2017 Tiger Force Starduster (Black Major) - Around The Web

The Black Major Starduster figures were well done.  They offered collectors a chance to both own a cheap version of the original Starduster, but also in a variety of different colors, many of them homages to classic Joe subteams.  My favorite of this bunch is the Tiger Force Starduster figure.  To me, this looks like the type of thing that Hasbro might have done back in the '80's.  Plus, his helmet is a perfect match for the Red Laser Army The General figure.  Here's the best of this figure from around the web.

Tiger Force Starduster Profile

Tiger Force Starduster by Dreadnok Dread

Tiger Force Starduster by badgerscratch

Tiger Force Starduster by mondotoybox

Tiger Force Starduster by specialmissionforce

Tiger Force Starduster by badgerscratch 02

2002 Gift Set Stormshadow

In the vintage line, major characters were redone: but relatively rarely.  You could argue about Stormshadow's overall rank in the pantheon of Joe characters.  But, pretty much everyone would be in consensus that he's top 5 at least.  Despite that, Stormshadow only got three unique molds in the vintage line: 1984, 1988 and 1992.  It is this 1992 mold that is of interest to me this week, though.  This figure was repainted several times in the vintage line, both as Stormshadow and other characters (including Street Fighter repaints).  In 2000, though, Hasbro dusted off the mold, made some modifications and released it with a real o-ring.  At first, collectors liked this idea.  But, the novelty wore off and Hasbro then proceeded to repaint that update twice more.  The first of these repaints appeared in 2002 as a member of the BJ's exclusive gift set.  While the figure was released as Stormshadow, the figure was given an all red paint scheme and was quickly adopted as a classic red ninja by the collecting community.

In late 2002, when this figure was released, it was the best red ninja that Hasbro had ever made.  The 1993 Red Ninja figure was just terrible and, even in 2002, somewhat expensive and hard to find.  No one (except one person!) wanted to army build them.  In the summer of 2002, a red Slice repaint was made available.  Some collectors adopted this as an army builder.  But, that Slice was released with a Joe character and there was little incentive for most collectors to army build him when his wave also included a Viper and Alley Viper. When this Stormshadow appeared, collectors (who were army builder nuts at the time) quickly adopted him as the classic army building villain.  This was partly due to the fact that BJ's set included other army builders and collectors were desperate to find uses for the other figures that would help justify additional set purchases so they could get more Undertows and Fast Blast Vipers.  So, this Stormshadow was quickly rebranded by dealers and Ebay sellers as a red ninja.  Heck, even I got in on the game as I bought a few spare figures from sellers who were trying to recoup a couple of bucks for their real army builder splurges. 

As a red ninja figure, though, this Stormshadow kind of worked.  He matched the 2000 Stormshadow and allowed collectors to have a themed army behind a classic character.  And, as many collectors of the era saw their collections comprised of mostly recently released to retail figures, such a configuration was often the only representation of Stormshadow that many people had in their collections.  You'd see photos of four to six of these figures from time to time.  But, the reality is the limitations of the mold quickly manifest themselves and make this figure the neglected release he is today.

The basic body construction of the figure is the main problem.  The original figure was modified so that this version has an o-ring.  The waist and chest separate.  While this is the more classic vintage Joe construction, the reality is that this figure has no back screw.  So, if the o-ring breaks, you have no recourse to repair it.  This also makes the figure somewhat stiff and difficult to pose.  If that weren't enough, there are two blocky tabs on the bottom of the figure's torso.  These fit inside the waist and hold the waist and torso together as one part.  So, if you want to pose this figure in similar manners to vintage Joes, you have to clip those tabs off the figure or have them awkwardly protruding from the figure's waist.  It was a noble attempt to bring a solid mold into standard construction.  But, in some ways, they made the figure worse than if they'd kept the standard 1992 design.

My initial impressions of this figure were favorable.  The red is deep, dark and fits with most people's visions for Cobra.  As a display piece, the figure works well.  And, for a short time, I went about acquiring a few extras of the figure to have a small army.  Once in hand, though, the limitations of the figure became more obvious and pronounced.  The poor mobility really limited this figure.  And, once the Red Ninja Viper was released in late 2004, there were now better Red Ninjas for collectors that were cheaper and more available.  So, this figure fell out favor with me and was relegated to the bottom of his drawer.  Due to the fact that he was absolutely worthless in the early 2010's, though, I held onto my samples during my collection purge since there was no value in selling them.  I'm grateful for that as this figure is visually interesting, even if he's kind of otherwise limited.

