1990 Sub Zero

In the early days of online Joe collecting, the collector base was almost exclusively focused on 1987 and earlier figures.  Finding figures released in the 1990's was very difficult and most were summarily dismissed.  While I've long maintained there were lots of 1990's era gems, the reality is that the 1990 lineup itself is easily on par with any year from the 1980's.  It includes a strong lineup of Cobra army builders, new characters and specialties.  The figures are nicely colored and fit in with the prior years.  The best part, though, is that the figures are accessorized to the max.  Many include more gear than is really necessary.  But, the gear was designed to be specific to the figure and enhance the character.  A great example of this is the unheralded 1990 Sub Zero figure.

The Joe line is full of classic cold weather troopers.  Snow Job and Blizzard are iconic characters with accessories that defied toy conventions at the time.  Iceberg and Frostbite were well designed figures who were perfect in support of their environmentally similar cohorts.  Sub Zero follows in the vein of the first two as he is laden with gear and had a solid design.  His base blue is a bit bright, but works within the arctic context.  (You get some fairly brilliant blue hues in the right icy settings.)  He is loaded down, though, with a massive machine gun, bi pod, mortar, backpack, shells and snow shoes.  The result is a figure that, when all geared up, stands equally proud among his fore-bearers.

The Sub Zero figure has a few odd characteristics.  First, the mortar.  It has no bi pod to stabilize it.  If you stand it straight up, it will retain its position.  But, adding any angle will result in immediate collapse.  The catalog photo of Sub Zero showed a white bi-pod on the mortar.  It appears this bi-pod was the same as was included with the machine gun, just in a different color.  You can not tell from the photo if Sub Zero was meant to include two bi-pods in differing colors to match his weapons.  But, the accessory is shown in white.  The machine gun bi-pod does not appear on Sub Zero's card art, either.  So, it may have been never intended for the machine gun but was added there at a later time.  The second odd thing is that Sub Zero's backpack has three tabs on it.  The largest tab is designed to hold his machine gun.  (I tried for 20 minutes to get the gun to stay on the pack long enough for a photo, but mine just pops off after a few seconds.)  The other two, though, have no purpose.  Were these meant for another, redacted accessory?  It might be that the original design had slots in the mortar shells so they could be stocked on the pack.  (That would have made sense and been inline with the time.)  But, with nothing to store there, Sub Zero's pack appears a bit off.  He seems unfinished and the general appearance of his gear always makes you think you are missing a few accessories.

The biggest source of contention on the figure, though, is his head.  The odd shape of the head coupled with the bizarre design choice for the hood creates a look that is just odd.  Sub Zero looks like a fish peeking through the hole on a barrel.  His face also makes him look pretty pissed off.  But, if you were forced to wear a coat with a hood collar that looked like a blue bonnet, you might be pissed at the world, too.  But, the head limits what is, otherwise, an exceptional figure.  The rest of the mold is solid with enough details to be interesting, but not so many as to be distracting.  The two tone color of blue and white work well together and there's enough grey to make him visually interesting.

For me, though, this figure has never found a real purpose.  He did not enter my collection until after I lived in the desert.  For the time I moved back to a snowy place, any use of the character was represented by the 1993 repaint.  So, while I've long admired the figure's gear and design, the reality is that I've not had any occasion to really photograph him in his native environment.  Maybe one day this will change.  But, that's not going to be for a while.  Until then, this figure just sits in a baggie, in a plastic tub waiting for the rare appearance in a dio or as a vehicle crew member.

Like a lot of the 1990 figures, though, since this guy came after my childhood, I have no memories of him as anything other than an adult collectible.  He was in one my first lots of 1990's figures.  But, was overshadowed by the many figures that attracted me to the collection in the first place.  He was a nice addition and something that I thought had potential.  But, with dozens of other new figures coming into my possession for the first time with the same purchase, Sub Zero was lost in the shuffle.  Were I a kid in 1990, though, I'm sure I'd have found this figure quite strong and it would have had quite a few adventures out in the backyard during the winter.  Timing prevented that.  But, it doesn't cloud another strong entry into the Joe pantheon.

