1994 Viper - Made in Indonesia

So, did you know there are two variants of the 1994 Viper?  Visually, there's no tell between the two.  The only real difference is the Country of Origin (COO) stamp.  Some 1994 figures were made in China.  Others were made in Indonesia.  Many of the Indonesian figures included exclusive paint masks.  But, the Viper did not.  The two figures are identical.  Aside from oddball obsessive collectors like myself, no one cares about this subtle difference between the figures.  But, for me, it gives me an excuse to look back at a figure that was hugely influential in my early collecting days and continues to be among my favorite army builders.

In 1995 and 1996, I was searching out all remnants of the Joe line at retail.  Usually, though, my limited budget restricted me to buying just one of each figure.  At some point in the summer of one of those years, I went to a different Toys R Us in the Cincinnati suburbs.  (I believe it was the Springdale Mall.  But, that was a long time ago.  My usual store was the one in Colerain.)  There, I found a 1994 Viper, Flint and Shipwreck.  I already had all three figures.  But, I loved all three and wanted to army build the Viper and Shipwreck and use Flint's weapons to outfit them.  So, I bought all three.  I was not, though, able to bring myself to open the Flint.  To this day, I have the carded figure that I purchased at that Toys R Us so long ago.  The Viper and Shipwreck, though, joined my collection and the doubles allowed me to take a small dip into army building.

I outfitted the Viper with the 1990 Ambush rifle from Flint.  I thought it looked good.  (In 2006, Hasbro agreed when they released a grey version with the Viper Pit set.)  The second Viper got a different shade of the same weapon when I appropriated the bluish version from the 1993 Muskrat.  With these weapons, the Vipers filled the role of their 1986 original.  They were Cobra's basic ground troops who were used as both cannon fodder and expert field commandos.  I would have a 1993 Crimson Guard Commander lead them.  And, with these legions, Joe was overmatched.  The newer Cobras had better, more powerful weapons.  And, they wore far better body armor than even the newer Joes I had found at retail.  Cobra gained the upper hand and my Joe team of the mid 1990's was always behind them, trying to just survive long enough to regain the advantage.

The Viper includes a red accessory tree.  The red goes well with the blue.  But, isn't a great match for the orange on the figure.  But, to a collector who had stopped buying figures in 1988, almost all of the gear on the tree was new to me.  The one piece that wasn't, a red version of Monkeywrench's spear gun, was a disappointment.  I've never liked that weapon and I wouldn't even remove it from the tree.  The Viper has two red pistols.  One is from the 1991 Toxo Viper and the other from the 1992 Spirit.  They look good with the Viper.  And, today, they are my preferred weapons with the figure.  My favorite weapon of the time, though, was the red knife that originated with the 1988 Hydro Viper.  It looks wicked and many a Viper fatally stabbed a Joe or civilian with it, leaving them to die horribly with a wound that was not fixable.  His gear is rounded out by a red figure stand, two red missiles and the requisite yellow missile launcher.  In all, the gear isn't great.  But, it works well enough and I've come to associate it with the figure.

The 1994 Viper was released just the one time.  It is not known if he would have gotten a 1995 repaint.  Though, it's likely that, had the line continued, the mold would have found an additional use.  In the comic, the early renditions of the 1994 Viper wore green suits and gold helmets.  They looked a lot like Aero Vipers.  Again, I don't know if this was artistic license from a time when the comic had more leeway.  Or, if it was an early intended color scheme for the figure.  In 2005, the club "found" the mold and painted it in Iron Grenadier colors as the Iron Anvil.  The Anvils are excellently done and showcase the quality of the 1994 Viper mold.  But, being both Iron Grenadiers and a highly painted convention release, the Anvils also have limitations.  And, despite their high quality, I find myself preferring the 1994 original.  This might be nostalgia.  But, the simplicity also has its place.  Of course, the mold had tons of life left in it.  But, Hasbro left it fallow and it is now gone...leaving just two uses and one minor variant for modern collectors to enjoy.

The Viper also has two card variants.  The Viper card only has the standard horizontal Joe logo.  It features a full sized filecard on the back.  The filecard will either have no COO (Country of Origin) info and there is a "Made in China" message below the card.  Or, the filecard will say "Printed in Hong Kong.  Figure Made in Indonesia."  From the front, the cards are identical.  In 1994, Cobras got red cards while Joes got blue.  In my experience, neither version seems overly hard to find.  I've got about an equal number of each in my collection.  This isn't the case with all figures that have both COO's.  But, for the Viper, he seems to have seen equal production in both locales.

The 1994 Battle Corps figures were released in two series.  The first series of 7 figures included this Viper.  Along with him were additional all new figures of Shipwreck, Flint, Dialtone and Metal Head.  There were also two repainted 1993 figures: the Alley Viper and Beach Head.  Of the seven figures, Shipwreck, Flint, Dialtone and the Alley Viper have paint variants as well as COO variants.  While the other three just have the COO variants.  In my experience, the Alley Viper and Beach Head have always been the much harder figures to find from this series.  I have not been able to track down a case assortment to determine if they were shortpacked or if the new figures were just carried over into later cases.  But, Alley Vipers and Beach Heads have always been hard to find.  I found just one yellow vest Beach Head at retail and never found an Alley Viper.  Even today, I can get all the Vipers I want.  But, the Alley Viper and Beach Head remain a much scarcer find.

Not too long ago, you never saw off condition 1994 figures.  Any you would find would always be pretty much mint.  Slowly, though, this began to change.  The first figure to go bad was the 1994 Alley Viper.  His light blue parts simply didn't hold up and you started to see yellow discoloration destroy otherwise nice figures.  Other figures followed.  And, now, it's not uncommon to see 1994 figures that were well cared for, but now feature discoloration and even white elbows.  

The 1994 Viper has been hit hard by discoloration.  You'll often see darkly colored figures.  These aren't variants.  They are figures that have discolored.  The Viper should be a vibrant purplish-blue color.  If you see one that's dark and seems more purple, it's discolored.  Vipers are odd in that they tend to discolor evenly across the entire figure.  For that reason, you see people trying to pass discolored figures off as mint samples.  So, be wary.  And, as there are more and more collectors coming into the hobby who have never actually seen a mint version of many figures in terms of coloring, you'll even see other collectors commenting about how a discolored figure is "cherry" when it's actually been destroyed and is worthless.

The surge in Joe pricing has affected 1993 and 1994 army builders in three different ways.  In some cases they have gotten ridiculously expensive.  In other cases, they have slid under the radar and have remained relatively inexpensive.  In the case of the Viper, though, he's the third option who is right in the middle.  He has gotten a lot more expensive.  But, he's not a $40 figure, yet.  Dealers will ask in excess of $30 for a mint and complete with filecard figure.  Left to their own devices, there's enough stock to keep the price around $25 in the open market.  But, you can still get deals on individual or lots of 1994 Vipers that are missing most or all of their accessories.  Those are starting to dry up, though.  It's still not too late to build armies of this figure.  You can't say that about many of his contemporaries.  But, he's probably one of the next two or three figures to disappear and just be overly pricey in all his forms.  (At least, until the market corrects.)  

Rarities - Funskool Late Run Incinerator Variants

The Funskool Incinerator was first released in the latter half of 2003.  At the time, the release was relatively ignored by the collecting community.  1991 Incinerators were cheap.  The Funskool version wasn't that different from the Hasbro version.  And, Hasbro was releasing a large variety of new army building figures with even better ones coming in early 2004.  So, the collecting community pretty much let the figure slide into obscurity.  

In 2004, Funskool also stopped producing new figures.  Their sales were slipping and the gimmicks they tried to boost sales were not successful.  On top of that, Hasbro recalled many of the figure molds.  So, a wide variety of figures that were insanely popular with American collectors ceased to be available.  But, that wasn't as big of a deal as the Hasbro Joe line was also dying out.  The 2005 Hasbro line was cancelled and moved to the DTC model.  Collectors were losing interest in all things Joe.  So, for that reason, some of the final variants of the Funskool line went unreported.

Among them are some variants of the Incinerator figure.  Here is the original version that came out in 2003.  You'll see a black missile included with the figure.

Below is a version of the Incinerator that was produced in 2005.  Notice that he includes an orange missile.  This missile was available in both black and orange with the Funskool General Flagg figure, too.  So, the missiles aren't too hard to find if you have them loose.  The real takeaway here is that Funskool was still producing figures into 2005.  I thought they had ceased most of their production in 2004.  Seeing this 2005 figure, though, opens the door to other figures also have end of line variants.  As Funskool imports were mostly done by the end of 2004, many of these late runs may not have the collector reach of earlier figures.

One of the big changes that Funskool made in 2003, though, is that they improved the construction quality of their figures.  So, while the original Incinerators aren't terrible, there's a good chance that these 2005 figures are higher quality than the earlier runs.

Rarities - Plastirama Satan Accessory Variants

Plastirama is well known for their weapon variants.  While some figures are pretty tight and always include the same gear, others see quite a bit of fluctuation in terms of what may be packaged with the figure.  When the Plastirama overstock was common in the early 2000's, collectors had their pick of figures with the various weapons.  I didn't pay too much attention to the variants.  And, I got a Sparta with Footloose's rifle instead of the M-32 from her card art.  As they were $10 figures at the time, it wasn't a huge deal since I could get another at any time.  The more problematic releases, though, were the ninjas.  These were tough as there were several variants among them, they were $20-$30 figures at the time, and it was tough to determine which gear would look best with each figure.  Black 1984 Stormshadow gear was not uncommon in the early 2000's.  So, figures with black gear seemed blase.  The silver and golden Stormshadow gear that was available was far more appealing to me.

Satan's main difference is that figures either include golden weapons or black weapons.  Most figures include both the bow and the pack.  But, you can find figures with just the bow.  At the time, neither variant seemed overly desirable.  And, both were very available.  Now, though, the golden weapons seem to be more common.  But, due to the limited supply in the market, this could be just a function of what's available right now and could change in a year or two.  

There is also a 3rd variant where Satan includes silver weapons.  These silver versions were included with Cobra De Hielo.  It's possible that the silver inclusion with Satan was just a quality control error that occurred from time to time.  Plastirama was not too high on being consistent with their accessory complements as the line ran out of steam.  Both the black and gold bow, though, appear to be unique to Satan.  I haven't seen any Ninja Ku figures that didn't include golden accessories (and, he did not include a bow) and Cobra De Hielo appears to have only been available with silver gear.  But, with Plastirama's notoriously bad quality control, it's possible that there are some samples out there with different colors and the Cops or Jhony Quest figures may also have had oddball combos.  (Cops, in particular can have haphazard weapons.  There were stories of people finding 20+ of the same weapon in some boxes.)  So, be on the lookout if you're a loose collector and determine which gear you require to consider the figure complete.

Black Accessories:

Oddly, the black accessories are probably the most rare configuration for Satan.  Black Stormshadow gear was not available with any other figure released by Plastirama.  So, its inclusion with some Satan figures is unique.  You'll note the different positions for the backpacks in the bubbles below, too.  Sometimes, you get the pack in the traditional accessory bubble above the figure.  Other times, you see the back packaged in the figure bubble.  

Golden Accessories:

These appear to be the most common color for Satan figures.  As the golden color is unique to Argentina and the bow only appears with Satan, it's the generally accepted default for loose Satan figures you might find in Argentina.  

