his rank and file troopers.  What he does care about, though, is that Overkill has the ability to escape dire situations, is fully cognizant that the Cobras in his vicinity are there to destroy him once his objective is attained and Overkill then still has the determination to pursue the Cobra hierarchy.  And, even the fail safes built into Overkill can't be trusted because the robot is smart enough to detect and disable them prior to confronting the Cobra hierarchy.

So, if the Cobra technicians aren't able to turn Overkill off before he escapes, then Cobra Commander and his ilk are in danger of being stalked by a killer robot who is hell bent on revenge.  At the same time, the Joes can't work with Overkill because his primary purpose is still to kill them.  So, you have a monster who is loose in the world with no allies and grudges against all who he encounters.  There are some Cobras who can negotiate with Overkill.  But, his concessions are not killing them and them providing information on the Commander's whereabouts.  It makes the decision to use Overkill much more dire.  And, it also sets up a plotline where both Cobra and Joe are deathly afraid of a killer robot that is out there, trying to kill them both.

2003 Overkill Profile

2003 BAT Set Pre Production Figures

2003 Overkill by fun_time_at_serpentors_lair

2003 Overkill by themexicangriswolds

2003 Overkill by toysandtomfoolery

2003 Overkill by kitbash_joe

2003 Overkill by slipstream80

2003 Overkill  at JoeADay.com

2003 Overkill by toysandtomfoolery

2003 Overkill  at Action-Force.dk

2003 Overkill at GeneralsJoesReborn.com

2003 Overkill by g.i.joe_manila_ph

1990 Sonic Fighters Viper

So, this started out as a Random Photos of the Day post.  I thought I'd write some things about him.  And, the thought train kept going.  Suddenly, it was a full blown profile.  Sure, I've looked at the figure, before.  But, that was 24 years ago.  Since then, this figure has risen, fallen and settled into a niche in the collecting community.  

The golden Sonic Fighters Viper isn't a figure I should like all that much.  I'm not a huge fan of the Viper mold.  And, figures with rich, brown base colors can be tough to love.  But, the updated Viper from 1990 really works.  The color combo of gold and brown creates the visual of a Viper leader.  And, back in 2001, that was a specialty that was sorely needed in the Joe line.  As collectors were in the beginning stages of building their collections, individual pieces were of far more value.  Everyone was busy buying up all the 1986 Vipers, 1983 Cobra Troopers and 1986 Bats they could find.  They needed someone to command those troopers.  And, at the time, the notion of wasting a Cobra hierarchy slot on a duty as mundane as leading Vipers wasn't appealing.  That made this Sonic Viper a fairly desirable figure for many collectors to acquire.

As the early 2000's spawned the hobby of Joe photography, the golden Viper was a staple of troop building photos.  He may have been inspecting a line of soldiers.  Or, he might have been barking orders in an action shot.  But, he was a common presence among creators of the day.  The Sonic Viper brought some visual diversity to a photo.  And, his gold coloring offset the blue, red and black of the standard Cobra army.  This lead to him being a fairly pricey figure.  He quickly started to cost the same as, or even more than, 1986 Vipers.  When faced with a choice of buying up additional Sonic Vipers or adding to armies of the classic blue and red figures, collectors didn't really make a choice.  The 1986 figures were always the preferred acquisition.  There was always a need for more basic troops and most collectors could feign contentment with a single centurion figure to lead their army.

And, with this, the Sonic Viper's popularity ebbed away.  He wasn't an army building staple.  And, as armies grew, the need for the figure to appear in photos began to diminish.  As the 2000's turned to the 2010's, the Sonic Viper became less common to see.  His diminished cache was simply a function of his narrow specialty.  If people could only fit 8 figures in a photo, it would be 8 of the same army builder.  With more experience, the creators of the 2010's became more ambitious in their photos, too.  Action shots contained more action.  And, they were more frequently the subject of photos.  The notion of a gaudy leader for cannon fodder legions of Cobra was less plausible when they team was in action.  So, the Sonic Viper began to fade away.  He wasn't as important as he'd once been.  