Sub Zero got a bit of use.  After his appearance in 1990, a darker colored version appeared in the 1993 Arctic Commandos mail away.  That figure is probably better than this 1990 version.  But, he only includes a recolored Dodger rifle and is missing the gear that makes the figure.  If you can swing it, accessorizing the 1993 with the 1990 figure's gear is the best way to go.  In 2005, Sub Zero's body made a comeback.  It was used for the spectacular Winter Operations Snake Eyes figure.  The cammo and overall design combined with the Snake Eyes head made for one of the best figures released in the repaint era.  But, the character of Sub Zero was no more.  Arctic repaints are tough to pull off.  And, the few arctic figures that did get the treatment between 1997 and 2005 were, almost to a figure, much worse than the original designs.  So, getting the awesome Snake Eyes instead of a terrible Sub Zero figure was OK.

Like all white plastic figures, Sub Zero is prone to discoloration.  However, his backpack is extremely prone to discoloration and you'll often see pristine white figures and mortars paired with yellowing packs.  So, it can take some doing to find a completely brilliant white figure and accessories.  But, they aren't expensive.  You'll see mint and complete with filecard figures selling in the $9 - $12 range.  Dealers will charge up to $20 for the same figure, though.  You can get carded figures in the $30 range, too.  For me, it's a worthwhile price just to complete the 1990 run.  The figure's head somewhat limits his value.  But, the great gear and decent coloring make up for it.

Diorama - Red Jackal's Negotiations

Red Jackal negotiates the release of some Cobra Elite Troopers.  Hawk is not pleased and fears this Red Jackal person will become a thorn in the fledgling G.I. Joe Team's side.

Rarities - The Curious Case of the Missing Mustache

In the 2000's, Hasbro reused many molds.  Starting in 2000, though, they would, periodically, skip the paint application for a figure's facial hair.  These were by design.  However, it seems that Hasbro had some issues with facial hair in general as figures missing facial hair were common pre production finds.  Below, you will see a few examples of figures that are missing the facial hair paint applications.

The first figure is the mail away Agent Faces figure.  For this figure, the head was a either a new sculpt based off of the '92 Duke or a slightly modified version of that head.  The production figure's facial hair was just a paint application.  In the sample below, though, this application was missed.  The result is a very different looking figure.  While the sample is production level, it's more likely a case of factory error or poor quality control than an actual variant.  But, it's interesting nonetheless.

The second figure is the pre-production 2002 BJ's Dial Tone.  This mold was released with no mustache in 2000, but the production figure in 2002 did have the mustache.  This pre-production figure has differences other than the facial hair, like the differently colored elbows and general difference in the green arms.  But, the mustache is the most glaring difference.

The final figure is, again, likely a factor error rather than a variant.  But, it is a 2003 Python Patrol Major Bludd figure with no facial hair.  Bludd is very odd without his trademark mustache.  So, this figure is boldly different from any other appearance of this head.  While it's likely not a variant, it does offer further proof that factory goofs can make their way to retail.

Click on the Rarities tag to see more oddball items.  And, Rarities Month II will be coming in June of 2017.

1987 Psyche Out

I have two younger brothers.  Growing up, they played with Joes.  But, they were not nearly as interested in them as I was.  They would casually pick up figures while I definitely had a plan of which new releases were my priority.  In short order, I learned how to use this.  Even as a kid, I wanted to be a completist and have every Joe released in a given year.  From the catalogs, it was easy to see what all was available and get a general idea of which toys I liked and which ones I didn't.  It was the ones I didn't really like where I used my brothers' relative lack of interest in the line.  When my parents would agree to buy us each a figure, I'd pick out the "best" one for me.  I'd then encourage my brothers to pick out one of the lesser figures in which I had little interest for themselves.  This would allow me to cross the lower priority figures off the checklist without wasting my resources on them.  I was most adept at this in 1987, which was when I got my youngest brother to choose Psyche Out as his figure purchase.

The 1987 Joe line has a major schism.  There are spectacular figures like Falcon, Outback, Tunnel Rat and Law.  But, there are a lot of terrible figures like Raptor, Bog Boa, Crystal Ball, Psyche Out and Gung Ho.  Of course, my definition of awesome and awful were defined by my 13 year old self in 1987.  It was the last year I collected Joe and it was probably a year or two too long for me to be doing so.  But, I was still heavily into the comics and played out adventures every day before and after school.  My room was full of toys, saved packages and comics.  In retrospect, the space was small.  So, having all of that packed into the area was quite impressive.  But, all of my Joe collecting and playing peers had moved on to other things.  So, I was also alone.

