I'd love to say that, once upon a time, the Funskool Desert Scorpion was a popular purchase for adult collectors. But, that was never the case. Even during the "everything army builder!!!!!" phase of the early 2000's, this widely available figure never really caught on. To this day, you almost never see this figure used in any capacity. A big part of that is that he's kind of hard to find and overly expensive. This is a function of his unfashionable debut in 2001 and the fact that collectors completely ignored him during that era while they bought up tens of thousands of Funskool Night Vipers, Hydro Vipers, Crimson Guards and, yes, Toxo Vipers.
I still see this figure as an elite guard for Cobra Commander. Their big arms, weird design and small, compact weapons make for a role that's more ceremonial than functional. So, I pretty much only use these guys in this capacity. And, even then, it's pretty rare for these figures to come out. You can only do so many "the Commander arrives!" dioramas before it gets played out. About 1 per decade is usually good for me. And, you'll see these figures showcased about that often. It's a sad fate for these figures as I think their absolute wackiness should give them some cachet in the community. And, were they readily available in 2021 instead of 2001, that would have, likely, happened.
Instead, we're left with a relic of the cheap Funskool import era. If you were there and got to take advantage of it, it was spectacular. And, even 20 years later, the aftershocks of those imports define the market for these figures. What was popular back then is pretty common and relatively cheap today. The figures that collectors didn't care about during their release window, are now hard to find and can command exorbitant premiums. With hindsight, I wish I'd been more aggressive in accumulating a nice Funskool collection. But, what I have left is good enough. And, figures like this Desert Scorpion still give me a chance to flex that I've been around forever and do have some oddball stuff collecting dust in the basement closets.
There's something about the look that I kind of like, but I don't know if there's another Joe figure out there that looks more like it was kitbashed from a random selection of Corps! figures... 😅
ReplyDeleteI was collecting then but did not get into funskool. Regret that now.
ReplyDeleteWith a few alternate paint applications to the head, as well as a black waist piece, (rather than the yellow diaper), this would probably have been a much bigger hit. But, then it would loose that goofy Funskool charm. It's an interesting matter of trading one sort of appeal for another sort. I'm definitely one of the people who passed on him back in the day (always meant to pick up a few more cheap Funskools "someday," just never got around to it before the prices shot up).
ReplyDeleteThere's an alternate version that was released in the Calcium Sandoz series that does have the black waist. It's a substantial improvement.
Deletehttps://forgotten--figures.blogspot.com/2018/06/rarities-funskool-calcium-sandoz-figures.html
Great pics! Cool use of the figures as personal bodyguards for Cobra Commander. Love seeing the DTC Hiss in the background as well.
ReplyDeleteI think the fleshtone face mask is what killed this figure. Even in 2002 that was a bridge too far.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise it’s a really nice figure, and not really badly coloured