And, this leads to the figure today.  Now, the Sonic Viper is somewhat obscure, again.  Sure, he's a guy that everyone owns.  But, you don't see him in the sparse G.I. Joe content that's out there.  And, even in the boasting posts of new acquisitions that are the staples of many communities, the Sonic Viper is a rare entrant: even as people continue to acquire other versions of the Viper.  The Sonic Viper has just become one of those figures that everyone seems content with just owning one or two.  And, after that, there's not much reason to seek out others.  It's not a bad fate for a figure.  He continues to be appreciated.  But, he's not nearly as popular as other, more commonly seen Viper figures.

During the late 1990's, I was one of very few collectors who focused on acquiring lots and collections from the early 1990's.  They were hard to find.  But, it was fun to track them down.  In my years of building up my collection, regular Sonic Fighters weren't overly common.  Somehow, though, I still managed to acquire three loose versions of this Viper figure.  As if that weren't enough, I also, randomly, acquired a carded version.  The fun thing about buying lots in that era is that you were usually buying some kid's childhood toys.  So, stuff they outgrew and never opened, like a carded figure or two, would pop up among the loose figures and vehicles.  The collections hadn't been curated to remove the rares and desirables.  Guys were just clearing closet space for some beer money.  The notion of these being collectible hadn't really ingrained itself into Gen X culture.  By 2001, that was mostly done.  And, you'd start to see collections broken into Joes and Cobras to maximize revenue.  Now, lots like that are all gone.  You see attempts at defining lots as "childhood collections" in the various sales arenas.  But, they all follow the same pattern of missing army builders, lacking key characters or simply crossing too many years.  It's an innocence lost as you can't really recreate a childhood collection.  But, it was fun while it lasted.

The coloring on this Viper is fantastic.  While most people refer to him as a golden Viper, the reality is that his base color is a rich, deep brown.  It's similar to the color found on the 1988 Charbroil.  It's a color that's relatively rare in the vintage line.  Were this figure offset by tan highlights instead of gold, we'd have an amazing desert Viper.  But, instead, Hasbro went with the golden color.  And, the results are striking.  Against the brown base, the gold paint pops.  It gives the figure his regal appearance.  Outside of the gold, though, there's not much else going on.  You have a bit of black on the figure's belt and gloves.  And, there's a red Cobra sigil to match the red faceplate.  That's the end  of the colors, though.  As far as paint masks go, the Sonic Viper is simple.  But, when you get a match like the brown and gold, the fact that there aren't many other paints doesn't matter.  And, this figure proves that strong color matches can render additional paint mask obsolete.

The Sonic Viper includes a nice cadre of accessories.  The upside to the premium price of the Sonic Fighters was that Hasbro tossed in a bunch of extra weapons.  As a kid, I'd have loved a way to pick up more guns than 1 figure could use.  But, this didn't start happening until after my time had passed.  Regardless, the Viper includes four uniquely colored weapons.  There are golden colored versions of the 1988 Hit and Run Rifle, the 1988 Shockwave pistol, the 1989 Annihilator's pistol and all three pieces of the 1989 Downtown's mortar.  The golden color works for this Viper.  But, it's less useful in outfitting other figures.  Along with those weapons, he includes the massive Sonic backpack.  I'm not sure the full complement of gear was worth double the retail price in 1990.  But, more weapons are better than less.

The Viper mold was used just three times in the vintage line: on the 1986 original, the 1989 Python Patrol figure, and this Sonic Fighters version.  The full mold never appeared again.  But, Hasbro did make mostly Vipers in 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2006.  If that wasn't enough, Red Laser Army made some very nice, removable helmet Viper flavors between 2016 and 2018.  And, then, Black Major recreated the mold and has released over 50 additional Viper colorings.  As such, you can get any and every flavor of Viper you ever wanted.  It's a far cry from the army building starved days of 2001 when it was inconceivable that there could ever be enough Viper figures.  It's still baffling that the Viper didn't make the cut for the 2022 Pulse era figures.  I can't help but wonder how much better a Viper/BAT two pack would have sold over the Trooper/Officer set.  We'll never know, though.

