2020 Night Force Snake Armor - Black Major

I do not like the Snake armor.  I hated it as a kid and it has been completely and utterly irrelevant to me for over 40 years.  But, one of the things that helps us grow as people it to take another look at something we dislike and try to understand why we dislike and if the circumstances around that dislike warrant another evaluation of our opinion.  It's something good to do with political views, social conventions and even the people in and around your life.  So, when Black Major produced Snake Armors in 2020, I saw an opportunity to pick one up and see if my childhood bias against the toy held up.  In this case, I'm actually looking at a Night Force version of the Snake armor.  I'm not sure why there's a Night Force version.  But, it was cheap and included a Stormshadow repaint I wanted.  And, the base colors are Cobra enough that it solved my need for a sample of the Snake that would help determine if I've been wrong for the last 4 decades.

The Snake came out in 1983.  It was a cheap toy that was meant to fill the price gap between a figure and base vehicle.  At the time, Hasbro ensured Joe toys existed within price points so that G.I. Joe toys were a possibility for any level of gift giver.  And, because of this, my brothers and I got no less than 3 Snakes between birthdays and Christmas in the fall of 1983.  By that point, I was completely engrossed in G.I. Joe and they were the only toys I really played with. So, ostensibly, any Joe toy would have been an awesome addition to my toy room.  But, Snakes were not.  From the get go, I found them useless.  The last thing I wanted was a suit that limited articulation on my figures.  I could easily imagine some force shield that offered all the power of a Snake without limiting my ability to pose the figures any way I wanted.  But, the most damning aspect of the toy was that, in order to use it, it took a figure out of rotation.  Someone had to be inside the suit for the thing to work.

So, now we get the crux of the issue.  Pretty much anyone reading this would say, "What about the exoskeleton included with the Snake that allowed it to be set without a figure?!?".  Usually, this would be prefaced or ended with the word dummy.  (Or, your expletive of choice.)  But, we'll save that.  Because, you see, I didn't know about the exo skeleton piece.  In all three of our Snakes, that little part was tossed with the leftover sprues.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it was the zeal of opening something new.  Or, I was just a moron who missed it.  But, I didn't know this part existed for a many years.  So, this is the part where you call me a dummy.  

But, to be fair, this was not the end of the Snake for me.  In time, certain Cobra figures got broken.  Even as a kid, I could not abide by figures with broken crotches or thumbs.  So, when a Cobra Officer was damaged, it made perfect sense for him to slide into the Snake as the operator.  This allowed me to use the Snake.  But, it also didn't cost me a figure since someone already broken was no longer considered part of my actual collection.  But, even with this addition of a figure, I found the Snake lacking.  Like the MANTA, the Snake didn't stay together all that well when you actually played with it.  And, the lack of poseability still killed it.  In short, the Snake couldn't manage to find a way into my adventures.

In 1984, I started buying the Joe comic.  In short order, I found a local comic book shop and started buying back issues of the Joe issues.   Eventually, I came across issue #19.  Here, Dr. Venom put Kwinn and Snake Eyes into the Snakes and had them attack the G.I. Joe Headquarters.  I had a few problems with this issue.  First, Dr. Venom kept referring the Hiss Tank being "Cobra blue".  As the Hiss was canonically black, I found this a glaring error.  Second, it didn't make sense to me that Kwinn and Snake Eyes would have their bodies controlled, but still have clear enough minds to shoot the locks on the suit.  Finally, it was self defeating to have these invincible suits who could be cracked open by a guy who somehow managed to get a remote controlled machine gun to fire manually.  The upside, though, was that the terrible suits were proven very ineffective.  And, in my mind, my dislike of Snakes as a toy and a concept were codified in the comic forever.

