Cold weather

It's darn near July, but, I've been on a little arctic kick for awhile. I was gonna do an outdoor set up last winter with all my cold weather specialists. I don't have any arctic-themed vehicles, it would have been a fairly simple scene set in the snow. I never got around to it.

I didn't have a proper Snow Job at that time, either. I sort of still don't, but at least he's got a red beard. Snow Job must have a red beard. Hair color applies to other figures for me, but more on that at another time.

I had the 2000-ish ARAHC "White-out." That was my Snow Job. But the brown beard didn't do much for me, especially as Snow Job. I'm not too keen on White-out, but perhaps this is a character worth investigating more for inclusion at some point.

I ordered the 1997 Snow Job figure, loose from JOEPARTS.COM. Everything came in well! But, those '97/'98 figures are really a little bit lesser in quality than most, as you may know.

I had to switch the heads on these figures, and while the '97 head was whiter in shade, I don't feel like it clashes too much. I'm sure Snow Job is layered up pretty well working in the cold. But not too layered, and the older-mold skinnier figure feels a little more like a cross-country skier in that he's not a big bulky guy...this guy travels long distances just like a long distance runner. Usually not an overly heavy or gear-burdened activity in mind, anyway.

So, I have some 6 months before good snow is on the ground for some pictures. I'm thinking about adding the new Snow Cat to my ranks.

the Rattler 4WD

When the 1997 and 1998 Toys R Us exclusive line was out on the shelf, I had the approach of, "I have the older version of that and don't need that" at first. I remember thinking that when I saw the HISS III. I already had the '83's mail-in version of the HISS, so I passed on a lot of this TRU merchandise at first.

For some reason or another, that reasoning didn't last too long. For some reasoning that I don't remember, I started buying a lot of these. Perhaps they were starting to go on sale around 1998 into 1999...?

Either way, I know I ended up with the A-10, the Slugger, 2 Cobra Rages (one that was on the cheap as the figure was stolen), the X-30, the trouble bubble, the navy seal raft, and (and I must be forgetting something...) of course the Cobra Rattler.

That's what's pictured above. The Cobra Rattler 4WD. This was my favorite Cobra jeep for just about up until really recently, and I guess it still is as it hasn't been replaced by any other favorite "jeep." It is on the vehicle chopping block currently, though.

Vypra was the driver and had some potential, but when the figure is a straight repaint of Jinx '87, and with the EXACT same accessories as that ninja...well, the file card just didn't match in my mind. I tried to use Vypra, and for awhile, she was a body guard/ personal assassin for Cobra Commander. A few years later we were offered the Red ninja set with the "Vypra twins." So, with the same name, even my imagination was getting to a limit. I didn't want to call them some other made up name, and since they were all the same mold, that made it more of a stretch than I wanted to allow. The "Vypra twins," essentially replaced Vypra for awhile. Vypra being bagged and put farther back in the figure storage.

Back to the Rattler 4WD, well, in my mind it's a Stinger. I really like the camo-blue on it. If I could get a small Cobra force with this type of paint job across the board, I'd take it! About the time I started considering "army building" this model, though, the price was in the high $40 plus for loose vehicles. More than I would want to pay for multiples. I haven't looked lately, but I am sure this on is still fairly high in price.

It's a one of a kind model, but as I looked over my simplified Cobra army, I thought, "who would drive this?" Wild Weasel flies, Copperhead skippers, so next on my Cobra-aligned baddies is Scrap-Iron. I made Scrap-Iron ('84) the"expert" ground vehicle operator. I think it makes sense, being an anti-armor specialist, and over-the-top perfectionist, I can easily see Scrappy taking a Stinger and making it his own. While it may be still just a 4wd underneath, perhaps his skill upgraded those missiles into more deadly armaments?

