Rarities - 2009 Funskool Carded Figures

Funskool stopped producing Joe figures in 2004.  Sales had been slipping for a while.  So, the line was cancelled even though Funskool had some additional new figures slated to appear later that year.  However, in 2009, Funskool fired up the molds again in an attempt to cash in on the G.I. Joe movie.  They re-introduced several figures from molds they still had in their possession.  While there were no "new" figures produced, they did create several more minor variants of their existing paint schemes.  On top of the oddball figure and accessory changes, each figure featured a new cardback with an explosion more akin to the pre-1986 version on Hasbro cards.

These figures were not heavily imported to the US.  Dealers didn't really bother with them as, at the time, most of the figures in the assortments were still pretty common.  And, many US dealers were still dealing with overstock from their Funskool buys more than 5 years earlier.  As there were no "new" figures in the assortment, there wasn't much incentive for anyone to really track them down.  A few people did import some cases.  And, those are the source of most of these figures today.  In 2009, no on really thought that Trip Wire would become a $200 figure.  But, the Funskool market of the 2020's has proven to have a short memory of what were once common and pegwarming figures. 

The assortment that was released doesn't really have a theme beyond the molds that Funskool still had.  We had a pretty good idea of which molds Funskool returned to Hasbro in 2003 just due to the last production run of bagged figures that Funskool ran.  But, seeing Scrap Iron in here was a surprise.  But, we've long known that the 2004 Hasbro Scrap Iron was a brand new sculpt.  So, maybe his retention by Funskool shouldn't have been so unexpected.

The cardbacks were updated to show the new figures that were put into production.  Some feature just 11 figures.  While others feature 17.  There are 18 total figures in the series.  The one figure difference is because Funskool did not put the actual character who you were buying onto the cardback.  So, Scrap Iron doesn't appear on the Scrap Iron cardback while Blaster does.  But, on the Blaster cardback, Scrap Iron does appear but Blaster does not.

Desert Scorpion

Back in February of 2001, the Funskool Desert Scorpion was among the first cheap Funskool figures I ever bought.  The Desert Scorpion is another figure that doesn't have many variants.  It's also a figure that's gotten somewhat expensive in recent years.  This later release doesn't appear to be materially different from the earlier figures, though.  This figure features the 11 back card.

Budo:

Budo has a variety of subtle coloring variants.  He also has an upper arm variant.  You'll note the very dark hair on this version and that his upper arms do not have the red pockets.

Scrap Iron:

In 2004, it was somewhat assumed that Scrap Iron was returned to Funskool.  However, when the 2004 Scrap Iron figure was released by Hasbro, it was obvious that they had made an all new mold for the character.  Funskool kept the figure.  Scrap Iron was among the first Funskool figures to appear in the 1990's.  After he was taken out of production, he appeared again in 2002.  Now, he's also appeared in the 2009/2010 timeline.  

Blaster:

Blaster is one of the biggest and easiest variants to notice.  The Roadblock machine gun has been removed and replaced with a black version of Mercer's rifle.  It makes you wonder if Funskool returned the 1992 Roadblock gun mold to Hasbro when they returned the figure mold.  And, if that's the case, it really makes you wonder why Hasbro didn't release it with either of the 1992 Roadblock repaints they released in 2004 and 2005.

Deep Six:

There's no obvious differences between this Deep Six and those made earlier.  Surely, though, there are slight shading differences.

Dialtone: 

The original Funskool Dialtone has an upper arm variant.  There are color shading differences on his chest, too.  As the Tunnel Rat mold was returned to Hasbro, this 2009 version features different upper arms than the most common early 2000's era figures.

Tripwire:

Tripwire is probably the most desirable figure from the 2009/2010 releases.  While he was always interesting, the figure has taken on a spectacular aftermarket appreciation in recent years.  This late version features the new explosion back but also has a variant filecard.  The 2003 era figures have a more closely cropped picture of Tripwire on the filecard.  The figure itself does have variations on the "Bomb Squad" text on his chest.