But, at its core, my dislike of the Snake went deeper.  Generally, I was not a fan of robots.  For some reason, I never got the robot bug.  This manifested itself in 1986 when I found the BAT a fairly lame toy and character.  BATs were fun for about 4 minutes before Sgt. Slaughter would slip behind them, shoot them in the back and watch them burst into flame...rendering them absolutely useless.  I was shocked to find my friends and even random kids at the store who LOVED BATs.  I didn't get the fascination with robots.  And, I still don't.  I see collectors going ga-ga over mechs and things and I simply don't understand the appeal.  But, to me, the humanity of the characters was a driving force in my play.  So, even in my days of playing with Star Wars figures, I rarely found the robots interesting.  Monsters and aliens could be given personality.  But, I just didn't click with robots.  And, to this day, I find anything that heavily features robots to be kind of boring.

The Black Major Snakes are very well done.  They are of high quality and display nicely.  The paint masks are crisp and the rainbow of colors allow even curmudgeons like myself to find something of interest.  Snake accessories tended to break on the vintage toys.  With the Black Major figures, the risk is still there.  But, the attachments fit snugly and work very well with the arms.  The parts fit together without falling apart.  And, even with the exo skeleton inside, the toy stands and functions just fine.  

There are tons of Black Major paint variants of Snakes available.  A few colors were even metallicized and you can get shining versions that look like Christmas ornaments if you are so inclined.  The original Snake had an interesting life.  Hasbro released the white version in 1983.  Then, in 1985, they repainted it into a blue version.  I have no idea why the Snake got this treatment when other, far better vehicles in the price point did not.  But, the blue Snake exists and is somewhat rare.  In Europe, Palitoy released a red Snake named the Escape Armor for the Red Shadows.  Of course, it's highly desirable and expensive.  Funskool finally released the Snake in the 1990's.  There are various hues, the most famous being a gray version.  Again, this is hard to find and you'll pay a premium for one.  So, for a crappy, crappy toy, there are tons of variants out there.  Yet, there are only two Flight Pods and one real coloring for the CLAW....

Black Major Snakes dried up pretty quickly.  While you can still find them, the initial assortment sold out far faster than I would have thought.  All this proves is that my take on the Snake is the minority opinion in the community and the design is generally well liked.  Less desirable colors of the Snake are still available in the $12 range.  But, some of the most desirable colors almost never appear for sale and will command a premium.  For me, it was easy to get one like this Night Force version because it was more about having one Snake to review than having the right colors.  If you're a Snake fan, that might not be the case.  

1993 Beach Head - Around The Web

I really like the 1993 Beach Head.  I find the design fun and the colors work.  Despite this, I find it difficult to use the figure all that often.  This is mainly due to the heavy use of blue in  the coloring.  It makes him Cobra adjacent and prevents him from meshing well with many other figures.  I've long liked him as a crew member on the 1984 Whale hovercraft.  But, I haven't had mine out in more than a decade.  So, I'm left trying to match up the figure with some of the vehicles that I do have available.  And, the results never live up to the idea of this Beach Head that I have in my head.  

The figure could use one more paint mask.  A little silver would to a long way towards bringing out the details on the mold.  Even a paint mask on his goggles would add a lot to the head.  But, I still like the figure as it is.  I long used him as an army builder.  But, those days are passed and I mostly just pose him as Beach Head among some of his contemporary figures.  

1993 Beach Head Profile

1993 Beach Head at Nekoman's Viper Pit

1993 Beach Head by purple_cobra75

1993 Beach Head by 1990s_gi_joes

1993 Beach Head by HCC788

1993 Beach Head by evilface

1993 Beach head by viper_space

1993 Beach Head by ptytoys2021

1993 Beach Head by Nekoman

1993 Beach Head by Dok Sewage

1993 Beach Head by thedustinmccoy

1993 Beach Head by fun_time_at_serpentorslair

Pythona

I have never seen the G.I. Joe movie.  It was not aired in my local market back in 1987.  In fact, I only learned about it from some friends who lived down the street.  They came back from being out of town and excitedly told me about this crazy movie.  It had real movie stars.  And, it had some weird bugs that turned Cobra Commander into a lizard.  The entire thing was completely unbelievable.  Their devotion to the bit made me think this "movie" was real.  But, in the back of my head, I still thought it was just a practical joke.

