1985 Snake Eyes

How do you approach a figure that is generally regarded as the most popular and most important figure in the entire Joe line?  The figure isn't "forgotten" by any means.  It is also a mold that is personal and dear to collectors of multiple generations.  While there are admitted flaws in the figure's design, they are forgivable due to the overall quality of the the release.  I've avoided writing about this figure for 25 years.  Yes, officially, this Snake Eyes marks the 25th anniversary of me profiling G.I. Joe figures.  And, really, the only choice for such an occasion is the most popular figure in the history of the Joe line: the 1985 Snake Eyes.

In very early 1985, a kid in my class heard rumors of new G.I. Joe figures showing up at the local KB Toys store.  Since the Dreadnoks had come out early, pretty much everyone was aware of who would be part of the 1985 line.  And, the cartoon from the prior fall had made Flint, Lady Jaye and Shipwreck early front runners to be the favorites.  Everyone, though, was also highly curious about the new Commando figure.  We all knew it was a new Snake Eyes and were desperate to add him to our collection as a foil to the then brand new 1984 Stormshadow figure.  I finally got my mother to take me to the local KB on a Friday after we got mid term grades.  Sure enough, 1985 Joes were falling off the pegs.  My young mind could barely take in all the various newness that was strewn about the pegs.  I found a Flint.  But, I put him back because his head drooped and I thought he was broken in the package.  (I didn't know about the new head articulation.)  I ended up buying Footloose and Airtight.  My youngest brother got a Crimson Guard.  While I looked over the figures, a clerk came over and remarked about how they had gotten a couple of the "Commando" figures and they had sold out right away.  On one level, I was disappointed I had missed out on this figure.  But, on the other hand, there was so many other amazing new releases that any disappointment was washed away.

Over the next few weeks, my two best friends and I had a friendly competition over who could find the most new figures.  At the time, we didn't know the code-names for the Tele Viper or Snow Serpent.  And, my one friend was oddly bothered by the fact that no one had found a Lady Jaye figure.  None of us really pined over Snake Eyes, though.  Stormshadow, from the year prior, had not really become available at retail until the Fall and my friend had ended up ordering exta figures from JC Penny's to get a Stormshadow figure after being frustrated at retail for a year.  We assumed Snake Eyes would be similar and we'd not see hide nor hair of him until the leaves began to turn.  

The Friday that Spring Break began, though, my mother took us grocery shopping to stock up on food while we were home for the week.  Both of my friends and their families were going to Florida for the time off.  The local Cub Foods in Indianapolis was very close to the Toys R Us.  And, as a quid pro quo for us going shopping and bagging all the groceries, my mom would stop at TRU and let us browse before we'd go to the supermarket.  When we arrived, nothing seemed all that different.  I made my way to the Joe aisle where I saw a box on the floor.  This box turned out to be a yet to be stocked case of 1985 Joes.  I slowly peeled back the flaps that hid the contents inside.  I scanned the exposed accessory bubbles for anything of interest.  My eyes immediately fixated on a grey wolf.  I yanked the figure out of the case and held the 1985 Snake Eyes figure in my hand for the first time.  I was trembling at my luck.  My mother, though, failed to see the significance of the find and refused to buy me or my brothers anything.  Fortunately, I had my own money and took my prize to the front where he became mine.  In the hullaballoo, I'm sure I bypassed not only my missing Flint, but also Lady Jaye and the yet to be named Tele Viper and Snow Serpent.  But, I only had enough to buy one figure and it was going to be Snake Eyes.

I got Snake Eyes home and opened him up.  Immediately, I posed him with my other new 1985 figures on top of the Bridge Layer.  The new Snake Eyes was just so cool that I didn't do much more than admire him for that first afternoon and evening.  I can still recall turning on the light in my room after bedtime, just to make sure that Snake Eyes was still sitting there, next to Alpine, Airtight and Footloose.  I still wasn't sure that finding him had been a dream.  But, it wasn't. And, in the ensuing days of having no friends to play with, Snake Eyes became the focal point of my adventures.  He battled Stormshadow, would kill scores of Cobras and even just do mundane things around my Joe base.  But, mostly I just admired him.  I found the sculpt and design enthralling.  And, I'd try to dream up adventures for the figure where I felt all aspects of the figure could be used.

In the zeal of youth, I called my friends when I got home.  They, though, were both already gone.  I let each of their phones ring more than 20 times (it was the days before answering machines were common) but did not connect with them.  When we returned to school around 10 days later, neither believed my luck until I brought my new Snake Eyes over to their respective houses.  It was months before either of them found a Snake Eyes.  And, in that time, I was pretty much a dick who wouldn't let anyone play with mine.  In fact, there were times I didn't play with mine as I didn't want to break him.  But, having the figure provided more value than the actual character did.

This revelation, though, proved pivotal in my long term evaluation of this 1985 Snake Eyes figure.  While I did, eventually, play my original to death and broke his thumb, I also found that this version of Snake Eyes was almost too cool to use.  Many times, I would take the figure along, but never actually use him.  It was tough to integrate Snake Eyes into my play.  A big part of this was that my adventures of that era were heavy on dialogue to move the plot along.  Snake Eyes being mute made it difficult for him to be an integral player aside from carrying out a specific task or objective.  This lead to Snake Eyes often being set out of the way, waiting for his time in the spotlight.  This backfired on me, too.

After my original Snake Eyes broke, I got another one at some point in 1986.  This figure was better cared for and continued to tag along on great missions.  He was always included in the "away" force that traveled with me to may grandparents' or aunt and uncle's homes.  It was in my grandparents' backyard in Dayton, Ohio that my second Snake Eyes disappeared.  My grandparents had a great backyard in which to play.  It was terraced into three levels by limestone walls full of ledges, pipes and ivy.  Years later, Hit and Run would be hidden among this ivy for months after I forgot him due to his excellent camouflage.  I do not, though, know where my Snake Eyes went.  The stairway to the third terrace in the yard was lined with fresh potting soil and newly planted geraniums.  It's likely that I left Snake Eyes here and he was tilled under before I could find him.  So, Snake Eyes disappeared from my collection once again.  In late 1987, I paid a classmate $10 for both his 1985 Snake Eyes and a complete with microphone Heavy Metal.  (This seems like a deal, now, just due to Heavy Metal.  But, it seemed a princely sum in 1987.)  This Snake Eyes survived for many years.  Around 1996, he and my childhood Stormshadow were set in a permanent duel on a shelf in my room.  When I moved to AZ, then ended up in a Crown Royal bag for the move and stayed there until 2001.  At that point, he was incorporated into my general collection and is, to the best of my knowledge, one of the three or four 1985 Snake Eyes figures I still own today.

Snake Eyes did take on another life in my collection.  The unbroken parts of my original figure were used to make a new, custom character.  This individual was a "mystic warrior" who was trained in martial arts, but also fantasy magic.  He could speak, giving him a tremendous advantage over Snake Eyes.  He also, though, was torn between the world of military discipline and devout practice of his chosen arts.  As I grew into a 1990's jaded Gen X-er, this character turned his back on the Joes and went off to study in the Rocky Mountains.  Cobra, though, managed to train an assassin who would go insane and then started killing world politicians: setting the stage for a post Cold War World War III.  The Snake Eyes character was pulled out of retirement and sent to find and kill the maniacal assassin.  In the end, he was successful in doing so.  But, then also viewed his debt to G.I. Joe fully paid.  Though, he had one final use.  As an old man, he helped to arrange the killing of General Hawk, forcing G.I. Joe to face the realities of the world in the late 2010's.  If he's ever found out, he will die in prison.  But, the stakes were too high and his final, horrible act is also the one that saves the team and allows them to grow before the world passed them by.

