1995 Sgt. Savage Iron Stormtrooper

There was no greater letdown than walking into a Big Lots store in 1995 and, from afar, seeing the glint of a massive display of G.I. Joe packaging only to, once closer, realize that the entire wall of toys was not A Real American Hero figures and vehicles but Sgt. Savage.  Sgt. Savage was Hasbro's post ARAH foray into larger format figures.  And, it did not go well.  Floor to ceiling walls of them went up at discount and close out stores all over the U.S.  But, the figures weren't really discounted enough.  And, many of them hung around for quite a while, teasing people like me who were hoping to stumble across the occasional ghosts of the ARAH line that would pop up from time to time.

On the surface, the Savage line should have been successful.  But, it suffered from trying to be too many things to too many people.  In 1994 and 1995, toy collecting was becoming a thing among adults.  The drivers of it, though, were the 40 year olds who had grown up on classic 12" G.I. Joe figures from the 1960's.  While some of them were attuned to the smaller version of Joe that was introduced in 1982, many older collectors had also disregarded it as it wasn't the toy line of their youth.  Sgt. Savage tried to toe the line between kids of the day who wanted larger action figures and the burgeoning adult collecting scene who wanted gritty military realism to shape their collectibles.  Sgt. Savage was Hasbro's attempt to appease both.

And, as is often the case with overly ambitious projects, Savage failed to meet either of its goals.  Kids just weren't into a World War II inspired toy line when they had Ninja Turtles, a great line of Kenner superheros lead by Batman and the newly introduced Power Rangers to attract their attention.  While adult collectors swooned over the Joe Kubert packaging artwork, the toys themselves weren't what they were looking for.  Sgt. Savage introduced a larger figure buck to the franchise and the 3 3/4" figures grew to 4 1/2".  On top of that, the construction was altered and the o-ring did not appear.  Honestly, the o-ring wouldn't have been a big issue had the new figure line been 3 3/4".  All this change, though, left Savage stuck in the middle with no fans to be found.  The toys were instant clearance fodder and dominated the toy aisles at regional and national discount stores for years.

As for the story of the toy line: it was a Captain America rip off.  I mean, it was such a blatant rip off that I'm not sure why Marvel didn't sue.  Maybe if Savage had become a bigger hit.  But, the characters were archetypes and they lacked the panache of the recently cancelled 3 3/4" Joe line.  The good guys blended together and the bad guys were watered down Nazis.  The problem with this is that once you base your villain on the Nazis, you have to make them worse than the Nazis.  And, that's pretty hard to do without either making the story far too dark for kids or having to delve into cartoonish super-villainy.  So, Savage went with super villains.  General Blitz created a doomsday device and went with cybernetic henchmen to spare the kids of the gory death of war.  The filecard of the IRON Stormtrooper specifically mentions that they are thawed out Nazis that were given cybernetic enhancements.  There's no real reason why.  But, we are left with an army building bad guy.

There really is only one reason to own this figure: the black trenchcoat.  I've looked at the coat before.  It was released in white with the Street Fighter Movie Edition Dhalsim figure.  A black version was also released with the Mortal Kombat Movie Shang Tsung figure.  But, the easiest way to acquire the coat is with this Iron Stormtrooper.  As the coat was designed for 3 3/4" figures, it is a tight fit on the Iron Stormtrooper.  But, once removed, it works perfectly as an accessory for Cobra Commander, Dr. Mindbender or even Destro.  Cloth accessories were extraordinarily rare in the vintage Joe line, even as Kenner started to perfect them in Joe's opening days.  So, having a way to get one that doesn't cost a ton (see Serpentor's capes!) is nice and allows you some customization potential with some of your higher up Cobra figures.

