This arctic Big Ben is the figure that killed the ARAHC line. It was released just before Christmas in 2000. But, within just a few months, this Big Ben and his pack-mate, White Out, would ruin what had been an incredibly promising start to a Joe resurgence at retail. It's not this figure's fault, though. The reality is that he is an amazing update to a a character who was incredibly obscure at the turn of the century. But, things conspired against him and a series of bad decisions by Hasbro turned this promising repaint into one of the greatest pegwarmers of all time.
In 2000, collectors fell into two camps: those who felt the line ended after 1985 and those who felt it ended after 1987. It was nearly impossible to find loose figures made after 1989 as the kids who collected them had yet to really come online. As such, figures from 1990 and beyond were all but unknown. One of the reasons I started my site in late 1999 was because I felt that figures from the final years of the line deserved a place that would spotlight them so more collectors would become aware of their quality. So, when Hasbro pulled out some molds from the 1990's as repaints for the new line of Joe figures at retail, it was, for many collectors, the first time they'd really paid any attention to the figure molds or characters. And, in the case of Big Ben, they found a decent sculpt with great gear and a useful character. And, loose 1990 Big Bens weren't exactly common at the time. So, for many collectors of the day, the ARAHC repaints would be their first interactions with these molds. While there was some grumbling by the most militant of Joe collectors about the later mold inclusions, they were, generally, welcomed by the community since they seemed like new figures instead of just a standard repaint.
Now, we get to the meat of why this figure destroyed Joe's chances at retail. In 2000, the first wave of the ARAHC figures saw a modest launch. They were sold at Toys R Us, KB Toys, and Wal Mart. I do not recall if K-Mart picked up the first wave. But, Target definitely did not. However, the first wave sold relatively well. While it was never hard to find from October through December of 2000, it also didn't back up very much with the exception of the Cobra Commander/Chameleon two pack.
The reason those Cobras backlogged, though, was because they were 3 to a case. So, their overabundance was the result of a deliberate choice by Hasbro to try and help stave off demand. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were also 3 per case, but they sold more quickly. The remaining figure packs were all 2 per case. As the waves sold through, the Cobra Commander and Chameleon pack was the only real pegwarmer. But, if you hit a few Wal Marts or Toys R Us stores in a given day, you'd find every pack from the wave.
The strong sales both got other retailers (most importantly, Target) to start carrying the line and also expand the retail space allotted for the figures. So, Wave 2 (it should be noted that Hasbro named the waves with Roman Numerals. So, from here on out, I'll refer to them by that nomenclature. This only slightly matters because there were nearly two Wave 5's released in 2002.) quickly started hitting retailers. And, it hit in force. Stores got shipment after shipment of them. And, for a while, they sold pretty well. But, here's where two fatal flaws in Hasbro's logic converged to kill the line.
In 2001, interest in G.I. Joe surged. The combination of greater internet access, more children of the '80's coming online, a new comic and even the broader acceptance of buying online at places like Ebay lead to an uptick in interest that still hasn't been matched by the 2007 Anniversary figures or even the Classified 6" series of figures. Hundreds of new collectors came online every month. And, they were eager to buy up the memories of their childhood. Hasbro, was all too willing to meet the demand for these new figures. The problem was, though, that Hasbro stopped making Wave I cases. And, as such, only shipped Wave II cases in 2001. And, the Wave II case breakdown was pretty bad. It had three new 2 packs: Duke and Sidetrack, Major Bludd and the Rock Viper and Big Ben and White Out (a 1983 Snow Job repaint.) The figures were all fine. The case was rounded out with the carry overs of Snake Eyes/Stormshadow and Dusty/Law. To get to 12 figure packs per case, Hasbro decided to include 4 Big Ben/White Out packs per case. No other figure pack saw this case ratio. And, it was baffling. Sure, Snow Job was popular. But, in 2001, mint and complete Snow Jobs that were pristine white were still cheap and plentiful. And, no one really cared about Big Ben. So, the fact that they got the massive overpacks instead of the army builder was an odd choice.
And, it quickly proved disastrous. After a couple of months, Big Ben/White Out packs were falling off the shelves of most retail stores. While the other figures in the case weren't hard to find, you'd often only find a couple of them. They weren't pegwarming that badly. Just the extra Big Ben/White Outs were the problem. But, here's where everything compounds. For whatever reason, Hasbro didn't have a Wave III ready to go. So, Wave II cases shipped for 6 months. With nothing to take their place, the mountains of Big Ben/White Outs grew and grew. Only, now they were joined by all the other figures in the case, too. After months of not finding anything new, many casual buyers moved on. And, the pegwarmers got worse. By the time Wave III finally shipped in June of 2001, its production run was reduced as there wasn't room at the stores for too many new figures. Wave III sold well enough. But, it also wasn't around for very long. Hasbro dumped Wave IV to discount retailers just a couple of months later and the ARAHC was scrapped. Wave V was cancelled at retail and became online only. (At least one pack was cancelled out of this wave. And, while gate keeping dickheads liked to decry the rumor of a Crimson Viper, the fact that one appeared in a Convention set in 2002 lends credence to the theory that the figure had retail origins.)