While this figure's time in the sun has passed, that doesn't mean he's a cheap acquisition, these days.  Sonic Fighters exist in lower quantities than other 1990 figures.  And, there's an  argument to be made that the Viper is most popular among the subset.  While the figure isn't hard to find, you'll pay for him.  Loose versions with an accessory or two will run you $20-$25.  But, complete figures trend around $50.  Which, is odd, since carded figures can be had for around $75.  There seems to be a lot of value in the accessories.  Since collectors of the early 2000's often separated the sonic backpacks from the figures to save space, the packs became disassociated with their figures when it came time to liquidate some spare army builders.  So,  you now have a somewhat premium accessory complement.  The upside is that a loose figure isn't terribly priced.  And, it's easy to get better gear for the figure.  So, that's the way to go.

For me, this is a figure of another era.  I still really like.  He looks great in photos and is fun to have around. But, I don't use him like I used to.  The notion of a Viper leader is passe, now.  I'm more wont to use a squad of identical figures with a character leading them.  With so many Vipers coming out in the past two and a half decades, the uniqueness of a golden leader for the faceless Viper corps is less useful.  You can easily assign the duty to a character and achieve the same result.  You can find better Vipers to guard Serpentor, and their golden colors more closely match the Cobra Emperor.  So, this guy now kind of sits around.  At some point, he'll get my attention, again.  But, until then, I get to enjoy the memories associated with this figure and the collecting world's evolution around him.

1983 Flash - Random Photos of the Day

I've been working on something about the original 13 figures for a month or so.  I'm about 80% done.  But, that last 20% is turning into a slog.  Hopefully, I'll work through it in the next week or two.  Until then, I'm going with some random photos of the most elaborate original 13 figure: Flash.  He features amazing colors, great accessories and a complex mold.  He's the best designed of all the original figures and the most complete overall release.  He looks great in photos and can be used in a variety of settings.  So, check out some Flash pictures until I get some inspiration to work through an extended period of writer's block.

1993 Robo Joe - Around The Web

I've owned a Robo Joe figure for a little over 6 years, now.  Despite him being a relatively new addition to my collection, I've only photographed him twice.  Once for his original profile.  And, then for this feature.  Despite my disinterest in the figure, though, Robo Joe seems to have a niche following among collectors.  As such, you'll find some solid content featuring the figure.  I suspect it's a combination of the figure's distinctive look and oddball character that endears him to some collectors.  So, it's fun to see what people can do with him.  Especially when you take the limitations of the Armor Tech articulation into consideration.

1993 Robo Joe Profile

1993 Robo Joe by corpscommandercody

1993 Robo Joe by Relena Warcraft

1993 Robo Joe the plasticeyeball

1993 Robo Joe by toysandtomfoolery

1993 Robo Joe by thedustinmccoy

1993 Robo Joe by toygalaxy

1993 Robo Joe by gijoe_c4_panama

1993 Robo Joe by toysandtomfoolery

1993 Robo Joe at HCC788

1993 Robo Joe by corpscommandercody

1993 Robo Joe at Joepedia

1993 Robo Joe by ronnie_trickshot

1993 Robo Joe by yo_joe_it

1993 Robo Joe by gijoe_c4_panama

1993 Robo Joe by phantomtroublemaker

1993 Robo Joe by el_customizador_marvel

2006 Operation Flaming Moth Range Viper - Around The Web

After nearly 20 years, the stain of the old club is wearing off of figures like this Range Viper.  It's always been a quality release.  Maybe, even, the best paint job ever offered on the mold.  But, the entire "not an army builder" shenanigans have tainted the legacy of this figure since its release.  Newer collectors are unaware of how the club's hubris divided the Joe community and contributed to the demise of line.  It might be good that we're moving on from the nonsense of the early 2000's.  But, it's also important to not forget.  Lest, we see the mistakes of the club repeated.  (Which, they kind of were with the Pulse releases....)

