20th Anniversary Key Moments - Black Major Cobra Mortal

 Around 2009, bootleg Cobra Troopers began to show up.  At first, the figures were all Cobra blue and made to match the original Hasbro release.  Slowly, though, new, exclusive color schemes began to appear.  Collectors quickly adopted the new designs and the first factory custom figures were a huge success that flourished among collectors of the era.  Around 2010, the second figure mold for factory customs appeared.  This time, it was a V1 Snake Eyes mold.  While this may seem odd, the figure was quickly painted into Cobra Invasors and Cobra Mortals and sold to collectors who craved these characters in cheaper and more useful color varieties.

One of the first figures I reviewed when I restarted this blog in 2012 was the Black Major blue Cobra Mortal.  This figure resonated with me since the Mortal character worked better with both a less ostentatious outfit and also colors that were more in line with early Cobra from 1982 and 1983.  This blue figure fit both criteria and quickly became one of my prominent figures in photos from the time.  

Even today, this remains one of my favorite Black Major figures.  The blue matches the classic Cobra Trooper blue.  And, the swivel head also matches pre-1985 figures.  In short, it's a perfect match for early Joe figures.  Early Cobra was short on characters who wouldn't become main characters.  So, having a chance at some figures to represent foreign characters that could fill in middle management roles in Cobra is welcomed.

In the years since, there's been a small, vocal contingent of collectors who are against Black Major figures.  But, in the past decade, these factory customs are all vintage Joe collectors have left.  Hasbro turned their backs on that style and not even a "retro" line was enough to bring back the classic look.  So, fortunately, these figures exist to keep collectors engaged...even if Hasbro doesn't care.

1988 Star Viper - Around The Web

The Star Viper isn't a figure that gets a lot of attention.  Collectors don't love space figures.  And, his relatively common release year means that he doesn't have the cachet of a low production 1994 Star Brigade figure.  A memorable comic run, though, is more than most of his contemporaries received.  And, as such, there's a decent amount of material on him available online.  Here's the best of him from around the web.

Star Viper Profile

Star Viper by funtimeatserpentorslair

Star Viper by thedustinmccoy

Star Viper at JoeADay.com

Star Viper by toysandtomfoolery

Star Viper by thevintagetoylife

Star Viper at JoeBattleLines.com

Star Viper by thedustinmccoy

Star Viper by nightforcetunnelrat

Star Viper by thedustinmccoy

2004 Anti Venom Duke

In the 2000's, Hasbro continually returned to long time fan favorite molds.  The issue, though, is that while collectors loved the original releases, the post vintage takes on fan classics were rarely upgrades over the vintage figure.  Instead, many of the redos of the pinnacles of the vintage line were sorry retreads that more showed the flaws of fan favorites rather than improving upon them.  This is personified in no greater way than the absolutely terrible repaints of the version 1 Duke mold.  The 1997 figure was an embarrassment.  Hasbro's second attempt to take on the character's iconic look was in 2004 and it wasn't much better than the version from 7 years prior.  The Anti Venom Duke is not a good figure and really doesn't have much going for it.  But, it's a take on the classic Duke and is a part of the best G.I. Joe themed 6 pack of the repaint era.

Duke was simply out of place in this pack.  The set included the Roadblock and Barricade molds from 1992, the 1988 Charbroil, the 1990 Stretcher, a remade 1984 Mutt and this Duke.  While Duke kind of pairs with Mutt, the reality is that the mold is skinny and doesn't fit with the bulkier molds from later years that made up the majority of the set.  In 2004, it had been a long time since the original Duke mold had appeared.  And, the 1992 Duke (which is a great update for Duke) had been used in 2000 and planned for 2003.  So, it made some sense for Hasbro to return to the original look for the first sergeant.  But, we later learned that Hasbro had access to the 1993 Duke mold.  This set would have been a great opportunity for that mold to appear.  But, that Duke features a molded helmet and would not have meshed with the idea of Steel Brigade helmets that Hasbro used as the Anti Venom set's primary gimmick.  A quick kitbash might have solved that.  But, instead, Hasbro brought back this old mold.