Snake Eyes' accessories are damn near perfection.  The weak link, for me, is one of the aspects of the figure that most other collectors hold as the highlight: the inclusion of Timber.  Timber is well sculpted and commands a premium by himself.  I've never really gotten this as I don't much care for animal companions in general.  But, the wolf is a key element of the figure.  Hasbro sculpted a new Uzi for this Snake Eyes version.  It is nearly identical to the original from 1982/1983.  But, it has a thicker barrel and is jet black in lieu of the charcoal colored original.  The figure then includes a well detailed black backpack.  Into this pack fits the character's sword.  The sword is the highlight for me as it's well detailed and a huge step forwards in terms of toy making from both the 1984 Stormshadow katanas and the contemporary 1985 Quick Kick sword.  Something about the shape of the sword just added to the overall mystique of the figure and it remains my favorite sword in the line.

Snake Eyes was released by Hasbro in 1985 and 1986.  The Hasbro figure was available in Europe and Japan.  Estrela got the figure around the early 1990's and produced a nearly identical figure to this Snake Eyes named Lobisomem (Werewolf).  Thus ends the life of this mold.  Yup, that's it.  What is, arguably, the best and most desirable mold in the entire vintage Joe line was used just twice in nearly identical paint schemes.  It was never repainted in any meaningful way.  Hasbro planned the mold for a 1997 release.  The painted mock up is, basically, the 1985 figure with more details.  It would have been a hugely popular release.  But, Hasbro couldn't find the mold.  So, it was replaced with a V1 Snake Eyes hybrid.  Hasbro remade molds for the vintage Crimson Guard, Cobra Trooper, Cobra Officer, Lady Jaye, Mutt and Scrap Iron.  Yet, they never bothered to remake the iconic 1985 Snake Eyes.

This, though, is likely a factor of Snake Eyes' general success.  Hasbro had no incentive to make a new Snake Eyes in the vein of the 1985 because they had access to the 1982, 1989 and 1991 molds.  Those fulfilled the demand for Snake Eyes well enough that it made no sense for them to incur extra expense to make something new for the character.  Had they chosen to re-do this 1985 mold, though, they probably could have repainted it 4 times before collectors tired of it.  So, there is simply an untold amount of untapped potential in the mold.  

In the late 2010's, though, Black Major released waves of 1985 Snake Eyes repaints.  There were nearly 30 of them in the first three waves.  I'm unsure of the final number of repaints that Black Major eventually released.  Most of them were Cobras and sold as flavors of the Cobra Mortal or Cobra Invasor.  But, there are some great versions that can be used as Snake Eyes.  In 2022, Hasbro brought back o-ring Joes.  The first set was Snake Eyes and Stormshadow.  The box artwork showed the 1985 Snake Eyes.  But, the actual figure was based on the 1983 design.  So, as of this writing, Hasbro has never redone one of the most popular figures in the line's entire history.

One thing that the Black Major repaints showcased, though, was that the 1985 Snake Eyes mold has some flaws.  Collectors were willing to forgive the oddly sculpted mouth behind the mask and, even, the slight pot belly that adorns Snake Eyes' stomach.  But, with all the repaints you could ever want now available, those design flaws in the mold became more pronounced.  The black plastic hid the flaws in a much better way than the lighter colors used one some Black Major designs did.  And, it shows that this Snake Eyes mold isn't perfect.  But, collectors can overlook that because this 1985 update is such an improvement over the 1983 Snake Eyes.  

For me, though, the 1985 Snake Eyes is, entirely, seen through the eyes of 11 year old me who found him months before anyone else on that Toys R Us floor.  The figure holds a mystique because it was the single item that every kid my age wanted.  I used him on adventure after adventure.  And, despite all that, I still feel that I didn't use him enough.  I don't have specific memories of him because I could never quite get a story that was as cool as his figure.  So, I still feel that this figure is underutilized in my collection.  I've found it difficult to photograph him in a way that I feel showcases the awesomeness of the figure.  So, to this day, I can't seem to capture the essence of how awesome I've always felt this figure actually was.

The 1985 Snake Eyes has always been expensive.  Back in the early 2000's, they were among the first figures to climb over $30.  Then, slowly, the went over $50.  But, in the doldrums of the early 2010's, the figures settled into that $30 range.  But, when the Joe world went nuts in 2018, this Snake Eyes was among the most affected.  For a time, mint and complete with filecard figures would flirt with $200.  They found a steady price in the $125 - $150 range, though.  As the market has softened, this Snake Eyes has gotten more affordable.  There are just too many of them out there to really remain among the more expensive figures.  Now, you can find nicely conditioned and complete figures in the $80 range.  And, if you're patient, can probably put a complete one together from different sources for less than that.  Dealers will still get $100+ from impatient and uninformed buyers.  You do need to watch for wear on the silver wrist dart as it's the most common place for paint loss.  And, unscrupulous dealers will equip him with a 2000's era Hasbro Uzi.  (It has a different mold and is very easy to spot from a trained eye.)  But, common, loose figures aren't the plum they were in the last hurrah of Joe pricing.  And, we're starting to see them fall into more normal ranges.  Carded figures, though, are a different story as they remain pricey.

And, with that, 25 years of writing about a toy line that lasted for only 13 is complete.  I've come to realize that my continued fascination with Joe is 100% rooted in my frustrated creative juices.  I've ignored my life long pangings to be a writer due to a crippling fear of failure.  So, instead, I've talked about the toys that were the ignition for that creative spark that still ripples through my mind.  I can't really wrap my head around the notion of 25 years, though.  It seems an impossibly long time and also a chronological flash that has raced by.  Collecting has been fun, frustrating and a hassle.  I've met a lot of great people.  And, had a lot of fun.  I have no idea what the next 25 years will hold.  But,if it's like the journey from 1999 through 2024, it will be an interesting ride.

20th Anniversary Key Moments - European Force

 In 2016, I offered my first ever Rarities Month.  This showcase of rare and oddball items from the Joe world was a huge hit.  And, the most popular post of that figure year was of the European Force knock off figures.  I had first discovered these figures in the early 2000's.  And, in 2016, I was surprised to find that over a decade later, there still wasn't much information on them out there.  With the publication of my first European Force article, though, more information came to light.  I found more photos of them.  And, within a couple of years, discovered that a select few European collectors were hoarding them and not sharing photos so that they could buy up the European stock for cheap and sell it privately to American collectors at a huge mark up.  Seems Joeluminati shit isn't limited to American collectors.  Now, I've done a European Force write up four out of five of my Rarities Months.  And, each year, they are very popular and I get messages from collectors remarking how they had never seen these figures before.

And, with this post, I'm done with my 20th Anniversary retrospective.  This has been a weird year.  G.I. Joe returned to retail.  But, even a "retro" offering was nothing more than a disappointment to vintage Joe fans.  Despite that, you could make a case that the Classified series is the hottest collectible of the year.  The movie is delayed.  But, it also seems no one cares about that.  Prices are up, but they're also down.  You can get deals and also quadruple your money with a lucky retail find.  So, in short, I have no idea where the community is going.   I suspect 2021 will bring more clarity.  Until then, I soldier on....

20th Anniversary Key Moments - Black Major Cobra Mortal

 Around 2009, bootleg Cobra Troopers began to show up.  At first, the figures were all Cobra blue and made to match the original Hasbro release.  Slowly, though, new, exclusive color schemes began to appear.  Collectors quickly adopted the new designs and the first factory custom figures were a huge success that flourished among collectors of the era.  Around 2010, the second figure mold for factory customs appeared.  This time, it was a V1 Snake Eyes mold.  While this may seem odd, the figure was quickly painted into Cobra Invasors and Cobra Mortals and sold to collectors who craved these characters in cheaper and more useful color varieties.

One of the first figures I reviewed when I restarted this blog in 2012 was the Black Major blue Cobra Mortal.  This figure resonated with me since the Mortal character worked better with both a less ostentatious outfit and also colors that were more in line with early Cobra from 1982 and 1983.  This blue figure fit both criteria and quickly became one of my prominent figures in photos from the time.  

Even today, this remains one of my favorite Black Major figures.  The blue matches the classic Cobra Trooper blue.  And, the swivel head also matches pre-1985 figures.  In short, it's a perfect match for early Joe figures.  Early Cobra was short on characters who wouldn't become main characters.  So, having a chance at some figures to represent foreign characters that could fill in middle management roles in Cobra is welcomed.

In the years since, there's been a small, vocal contingent of collectors who are against Black Major figures.  But, in the past decade, these factory customs are all vintage Joe collectors have left.  Hasbro turned their backs on that style and not even a "retro" line was enough to bring back the classic look.  So, fortunately, these figures exist to keep collectors engaged...even if Hasbro doesn't care.

20th Anniversary Key Moments - 2004 Unproduced Caucasian Desert Stalker

 In the early to mid 2000's, tons of weird Joe figures started appearing for sale from Asia G.I. Joe sellers.  At first, the community wasn't sure what to make of these figures.  Slowly, though, it became obvious that many of them were legit unproduced concepts that were changed prior to production.  Of course, these figures caused a rift in the community.  Some said they were stolen or that Hasbro would repossess them.  The Club got super duper butt hurt when some of their convention figures leaked early from Asian markets.  Others, though, loved the chance to get something different than what was released at retail.  And, some of the figures ended being far superior to anything ever released in stores.  These figures were a staple of mid 2000's Ebay and were even available from some kind of sketchy websites for a few years afterwards.  Among the releases, though, were a wide disparity of offerings in terms of rarity.  Some figures were insanely common, always available and sold cheaply...even if they were excellent figures or army builders.  Others, though, were far less common and only appeared infrequently or not at all on public sites.  One of the rarer figures is this Caucasian Stalker figure from the Toys R Us Desert set from 2004.

There's no way this figure was ever considered for release.  The figure's white skin and blonde hair is an obvious holdover from when this mold was used for Duke.  It is possible that these figures were mold tests to see how the colors worked out.  Aside from the skin tone, the other obvious change is that the straps, holster and gloves of the figure are in a leathery brown color scheme instead of the much darker, greyer color of the production figures.  And, while this figure is an oddity, it's a fun oddity because it's both so different from anything released but uses one of the best Hasbro figures of the era as its base.

For a while, I was heavily into the alternate, Asian releases.  The figures were cool in some ways.  But, I'm someone who likes lots of variety.  So, having figures in alternate color schemes was fun.  Sadly, most of those figures were sold during my collection purge from a decade ago.  And, now, there's no way I'm paying 10 times the original prices to get them back.  Few figures offered something different enough from the production figure to be worthwhile.  This Stalker isn't one of them.  The retail figure is far superior.  Though, this look makes for an interesting display piece.

These days, the once common Asian figures have dried up and have gotten pricey.  This Stalker will sell for stupid amounts and many modern collectors will talk about how there's only a "few" of them: not realizing how common most of these figures (even the Tiger Force Steel Brigade) were in the mid 2000's.  But, the figure is a conversation starter and, even at the time of its creation, was rarer than most of the other "Midnight Chinese" figures that overran Ebay.  

20th Anniversary Key Moments - 1993 Cyber Viper

The Cyber Viper has occupied two prime slots in my timeline.  The first time I reviewed the figure was back in 2004 for the site's 5th anniversary.  That was the final profile of my site as it existed in that format under that domain name.  After that Cyber Viper profile, it was a full 6 months before I wrote about another figure.  And, it was now under the JoeCustoms.com domain instead of my own.  The second time I looked at the figure was nearly 10 years later: on January 1st, 2014.  In both instances, though, the figure's bright colors, excellent mold and untapped potential dominated my perception and expressions.

The Cyber Viper is a perfect analog for my site simply because he has always been somewhat hard to find, is ridiculously colored and also has a ton of untapped potential.  I've long wanted figures like the Cyber Viper to get the respect they deserve.  And, in the 2000's, I was a staunch advocate of Hasbro repainting 1990's molds instead of the 1980's figures that so many other collectors clamored for.  In the cases where Hasbro did look at someone from the 1990's, they often produced a high quality repaint.  But, in almost every instance, collectors ignored it.  The community just wasn't ready for repaints of the newest vintage Joe molds.

I'm a critic of the 2000's era Hasbro because they so thoroughly wasted their mold library with far too many releases of the same molds over and over again while ignoring many figures like this Cyber Viper who had amazing potential, but poor initial colors.  However, the reality of the time must be factored in.  Hasbro did attempt to bring back a few of their later molds in better colors or retconned as more popular characters.  In each and every instance, though, these releases failed.  Big Ben was a retail disaster despite the fact that each repaint of him was very good to excellent.  Nobody cared about the convention repaints of the Ferret, Mega Viper or 1994 Viper.  Mirage pegwarmed even though he was packed with a Viper repaint!  Collectors punished Hasbro for innovation.  So, they had zero incentive to actually try to find obscure molds like the Cyber Viper and update them in better colors.

Now, we're left with a fun, ostentatious figure that has started to fall out of the range of many collectors.  And, that's too bad.  Everyone should be able to revel in the '90's wackiness that invaded the Joe line.  But, this Cyber Viper is also useful and fun.  He goes well with '90's vehicles and does look good in a variety of displays.  His colors pop in photos and the details of mold are always appreciated by collectors who either overlook him or simply can't find one for a price they are comfortable with.  

In looking back at my writings on Cyber Vipers, I mention both times that the figure is hard to find.  Looking at the $12 price point for a mint, loose and complete figure in 2004 and the $22 price for the same in 2014, you see two prices that seem cheap now, but were actually rather high for those time periods.  Now, mint and complete Cyber Vipers routinely fetch $70+.  That's way too much for a figure who lacks name recognition, is poorly colored and has non-descript accessories.  But, in 2020, collectors are paying for scarcity, be it real or artificial.  So, you see high prices for both the Cyber and Mega Viper figures since the Mega Marines were produced in lower quantities than other 1993 releases.  It's a sad state of affairs as figures like this were fun when they were cheap.  At current pricing, you lose some of the silliness factor that drove the early 90's neon era.