Silver Accessories:

Silver gear appears to be the least common color to be included with Satan.  However, you can get silver packs and bows with the less desirable Cobra de Hielo.  So, the overall availability of silver gear is much higher than its appearance with Satan would suggest.  With silver so tied to the De Hielo figure, it's my least favorite combo with Satan.

There are also Satan variants where the figure does not have the backpack.  It seems the backpack was often omitted from all three of the ninja figures released in Argentina.  So, you could claim the figure was complete with just the bow.  

Both the black and golden bows appear to be mostly unique to Satan.  Ninja Ku did not include a bow.  And, I've not seen any Cobra de Hielos with non-silver accessories.  (Though, that doesn't mean they don't exist.)  So, both bows should be considered unique.  In the days when these were $30 figures, it made sense to look to own both.  At $1000+ today, that's less likely to be something that is worthwhile.  

Rarities - 2003 Unproduced Blue Iron Grenadier

In 2003, Hasbro produced a new Iron Grenadier figure.  While the look of this figure is somewhat dated, now, collectors of the time liked the mold and design.  The figure was well sculpted and featured an array of decent gear.  Shortly after it appeared, though, this Cobra blue version popped up in Asia.  As, at the time, Hasbro was notorious for repainting figures and sometimes even releasing them to retail without any prior publication of the changes, many suspected it was a figure that would be coming in a later wave.  But, that never happened.  

Instead, this blue Iron Grenadier was one of the rarer and more sought after alternate Asian figures for a while.  But, slowly, large amounts of stock made their way to the collecting community.  And, the JvC style of figures also started falling out of a favor with many collectors.  So, the figures got somewhat affordable for a relatively long time.  Eventually, though, they dried up and have since become difficult to track down, again.

As far as repaints go, this blue Iron Grenadier is among the better unproduced figures and certainly would have done well at a full retail release.  The blue suits the mold.  And, even in the JvC line, Hasbro didn't paint a ton of figures in Cobra blue.  As far as alternate Asian figures go, this one has fell into obscurity as the entirety of that era has been left behind by collectors.  But, there's some good figures in it and it's a better toy line than the anniversary figures were...by far.

Rarities - 1997 Short Fuze (Brown Pants & Alternate Accessory Colors)

We all know about the black skinned 1997 Rock and Roll variant.  But, the set that included the most famous variant in the repaint era also included several other variant figures and accessories.  These have not gotten the press of the race changing figure.  But, they are equally frustrating to find. Below you will see a Short Fuze figure with much darker (nearly brown) pants and his cream colored weapons.

The cream colored bazooka and pack are the most distinguishing features of the figure.  They are an easily recognizable tip to help identify this figure.  You see that the entire pack is painted.  But, just on the front.  It seems very much like these weapons were meant for a paint application that was just removed to save cost by casting the gear in the proper green color.

The figure itself is definitely darker than the production release.  It was noted that there is a Breaker variant in the black Rock and Roll sets.  This Short Fuze adds another.  It's likely that many of the figures feature some type of production change just due to the continuous quality changes that the 1997 line underwent as it was rushed to retail.  

As variants go, the bazooka is interesting.  But, the figure is pretty banal.  But, it's also the type of thing that few people know about and you can track down just by perusing various Short Fuze figures that might be available.  But, if it exists in similar numbers to the Rock and Roll, that could still take quite a while.

Rarities - 2002 "Albino" Nunchuk Pre-Production Variant

Hasbro often took their time getting skin tones correct.  In the early 2000's, it was common to find slight skin tone variations in pre-production figures versus their production counterparts.  In a few instances, there were even production variants in relation to skin tone.  Below, though, is a pretty drastic alternative to the production version of the 2002 Nunchuk figure.  The figure on the left is a much whiter skin tone.  Hasbro actually produced the more tanned version.  In the scheme of pre-production variants, this isn't all that spectacular.  But, it shows some insight into the production process and how Hasbro sometimes struggled with getting figures exactly right.

Figures like this pre-production Nunchuk were quite common in the mid 2000's.  You could not only find individual samples on Ebay, but also buy large lots of them in bulk from Asia.  Sometimes, you'd get mostly production level figures.  Sometimes, you'd get oddballs like this Nunchuk.  And, sometimes, you'd get some completely alternate paint job figures.  While these lots have dried up, the pre production pieces for figures in the JvC style have not found the stratospheric prices reserved for pre-production ARAH style figures from the 2000's.  So, if you can find them, they can still be somewhat affordable. 

Rarities - 1995 Ninja Commando Storm Shadow Production Sample

The 1995 Ninja Commandos were right behind the Manimals in terms of almost making it to production.  While packaged and loose samples of the Manimals exist, only loose samples of the Ninja Commandos are out there.  But, they are full production versions and even feature accessory trees.  Originally, the set was to be 6 figures.  But, it was reduced to 5.  The biggest name in the set was Storm Shadow.  This new version isn't a terrible look for Storm Shadow.  And, had I come across this hanging on a peg in 1995, I'd have probably bought him, even while I left other Ninja Force figures behind. The colors are subtle.  And, the figure kind of looks like Storm Shadow.  The more muted appearance would have been attractive to me as a neophyte collector.  

Did you know that there was also going to be a variant Storm Shadow released in the Ninja Commando line?  There is a second set of color masters that show some significant variants were planned for Ninja Commando figures.  Storm Shadow was one them.  The variant figure featured bright orange grenades and an orange cloth on his right leg.  The shoulder pauldron is grey and the figure's mask is all white.  It's actually a better Storm Shadow and would have matched nicely with T'Gin Zu.  Alas, neither figure made it to production.

