1988 Target Exclusive Hit and Run

I quit buying Joes in 1988.  At that point, I was way too old to still be playing with toys.  But, I was also not really ready to let go.  I had bought all of the 1987 releases.  And, those figures dominated my room and my time.  But, as the calendar turned to 1988, I had found a new hobby in baseball card collecting that was more acceptable for someone my age.  So, Joe began to fall away.  In 1988, I only bought a handful of figures: Hardball, Tiger Force Roadblock and Hit and Run.  I don't really recall when I got Hit and Run.  He might have been my first figure of 1988.  Or, he might have been the final figure I purchased in childhood.  The circumstances of his entry into my world are lost to time.  But, he maintained a high status in my collection during the time I still played with Joes.  At some point in 1988, though, my youngest brother brought home a new Hit and Run.  This one, though, was a special figure that included a parachute pack.  As I had lost my original Hit and Run's filecard, I clipped out the yellow version and, ultimately, stowed the figure and parachute away into my plastic red Lego box that held all my Joes as I transitioned from kid into adult collector.

I didn't think much about the second Hit and Run figure.  By that time, I was not playing with Joes.  though, I may have snagged his awesome rifle and used it with another figure.  I did not realize that the Hit and Run was a Target exclusive.  It was meant as a higher priced gift type item.  There was nothing really new about the figure.  But, you could get a figure who included a rope, working winch, grappling hook and a parachute in one combined package.  At the time, it was the the most deluxe figure package that Hasbro had ever offered.  In coming years, Hasbro would expand upon the deluxe figure idea and offer a wide array of full release figures at higher price points for premium accessories.

When taken as a pairing, Hit and Run and the parachute pack seem a natural fit.  The colors match up.  Hit and Run's body mold looks like it could be part of a paratrooper's uniform.  And, Hit and Run could still use all of his gear and the parachute at the same time since his duffel bag was not a traditional backpack.  The parachute added a new element to Hit and Run and made him an even better option as a member of a Tomahawk crew.  Hit and Run was also a pretty nice match for the 1984 Ripcord and the Night Force Crazylegs.  So, he fit the motif of the paratroopers in the line.  

As a figure, Hit and Run is just about perfect.  His sculpting is top notch where he's detailed but not over the top.  His green and black coloring satisfies the "military purists" while his ingenious satchel, rope and grappling hook are one of the best accessories Hasbro ever produced.  His rifle perfectly matches the figure, is well detailed and is neither too large nor too small.  In short, Hit and Run is what many people hold the Joe line as a whole out to be.  But, truthfully, Hit and Run is an outlier in the line.  He is the military in military fantasy.  The 1988 line was a perfect balance of the two in that there were many military figures but also a great number of outlandish, fantasy characters, too.  This balance shifts from year to year...especially on the Cobra side. 

As Hit and Run was among my last figures of childhood, his adventures were limited.  I've told the story, though, of how I lost him hanging in the ivy of my grandparents' yard, only to find several months later.  Beyond that, though, Hit and Run was heavily a figure I admired.  Shortly after I got him, I put my toys away.  They were locked in a closet.  And, I suspect this had something to do with my brother's acquisition of this Hit and Run.  He liked the figure, but didn't have access to it.  So, he bought his own.  And, in this case, it turned out to be an exclusive.  (He would also get the Night Force Sneak Peek and Falcon later in the year.)    I spent much of 1988 and 1989 wishing that I could still collect toys.  And, I'd pull my Hit and Run out every now and then to admire the work and imagine all the adventures I've had with him were he released in 1985.  Even now, as a collector, that wanting still lingers.  I've profiled Hit and Run three times, now.  Yet, in no instance do I feel that I've adequately captured how cool the figure is in the photos.  Nor, do I feel that my profile lives up to the figure and gives him his due.  It's odd how these old feelings remain with a toy, even three and half decades later.

In 1988 and 1989, Hasbro offered up a few retailer exclusives.  While the Night Force line at Toys R Us is the most famous due to the exclusive figure paint jobs, there were a few others that were designed to attract parents and gift givers to the Joe line.  This Hit and Run is one example where Hasbro took two existing products, put them in new packaging, and sold an exclusive figure for a premium.  Target also got an exclusive two pack of Voltar and Muskrat.  Again, the figures were the same as the standard release.  But, Target got exclusive packaging designed to sell a two enemies in a package.  In 1989, Hasbro boxed a Mudfighter and Hiss II into a single box and sold them at warehouse stores.  Hasbro never again offered bundled vehicles or figures.  So, we're left to question if those products were successful.  However, Sky Patrol did appear in 1990.  These figures all included parachute packs like Hit and Run and feature larger cardbacks.  They seem like the real legacy of this Target exclusive figure from 1988.