This figure really has two flaws.  The first is that he has a painted head.  Instead of the head being cast in flesh colored plastic with eyes and hair painted on, it is covered in flesh toned paint.  This is problematic for two reasons.  First, the paint just looks terrible.  Secondly, the figure is meant to wear a helmet.  And, the act of putting that helmet on and taking it off will wear off the paint.  So, the figure has a design flaw at its core.  This is especially maddening because the unproduced variants of the Anti Venom set featured plastic molded heads instead of painted.  They looked immensely better and would have held up to wear much better.  Duke's second major flaw is the Gung Ho arms.  These arms are scrawny as they were meant to be bare arms with no sleeves.  They are smooth and without detail.  Painted up, they look out of place.  Full arm sleeves are particularly egregious as there's no folds or seams to give the figure more heft.  While also overused, the 1984 Thunder arms would have been a much better choice and done wonders to improve this figure.

As such, this Duke is pretty terrible.  The head looks too big for the chest.  The arms are way to skinny.  And, the juxtaposition of the green upper body and tan lower body really doesn't work as well as you'd think it would.  This is especially unfortunate because the chest is actually kind of nice.  The silver against the dark green is a nice look that brings out the Duke mold more than the golden highlights against tan did in 1984.  With proper arms and a non-painted head, this Duke would be a worthy successor to the original version.  But, those two pesky choices by the designers really limit this figure and ruin an otherwise useful release.

The Anti Venom set has aged well.  The choice of molds combined with good colors and original gear has kept it a fan favorite.  The AV set was well received (as far as Joe themed sets went!) in 2004 and was the first non army builder to really appreciate on the secondary market.  With only around 16,000 sets produced, a little bit of popularity will drive up demand artificially.  But, the set has always been held in high regard by collectors.  The Duke, though, is usually the lone exception.  With some other sets, there are only one or two good figures and you'll pay a premium for them while the set's duds linger for a fraction of the price.  In this set, all of the other 5 figures are good.  Duke is lone misfire.  But, as you're 5/6 of the ways to a complete set with the good figures, Duke gets caught up in the completist mentality and many collectors finish the set with him just to have the entire team.

While this was just the second repaint of Duke in this parts combination, Hasbro quickly overdid it.  Aside from the fact that there are two unproduced Anti Venom Duke variants (dark blue and light blue), Hasbro used the mold with a new head for a comic pack in 2005.  This Duke was based on the coloring of the original figure.  But, it's much worse.  It's one of the more terrible releases of the 2000's as the paint is bad and the figure quality is poor, too.  If that weren't enough, Hasbro released this mold in the HAS set in 2005.  That Duke just has differently colored pants.  That's it.  It's one of the laziest figures Hasbro ever did.  But, in some ways, it's better than this Anti Venom figure since the colors don't clash as much.  Hasbro planned to bring the body with the comic pack head back in 2010 or so for a "Then and Now" set.  Unproduced samples of this figure exist.  It would have been better than the Comic Pack figure and the HAS version and, probably, this version, too.  It didn't happen, though, and collectors are just left with terrible takes on the V1 Duke mold.  At least Chinese Dukes were cheap and plentiful for a while in the early 2010's....

The Anti-Venom accessories, overall, were pretty good.  Duke's, though, were not.  While Barricade, Roadblock, Charbroil and Lifeline all included at least some parts from their original releases (or, in Roadblock's case, from his classic 1984 release), Duke did not.  Instead, he was given a black pistol from the 1986 Lifeline (that's oversized and always been a release I felt was lacking) and a JvC era newly sculpted weapon that featured a sight and grenade launcher.  This gun is, actually, well sculpted.  But, it's also useless since it doesn't have a stock to hold it in place with the figure.  It's one of those weapons that looks OK until you try to use it.  And, once you realize how worthless it is when trying to pose a figure, you grow to hate the gun just on its lack of merit.  Duke, of course, includes the modified Steel Brigade helmet with "Duke" emblazoned across the back.  It's good for Cobra to know who they're shooting in the back, I guess.  You'll see in all the photos below that I've attempted different accessory combos with this figure to find something that really works.  The Ripcord rifle seems to have distinguished itself as my favorite.  Which is kind of odd considering that in all my years of collecting I've only ever used Ripcord rifles with Ripcord, Airborne and a custom character made from Flint, Footloose and Snake Eyes parts.