Really, the only interesting thing about the Sgt. Savage toy line is that it has a few pieces that were designed for the cancelled 1995 G.I. Joe line.  The IRON Panther tank was originally a toy for the Battle Corps Rangers.  The Arctic Stormtrooper includes gear that was planned for the 1995 Frostbite figure.  The Cryo Chamber from the Cryo Freeze Sgt. Savage was originally a mini-sub for the 1995 Dr. Mindbender.  There are other examples as well.  In 2007, the club co-opted a bunch of Sgt. Savage accessories and included them with the convention exclusive figures.  The weapons meant for 1995 Joes fit relatively well.  But, the larger weapons developed for Sgt. Savage were grossly oversized and look out of place.  But, they also meant that all of the Sgt. Savage molds were likely available if anyone wanted to lose a bunch of money by resurrecting the line.

When looking at the Iron Stormtrooper's gear, you also see some limitations.  While his weapons are meant to be based on historical gear from the World War II era, they fail in that they are just oversized, even for this larger figure body.  If you look at the machine gun, rifle and pistol in the photos below, you will see that the weapons are excellently detailed.  But, they are extremely large.  It's unfortunate as, had they been scaled to the Savage figures, they might have had a little more value for standard 3 3/4" Joe figures.  The Stormtrooper also includes 3 hoses that affix to holes in his body as well as some stick grenades.  The grenades can work with smaller Joes.  But, the rest of the gear will just shatter thumbs if you try to use it with vintage Joe figures.

There's not much else interesting about the Iron Stormtrooper mold.  Sans coat, the body is really pretty lame.  He's wearing a brown shirt. (Not subtle with the context there, were we, Hasbro?)  And, he's covered in some silver details that are meant to convey robotics.  The exterior hoses imply that he's be pretty easy to stop since you could just slice the hose and he'd lose some important function that the hydraulics provide.  The best part of the figure is probably the head.  He has a silver microphone over his mouth, though.  So, the head doesn't really look robotic or cybernetic.  The 1993 Cyber Viper did a much better job of conveying that the character was a cyborg.  As a bad guy, this figure is fine.  With the coat on, though, his articulation is limited.  And, without it, he's much more boring.  Non of the Sgt. Savage characters really had any demand for a return in the nostalgia drenched club figures that reused anniversary Joe parts.  Even a G.I. Joe Extreme character made into that line.  But, Savage was shut out and it's probably for the best.

One key point of Sgt. Savage figures is that they use softer plastic than 3 3/4" Joes.  The hands are more pliable and the overall plastic quality is softer.  This allows for the larger weapons to not be an issue with the figure's hands.  It's also an interesting update to the plastic Hasbro had used since 1982.  The 1997 G.I. Joe repaints featured some softer plastic that made the hands more pliable.  But, they are not as soft as the Savage figures.  It may be that the size of the Savage figures allowed for the softer plastic as the size allowed for its use.  But, it's an interesting update to the material quality, especially as Hasbro was still using the more rigid plastic for Street Fighter Movie and Mortal Kombat figures at the same time they were producing Sgt. Savage figures.

The upside to the Iron Stormtrooper is that he's a decent enemy design.  The 1982 Cobras (as well as Imperial Stormtroopers) were heavily based on Nazi tropes.  In time, Cobra moved away from that imagery.  This Iron Stormtrooper brings back the memory of the greatest evil the modern world has ever known.  While the filecard doesn't mention Nazis, it specifically calls out that they are enemy soldiers from World War II.  And, were the figure in the classic G.I. Joe scale, collectors would have long globbed on to this figure and made him a key part of the rogue's gallery of Joe villains.  The robotic nature of this character also allows them to be killed with less guilt than seeing standard humans being mowed down in combat.  But, it's also a design that collectors tend to love for their armies.

The verdict on Sgt. Savage is that it was trying to get kids interested in World War II toys because that's what many of their dads and grandfathers had grown up on the 1960's.  The marketing material and even filecards are full of references to the 1940's that no 9 year old would pick up on.  The entire concept was done to fulfill what was perceived as a void in the toy market.  It was a void that the green wave of 1982 Joes filled quite well.  But, that line didn't get so stuck in the past.  Sure, there was a bazooka guy decades after the weapon was retired.  But, you also had jet packs, lasers and other things that pulled kids in without burying them in historical fiction that required a knowledge of 50 year old pop culture references to really understand.  And, the 1983 Joe line moved forward in a way that didn't mire it down with realism.  The Savage line went the other way and we're left to wonder if the 1995 A Real American Hero line might have come to pass if this pet project of Savage hadn't gotten in the way.