That aside, this Range Viper is excellently done.  The desert motif actually befits the character.  And, desert Cobras were rare in the line.  So, having one available is nice.  And, while this figure was clearance fodder for years (even sitting unsold at 50% off...) it's now gotten expensive as newer collectors try to track them down.  There's some good stuff using this figure out there.  So, check him out!

2006 Range Viper Profile

2006 Range Viper by fosilru

2006 Range Viper by yovalleyjoe

2006 Range Vier by instachampa

2006 Range Viper by blast_gijoe

2006 Range Viper by plasticbattles

2006 Range Viper by LTCLAYMORE

2006 Range Viper by kushviper

2006 Range Viper by blast_gijoe

2006 Range Viper by instachampa

2006 Range Viper by yovalleyjoe

Sky Patrol Steel Brigade - Red Laser Army

I'm not a great fan of the Steel Brigade.  But, every now and then, a repaint of a bad figure or bad idea comes along that redeems the figure or character in my eyes.  In 2017, this occurred with a Red Laser Army release of the Steel Brigade done in up in a combo of silverish grey and blue.  This "Sky Patrol" version of the anonymous Joe army builder was a new look for the character and created a striking color contrast that really worked with the mold.  The colors matched up well enough with vintage Sky Patrol figures and created a great little subset of figures with which a Sky Patrol army could be built.  While this figure hasn't removed the stigma of Steel Brigade in general, it has allowed me an opportunity to enjoy the mold more so than I have with most other repaints.

Sky Patrol has also long been a concept to which I've been cool.  Even during my heyday of buying Joes, I only ever got a couple of the figures.  Now, I have just two of them.  It was never a subset that really clicked for me.  And, I'm not a big fan of the Steel Brigade, either.  Yet, together, the concepts mesh extremely well.  The idea of support troops for a unit that I kind of see as ancillary to G.I. Joe rather than integrated within it works for me.  

Somehow, the Steel Brigade mold ended up being released by both Black Major and Red Laser.  Each made different color schemes.  So, that created a wide variety for the character.  In very short order, there were desert, arctic, black, blue and even Action Force Steel Brigade figures released.  The plethora of army building options allowed collectors to fill out their Steel Brigade armies.  Some were great repaints.  Others were just OK.  Personally, I found this blue and silver version to be the most compelling.  The colors aren't often seen in the Joe line.  And, the Sky Patrol figures that debuted the color scheme no longer call my collection home.  So, the colors were even more unique to me.

When I first saw this Sky Patrol rendition of the Steel Brigade, my first thought was that they'd make a solid crew for the Tomahawk.  The blue and silver shouldn't work with the brown helicopter.  But, that was my main thought about usage for the figures.  I suspect that the connection was just a manifestation of my desire to use the Tomahawk more.  But, with the figures in hand, I still didn't do anything with the Tomahawk.  Even today, I have yet to put it together, again.  I will do it at some point.  And, then, I'll finally take photos of the iconic chopper with their crew.  Until then, I often look at these Steel Brigade figures with grandiose ideas in my head.  And, I then utterly fail to properly showcase how cool the figures are in any attempt at photos.  

Sadly, these Steel Brigade figures suffer from a design flaw.  The hands are extremely small.  So small that they won't really hold the rifles without either modifying the rifle or modifying the hands.  Both are bad options.  And, it really limits these figures since it's very difficult to get them to hold their weapons without risking thumb breakage.  Aside from that, though, the quality is very good.  The plastic is different from vintage and repaint era Hasbro plastic.  So, you'll notice it once in hand.  But, the joints are tight and the paint masks are crisp.  So, the these Steel Brigades work well in a collection.