After ignoring these figures for a long time, I've become fascinated by the Ninja Commandos in recent years.  Their designs are not bad.  And, they would have been a nice supplement to the sparse Battle Corps Rangers releases that would have also graced the shelves in 1995.  While I would have likely skipped Road Pig and even the Flint, this Storm Shadow would have been a good enough match for other figures that he would have called my collection home.  For years, rumours speculated that an entire production run of Ninja Commands were produced and were rotting in a warehouse.  After 25+ years, these figures aren't going to magically appear and the rumour was likely just wishful thinking by collectors of the day.  

But, as a fun aside, in the early 2000's, a collector visited Hasbro.  There, the Hasbro team had a bin of loose figures that they used to kitbash and paint up to developed repaints for the JvC and Toys R Us line.  In this bin were loose Ninja Commandos.  The Hasbro team had no idea they were rare, unproduced figures.  Sadly, though, we never got this figure at retail.  And, the dreams of one day owning a set of Ninja Commandos are now reserved for high dollar collectors who will treat them as museum pieces instead of the toys they were meant to be.

Rarities - Unknown White Numbers Bazooka

A few months ago, H5*0's Vintage Toys posted a question about a 1985 Bazooka figure that was missing paint applications on the number 14 that adorns his chest.  My initial thought was that it was simply a missing paint application.  But, within 2 days, another 4 or 5 samples of the figure had been produced.  With that type of distribution, it's likely that the figure is, indeed a legitimate variant of the 1985 Bazooka.  I doubt that the missed paint app was intentional.  But, it's possible that a bad batch was needed to fulfill an order and was green lighted for release.

But, where did it come from?  The initial guess is that the figure was a catalog or mailaway that was available bagged.  This is entirely possible.  But, we do know that correct Bazooka figures were bagged, too.  So, if this is the origin of the figure, then it would be a smaller subset of the bagged figures.

As variants go, this isn't overly exciting.  But, at the same time, it is extremely noticeable.  So, the figure missing these paint apps would catch your eye since the blue makes for such a large portion of Bazooka's overall appearance.

The variant figure doesn't have any different COO or date stamps than a standard Bazooka.  So, it was not a release from later in the line.  

If you have any information on the origin of this figure, or just have a sample, please let me know.  I'd love to learn more and determine if this is just a bad production batch or can be traced to a specific release.

This is one of the odder items I've come across.  And, you'd think that variants like this would be better documented.  Hopefully, the full story of this figure will come to light.  There's lots of pushback that the figure is custom where someone removed the paint.  That, of course, is possible.  But, the fact that so many showed up so quickly from various parts of the country and that none of the customizers bothered to remove the paint from the figure's armbands makes that explanation less likely.

Rarities - Joseph Colton Pre Production - Green Weapon

 Back in the profile of Lt. Kawalski from the Stargate line, I mentioned that early prototypes of the Joeseph Colton Mail Away figure included a green weapon similar to the one included with Lt. Kawalski.  Well, here is that Joseph Colton with the green weapon.

As far as variants go, it's pretty benign.  I doubt many people would prefer this green weapon over the black.  Most would likely prefer the weapon that was shown with Colton in the mail away booklet to this reuse of the 1992 Gung Ho weapon.  But, that didn't happen and we're left with this oddball green weapon as an example of early designs for Joseph Colton.

These photos were found on Ebay.  Pieces like this Colton tend to have fairly significant value.  But, at the same time, many of the people who own them feel the value should be much higher than what the market is willing to pay.  As such, you often see them sitting unsold for years.  Again, this isn't a particularly interesting variant.  But, it's something different than what we got at production.

Rarities - Estrela Volanter (Blocker) Weapon Variants

Collectors have know about the Brazilian Comandos Em Acao line for years.  Most of the knowledge, though, was focused around the Brazilian exclusive figures.  In time, people realized that every figure from Brazil had some unique trait.  But, the figures that were close to their Hasbro counterparts were still relatively ignored.  Even people who did care about them usually only got a single sample for their collection.  This has lead to a number of Estrela variants not being well documented.  There are some subtle differences between many Brazilian releases.  One variant, though, seems like it would have gotten a bit more play in the collecting community: the weapons variants on Volanter.

Volanter is the Brazilian version of Blocker.  The colors are slightly different.  But, for some reason, there is a weapon variant on the figure.  One release has the standard weapon mold that was included with the 1987 Blocker figure.  The other, though, includes an exclusive silver version of the 1988 Iron Grenadier Uzi.

Volanter appears with the same gun as the US figure.  You can see the slight color and skin tone differences on the figure itself.

Then, you see him with a silver Iron Grenadier Uzi.  There's no real explanation as to why the figure has one weapon or the other.  

From watching this figure for years, both variants seem about equal.  But, when you base that off of, maybe, 15 samples, even one or two oversamples throws off the whole observation.  But, if you collect Comandos Em Acao, this is a variant to watch for as the silver Uzi is exclusive to this figure.

1994 Stalker - Neon Highlights

 As I hunted down the last bastions of vintage G.I. Joe at retail in the mid 1990's, I used both cardbacks and catalog inserts to tell me which figures I should expect to find.  What these reference materials didn't tell me, though, was the multitude of repaints that also existed on figures.  Some differences, like the 1993 blue and orange vs. the 1994 black and grey Snow Storm were obvious.  Others, like the slightly fewer painted black details on the 1994 Shipwreck were harder to spot.  It was not until online references really got completed in the late 1990's that I was fully able to understand the vast amount of variants and paint differences that exist among figures produced between 1992 and 1994.  Some of these repaints are good, some are bad and most are just...there.  That is the case of this 1994 Stalker.  My experience with the figure from retail was the black and green version that's one of the best figures from the 1990's.  But, the other version...this original release with neon painted highlights also exists.  With a better Stalker figure available, this neon version is easy to skip.  But, it's a quintessentially 1990's toy and that's what makes it fun.

