2005 Crimson Shadow Guard - Random Photos of the Day

The Crimson Shadow Guard was a low effort release that Hasbro dropped at the end of the retail line.  It joined the HAS Set as the final sets Hasbro would give to Toys R Us as exclusives.  But, sometimes low effort is still OK.  And, in the case of the Shadow Guard, the black uniform take on the Crimson Guard worked out quite well.  We didn't need 6 of them in a single set, of course.  But, as an army builder, there were many worse releases in the repaint era.  

Of course, the Shadow Guard were flawed as they included terrible, non-sensical accessories that were mostly ninja weapons.  But, by 2005, Hasbro had all but given up when it came to the weapons included with figures.  The aftermarket had also stepped in and Marauder's Gun Runners was able to fully take advantage of Hasbro's lazy weapon complement.  

The real oddity was the inclusion of 6 identical figures.  Even the Cobra Infantry had made each figure unique.  And, later, the Viper Pit would break up the weapons and offer 1 exclusive figure among the identical soldiers.  But, this set was produced to be cheap.  So, 6 identical figures with easy to produce gear was the order.  Of course, that meant that army building collectors stopped at one or two sets since they were able to fill out obscure squads with small purchases.  But, even army building had become passe by 2005.  So, the Shadow Guard somewhat faded into obscurity.

Hasbro pretty much killed the online Joe collector community in 2005.  Their bizarre handling of the line drove away collectors en masse.  So, sets like this Shadow Guard got clearanced out.  And, when they dropped to $4 for a set, I bought way too many.  For under a buck per figure, it made sense to buy up more than I wanted.  Now, twenty years later, the Shadow Guard is still one of my most numerous army builders.  And, since they don't discolor and feature the pliable plastic of the 2000's, I actually use them way more than most figures I actually do like.

In the photos below, you'll see a version with a Fred head from the Comic Packs.  There's another with the Agent Faces head, too.  These two customs help break up the Shadow Guard.  And, with these "commanders", my Shadow Guard has a bit of characterization to it that has kept it somewhat relevant in recent years.  The Crimson Guard remains loyal to Cobra Commander.  But, the Shadow Guard is less certain in their allegiance.  If I ever want to work some intrigue within the Cobra ranks, the Shadow Guard are the first figures to come to mind.

The Shadow Guards remain pretty unloved.  While people will comment about how they like the design, the sales prices say that everyone has the figures they want.  Of the Toys R Us releases, Shadow Guards are among the cheapest figures to acquire.  And, while lots of dealers still cling to 2021 era pricing for repaint era Joe toys, they struggle to move any of them.  $15 is about the going rate for a figure.  But, you can get a carded set for under that price...indicating that the few sales are about frustrated collectors giving in to low demand.  The real price is probably half that.  But, you're going to grow grey waiting for them to come around in numbers.

2005 Crimson Shadow Guard - Around The Web

As a figure, the Crimson Shadow Guard is kind of cool.  The CG uniform looks pretty good in black.  But, as a 6 pack of the same figure with crappy weapons, the Crimson Shadow Guard set was lame and heavily clearanced in 2005 and 2006.  Today, the figures are more popular.  Though, I still find the greatest value in them by giving a Fred head to one and an Agent Faces head to another.  These guys make for high ranking Cobras who haven't, yet, earned the rank of a code name.  Despite that, I still have a ton of loose figures left over from clearance purchases.  They're not bad, but don't see much use.  A look around found a nice mix of review's of the figure from when he was released as well as some more modern takes.  Here's the best of the Crimson Shadow Guard from around the web.

Crimson Shadow Guard Profile

Crimson Shadow Guard by yotothejoe

Crimson Shadow Guard at Nekoman's Viper Pit

Crimson Shadow Guard at GeneralsJoes.com

Crimson Shadow Guard at JoeBattleLines.com

Crimson Shadow Guard by RelenaWarcraft

Crimson Shadow Guard at HalftheBattle

Crimson Shadow Guard by Flint

Crimson Shadow Guard by Otto the Otter

2005 Crimson Shadow Guard

Sometimes, a great idea is simply brought to life at the wrong time.  It's happened more than a few times in the Joe world.  If you had told me in 2002 that in just three years a 6 pack of excellent Cobra army builder repaints with no named characters at all would be one of the biggest bombs of the repaint era, I would have thought you were crazy.  But, that's exactly what happened with the Toys R Us exclusive Crimson Shadow Guard set.