The figures included a nice complement of accessories.  The coolest piece was the silver backpack.  It is a cool color that works perfectly with the figure.  He also includes a small pistol and knife.  I'm not 100% sure of the origin of these sculpts.  They are Joe-adjacent and not reproductions of vintage Joe gear.  The coup de gras, though, was the inclusion of a black Steel Brigade rifle.  This rifle was highly desired outside of the baby blue in which it debuted with Recoil back in 1989.  And, for the first decade of online Joe collecting, it was acquirable.  But, that had changed by 2017.  So, being able to acquire large quantities of properly colored versions of the weapon was the real value in the figure.  As the very common version "D" Steel Brigade was my entry point to the character, I only consider the Recoil weapon as the viable weapon for any Steel Brigades.  So, it's great to have it included with this version.

In the late 2010's, Black Major produced a dozen or so repaints of the Steel Brigade.  Simultaneously, Red Laser Army released another 1/2 dozen, give or take, repaints of the mold.  Black Major's figures included an alternate, Airborne torso to help differentiate your armies.  The Red Laser figures, though, did not.  Black Major's figures also included an Airborne rifle while Red Laser Army included a more modernly sculpted pistol that didn't fit into the figure's hands.  Between the two factions, there were more than enough Steel Brigades to go around.  But, after the initial runs were completed, the molds disappeared from both sellers.  In 2023, Black Major brought the Steel Brigades back with a newly updated mold.  Again, many new repaints were produced.  The Airborne torso was gone.  But, the new figures filled in gaps that had been missing for nearly 40 years.  

Sadly, Sky Patrol Steel Brigade figures have pretty much dried up.  You could buy lots of three figures for $12 each for a long time.  But, those days are gone.  And, all of the Red Laser Steel Brigade flavors have gotten much harder to find.  You can expect to pay in excess of $30 for one of the figures these days.  The popularity of Steel Brigade in general, the high quality of this figure and the usefulness of this specialty within the Steel Brigade ranks all add up to a desirable acquisition for newer collectors.  It's really amazing to me how much the Joe world changed between 2017 and 2020.  That short span fundamentally altered the landscape of collecting from an affordable past time to a speculative collectible with a high cost of entry.  It's too bad.  Because, figures like this Steel Brigade were designed to be an affordable way to build the army you always wanted as a kid.  Now, they're single purchases that get tucked away in drawers or boxes and check off a box on a spreadsheet.  It's fun to recall these days of Red Laser Army as they speak to a simpler time in the collecting world.  I think this figure represents the innocence of that era and the potential that still existed in the line.

 

2000 Firefly - Around The Web

This was an emergency replacement of another post.  That one will go up in two weeks.  I searched for an antithesis to that, planned figure post and came up with this 2000 Firefly.  It's a classic mold done up in very traditional (though, not Cobra) colors.  In general, it's a strong version of Firefly.  In the fall of 2000, you could make the case it was the best Firefly.  Or, at least on par with the vintage version since it had all the cool accessories along with softer plastic hands.  But, no collector of that era actually made that argument.  The two main reasons were the paint wipes and the altered face mask.  For me, it was the ungloved hands that superseded the mask changes.  But, I was in the minority on that point.  

Fun fact: no two versions of this Firefly are the same.  The marbelized plastic that debuted in 2000 ensured that every figure had slight nuances.  And, you can even find major changes where a figure may have a brown head, green head or a balance of the two.  The same is true of the rest of the mold.  If you like the green, you can find a figure that features a lot of it.  The brown is similar.  If you're really ambitious, you could kitbash a nearly all green or all brown figure from a plethora of figures.  But, no one's really done that.

This Firefly is among the most used ARAHC figures from 2000 and 2001.  Since he's Firefly, you see him more often than other characters.  The colors and gear work to make a figure that fits into scenes just like the original, grey figure.  But, is also a better match for outdoor shots among the plants and trees.  So, check out the content below and let the creators know you stopped by.