It's no secret that I love this design for Stalker.  He was among the first figures I ever profiled on the site back in 2000.  And, I took another pass at him in early 2013.  Both of those times, though, I focused on the black and green figure.  The base colors are a perfect match for vintage Night Force and, when not overdone, make for a good figure.  I don't want every figure in this color scheme.  But, getting one of the four or five most important characters in the Joe mythos in that scheme was important.  In black, Stalker can better match up with vintage Snake Eyes figures and even meshes well with other figures from 1985 or 1986.  That's a rarity for figures sculpted in the line's final years.  But, it shows how good work that's true to a character can transcend year.

To me, this Stalker perfectly captures the essence of the character as he evolved in the comic.  Here you have Stalker as a powerful fighter.  But, you also see him more out of his Green Beret specialty and more of a urban, covert operative.  This Stalker would take on missions like Borovia and live to return.  He could also fight Cobra in the streets of the U.S. while better blending into the background.  In short, he seems a more commando version of Stalker.  And, for a guy who palled around with Snake Eyes, Stormshadow and Scarlett, that seems like a role to which he's be best suited.  

I found the 1994 Stalker figure at retail.  Mine, though, did not have the neon highlights.  But, quickly, this figure became one of my favorites.  The excellent weapons and sleek design made him on the best figures I found at retail in the mid 1990's.  And, 25 years later, the figure still remains a popular choice for my photos and dios.  Part of that is holdover from him being one of the top two or three figures I had available to me.  But, another part of it is that the figure is just solid and works well in a variety of scenarios.  You know the figure is Stalker, too, and that's a huge help when working with such an iconic character.

In 1994, Hasbro started to experiment with the Joe figure design.  As such, newly sculpted figures like this Stalker have more heft to them.  It was an attempt to slowly upsize the figures to better stand tall against the larger figures that were dominating retail of the mid 1990's.  The most noticeable aspect of this figure is his large torso.  Seeing that Stalker is wearing a tactical vest helps to explain this away.  But, the real issue is that Stalker's arms are lower on his shoulders.  Big shoulders started appearing in 1994 and would have gone to even more extremes in 1995.  When posed with 1993 and 1992 figures, this Stalker's proportions are less obvious.  But, when stood next to 1985 or 1987 figures, the design changes are notable.  The Joe line always evolved.  From swivel arms to ball heads, Hasbro was contantly improving the figures.  By the 1990's, though, the "improvements" were no longer about leading the market and making the best action figure available.  Other properties had surpassed Joe as kind of the retail toy stores.  And, Hasbro spent effort trying to keep up with other companies while still trying to maintain some semblance of connection to the 12 years of toys that preceded the 1994 run.  The result is that this figure doesn't work all that well with many vehicles from the 1980's.  And, for many collectors who grew up in Joe's early years, the proportions seem off enough to dismiss these late figures.  When you understand the evolution of the line, though, that is forgivable.  And, a good figure is a good figure.  This Stalker delivers on that.

In the Star Wars world, the right Country of Origin (COO) stamp on a specific figure can be the difference between a $10 common and a $100+ rarity.  In the Joe world, there are COO variants, too.  Generally, collectors don't much care.  This is due to the size of the vintage Joe line, the obscurity of the differences but also, most importantly, the fact that most Joe COO figures seem to be evenly distributed.  So, it's not materially harder to find one over another.  Most collectors are oblivious to the fact that most of the 1994 Joe line features COO variants.  In the middle of the production timeline, Hasbro moved manufacturing from China to Indonesia.  There doesn't appear to be much, if any, difference in the figure's materials or paint.  But, their is a unique COO stamp for each country. 

With this Stalker, though, it appears that both variants were made in China and this yellow version also saw production in Indonesia.  Longtime collector theory has been that the extra paint applications were removed to save money.  However, the first Stalker figures released on the horizontal cards had no highlights.  The neon highlights started appearing on later Chinese figures that were on the vertical cards.  (There are no highlight figures available on these same cards.)  Then, the highlights carried over to the Indonesia factories.  It's possible that these paint applications were added to make the figure stand out more at retail.  Maybe they were trimmed for initial cost but then added back in later as more production runs warranted additional resources.  It would be interesting to get a final answer from the Hasbro team of that era.

So, there are really three versions of the Stalker figure: no highlights with China COO, yellow highlights with China COO and yellow highlights with Indonesia COO.  For the record, the figure in the photos below is an Indonesia version.  With multiple production runs, it's difficult to know how common one figure is over the other.  Since no on really seems to care, I have no idea if any of the variants are actually harder to find than others.  In my experience, it's hit or miss.  One of my five 1994 Metal Head figures, one is from Indonesia.  But, at the same time, 9 of my 13 1994 Vipers originated there.  So, more work would be needed to truly understand if there's any material difference in availability for one over the others. 

In looking at Stalker's card art, it seems that Hasbro may have had more intended for this figure, though.  You will note that the card art is two tone.  But, in the artwork, Stalker is definitely wearing a vest.  It looks as if the original artist intended for Stalker's short sleeves, grenades, v-neck and turtle neck to also be green.  These changes would have added a tremendous amount of depth to the figure since the well detailed chest is lost in the sea of black color.  Had these colors been applied, the figure's weird neck would be resolved and the too dark chest would have been broken up so you can better see the excellent sculpting of the figure.  It's too bad these weren't the changes that were made to the figure for it's final releases.  Even in a color other than the green to match the legs, these details being changed would have made this figure better stand out among the greats of the line.