On the surface, this set is a complete winner.  For $20, you got 6 Crimson Guards repainted in black.  The visual result is stunning and brings a new, more combative element to the Crimson Guard genre.  Each figure included the standard helmet and backpack you would expect from a combat unit.  But, beyond this, the set starts to fail.  Rather than include the modified AR-15s from the original Crimson Guard set, Hasbro gave the Shadow Guard a full complement of ninja weapons.  So, instead of firearms, the Shadow Guard was decked out in crossbows, swords, knives, claws and other bladed weapons.  As extra accessories, these would have been perfect.  As the only weapons in the set, though, the reused ninja weapons failed miserably.  The Shadow Guard was not effectively equipped.  And, by this time, collectors had grown weary of having to pay to replace the crappy Hasbro accessory choices with aftermarket offerings.  But, the real issue was the overuse of the mold in such a short time.

In 2003, Hasbro recast the Crimson Guard mold.  The plan was to use this for the mail away Agent Faces figure and then in a 3 pack of Joes in disguise.  This infiltrate set was planned to include Gung Ho, Duke and Snake Eyes on Crimson Guard bodies with helmets concealing their true identities.  However, Hasbro did not market this to major retailers.  Without their buying power, the set couldn't muster the numbers needed to warrant production.  The result was the set's cancellation and, subsequently, the bankruptcy of more than one online G.I. Joe seller who could not produce the cash to pay back customers for pre-orders.  Hasbro, though, had spent the money on the molds.  So, a new head was added to the Crimson Guard body and the mold was released in late 2004 in the KB Toys exclusive Operation Crimson Sabotage.  The Toys R Us exclusive Crimson Guard sets followed to retail in early January of 2005.  The mold then saw it's final use in this Shadow Guard set in the early summer of 2005.  It was a lot of exposure for the mold in a short time frame and over saturated the market.

The redesigned mold was similar enough to the vintage Crimson Guard that it integrated well.  The issue, though, was the removable helmets.  As an add on for the Agent Faces figure, this removable helmet was ingenious.  As a staple for a highly popular army builder, though, it didn't work as well.  The helmets are large, bulky and leave the figure's neck exposed.  The result is a figure that is inferior to the vintage, sculpted helmet.  Personally, I find both the Crimson Guards and Shadow Guards to work better without their helmets.  The masked faces are a nice touch and follow the standard Cobra appearance.  Putting troops into combat without helmets also seems like something Cobra Commander would do in order to sort out the best and toughest troopers.

As a figure, the Shadow Guard is nicely done.  The black motif works well on the dressy Crimson Guard uniform.  This is a perfect way to use Crimson Guards in more combat specific situations.  But, I have found the most prolific use of the figure in my collection has occurred as a base for LBC Cobra customs.  I swapped out the generic head of 2 Shadow Guards and replaced them with a head from Agent Faces and the Fred head from the comic pack Cobra Commander.  The result is two new Cobra politicians who fill niche roles in my Joe world.  The black uniforms denote they are powerful, but still low enough on the command hierarchy to have to wear standard uniforms.  (This also allows the army building Shadow Guards to be their special troops who perform dirty work around Cobra Island as part of the political intrigue.)  Beyond this, though, I find the figures somewhat limited.  As a standalone, the figure works well.  But, it is not suited to be the backbone of any collector's Cobra army.

It is in this vein that this figure could have been better executed.  The 2005 Crimson Guard set was designed with collectors in mind.  The set broke up Tomax and Xamot into distinct sets.  But, instead of packaging 5 army builders in the set, it included 4 and a Firefly figure.  I have long speculated that Firefly was a last minute addition to the set.  Regardless, though, if the Firefly had been replaced by one Crimson Shadow Guard, I think collectors would appreciate the figure that much more.  As an army builder set, the black rendition of the classic mold is overkill.  As a single figure who could serve as a commander for a small unit of standard Crimson Guards in service of Tomax and Xamot, though, the figure would work excellently.  Thus, the execution of the figure limited it's value and appreciation.  Had this been a one off in the original Crimson Guard set, it would be a coveted figure today.  But, as a set, the Shadow Guards largely sated collector demand and faded into obscurity.

From a design standpoint, the Crimson Shadow Guard was well received by collectors.  But, the late release date, terrible accessories, announcement of the line's hiatus and general army builder fatigue all added up to a retail dud of a set.  Toys R Us was anxious to get rid of its Joe merchandise since the line had, effectively, been cancelled.  So, the Shadow Guard hit clearance very quickly.  But, even ridiculously low prices couldn't move the inventory.  Despite production numbers of only around 20,000, the sets continued to collect dust.  Finally, many stores and the online arm of Toys R Us reduced the price of the set to $4 each.  Even at this price, it took a few weeks to sell out.  The result was a set of figures that was stupidly cheap for many years.  Now, though, some of the bad memories of the time frame of this set's release have faded.  Mint and complete with filecard Crimson Shadow Guards will sell for as much as $10 to impatient buyers.  But, a more typical price is around $5 per figure with boxed sets still selling in the $22 - $25 range.  That's cheap for a high quality army builder.  And, it makes at least one Shadow Guard an essential part of every collection.