2021 RIOT Commando (Eagle Force)

I have no memories of Eagle Force.  In fact, the only thing I really know about them was that the immortal Evilface liked them and had some on his page more than two decades ago.  But, out of scale figures with a weird gimmick weren't something that held my interest and I didn't give Eagle Force a thought for a long time.  Then, a kickstarter appeared that would bring Eagle Force figures in an anniversary G.I. Joe style to collectors.  After long delays, the kickstarter delivered.  At some point in the past year, though, the manufacturer of the Eagle Force figures, Zica Toys, also announced an o-ring figure from Eagle Force that could be integrated with vintage Joes.  The concept looked good enough.  But, many have tried to emulate vintage Joe figures.  And, even Hasbro failed in the early 2000's to really get new parts that meshed with vintage Joes.  So, my interest was tepid.  

When the first photos showed up, though, the figure had some promise.  But, with all the other things going on, it fell out of my mind.  Then, while reading OG13, I saw a post from my friend Ozzie about these Riot Commandos being available.  They looked OK.  But, more importantly, the figures were in stock on a website and I could buy them right then and there with no waiting.  So, in a total impulse buy, I acquired two of them.  I had no real expectations of the figure.  But, upon opening it a few days later, found quite a solid entry into the world of o-ring compatible figures.

The Riot Commando is perfectly in scale with vintage Joes.  He has a bit more heft like the post 1984 figures.  But, he looks like he could have been a Joe.  The body is covered in armor plates with some grenades on the upper left shoulder.  The waist features a belt with pouches and the legs have knee pads and a scuplted holster on the right thigh.  This doesn't sound like much.  But, it's actually the right amount.  The JvC Joes suffered from too much detail...much often with no purpose.  This Riot Commando has just enough details to make him cool but not so much that they detract from the look.  The paint is of excellent quality.  I'm not a huge fan of the Riot logo on the right shoulder.  But, it's so well done that I'll forgive it.  The figure is well put together and avoids some of the fan trappings of trying to make a figure too cool.

The figure has two little Easter egg features, too.  They are not something you notice right away.  But, they really add to the figure's overall appearance.  The first is that the figure's boots have treads sculpted onto the feet.  I don't recall seeing this anywhere before.  You might wonder who cares about the bottom of a figure's feet.  But, again, it's a little design flair that really showcases the care that went into sculpting this figure.  The second is more noticeable.  The red paint on the figure's eyes has a metallic tint to it.  You don't notice it until the eyes catch some light.  Then, they start to glow.  It's an amazing little detail that brings substantial life to the figure's head.  The glowing eyes stand out from the rest of the red on the figure and add an element of creepiness to the figure's countenance.  

Construction-wise, the Riot Commando has a few key differences from classic Joes.  First off, Zica did not use metal rivets in the elbow joints.  While the official line is that this will prevent cracked elbows, the more likely reason is cost.  And, the arms are relatively soft plastic.  So, the metal rivets might have not been practical.  I've never gotten too hung up on cracked elbows.  But, as 1993 Joes start to feature them, they bother me more and more.  But, in 27 years from now, I probably won't even be able to see them.  The figure's head is different, too.  While it has a ball joint similar to post 1984 Joes, that joint is attached to a post.  The figure's head then attached to a ball on top of the post.  It's a more common design and has been used in Star Wars and the anniversary Joe line.  It is usually excellent on helmeted characters.  But, I find it very limiting on standard human heads.  The final difference is that the figure has swivel wrists.  This isn't something I find of huge value on vintage figures.  As I live in a hot climate, you often see the wrist plastic fuse to the arm plastic, rending the swivel moot.  But, it's a nice additional feature and you can't see the joints due to the gloved hands.  Some have reported that the joints and such are not 100% with vintage Joe parts.  But, there are lots of Joes that aren't compatible with each other.  And, in this market, even custom fodder is stupidly expensive.  But, it will be interesting to see what creations can be made from the Riot Commando's parts.

The Riot Commando includes a single accessory: a rifle.  It's a pretty solid, if unspectacular design.  It won't be confused for a vintage Joe weapon.  But, it fits nicely with accessories from the 2000's and on.  The weapons are properly sized and match the figure very well, though.  And, with the figure's bulk, having a backpack would have been overkill.  (Though, vintage Joe backpacks do fit into the hole on the back of the figure.)  Maybe a satchel or pistol to round out the gear would have been nice.  But, a proper weapon that matches the figure like this one does can allow you to overlook the dearth of accessories.  You can already find amazingly posed photos of the Riot Commandos with their weapons.  So, that's a testament to how well it accentuates the figure.