20th Anniversary Key Moments - 1985 Snow Cat

In early 2003, I decided to look at the first vehicle on the site.  At the time, I was running low on figures to talk about.  And, as I had managed to get a few pictures out in the snow, I thought something like the Snow Cat made for a great way to show off some of the weather inspired photos I had managed to get. The Snow Cat was also a favorite vehicle from my childhood that survived relatively unscathed.  So, I did a little write up on it and vehicles were now part of the items I reviewed on the site.

But, the notion of vehicles was short-lived.  In the early years, I only looked a few.  And, in pretty much every case, I was not satisfied with the work I had done and felt the profiles were lacking.  As all my collection was boxed up in late 2003 and didn't get opened until 2005, vehicles fell the wayside and there were very few of them for a long time.

As a kid, vehicles were fun.  But, while Hasbro and many kids felt that vehicles were the driver of the line, I felt that they were a nice supplement to the figures.  While I'd play with vehicles inside, it was rare to take more than one outside.  And, even when I did, it was the figures who got the use and the vehicle became more of a piece of the landscape than a driver of the action.  I recall taking a box of vehicles to my grandparents' house and not playing with any of them since it was more fun to hide figures in their various gardens.  So, while vehicles were important, they were also secondary to the characters and actions of the figures.

In recent years, though, I've grown to appreciate vehicles more.  For a very long time, they were dirt cheap.  In many cases, you'd pay more for shipping a vehicle than you would for the toy itself.  (There were exceptions, of course.)  So, that made some of the vehicles I'd long neglected more attractive.  And, as I've added them, I've had more occasion to write about them on the site.  In the past few years, I've profiled more vehicles than ever before.  And, I've been more satisfied with the results, too.

Now, though, my vehicles are boxed up, again.  And, once again, I have no real indication of how long they will simply be cardboard prisoners in my garage.  I have a few that I want to review.  And, at some point in the next two years I'll get to the long awaited BUGG profile.  But, for now, I'll try to find some time to look at whatever's at the top of a box that I can get out for a quick photo shoot.  The Joe line is so diverse in vehicle offerings in terms of purpose and size that they are a line unto themselves.  

20th Anniversary - Key Moments 2002 Shock Viper

In the latter part of 2001, information appeared that showed a planned fifth wave of retail figures for the A Real American Hero Collection that had adorned toy shelves since 2000.  But, these toys were not to be.  Wave II of the series had stagnated at retail, leading to lower production on Wave III and Wave IV being dumped to overstock and discount retail outlets.  The fifth wave was cancelled and vintage Joe collectors were being shepherded into the JvC figure style that would replace vintage Joe repaints in 2002.

But, a funny thing happened on the way to the fair.  As the figures in Wave V were relatively far along, Hasbro decided to offer the wave to only online Joe dealers.  Such a thing seems normal today.  But, in 2002, this was outright novel.  At that point, no line had seen an internet exclusive.  So, Hasbro's handling of the final wave of the ARAHC was ground-breaking.  Dealers appeared to line up to buy the figures and even did pre-orders.  Collectors warmed up and, on the night of February 15th, 2002, they swarmed the SmallJoes.com website to order sets from the only dealer who was selling the figure packs individually.

The reality of Wave V is that only two dealers actually ordered them from Hasbro.  Entertainment Earth and SmallJoes.com were the only sellers who got their stock direct.  Several smaller G.I. Joe dealers bought bulk cases from EE and resold them.  This makes these figures among the rarest "retail" figures Hasbro ever produced.  It's unlikely there were even 5,000 of each figure made.  This has lead to figures that are somewhat hard to find today.  Of the 8 figures in the wave, though, only two have really found any staying power in the community.  And, they were sold together.

Serpentor is the most famous figure from the wave.  I'd argue that the 2002 Serpentor is the best version of the character that's available.  But, the Shock Viper isn't far behind.  Based on the then obscure Ice Cream Soldier mold, the Shock Viper was decently colored and featured a nice cadre of weapons.  As is was mostly impossible for early collectors to have more than 6 of them, the figure morphed into both a character that collectors justified in smaller numbers and one that was overly desirable.

In the ensuing years after his release, the Shock Viper always remained the most popular figure from this wave.  He was never easy to find.  But, carded and loose versions weren't bank-breaking.  In recent years, though, that has started to change.  Both Serpentor and the Shock Viper have gotten substantially more expensive.  And, to this day, it's exceedingly rare to see armies of Shock Vipers in the collecting community.

For me, though, this wave represented the beginning of the end.  Hasbro had moved on from vintage Joes in 2002 and the vintage figures never again saw Hasbro's focus.  At the same time, the collecting community was beginning to mature.  The community aspect of collecting waned and collectors turned more competitive in their pursuits of larger armies or rarer items.  In 2001, it was still possible to conduct trades that were measured in the wants of the parties involved.  After 2002, the dollar value of a trade was usually the only consideration.  This was inevitable as the core Joe collector group aged, got better jobs and began to stratify.  We see the results of that today.  Looking back at this Shock Viper, though, reminds me of a simpler time when the hobby was more innocent and even a bit more fun.

20th Anniversary Key Moments - Escorpiao Voador (Cobra Flying Scorpion)

As 2001 progressed, foreign figures became a bigger part of the site.  But none made such an impression as the Escorpiao Voador figure from Brazil.  In August of 2001, Brazilian figures were mostly unknowns.  Few collectors cared about them and those who did usually ended at the Cobra Invasor or Cobra De Aco.  The later run figures popped up for sale from time to time.  But, they rarely made a splash in the Joe world.  Few collectors really considered loose foreign figures as integral parts of a collection and photos of them out in the wild were simply unheard of.  Slowly, that changed.  And, I like to think I played a part in that transition.

The Flying Scorpion is an interesting concoction.  The legs from Scoop and chest and arms from Recoil work well enough.  The Cesspool head, though, gives the figure a more serious appearance.  Making the character black, though, completely changes the look of the head and makes this figure appear not as a repainted kitbash, but something completely new.  Unfortunately, in hand, you see that the head is a bit large for the body and isn't a perfect fit.  Little quality details like this can gnaw at you for a while.  But, taken as a whole the figure looks like it was created as a single release rather than parts of many others.

And, it was this look that drove me to find this figure.  In the summer of 1994, I sketched out several Cobra characters who would dominate my post vintage Joe world.  As I tracked down the ghosts of the retail line, I was able to apply some of the newly released figures to those characters.  But, the flagship character: the Cobra who would become Commander and lead the organization to great glory, was a character I could not pin to a figure.  None of the releases I was finding were worthy of such a noteworthy part of my Joe lore.  When a collector's offhand comment about this recolored Cesspool head caught my attention, I discovered the figure that would represent the future of my Cobra hierarchy.  Within a few months of searching, I tracked down a MOC figure.  I waited a long month for the Brazilian post office to get the figure to me.  And, upon his receipt, sliced open the bubble and the most important character in my Cobra command structure was finally represented in plastic form.

The Flying Scorpion has yet to disappoint.  Over the years, I've found that he's rarely someone I photograph, though.  This is partially due to the fact that his helmet was deteriorating inside the bubble of the figure I opened only 7 years after his retail release.  It's also due to the fairly brittle nature of the figure.  I'm afraid I'll snap a thumb or crotch should I pose the figure in the wrong manner or try to force an accessory into his hand.  So, he's only appeared in a handful of photo shoots in the site's history.  Despite that, though, the spectre of the figure looms large over the entire site as he remains one my most famous profiles and a figure that remains associated with this site to a great extent.

In the nearly 20 years since I showcased this figure, he's gone from a $30 MOC figure to a $200+ loose figure.  High quality loose samples are few and far between.  Carded samples have gotten even scarcer.  Collectors have made him a staple of their custom efforts.  And, he even appeared in a convention set.  (Though, it was a pretty tame anniversary style figure.)  He remains one of the most popular foreign characters and many people are willing to shell out large sums of money for him due to the uniqueness of the figure and his distinctive appearance within the Cobra ranks.

Though the years, my various sites have seen a fair share of traffic.  I'm never the top Joe site.  And, even in the site's heyday of 150,000+ hits per month, it wasn't close to the top 5.  But, enough people stopped by to reach the various Flying Scorpion profiles that I do take credit for popularizing him (and his companion, the Abutre Negro figure!) in the Joe world.  That's probably quite a bit of hubris talking.  But, the ensuing popularity of this figure is something that I feel responsible for.  Even today, the original Flying Scorpion profile remains one of the most popular posts on the entire site.  The reality is that I was just the first to showcase the figure.  Had I not, someone else would have since the figure is of excellent quality.  But, if the Flying Scorpion is my legacy to the collecting community, I can consider my time here a success.

20th Anniversary Key Moments - 1995 Unproduced Dr. Mindbender

In 1999, I dropped way too much money on a figure that was sold as a 1995 Battle Rangers Flint prototype.  I missed out, though, on the figure I really wanted: the unproduced 1995 Battle Rangers Dr. Mindbender.  The person who bought it had every intention of hiding it away and keeping it from collectors.  But, a cool thing happened: turns out the dealer selling the prototypes had an extra Mindbender and he sold it to another collector who kept photos of it in the community.  As luck would have it, this person wanted to sell his right at the time I was in position to buy one.  And, with a little negotiating, the 1995 Dr. Mindbender entered my collection in May of 2001.

I like weird figures.  G.I. Joe's appeal to me was that it wasn't just some random military line where every guy was in the same color and basic uniform.  Really, it was super heroes that happened to be in the military.  And, wacky figures that stretched the boundaries of realism were what attracted me to the line and kept me in to this day.  This Dr. Mindbender would have been the culmination of that tradition.  The figure is an homage to the self-mutilating 1993 Dr. Mindbender while also having roots in the iconic 1986 version.  It would have been the perfect benchmark villain for 1995.  But, that never got to be.

The Joe line died before this figure saw the light of day.  Many collectors deride the 1990's as moving off topic of the classic Joe of the 1980's.  But, really, only 1993 heavily strayed from the military fantasy of the bygone decade.  1994 did have Star Brigade and Hasbro was going to go heavy on the aliens and Manimals in later 1994 and 1995.  But, the core of the Battle Corps Rangers would have matched with the 1994 Battle Corps in that it was pretty true to the line's roots.  And, 1995 would have seen many classic characters return to the line...just like we saw in 1994.  In short, it wasn't the neon or a loss of focus on Joe's core that derailed the line.  G.I. Joe had just run it's course after 13 consecutive years of retail release.  1995 would not have saved the line.  But, had it seen production, it's likely that collectors of 2020 would be hugely over-paying for the lower production runs that surely would have accompanied the 1995 retail releases.

This Mindbender really started a trend for me showcasing more and more rare figures.  Mostly, I branched into foreign Joes as those became my focal point after my acquisition of this Mindbender.  And, from the summer of 2001 through 2004, the site became known more for foreign and rare releases than the actual lesser appreciated figures that had driven the first 18 months of the site's life.  It was a reputation that lasted for a long time.  In the past 5 years, though, I've exhausted my supply of rare releases.  So, I've turned more to the site's roots of finding uncovered gems or just odd figures that no one cares about.  Each focus was aligned with my collecting philosophy of the time.

I no longer own this Mindbender.  He was a casualty of my collection purge in the early 2010's.  I simply didn't have a need to own him any longer and got a good enough offer that it made sense to liquidate him.  In some ways, I regret it.  This figure is great and it was always fun owning a piece of Joe history.  But, in other ways, it made no sense to hold onto a figure that was barely a display piece.  My collection is focused on loose toys as that's what I played with as a kid and appreciate today.  This Mindbender wasn't painted and, therefore, wasn't all that useful to me beyond being a conversation piece.

Since 2001, a lot more of these figures have surfaced.  We even have found hand painted samples.  And, Hasbro released the intended card for this figure a few years ago.  So, we know a lot more about him than we did 19 years ago.  But, the age of social media is swallowing the Joe knowledge that's out there.  And, photos, info and stories of figures like this Mindbender are lost in private groups and the poor search functions that plague sites whose only purpose for existing is to get users to constantly share new content (so they can sell ads).  The Joe world is losing its collective archive and most of the discoveries of the past decade are not well documented in a place that's easily accessible to Joe fans.  I bought this Mindbender to help prevent that from happening.  For a while, things were OK.  But, the past few years have turned the tide and the secretive nature of the Joe world has won out and collectors of today simply don't have access to the recesses of the Joe line's history and many gems like this Mindbender will simply never be known to the Joe collecting public.  And, that's too bad.

20th Anniversary - Key Moments Tiger Force Outback

On September 8th of 2000, this site took a major step.  On that day, I profiled the very first foreign figure to appear on the site: the European exclusive Tiger Force Outback.  In looking back at my thoughts on the figure at the time, my approach to foreign figures is almost laughable.  My naivete shone through and I had no idea that foreign Joe collecting was going to come to dominate not only the most popular posts on the site, but also the near entirety of my collecting focus for the next four or five years.

In reality, the Tiger Force Outback was my second foreign figure that I acquired.  The Chinese Major Bludd had arrived into my collection a few weeks earlier.  But, there was something about the Outback that spoke to me.  The look of the figure was so different from the American offerings of the character that it captured my attention in a way that few figures ever had.  Even after acquiring a vast amount of other foreign figures, Tiger Force Outback remains one of my favorite foreign releases.

I acquired this figure from a European collector in a trade for a V1 Sgt. Slaughter figure.  In the late 1990's/early 2000's, many European exclusive figures were rather common among the European based collector set.  And, at the time, there were still many figures that had never been released in Europe that were very desirable for continental based collectors.  Trading an incomplete Sgt. Slaughter straight up for a Tiger Force Outback seems outrageous today.  But, in 2000, it was an even trade that left both of us extremely happy.

In 2000, it was unheard of for most American collectors to own foreign Joes.  Some of the Action Force exclusives such as Quarrel and Red Laser appeared most often.  But, most of the other figures that were exclusive to Europe remained over there.  Less than six months after I profiled this figure, though, two avenues of foreign Joes became more available and opened the floodgates of American collector interest in items released outside the United States.  The first, and less obvious, event was the discovery of a horde of Plastirama figures in Argentina.  This brought tons of MOC figures to the U.S.  Even the now desired Ninja Ku and Satan could be bought for $15 each for a time.  Others were even less.  Just as those started to saturate Ebay of that era, the first mass imports of Funskool Joes began at the YoJoe Depot and, later, SmallJoes.com and other dealers.  These cheap figures offered collectors a chance to expand their collections in new ways.  And, by 2002, foreign Joes were a staple of pretty much everyone who participated in the online Joe community.

