1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone - Around The Web

Dial Tone is among my favorite figure molds.  All of his releases have been solid.  Just due to circumstances of acquisitions, though, this Sonic Fighters Dial Tone is my least favorite of his incarnations.  It's still a great coloring of the mold.  It's just that childhood nostalgia and early collector fandom left this version of the character caught in a weird middle ground where he lacks the emotional connection to really allow his quality to be his determining factor in my collection.

Fortunately, lots of other collectors do really like this figure and you can see how they use him in the content below.  Enjoy!

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone Profile

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone at the Attica Gazette

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone by gen_liederkranz

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone by dok_sewage

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone by tabletopjoes

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone at 3DJoes.com

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone by 73larebear

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone by gen_liederkranz

1994 Dial Tone - Around The Web

The 1994 Dial Tone was one of the figures I acquired at retail in  the mid 1990's.  He was both a callback to a childhood favorite and just an amazing figure on his own.  Dial Tone featured many details that I had really wanted in figures when I was a kid.  He had a technical uniform that could be co-opted for a pilot, comms officer or even gunner.  And, he had a removable helmet.  This feature, alone, was enough to make the figure among my favorites during those early collection days.  

Dial Tone got a lot of use.  I had always loved his classic gun.  And, the 1994 version included this in colors that matched the figure.  I quickly used him in a variety of settings.  Ultimately, though, he found his real home as the turret gunner of the Shark 9000.  He just fit into this position.  I had always felt that gunners needed both removable helmets and comms gear.  There was no other way to get information about their targets.  So, Dial Tone took that seat of prominence and has rarely left it.

It's tough to find Dial Tone content.  This generic search term of his name yields non-G.I. Joe results.  So, you're left browsing deep recesses of sites, hoping something will come up.  On top of that, the 1994 version just isn't popular.  He's often forgotten as a character update that debuted in 1994.  None of that takes away from his overall quality.  So, enjoy some of this content where you can see just how cool he is.

1994 Dial Tone Profile

1994 Dial Tone by ptytoys

1994 Dial Tone by gijoe_c4_panama

1994 Dial Tone by offc0ur5e

1994 Dial Tone by doksewage

1994 Dial Tone by gen_liederkranz

1994 Dial Tone by viper_space

1994 Dial Tone by toysandtomfoolery

1994 Dial Tone by elevatemetoahigherhumanform

1994 Dial Tone by gvilla74

1986 Dialtone - Random Photos of the Day

Dialtone remains a personal favorite of mine.  Ever since my younger brother found him sitting on a random shelf at Target and got our first 1986 figure, I've felt that Dialtone was a figure I missed out on.  I've never been able to overcome that initial disappointment.  So, to this day, I use the figure way more than I should.  And, it's nearly impossible for me to express how much I like the figure.  I can't have a rational discussion about him.

So, here's a bunch of 1986 Dialtone figures taken over the years.  My favorite is the last one where he's in the Hum-Vee.  I miss those cheapo, generic military toys you used to be able to find at Toys R Us and, for a short while, Amazon.  They were a great way to expand the Joe line.  After that non-sequitur, enjoy the photos below. 

Rarities - 1986 Promotion Image (Pre-Production Figures)

Every year, Hasbro would go to the New York Toy Fair.  Here, they would showcase a catalog of their upcoming year's worth of toys.  As the Fair was early in the year, the catalog would often feature early designs and pre-production figures from various toy lines.  Below is not the 1986 catalog.  I'm not actually unsure of the origin of this image.  But, it's not from the official Toy Fair catalog.  But, in this promotional image, you can see several pre-production figures from the 1986 line.  The 1985 figures are all production level.  But, there are lots of 1986 goodies to explore.

The most interesting thing, of course, is that Mainframe still includes the little stands that were meant for his computer.  The holes into which these would have been inserted did manage to survive on Mainframe's production computer.  But, the stand was never released.  It is likely this was done to save cost as the stand didn't really add any additional play value.  But, the artifacts of it's early existence are proved out by its appearance in this photo.

Most people viewing this will likely focus on the BAT that is in the front and center of the presentation.  You'll notice that it has a different chest hologram as well as a different head.  This head appears squatter and fatter than the sleek head on the production figure.  I think the production figure looks better.  But, your mileage may vary.

Hawk also features an additional paint application on his helmet.  The goggles are painted black.  It's a very nice additional detail.  And, while it would have been great to see it at retail, it's also not enough of a change to really notice it's missing.

Several of the figures feature alternate heads.  The BAT and Dial Tone's heads are the most jarringly different from their production counterparts.  There are also lots of subtle paint differences, too.  Some of these figures might have been hand painted samples.  The awkward posing on the 1986 figures suggests that they were not production level at the time the photo was taken.  

You'll notice that Iceberg, Leatherneck, Low-Light, Monkeywrench, Zandar, Zarana and Roadblock are all missing from this display.  I'm not sure why.  I can see Zandar and Zarana being later releases while they finished up the color changing.  (Zarana is noted in some material as featuring a color changing "mohawk" which never came to be.)  All of these figures, though, do appear in  the official Toy Fair catalog for 1986...with a few pre-production oddities of their own.  By the time of the Toy Fair catalog, though, all of the pre-production figures from this photo (except the BAT)  had been replaced with production figures: even while the missing figures remained pre-production in that later photo

Stormshadow was also carried over into 1986.  This makes sense for one of the most popular G.I. Joe figures ever released.  There was a time when I was hell-bent on finding a grey Stormshadow filecard that would denote his 1986 release.  I can't recall if I ever succeeded in doing so or not.  But, check out that 6109 assortment that included Stormshadow.  You got Stormshadow, the 1985 Snake Eyes, Crimson Guard, Flint and the BAT in one case.  By Toy Fair, though, the assortment was modified to drop the Crimson Guard, but add the Eel, Low Light and Leatherneck.  That would have been a dream assortment to find hanging on the shelf at your local stores.

These old catalogs are a treasure trove of early designs and pre-production kitbashes.  In later years, Hasbro got better at including more production level figures in their materials.  At least until 1993 and 1994.  But, we'll talk about those at a later time.

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.

1990 Sonic Fighters Dialtone

Repaints are a double edged sword.  On one hand, they provide a great way to use an existing character in a new way.  On the other hand, collectors almost always wanted something new during the vintage line's heyday.  But, repaints became a thing in 1983 and continued through 1994.  In the vintage line, though, repaints were almost always excellent redos that brought something new to the character.  While this would change in 1993, the repaints released in the first decade of the line tended to be sold in subsets.  The main repaints were sold in color themed ensembles.  But, later, the figures started to appear in other subsets, but as just solid repaints instead of being married to a specific palette.  In 1990, Hasbro released the high priced Sonic Fighters subset.  While all the figures in the series are well done repaints, today we look at Dialtone.

Dialtone is one of my favorite figures.  This stems not only from the figure's quality, but also the circumstances of the character entering my collection.  (See the 1986 Dialtone profile for that saga.)  I had both of his 1986 color schemes and always found a way to include Dialtone in whatever adventure I could conjure up.  But, as I was completely out of Joe by 1990, I never saw this Dialtone in stores.  This new black, silver and blue color scheme was a strong entry for the character.  But, upon learning of this figure's existence, I didn't really take much time to track him down.  Instead, I was more interested in picking up additional 1986 figures.  And, this 1990 figure (acquired in a very early lot of 1990 figures I I bought back when no one cared about any figure after 1987) simply faded into the drawer of his contemporaries.  When Dialtone returned to retail in 2000, I army built that figure.  And, again in 2002, I snatched up a few extra cheap figures from the BJ's set.  Still, I never really thought of this Dialtone version.

In recent years, though, my obsession with all things obscure lead me back to this figure.  I found the color scheme stronger than I remembered.  And, his overall appearance is on par with his previous releases.  The color scheme is more akin to Cobra.  But, more on that in a later paragraph.  This Sonic Fighters Dialtone works well in a variety of vehicles and gives you a less bright version of the character for use in the field.  Original Dialtone gear isn't overly difficult to track down.  So, it's pretty easy to outfit him with the 1986 weapon and pack.  And, that leaves his other weapons for use with different figures.  The black grenade launcher is a nice match for the 1992 or 1993 Gung Ho.  And, I do enjoy the flamethrower with the 1994 Ice Cream Soldier.  

So, now this 1990 Dialtone finds himself another option for me to use when a photo needs a communications trooper.  While I still don't like it as well as the original, that's also a function of the first release holding the childhood memories.  So, it's difficult to look at the Sonic Fighter through the lens of anything other than an adult collector.  But, in that vein, this blue and black Dialtone is a solid entry to the Joe world.  He meshes well with other figures.  He can be used in a variety of bases or vehicles.  And, he looks good when he's out and about in the wild.  You can't ask for much more from a figure.  I always find more value in the Dialtone character than most, just because of my childhood biases.  But, even with those brushed aside, the Sonic Fighters Dialtone is pretty decent.

The Sonic Fighters included a great deal of gear.  In addition to the massive sound producing backpack that was completed with a radar dish on top, Dialtone also included four weapons.  The additional gear was a cheap way for Hasbro to convey extra value beyond the sound backpack.  As the Sonic Fighters were higher priced, Hasbro needed to convince parents that these figures were really special.  Dialtone included a black versions of: his 1986 weapon, Blocker's pistol, Hardball's Grenade Launcher and Charbroil's flamethrower.  Many of the Sonic Fighters included recolored Battle Force 2000 weapons.  But, they also included many accessories from the 1988 and 1989 Night Force figures.  Dialtone's flamethrower is nearly indistinguishable from the 1989 Night Force Charbroil's.  And, there is considerable debate in the community regarding the differences between it as well as the Night Force Shockwave and Spearhead weapons that are included with other Sonic Fighters figures.

It was pointed out to me that Dialtone and the 1991 Interrogator share a color scheme.  The blue, black and grey of Dialtone is nearly identical to those colors on the Interrogator.  While Hasbro loved to reused the same colors again and again in the line, it was rare for two figures in close proximity to be so closely aligned.  There's no connection between the characters.  But, maybe there should be.  It would probably get super weird with one them wearing colors to mimic the other.  And, the stalker, obsessive nature of one of the characters would be out of depth with their established characterization.  Interrogator is smooth operator.  So, it doesn't flow that he's had some bizarre obsession with a random and somewhat obscure member of the Joe team.  

The Sonic Fighters retailed for $7 each.  This was more than twice the cost of a standard carded figure.  But, while toys that make cheesy electronic noises are commonplace and cheap today, they were state of the art 31 years ago when this figure was released.  The size of the pack helped to sell the additional gimmick that more than doubled the cost of a figure.  But, the concept must have been successful enough as the Super Sonic Fighters and Talking Battle Commanders followed in subsequent years.  I did find remnants of the Talking Battle Commanders at retail in 1997.  So, it's probable that the higher price gimmicks did fizzle out, eventually.  But, Hasbro pushed the edge of what a 3 3/4" figure could be and found ways to make the figures evolve, even as they kept the construction and basic design of the figures the same for 13 years.  

Dialtone has been done to death.  He was first released in 1986 and immediately got a Mission to Brazil repaint later in that year.  This Sonic Fighters figure appeared in 1990.  The 1986 Dialtone was released on a Chinese card around 1994.  Then, Hasbro went crazy.  After scrapping plans for a desert Dialtone in 1998, they released an olive green figure in 2000.  He appeared in the BJ's Gift Set in 2002.  His chest and arms were also released in grey as part of the 2002 Dusty figure and his parts ended up on a few other figures from the 2000's.  Then, a Tiger Force version was released in 2003.  Despite all this, Dialtone could have used both an arctic figure and a full production desert figure.  As I enjoy the mold, I'd take him in any colors.  But, I'm in the minority on that point.