So, what do you do with a figure like this?  Well, the upside is that the Riot Commando's colors match some vintage Cobras.  He's an excellent match for the Strato Viper.  And, Red Laser made some Viper repaints in a similar color scheme.  The figure also matches the Brazilian Flying Scorpion figure.  Escorpiao Voador's grey is a little lighter, as his red.  But, it's close enough.  Black Major is also currently selling Worms, Aero Vipers and Cobra Commanders in a grey and red.  Again, the Black Major colors are slightly brighter.  But, they work well enough.  You'll see my Riot Commandos with the Flying Scorpion below.  And, it's likely that they will become his personal troopers since they both match the color and also don't match any other Cobra Trooper designs.

Zica Toys has shown other o-ring prototype designs.  I do not know when or if these will come to be.  But, based on my experience with the Riot Commando, I'm likely to give them a try.  A couple are helmetless people.  And, those can be tougher to do versus a helmeted head.  But, any expansion of the o-ring mythos with high quality toys is useful.  And, while it's unlikely that I'll "collect" the line in a traditional sense.  Figures that easily mesh with Joes will always find a place among my hoard.  

When designing an action figure, it's far easier to try too hard than it is to get something just right.  We all know design elements that we want in every toy.  The key, though, is to not incorporate too many of them into a single offering.  Otherwise, you waste a design element that gets lost in a sea of overdone details.  And, the Riot Commando has a perfect example with the figure's head.  Yes, it's nice enough.  But, they really tried too hard.  And, instead of a clean aesthetic to match the rest of the figure, you have an overly large monstrosity that is part Darth Vader, part Stranger from the Venture Brothers and part Steampunk sewer dweller.  In short, it's too much.  I suspect that when you're not sure you'll get a chance to make more figures, you push as much into what you are sure of as you can.  But, in this case, removing just one element would make the head cleaner.  Instead, it's overdone and somewhat distracting from the more muted body.  I'd like to see an alternate head offered in the future.  But, that should be a new figure and not an add on.  

I'm not a Kickstarter fan.  I just want to be able to buy a product for a pre-arranged price.  I don't want to sort through tiers and options to find some package that kind of gets me what I want and then leaves me to wait years before the figures are delivered.  I want to buy something in hand that can be shipped today.  Yes, I'm a dinosaur in that regard.  (And, the Coil Con fiasco has left me leery of pre-paying for anything from indie producers.)  But, if Kickstarter people were more flexible in their offerings and pricing some would be more attractive.  The reason I own this figure is because I went to a website, entered my info and, five days later, the figures were in my mailbox.  Simple.  I could get exactly what I want instead of having to try and justify a bunch of figures that I otherwise had no interest in.

Who knows what the future holds for this figure.  It likely exists in relatively small numbers, certainly when compared against vintage Joes.  And, we've seen low run figures take on extraordinary after market lives, too.  The upside to this figure is that it's full of repaint potential.  A Cobra blue and black figure would be strong.  As would a crimson base with silver pads.  The mold would lend itself to Iron Grenadier colors of a black base with gold highlights.  Or, my preferred way, a golden figure with black and red highlights.  Personally, I'd love a green and orange toxic repaint that's completely and totally ostentatious.  But, I'm weird like that.  It's likely we'll see this figure again in some other configuration.  And, based on the quality of this release, it's equally likely that I'll buy some.

1991 Super Sonic Fighters Falcon - Around The Web

There are no bad Falcon figures.  The mold is strong and all four versions of it really work.  Which is the best, then, is often left to personal preference for colors.  For me, the 1991 Super Sonic Fighters version remains my favorite.  While the 1987 was a childhood favorite, the grey and green combo on this later repaint really stand out.  Grey is a relatively rare base color for Joes.  So, when it's done right, it really shines.  I also like the weapons included with this version.  I'm fortunate to have a spare Night Force Falcon pack that I can give him as it completes the figure nicely.  While the 1987 version is more common in pictures, this version still appears often enough.  Here's the best of him from around the web.