Dealers will sell carded Iron Stormtroopers for $20-$25.  You can get carded versions in the $10-$12 range, though, if you're willing to wait.  The massive overstock of Sgt. Savage carded figures that used to pervade online marketplaces and local antique malls/flea markets has largely been absorbed.  So, the once frustratingly ubiquitous carded figures have gotten less common.  Most are locked away in boxes in comic and toy shops or sheds and basements of older collectors from the late 1990's and early 2000's.  They are awaiting the day the figures get pricey.  But, that's unlikely to happen...even in the stupid Joe market of 2022.  If you can find a loose, mint and complete Iron Stormtrooper, it will run you under $10.  So, just buy a carded version if you want one or an army of them.  

The Top 10 - 2020

 So, 2020 was a weird year.  It was bizarre in that Joe was popular, but also not.  Items that, historically, collectors showed interest in were simply ignored.  Yet, common items that no one would ever care about now get massive attention.  And, in all this, the most popular post in the site's history debuted this year.  Yes, there is a new number one post in this site's long life.  And, you'll never guess what it is.

With that, here's the top 10 posts of 2020 on the site.

10. European Force Tonnerre

The European Force figures have always been solid performers during Rarities Month.  This year, I focused on the one figure that I see the least: Tonnerre.  This orange repaint is weird and odd and lots of fun.  I'd love to someday own one.  Until then, though, Rarities write ups like this one will have to suffice for me.

9. 2006 Viper

Army builders are always popular.  This Viper Pit set, though, has turned into a dud due to the poor quality of the figures.  Despite that, this figure got a lot of page views just due to the Viper name and the fact that it's been 14 years since he was released.  

8. Black Major Cobra De Aco

Black Major figures tend to perform well.  Especially when you consider that I can't promote the profiles of them in many of the largest social media groups.  Despite this blackout, people find the write ups of the figures.  Other Joe bloggers report the same.  The De Aco is a famous figure in its own right and people were interested to see how the Black Major release compared to one of the first foreign figures to really capture the community's attention.

7. 2020 Retro Hiss Tank

This isn't really a surprise.  A classic and iconic vehicle re-offered at retail for the first time in a long time was certain to draw in viewers.  Naturally, you see video reviews from large toy sites that have massively more numbers as they pull in the retail only collector crowd.  But, even Joe collectors wanted to see this one and it dropped into the top profiles of the year.

6.  1987 Fast Draw

I never considered Fast Draw an overly popular character.  But, his profile garnered a lot of attention.  It wasn't the time of year or anything.  In fact, the two profiles the surround Fast Draw (1984 Chameleon and 1997 Ace) were among the lowest performing posts of the year.  So, the popularity is entirely attributable to the Fast Draw figure.

5.  Sgt. Savage P-40 Warhawk

The Warhawk is an incredibly obscure item of which most fans had little recollection.  So, it getting a prominent post attracted viewers.  Some loved the design.  Others hated it.  But, the reality is that Sgt. Savage toys are almost as forgotten as G.I. Joe Extreme and it's getting rarer and rarer to see them in any capacity. 

4. Terror on the Tundra Mail Away Promo

I don't look at a lot of paperwork.  But, little items like this Terror on the Tundra promo tend to be popular.  Most collectors have these things lying around.  But, they aren't something that they take the time to look at.  And, now that some of the items in them have reached astronomical prices, it's interesting to look back at what you could have bought when they were released.

3.  Rarities - Later Series Lucky Bell Power Commandos

While I had a good crop of Rarities posts this year, only two really broke through.  This look at the later series of Power Commandos, though, was the most popular Rarities post of the year.  Again, this showcased a bunch of figures that most collectors were not aware of and, in many cases, had never seen.

There still lots about this line I don't know.  But, there will be at least one more new post for Rarities month in 2021 that relates to the Power Commandos, though.

