1993 Mace

What's in a name?  You can argue that a name is your most valuable asset.  But, in some cases, it has no value, at all.  Take Mace.  As a character, he's a forgettable 1993 release who lacks any media to support his personality.  When you look at Mace, though, and consider his specialty, you can't help but wonder how the figure would have been received had it been a second version of Chuckles.  While it would not have had much of an impact on sales of the figure back then, it is likely that a simple change like that would have lead to this figure being much more accepted in 2026.  It doesn't change the fact that Mace isn't nearly the terrible figure his reputation suggests.  Instead, he's a more nuanced release that is indicative of the 1993 line.

Mace was the 9th figure I profiled back in 1999.  At the time, this figure was only 6 years old.  I had bought him at retail just under 4 years prior.  Taking photos of a "neon" figure simply wasn't done in 1999.  Much less, taking the time to write about him.  One of the things that's been, thankfully, lost in the Joe community was that definitive sense of age.  Guys who grew up with 1982 through 1985 figures were adamant theirs was the "true G.I. Joe".  But, those who came of age in the cartoon years of 1985 through 1987 also staked a claim to this mantle.  Those younger...well...they didn't matter.  Now, though, those schisms are gone.  And, the only real criticism you see of the later years of the Joe line are from people outside the hobby who try to comment on it with no knowledge that their dated opinion was drummed out of the hobby over a decade ago.  

Mace was originally intended to be included in a second series of DEF figures.  There are carded samples of the figure with DEF markings on the cardbacks.  He was included in a case with other new for 1993 characters that would have been members of DEF as well as repaints of 1992 DEF figures.  Mace was even released in Australia with DEF badges on his card.  I'm not sure of the reasons why DEF was cancelled for 1993.  The 1993 figures lacked the light up weapons that raised the prices of the 1992 figures.  Ostensibly, there was no reason to remove the added denotation from the cards except to streamline the overall carded line and provide a cleaner, retail presentation.  While carded samples of 1993 DEF exist, the '93 Toy Fair catalog clearly marks them as a Battle Corps assortment.  As they have their own page, though, it's apparent that this was still a last minute change.  (The Shark 9000 is still named the Shark BC-1 in the catalog and it clearly has DEF stickers on it.)  As the figures were unchanged, though, it's really a footnote to Mace, overall.

My original Mace write up was brief and somewhat positive.  This stems from the fact that I've always kind of liked the Mace figure.  I acquired him as an adult collector.  At first, his head mounted missile launcher was as ridiculous as it sounds.  But, with that removed, the figure had some merit.  He fits the law enforcement motif.  His sculpt is very strong.  He has a lot of features that I would have loved as a kid.  The sculpted holster across his chest is among my favorite looks for Joe figures.  He has a radio sculpted on the opposite side.  It's a neat feature that balances out his appearance.  And, as a kid, a detail that would have made Mace extremely useful as I viewed small communication devices like this on a figure to be of great importance.

The sculpted gear sitting atop Mace's cool, black jacket works very well.  I don't think his arms needed any additional details.  His hands being molded, black plastic works, too.  Sure, it was a cheap way for Hasbro to save paint.  But, in Mace's case, it works.  His tan pants match his upper torso and the colors work together very well.  The real shortcoming is that he's highlighted in yellow.  Yellow's a tough color to pull off.  In neon green or blue, Mace could have worked better.  His series of 9 figures in case, though, were already awash in oranges, blues, greens and reds.  So, Mace using yellow as his primary color was just luck of the draw.  It is striking against his black background.  And, it allows the excellent sculpted details to pop off his jacket.  I wonder if he'd be more accepted were his radio, wire and pistol grip done in grey.  They'd still offset the black and would allow the yellow to make Mace visually distinctive.  I don't want to erase the yellow.  But, adding an additional paint color would go a long way towards making Mace almost perfect.

We can't talk about Mace without spending time on the headsculpt.  By 1993, Hasbro had gotten much better at sculpting heads.  The faces were more detailed and featured more expressions.  Mace has a prominent chin and nose that are light years ahead of those figures from 1982.   Heads were slightly larger than those from the '80's.  And, this allowed for more texture on the hair and eyes.  At first glance, you'd think he's sporting a pre-Beavis blonde coif.  But, it's really a tight pull on Mace's long hair that culminates in a glorious man-bun.  You can see Mace's hair better expressed on the box art for the Shark 9000.  But, the figure pulls off the idea without treading into the territory of the plastic string hair that was used for the Ninja Force Scarlett.  It was a daring choice for Hasbro.  And, when paired with Gristle and Bulletproof, you can see that Hasbro was trying to emulate hair styles of the era with their "hip" line of drug-busting or drug-dealing figures.