The BJ's set figures came in two flavors: well deco'ed and basic.  Stormshadow falls into the basic category.  The figure only features black body and leg highlights and a white Cobra logo.  The figures hands, boots and mask are a somewhat brownish/black color.  It is tough to see.  But, fits with the non-traditional color choices that permeated the BJ's set.  The figure does have white eyes with black accents.  But, it's about as basic as figures of this era came.  In this case, the simplicity kind of works as Red Ninjas are supposed to be about their primary color and not tons of accouterments.  This Stormshadow is visually striking due to the stark contrast of the base red and the smattering of additional color. 

The BJ's set featured terrible accessories.  There really isn't a way to properly communicate how terrible they were.  In most cases, it would have been better if the figure included no weapons at all.  Stormshadow, sadly, included some of the better gear in the set.  Of course, it was only better because you could use it elsewhere and his weapons, mostly, made no sense.  His first weapon is the JvC era crossbow that first appeared with Scarlett.  The weapon is in 3 pieces: rifle, bow and arrow.  It seems cooler than it is.  But, it's tough for a figure to hold and falls apart on a whim.  Were it better designed, the weapon might have made sense.  But, with the added sound attack tab, it was just a terrible choice.  Stormshadow's other weapon is the Red Star AK-47.  In late 2002, the inclusion of this weapon was welcomed.  At the time, the rifle was still relatively scarce.  And, collectors had just bought dozens of repainted Alley Vipers and Vipers who had terrible weapons.  So, this Stormshadow became a weapon donor to other army builders.  In time, these weapons became more common and it's inclusion with this Stormshadow is no longer the rarity that it was upon the time of the figure's release.  Fortunately, if you bought retail Joes in the early 2000's, you were likely to have tons of spare ninja weapons.  So, it's not impossible to outfit this figure with better gear.  It's just frustrating that you have to do so.

This Stormshadow mold has a long history.  It debuted in 1992 in the Ninja Force subset.  In 1993, it was repainted as T'Gin Tzu.  In 1994, the mold was released in translucent plastic as part of the Shadow Ninjas subset.  In 1993 and 1994, the body mold was used for the Street Fighter Ken Masters figures.  There is a red version and blue version that feature new heads.  Was this mold able to be customized, those Ken Masters bodies would have dominated custom figures of the late 1990's and early 2000's.  But, as the bodies were fused together, there was no incentive for customizers to really explore the LBC possibilities.  In 2000, Hasbro modified the mold with an o-ring and released an 1984 homage paint job.  This red version was released in 2002.  And, there is an Urban Assault version that is grey and black that was released in 2004.  Fortunately, that was the end of the mold as the 1984 and 1988 Stormshadow molds became the de facto Hasbro releases for the short remainder of the repaint era.  If you're a fan of this mold, you have good paint jobs, classic homages, terrible paint jobs and gimmicks to track down.  But, few collectors are fans of this mold and pretty much all of its uses are ignored.

None of the BJ's figures are expensive.  Despite it being a relatively difficult release to acquire for many collectors, it hasn't found the aftermarket life that most of the other ARAH style figures from the early 2000's have seen since January of 2018.  This Stormshadow will run you $8 to $10 for a mint and complete with filecard version.  If you want spare figures, they run about $5.  And, if you check lots of miscellaneous 2000's era figures, you can often find this guy offered even cheaper.  Huge amounts of overstock figures that were available from Asia as well as massive clearances on these sets, though, have made figures like Stormshadow far more available than they might have otherwise been.  And, there are substantially better Stormshadow molds out there that have gotten the red paint treatment: either from Hasbro or by factory custom makers.  That leaves this figure as a relic of his era.  I haven't even pulled this guy out for a photo shoot since late 2002.  So, he doesn't even really register with me and my whole shtick is figure releases like this.

1988 Sgt. Slaughter - Around the Web

Sgt. Slaughter has been a fascinating case study in the Joe world.  In the early days of online collecting, Sarge's figures weren't well liked.  But, as Slaughter embraced his place in the Joe line's history, collectors embraced him.  And, now, Slaughter remains one of the most popular figures in all of Joedom.  While all of his figures are true to the character, this 1988 Warthog driver version is the best.  It features an excellent sculpt with solid colors that are a step above the other 1988 vehicle drivers.  The removable hat is just icing on the cake.  Even in this market, these figures remain relatively affordable.  And, being the best Slaughter version makes this figure simply a must own.  Here's the best of him from around the web.