2.  2006 Operation Flaming Moth Range Viper

The Flaming Moth figures have been left behind by collectors.  Those of us around at the time of their release remember the acidic taste of the Club's disdain for us upon the figure's release.  And, we also remember the figures being clearance fodder for years as the club struggled to move them.  But, 14 years later, these figures have become obscure.  So, this profile hit a nerve with the generation of collectors who don't have bitter memories of how truly awful the G.I. Joe club really was.

Despite this figure being the 2nd most popular post of the year, it was viewed more than 2,000 fewer times than the number 1.

1. 1984 Manta

I know, I can't believe it either.  But, the Manta is the most popular post in the site's history.  And, it wasn't due to a viral moment or a spike in popularity in a social media group.  No.  The Manta's rise to the top was simply a sustained excellence over the year.  Even 8 months after it's original publication date, the Manta was still among the weekly leaders in site hits.  It never had a huge surge of visitors.  It's just steadily performed for months.  (If you scroll to the bottom of any page on the site, you'll see the top 5 posts visited in the past week and the MANTA was almost always there in 2020.)  And, in September, it overcame the Rarities post about the unproduced Cobra Island Infiltrate set to become the most viewed post since I returned in 2015.

I can't explain why.  Manta's don't seem all that popular.  The photos for it weren't out of the ordinary.  There's just something about the Manta that's kept it consistently drawing viewers since it first appeared.

So, that's it for 2020.  It was a hell of a year.  Let's hope 2021 is less eventful on all fronts.  I've got some fun stuff ahead for the new year.  Aside from Joe, I'm going to take a look at Spinmaster Batman figures, some new Star Wars releases and, or course, tons of Joe items.  I'll be back to my regular cadence next week and already have the posts mapped out into April.

As always, thanks for spending time here, reading my stuff and leaving your thoughts in the comments.  I appreciate all of you!

P-40 Warhawk - Sgt. Savage

As the Joe line died in 1994, Hasbro tried a lot of different things.  One such concept was the Sgt. Savage line of toys.  Originally, Sgt. Savage was designed as an "entry" line to the G.I. Joe world.  In retrospect, this seems silly.  Sgt. Savage was based on a World War II timeline, was a slightly different scale than the ARAH Joe line and really wasn't a kid friendly theme.  It was, instead, a more gritty line firmly rooted in military realism that hearkened back to adult's vision of what G.I. Joe was "supposed" to be.  Even at the time, it seemed to me to be an attempt to pull the burgeoning 12" collecting community into the world of smaller Joes.  Despite the generally decent ideas behind the Sgt. Savage line, it was an utter retail disaster.  The toys did not sell and throughout 1995 and 1996, walls of them appeared at every discount retailer in the country.  While collectors tend to lament G.I. Joe Extreme and the damage that concept did to the brand, Sgt. Savage might have been a worse retail scenario that decimated the Joe's brand appeal even more than Extreme.

The 1994 G.I. Joe line was short on vehicles.  The main line had just 4: the Blockbuster, Manta Ray, Scorpion and Razor Blade.  There were 2 Star Brigade mechs and a space capsule, though I really don't count that as an actual vehicle.  So, one area where the Sgt. Savage line did do OK was in their vehicle assortment.  While it only had three full vehicles released as companions to the figures, that was fairly substantial when you consider how small the line was overall.  The line featured the Grizzly jeep (which would later be released under the standard G.I. Joe header in India by Funskool), the IRON Panther which was a bad guy vehicle salvaged from the unfinished 1995 G.I. Joe line and the P-40 Warhawk plane.  In my desperate days of searching for the last dregs of G.I. Joe at retail, I twice succumbed to buy a Sgt. Savage vehicle.  First, it was the IRON Panther.  It was a staple of my Cobra army for a while.  But, it's not a great toy and was, eventually, sold off.  The second was the P-40 Warhawk.  With it, I found a toy that was more fun than many planes from my youth.  But, also found my full frustrations with the Sgt. Savage line as a whole.

It's pretty likely that I bought this P-40 at a KB Toyworks store in Lafayette Square mall in Indianapolis in the summer of 1996. It could have been 1995.  But, 1996 is the more likely timeframe.  Either way, at the time, there was a huge endcap of Sgt. Savage toys.  The endcap was floor to near ceiling of figures.  Stacked on either side of the endcap were boxes and boxes of vehicles, also stacked to nearly the ceiling.  It was the only G.I. Joe product in the store.  But, this massive overstock of Sgt. Savage toys was not unique to KB.  Local Big Lots stores had the same endcaps full of figures with vehicle boxes stacked nearby.  There was no greater tease than approaching the toy aisle in a discount store and seeing the glint of familiar G.I. Joe packaging colors only to get closer and realize that they were, entirely, Sgt. Savage toys.  These walls sat for quite a while, slowly dwindling until Sgt. Savage finally just went away, taking the last tie to the vintage Joe line with it.

During the mid 1990's I would still have fun with my toys now and again.  Usually, I'd blow off steam as various characters met horrible fates.  Many of these involved pilots getting destroyed in aircraft.  The fascination with this is two fold.  First, Star Wars remained an indelible film memory.  And, the notion of the Rebel pilots getting incinerated in space was simply captivating.  The second reason, though, is more personal.  In the late 1980's I learned that my grandfather had died on a bombing run over Anzio in World War II.  He was a bombardier and his plane was shot down on a mission.  I spent much time contemplating that.  Imagine being trapped in a crashing warplane, knowing death was imminent, but unable to do anything to stop it.  How would your last moments be spent?  As I explored the thoughts and emotions that would go into events of this nature, toys like the Warhawk helped me visualize scenarios.  

In my collection, items that arrive into it in near proximity become linked.  It still happens to this day.  When I got the Warhawk, some recent figure purchases were a few 1993 Star Brigade figures.  Quickly, the 1993 Ozone found himself as the pilot of the Warhawk.  If you spread his arms and legs just so, he would fit into the cockpit without flopping around.  Here, he died a great many deaths.  Most of them involved him leaning forward Star Wars style as his plane exploded from behind him.  At times, he'd be shot down over water and would plummet to a resting place far below the surface, still trapped inside.  Crews from the Shark 9000 would try to save him while a few Cobras might attempt to shatter the canopy...instantly pulping the pilot under the massive water pressure.  In this regard, the Warhawk was kind of interesting.  I had no real other planes available to me at the time.  So, the Warhawk filled a role.  And, it being the sole aircraft around, was more forgiven of its limitations than other toys would be.

One of the great follies of the middle stages G.I. Joe management was that they desperately tried to tie the legacy of the 12" figures to the 3 3/4" line.  In the early to mid 1990's, the burgeoning 12" G.I. Joe collecting community was vibrant.  And, for a while, Hasbro catered to them in terms of new products as they chased adult collecting dollars.  One thing Hasbro never realized was how different 12" G.I. Joe collectors were from what 3 3/4" Joe collectors would become.  Toy concepts like Sgt. Savage show how threading that needle was fraught with peril.  12" collectors didn't really flock to the brand as it was too much like the 3 3/4" figures.  But, kids and the emerging 3 3/4" collectors ignored it because the throwback didn't really resonate.  So, Hasbro missed the mark on both fronts and created an epic ocean of pegwarmers that damaged the brand for a couple of years.  Really, it took until 2002 before retailers were ready to fully take on the brand again.  But, even then, Hasbro's failure to understand a new generation of collectors bit them and the community was heavily alienated just three years later.

As a toy, the P40 is pretty nice.  It has an interesting blend of old school and more modern play patterns that work for enthusiasts of both genres.  You get some standard missiles that are on pegs under the plane's wings.  But, you also get two that can launch from the guns on the bottom of the wings, too.  The propeller and gun move when you push a button under the tail.  The gun lights up, shoots missiles and makes noise.  And, if I remember correctly, it makes a lot of noise.  It also features sturdy landing gear that fold up and tuck nicely underneath the wings.  The entire body, though, is massive.  While it only fits one figure, it takes up a huge footprint.  You can get an idea of the scale of the entire aircraft in the photos below where you see it towering over figures in ways many other vintage Joe planes did not.