Sadly, this Stalker had a short life.  There were the two versions in 1994 and that was it in the vintage line.  In 2002, Hasbro surprised the collecting world when the figure's body re-appeared in the infamous Wave V of the A Real American Hero Collection.  Sadly, this figure was given a new, terrible caucasian head and was colored in drab green.  Again, none of the body's details were painted and the Sidetrack figure is just a pasty blob of green plastic that's been completely forgotten by the collecting world.  Despite Hasbro having access to Stalker, they never repainted this figure again.  The 1992 Stalker appeared in 2003.  And, the 1989 Stalker appeared partially in 2004 and fully in 2005.  Frankly, I can't argue against any of these uses.  Both of those molds are good and worthy of repaints.  I couldn't justify choosing the 1994 over one of them.  Though, this mold's place was in the 2004 Night Force set.  And, replacing the terrible Roadblock figure with this Stalker would have been a great improvement in the set and given this mold a new lease on life.  But, that didn't happen, this mold was criminally underused after being teased and collectors are left with a great example of a figure whose potential was never realized.  But, that's the story of the 2000's era Joes in a nutshell.

One of the great attractions of this figure to me was the fact that he included black weapons.  While the dregs of Joe retail didn't really allow a collector to be choosy, my wallet of time did.  And, as such, I had certain rules for purchasing figures.  Anyone with black weapons was at the top of the list.  So, when I found this Stalker, his weapons were the final hook that landed me.  Getting a childhood favorite character in a cool color scheme in an updated design that was true to his character and included an array of well colored weapons was simply too much.  I bought the figure right away.  It's likely I never found another, though, as I'm sure I would have picked him up for the weapons alone.  Stalker includes the standard black MP-5 inspired weapon from the 1991 Tracker, a version of Muskrat's shotgun and machete, a black stand, a black version of the 1991 Grunt's terrible weapon and the requisite spring loaded missile launcher and missiles.  The launcher is pretty strong, which was fun the one time I used it.  For 1995 me, the shotgun was great, the MP-5 was amazing and the machete was useful.  The launcher went into an Air MOAB shoe box: where it still sits today.  The awful Grunt weapon found use among old, beat up figures who made up roving gangs of thugs that the Joes would beat up on when I needed them to kill some random bad guys who weren't Cobra.  25 years later, this guy's weapon assortment isn't as good as the 1994 Flint or 1994 Shipwreck's.  But, it holds up well enough and the MP-5 is Stalker's iconic weapon whenever I break out this mold.

Pricing for this figure is all over the place.  Dealers ask upwards of $50...trying to cash in on naive collectors who think the yellow highlights constitute a late run, hard to find variant.   You can get mint figures for around $5.  Near complete versions will run $10 or so.  You'll see some mint, complete with filecard versions fetch high prices.  But, many of those are sold by pseudo dealers who always get way over market for their wares.  But, there's plenty of affordable options and market pricing seems to be between $12 and $15 for a mint and complete with filecard figure.  The upside is that you can buy a loose figure and easily complete him from other figures, too.  For cheap, this guy is a must own.  If you're going to pay a bunch of money for a 1994 Stalker, buy the non-neon version.  It's better, easier to find and, usually, a bit cheaper.  But, as an oddity or something just different enough to attract attention, this neon highlight version has a lot of merit, too.

1993 Star Brigade Rock and Roll

Everyone knows that Armor Tech figures exist.  You can't avoid that fact.  For many collectors, though, Armor Tech is one of those things that you'll keep for completeness' sake.  But, it's rare to actually go out and find them.  In my younger collecting days, I was mostly in that camp.  As I got older, and the holes in my collection smaller, though, I found myself searching for the missing members of Star Brigade who wore stupid armor and weren't really compatible with "real" Joe figures of my youth.  In owning the figures, I have yet to find any real value or usefulness to them.  They check a box for me and that's about it.  In the case of Rock and Roll, though, he at least has one point of interest that both got me to spend a bit of time searching for him and also, eventually, writing this profile of his 1993 figure.

Armor Tech Joes were easy to find in the mid 1990's as I hunted down the retail remains of the vintage Joe line.  Toys R Us stores would have pegs of them, priced higher than the dwindling supplies of Battle Corps figures.  You'd find them at toy liquidators: again mostly untouched by retail buyers.  They were the last vintage Joes I spotted at retail in the fall of 1997 when I saw them at the lone toy shop in a newly opened mall in Arizona.  After the retail stock dried up, Armor Tech figures actually got cheaper.  You could often get them for a couple of bucks per carded figure at flea markets.  And, Ebay auctions of the entire carded set of figures would sell for under $20...if they sold at all.  Even into the 2010's, Armor Tech was about the cheapest set of vintage Joe figures you could acquire.  And, the low prices and high availability lead many collectors to simply ignore them, figuring they could pick them up at any time.

As figures, Armor Tech are terrible.  They are large, bulky and lack standard Joe articulation.  They are like an entirely different line that uses some familiar faces and names.  But, the figures are difficult to integrate into a collection and don't even really fit with the aesthetic of the rest of the 1993 or 1994 Star Brigade figures.  The non-standard construction was what lead me to leaving these figures behind as Joe faded from retail.  Had I found them at a low enough clearance, I might have bought them just for some additional gear.  But, even that's a stretch.  And, I didn't care enough about the figures to really follow them and see if they ever reached discount pricing at stores near me.  Even when I was starved for new Joes and had money to burn, I couldn't bring myself to stoop so low as to buy an Armor Tech figure at retail.

In the age of completism, though, Armor Tech has more appeal to me.  It's a goofy and stupid concept that doesn't really fit with anything.  And, even as one of the few Star Brigade aficionados around, I can't really get behind the figures.  Yet, I still bought most of them in recent years.  They are cheap.  And, I really didn't want to be left paying $30 for these guys in a couple of years.  So, I bit the bullet, bought a bunch of figures and found that my impressions from 1995 were still spot on, even in 2021.  The figures still don't resonate with me and I don't have much use for them.  Even in a display, the figures take up too much space and offer too little enjoyment to occupy precious real estate.  