Today, foreign figures remain highly desirable and many have exploded in popularity and price.  Everyone knows Tiger Force Outback.  But, nearly 20 years ago, he was a novelty that few collectors cared about.  In some ways, those days were more fun since there was so much to be discovered.  Now, though, it's a lot easier to find guys like this.  You'll just pay a WHOLE lot more than you would have in the early days of collecting.  But, this figure is the one that started my fascination with foreign Joes and it's an area of collecting that I still overly enjoy today.

20th Anniversary - Key Moments 1994 Dial Tone

On May 5th of 2000, I posted up a profile of the 1994 Dial Tone figure.  In and of itself, this profile isn't overly significant.  Dial Tone is cool and this version of him is both interesting and unloved.  So, he was a perfect choice for an early profile.  The real reason this profile was significant, though, was my note of the news that Joes would be returning to retail in the fall.  Sure enough, about 5 months later, G.I. Joe was back at retail.  For the next six years, Joe would be a constant retail presence.  And, after taking a "hiatus" for a few months, the line then came back again with heavy releases from 2007 until it petered out in 2016.  So, while we adore the original 12 year run of the G.I. Joe line, it also ran, mostly uninterrupted for 16 years in the 2000's.

The difference, though, was lack of cohesion.  You can look at this 1994 Dial Tone and see the resemblance to a 1982 figure that introduced the world to the G.I. Joe concept.  There are improvements and the figures have some differences.  But, this Dial Tone fits into most early vehicles and is compatible with gear from 12 years prior to his release.  That was simply not the case in the 2000's.  Joe went through many iterations and the last figures that were released had no resemblance at all to the wave of 10 figures that was alluded to in May of 2000.

In looking at the profile of Dialtone, though, I see a much younger me.  At the time, Joe was new, but dead.  Collectors had little to look forward other than scoring cheap collections from guys our same age who were getting kicked out of the parents' house.  The online world of the time had a few hang outs.  But, they were heavily populated by the same people and, the community was small.  Within a few weeks, any active participant of the online discussion would interact with pretty much the entirety of the collecting world.  Within a year, that would drastically change.  2001 would usher in an unprecedented wave of G.I. Joe collectors who would rediscover their childhood passion from the more prevalent retail figures or from the resurgent comic book.

The important step for me was that the site started to grow into a space for commentary about the online Joe world of the time.  Years later, it's interesting to see things written without the benefit of hindsight.  The collectors of the time had grandiose ideas of what Joe's return to retail would mean.  In some ways, none of them came to be.  But, in others, we got everything we could have wanted and more in the 2000's.  It just wasn't all in the same form.

20th Anniversary - Key Moments 1990 Decimator

As part of my 20th Anniversary, I'm going to look at 12 key figures from the site's history.  Most are just important to me or they commemorate something that was occurring in the Joe world at that time.  The obvious place to start this discussion is with the very first figure that ever appeared here: the 1990 Decimator.

Now, the Decimator is a well known Cobra army builder who is somewhat frustrating to find and also rather expensive.  In 1999, though, he was a super obscure figure that most collectors didn't own.  Those who did really didn't pay any attention to him.  And, because of this, there was some confusion about the figure that erupted in the final months of the year.  At the time, the photo of the Decimator on YoJoe.com was of a fairly low quality.  In the photo, it appeared that Decimator had black pants.  Since no one really cared about the Decimator, though, it wasn't an issue.  Then, though, a Canadian collector noticed this when he went to identify figures in a lot he had acquired.  He noticed his Decimator's pants were a dark green.  And, rumors quickly went about that there might be a variant.  As few people had the figure, the fire was not quickly quelled.

I posted up a photo of my figure to better showcase the green pants.  Being 1999, my only option to get a photo of the figure was to lay him on top of a scanner and scan him in.  You can see the antiquated grey background of a scanner photo below.  So, I scanned the figure in and went to post it on some webspace I had lying around.  Around that time, Evilface's site ran a feature called Figure of the Week.  He posted a photo of a random figure and wrote a line or two about how the figure was "kewl".  I wanted something that gave more details on a figure and had more content to consume.  So, in addition to posting the photo of the Decimator, I also did a little write up.  And, with that, my first profile was born.

As I felt that having just one article up was too sparse, I also wrote up a profile of my unproduced 1995 Battle Corps Rangers Flint figure and posted it at the same time.  This was a hubris-filled move to brag about the figure.  But, I also wanted information about this figure out in the community.  At the time, most really rare Joe items were hoarded away and kept hidden from the collecting community.  (This sensibility still pervades the Joe collecting world and shows our utter lack of maturity.)  So, I wanted my rare figure to be out there for all to see.  Even today, I still get nasty messages from collectors who are genuinely pissed off that I posted something rare for the world to see.  They want this information only available to a select few. I don't get it.

From there, I kept on scanning and writing.  At the time, I was busy at a start up company and needed a way to release stress.  Writing a quick update on some Joe figure was a good way to blow off steam and have a creative outlet.  In short order, I had a full fledged website full of photos and figure write ups.  As 1999 turned to 2000, a few other fan run sites also started up.  By 2001, the Joe world was a vibrant community of content creators who churned out new stuff for the community to enjoy at a constant rate.  This was easily the most innocent time in the Joe collecting timeline.  Most guys were just starting out and the competition for desirable items didn't really show up until the army building crazy really took hold in 2001.

In looking back at my Decimator write up, I find that my use for the figure from back then is long gone.  Now, I see him as just another cool looking Cobra figure that I really don't get out and use often enough.  Maybe that will change in 2020.  In some ways, I hope it does.  Seeing the old photos brings back memories of a earlier time in my life where the future was so distant.  It's good to remind myself of those days as it helps put the hustle and bustle of my current life into perspective.  Much of what I dreamed of back then has come true.  Some things I never imagined have happened.  And, of course, there have been disappointments.  It's useful to look at the road traveled, though, to help guide you on the journey ahead.

20th Anniversary

On November 10th, 1999, I posted two write ups of G.I. Joe figures on some obscure web space that was given to me by a friend.  These two little blurbs were created as a response to the prevailing attitude among collectors of the day that anything made after 1987 was terrible and anything made after 1989 was even worse.  I felt that there were many gems from all years of vintage Joe releases.  And, categorically dismissing something due to the release year was shortsighted by fans of the time.  So, I came up with a way to spotlight some of the more obscure, but still insanely cool figures from all Joe years.

The site's history has taken many turns.  From that early webspace, I moved to a new domain of my own.  This held up through 2004.  At that point, my old web host went out of business and the site disappeared.  In the summer of 2005, though, Beav at JoeCustoms.com offered me some blogging space on the JoeCustoms.com domain.  Here, new profiles were resurrected and I happily blogged away until 2007.  At that point, I moved to another web hosted domain and reposted all of the site's archives.  All was fine here until 2009 when the site went dark.  At the time, I was pretty down on Joe and mostly removed myself from the community.  I didn't think I'd come back.

In 2012, though, that changed.  I had some time in the beginning of the year and was also able to buy several of the figures that I had always wanted but never tracked down.  I discovered several new Joe sites that were producing amazing content and that a few of my old favorites were still around.  I started writing about Joes again in April of 2012.  Shortly thereafter, I put my old archives back online and even published many of my unfinished drafts and incomplete ideas.  The two blogs hit a technical snafu in 2014 and I lost most of the work.  But, a discovery of an old back up in 2015 brought me back online with this current iteration of the site.