So, Anti Venom pricing is just dumb.  While carded sets were running around $125 for a while, they seem to have fallen back into the $80 range on the open market.  But, here's the thing: even this craptastic Duke is expensive if you want him on his own.  Dealers will get $30-$40 for a mint and complete figure.  But, even open market figures will top $30.  If you want to sacrifice the helmet, you can get a copy of the figure for around $10.  But, there's really no in between.  If you don't have the Anti Venom figures, I'd still suggest buying a carded set and opening it as it's the cheapest way to get all the figures.  (Oddly, you can get loose, mint and complete sets for about the same price as a mint and complete Roadblock.)  Aside from that, I'd NEVER buy this Duke.  He's awful and not worth anything more than a couple of bucks.  But, newer collectors don't really understand that there's way more of these figures in the collector market than there are collectors.  And, once old timers realize they can get $30 for shitty figures like this, they will come out in force.

2003 Python Patrol Major Bludd - Around The Web

The Python Patrol Major Bludd figure was not well liked upon his release.  Many collectors disdained the figure for simply not being an army builder.  17 years later, though, Major Bludd has help up the best of the 2003 Python Patrol figures.  His unique coloring and lone character was not lost in the sea of army builders that followed.  And, the fact that he used a unique parts combination has made him more interesting than many of the other figures of the era that were straight repaints.  Here's the best of him from around the web.

Python Patrol Major Bludd Profile

Python Patrol Major Bludd at Nekoman's Viper Pit

Python Patrol Major Bludd at JoeADay.com

Python Patrol Major Bludd at JoeBattleLines.com

Python Patrol Review at GeneralsJoes.com

Python Patrol Major Bludd by Slipstream80

1993 Barricade

One of the odd phenomenon in my collection is that figure's I missed out at certain points in my collecting life take on importance far beyond their merit.  The first, of course, is the 1986 Dialtone.  My younger brother got the figure before me and 34 years later, I'm still picking up new Dialtone figures in an attempt to salve that wound.  From my college, fresh collector years, though, these figures are defined by characters that looked great on the cardbacks but I could never find at retail.  The Headhunter and the Flak Viper are the two who most stick out.  To this day, I can't get enough of them.  Another figure who intrigued me from cardbacks of the era was Barricade.  I never found him.  But, unlike many other figures who drove obsession, I didn't acquire a Barricade figure as part of a targeted purchase. Instead, he showed up in a lot of many other figures I missed at retail in the mid 1990's.  In the awesomeness that was discovering dozens of new figures I had never owned before, Barricade was overlooked and neglected.  His design just wasn't enough to capture my attention over other figures.  In the decades since, though, I've grown to like Barricade.  And, this 1993 repaint is one of the reasons why.

I've been singing the praises of neon Joes since they were still at retail.  General Hawk and I were about the only two collectors willing to commit the sacrilege of acknowledging the G.I. Joe line continued past 1987...must less 1989.  In those early days of a online collecting, no one cared about 1990's figures and they openly ridiculed anything neon.  Back then, the rare message was that the 1990's molds were great and would benefit from a repaint.  And, in cases where these repaints occurred, we were proven right.  But, neon figures have their own charm.  And, in the late 2010's and into 2020, neon Joes have taken on a new life and become collectible.  The eye catching colors are attractive to younger collectors who grew up with toys using these colors.  The lower production runs and lower profile in the existing collecting world have also made the figures expensive.

This 1993 Barricade, though, only fits half that description.  While not all that easy to find (none of the 1993 repaints of 1992 molds are...) Barricade remains cheap.  Mostly due to his obscure character and some limitations of the mold, Barricade remains one of the high quality 1990's releases that has yet to catch the collecting world's eye.  But, knowing how obscure this figure has been in even my collection, I can see why this is the case.  While Barricade is decent enough, the bulbous helmet is a far cry from his card artwork appearance.  (Which, to be fair, is way more Robocop than anything made in 1992 should have been.)  That alone is enough to relegate him to subordinate status...especially when taken against figures like Shockwave V2, Bulletproof, General Flagg, Gung Ho and Cutter who debuted the same year.  