This solitude, though, proved a creative spark for my adventures.  While I didn't really want to own a Psyche Out figure, I was able to come up with a story and use for him.  My childhood realm was heavily shaped by Star Wars and then supplemented with Marvel comic super heroes.  As such, the more sci fi bent of the 1987 Joe line didn't bother me as much.  I saw certain accessories as super hero like inventions or creations.  Crystal Ball's hypno shield was indestructible: just like Captain America's.  The green tentacles from the Cobra La pack were given to the Royal Guard, who could then fly.  (He was still a human encased in armor, though.)  And, Psyche Out's gear was part defensive gear and a powerful weapon.

Psyche Out quickly became a science officer inside my Joe HQ.  Here, he would rarely venture out into combat.  But, the staple of my adventures was Cobra overrunning the Joe base that was my room.  So, from time to time, Psyche Out would be forced to fight.  As such, his gear was designed to aid him in those rare instances.  His armbands and shields doubled as Wonder Woman-esque wrist gauntlets that were bulletproof.  He could use these to protect himself.  But, they also shot out electricity beams capable of killing anyone who was hit.  His hand held case shot even more powerful blasts that could disable or destroy Hiss Tanks.  The weapons were short range and were very inaccurate.  So, their usefulness as anything other than a weapon of last resort was limited.

Naturally, this played itself out and, today, Psyche Out is a relic from the final days of my childhood collection.  But, his bright colors are still fun to use in the HQ.  And, in the modern world, his specialty is more useful than ever before.  Of course, having a guy psycho analyze the makeup of a team or try to softly interrogate a villain isn't much of a play pattern.  So, the figure would still be boring were kids today into Joes.  The main problem is that there are a lot of better figures from the time that can also fill Psyche Out's role as scene filler.  With just one vintage HQ, the coveted spots will go to those figures first: leaving Psyche Out slowly rotting in his plastic bag.

The Psyche Out figure is not good.  His body is cast in bright, lime green.  He is covered with a patterned shirt and a large cadre of silver electronics.  He has poofy '80's hair that's buoyed by a red lined headset with an antenna on the back.  For some reason, the knife on his leg is unpainted, despite the multiple paint applications on the head.  There is some quality in the general design, though.  The Tiger Force and, especially, Night Force repaints showcase that the mold can be redeemed.  His gear is odd and a bit goofy.  Except for the pistol.  Psyche Out's pistol is one my favorites and was found its way to a good number of figures in 1987.  When I returned to Joe collecting in the late '90's, the pistol was one of a couple of accessories that I stockpiled (I, maybe, had three extras!) to give to other figures because I liked it so much.  Some of that luster is gone, of course, but the pistol is still top notch and is, to me, the highlight of the figure.

Psyche Out had a pretty good run.  This figure was released in 1987 and was quickly repainted into the Night Force Psyche Out in 1988.  That was the end of the American releases.  But, Psyche Out also has a European exclusive Tiger Force version released in the early 1990's as well as a Brazilian version that was based on the V1 American release, just in slightly brighter colors.  The Brazilian release is named Tele-Mentor.  For some reason, I love that name.  It's like he's a tormentor, but with technology: which is exactly how I used the character.  It seems that the Tele Mentor figure was released after the European version.  Looking at his series of figures, 8 of the 13 contemporaries were later released by Funskool.  The remaining figures have not appeared again.  It seems likely that Psyche Out was sent to India, but they chose to use the 1991 mold for the character instead of this 1987 version.  In the end, you get one foreign Psyche Out with a cool name and two well done repaints in highly popular subsets.  So, collectors got pretty much all they could from this mold.

Psyche Out figures are not expensive or rare.  His radar dishes can be annoying to track down.  But, there are plenty of complete figures out there and you can even buy a couple of incomplete versions to build one perfect figure for not too much money.  Mint and complete with filecard figures run in the $5 to $6 range.  Dealer pricing is about double that.  You can get carded figures for around $20, too.  The mold is the cheapest Night Force figure and the least expensive Euro Tiger Force figure.  Collectors just don't care for the character or the mold.  In the right setting, though, the figure is useful.  I like the bright green inside my HQ.  But, of the three major repaints, this original version is easily the weakest.  If I was going to choose just one version of the character for my collection, this 1987 figure would be the first to get tossed.  But, that's OK.  He's another obscure, background figure that can be useful for a variety of situations.  The line had a lot of them and they are a big part of what made it great.