So, now we get to the real reason why I profiled this figure: his accessories.  At a glance, Rock and Roll just includes a random accessory tree cast in bright yellow plastic.  His tree, though, is one of my favorites with Tracker's rifle, Muskrat's shotgun and the big-ass blaster from the 1991 Grunt figure.  In bright yellow, though, who cares?  Except, Rock and Roll has a variant.  Later version of the figure include purple accessories.  Again, many of you say, "who cares?".  Purple weapons aren't all that more useful than yellow ones.  But, for an aficionado of 1990's weapons, the purple gear is a lot of fun for me.  9 figures included accessories of some shade of yellow in 1993: including two other members of Star Brigade.  (Countdown and the B.A.A.T.)  Four additional figures included yellow weapons in 1994.  No other figures included purple weapons in 1993.  (Three figures had gear in some shade of blue, but they were definitely blue with no purple tint.)  Only the 1994 Metal Head figure also includes purple gear.  So, it is a rather rare color for Joe accessories.  Seeing the MP-5 inspired weapon in purple just looks cool because it is unique, distinctive and not something you see every day. 

In general, neither the yellow or purple accessories seem all that difficult to find.  As the Armor Tech figures are unpopular, not even dealers who look to squeeze every penny they can from Joe variants really care about the weapon colors.  Even if you find a sale that advertises the color, you won't have to pay a premium for it unless you choose to do so.  The purple gear came with later editions of the Rock and Roll figure while the yellow gear was the initial release.  I like the purple because they are so distinctive and set this figure apart.  I also feel that they help mute the figure's appearance and that Rock and Roll is substantially better looking when holding the darker weapons.  Of course, collector mileage varies for things like this.  I like obscure little variants like these weapons.  And, the fact that weapon trees are nostalgic to me just adds to this figure's mystique.  Of course, after opening the variants, the figures went into bags and have only reappeared for the photos below.  So, the appeal of purple gear only goes so far.

The value in Armor Tech, though, is the heads.  This Rock and Roll head is insanely detailed and is, easily, the best facial sculpt of the character.  Having it locked beneath a tight fitting and opaque helmet doesn't allow it to improve the figure, overall, though.  Enterprising customizers have used Armor Tech heads with great success.  (It requires some modifications to work, though.)  Rock and Roll's is one of the more frequently used since it's a top notch character and using this obscure head makes any customs of the character more unique.  It's a shame that more wasn't done to salvage figures like Armor Tech and the parts that are worthwhile.  There is some value here, it's just hard to find.

The Armor Tech filecards were not good.  Rock and Roll's has potential before it completely goes off the rails.  The bio acknowledges that Rock and Roll was a founding member of the Joe team and mentions that he has continually upgraded his equipment.  (Technically, this is true since the 1989 version has upgraded gear over the 1982 original.)  But, it then talks about him jumping on live grenades and chasing B.A.A.T.s into the sun.  Both of these would result in Rock and Roll's death and he would do one of those events just once before he was nothing more than a memory.  To make it worse, the filecard mentions twice! that Rock and Roll likes to roast marshmallows on the end of his laser rifle.  Look, I get it.  These figures aren't meant to really reflect the reality of space.  But, the whole roasting marshmallow thing was dumb in the card's first quote and was too lame to justify a repeat of the joke at the end.  But, this filecard shows the evolution of Joe characterization and how it diminished as the brand's pioneers moved on and Hasbro began to cut corners to keep the line afloat.

Unsurprisingly, no one cares about this Rock and Roll.  Even today, you can buy carded versions for under $10.  Dealers will usually charge $20-$25.  But, these don't sell since there isn't much demand for the figure and there is enough supply.  Even the variant, purple weapons don't generate interest and will not sell for a premium unless you get really lucky as a seller.  Overall, though, the stock of carded Armor Tech figures is drying up.  20 years ago, you could have bought 40 of these guys in one week without even trying.  Now, they are fewer and farther between.  At some point, they will also dry up and be like the 1994 series.  But, as the figures are not desirable and are one of the more reviled concepts of the vintage Joe line, it's unlikely that their pricing will follow suit for the 1994 figures.  If you're a completist or just looking for something different, Armor Tech offers some diversity not often seen in the vintage line.  And, since it's also still cheap, it makes sense to take advantage of their availability before they go to the way of most of the rest of the once plentiful 90's carded Joe overstock.

1984 Recondo - Thin Green Stripe Variant

Summer's in my childhood were spent visiting relatives.  We'd often take several weeks and go see my aunt and uncle or my grandfather.  It was a way for my mother to spend time with us, get a small vacation and take care of familial obligations all at once.  The upside is that I got to spend time in different towns each summer.  The downside is that all of relatives' homes were dreadfully boring.  They didn't have much in the way of toys and, in the cases where my cousins did have toys, the New York school year went much longer than ours and we'd be in their neighborhood while they were still in school.  The result is that, when we went shopping, I was usually able to get a toy or two to alleviate boredom.  In the summer of 1984, the figure that sticks out in my mind was the 1984 Recondo.  I found him at a K-Mart in Chillicothe, Ohio.   They had two figures: Recondo and Ripcord.  But, all of Ripcord's gear had been ripped out the package.  So, Recondo it was for me.  

With the figure in hand, I returned to my aunt and uncle's house and spent hours playing with Recondo and the Mountain Howitzer out in their front yard.  They had a bit of an incline that sloped away from the concrete driveway.  So, the Howitzer was perfectly positioned to rain down upon the enemy.  But, for some reason, I had no enemy figures with me.  I had not brought many toys with me on the extended trip.  So, my time was spent with these two toys and my imagination of the great things Recondo would do once I got home.  And, when reunited with the remainder of my collection, Recondo did become the great figure I had imagined...for a time.  Eventually, the figure got old and worn and I lost interest as newer figures entered my world.