I lament missing a couple of years.  But, that's mostly because the year by year chronology at the right of the screen has gaps in it.  (I did attempt a slight comeback in 2010.  I posted up two or three profiles on a new site.  But, I had 10 MB of image storage.  So, that didn't last long.  But, it is also home to my lost Grand Slam profile along with a slew of photos that were unique and excellent and can never be recreated.)  But, everyone needs some breaks from the hobby.  And, with over 1000 posts over the past 20 years, I've still averaged about one item per week for two decades.

In looking back at the two decades I've spent doing this, I can see my progression as a collector.  In 1999 and 2000, I was a wide eyed optimist who found the great in all the Joe world had to offer.  From 2001 through 2003, I was getting a bit jaded.  But, still toed the "Hasbro" line.  In 2004, though, I started to get fed up with Hasbro's choices.  At that time, I stopped buying the JvC sculpts and focused, instead, on solely vintage style releases.  From 2005 through 2009, I was bitter at Hasbro and generally unhappy with the way the community had gone.  In 2012, I refreshed my thinking and that helped me appreciate the hobby one again.

But, since then, I've slowly become the grumpy old man of Joe collecting who hates the club, despises Hasbro's treatment of the line and its collectors and doesn't see anything wrong with factory custom producers recreating anything and everything to help keep the hobby alive.  I'm not a fan of the new breed of super collector who wants every Joe figure to be a $100 collectible that's kept locked in a case, away from hands and eyes.  I think the toys are now very over-priced and don't like that many items I have owned since I got them for less than $1 each are now worth 50 to 70 times that.  Dropping a box of Joes used to mean $50 and a week's worth of time to replace them.  Now, it's two months of my mortgage if my 1993 army builders get broken.

1990's G.I. Joe collectors were early 20-somethings trying to find ourselves and feel out what being a collector meant.  The early 2000's brought the greatest resurgence of Joe collecting we'll ever see.  Massive retail releases and late 20's careers meant that collectors established themselves as a force.  The 25th Anniversary brought in hordes of toy collectors who didn't really care about Joe.  They nearly ruined the hobby.  The movies made it worse and poisoned the Joe brand for a decade.  The post 2018 price surge has been brought by trash pickers trying to make a buck off a community that isn't as mature as it's age would dictate.  We stand on the precipice of a new movie attempting to (once again!) resurrect the G.I. Joe brand.  It's doubtful that Joe toys will become a retail force again.  But, it's also unlikely that a movie will pass without at least some attempt by Hasbro to sell toys.

By then, I'll have started my third decade of writing about the line, what it means to me and how the community stands at any given time.  For sure, the tools that I use and the avenue to reach collectors will change again.  I'll follow the technology as it matures and will hang around, doing this, for as long as I can.  I'm at a point now where the reminiscing about the line and days gone by are my primary joys of collecting.  Having tons of toys in boxes and tubs is a pain.  Moving them is worse.  But, I still enjoy taking the figures outside and photographing them.  The blog gives me an avenue to post the pictures with some thoughts about the figures within them.  The photos have an organization that prevents them from falling into the black hole of social media noise.  I get a bit of satisfaction from that.

I end this anniversary post with a thank you to all the collectors who stop by every day.  Since coming back in 2015, pages on this site have been viewed nearly half a million times.  Thousands of collectors have stopped by through the various iterations.  Each visit is something very important to me as they let me know there are others out there to whom Joe means a great deal.  That is something we all share.  I let my grumpiness get in the way of that, sometimes.  But, it's the bond that keeps this community alive through the thick and thin.  I've seen my share of each but intend to stick around to see even more.

Thanks for all of your support through 20 years!

2016 Female Cobra Officer

I do not collect anniversary style G.I. Joe figures.  (I consider there to be three styles of Joes: ARAH style: beginning in 1982, Joe Vs. Cobra style: beginning in 2002 and Anniversary style: which began in 2007.  Each has improvements that occurred through their runs.  But, each style has a visual and engineering similarity and pedigree that binds like figures together and separates the different designs.)  Back in 2007, I thought they just looked terrible.  At the time, this was not a popular opinion and a very small but vocal segment of collectors made the community in general very unpleasant in their blind support of these figures.  Now, those guys are mostly gone and collectors that are left consider those early anniversary figures to be generally, terrible as newer releases from the 2010's surpassed those early figures in quality.  To me, though, the style of those early figures remains.  The sculpting and design of the Hasbro releases in the past few years are vastly improved from those early days.  But, they are still not the type of thing that holds any interest to me.  You will the last anniversary item on this site is from 2008 and it was a vehicle.

But, if you are a collector of this figure style, you actually have more to collect than those of us who only focus on vintage figures.  Among Hasbro's intent to appease collectors, offer vintage homages from different eras, promote their movies and spread their offerings into new areas, collectors of the vintage style have a far greater variety of solid items from which to choose than us vintage guys.  Of this, I am extremely jealous.  Had Hasbro put anywhere near the amount of thought they dropped into the anniversary line into the relaunch of vintage Joes in 2000, that line would have been substantially more successful.  I'm not sure it would have lasted longer than it did.  But, we would certainly have fonder memories of that era and far more product.  But, as the 2010's wind down, Hasbro's ability to get Joes to retail has been substantially restricted.  The brand's faltering after the movies has diluted the G.I. Joe name and prevented any sustained retail presence.  But, that hasn't stopped Hasbro from getting some fan favorites out and into the marketplace.  At the end of 2016, Toys R Us carried a second year of exclusive figures offerings.  Included in this short line of only figures were quite a few rehashes.  But, also, quite a few new items that greatly appealed to collectors.  One of them was the highly anticipated female Cobra Officer.

Joe collectors have been clamoring for female Cobras troopers since the early 2000's.  But, Hasbro never came through.  The closest items were the terrible 2007 Night Stalker figures that were only available as a convention exclusive item.  Hasbro did get a lot of female characters into the line: both hero and villain.  But, plain Jane, generic soldiers were a no go.  So, collectors were quite taken when Hasbro first showed this figure at the 2016 G.I. Joe Convention.  It had all the modern sculpting collectors wanted, a great deal of gear and would be sold in a 3 pack with two other decently done army builders.  There was a flaw, though, the figure's open face.

I, among others, inquired about this odd feature.  Cobra legions have, traditionally, covered their faces.  It is the hallmark of Cobra.  The Hasbro answer was that they wanted everyone to know this was a female.  That was just bunk.  The figure obviously has a female body.  And, the long, flowing blonde pony tail made it evident to anyone that this was a female figure.  The more likely answer was the sculptor wanted to showcase his skills on a female face and add that to his portfolio.  There's nothing wrong with that and a truthful answer would have been appreciated.  You could say that Hasbro didn't want to spoil the club's exclusive 3 pack of figures using this body with masked faces and different hair colors that would be revealed the next day.  But, even a response of "You'll understand tomorrow" would have been more ingenuous than the flippant and condescending answer we received.

However, the unmasked face actually kind of works when you take this figure in context with the Cobra Troopers from the club.  She is an officer.  And, you could see her being one step away from becoming a named Cobra.  As such, having an uncovered face would be a mark of rank and power.  Really, if they had gone with that angle, the face would be a much better feature of the figure.  But, the sculpting on the Officer's face is top notch.  She looks mean without being exaggerated.  Her eyes are intense and stern.  In general, she looks like a bad guy: which is very rare to see on a female sculpted face.

When I took this figure out the package to do this profile, it was the first time I've handled an Anniversary figure in 9 years.  I don't encounter them in the wild and ignore them.  I had my impressions of the designs from back then, but wanted to start afresh.  Hasbro had a lot of time to make improvements.  And, in that time, I've owned lots of Star Wars figures that at least share some functionality and design elements as Joes.  My first impression of the figure is that she's spindly.  I felt I was going to pull her apart just removing her from the package.  I thought this might be a function of the smaller arms and torso of the figure. But, the other army builders in the pack felt the same.  The softer plastic and abundant joints create lots of failure points.  If you're taking her out of the package for display or to put away in other baggie or case forever, this isn't much of an issue.  But, if you gave this to your young kids, they'd tear it apart in a few days, if not faster.  For the price, that's an issue.  Fortunately, these were marketed for collectors and even Toys R Us stocked them in the "collector" section of their stores.  But, any parent who drops money on a toy their kid tears apart will never buy that brand again.

The other massive flaw with this figure is the head.  While the sculpting is great and the ponytail is a strong design, the head only looks down.  (Note the pony tail is designed in such a way as to not interfere with the figure's backpack which is a nice bit of foresight.)  It's a major problem since it completely limits the ways in which the figure can be posed.  I'm not sure how such a limitation passed muster with Hasbro.  As such, it's tough to pose the figure since she's always staring at her shoes.  I'm not sure if this is a phenomenon that's unique to this figure in the anniversary sculpting style.  But, it's a major disappointment for a figure that's supposed to be the pinnacle of action figure design.

The rest of the sculpting and articulation is pretty strong.  I'm still not a fan of the torso having articulation but the waist not being able to move.  But, in general, the figure has a lot of joints.  Some are pretty small, though, so the figure can be tough to move.  Some of the gear also impedes movement.  I find that overly annoying since it makes no sense to me to create articulation that is then precluded by sculpting details.  Star Wars figures suffer from it, too.  So, it seems it's just commonplace in the world of modern action figures.

Like most of the Anniversary figure, this Cobra Officer includes a ton of gear.  Aside from her rifle and helmet, she also includes a bazooka and a backpack.  The backpack is odd.  It is hollow inside with a flap which allows a view through it.  But, I can not figure out how to open the pack.  (I'm assuming it doesn't open.)  It's nice that the pack has less heft as it allows for greater posability.  She also has a ton of other accessories such as mines, a pistol and sight in her holster, a boot knife, web gear and another detachable bomb on her left leg.  It's great to get so much gear with a figure and it helps the perceived value when the toys cost over $10 each.

In the end, I found that my bias against the anniversary style figures remains.  I've seen lots of interesting photos using them and many of the releases are the type of repaint I'd have loved in vintage Joe construction.  But, I simply don't like this style of figure.  I think that's heavily derived from the fact that they don't feel like sturdy toys.  Vintage Joes could take a beating.  Older Star Wars figures could, too.  But, Star Wars figures from the 2000's morphed from toy to collectible.  And, while the sculpting and design improved exponentially, the play value died.  This was OK, though, as Star Wars has always been about display for me.  Joe is not.  So, these figures are not for me.

The Female Cobra Officers are a bit hard to price out right now.  As now one's really sure if more of these will show up at discount outlets, we've seen some pricing fluctuations.  Before the summer of 2017, this was pretty much a $15 to $20 figure.  And, even now, you'll see a lot of them sell from dealers in the $16 range.  However, at the same time, you can get a carded 3 pack for around $25.  Seeing how both the BAT and SAW Viper with whom she shares her 3-pack have value, that's far and away the route to take.  Long term, who knows?  The club figures using this mold are far more expensive than this release due to their lower production numbers and higher initial cost.  It's still possible that thousands of these sets will show up at Ross and TJ Maxx for Christmas.   This mold could show up in the next Hasbro line.  It's also possible that these are all done at retail and we'll never see this mold used ever, ever again.

All of that leads into the future of the Joe line.  We know that Joe is, basically, dead at retail.  We also know, though, that Hasbro considers G.I. Joe the second linchpin in their grand Hasbro Shared Universe behind the Transformers.  As such, it is all but certain that we will see G.I. Joe again once Hasbro figures out how to weave all the various properties into a story that will sell.  I, for one, am skeptical of their ability to do this.  Joe is in an odd place.  If you want military realism, there are far better properties out there in movies and video games for that.  If you want super heroes, there are far better offerings from Marvel and DC in their multi-media empires.  Joe, always treading the middle between military and super hero doesn't fit into either.  And, that hybrid of the two doesn't really have a market these days.  So, where does Joe go from here?

From a toy perspective, it's an almost certainty that any future toys will be in anniversary style.  (The reduction to 5 points of articulation in the Star Wars line has been a failure and Hasbro will be abandoning it after The Last Jedi merchandise become clearance fodder across the nation.)  But, the theme of the new Joe will be different.  I don't have a lot of faith that Hasbro will come up with something that will take ahold of the pop culture market the way Joe did in the '80's.  But, there are some things I think they could do.  The most radical, for me, would be to eliminate Snake Eyes.  I don't mean kill him.  I mean to simply retcon him out and have him not exist.  That solves the inherent problem of a silent hero in a visual world.  It also removes ninjas from the Joe mythos.  This would free Hasbro to make a ninja movie about the ninjas  (Something of which there aren't a lot, though the few that have come out in recent years have been flops.) if they wanted Snake Eyes.  But, not tie their hands for any Joe adventures due to a mute lead character and love interest.

I could get behind Joe returning to it's adventurer roots.  The problem here is that the team would be small.  And, you'd basically have a cross between the A-Team and Indiana Jones.  But, it could make for some fun toys.  The other angle would be to eliminate Cobra and have Joe be the bad guys for a while.  I could see the Mask franchise teaming up and becoming the "drivers" of Transformers who would then fight against the "government" that would be represented by Joe.  You then, also, set up the great Joe face-turn when Cobra and Decepticons appear about five years into the reboot.  It would be a new direction for the franchise.  It would be dangerous.  So, that's probably out.

The other option would be to go the other way.  For the past 30 years, the prevailing theme in entertainment has been to take the children's properties of the current adult generation and turn them "serious and gritty" to appeal to now-adults.  It's been done with everything and is now cliched.  I'd like Hasbro to go the other way and make Joe a campy, self reflective parody of itself.  I'm talking full blown characters breaking the 4th wall to say "Knowing is half the battle", Serpentor raging in full Serpentor mode and massive amounts of gunfire with no one ever dying.  The catch is that the actors, movie and audience all need to be in on the joke.  It's incredibly hard to do right and will most likely backfire.  But, it could also re-invigorate the Joe brand since they would be the only ones doing something like that.  It would take a perfect cast and script.  But, by the time it was successful, the super popular sequel would likely get out before any imitators.  And, since a success for Hasbro likely has a far lower bar than a similar success for, say, Disney, it is more likely they could pull it off.  But, I'm sure we'll get a super complicated story about Cobra and Joe that's super gritty with lots of black uniforms and technology that looks like every other movie that comes out in the summertime because, well, it's Hasbro.