2007 Animated Debut Boba Fett

In early 1999, I worked for a start up insurance company.  One of the perks was that I was the entire IT department at the time.  For those old enough to remember, 1999 was still the age of dial up for most internet users.  Lots of people had access to higher speeds at work, but were limited in their browsing habits.  In the spring of that year, someone posted the first clips of the animated portion of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.  At the time, the Holiday Special was kind of a unicorn which was traded via copied VHS tapes.  There was no YouTube and video on the internet was small and difficult to download.  The clips were broken into small file sizes so that they were easier for dial up customers to get.  A few friends of mine were desperate to see the clips and set out downloading them.  I was able, though, to get all the clips at work through the high speed internet.  I then burned them onto a CD and mailed them to those friends: allowing them to get the quicker than trying to download themselves.  How far we've come.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is terrible.  Really, it's not even one of those things that's so bad it's good.  It's just awful.  (I remember my parents rushing us out of the mall that night, though, so we could get home to watch it.)  But, the animated cartoon brought about several cool things.  The best, though, was the debut of Boba Fett.  He was still a mysterious bad ass.  But, his appearance was drastically different than what we would see in "The Empire Strikes Back" because he, you know, did something.

The animation for the cartoon is not good.  And, the story isn't much better.  But, the real value is the hint at the story between the stories.  You know that several years passed after "A New Hope" before Empire.  In those years, Luke Skywalker was not a Jedi nor really understood the force.  He obviously had some self discovered capabilities.  But, he was still that 19 year old kid who had just left Tatooine.  As such, I've always imaged that he, Han and Chewbacca would have had some interesting adventures in the intervening years.  Seeing Luke in his ceremonial outfit in the cartoon is cool and helps foster the notion that he likely spent some years emulating Han Solo's approach to life rather than that of a Jedi.  I think there's fertile ground for storytelling here.  And, the fact that you could bring in characters like Boba Fett who were contemporaries, but not really utilized in the original trilogy just adds to the potential.

The figure itself is pretty solid.  There are a full 14 points of articulation.  While not quite "super articulated" as some figures of the era were, he's pretty close.  The figure is, at its core, a repaint of the 2004 Vintage Collection Boba Fett figure, so you expect some high quality design based on the high price point figure that comprises his base.  Hasbro created new forearms for this figure as well as a new waist.  The arms, though, have a limitation.  The molded plastic hoses that connect from the elbow to the forearm are too short.  They hinder some movements of the arm and make it impossible to pose the figure drawing the pistol from his holster on his waist.  It is the waist that makes the figure, though, since he now sports a nifty holster to hold his animated style pistol.  He completed with the a forked staff that shot powerful energy in the cartoon.  It looks decent enough and is a fun homage to a forgotten element of Star Wars lore.

If you look at the colors of this Fett, you can see stylistic similarities to Jango Fett.  As this character debuted decades before Jango's creation, it's possible that these colors were a basis for Jango's appearance.  Or, it could be coincidence.  Like most Star Wars characters, we'd expect an evolution of Fett's appearance.  However, having it change so drastically in such a short time is likely just due to the concept not being finalized when the animation was done.  We know the early concepts of Boba Fett were in all white armor.  This version has paler colors.  The final, film version was more brightly colored and detailed.  Having toys of different eras of Boba Fett is fun and keeps the character fresher than just getting the same colors in different poses.

I've never really been able to wrap my brain around why Lucasfilm never pursued animation as a viable story telling avenue.  The late 1970's were the heyday of Saturday morning cartoons and a Star Wars themed entry would have likely been hugely popular in an era where the only non movie year media most people had access to were the Kenner toys.  It seems like a large misfire on Lucas' part.  Though, to be fair, the company wasn't as large then as they would be by the time "Return of the Jedi" was released.  So, they may not have had the resources to handle both production of new films and an animation division.  But, I can't help but feel that my childhood would have been much better had their been Star Wars cartoons available every Saturday morning.

Like most Star Wars figures of this era, Boba Fett isn't worth much more than retail.  You can get carded figures quite easily for under $12.  Dealers will often charge twice that amount for impatient buyers.  But, the figure is readily available for cheaper.  Considering the figure is now 10 years old and cost $7 at retail, that's not much of a mark up.  The figure was re-released in a Droid Factory two pack as a Wal Mart exclusive in 2009.  That release seems a bit harder to find, but the figure appears to, basically, be the same.  Back in 2007, the 30th Anniversary Collection figures were heavily shipped.  Local stores had pegs and pegs of them, with Wal Mart actually having both a preponderance of an aisle dedicated to figures as well as an entire endcap.  Figures from all waves sold briskly and stock was replenished often.  This figure tended to be among the first sell outs from restocks.  But, he was certainly not hard to find and was readily available to anyone who looked for him even casually.