Wave II cases started appearing at regional and overstock retailers. And, by early 2002, you could still buy all of the figures you wanted from Wave II for about $5/pack all over the US. But, as hard as it is to believe, the situation in Canada was actually worse. Canadian retailers got the same case ratios. But, the figures pegwarmed even harder there than they did in lower latitudes. Collectors did their best: many buying dozens of Rock Vipers they didn't even really want. But, the avalanche of Big Ben/White Out figures was simply too much. Retailers lost faith in the brand. And, more importantly, they completely lost faith in vintage style Joe repaints. They felt something new was necessary and that the old molds simply didn't have any more retail life in them.
Looking back, one simple tweak could have saved Hasbro from much of this. Hasbro had three packs that were out of production in 2001. And, at the time, the Firefly/Undertow pack would rise as high as $75 on the aftermarket. General Tomahawk/Dialtone easily fetched $35. There was huge unmet demand for the discontinued packs since so many new collectors had joined the community after they had disappeared from retail. (The 3 per case of Cobra Commander/Chameleon helped keep their demand lower. But, even tossing in 1 of them would have solved a lot of backup.) Had Hasbro just updated the case ratios to include 2 each of those figures instead of Big Ben/White Out, we likely have a very different history of retail Joe releases in the early 2000's. But, we also know that Hasbro had plans to scrap the vintage style figures very early on. And, the retail failure may have given them cover they desired to ensure the transition from vintage figures to the JvC went more smoothly. (It didn't.)
It was an unjust fate for this figure, though. I'll argue that this Big Ben repaint is one of the more sensical and useful repaints that Hasbro produced in the 2000's. Big Ben's sculpt was always bulky. And, it looks like he's wearing a cold weather jacket. So, painting in white for use in snowy environments was a natural progression and showed a bit of insight by the Hasbro team of the time. The gloves on his hand are about the only flaw as they are colored in a way that you can call them gloves. But, at the same time, they are close in color to Big Ben's face. So, it also kind of looks like he's bare handed. But, that's a small quibble with an otherwise strong color scheme.
The coloring on this figure is difficult to determine. He was always more of a creamy, off white color than a pure white figure like most of the vintage Arctic figures were. His pack and satchel, though, are bright white. As the 2000's plastic is discoloring at an alarming rate, it's difficult to determine just how off white this Big Ben should be. One of the photos below was taken in 2002. In it, he looks whiter than the figure is today. But, this could be a function of the overexposed flash that I used when I took the photo two decades ago. So, be mindful of the coloring on this figure when you look to acquire one. The upper arms are going to be the first to go and you can see a slight difference between them and the rest of the figure in the newer photos below. But, the figure always had a cream-ish hue and was never pure white.
One other oddity on this Big Ben is that he features an AT logo on his arm. This is an homage to Adventure Team. Except, there's nothing documenting that fact. So, there's no real reason for this to appear on the figure aside from the Hasbro executive at the time desperately trying to tie the 3 3/4" line to the 12" line of his youth. It was a hail Mary to attract 40-something aged collectors who had grown up with the 12" line instead of exclusively catering to the burgeoning 20-something collecting demographic that was quickly dominating any Joe online forum. It's an interesting anachronism. But, it's also a vivid example of why vintage Joes never made a proper comeback. They were always made to appeal to everyone except the kids who grew up with them and made the brand so powerful in the 1980's.
Early photos of carded sets featuring this Big Ben showed him including a bi-pod for his rifle. However, this accessory was removed late in the process and never shipped with any Big Ben that was produced in the 2000's. This is unfortunate. As, in my view, the bi-pod fundamentally changes the visual representation of this rifle. It really made no sense why this wasn't included. Especially, since 2002 Big Bens included an XMLR rifle that more than offset the cost savings of the bi-pod's exclusion. It seems the photos of the carded sets with the bi-pod have been lost to time. Otherwise, Big Ben included all the gear of the vintage figure: a rifle, huge backpack, satchel and grenades.
For me, this figure remains bittersweet. I was so excited to find one at Christmas in 2000. I even wanted to take him to snow in the mountains to get some photos of him. But, just a few months later, the figure was just the bane of my existence as it was everywhere. And, it was just painful to see the hatred the figure got from a frustrated collecting community when, pegwarming notwithstanding, the figure was actually a spectacular repaint of one of Hasbro's premier designs from the '90's. This figure was also further diminished when Hasbro released two more decent Big Ben repaints in 2002 and yet another one in 2003 and continued to use his chest and other parts on figures through 2005. Big Ben overkill helped bury this figure. And, after two decades, some of that stink still persists despite the actual figure's overall quality.
Dealers now try to sell this figure for up to $30 or more. You'll see them selling carded versions in the $40 range. But, on the open market, the carded set is about $20. If you can find complete figures, they are likely in the $10-$12 range, which seems high. For a figure that pegwarmed for so long as as hard as it did, these prices seem out of whack. But, this Big Ben is also a pretty strong figure. So, some collector interest also makes sense. If you're a fan of arctic Joes, you need this Big Ben as it's a solid addition to a winter team. His history as a retail disaster is behind him and for younger collectors who don't recall piles of him at every store, you can look at the figure on his own and appreciate it for the quality repaint it is.