Eventually, the movie aired on a local station.  I saw that there were famous performers who starred in it.  But, it was late 1987 and I was pretty much done with Joe.  So, I didn't watch it.  And, in the ensuing 38 years, I've never had interest in rectifying this situation.  I was raised on the comic and my focus on Joe was related to the comic world.  I watched the G.I. Joe mini-series starting in 1983.  But, I didn't really remember any of them.  I watched the daily cartoon when it debuted.  But, again, it didn't really stick.  (And, the one time I tried to watch an episode as an adult, I didn't even last 5 minutes before turning it off.  It's bad.)  The cartoon was kind of an in-and-out experience where I watched it, but didn't care about it.  I have more recollections of the Transformers cartoon than I do the Joe version.  

All that is to say, I really have no background on Pythona.  My only experience with her was from other collectors who made customs or talked about her.  But, frankly, she wasn't a force in the early days of online collectordom.  Cartoon fans were largely drummed out of the community back in the 1990's in favor of comic universe focus.  I mentioned to a friend a few weeks ago that I really do wonder what might have happened had the club not decided to attack the cartoon focused Zartan's Domain website back in the 1990's.  It was the largest and most popular G.I. Joe site of the time.  But, some cretins did a whole bunch of, frankly, illegal stuff to harass the site's owner and, eventually, get him to close down the site.  With it gone, the collector focus turned almost 100% to the comic continuity.  Eventually, this manifested with the Comic Pack toys in the mid '00's.  I do believe that cartoon designs would have garnered more of Hasbro attention had their not been a concerted effort to relegate the cartoon to second tier status.  Just another example of the long history of Joe fans getting screwed over by a few people who happened to have Hasbro's ear.

That brings us to this figure, though.  Super7 pretty much has the Joe license because the owner loved the cartoon and the Joe movie.  And, from the ReAction days, the line has always been heavily cartoon favored with a few comic homages tossed in.  So, seeing Pythona isn't, really, a surprise.  The Joe fanbase has, mostly, moved on from the comic vs. cartoon schism of the early days.  Good figure ideas appear everywhere.  But, the cartoon has been eking out popularity gains for nearly two decades, now.  There were some figures in the anniversary era that touched on the animation.  But, Super7's foray into action figures has given the cartoon the representation it missed from the first twenty years of this century.

Personally, I don't much care for the ReAction+ figures.  The human heads look weird and don't mesh with vintage figures.  But, the non-humans are pretty solid.  The overall smoothness and lack of raised details really limits the figures.  But, the colors are spectacular.  All of which adds up to a Pythona figure that looks really nice.  Pythona's design is, by its very nature, smooth and absent of details.  So, Super7's sculpting limitations aren't in play.  Her colors are eye-popping.  And, they are well captured here.  And, Pythona's not supposed to be human.  So, the odd shaping and overblown size of her head work in her favor.  In short, this looks like a good figure.

And, it's likely to be the next Super7 figure I buy.  Normally, I'd have saved up all this bloviating for her profile.  But, there's no guarantee I'll find her at retail.  I'm not going to pay shipping on a $25 figure.  So, I'm going to be dependent upon my local Target store carrying this wave.  I don't much go to Target any more.  I've been 1 time this year to pick up the Star Wars retro pack.  So, I'm not likely to stumble across her on a routine trip to the store.  (All of this assumes, of course, that this wave will even be available at retail.....)  So, there's no guarantee I'll acquire Pythona.  Which, would kind of be a shame.  She's weird and colorful in a way that really appeals to me.  My extent of her usage would be some photos along with the Power Commandos.  But, that's a better fate than most figures I've acquired in the last decade.  The upside is that I'm content with not owning the figure.  She was not a part of the G.I. Joe I ever knew.  So, I have no attachment that would send me spiraling to buy one by any means necessary.  Even though I suspect that she'll find some decent after market appreciation after she's sold out, I'm OK with missing her.  I'd prefer not to, of course.  So, we'll see how things play out over the next few weeks and if she ever shows up via an avenue I'm willing to take to acquire her.