It's on the chopping block, though, since I've started thinking of Cobra as a very small strike force. Any force that gets big is gonna show up and be more easily defeated, in my mind. Cobra needs to remain more mobile and covert to make themselves that much more of a threat. Is the Rattler 4wd too big? No, it's a good size, but it is a thing where I don't like the VAMP right across the battlefield from it. Sure, one can say that a VAMP model is available everywhere to everyone, but I don't buy it. I think Joe vehicles are much more limited in their availability, hence why they are special at all. If a VAMP is not a limited production vehicle, then we're just playing army, in my mind. There has to be limits.

However, with a new 4-seater VAMP in the pipeline for this year, perhaps the Rattler 4WD will be removed from the chopping block...

AWE Strikers are GIJoe's workhorses

When I was picking and choosing which vehicles to make my mainstay vehicles, the AWE striker made the cut over all the other off-road wheeled vehicles.

Why the AWE?

Well, I had the Desert Fox, a Hammer (heavily used find), a Brawler, a Badger, a (well-played with) original VAMP, and a Tiger Paw, to name most of the options in my hand. When it came down to it, everything else seemed either specialized or heavy. Like the Brawler, that was a vehicle with a footprint as big as the equalizer. A nice "humvee" with Joe style, but more of a truck. The VAMP, on the other hand, was too small. It was a two seater, and really worked best with just the '82-'85 figures, and it had a twin gun on the back.

I liked the Badger quite a bit, but it was very much more a solo-figure mission vehicle when it was by itself. It said all assault, to me.

The AWE is pretty simple, but it gets 1-4 figures around, has a (imagination-wise) fairly powerful cannon on top, and is simple enough of a machine that I could see it running like a Volkswagen Beetle under the most adverse terrain punishments. I liked that I could physically get to the toy engine, too, and remove it if need be. And while the running boards with figure foot pegs are good for people-figures, the raised well walls were great for rifle storage.

So, overall, where other vehicles could haul more figures, more weapons, bigger weapons, TOW vehicles, and had more action features, the AWE striker is go-anywhere simplicity at its best to me.

Too much stuff, if it doesn't get used?

There's a lot of GIJoe figures out there, and a lot just in my corner of the classic American Hero line. Through the years I've amassed a good number of different versions of a figure. I never had a "one-in, one-out" policy, or any specific goal in mind while I've been collecting.

Lately, with my focus on reducing things, getting things simplified, I've been putting thought into what figures I could do with out. Which figures are the "better" version? Which figures best represent my idea of "who" a certain character is?

This is a project that I have started a little bit several times over now. Some figures have some sentimentality attached to them, others are just really "cool." So, in other words, it's hard. I would dislike weeding through the ranks, only to find that in a year or two I really liked something better...or find that I could have used that certain figure that I decided to discard entirely. Or worse, I might get the complete-ist bug where I buy back things I had previous (at a higher price than I sold them...).

Major Altitude is an example of a character I'm thinking of discarding entirely. I have a really nice condition figure on this guy with the helmet, but (after how many years...) I finally noticed that he is simply a Star Viper body with Wildcards head! With the same very distinct helmet, having these guys next to each other just doesn't work for me. So this is one guy I feel pretty good about discarding.

The Star Viper could also go, as I have no Stiletto, nor much else for the space battle arena. In this loss of an area of operations (space) I could send every astronaut on his way. I'll only have one X-30, and there would still be plenty of pilots around for that.

Rapid Fire is one that is kind of on the fence. This guy is an example of my sentimental feelings coming into to attack from the flanks. While I don't mind the light green, it's an ok figure, I don't think he really adds that much flavor to the ranks of the Joe team. He's a straight repaint and re-name of a previous amalgamation (super trooper) of figure parts as well. His weapon is nice, but it has been recast a bit in the last several years. He's a high rank officer, which I do work as close as I can in my Joeverse, but, what does he do? Does he battle plan? Does he lead the charge? Could he be the leader of the Joes version of the Marines?
And perhaps it's that open-ended usefulness that I don't want to give up in case I need him at some point? Or perhaps it's because he's one of those figures I bought new back in 1990 and have had ever present since that day--maybe that's what holds me back from discarding him?