Sonic Fighters Dial Tones are not expensive.  Just the figure can be had for under $7.  One with a couple of his weapons will run you $12 or so.  And, mint and complete with filecard figures can be had for $20.  For a figure with a lot of gear that was released in a lower production run subset, that's not too bad at all.  But, as this was the third Dialtone released in the vintage line, you can see how collectors were a bit fatigued with him.  And, while his colors are pretty strong, they are also not as distinctive as his 1986 releases.  The lack of a communications backpack is also a factor.  So, this Dial Tone languishes in obscurity, even as other figures released in his same subset find favor among collectors.

Rarities - European Force Randon

So, each year I try to showcase some piece of the European Force line of knockoffs.  This year's focus is Randon.  Basically, Randon is a red 1986 Dial Tone with Flint arms and Hawk legs.  He's not the type of thing collectors would love.  Except that he's exceedingly rare and that alone causes people to be interested in him.  Heck, I'm a Dialtone fan.  And, I don't really want an all red version of him with different arms and legs.  But, at the same time, I'd totally buy this figure if I ever came across one for a good price.

All of the European Force figures have a kitsch about them that makes them interesting.  We'd have never seen some of these colors on vintage Joes.  And, the lower quality and reduced paint masks definitely mark these figures as bootlegs.  (Randon doesn't appear to have Dial Tone's mustache painted.  Yet, Hasbro did the same thing in 2000.)  But, at the same time, the entire line has a panache that makes you want it.  The fact that some of the designs have never been revisited seems a shame.  And, after the oversaturation that's occurred with the Red Shadows in the past 10 years, having MyGal as an alternative European villain would be nice.

You'll note in the photos below that Randon included a rifle originally from the Baroness.  The red weapon in the last photo was from a different line that a seller just included since it kind of matched Randon.  With obscure lines, you see things like this often.  And, absent carded samples, it can be difficult to determine real gear that was included with a figure versus aftermarket items that were added from a box of unsorted weapons.

Like all the European Force figures, high quality Randons are nearly impossible to find and are extremely expensive.  You'll pay over $100 for even a sample with heavy paint wear.  The European Force quality is not good.  But, their designs were fun.  I just wish they were more attainable.

A Real American Hero Collection - 20 Years

20 years ago this week, we learned that G.I. Joe was returning to retail with the A Real American Hero Collection.  We didn't have much info at the time.  But, within a few weeks, we learned the roster and then saw initial mocks ups of the figures.  Collectors of the day were overjoyed at Joes coming back.  And, the enthusiasm carried over to when the figures finally showed up in October of that year.

What's more amazing to me is that when we learned about Joe coming back in 2000, 1982 Joes were only 18 years old.  Really, Joe had only been gone from the vintage run for 6 years.  Now, it's been two decades since Joe's "return".  These figures are older than the original Snake Eyes was when he appeared.  Yet, these figs still seem somewhat new...if only because they were released to a burgeoning collector community that would see exponential growth in the next 18 months as tons of early 20-somethings discovered they could collect their childhood favorites.

Through the years, I've reviewed many of the first wave of releases from the A Real American Hero Collection.  I've got a few more coming up in 2020 and 2021, too.  In no particular order:

2000 Undertow

2000 Dialtone

2000 Law and Order

2000 Chameleon

2000 Dusty

2000 Lamprey

2000 Wild Bill

2000 General Tomahawk

This series of figures has aged relatively well.  The colors in the overall collection got redundant in 2001 and beyond.  But, in general, the 2000 series of figures was the best overall set of figures that we saw in the 2000's and later releases devolved in some way or another.  It's hard to believe these figures are now that old.  But, time marches on....