2003 Overkill - Around The Web

Overkill isn't a figure I've ever used with any frequency.  When it was time to reduce my collection in the early 2010's, I even got rid of my vintage Overkill.  The reason was that I had this nice 2003 version and there was no reason to keep two versions of the character.  Now, I regret that decision as the original figure is quite well done.  But, I have some solace in that I kept this 2003 figure and can still enjoy him.

The truth, though, is that I don't really take the time to appreciate this figure.  In fact, my only remaining copy was still packed in his original baggie from the mail away set that shipped in late spring of 2003.  I've taken him out once or twice.  But, that's it.  And, that makes little sense.  Overkill is a cool looking figure who has some really nice gear, fun play features and solid colors.  In short, he's everything I want in a Joe figure.  Yet, he doesn't resonate with me.

Mostly, it's because he's a robot.  I feel BAT's are a poor excuse for a villain.  And, anything that dehumanizes the toll of war should be immediately suspect.  So, that instantly reduces Overkill's usefulness.  But, there's no reason I can't find a better aspect for the figure.  While sentient robots carry a tremendous amount of baggage that extends beyond their role of protagonist or antagonist, you can find some ground where they can be useful.

Recently, I read a quote about how "all the best robots outwardly hate their creators" and that's a line that's stuck with me.  Though, I'm not sure how to make it work.  Overkill is equipped with weapons.  No good person would built a robotic killing machine.  So, Overkill can't be rebelling against his benevolent creators.  So, that leaves him as the evil killing machine created by the most vile villains on earth.  Hating them makes Overkill a bad guy.  And the whole trope of a bad guy turning good is also problematic because no amount of good can overcome a murder.  

So, I now see Overkill as a weapon of last resort for Cobra.  He is activated when the situation is either very dire.  Or, it can be carefully controlled.  Overkill is an unrequited killing machine.  And, once activated, will not really discriminate about his victims.  Cobra Commander, of course, doesn't really care about some friendly fire casualties among his rank and file troopers.  What he does care about, though, is that Overkill has the ability to escape dire situations, is fully cognizant that the Cobras in his vicinity are there to destroy him once his objective is attained and Overkill then still has the determination to pursue the Cobra hierarchy.  And, even the fail safes built into Overkill can't be trusted because the robot is smart enough to detect and disable them prior to confronting the Cobra hierarchy.

So, if the Cobra technicians aren't able to turn Overkill off before he escapes, then Cobra Commander and his ilk are in danger of being stalked by a killer robot who is hell bent on revenge.  At the same time, the Joes can't work with Overkill because his primary purpose is still to kill them.  So, you have a monster who is loose in the world with no allies and grudges against all who he encounters.  There are some Cobras who can negotiate with Overkill.  But, his concessions are not killing them and them providing information on the Commander's whereabouts.  It makes the decision to use Overkill much more dire.  And, it also sets up a plotline where both Cobra and Joe are deathly afraid of a killer robot that is out there, trying to kill them both.

2003 Overkill Profile

2003 BAT Set Pre Production Figures

2003 Overkill by fun_time_at_serpentors_lair

2003 Overkill by themexicangriswolds

2003 Overkill by toysandtomfoolery

2003 Overkill by kitbash_joe

2003 Overkill by slipstream80

2003 Overkill  at JoeADay.com

2003 Overkill by toysandtomfoolery

2003 Overkill  at Action-Force.dk

2003 Overkill at GeneralsJoesReborn.com

2003 Overkill by g.i.joe_manila_ph

1990 Sonic Fighters Viper

So, this started out as a Random Photos of the Day post.  I thought I'd write some things about him.  And, the thought train kept going.  Suddenly, it was a full blown profile.  Sure, I've looked at the figure, before.  But, that was 24 years ago.  Since then, this figure has risen, fallen and settled into a niche in the collecting community.  