But with all this stuff, if it isn't getting used, do I really need it. What am I going to do with it? If I can trade it for other stuff, I think that could be good. Should stuff just sit around? Should I only have my strict favorites?

Vehicles

The motor pool has been severely diminished from the size it was just a small five years ago. The top picture shows pretty much all the vehicles, although, there were more added shortly after the picture was taken, and I do think there were some larger vehicles on the floor not in the photo.

But back in 1991 is really where it started, though. For whatever reason. My best bud at that time was able to visit after I moved to a new town, and he brought a bunch more of his GIJoe stuff over for me. The above pictures show all the vehicles I had in the beginning of collecting.

(Photos 2 and 3 from the top)
If you analyze it, I wonder who had the upper hand, Cobra or Joe? My forces were not "split" into factions at this point at all. The TigerCat vs. Stinger? Triple T vs. HISS?
WHALE and Tiger Shark vs. the Piranha?

The photo must have been taken just after I bought the Cobra Rage new. That was my first new vehicle bought in the new town.

Much of it is gone, or replaced by a nicer version of a vehicle. IN the ground vehicles photo, the HISS, LAW, and DeSpoiler are still here. The other photo, only the Night Raven, WHALE, Tomahawk, and Dragonfly remain. The 1983 Headquarters has existed in my possession for as long as I can remember, but for its size it isn't always set up.

As I look back on what I picked and chose to keep, I wonder if I should have rather kept others over some? Or just kept more than I did overall?

One of these days I need to take a picture of everything I have. It's not a fast set up for me now, most things are, like I said earlier, in baggies or Rubber maids. And with a family, if I ever have free time to do it, I usually don't have a camera at hand. One of these days....

A few modern-era Joes made it into the house

Yes, modern-era Joes have made it into the house. There's a lot of figures that I thought would really add to the character of my collection.

Specialist Matt Trakker is one of those that made the cut just a couple years ago. This is actually one of the few figures I hunted for. It's MASKs Matt Trakker, afterall. I really dug the cartoon back in the day and had several MASK toys. (These all got passed onto (much) younger cousins well over 15 years ago, perhaps even sooner than that. Well, hindsight is always...)

Being a "new" character to GIJoe this was a must have pick for me. Somewhere along the way, perhaps it was over-analyzing the file cards or something like that, characterization of a figure became really important. Specialist Trakker really seemed like he would play an excellent part of the motor pool. Perhaps a designer to help simply "beef-up" my teams vehicles? The "anti-Destro" player, perhaps?

Well, it didn't end up well for Trakker. I put him in figure line-ups, but he's too tall. In scale, he's a full foot taller than everyone else. Never really felt right in any vehicle, and despite the super-articulation...well, static poses were about all he ever accomplished.

He made his contribution in my Joeverse, however. The GIJoe motor pool has received many imaginary upgrades and enhancements that are not visible on the exterior of the old battle-proven vehicles of my pool. Trakker has been reassigned to assist (25th version) Barbecue and 1991 Rice Krispies Lifeline in working with a forming fire department here...that department is headed by the junior member of the household. The heli-pack will help these rescue troopers fight fires and whatever imaginations might happen in the junior members department.

There is a YoJoe.com forums thread that asks about knowledge of the Toys R Us Night Force set from back in the days... I don't think I knew of Night Force until more about the time I got the James DeSimone guides, or at least Volume 1, since these were put out before I had a computer and the internets GIJoe database was as big as it is now on the subject.
If I remember right it must have come out about 1993, as Volume 2 covered '93-'94, if I remember right. It's been SO long since I looked at those. The DeSimone guides were awesome, prior to that I used the vehicle inserts catalogs!
Now I reference YoJoe.com or JoeIndex.com for the toys on the internet, or I flip through Mark Bellamos Ultimate guide when I'm just sitting around the house. All are great resources that contains thousands of tidbits of information. Literally, just the classic GIJoe toys I'm sticking with have just that much stuff!
It's a lot like the Crossfire R/C vehicle in case for me, there's a lot out there. I just didn't know about it back in the day.