The Target Hit and Run parachute pack has a specific Country of Origin (COO) stamp on it.  The more common mail away Parachute Pack features a made in Hong Kong COO stamp.  The parachute pack included with the Target Hit and Run, though, features a Made in China COO stamp.  The green color of Hit and Run's parachute pack is also slightly different than that of the mail away.  It's nearly impossible to discern unless you have one of each next to each other.  So, the COO stamp is the main way to be sure of the correct Hit and Run parachute pack.  Most "Target" Hit and Run's that are sold feature the incorrect parachute pack.  So, be sure to confirm the correct COO on the pack when you are looking to acquire one.

Hit and Run saw a fair amount of release.  Hasbro released him as the standard carded figure and this Target exclusive.  His arms were also used on the Tiger Force Duke figure and later appeared on the Chinese Exclusive Duke.  From there, he appeared in the European line in exclusive Tiger Force colors.  Hit and Run was then sent to Brazil.  Estrela released the mold in a darker green as Alpinista.  Both the Tiger Force Hit and Run and Alpinista are notable in that they feature Hit and Run's flesh toned face.  Hasbro planned to repaint the Hit and Run mold in 1995 and release him as a vehicle driver with a tank.  That figure was planned to stay true to Hit and Run's roots and feature a black torso and green pants.  Had this figure been released, it would be highly sought after today.  Hit and Run collectors, though, have a ton to track down already.  Despite that, Hit and Run was one of the most requested Joe repaints of the early 2000's and a repaint of him in other environments or sub teams would have been well received.

Pricing on Target Hit and Run's is difficult.  Sure, a carded figure will easily run over $1,000.  But, loose, mint and complete with filecard samples are few and far between.  Loose Hit and Run figures themselves are odd in that they sell in $18 range: but dealers sell an appalling amount in the $40+ range.  It's a huge disparity.  Lots of dealers will try to match a complete Hit and Run with a mail away parachute pack and charge a premium for a "Target" figure sans filecard.  But, figures with the correct, yellow filecard and the parachute with the correct country of origin stamps will likely exceed $100 in today's Joe market.  It's an absurd price to pay when you can achieve the same thing with cheaper alternatives...even if they are not "collectible".

Target Exclusive Hit and Run - Parachute Pack

As 1988 wound down, Hasbro produced a few special figure releases that were repacks of some of their 1988 figure offerings.  These special packs were marketing gimmicks to entice gift givers to choose something G.I. Joe for their recipients.  There was a special Voltar vs. Muskrat pack that featured exclusive packaging.  The option that is most familiar to me, though, is the Target exclusive Parachute Pack Hit and Run figure.

This exclusive showed up at some point in 1988.  The Hit and Run figure itself was no different than the standard version that was still available on a single card.  In addition to his traditional accessories, though, the figure also included Parachute Pack that was taken from the same mold as the long time mail away premium.

MOC, this figure is rather hard to find and extremely expensive.  Loose, the figure is easily made from a Hit and Run and common Parachute Pack.  (There are, though, differences in the parachute pack with one made in China and one made in Hong Kong.  It's possible that one of these is either exclusive to this Hit and Run or that Hit and Run only included one of the chutes but the chute was also available as a mail away.  I've never seen a carded version of this figure with the chute packaged so you can see the made in stamp and no one is going to open a $1,000 carded figure to find out something so trivial.)  So, you don't often see the figure command a premium.  But, the cardback did include a unique, orange backed filecard.  You will see this exclusive bio sell for substantially more than all but the rarest filecards in the line.

Hit and Run was one of the last figures I purchased at retail in early 1988 before I quit collecting Joe.  However, my youngest brother continued buying figures through the year.  And, at some point, he acquired this figure.  I remember as I found the Hit and Run lying around the house and I thought he had stolen mine from the closet in my room again.  However, I found mine safe in his plastic baggie inside a Lego container on the floor.  I then found the packaging for this figure and realized he was something different.

For some reason, I had not saved the filecards from my 1988 figure purchases.  (Still don't know why that was since I had been religious about filecard clipping since 1983.)  So, I cut the orange file card off of the packaging and added it to my Hit and Run that was saved away.  That proved fortuitous in later years when the filecard got scarce and pricey since I already had one.

Hasbro didn't really do re-releases like this Hit and Run again.  Any later special offers were packaged with an exclusive figure to make them more enticing.  But, this figure serves as a somewhat pre-cursor to Sky Patrol who would debut two years later.  It is also an excellent pairing of figure and gear that Hasbro would move away from as the line sputtered out.

1985 Parachute Pack - Mail Away

One of the great things about the vintage G.I. Joe line was that Hasbro offered small, supplemental play items that were designed to be used with the standard figures and vehicles.  Some of these, like the small battlefield playsets, were retail offerings.  Others, like the 1985 Parachute Pack were exclusively offered via mail away through Hasbro Direct.  As a retail item, the Parachute Pack is rather dull.  But, as a cheap mail away item, the parachute is a remarkably fun toy that adds a whole new layer of play to Joe figures.