It's tough to reconcile the drug related fervor of the late 1980's and early 1990's.  The disastrous "war on drugs" was just a pretext for law enforcement to terrorize urban, black communities.  G.I. Joe getting involved probably seemed like a good idea in 1992.  But, let's face it, even back then, the Joes would have been used to break down the doors of poor, downtrodden drug users rather than breaking up an international smuggling ring.  So, Hasbro moving away from the concept in 1993 helps this figure's legacy.  He's a strong enough design that he can be incorporated into other ideas.  But, I think back to the pure fear campaign that I was subjected to during my junior high and high school years about drugs (and  AIDS, too, but we'll leave that for another time....) and wonder how it affected me and my generation at large.  Gen X used to be a generation defined by their best.  The '90s were a hopeful time full of promise of a better world.  But, we turned out rotten.  And, you can't help but think that our constant exposure to propaganda like the anti-drug messaging helped condition most of us to blindly accept the propaganda machines of the 2000's.

I've long used Mace as a prison guard.  It helps that I acquired multiples of him very early in my collecting days.  And, I had a small army of him at one time.  These guards ranged from sadistic sickos who would beat and torture prisoners to incompetent cannon fodder for Cobra to mow down when they freed their comrades from confinement.  His late acquisition year prevented Mace from ever developing as a character.  And, I don't see that changing.  These days, he appears in my photos as an individual.  But, that's a result of conformity to a Joe community that sees all Joe figures as the individuals they were designed as.  I've lost some of the originality that separated my view of Joe from others.  I used to get inquiring into why certain figures were doing things "out of character" in my photos.  But, those have died off as I've become more conventional in my usage of most figures.  It's something that's starting to bug me and has gotten me thinking about how I should be approaching my collection and if I was happier with in the days before I knew how other collectors handled their Joes.

This leads us to the idea of Mace being Chuckles 2.0.  Chuckles is a throw away character who was meant to be a Magnum P.I. ripoff.  Instead, he found life as an ambiguous spy whose loyalties were unknown.  Larry Hama started this with his filecard and first comic appearance.  And, later comic writers have taken Chuckles to new, though somewhat cliched places.  But, Chuckles has found a solid second life and become a more popular character than his origins suggest.  Seeing Mace as an alternate look for Chuckles works, too.  The undercover hair and more tactical gear allows you to use Chuckles in a different way.  While I'm not sure that being Chuckles would make this figure any better, it would have certainly given it an inroads to the collecting world that was cut off due to it being a new, bland character.

Mace's accessories were fine and preposterous.  His weapon tree was perfectly acceptable. While the weapons were yellow, the designs were good.  He included a 1992 Shockwave rifle (not to be confused with a Hit and Run rifle that is similar), a 1990 Updraft pistol, a 1990 Ambush rifle and a knife from the 1991 Low Light.  It's one of Hasbro's better weapon trees and the accessories work well with Mace.  In addition, Mace included a bizarre helmet that covered one eye and left the other exposed.  To this affixed his spring loaded missile launcher.  It's just silly to attach the missile launcher to Mace's helmet.  But, it can be done and you get a totally 1990's action figure as the result.  Mace is rounded out with the requisite battle stand and yellow missiles that fired from his launcher. 

Mace had a short life.  After his Hasbro production run was complete, the mold went to Brazil.  There, Brazil released a figure in nearly identical colors to Mace as Cerebro.  Cerebro features grey pants instead of tan.  And, he includes a yellow version of the rifle that was included with Bulletproof.  Then, in 2004, Mace's chest, legs and waist appeared on the Comic Pack Double Clutch figure.  It was a surprise to see molds that were supposedly "lost in Brazil" return in such a fashion.  But, that was the end of Mace's life.  For a 1993 sculpt, that's not a terrible legacy.  Cerebro figures are pretty common.  Though, they aren't the $10 MOC purchase they were a few years ago.  So, getting all of Mace's uses isn't difficult.  

Mace has never been and is not, now, popular.  You'll see dealers clinging to 2021 optimism as they ask $30 for a loose figure.  You will see some carded figures sell in that range, just due to low supply.  But, open market carded prices remain under $20 and loose, mint and complete figures can be had for around $12...on the rare occasion that they are offered for sale.  Prices remain propped up by limited supply and massive hoarding by many who are still hoping that pandemic pricing prevails.  We'll see what gives first: their desire to store a ton of stuff in their basements or the need to liquidate for some quick cash.  Until then, Mace is a figure you can wait out.  He's cool.  But, he's not necessary.  For cheap, he's a great acquisition.  But, once the price rises, his value is quickly exhausted.