2000 Firefly Profile

2000 Firefly by fosilru

2000 Firefly by themexicangriswolds

2000 Firefly  by Yo Valley Joe

2000 Firefly by instachampa

2000 Firefly by thedustinmccoy

2000 Firefly by thebackyardcommando

2000 Firefly by R.T.G.

2000 Firefly by thedustinmccoy

2000 Firefly by thebackyardcommando

2000 Firefly by toy_haven_aka_patch

2000 Firefly by mikesjoetography

2000 Firefly by strikeforce_codename

My Least Favorite Accessories

The Joe line is nothing but a string of classic, amazing toys.  There isn't a year of the vintage line that doesn't have a treasure or two.  And, frankly, the same is true of the repaint era.  But, mingled among the awesomeness of the designs are some duds.  And, they start from very early on.  So, this time around, I'll be looking at my least favorite accessories from the Joe line.  To be fair, I'm going to limit some of the JvC era weapons and gear.  Because, that time frame did get a lot wrong.  And, you'll see that some of my dislike of vintage weapons was reinforced and even augmented by those weapons overuse in the 2000's.  

1984 Baroness Rifle

So, I've disliked the Baroness' rifle since 1984.  When my younger brother got her in the early part of that year at a Value City Department store (I got Firefly!), I didn't know much about the character.  But, they had three new figures and he chose the Baroness over Roadlock.  (My youngest brother got Roadblock.)  When we got the figures home, Firefly's amazing gear amplified one of the best figures in the line.  Roadblock's gear was an amazing feat of engineering that magnified an otherwise mundane figure into an all time classic.  And Baroness' gear...well...it sucked.  Her overly large rifle simply didn't work.  And, it was just that it wouldn't fit with the slightly smaller female form used for the Baroness.  It didn't fit any other figure, either.  From the small handle to the oversized stock, the gun was simply not one that worked well with any figure.  And, when you contrast this to how amazing the rifle looked on the Baroness cart art, it was impossible to reconcile the differences.  What should have been awesome was just worthless in actual plastic form.  And, when the comparisons that circumstances dictated would be against Firefly and Roadblock gear: Baroness' rifle simply stood no chance.

As her gun wasn't up to snuff, the Baroness figure fell to a similar fate in my collection.  Back in the mid 1980's, it wasn't common to have extra accessories lying around.  So, it wasn't like I could give the figure a spare Destro pistol.  Battle Gear did help this...to a point.  But, I never liked the pairing of the blue pistols from the 1984 Battle Gear set with the all black Baroness figure.  Plus, since her rifle stretched out her hands, she couldn't even hold the Destro pistol.  So, the Baroness became an afterthought.

Fast forward to the repaint era.  The first two uses of the Baroness mold included her classic weapon.  And, I'm OK with this.  While the rifle sucks, it was iconic to the Baroness.  So, including it with her wasn't terrible.  The softer plastic of the 1997 and later figures also allowed the figures to better hold the weapon.  So, it had a slight redemption arc.  But, then, inexplicably, Hasbro fell in love with the rifle and started including it with many other figures.  The worst example of this was the Viper figures in Waves 1.5, 2 and 7.75.  People army built these Vipers en masse.  And, they were stuck with terrible, terrible weapons that didn't really work with the figure and weren't even close approximations of the Viper's classic weapon's look.  

And, I ended up with dozens of rifles that were useless.  When you take something you dislike and circumstances dictate you acquire an absurd, additional among of that something...well...that dislike to turns to spite and then outright hatred.  So, there's no salvation for the Baroness' rifle.  It's going to hold my least liked accessory spot until the bitter, bitter end.

1982 Grunt M-16

What!  Yes, I know this is an affront to the very essence of the Joe line.  But, I've never been overly fond of the original M-16 that came with Grunt.  From the beginning, it was a thumb breaker with a thick, round handle and a short, fat stock.  It was, easily, my least favorite accessory from the original 13 figures.  And, time hasn't been kind to it at all.  