General Hawk:

There are many variants on General Hawk's red/orange highlights.  So, it's likely these are different than the earlier releases.  As General Hawk debuted in 2001, most of his figures tend to be of very poor quality and feature bad paint masks and construction issues.  I do need to pick up one of these General Hawks and see if the quality is improved.

Mainframe:

Continuing the theme, Mainframe is pretty similar to his earlier releases.  Funskool Mainframe's are one of the few figures that's not known for its variants.  But, with just grey, black and silver, there's not a lot of color matching to create noticeable differences.

Wild Bill:

Wild Bill also debuted in 2001.  And, there are two main variants as the figure can have either black or silver sunglasses.  For the 2009 releases, all of them I've seen have featured the black glasses.  This is another figure, though, I'd like to compare to my earlier samples to find any other changes.

Croc Master:

Croc Master features quite a few shading differences among his figures.  It appears that the wrist guard on his right arm is a darker grey than earlier figures.  And, his upper arms appear to be changed, too.

Cobra Commander:

The Funskool Cobra Commander figure never really got popular.  That's likely due to the fact that the collectors who knew this mold as the character didn't really come of age until after the era of cheap Funskool was long over.  The original Funskool figure isn't know for variants.  And, this figure appears very similar to the original.

Sci Fi:

Sci Fi is known for his belt color variations.  This version would have to be checked against the earlier figures.  But, it's likely there's another variant in the later production run.

Lifeline:

Lifeline is another once common Funskool figure that has seen a sharp upturn in popularity and pricing in recent years.  I'm not sure why.  This version features yellow arms with a green chest.  I got this same combo back in 2001.  But, this 2009 version likely has color shading differences on his green plastic parts as well as the painted highlights.

Psyche Out:

The Funskool Psyche Out is great because it's an easy and still somewhat cheap way to get a complete version of this figure mold.  The Hasbro version has gotten expensive.  But, the Funskool has stayed affordable.  Sadly, though, the figures made in the early 2000's are starting to badly discolor, even if they've been taken care of.  Hopefully, the 2009 plastic is different.

Dodger:

The Funskool Dodger is fairly obscure.  Even during the Funskool heyday, you didn't see him often.  His face paint looks a bit different than the earlier figures.

Blocker:

Blocker doesn't appear all that different from his original release.  His card art features a weird dart coming out of his gun with some bubbles around it.  There are likely color shading differences between this figure and the earlier releases, though.

Quick Kick:

The Quick Kick mold has been around forever.  And, the Funskool variants have a ton of sash and belt color variants.  

There's the 18 figures that comprise the later run of Funskool figures.  At this point, Funskool could still have these molds and make more figures in the future.  Or, the molds could be gone.  We're not sure.  The fact that classic Joes didn't appear to coincide with the Snake Eyes movie in India, though, implies that there probably isn't a domestic market for these figures any longer.  Though, I wouldn't mind if Hasbro got a couple of these molds back and put them into production.  But, that will never, ever happen.

Rarities - Funskool Calcium Sandoz Figures

Funskool is notorious for producing their figures for a variety of corporate tie ins.  As they are owned by a rubber company who makes its fortune in tires, they have a bit different approach to product tie ins that a major American toy company may have.  In many ways, Funskool's corporate partnerships in the 1990's and early 2000's were reminiscent of Hasbro's and Kenner's from the 1970's and 1980's.  Along with Pepsodent, Complan and TV marketing deals, Funskool also worked with Calcium Valdoz for a series of figures based on G.I. Joe molds.

I'm not sure what Calcium Sandoz is.  It's a supplement of some sort that was discontinued in the UK in 2015.  But, in an effort to get children in India to take it, the company that produced the product worked with Funskool to offer some G.I. Joe figures as a promotional opportunity.  The figures were different from classic Funskool releases in two ways.  First, most of the figures are unique color schemes to the Calcium Sandoz premium.  But, more interestingly, all of the figures have a new pair of straight arms on them.  Below you can see some samples of the figures and the exclusive color schemes that go with them.

Hydro Viper:

The Hydro Viper is one of the best recolors of the line.  This blue version would be a great crew-member on a Moray.  The terrible arms, though, mostly ruin what should be a classic repaint.  It's too bad that this color scheme was never offered with the swivel arms on the standard cardback.