The Parachute Pack is stuck in a great collecting dichotomy.  As a toy, it is fun and exciting.  The pack fits into the hole on the backs of figure and includes a belt shoulder strap that provides an extra layer of protection to keep the figure from separating from the pack when thrown into the air.  It was a great way to add a sense of realism to the toyline.  But, as a visual item, the pack is less awesome.  It is large, bulky and unwieldy.  It looks out of place on a figure and will not fit into any vehicles.  So, you either had to have the figures wearing the packs stand on the skids of the Dragonfly.  Or, have them in the aircraft, take them out, affix the pack and then have the simulated parachute drop.  The engineering that made the pack possible is quite impressive.  But, it is somewhat difficult to play with outside of specific scenarios.  So, that may explain the lack of popularity since kids likely grew bored with it rather quickly.

The Parachute Pack was not overly complex in terms of the parts.  The pack itself is a hard shell of green plastic.  There is a thin edge in between the two sides that allows the sides to close together.  At the top is a pliable plastic peg that holds the pack together.  The parachute itself is the same plastic sheet material that was first seen in the Skystriker.  This version, though, is camouflaged.  The back includes a belt strap that provides an additional attachment point to the figure as it goes over the figure's shoulders and attaches into two slots on top of the pack.  The best part of the belt strap, though, is there is a small hole on the side into which a replica of the 1984 Ripcord's air mask will plug.  The pack also includes a version of Ripcord's helmet.  (There is a definite feeling that this pack was mostly intended to be an additional play item for Ripcord.)

As a kid, I loved the notion of parachutes.  My younger brother received a Fisher Price Adventure People parachute pack for his birthday in 1982.  This also happened to be the birthday where he got tons and tons of G.I. Joe toys.  Even though the Fisher Price parachute was rainbow colored, it was quickly integrated into the Joe play patterns.  The Adventure People chute was actually cloth material with heavy plastic straps affixed to it.  It gave the overall package more weight and allowed it to be thrown higher into the air.  The cloth parachute worked remarkably well and the figures were securely strapped into the harness.  In short, it was a great toy.  When Ripcord entered my collection in 1984, I would often have him bail out of the Skystriker and have the Fisher Price parachute become part of his survival gear on the ground.  He would use it as shelter, a blanket or a diversion.

I wanted a real, G.I. Joe parachute.  The closest thing was the seat back chutes in the Skystriker.  These were plastic and didn't work nearly as well as the Fisher Price item.  As such, I never pursued the mail away Parachute Packs.  I had another parachute that worked just fine.  When my youngest brother got the Target Hit and Run figure that included the Parachute, my apprehensions were confirmed.  While the idea of a working parachute was cool.  The execution was less so.  The bulky pack was awkward.  It took away from the figure due to the sheer size.  But, the play value remained.  My parents' home was a two story with a banister overlooking the stairs.  It was a perfect drop for parachutes onto the stairs below.  So, more than once, that Hit and Run was dropped over them.  But, that was about the extent that the G.I. Joe parachutes saw any use.

The parachute pack was first available in 1985 and continued to be available from Hasbro Direct through at least 1989.  In 1988, Hasbro packaged it with the Target exclusive Hit and Run figure, though they did not include the air mask or helmet.  The same pack, but in a very slightly different shade of green, was available in 1994 with both the individually boxed and 30th Anniversary Set Action Pilot.  Various other figures included different versions of the pack, including the Paratrooper Guile figure and the members of the Sky Patrol set.  There is a variant on the Parachute Pack.  One has a Made in China stamp and the other has a Made in Hong Kong stamp.  The packs have slightly different coloring based on the production stamp.  I don't know if one is rarer than the other or if one is exclusive to Hit and Run.  The later Parachute Packs had the production stamps removed altogether.  So, it's something to be on the lookout for.

Mint and complete with blueprints parachute packs can be purchased for between $7 and $10.  If you don't want the blueprints, you can get complete packs for around $5 with relative ease.  The widespread availability of the pack and general disinterest from collectors have left the parachute as an obscure mail away exclusive.  It's amazing to see the disparity between items like this parachute pack and the MANTA versus the mail away exclusive figures like Starduster or the Steel Brigade.  While those figures are extremely popular and rather expensive, their vehicular counterparts are cheap and plentiful.  It's possible that the pricing difference is a function of greater production of the vehicles.  But, I doubt that's the entire reason.  There's just more interest in figures and many collectors simply disregard these mail away add ons entirely.  That's not a bad thing, though, since it allows the modern collector to acquire as many of these Parachute Packs as they want without too much hassle or expense.  They are a fun addition to a collection and very worthy part of Joe lore.