My biggest example of why Grunt's gun sucks is that in 1985, Hasbro made a far better M-16 that was included with Footloose.  This weapon was everything the original rifle was not.  And, it forever rendered Grunt's weapon obsolete.  Grunt's M-16 can really only be used by 1982 and 1983 figures.  Anything released after that is just out of scale for the accessory.  If you think about the timeframe, the M-16 should have been the de facto standard for all G.I. Joe figures.  Instead, this role fell to Snow Job's XMLR.  The original M-16 just didn't work well with figures.  Grunt gets a bit of pass since it was his.  But, when you realize how good all the original figures look with Stalker's M-32, the limitations of the M-16 become even more apparent.  I've never gone out of my way to pick up spare copies of this accessory like I have for every other weapon released with the original 13 figures.  It just isn't something I find value in.

1988 Voltar's gun:

I very much dislike this weapon.  It's not the gold color.  Instead, it's just the overall design.  And, the fact that it can't decide if it's a pistol or a rifle.  In general, I'm not a fan of larger weapons that lack stocks.  They are hard for the figures to hold.  And, they always pose awkwardly.  As a kid, I wanted to like Voltar's weapon because it was new.  But, as I was older and out of Joes when my brother brought it home, my critical eye was more fine tuned.  And, the weapon never clicked with me.

In the 1990's, the weapon found tons of reuse on various weapon trees.  It was always a disappointment to get a cool, new figure and find out one of his weapons was from Voltar.  In fact, I have quite a few trees (or, I did, until the dog ate them!!!) where the Voltar weapon was still attached even after I had removed all the other accessories.  I simply didn't care for the weapon and would rather have old, beat up figures with no weapons than take the time to give them the spare Voltar weapons that I had on the trees.  I loathe the weapon to this day and don't use it with any of the 1990's army builders who included it among their gear complement.  It always looks weird and detracts from any figure holding it.

1991 Grunt Rifle

Hmmm, Grunt appears twice in this list.  I wonder if there's something there in my subconscious about the character.  Or, if Hasbro just misfired on his various weapons.  It's probably not Grunt, though.  As, my introduction to this weapon was on the 1993 and 1994 weapon trees that I tracked down in the mid 1990's.  At the time, I loved the "new" weapons that I found on these trees.  Having missed most of the 1988-1992 Joes, all of his gear seemed like it was newly designed for the figures with which it was included.  There were so many good weapons.  But, this overly large weapon that had debuted with the 1991 Grunt was not one of them.  It was too large, difficult for figures to hold in cool ways and just a blocky, uninteresting design.  I loved having overly powered weapons during this time.  But, I could never reconcile this Grunt gun.  And, it seemed like every 1993 figure I bought included it.  So, I had a ton of them and couldn't use them.

This weapon's appearance also made me realize that one of the reasons why I had this weapon and Voltar's weapon so much was because they were so ubiquitous in my mid 1990's purchases.  At the time, the extra weapons from the trees were appreciated because I had a shoebox of dingy figures who lacked accessories.  The trees solved for that.  But, when I got duds like this Grunt rifle, it was a wasted slot and my older beaters couldn't be weaponized for use against my new acquisitions.

2003 Chief Torpedo Rifle

Be honest...you had no idea what rifle was even included with this figure until you went to the photos below.  And, in full transparency, I'm not 100% sure if the weapon actually debuted with this Torpedo figure.  I didn't want to expend the energy to be certain.  It was included with a ton of  figures in the 2000's and is available in a multitude of colors  Regardless, I despise this weapon.  The reasons, though, are more nuanced.

At its core, this weapon, actually, isn't bad.  The detailing is amazing.  The scale is right on: even for vintage figures.  It's a rifle/grenade launcher combo without being too overt.  In short, it should be great.  And, that's what makes it so maddening.  This was one of Hasbro's best efforts on newly designed weapons through 2003.  But, it had a fatal flaw that rendered it useless.  It didn't have a stock that allowed for a figure to actually hold it.  So, every time you want to use it, it flops around in the figure's hands.  And, the end result is just a ridiculous looking pose where the weapons is about to fall to the ground.