You can see a sample of Stormshadow in the photo below.  He is missing the classic cammo pattern from the 1988 mold.

Funskool Calcium Sandoz Stormshadow Figures

You see that the arms are not the original Hasbro molds for straight arms.  For some reason, these figures were all given these new arms.  This is odd as the copyright for these figures is from 2003: a timeframe when we know that Funskool was still producing carded G.I. Joe figures and had full access to the original molds.  Below you can see a Captain Grid Iron figure with the exclusive coloring as well as the back of the insert card showing not only Grid Iron's bio, but the copyright date, too.  Also note that his colors are drastically different than the carded figure variants.

Funskool Calcium Sandoz Captain Grid Iron Figure

Funskool Calcium Sandoz Captain Grid Iron Insert & Bio

There are a lot of different figures in the set.  I'm not sure of the entire roster.  I have included the figures of whom I am aware in this post.  But, please let me know of additional figures in the comments below.

Blaster:

Here you will see Blaster with a body colored like the "Vehicle Driver" Blaster that was found bagged inside of specific vehicles in the early 2000's.  It's appearance here actually helps us understand how such a variant came to appear in vehicles.  But, this figure also uses the color scheme from the 2001 Funskool General Hawk.

Deep Six:

Deep Six is colored very similarly to the single carded figure.  There are some variants on this figure with plastic that's more translucent or opaque.

Desert Scorpion:

This Desert Scorpion is an interesting combo.  He has unique lower arms that are still the straight arms.  The figure's general base colors are similar to the single carded figure.  But, the figure lacks highlights and has some color differences such as the color of the figure's head/antenna.

Star Brigade Sci Fi:

Again, Sci Fi has unique lower arms.  But, the figure is colored almost identically to the single carded version of the figure.

Lifeline:

Lifeline uses base colors similar to the carded figure.  But, this version is missing all the paint applications.  The Funskool Lifeline has very intricate paint masks an their absence here makes the figure look unfinished.

Psyche Out:

Like Blaster, this Psyche Out is in the colors of the mysterious "Vehicle Drivers" set.  But, this version has the terrible straight arms.  This color scheme for Psyche Out, but with the swivel arms, has been found in Funskool Halibna and Maldova promotional figures, too.

Big Boa:

Big Boa is blue.  As a figure, this is probably his best base coloring.  The head is also more silver than the grey version from the single carded figure.

The Calcium Sandoz figures have gotten to be stupidly expensive.  Bagged versions can run upwards of $500.  But, like most foreign Joes, these guys were easier to find just a couple of years ago.  And, now, many characters have all but disappeared.  However, as these were 2000's era releases, it's likely that there are more of them out there that will show up as kids from that time start looking to liquidate some toys. Until then, though, these guys are hard to find and expensive.

Funskool Blaster

It has been 16 years since I last looked at the Blaster character and figure.  To put that into perspective, the 1987 Blaster figure was only 13 years old when I profiled him.  This Funskool figure is more than 15 years old now.  The reality of the situation, though, is that Blaster hasn't changed much in that decade and half.  The figure has yet to retain any of the prominence he gained as my childhood Joe years came to a close.  The one change was the acquisition of this Funskool Blaster.  And, while it was a way to revisit the character, I've found this figure to be more interesting in other roles in my collection.

As a character, Blaster was incredibly important to me during the final months of my childhood Joe run.  Acquired in December of 1987, Blaster was introduced as a General and was one of the old guard who guided the Joes in their final, epic battles with Cobra.  He had been a science officer in his younger days, which explained his powerful energy weapon.  For the few months where Blaster was an integral character, he made his presence felt.  But, as I packed my childhood collection away, with it went Blaster's place of prominence.  When I unpacked the toys as a collector in the '90's, the newness that drove Blaster's popularity had worn off.  Instead, there was a dark green figure, missing his trademark mask that wore garters on the outside of his uniform.  He wasn't terrible.  But, Blaster's reign as a major character was done.