The golden Sonic Fighters Viper isn't a figure I should like all that much.  I'm not a huge fan of the Viper mold.  And, figures with rich, brown base colors can be tough to love.  But, the updated Viper from 1990 really works.  The color combo of gold and brown creates the visual of a Viper leader.  And, back in 2001, that was a specialty that was sorely needed in the Joe line.  As collectors were in the beginning stages of building their collections, individual pieces were of far more value.  Everyone was busy buying up all the 1986 Vipers, 1983 Cobra Troopers and 1986 Bats they could find.  They needed someone to command those troopers.  And, at the time, the notion of wasting a Cobra hierarchy slot on a duty as mundane as leading Vipers wasn't appealing.  That made this Sonic Viper a fairly desirable figure for many collectors to acquire.

As the early 2000's spawned the hobby of Joe photography, the golden Viper was a staple of troop building photos.  He may have been inspecting a line of soldiers.  Or, he might have been barking orders in an action shot.  But, he was a common presence among creators of the day.  The Sonic Viper brought some visual diversity to a photo.  And, his gold coloring offset the blue, red and black of the standard Cobra army.  This lead to him being a fairly pricey figure.  He quickly started to cost the same as, or even more than, 1986 Vipers.  When faced with a choice of buying up additional Sonic Vipers or adding to armies of the classic blue and red figures, collectors didn't really make a choice.  The 1986 figures were always the preferred acquisition.  There was always a need for more basic troops and most collectors could feign contentment with a single centurion figure to lead their army.

And, with this, the Sonic Viper's popularity ebbed away.  He wasn't an army building staple.  And, as armies grew, the need for the figure to appear in photos began to diminish.  As the 2000's turned to the 2010's, the Sonic Viper became less common to see.  His diminished cache was simply a function of his narrow specialty.  If people could only fit 8 figures in a photo, it would be 8 of the same army builder.  With more experience, the creators of the 2010's became more ambitious in their photos, too.  Action shots contained more action.  And, they were more frequently the subject of photos.  The notion of a gaudy leader for cannon fodder legions of Cobra was less plausible when they team was in action.  So, the Sonic Viper began to fade away.  He wasn't as important as he'd once been.  

And, this leads to the figure today.  Now, the Sonic Viper is somewhat obscure, again.  Sure, he's a guy that everyone owns.  But, you don't see him in the sparse G.I. Joe content that's out there.  And, even in the boasting posts of new acquisitions that are the staples of many communities, the Sonic Viper is a rare entrant: even as people continue to acquire other versions of the Viper.  The Sonic Viper has just become one of those figures that everyone seems content with just owning one or two.  And, after that, there's not much reason to seek out others.  It's not a bad fate for a figure.  He continues to be appreciated.  But, he's not nearly as popular as other, more commonly seen Viper figures.

During the late 1990's, I was one of very few collectors who focused on acquiring lots and collections from the early 1990's.  They were hard to find.  But, it was fun to track them down.  In my years of building up my collection, regular Sonic Fighters weren't overly common.  Somehow, though, I still managed to acquire three loose versions of this Viper figure.  As if that weren't enough, I also, randomly, acquired a carded version.  The fun thing about buying lots in that era is that you were usually buying some kid's childhood toys.  So, stuff they outgrew and never opened, like a carded figure or two, would pop up among the loose figures and vehicles.  The collections hadn't been curated to remove the rares and desirables.  Guys were just clearing closet space for some beer money.  The notion of these being collectible hadn't really ingrained itself into Gen X culture.  By 2001, that was mostly done.  And, you'd start to see collections broken into Joes and Cobras to maximize revenue.  Now, lots like that are all gone.  You see attempts at defining lots as "childhood collections" in the various sales arenas.  But, they all follow the same pattern of missing army builders, lacking key characters or simply crossing too many years.  It's an innocence lost as you can't really recreate a childhood collection.  But, it was fun while it lasted.

