The Top 10 - 2021

 2021 has been an interesting year.  We've seen massive amounts of factory customs.  There were a few "retro" items available.  And, most importantly, Hasbro is bringing back some vintage Joe style figures with commemorative releases and the Haslab Skystriker.  2022 has much for Joe collectors to look forward to.  Promises of a variety of products that should hit everyone's collecting niche abound.  

Looking through this year's top 10, it's an eclectic mix.  Numbers 2 and 3 are really surprising.  But, in general, the popularity seems to be all over the place.  The site saw a massive uptick in visitors as both the pandemic raged and the Snake Eyes movie drew close to release.  Even after the movie's disappearance from popular culture, though, the traffic has remained high.  The site got 189,000 page views this year.  That's a substantial increase from years past.

Without further ado, here are the top 10 posts in terms of pageviews that were released in 2020.  I put that caveat on there because the most viewed post on the site in all of 2021 was, once again, the 1984 MANTA.  I don't know why.  But, it more than tripled the number 1 post that was new in 2021.

10. 1986 Claymore 

Claymore is a "rare" figure who's price has far outstripped his value to a collection.  As I got him for Christmas in 1986, though, he's somewhat important to me.  And, his rarity always attracts eyeballs.

9. 2017 Commando 

Red Laser Army figures tend to do well.  Snake Eyes figures tend to do well.  So, combined, they clocked in as the 9th most popular new post on the site this year.

8. 1983 Hawk 

Hawk is kind of a surprise.  I looked at the MMS last year, too.  And, it was one of the worst performing new profiles of the year.  So, to see the Hawk included with the vehicle get so many additional views just goes to show how valuable the inclusion of the drivers really was.

7. 2020 Black Major Bonecrusher 

Bonecrusher was my pick for the best figure of 2020.  I still maintain that it's an excellent design that brings some needed life to the 1985 Snake Eyes mold.  It showing up there is no surprise.

6. 1987 Crystal Ball 

Crystal Ball really shouldn't be among the most viewed profiles of the year.  But, I can also see how he does belong.  Everyone knows him.  And, sometimes, people just can't look away, even at something that's goofy and silly.

5. 2021 Zica Toys Riot Commando 

To be honest, I thought the Riot Commando would have done better.  It's an awesome figure and I got him within days of his 1st release.  But, it seems this figure hasn't really caught on in the vintage Joe world.  I expected lots of photos of him to appear in the months after his release.  That hasn't happened.  And, the Riot Commando seems to be fading into obscurity.  That's an unjust fate for a solid figure with amazing paint applications that's priced right.

4. Chinese Toxo Zombie

This one kind of makes sense.  The Toxo Zombie has become a popular figure.  Obscure carded figures tend to perform well.  And, this is a relatively unknown foreign variant, too.  It all added up to a well read post.

3. 2001 Crossfire

Ugh.  Crossfire sucks.  I despise this figure and have since his release 20 years ago.  Yet, I must not be in tune with the community on this one as here he is, the third most viewed page on the site in 2021.  Controversy gets clicks, I guess.

2. Stargate Lt. Kawalsky 

This one is surprising.  Stargate figures get zero mention in Joe groups.  And, while these figures include Joe accessories, they aren't all that exciting to anyone but variant nerds like myself.  But, I suspect the offbeat nature of the figure and the loose connection to Joe brought in many casual readers.

1. Haslab Skystriker

No surprise that the biggest Joe news of the year lead the site in traffic.  It wasn't a huge advantage, only about 30% more than Lt. Kawalsky.  But, nothing beat out the Skystriker announcement.  The night the Haslab funded was one of the most fun Joe collecting nights in my more than two decades of being a member of the online collecting community.  Here's to another one in 2022.

Thus ends another year of Joe fandom.  We know we're getting o-ring figures in 2022.  We just don't know who and when.  But, it will happen.  And, assuming they aren't impossible to get, you'll probably see them here.  The night of the Skystriker funding was one of the most fun Joe world experiences of the past 20 years.  It's my hope that Hasbro can strike that kind of magic more often.  