I know about more now, and I'm amazed at the amount of foreign GIJoe offerings from all over the world. As much as I would like to have it all twice, I'm sticking with just the domestic run. Keep it simple and fun. Still darn interesting, though!!

S.K. Omega

While I've become exclusively a classic GIJoe collector for various reasons, I am seriously interested in the S.K. Omega line that I heard about from www.GeneralsJoes.com first. They appeared at the 2010 GIJoe convention, and here's some other links that have information on this line:
http://7377.deviantart.com/

The HISS tank

Hiss Tanks are pretty recognizable by most as a staple vehicle of Cobra. I think more-so because of the old cartoon, and comic to a point.

The actual vehicle-toy to me has represented those venues of use. As a toy, though, it's been feeling a little under-whelming to me lately. The tread and chassis "block" are just that, a big block that has nice side-facing details in the treads, but the frontal view with it's ground dragging bottom isn't as appealing to me.

Twin battle cannons are all it offers for real offense, and on the toy they seem less than dominating, and a high-center of gravity doesn't say all-terrain high-speed to me anymore... I think it will tip over.

Perhaps it is because I've been watching monster trucks lately and as an old guy I'm starting to take notice on how those machines react to obstacles. I just don't feel the HISS anymore.

The HISS II and DTC Hiss are nice little tankettes/ APC's/ IFV's/ what-have-you, but I just don't dig them that much.

I think the 1991 Paralyzer is sadly forgotten. The orange color helps it be forgotten, but this is a nice low profile tankette that has a really go-anywhere feel to me. The recoiling twin cannons easily match what the HISS originally brought to the table and the triple missile mount ups the ante so that I can see this paralyzer doing it's thing against heavy armored targets, like GIJOE Maulers!

Price is deterring me currently, but I am heavily interested in the new upcoming 2010 HISS.

Vipers when not on their "tours of duty"

I was thinking about Vipers, what do they do in the non-combat hours?
I'm starting to think of Vipers a little more per their 1986 file card, well trained, motivated, and well armed. I don't think of them as simple fodder that fall down easily.
Comparing them to Iron Grenadiers, though, they are easily outclassed in all areas. However, consider that the Iron Grenadiers act as agents, terrorist, and salesmen, as well as Destro's private army. Now, I add to the Viper troops more tasks...not only Cobra Commanders army forces, but also salespeople. Perhaps factory workers...assembling ARBCO weapons perhaps, getting profit sharing from the sales? Also consider the Marvel comic scenes where fairly non-descript men were moving the "ingredients" for Serpentor, and the Baroness reminds Mindbender that they are Cobra troops (ARBCO moving company?).
So in my mind, Vipers are really industrious people, all looking for more money and power, and they are well armed and organized. Truly blue-collar workers, if you will.

However, where one Iron Grenadier can go about his business in one place, it would take several Vipers using less finesse to get the same job done.

New-to-me classic figure additions!

I picked up a few new-to-me figures, all Cobra.

I added a new Motor Viper, a new Ice Viper, 2 '91 Snow serpents, 2 Incinerators, and a '90 Laser Viper.

I don't get a lot of new-to-me figures, this being the 2nd purchase since a purchase last November! I'm short on the accessories on all of them, but the figures are in nice condition.

I'm slowly working on building a squad of Snow Serpents, where the '85 versions I have will be the standard trooper, and the '91 Serpents will be a sort of light infantry trooper. More firepower, speed, and strength, but not as well suited to the long-term like the '85. The Ice Vipers may be the motorized operators as they were originally, not exactly sure, but they are like the Motor Vipers of the frozen regions. A little light infantry, a little driver.