1991 Falcon Profile 01

1991 Falcon Profile 02

1991 Falcon by purple_cobra75

1991 Falcon at JoeADay.com

1991 Falcon by atticagazette

1991 Falcon by Slipstream80

1991 Falcon by rutbullet

1991 Falcon by jogunwarrior

1991 Falcon at HCC788

2001 Funskool Crimson Guard Immortal

Twenty years ago this month, the Funskool Crimson Guard figure debuted.  At the time, the Joe collecting community was large, vibrant and extremely army builder focused.  This created a perfect storm of collector desire matching up with a potential release.  Once the figure appeared at stores, it quickly sold out, despite dealers of the day over-ordering in anticipation of unprecedented demand.  Large armies appeared in various collecting forums and the figure appeared to have made an inroads in ways that no Funskool army builder save the Night Viper had done.  Time, though, has left this Funskool release a forgotten relic of the army building era.  Gone are the days of cheap access to this figure.  And, newer collectors see little need for a figure that is inferior to the American version while still costing about the same as one.  

In 2001, the Joe world was on fire.  Collecting forums sprouted up frequently.  And, many were able to grow quite large.  Aside from the larger retail presence Joe started seeing in early 2001, there was also a new comic book.  This fueled the fire, especially as the comic publisher opened a forum that quickly became the most visited Joe community online.  In those early days, collectors were relatively collaborative and tended to all be in the same place.  Most of us were relatively new to collecting and had a shared childhood duration that was heavily focused between 1982 and 1987.  The community always had things to discuss since every Joe topic had yet to be beaten to death.  And, more importantly, there was constant news being released about Joe: be it new Hasbro toys or some new comic.  This Crimson Guard Immortal figure, though, was the first new Funskool figure announcement.  When YoJoe.com started selling Funskool figures in February of 2001, every offering seemed new.  When SmallJoes.com came online a few months later, there was one new figure, the 1991 General Hawk, but photos of him surfaced during the website preview and his discovery was malaise rather than anticipation.  The Crimson Guard Immortal, though, was announced to the collecting world before he would appear for sale anywhere.  Images followed the announcement.  Then, the figure appeared.

Upon the CGI's release, he followed a pattern that would appear on highly popular Funskool figures of the day.  He'd initially sell out almost instantly.  Then, when more stock arrived, he'd last a few days.  After that, the figure was a solid seller, but rarely sold out.  Collectors who had anticipated triple digit CGI's in their collection found themselves not fulfilling that boast.  First, the figure itself has some limitations.  Orange and yellow gear combined with the golden head and spotty 2001 era quality on the initial figures all helped to temper some collector demand.  But, the bigger factor was that right around the time of this guy's release, Hasbro also released the Laser Viper and Fast Blast Viper.  It was followed with the less popular Shadow Viper before Hasbro announced the sculpting change for G.I. Joe figures that debuted in 2002.  In short, the CGI quickly became old news in an era when Joe updates were fast and furious.  In time, you saw more and more collectors saying they "should" get some more CGI's.  But, since the figure was always available, there was no hurry.  By the time Hasbro's heavy army building releases relented in 2005, Joe interest faded away with them.  And, despite having been out of production for a few years, CGI's were still available at retail prices at Joe dealers all over the internet.

In some ways, this was a sad fate for this figure.  The Funskool CGI is pretty solid and a nice replacement for the harder to find and rather brittle Hasbro CGI.  Even the off color accessories aren't really that bad since you can limit the figure to his silver launchers and they match his silver accents quite well.  In the days of cheap army building, there were only 4 or 5 options that surpassed the Funskool CGI that had any kind of legs.  And, as this figure was many collectors first exposure to the CGI mold, it had the added value of expanding some people's vision of the Joe line past figures that were made prior to 1988.  The comeback for this figure is that he remains relatively cheap and easy to find, even while all the other 2001-2004 new Funskool releases have gotten hard to find and even rather expensive.

In general, the Funskool CGI is pretty similar to the Hasbro figure.  The red is a deeper maroon color and is not a match for the crimson red of the 1991 figure.  The Indian version also has much more silver paint used to accentuate the mold's highlights.  The biggest visual difference is the golden paint on the figure's head.  There's no real reason for this paint application to exist.  And, the gold paint isn't as great a match for the figure as the silver.  And, a silver head would have probably worked better for this figure's overall appearance.  But, in general, the Crimson Guard Immortal is a pretty solid design that fits with other 2000's era army builders.