1988 Sgt. Slaughter Profile

Sgt. Slaughter by jc_toys_collector

Interview with Sgt. Slaughter on Being the Face of G.I. Joe at WWE.com

1988 Sgt. Slaughter at JoeBattleLines.com

Sgt. Slaughter by master_of_toys

1988 Sgt. Slaughter and Warthog Video Review by HCC788

Sgt. Slaughter at 3DJoes.com

Sgt. Slaughter at JoeADay.com

Sgt. Slaughter by Hanover_h.a.v.o.c.

Sgt. Slaughter by fun_time_at_serpentors_lair

1982 MMS (Mobile Missile System)

From 1978 through 1982, I only cared about Star Wars toys.  From the minute I got my first C-3PO figure in 1978 through the latter waves of Empire Strikes Back figures, Star Wars toys dominated my childhood.  From time to time, other things would come into our house.  But, their value was 100% tied to how well they could integrate with Star Wars figures.  In October of 1982, though, that changed.  For the first time, G.I. Joe figures came into our play when my younger brother got most of the original lineup for his birthday that year.  In what was, likely, a perfect storm of malaise from Star Wars (waiting 3 years between movies was an ETERNITY...), Reagan era Cold War propaganda and the new possibilities opened by greater figure articulation, G.I. Joe figures grabbed me more powerfully than that first golden robot I'd bought 4 1/2 years earlier.  By the time December rolled around, my only interest was in new G.I. Joe figures and vehicles.  Alas, my birthday ended as a disappointment with only Breaker and the RAM become my first Joe toys.  But, shortly thereafter, at Christmas, things changed.  Under the tree, I found Snake Eyes, the VAMP and a new vehicle that we had yet to own any copy of: the MMS.

There is a reason we didn't already own an MMS.  My brother had gotten multiple VAMP's and HAL's for his birthday.  And, my mother forbid us to get the MOBAT since we never played with some crappy Radio Shack radio controlled motorized tanks from the year prior.  (They were out of scale and lame.)  Despite that, the MMS never really entered the picture.  The main reason being that it wasn't very exciting.  It didn't have guns.  It had no place for the operator to sit on it.  In short, it just stood there, fired three missiles and was instantly useless.  Looking at the MMS 38 years after its release, I see it through the lens of a collector who can appreciate the sculpting and details.  But, for a kid in 1982, the MMS was pretty much the most boring Joe toy you could find wrapped under the tree.

But, on Christmas morning, 1982, the MMS was pretty great.  I was able to hook it up to my VAMP and have Hawk and Clutch drive around with Breaker in tow on the RAM.  However, this left an odd man out: Snake Eyes.  Despite owning three vehicles and only 4 figures, I didn't have a place for Snake Eyes to go.  This lead to many odd attempts to later modify the VAMP to add a gunner seat, or somehow affix a figure to the MMS while it was in transit.  But, none worked.  As we had gotten three Snake Eyes figures by the end of Christmas morning, though, Snake Eyes found himself in a common position in the pre-Cobra Joe collections.  He was now the villain.

In the spring of 1983, Return of the Jedi was released.  As the toys flooded the market, I lost interest in Joe.  The 1982 figures were simply overwhelmed by the new Kenner figures.  Removable helmets, excellent monsters and cloth capes transcended the advances in accessories and articulation that Joe had made.  My Joes were relegated to the bottom of the toy box as I spent the spring and early summer acquiring and playing with every new Star Wars figure released.  Then, on a fateful day near the end of the summer, I discovered an Airborne figure that had been brought over to our house by one of my brother's friends.  The oversized backpack and swivel arm battle grip pulled me back to Joe.  And, from then on, G.I. Joe dominated my toy interests.  But, the straight armed 1982 figures now seemed passe.  The swivel arm battle grip was what persuaded me to Joe.  (And, is the reason I, to this day, don't collect straight arm figures!)  So, figures without it were left behind.

And, while the VAMP pulled forward and became a staple of my 1983 and onward adventures, the MMS did not.  It simply didn't have the cachet to warrant finding all the parts and bringing with me.  There were so many better options for towable vehicles in 1983.  And, the MMS' limited use was of little appeal.  It was left behind in the toy box where it would sit with other unloved toys for a few years.  In early 1986, though, I finally had reason to dig out the MMS.  For Chistmas in 1985, I had received the Sears Exclusive SMS.  This revived memories of the MMS and I fished out the old shell and parts that were on the bottom of a red caboose shaped toy box that dominated our toy room.  (I'll have to find occasion to talk about that some time, too.)  But, the toy still saw little use.  By the end of 1986, though, the SMS became central to a key story line.  When it was finally resolved, the Joes now had reason to use the MMS as a repaint of a captured Cobra SMS.  This was fun for about two minutes.  But, it did bring the MMS back for a short, final run as a childhood plaything.  