The plane is an odd evergreen color.  The early prototypes and catalog images show the toy in a deeper, more military olive green.  While that color is more historically accurate, the released color makes this feel less like a then 50 year old design.  The mold is detailed and the entire plane is bulky and well put together.  I've not really cared about the Warhawk in 25 years.  It's been moved dozens of times, often in less than stellar packing just because I take shortcuts on toys I have little interest in.  Yet, the plane has survived to this day in better condition than my Shark 9000 or Blockbuster: two vehicles that I did care for through my nomadic existence.

The Warhawk included a pilot figure.  I desperately wanted this figure or his accessories to be compatible with my classic Joes.  But, he's not.  The 4.5" construction is just too big to work with vintage Joes.  The WW II era inspired machine gun included with him looks great.  But, it's out of scale for vintage Joes and will snap thumbs without hesitation.  The figures are differently articulated than vintage Joes.  They move differently and have unique joints.  Really, they are more akin to 2020 era action figures than even the JvC figures from 2002 to 2006 are.  All the details that drove the quality in the vintage Joe line are present in the Sgt. Savage figure designs.  But, the oddball new scale leaves them out of place with anything but themselves.

The Sgt. Savage line included many concepts that would have been found in the 1995 G.I. Joe line.  The IRON Panther being one.  But, many of the figures in the Savage line included gear planned for 1995 Joe figures.  The Arctic Stormtrooper in particular included gear intended for the 1995 Frostbite figure.  Along with that, though, the full window packaging that was used to showcase the figures and all their gear during the retail shelf presentation would have also been a hallmark of the 1995 Joe line.  (You see the same style in the Street Fighter Movie and Mortal Kombat figures, too.)  I can only imagine a world where the sea of discounted overstock Sgt. Savage toys were actually 1995 Battle Corps Rangers, Ninja Commandos and Star Brigade figures.  I had the money to buy back then and enough space that it's likely I'd have had quite a collection of the line's final year.  And, instead of a review about this P-40 Warhawk, it would be something about the Sea Wolf.  But, we don't live in that timeline.  And, instead, I have the disappointment of Sgt. Savage to fill memories of otherwise spectacular years of my life.

Dealers sell an appalling amount of boxed P-40's for around $130 or more.  But, left to the market, boxed sets are about $60: a huge disparity.  Finding a mint, loose sample is pretty hard as the toys are heavily concentrated in the "serious collector market" that left them boxed or the kids who had cheap parents and bought them on clearance camp who pretty much decimated the toy.  Really, the P-40's value is pretty limited.  It doesn't really fit with the aesthetic of G.I. Joe and it's not really compatible with them, either.  I still feel I overpaid for it back in the '90's and I would have been much better off buying overpriced vintage Joes at the flea market.  But, having something like this is another mnemonic device to bring back floods of memories from 25 years ago.  

Diorama - Firefly in the Woods

As 1996 wound down, it got harder and harder to find vintage Joe items at retail.  What was easy to find, though, was Sgt. Savage toys.  Big Lots, KB Toy Liquidators and most close out type stores had walls and walls of the toys.  I must have picked up a figure over a dozen times, trying to convince myself that they were compatible with 3 3/4" Joes.  In desperation to keep the glimmer of retail Joe alive, I bought a couple of Sgt. Savage vehicles.  The P-40 Warhawk was the first.  It's not bad for a '90's era toy and works well enough.  The gem, though, was the Iron Panther tank you see in the photos below.  Buttoned up like you see, the tank is a perfect match for Cobra.  Sadly, the insides are not detailed and figures just flop around, which makes it feel kind of cheap.  But, for photos, it can work very well.

Below is another quick scene taken in the fall of 2002.  I was trying to upgrade the photography of my 1993 Firefly profile and adding the Iron Panther was a way to make him more interesting.