The Crimson Guard Immortal has a short history.  The original figure was released in the U.S. in 1991.  From there, the figure was released in Europe, too.  Some European examples, though, have a 1990 Rock Viper head instead of the head originally intended for this mold.  This is a rare figure.  And, large numbers of fakes were produced in Asia around 2010-2012.  They were bagged and still float around, passed as originals, with alarming regularity.  The CGI's gear was also recolored and released with a 1991 General Hawk in Europe, too.  It's possible that the Rock Viper head CGI's are a function of the fact that the CGI head appears on the 1993 Create a Cobra mail away figure, too.  The mold was meant to go to Brazil.  Estrela cardbacks feature a figure named Flagelo, using the CGI mold.  But, this figure was never actually produced.  (An American CGI is incorrectly listed as Flagelo in some early international Joe guides.)  Funskool then got the mold that went into production in 2001.  Funskool CGI's can have gold painted bullets on their left leg, silver painted bullets or unpainted (black) bullets.  The silver and black are the harder variations to find.  Funskool dropped a final production run of CGI's in April of 2003, right before they returned the mold to Hasbro.  Most of these were bagged, but are the highest quality CGI's that Funskool made.  

In 2003, Hasbro quickly got the mold into production and released it as the driver of the KB Toys exclusive CAT Tank.  This blue version was different.  But, wasn't overly popular with collectors of the day.  In 2005, the body mold was used for the convention exclusive Destro.  It's an odd look for Destro.  And, again, didn't make for a really popular figure.  The mold then disappeared...never seeing use either the Crimson Guard set from 2004 or the Crimson Shadow Guard from 2005.  Hasbro getting the mold back seemed like wasted opportunity...especially since it removed the Funskool CGI's from production.  But, the ubiquity of the Funskool figures has helped soften that blow.

The Crimson Guard Immortal mold has a lot of life left in it.  A Cobra blue repaint seems a no-brainer.  But, a black and silver paint job to match the Shadow Guards would also be a hit.  Alas, these are never to come from Hasbro.  In the late 2010's, though, a factory custom maker floated the idea of CGI repaints.  Spec sheets appeared that showed the CGI in a variety of colors.  Among the excellent blends of classic Cobra colors were also some oddball items with the CGI painted up as Boba Fett and Darth Vader.  I'm not sure of the board appeal of something like that.  But, I'd have probably bought at least one Boba Fett CGI for the curiosity of it all.  As of 2021, though, these figures have yet to materialize.  They may be pipe dreams at this point.  But, they do show that the mold still garners some collector interest and many realize the untapped potential of the design.

So, in an odd bit of irony, the huge popularity of the Funskool Crimson Guard Immortal has made him one of the cheapest Funskool figures to acquire in the 2020's.  Today, you can get MOC figures for around $20.  Loose figures are harder to come by and tend to sell for similar prices.  But, since dealers imported massive amounts of Crimson Guard Immortals in the early 2000's, there's lots of them available today.  Now, figures that were ignored by collectors of the early 2000's have gotten hard to find and, in some cases, stupidly expensive.  The Crimson Guard Immortal, though, remains relatively affordable.  We're two decades removed from the days of buying all of them you wanted for $4 each.  But, because so many collectors did, there's lots of them out there.  And, the collector demand got lots of toy dealers to also buy up overstock as Funskool liquidated the last of their Joes in the mid 2000's.  So, now, we have a figure that's much more common than other figures who were ignored in the Funskool heyday.

That's good since these CGI's are still attainable for a new collector.  But, at collector prices, the usefulness and desire to army build these guys fades away.  You don't see too many Funskool CGI's in photos these days.  There are just better options available and few collectors who came of age in the post Funskool collecting landscape ever paid the figures attention as an army building option.  I still love this figure, though.  He reminds of a great time in the Joe collecting world.  He also reminds me of the silliness that pervaded that era, too.  I stick around because figures remind me not only of childhood but also of collecting related events that were relevant to young adulthood, too.  It's weird to realize that this figure was released and I first reviewed it prior to 9/11.  But, that just shows how much of an impact Joe continues to have on my life.

1983 Rock and Roll - Around The Web

 Rock and Roll is one of the few original 13 figures to feature unique parts.  His bullet strapped chest was an amazing look and has made him a fan favorite after all these years.  He remains one of my most used early figures as he holds up with later releases without some of the baggage that other early figures feature.  Of course, he's popular.  And, I only scratched the surface of the Rock and Roll content out there.

1983 Rock and Roll Profile

Rock and Roll Diorama

1983 Rock and Roll by R.T.G.

1983 Rock and Roll by General Liederkranz

1982 Rock and Roll by masterbungle

1983 Rock and Roll by Cobra_the_Enemy

1983 Rock and Roll by slipstream80

1983 Rock and Roll by scarrviper

1983 Rock and Roll by BrazilianRecondo

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.