Which brings us to this Funskool release.  For the first couple of years that Funskool figures were heavily imported, I had little in the way of resources to purchase them.  So, I focused mostly on the army builders, major characters and the new figure that came out every quarter or so.  In the mid 2000's, though, I realized that the Funskool supply was starting to dry up and I went on a quest to fill the remaining holes in my collection.  This brought me some bad figures like Dodger, some boring figures like Psyche Out and some oddly fun figures like Blaster.

At his core, the Funskool Blaster is heavily based on the American coloring of the figure.  The base is green, though it is brighter, and the general feel of the figure isn't that much different from the American version.  Where the Funskool version excels, though, is in the accessory department.  Along with the mask and standard energy weapon, the Funskool Blaster included some additional gear that make all the difference for the figure.  Aside from the appreciated battle stand, Blaster also includes the massive machine gun that was only available in the U.S. with the very hard to find 1992 Recalled Roadblock figure.  (This weapon is a mainstay of Funskool releases, though, and is found with the Funskool Roadblock and Red Dog figures as well.)  The figure also includes a grey version of Lifeline's backpack.  When put together, the Funskool Blaster is very reminiscent of a generic Sci Fi, futuristic soldier.  The mask cloaks his identity in a way that allows for the figure to be used as an army builder.  He is a great element to battle against the Mega Marine Cobras and the Monstro and Bio Vipers or even as a foil to the Blackstars or Lunartix from Star Brigade.  Yes, he's a bit outside of the traditional Joe norms.  But, this Blaster offers something fun to a collection and a way to expand upon some of the later, more marginalized Joe themes.

This is the fate of my figure.  I don't really have a use for the Blaster character.  And, the American figure works for Blaster in my collection.  As a diorama filler, though, this Funskool version works out well.  His gear is in scale with the figure and fits his overall design.  While I'm not a huge sci fi guy in terms of my overall collection.  I do like astronauts and can see this Blaster fitting in as a crewman on the Defiant or Crusader.  But, he would be a nameless one who would likely perish during the invasion by aliens or Astro Vipers. It's not much of a role, but works for the figure.  I guess I like the idea of owning a Funskool Blaster more than the practicality.

The Blaster mold found a lot of use around the world.  In the U.S., he was released on the TRU Exclusive single cards and then on the 2 figure blister packs.  Once these releases were done, though, Blaster, along with most of the rest of Battle Force 2000, next appeared in Brazil.  There, Blaster was released as Atomizer.  This version is based on the American figure and is in a slightly different green color.  He features a silver version of the Tele Viper's gun.  Though, there is much anecdotal evidence to point to him also including a version of the American figure's weapon.  From there, Blaster, Blocker and Dodger all made their way to India.  Funskool started producing Blaster around 2000 or 2001.

He continued through the Funskool years and was a rather ubiquitous figure with his parts appearing on some of the Funskool mold changes such as being used for Flint's arms.  Hasbro, though, never re-acquired the mold.  Blaster was among the few figures that Funskool brought back around 2009 or 2010.  This version was packaged with an explosion background instead of the digitized explosion and features a different main gun than the older figure.  It is likely there are small color differences between the production times as well.  Around 2002, Funskool also produced a Blaster figure that was only available as a vehicle pack in.  This incredibly hard to find variant uses dark green plastic as the base with orange paint splashes.  He also features a sliver helmet.  (Basically, it's the same color scheme as the Funskool General Hawk and may have been a result of a color test for that plastic and paint combination.)  There are not many of these figures out there, but it is something for the Blaster fan to track down.

Today, Funskool Blasters are cheap.  He was heavily imported in the early 2000's and was not among the more popular figures of the day.  Now, you can acquire carded versions for between $5 and $15 depending on whether you want to wait or not.  Loose, mint and completes are listed all the time for around $7.  They sell because there aren't a lot of them sold at open auction.  Those that are, though, often sell for under $4 each and will go in lots for even less.  The figure is not popular and is priced accordingly.  As a necessary figure for completion, this price is worth it.  But, even as just an oddity, it's worth picking up a figure.  (Be sure to get one with the mask.  There are some that do not include it, so always check before buying a carded figure.)  The Recalled Roadblock machine gun is always a great addition to a collection.  But, the complete ensemble of Blaster's gear works for the mold.  When you can get something like that cheap, even if it's not something you'll really enjoy, it's still worth it.  You might just find a hidden gem.

