2001 Wetdown

I should love the Torpedo mold.  It was one of the most interesting designs of the first two years of the Joe line.  He had memorable and iconic accessories.  And, he was really hard to find until the fall of 1983 ushered in the holidays.  But, for some reason, the figure has never really clicked with me.  Even as a kid, Torpedo often found himself as the operator of the Whale's hidden little sled under the troop door.  Here he'd sit, forgotten and rarely used.  Mostly, this was because Cobra had no divers against whom Torpedo could fight.  But, as the Cobra maritime force grew, my interest in Torpedo did not.  This carried over to my adult collection and Torpedo has never been a figure that's been overly important to me.  These blase feelings towards the mold carried over to a now obscure 2001 release.  While the figure used the entire Torpedo mold and accessories, he now had a new name: Wetdown.

Wetdown is emblematic of the flaws that somewhat doomed the ARAHC line.  This figure is, essentially, the same as the 1983 Torpedo.  In 2026, collectors love new versions of older, decaying figures that have gotten expensive.  In 2001, though, vintage Joes were plentiful, still in solid shape and very affordable...provided the figure wasn't an army builder.  So, the need for barely repaints was much less than what we desire today.  So, interest in figures like Wetdown was tepid.  He lacked the freshness of the first wave of the ARAHC from 2000.  Wetdown's wave with Double Blast, Cobra Commander, Destro and Sure Fire was laden figures that just felt like they were low effort releases.  Even the Wet Suit with whom Wetdown was packed lacked any panache as he was a downgrade over every other Wet Suit that Hasbro had released to that point.  

For some reason, the ARAHC ran out of steam.  Shortly after Wetdown's release, collectors would learn the reason why.  Hasbro had started up work on a new Joe line that was going to use new construction and feature a new story and characters that were interspersed with the classics.  The JvC line sucked up all the resources and creativity and left the ARAHC as a hollowed out shell of its potential.  While the JvC line didn't end up being my cup of tea, it did feature much of the flair that defined the vintage Joe designs.  Bright, bold colors, updated characters, new specialties and a gaggle of new gear all made for much better toys that were more exciting than the drab figures that defined the ARAHC line that immediately preceded it.  

It is that drabness, though, that defines Wetdown and helps him stand apart from a vintage Torpedo.  While the black and grey palette is identical to the 1983 figure, the actual hues on the grey are much darker and more flat.  It makes the figure appear dark.  On his own, Wetdown isn't that bad.  He's just...Torpedo.  In making him a new character, I wish Hasbro had taken some color changes to set him apart from Torpedo.  By using such similar colors, Wetdown gets an imposter vibe that's tough to shake.  You can't use him and Torpedo together as they appear too similar.  (He might work with the '97 Torpedo.)  But, there's really no reason to have both a Torpedo and a Wetdown.

The new code names that were used in the 2000's are just bad.  There's no getting around it.  The most uncreative people in the world named the figures.  Most of them have two words.  And, the result is just dumb.  What worse, by 2000, there was a vibrant Joe customizing community that was already full of hundreds of fan created code names that were actually decent.  So, even the dullards could have plagiarized something better than Wetdown.  (Actually, it might be spelled Wet Down, as two words.  I don't care enough to go back and change it, though.)  But, they didn't.  Adding up the banal code names, uninspired paint jobs and repetitive mold choices, the ARAHC was kind of doomed right from the beginning.

With all this working against him, it's no surprise that Wetdown has never much mattered in my collection.  Were it not for the fact that I was an ardent completist in those days, I doubt I'd even have him in my collection.  And, it was his pure worthlessness on the secondary market that kept him in my collection when I purged it off.  If I didn't have, I'd forget he exists.  Not because he's bad.  Just because he's not interesting.  I'd just use the original Torpedo if I wanted a figure that looks like this.  But, I rarely do.  As I said before, Torpedo just didn't hit the right notes for me.  I loved all the later divers, though.  Both versions of the 1986 Wet Suit were vital to my childhood collection.  The '94 Shipwreck remains one of my favorite figures.  So, it's not divers that are the issue, it's just Torpedo.

Wetdown included the standard Torpedo gear.  He includes a silver spear gun.  At first, this weapon was unique to Wetdown.  And, it's kind of cool as the silver shows off the sculpting on the weapon that can be lost on black plastic.  The weapon later appeared with JvC Wet Suits and is much more common than Wetdown is.  The same is true of Wetdown's backpack.  Wetdown's version lacked any paint...a cost savings measure.  But, again, the same pack appeared multiple times in the JvC line.  He also included the standard black display stand that was required for all figures in this era.  Finally, he has a pair of black fins.  These are similar to the 1997 Torpedo's.  Though, there are slight plastic differences between the two.  The Torpedo mold needs Torpedo's gear.  The early Joe team got it right when it came to matching a figure sculpt to accessories.  And, one of the ARAHC's strengths was that many of the figures included their vintage gear to accentuate the overall value of their new, retail release.  So, that definitely works in Wetdown's favor.

After Torpedo's debut in 1983, he wasn't seen again in the vintage line.  He didn't even get another version.  (Wet Suit took over the SEAL character role and got all the updated sculpts.)  But, the mold was sent to India where Torpedo was a staple of early Funskool releases.  The most famous is a yellow Torpedo figure.  It's relatively hard to find.  Though, a few cases of them were unearthed in the 2010's.  The mold was returned to Hasbro for the 1997 releases.  Hasbro got some quick mileage out of the Torpedo mold.  First, he was released in 1997.  Then, this 2001 use for Wetdown was released.  But, then, the mold disappeared.  On one hand, it would have been good to see another Torpedo mold appear in 2004 or 2005 as part of a Comic Pack.  On the other hand, there wasn't much left to do with Torpedo and we didn't need another black and grey use of the mold.

Wave III of the ARAHC probably saw a truncated production run.  At least relative to Waves II and IV.  Wave III never really popped up in the clearance and discount stores of 2001 while those other waves were ubiquitous through 2002 and beyond.  But, that hasn't really translated to reduced availability or higher prices.  You can find Wetdown's relatively easily.  Dealers try to sell the figure in the $15-$20 range.  They don't sell.  He's, at best, an $8 figure.  Carded versions with Wet Suit sell in the $20 range.  That's the direction to take if you want the figure in your collection.  

With figures like this, don't take my cynicism as a reason to not own him.  Twenty Five years have passed since Wetdown was released.  And, he's holding up much better than 1983 Torpedo figures.  So, that has some value.  And, there are collectors who love to have newer versions of vintage Joes that have the softer plastic and that are less brittle than the originals.  I'm not sure why Torpedo never did it for me.  But, if you love the look of the the original, then there's value in this Wetdown for you, too.  He's definitely a figure where individual collector's mileage may vary.  Mine's just very, very short.