As 2022 is the 40th anniversary of the vintage Joe line, I'm going to take a different tact for the first part of the year and profile something each week in chronological order starting with 1982 through, at least 1994.  (I'll see how I feel about touching on post '94 years.)  It will follow my personal chronology with the line, how I grew with the line, abandoned it and then came back.  

I hope you and yours have had a solid 2021 and wish you a better 2022.  We have much to look forward to this year and I will enjoy sharing it with you!

1994 Lt. Kawalasky - Hasbro Stargate

In the 1980's, the action figure was king.  Starting with Star Wars and ending with G.I. Joe, the 1980's featured toy lines that covered the gamut from licensed properties to original ideas.  At various times, you could play with monsters, aliens, knights, mythical heroes, tv show characters, army men and pretty much any other off the wall idea that a kid could want.  But, as the decade wound down, play patterns were changing.  As the 1990's dawned, quite a few different factors converged to pretty much end the '80's toy renaissance.  Among them were the rise of all in one discount stores like Wal Mart that slowly ate away at the various regional or local retailers who were able to stock wide varieties of toys.  The Saturday morning cartoon block was replaced by cheaper live action shows and, eventually, infomercials that reduced the ability of advertisers to reach kids at an economical level.  Home video game systems had come back and were starting to attract younger and younger kids.  And, 1980's properties had grown stale.  A younger generation was captivated by Ninja Turtles and, later, Power Rangers to such an extent that other toy lines struggled to find a presence on the ever shrinking retail shelves.  

Ultimately, this lead to the demise of lines like G.I. Joe.  Like the dinosaurs that they were, though, Hasbro (and other companies) didn't really understand the changing marketplace and often tried to hold onto the last bastions of the action figure heyday.  As their in house brands ebbed in popularity, Hasbro turned to licensed properties to keep their boys division afloat.  In most of these cases, Hasbro was able to use existing tooling (usually from the G.I. Joe brand) to produce new toys at a cost that made them worthwhile.  We all know of the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat movie figures that used Joe parts.  But another, more obscure, licensed toy line also borrowed from G.I. Joe.  And, while the Stargate figures were not in standard Joe construction, the line saw some uses of recolored G.I. Joe accessories and even an iconic Joe vehicle that was retrofitted for the new toys.

Years ago, I picked up an oddly colored and modified Tunnel Rat backpack.  It was a cool green color, but had the holes for the flashlights in the top covered over.  It sat around for years until the 2004 Night Force set appeared.  I found the pack was an interesting fit for the Night Force Tunnel Rat.  So, I gave it to him, but wondered where this accessory had originated from.  I kind of figured it was from the Corps as I had Flint, Footloose and Blowtorch packs from that line which had slight modifications.  So, I didn't really consider the pack much more.  

In 2018, though, I got interested in alternate uses of Joe accessories.  This was driven from the oddball kitbashes of the Power Commandos and Kaido lines.  But, it also took me down a rabbit hole of other uses.  It was here that I found the origination of that Tunnel Rat backpack.  Hasbro had used it, and many other accessories, as part of the Stargate line of figures.  I was aware that Stargate had a modified AWE Striker.  But, I hadn't realized that recolored Joe gear was also among its reuses of existing tooling.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the few figures in the line that did include Joe gear were stupidly cheap.  But, I was also somewhat surprised to see that some of the cooler weapon repaints were not more common among Joe collections.  Through the years, I had acquired several Street Fighter Movie accessories through various dealers.  But, I had never seen Stargate weapons among the wares of those sellers.

There are 8 carded figures in the Stargate line.  There are 4 "humans" (for lack of a better word) and 4 "Egyptians".  Note that I have never seen the Stargate movie or consumed any media beyond these figures.  So, I have no idea who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.  Of the figures, though, all include spring loaded launchers and missiles.  The missiles are carry over from the 1992-1994 era of G.I. Joe and have some unique colors among them.  The Egyptian figures only have gear unique to this line beyond that.  The "humans", though, feature an interesting array of recycled G.I. Joe gear.  Daniel includes the aforementioned Tunnel Rat backpack and an Annihilator weapon in black.  Skaara includes a Monkeywrench weapon in an exclusive silver.  Col. O'Neil includes a grey Bullhorn rifle.  This can be problematic as a similar weapon was included with the hard to find 2010 Convention Bullhorn figure.  So, if you see a grey Bullhorn rifle in a lot, it's far more likely to be Col. O'Neil's than the hard to find convention figure's.  Lt. Kowalsky includes a black Big Ben backpack and a green machine gun from the 1992 Gung Ho.