1987 Blaster

By late 1987, I was getting too old for Joes. I was in eighth grade and really couldn't be seen playing with them anymore. (Stupid peer pressure!) I had kept up my buying binge throughout 1986 and into 1987, but, by the end of the year, my purchases were falling off. I would get the Mamba helicopter for my birthday in December of that year, but that would be about it. I wouldn't get any more Joe vehicles until the mid 1990's. I had managed, though, to pick up a complete set of the 1987 figures. I figured I could still buy a couple of figures in 1988, but really hoped to get some before my birthday. Imagine my surprise when I went to Toys R Us around Christmastime and found 6 new Joes on the shelves. The 1987's had been released a bit early and I kind of expected it to happen again. Sure enough, Battleforce 2000 (It doesn't sound all that impressive now that we've actually reached the milestone, now, does it?) were the early bird figures for late 1987. The first figure I grabbed was Blaster.

Green has always been my favorite color and I think that was why I instinctively grabbed for Blaster first. In the meantime, my brothers grabbed Dodger and Maverick. They were the next best two, so I was stuck with Knockdown as my second figure. (I don't know if they had Blocker or Avalanche. I like to think I would have chosen Blocker had they had him, but it has been a few years and I'm not sure what my mindset of the day was, exactly.) Blaster, though, more than made up for that disappointment. He is an awesome figure in a great color scheme. His little mask is a frustrating accessory to find, but is great fun to have. He quickly rose to the top of my play list. (It seems that whatever was new was always my favorite figure. It still continues to this day as I tend to use my latest acquisitions more than some of the guys I've had around for a while.) At this time in my life, I loved science. For that reason, I tended to use science themed figures more than others. I made the nerds heroes. (There's no psychological reason here. Really.) As such, figures like Blaster became science officers who were capable of creating fabulous devices that transformed the face of battle. The normal, military themed figures also got a lot of use, but the science officers were the ones who came up with new machines and weapons. Since Battleforce 2000 sort of fit this genre, it only made Blaster that much more an attractive figure to use.

Blaster was originally a Transformer. I loved the name and his specialty of gunner. As such, I made a custom figure that I named Blaster. Much like the situation with Falcon, though, I managed to explain it away by having this guy be an older mentor and the younger character, portrayed by my custom, was paying homage to his elder. How Hasbro was able to use the same name on toy lines that had similar buying demographics but now can't seem to keep a trademark for more than 6 weeks is another mystery I will leave to minds greater than mine. Part of the mystique of this character was that I made him older, but also the victim of a serious injury. I made up a back story where one of the Cobra bigwigs had almost burned Blaster to death.

He escaped, but with severe lung damage. I let my Star Wars influence take over here and made Blaster's mask imperative to his survival. If he lost the mask, he would become very weak and die within a matter of hours. It was a nice way to give this guy some characterization outside of the regular Joe realm. Since he had such an intricate background, Blaster remained a favorite figure of mine until my youngest brother lost his mask. Blaster sat for in excess of 5 years without being used. One day, in either 1995 or 1996, I finally dug out my old Hovercraft shell. When I did, I checked out the main cockpit and was amazed to find Blaster's mask lying in the bottom. How I had missed this accessory in this open and easy to check place I will never know. The result, though, is that my Blaster regained his mask and once again found use in my collection.

Blasters aren't terribly tough to find. His mask, though, does sometimes pose a problem. He is not a figure, though, that will set you back a great deal. Not too many collectors have overly fond memories of Battleforce 2000. They did get killed off in the comic and I think that was indicative of their popularity. As such, I don't ever foresee any of the Battleforce 2000 figures ever being overly desired by the collecting community. Still, these figures are actually very good. I still use Maverick and Blocker a great deal. Dodger was a favorite of mine, but his popularity waned after a year or so. Blaster has found new use in my collection, but he is no longer a major player like he used to be. He is still, though, a nice figure to own and have as part of any collection.

Got anything interesting to add? Email me.