So, you got this amazingly sculpted, new weapon that was included with a ton of figures, but had no practical uses at all.  To this day, I cringe when I see this weapon  being used with figures.  It just looks so out of place.  I look back at that era and wonder what might have been.  Imagine the Neo-Viper's AK-47(ish) rifle, but with the level of sculpting and detail you see on this Chief Torpedo gun.  It might have competed for the best accessory in the line.  But, that wasn't meant to be.  There are some decent accessories from the JvC era.  But, this wasn't one of them.

Honorable Mentions:

1985 Tomax and Xamot pistol

The 2000's lead me to despise this weapon.  The pistol is comically large, doesn't look good with most figures and is out of scale for the figures with which it was always included.  But, you know who it does work perfectly with?  Tomax and Xamot.  As a kid, I loved this weapon for them.  I would only use it with them and they would only use  it.  To this day, Tomax and Xamot occupy a place in my display case: both with raised pistols to show them off.  So, you can't really have the Crimson Twins without the pistol.  And, I love it for them.  But, I HATE it for any other figure.

1990 SAW Viper Rifle

We now know that Hasbro screwed up the scale on this weapon.  And, it was not intended to be as large as it was.  It's still terrible.  And, there's really no redeeming it.  But, at least it was a production screw up instead of an intentional design.  Again, though, this weapon is made worse by the differences between it and the portrayal of the SAW Viper in various media.  In the comic, the SAW Viper loomed large for about a year.  He was always drawn  with more realistic weapons that made him look like a bad ass.  While the figure doesn't quite live up the comic image, either, the weapon included with the figure is a colossal  letdown.  Even in a smaller scale, it just  didn't live up to the visuals from the comic.  Fortunately, much better machine guns did come out, later.  So, if you can find some of those, they are a drastic improvement for the SAW Viper.

2004 Comic Pack Hawk Pistol

If you look at my list of favorite accessories, you'll see it's dominated by smaller pistols.  There was something about the delicate nature of such a small piece that captivated me.  In the 2000's, Hasbro introduced working holsters to the Joe line.  It was a concept I'd wanted since I was a kid.  Some of them worked great.  Others...didn't.  But, Hasbro did make a nice armory of new pistols.  Sadly, though, this 2004 version didn't work out so well.  It looks great.  But, the handle is just too big for figure's to use.  It will break vintage thumbs and stretch out repaint era figures.  The worst thing about it, though, is its legacy.  This pistol lead to factory custom makers using similar designs.  Instead of redoing something cool like the 1986 Hawk or 1987 Chuckles pistol, they reused large handled designs from the 2000's.  And, none of them can be used with the figures.  I have a bin full of these pistols that will either snap the thumb or simple not go into the hands of factory customs.  The weapons look good when they're lying around.  But, they are useless.

Before the end of the year, I'll wrap my favorite accessories.  The last entry includes some doozies.  In the meantime, let me know what weapons you hated.  You know you have them.  So, vent away.

2005 Heavy Assault Squad Snake Eyes - Around The Web

The HAS set has largely disappeared from the collecting conscience.  Part of that is just due to the late release date and collector malaise at the time.  That left the set as a clearanced out dud.  Few collectors bothered to stockpile extras...even at closeout prices.  So, today, few people have the figures from the set.  And, it's kind of pain to find loose samples when you're out and about.  Despite the set being one of Hasbro's worst efforts, the reality is that Snake Eyes and Roadblock are pretty good figures.  It might be blasphemous to suggest that this is the best paint job on the 1991 Snake Eyes mold.  But, I'll argue that point.

I often use the figure just because he's so obscure.  But, he's also solid and tends to get people talking a bit about him.  There isn't a lot of content on him out there, though.  Even back in 2005, few people bother to really review the entire HAS set because the Joe world was so dead after the "Hiatus" announcement.  So, check out what little I could find on the figure and enjoy one of those weird "end of the line" oddities who's a surprisingly quality release.

2005 HAS Snake Eyes Profile

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by General Liederkranz

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by corpscommandercody

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by Gen_Liederkranz

2005 HAS Set at Joe Battle Lines.com

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by Gen_Liederkranz

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by twindigtoys

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by Gen_Liederkranz