Some time in late 1985 or early 1986, I began making my first custom Joes.  I took figures that were old, or broken and concocted new characters from the existing parts.  I created a new Joe leader, a few of his loyal soldiers and a group of 4 distinct warriors who became the focal point in my world's battle against Cobra.  Three of these four consisted of figures made from Snake Eyes, Footloose, Barbecue, Flint and Bazooka figures that had been upgraded after I had lost accessories or broken a thumb or crotch.  The fourth figure, though, was different.  Using a Recondo chest and Grunt head, this character was the wiser, older sage of the group.  He was the mentor to the younger fighters and was the one who guided them through their adventures.  But, one of the thumbs on this figure snapped.  And, I had no replacements.  With this, the character died.  And, in doing so, caused a rift to develop in the group.  With no older leader, the most capable began to do things on his own.  Eventually, he would rise to #2 on the Joe team.  The other two, eventually, broke down mentally.  Unable to fight any longer, they disappeared.  Occasionally, they would reappear.  But, for the most part, the death of this character destroyed the most potent force that the Joe team had against Cobra.

One of the reasons that I used Recondo parts, though, was because I had upgraded my Recondo figure.  And, after Recondo's comic appearances in 1985, I needed a good Recondo to take up the role as he was portrayed in the comics.  His original comic run was just too memorable to allow the figure to wallow in obscurity.  And, with this newfound importance, Recondo remained a vital part of my Joe team until the figure got worn from overuse and was replaced by newer releases.  

For me, Recondo's gear has always been both a disappointment and one of the highlights of the line.  As a kid, Recondo's pack was the pinnacle of backpack design.  It was full of survival gear and had the handy, practical and cool handle to give it both function and pizazz.  I painted up my Battle Gear versions of his pack to showcase the details that were sculpted into it.  Any time a team was going into the wilderness, at least one member of that team needed to be wearing a Recondo pack.  It was necessary.  (I REALLY wanted the pack to work for Ripcord.  But, for some reason, Ripcord's plain shirt and the pack didn't work for me.  These design mismatches didn't bother me on scores of other figures.  But, it did for Ripcord.  I'm weird.)  Recondo's rifle, though, was more problematic.

I'm not sure why, but Recondo's gun never clicked for me.  While it was decent enough with Recondo himself, the gun didn't transfer to other figures.  To this day, I can't see the rifle with anyone other than Recondo.  It just looks out of place with any other figure.  Conversely, though, I also find it tough to see Recondo with any weapon other than his original.  In the photos below, I attempted a couple of different weapons with Recondo to see if they clicked.  The M-32 from Stalker is OK.  But, it seems too small against Recondo's larger forearms.  Ripcord's rifle seemed great in theory.  But, I'm afraid of it snapping this Recondo's 36 year old thumbs.  So, it's posed in ways to showcase it with the figure, but not with him actually using it.  In the end, I'll stick with Recondo's original weapon as it's just a perfect match to the figure.

Recondo appeared around the world.  The original version was released in the U.S. as well as Europe.  From there, it went to Brazil where Estrela released him in a slightly darker green as Leopardo.  Auriken then released a similar figure in Mexico.  Recondo parts were used for the original version of Starduster, before being quickly replaced.  The Tiger Force Recondo appeared in 1988.  And, then, nothing.  Well, not entirely nothing.  Recondo joined Flint and Spirit as figures who appeared on the cardbacks of Plastirama figures that were released in Argentina.  However, none of the three were ever produced.  Many of Recondo's contemporaries later showed up in India as Funskool releases.  But, Recondo never appeared again after the 1980's.  The mold was highly requested in the 2000's, but never came to be.  While Recondo's sculpt had a lot of potential for later repaints, the two main flavors (original and Tiger Force) are both excellently done and leave collectors with high quality examples to track down.  Factory Custom makers have redone Recondo's chest for various Starduster figures.  But, they have yet to use it outside of Starduster repaints.

There are a few Recondo variants.  The timeline of when each was released seems unclear.  From the best I can tell, the thick stripe "brown" variant (the brown is actually an olive green) was first.  Then, the paint masks changed to a thin brown version.  Then, there are two bright green versions, a thick stripe cammo and this thin striped cammo.  It should be noted that Leopardo from Brazil uses the thin cammo paint mask.  It's likely that some of the variants were mail away exclusives and some may have been heavily released in Europe, too.  In my experience, the thick stripe bright green cammo figure is the toughest to find.  But, I've only looked casually.  So, other's experiences may vary.  Please comment on your findings in the comments below.

Growing up, I had only the brown cammo versions.  I didn't know these alternate designs existed until well into my collecting career.  But, even in my time of mass acquisition, where I had several Recondos, I never acquired anything other than the brown cammo figure.  So, finding this thin, green version was nice.  I didn't have to pay a premium for it.  And, the green gives the figure more flair.  He seems more like a jungle fighter than a more desert figure like the brown cammo version does.  It should be noted that the color of Recondo's leg cammo should match the color of the wristwatch on his left hand.  If they do not match, you have a kitbash that was put together from different figures.  This consistency remains constant across all the Recondo variants.

Nicely conditioned and complete with filecard Recondos sell in the $25 range with dealers getting up to $35.  There are times when certain leg color variants will get hot and sell for much, much more.  In short, Recondo is one of those iconic Joes that everyone needs to own.  But, the variants remain the realm of diehards who really love the character.  For me, any look will do.  But, after owning one figure for more than three decades, it was nice to get a new version of a childhood favorite...even if the differences were subtle.  Like most relatively popular '80's Joes, I'm glad I got my Recondos before 2018.  While he's great, he's also a lot more expensive than when I fleshed out my collection.  But, like obscure foreign releases, these variants give an old favorite some new life.