The coloring on this Viper is fantastic.  While most people refer to him as a golden Viper, the reality is that his base color is a rich, deep brown.  It's similar to the color found on the 1988 Charbroil.  It's a color that's relatively rare in the vintage line.  Were this figure offset by tan highlights instead of gold, we'd have an amazing desert Viper.  But, instead, Hasbro went with the golden color.  And, the results are striking.  Against the brown base, the gold paint pops.  It gives the figure his regal appearance.  Outside of the gold, though, there's not much else going on.  You have a bit of black on the figure's belt and gloves.  And, there's a red Cobra sigil to match the red faceplate.  That's the end  of the colors, though.  As far as paint masks go, the Sonic Viper is simple.  But, when you get a match like the brown and gold, the fact that there aren't many other paints doesn't matter.  And, this figure proves that strong color matches can render additional paint mask obsolete.

The Sonic Viper includes a nice cadre of accessories.  The upside to the premium price of the Sonic Fighters was that Hasbro tossed in a bunch of extra weapons.  As a kid, I'd have loved a way to pick up more guns than 1 figure could use.  But, this didn't start happening until after my time had passed.  Regardless, the Viper includes four uniquely colored weapons.  There are golden colored versions of the 1988 Hit and Run Rifle, the 1988 Shockwave pistol, the 1989 Annihilator's pistol and all three pieces of the 1989 Downtown's mortar.  The golden color works for this Viper.  But, it's less useful in outfitting other figures.  Along with those weapons, he includes the massive Sonic backpack.  I'm not sure the full complement of gear was worth double the retail price in 1990.  But, more weapons are better than less.

The Viper mold was used just three times in the vintage line: on the 1986 original, the 1989 Python Patrol figure, and this Sonic Fighters version.  The full mold never appeared again.  But, Hasbro did make mostly Vipers in 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2006.  If that wasn't enough, Red Laser Army made some very nice, removable helmet Viper flavors between 2016 and 2018.  And, then, Black Major recreated the mold and has released over 50 additional Viper colorings.  As such, you can get any and every flavor of Viper you ever wanted.  It's a far cry from the army building starved days of 2001 when it was inconceivable that there could ever be enough Viper figures.  It's still baffling that the Viper didn't make the cut for the 2022 Pulse era figures.  I can't help but wonder how much better a Viper/BAT two pack would have sold over the Trooper/Officer set.  We'll never know, though.

While this figure's time in the sun has passed, that doesn't mean he's a cheap acquisition, these days.  Sonic Fighters exist in lower quantities than other 1990 figures.  And, there's an  argument to be made that the Viper is most popular among the subset.  While the figure isn't hard to find, you'll pay for him.  Loose versions with an accessory or two will run you $20-$25.  But, complete figures trend around $50.  Which, is odd, since carded figures can be had for around $75.  There seems to be a lot of value in the accessories.  Since collectors of the early 2000's often separated the sonic backpacks from the figures to save space, the packs became disassociated with their figures when it came time to liquidate some spare army builders.  So,  you now have a somewhat premium accessory complement.  The upside is that a loose figure isn't terribly priced.  And, it's easy to get better gear for the figure.  So, that's the way to go.

For me, this is a figure of another era.  I still really like.  He looks great in photos and is fun to have around. But, I don't use him like I used to.  The notion of a Viper leader is passe, now.  I'm more wont to use a squad of identical figures with a character leading them.  With so many Vipers coming out in the past two and a half decades, the uniqueness of a golden leader for the faceless Viper corps is less useful.  You can easily assign the duty to a character and achieve the same result.  You can find better Vipers to guard Serpentor, and their golden colors more closely match the Cobra Emperor.  So, this guy now kind of sits around.  At some point, he'll get my attention, again.  But, until then, I get to enjoy the memories associated with this figure and the collecting world's evolution around him.