But, the figure still has some merit.  I'm a sucker for orange figures...just because they bring such visual stimulation to the line.  And, Barricade's body mold is useful with the large swaths of armor.  (His head is less ideal, with the cockeyed grin.  But, is still an impressive feat of sculpting for the time.)  With a couple of extra paint applications, this figure could have really popped.  But, the simplicity of the gold and orange works within the context of his release year.  Brightly colored toys are fun.  And, even today, any licensed line is light on color.  Star Wars has gone gritty.  Batman, too.  It's rare to find a toy line what features eye popping characters that are fun for kids to play with.  Barricade reminds of a time when that wasn't true.

Which isn't to say that this is an essential figure.  Had I found this guy back in the '90's, I'm sure I'd have picked him up.  But, by then, I was buying everything that I didn't already own.  But, this figure does fit well with many others released in 1993.  Outback, Mirage, Mutt, Snow Storm, Long Arm, Cross Country, Muskrat and Wet Suit all feature shades of orange coloring.  It turns out, orange was a popular color that year.  But, some of that consistency is kind of fun.  Grouping figures like these together makes for bright, vibrant photos.  And, as they are less often seen, the figures are unique when used in dios and such.  That's not a great life for this Barricade.  But, it's far better than that of many of his contemporaries.  

Gold plastic is the bane of collectors.  Gold plastic from the 1990's is notoriously brittle.  While the color isn't overly common the Joe line, it did appear on some figures in the 1990's, this Barricade being one of them.  The gold plastic used for the figure's crotch snaps without any real effort.  And, because of that, it's really common to find otherwise mint and complete Barricade figures with broken crotches.  Fortunately, it doesn't seem that the gold on this figure has started to break down like some other toys lines have seen.  But, you have to be careful posing Barricade or sitting him in vehicles as slight pressure will snap his crotch right off.

Barricade's gear is the same as the 1992 version's.  The base blue colors make less sense now that they appear against the red/orange base color of this repaint.  But, the gold and red helmet better matches with this version of Barricade.  So, you win some, you lose some.  The gear is still solid enough.  The machine gun looks good.  And, getting a backpack to which you could attach the missile launcher was at least practical.  I still feel that Barricade's helmet is his weakest point and could have been better.  But, at least he had a helmet and his is not the worst helmet to be used in 1993.  But, there's little else to say about his gear.  Honestly, with just his gun, the figure is just as good as if you have him complete. 

Barricade got a few uses.  After his debut in 1992, Hasbro released the mold in the final two years of the line.  First, this 1993 figure appeared.  Then, in 1994, Hasbro repainted and re-characterized the mold as Gears.  In 1994, the figure's waist and legs were used for the Cobra Blackstar figure.  Barricade then disappeared for a decade before making a surprise appearance in the 2004 Anti-Venom set.  This is, easily the best version of Barricade as the tan and copper color scheme shows that the mold had untapped potential leftover from the 1990's.  There are two unproduced Anti-Venom Barricade figures: a light blue and dark blue version to be on the lookout for, too.  For some reason, there are releases of Roadblock named Barricade on foreign cardbacks.  (The Chinese version is the most common.)  Barricade works as an alternative name for Roadblock.  But, that's more a trivia question than any actual connection to the Barricade character.  The character even appeared as an overpriced club exclusive in 2016.  If you care about Barricade there's lots of ways to show your appreciation.

1993 Barricade figures are not pricey.  While dealers will sell a lot of mint and complete figures in the $15-$20 range, it's about a $6 figure when left to the open market.  Carded figures can be had for around $18 on the open market, too.  But, like most figures, the open market sales are drying up as professional dealers gobble up overstock and then determine pricing by simply not letting the market decide the value of the figures.  For $6, this figure is fun to have and has some value.  Much beyond that, though, is an overpay.  You're far better off getting the blue 1992 version or the 2004 Anti Venom version of Barricade.  Those are better figures.  But, this orange version is fun and is a nice reminder of the Joe line's neon years.