The Lt. Kawalsky figure from the line is my ultimate choice of figures to look at.  Not because of the figure.  (He's barely worth mentioning....)  But, because his gear is interesting on a couple of levels.  Big Ben's backpack is a very solid entry to the Joe line.  It's large, detailed and works for a variety of figures.  It's one of those generic packs that many figures can wear without being too iconic to Big Ben.  Prior to 2002, this was the only black release of this backpack.  The M-60, though, is an odd tie to an unproduced bit of Joe lore.  Kowalsky's weapon is in a dark green color.  This hue is unique to this weapon in the Stargate line.  It's a neat look.  Especially when you know that there are pre-production Joseph Colton figures that include the same weapon mold in a green color that's nearly identical to this Kowalsky release.  

And, with this color, Kowalsky takes on a different value.  I can now outfit my Colton with the green weapon and I have a reasonable facsimile of an unproduced G.I. Joe weapon from the line's dying days.  There were many weapon color variants that never actually saw production.  You see them in the sales catalogs and imagery of the time.  But, there are also bagged and carded samples of some figures which feature alternate colors.  Colton is one of them.  Few other collectors get into weirdly colored 1990's weapons molds like I do.  Most people would far prefer this weapon in black.  But, having that hook to an unproduced and pre-production piece from the vintage Joe line pushes this weapon over the top for me.  I would not have paid much more than $5 to get it.  And, loose, I'd be reluctant to pay 1/2 that amount.  But, it's a fun little Easter Egg that I can sprinkle among my photos.  Eagle eyed collectors will catch the homage.  Others will wonder from where the odd colors originated.

Lt. Kawalsky actually has a variant, too.  You can find the rifle, missiles and striker artifact in the dark green seen below or a very bright neon yellowy green.  (The variant weapon appears very close in the color to the 1994 Dialtone's weapons.)  Neither is hard to find and a random sampling shows them both adequately available for the same price.  A running change like this, though, implies that these figures likely saw a solid production run.  It's impossible to know how they stack up against the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter Movie figures in terms of numbers.  Both of those lines are harder to find, now.  But, they are also widely collected by the Joe community and both those properties have a larger fan base than Stargate.  So, it's not an apt comparison.  And, even 10 years ago, Street Fighter Movie and Mortal Kombat figures were pretty easy to find.  The ubiquity with which these Stargate figures still exist MOC, though, certainly confirms that they had an ample production run.

They also failed pretty hard at retail.  The line was not continued.  And, the amount of stock still left with KB "discount" stickers on them implies that the line was fodder for clearance bins for many years.  As 1994 and 1995 were really the beginning of the toy dealer/hoarder/speculator era, tons of overstock figures went into bins for future sales.  Depending on when the dealers liquidated, the Street Fighter Movie and Mortal Kombat figures could have been worth it.  These Stargate figures, though, are not.  They remain worthless and unloved today.  Were it not for the G.I. Joe connection, I would not even know they existed.  And, I collected for a long time before I actually learned about them and developed enough of an interest to even track one down.  

Stargate figures are cheap.  You can get them MOC for $5.  If you can find someone selling a lot of them, you might get the whole lot for $10.  Loose figures are pretty scarce, though.  The alternate construction probably causes many toy dealers to pass them by.  And, even the recolored Joe gear has almost no interest.  So, it's not even worth the time to parse that out of a box full of '90's junk action figures.  For the oddity of the green machine gun, $5 is worth it.  Beyond that, though, there's little value in the toy.  They are better put together than the garbage figures you find at a dollar store.  But, the proportions and articulation are about the same.  Collectors, though, seem to have simply forgotten about this line and, were it not for a thin connection to Joe, I would have have no idea of its existence.