1987 Jinx

I am not a Jinx fan.  As a kid, I relegated her acquisition to my youngest brother since I thought her swords might be useful.  I thought the figure was just terrible and of absolutely no value, whatsoever.  As an adult, this bias carried over.  And, even as I picked up most every figure from the 1980's, I simply didn't care about Jinx enough to verify that I had a complete or mint version.  Even today, I don't much care for Jinx.  But, I can not discount her popularity among collectors.  Jinx is a beloved character and remains someone who collectors fawn over.  On top of that, her original figure release was very well done and features some solid sculpting work for the time.  In the repaint era, Jinx, Lady Jaye, the Baroness and Scarlett were all repainted to death.  But, this original Jinx figure remains her iconic look.

Most of the Jinx love comes from the cartoon.  (I can recall one main role for her in the Special Missions comic.  But, her comic appearances elsewhere did little to remain with me.)  I'm not cartoon guy and still have never seen the 1987 animated movie.  So, I'm not sure why her character resonates so much.  However, Jinx had the fortune of being the last new female character to be introducted in the vintage Joe line.  She was the last female figure in the line until the 1993 Ninja Force Scarlett.  This uniqueness helped collectors glom onto her.  And, in the trend of female figures being perceived as rare and popular that was pervasive in the 1990's and early 2000's, Jinx found popularity in re-releases and collector created content. 

Today, I'm still not a Jinx fan.  Her missing out on both my childhood play and early adult foray into collecting leaves her as an odd woman out.  I hold the figure in the same regard as I do her 1987 brethren of Raptor, Big Boa and Crystal Ball.  Despite her release year, I have no attachment to the figure or the character.  She never played an interesting role in my collection and it's doubtful that she ever will.  I find her redundant, especially as Scarlett started to move more towards the ninja ranks.  I think the look of the character would have better fit as a villain.  Jinx could have proven a valuable foil to Scarlett and given her a natural enemy.  Tying Jinx to Snake Eyes was really the beginning of every martial artist in the line being traced to Snake Eyes/Stormshadow.  Having her a random villain who had no ties would have been more interesting to me.  Though, I'm not sure even that would have been enough to get me interested in the figure.

Despite all that, though, the Jinx figure is an excellent example of Hasbro at the top of their game.  She is more slightly built and appears feminine while not being overly exaggerated like female action figures made since 2000 tend to be.  The hooded head works quite well and is in scale with her body.  The red suit may be eye catching.  But, it's not too bright to be outside the realm of what a martial artist/ninja might wear when out and about.  The slip shoes work well enough and the skin showing on Jinx's feet help bring some color that breaks up her legs from being a sea of red.  It is the figure's simplicity that makes her useful as Hasbro didn't try to over-engineer the figure.  Her look is clear, clean and easy to quickly understand. 

Basically, Jinx is all red with a few splashes of black to break it up.  There is some flesh tone on her legs, hands and eyes.  But, the figure only features three unique colors.  For a vintage figure, this small number of colors is an anomaly.  Many figures of her time could feature up to eight different colors on the figure alone.  However, the lack of color diversity is made up for by paint mask intricacy.  Jinx features a black dragon logo on her left shoulder.  It is a very detailed tampo with many fine details.  She also features painted fingernails.  This was an unnecessary paint application.  But, it was also something that helped Jinx stand apart.  That little detail gives the figure a richness that belies her tri-colored hues and shows that Hasbro was willing to spend development resources even on figures they, ostensibly, designed to save money.

Jinx included 4 accessories: two swords, a backpack that could carry them and a large, bladed staff.  The swords and staff are slight and are very in scale with Jinx.  I have found that they look out of place with other figures.  But, that may just be bias left over from my childhood where I forever associated most accessories with the figures with whom they were first released.  Jinx's swords were recolored with the 1993 Ninja Viper.  Most Ninja Vipers you see out there now have Jinx swords included with them instead of the correctly colored versions.  All of Jinx's gear was reissued with Vypra and the Tiger Force Jinx.  And, her backpack, somehow, became the default "parachute" pack for 2000's era convention releases.  (The sword sheaths form natural rings to which strings for the parachute could be tied.)  Even the vintage Jinx's gear is pretty easy to find.  The weapons are well detailed and look nice and would have been good additions to other 2000's era figures.

Jinx got quite a bit of use.  During the vintage era, she was just released in this 1987 color scheme.  But, she was available both carded and as a mail away.  The mail aways are quite common and many bagged Jinx figures are easily found today.  Hasbro then used the body for the Mortal Kombat Sonya Blade figure and then used all of the body except for the lower legs for the Mortal Kombat Movie Edition Sonya Blade figure.  The entire mold reappeared in 1998 when it was changed to a new character named Vypra.  Jinx returned in the 2003 Tiger Force set (a figure that is now quite desired and expensive) and the body was used for the 2004 Comic Pack Scarlett.  The final uses came at the end of 2004 when Hasbro slightly repainted the mold as the Vypra twins in the Ninja Strike set.  There are many collectors who would have loved to have seen more Jinx repaints.  But, there's a ton of offerings that use most or all of the mold that are available. 

Jinx figures are pretty expensive.  Mint and complete with filecard figures run $30 or more.  You can pick them up for a bit cheaper if you can forego the filecard.  But, you will spend a lot to get pretty much any version of the character.  I don't think this figure is worth it, personally.  But, due to the character's popularity, the prices are completely within the realm of reasonableness.  Were it not for the fact that Jinx was a leftover from some lot of 1987 figures I acquired two decades ago, she would not be in my collection.  But, I have her and I'm glad for that as it means I don't have to spend two army builders' worth of collecting funds to acquire a figure that I really don't care for.

Rarities - Unproduced 2003 Tiger Force Variants

In 2003, Hasbro released their first Toys R Us exclusive pack of figures.  The popular theme of Tiger Force was the chosen subject.  The production set featured variants on some figures.  The main difference was skin tone.  But, the Big Brawler figure was massively different as there was both a red haired and black haired version.  This was a big deal to collectors at the time.

But, there were some pre production variants of the figures that didn't see the light of day.  The main difference was that the Big Brawler figure featured the word "Survival" on his chest rather than "Brawler".  The Survival shirt was an obvious homage to Outback.  Hasbro decided to remove the reference, though, and keep the character closer to the lame Big Brawler meme.

You'll see two Jinx variants below, too.  You'll see the skin color variances...especially in the hands.  These figures show how the figures morphed from the pre-production versions to the actual production variants.  Hasbro got more careful with their exclusive figures.  There was really only one other variant that escaped: the Desert Patrol Gung Ho's tattoo size.  But, the Tiger Force set had so many variants that it seemed kind of cheap.



The next figure is Dial Tone.  While there are pale and tan skin variants of the production figure, you'll see a pre-production variant below with differently colored rivets.  It's not the most interesting variant.  But, it shows that Hasbro worried about such things before the figure went to production.

Rarities - DeSimone Convention Figures

In the 1990's, there were G.I. Joe conventions.  They were, largely, the bastion of 12' Joe collectors.  But, Hasbro was often in attendance and offered merchandise to help support the endeavors.  One such promotion was the DeSimone convention figures.  James DeSimone was a prominent collector of the day who is best known for his guidebooks on 3 3/4 Joes that were released in the '90's.  At one point, he created some convention "exclusive" figures for sale at the various 1990's era conventions.

Hasbro offered DeSimone overstock of a few mail away figures which DeSimone then handpainted with store bought materials to create some exclusive figures.  His first two endeavors were the Police Officer and Race Car Ace.

Race Car Ace is nothing more than a repainted 1983 Ace figure.  He came with a handcrafted race car.  The idea was definitely rooted in the exploits of the 12' Joe mythos when he became less military and more adventurer.  The Ace figure isn't particularly noteworthy and modern customizers would cringe at the quality as you can see in the photo below.

The second figure was the Police Officer.  This figure is noteworthy because DeSimone used overstock Starduster figures to make his customs.  Seeing high quality Stardusters selling for over $100 in modern times makes it hard to fathom that there was once overstock of the figures.  But, DeSimone got some and painted them up.  The result, like the Ace, isn't stellar.  But, it was something different for the time.

The most famous figure, though, is the convention Infiltrate Jinx.  This figure is popular as DeSimone included it in his guidebooks.  Jinx stepped up the production in that she included a card.  Hasbro "sanctioned" the figure, for what that's worth.  But, it is also known that if you were willing to pay market price, you could still have an "official" convention Jinx made by DeSimone himself after the conventions.  Jinx has two variants, a blue Cobra logo or a black Cobra logo.  The logo colors differentiated when you acquired the figure.  Collectors don't seem to place any particular desirability of one color over the other any more, though.

Today, these figures are expensive.  They can command a few hundred dollars.  But, authentication is tough as anyone could make one with relative ease and there is no way to verify that any figure is the real deal or a later reproduction.  So, buyer beware with these items.  In the end, they are glorified customs.  (As are all non Hasbro produced convention "exclusives".)  So, you're paying a lot for something that's easily forged.  The figures are part of Joe history.  But, they are too sketchy for me to ever spend any money on.