To this day, I see the MMS mold as, primarily, a Cobra weapon.  My association with the mold entirely stems from the SMS release of it in 1985 instead of the original.  I rarely will remember the MMS as part of the 1982 lineup until I also recall that Hawk was released with it.  So, it's rare for me to really take it out.  Since it can't hold a figure, it has little display value.  And, the play value is entirely exhausted once the missiles are spent.  The HAL is far larger and is better for hiding figures behind in a firefight.  But, the MMS can have a bit of value there.  In short, the MMS never proved to be a decent or fun toy and it's lot hasn't really improved in almost 40 years.

But, the toy is a neat little piece of engineering.  Aside from the tow hook that perfectly matched to the VAMP or MOBAT, the MMS was able to fold out to be a stand alone piece, too.  The front legs were movable legs that folded and locked into place when the MMS was ready for towing.  The back legs were one piece that both kept the legs in positional lockstep and ensured that no kid could lose just one without breaking it.  They folded nicely into the body of the MMS itself to also allow for towing.  The lone play feature on the base is a command center.  The computer is attached to the body with a nylon cord that was tough to break.  It has a stand that affixed to the bottom to allow for the controls to be figure height.  You can take the stand away, insert it into a space on the back, bottom of the MMS and it helps seal in the back legs.  The computer then perfectly fits into a slot over the tow hook.  Here, the controls are also figure height, ensuring that anyone who lost the stand could still use the controls.  Seeing those features shows how much care the designers took in their development of the MMS, even if it is otherwise lackluster.

The MMS got a fair bit of use.  Aside from the 1985 Sears excusive SMS, there is also an Action Force repaint in black and grey.  The most desirable release actually occurred in Canada where the MMS was repainted in all black and released as part of the MSV exclusive boxed set.  The next stop for the MMS was India.  There, Funskool released several variants of the MMS for many years.  There are versions that are similarly colored to the U.S. release.  But, there are also orange and yellow variants that sell for stupid prices (and included the blue Hawk repaint).  After that, the mold ran cold.  In the Anniversary era, Hasbro retooled and released the MMS mold as an SMS homage that was released in 2009.  With that, there's really nothing more that could be done with the mold.  Sadly, many of the best repaints of it are fairly rare and rather expensive to acquire today.  But, the original is done in classic military colors and really doesn't need any additional releases to be useful.  

Ostensibly, MMS's should be expensive.  It's a classic vehicle from Joe's first year that has one easily lost part and several easily broken parts.  Yet, it's not.  Dealers will sell mint and complete MMS's for around $30.  (Many will ask upwards of $50, but these rot and rot...unsold.)  Left to the open market, high quality samples sell in the $20 range.  And, if you're willing to deal with a broken missile fin or buy a sample along with other toys, that price falls even more.  The early Joe vehicles were sold in scale at the perfect price point for gifts, casual rewards or just a random purchase.  The massive quantities of them holds true today and vehicles like MMS which don't have much reward in owning multiples (unlike say, the VAMP) tend to be pretty cheap.  Even with the uptick in Joe pricing that has vaulted many of the 1982/1983 figures into three figure acquisitions, these vehicles remain priced at levels that are attainable to pretty much any collector.  The question is whether it's worth it.  The MMS isn't a great display piece and doesn't really interact with nor enhance the display of figures.  By 1983, G.I. Joe had better and more fun missile delivery vehicles and, also, better toys that could be towed by the primary armor in the line.  So, the MMS was kind of obsolete before it completed its retail cycle.  

1985 Footloose - Random Photos Of The Day

I take a lot of Joe photos.  Through the years, I've taken, literally, thousands of them.  I use them for profiles.  And, after those are done, I'll use them for an Around the Web feature.  And, then, well, after that, I have no real outlet for the new pictures.  I post them to Instagram (which has a great Joe community!).  But, Instagram is designed to be a fire and forget app and a week after something's posted, it disappears, never to resurface again.  So, I'm going to start up a Random Photos of the Day feature.  On weekends, I'll toss up some pics of figures that have used up their other feature allotment.  They will be new pictures, or alternate angles of old shoots.  It's for nothing else than than that.  Maybe I'll have little write ups, maybe not.  I don't really know.

For now, enjoy some photos of the 1985 Footloose: