Everyone knows that
Armor Tech figures exist. You can't avoid that fact. For many collectors, though, Armor Tech is one of those things that you'll keep for completeness' sake. But, it's rare to actually go out and find them. In my younger collecting days, I was mostly in that camp. As I got older, and the holes in my collection smaller, though, I found myself searching for the missing members of
Star Brigade who wore stupid armor and weren't really compatible with "real" Joe figures of my youth. In owning the figures, I have yet to find any real value or usefulness to them. They check a box for me and that's about it. In the case of Rock and Roll, though, he at least has one point of interest that both got me to spend a bit of time searching for him and also, eventually, writing this profile of his
1993 figure.
Armor Tech Joes were easy to find in the mid 1990's as I hunted down the retail remains of the vintage Joe line. Toys R Us stores would have pegs of them, priced higher than the dwindling supplies of
Battle Corps figures. You'd find them at toy liquidators: again mostly untouched by retail buyers. They were the last vintage Joes I spotted at retail in the fall of
1997 when I saw them at the lone toy shop in a newly opened mall in Arizona. After the retail stock dried up, Armor Tech figures actually got cheaper. You could often get them for a couple of bucks per carded figure at flea markets. And, Ebay auctions of the entire carded set of figures would sell for under $20...if they sold at all. Even into the 2010's, Armor Tech was about the cheapest set of vintage Joe figures you could acquire. And, the low prices and high availability lead many collectors to simply ignore them, figuring they could pick them up at any time.
As figures, Armor Tech are terrible. They are large, bulky and lack standard Joe articulation. They are like an entirely different line that uses some familiar faces and names. But, the figures are difficult to integrate into a collection and don't even really fit with the aesthetic of the rest of the 1993 or
1994 Star Brigade figures. The non-standard construction was what lead me to leaving these figures behind as Joe faded from retail. Had I found them at a low enough clearance, I might have bought them just for some additional gear. But, even that's a stretch. And, I didn't care enough about the figures to really follow them and see if they ever reached discount pricing at stores near me. Even when I was starved for new Joes and had money to burn, I couldn't bring myself to stoop so low as to buy an Armor Tech figure at retail.
In the age of completism, though, Armor Tech has more appeal to me. It's a goofy and stupid concept that doesn't really fit with anything. And, even as one of the few Star Brigade aficionados around, I can't really get behind the figures. Yet, I still bought most of them in recent years. They are cheap. And, I really didn't want to be left paying $30 for these guys in a couple of years. So, I bit the bullet, bought a bunch of figures and found that my impressions from
1995 were still spot on, even in 2021. The figures still don't resonate with me and I don't have much use for them. Even in a display, the figures take up too much space and offer too little enjoyment to occupy precious real estate.
So, now we get to the real reason why I profiled this figure: his accessories. At a glance,
Rock and Roll just includes a random accessory tree cast in bright yellow plastic. His tree, though, is one of my favorites with
Tracker's rifle,
Muskrat's shotgun and the big-ass blaster from the
1991 Grunt figure. In bright yellow, though, who cares? Except, Rock and Roll has a variant. Later version of the figure include purple accessories. Again, many of you say, "who cares?". Purple weapons aren't all that more useful than yellow ones. But, for an aficionado of 1990's weapons, the purple gear is a lot of fun for me. 9 figures included accessories of some shade of yellow in 1993: including two other members of Star Brigade. (
Countdown and the
B.A.A.T.) Four additional figures included yellow weapons in 1994. No other figures included purple weapons in 1993. (Three figures had gear in some shade of blue, but they were definitely blue with no purple tint.) Only the 1994
Metal Head figure also includes purple gear. So, it is a rather rare color for Joe accessories. Seeing the MP-5 inspired weapon in purple just looks cool because it is unique, distinctive and not something you see every day.
In general, neither the yellow or purple accessories seem all that difficult to find. As the Armor Tech figures are unpopular, not even dealers who look to squeeze every penny they can from Joe variants really care about the weapon colors. Even if you find a sale that advertises the color, you won't have to pay a premium for it unless you choose to do so. The purple gear came with later editions of the Rock and Roll figure while the yellow gear was the initial release. I like the purple because they are so distinctive and set this figure apart. I also feel that they help mute the figure's appearance and that Rock and Roll is substantially better looking when holding the darker weapons. Of course, collector mileage varies for things like this. I like obscure little variants like these weapons. And, the fact that weapon trees are nostalgic to me just adds to this figure's mystique. Of course, after opening the variants, the figures went into bags and have only reappeared for the photos below. So, the appeal of purple gear only goes so far.
The value in Armor Tech, though, is the heads. This Rock and Roll head is insanely detailed and is, easily, the best facial sculpt of the character. Having it locked beneath a tight fitting and opaque helmet doesn't allow it to improve the figure, overall, though. Enterprising customizers have used Armor Tech heads with great success. (It requires some modifications to work, though.) Rock and Roll's is one of the more frequently used since it's a top notch character and using this obscure head makes any customs of the character more unique. It's a shame that more wasn't done to salvage figures like Armor Tech and the parts that are worthwhile. There is some value here, it's just hard to find.
The Armor Tech filecards were not good. Rock and Roll's has potential before it completely goes off the rails. The bio acknowledges that Rock and Roll was a founding member of the Joe team and mentions that he has continually upgraded his equipment. (Technically, this is true since the
1989 version has upgraded gear over the
1982 original.) But, it then talks about him jumping on live grenades and chasing B.A.A.T.s into the sun. Both of these would result in Rock and Roll's death and he would do one of those events just once before he was nothing more than a memory. To make it worse, the filecard mentions twice! that Rock and Roll likes to roast marshmallows on the end of his laser rifle. Look, I get it. These figures aren't meant to really reflect the reality of space. But, the whole roasting marshmallow thing was dumb in the card's first quote and was too lame to justify a repeat of the joke at the end. But, this filecard shows the evolution of Joe characterization and how it diminished as the brand's pioneers moved on and Hasbro began to cut corners to keep the line afloat.
Unsurprisingly, no one cares about this Rock and Roll. Even today, you can buy carded versions for under $10. Dealers will usually charge $20-$25. But, these don't sell since there isn't much demand for the figure and there is enough supply. Even the variant, purple weapons don't generate interest and will not sell for a premium unless you get really lucky as a seller. Overall, though, the stock of carded Armor Tech figures is drying up. 20 years ago, you could have bought 40 of these guys in one week without even trying. Now, they are fewer and farther between. At some point, they will also dry up and be like the 1994 series. But, as the figures are not desirable and are one of the more reviled concepts of the vintage Joe line, it's unlikely that their pricing will follow suit for the 1994 figures. If you're a completist or just looking for something different, Armor Tech offers some diversity not often seen in the vintage line. And, since it's also still cheap, it makes sense to take advantage of their availability before they go to the way of most of the rest of the once plentiful 90's carded Joe overstock.