Why another Motor Viper? Well, back in the day I never had a Viper...well, until the '94 Viper came out. The '86 Motor Viper WAS my Viper from my old STUN. The shoulder armor and torso padding is a nice touch of detail, and the two thigh holsters really speak to these guys tendency to like danger. These are the mounted infantry and vehicle drivers. I would really like to get my Ferrets back, I'd like an army of a darker colored Ferrets, though. The Snake TRAX is pretty nice looking, but I don't want to throw down on several of those to end up with multiple Scrap-irons.

The Laser Viper '90 was a figure I never had prior. I had the '03 Python Patrol set one, but I decided I was not going to sub-team within a team, Joe or Cobra. But perhaps more on Sub teams at another time.
I liked the Python Laser Viper, and the '01 Laser Viper just didn't say much to me. The '01 figure is a nice figure, but that's Sci-fi there. (I like the '91 Sci-fi). The '90 Laser Viper might not play a big role in my CobraVerse, but it is a very, VERY, nice figure. I'm really excited to see how I might work this guy into things. I didn't get his weapon set at all, so that's a bummer.

The Incinerators are pair of really nice figures, as well. For the amount of GIJOE team flame-specialists of all sorts, I think these guys will give them a run for their money. Nothing too over the top on them, cool guns (I didn't get any backpacks, though). I think the colors are great for a trooper that walks in fire. The catapults may not get a lot of use, but I kind of like them. I can see a lot of destruction caused by fireballs, and compare the size to a figure, that's a lot of fiery material in those!

Sticking with the old classic '80s GIJOE format.

It seems like most collectors are hitting up the modern style Joes at the retail level. That's cool, I would, too, but it's a "one-or none" thing for me. A big factor is the money supply, I don't/ shouldn't spend a ton. Unlike a lot of things that I can say "were-back-in-the-day," having a lot of cash to spend on toys wasn't one of those things. I had ample amount of free time, though.

Either way, when in 2007 I was seriously considering dropping ALL of my classic GIJoe collection to start collecting the "25th anniversary" figures. But I had to consider my "toy history." When it came to GIJoe, after it left the retail scene in 1994, there were still figures on the pegs and vehicles on the shevles in many stores. The stores sometimes seemed to take forever in clearing out their stock. Plus, the Street Fighter II line based on the classic Joes was out and about. So at that time, I was still out hunting Joes not only in the Goodwill and garage sales, but also at the retail level to see what was on sale!

It was a good time, I think I was still finding Joes here and there, but they starting disappearing later in '95 or so, and into '96 I started picking up Transformers Generation 2 stuff on clearance. I even bought a Sgt. Savage Grizzly SS-1 on sale...

Anyway I think I missed my Joes!

The '97/'98 Toys R Us exclusive were really awesome for me. I would walk from the tech. school a mile up to see what was in at the store (had no car, but had money for school and toys, go figure). I was loving it, classic vehicles I didn't have all available brand new. I bought quite a few of them. More the vehicles, than the figures, really.

These sat on the shelves in my neck of the woods into '99, but at this point I was working a job away from my toy collection, so I wouldn't have noticed what was going on most of this year in the toy world.

2000 hit, and ARAHC collection was out just about everywhere. I really liked these. More classic figures done up in similar "team" colors for the most part. And most had original accessories. Needless to say, I bought the figures but I was pick-n-choosy on these mostly. But as things went on I ended up buying most, and this was also the time I became more involved online. I think I jumped in on the old DDP comic forums in early 2001 like a part time job.

With the new re-issued figures from '97-'2002, I considered dropping all my original figures since I thought that the new ones would be better for play and display purposes. I never did, but I did trade off many more vintage figures at this time.

I did say, "NO," when it came to the 2002 "new-sculpt" figures. I bought one pack just to check out the figures, as they were the newest figures in several years. I wasn't impressed. So I made mine classic only.
I did end up with about 40-some figures from these years, however, and a ton of vehicles. Some purchases for the extra weapons, and some vehicle purchases mostly since I was influenced by what other people were showing what they got online.

Well, I was thinking a small force to work with would have been great, and the 25th line looked like it would have been a way for me to do this, but I'm sticking with my old stuff. It's me, it's what I've been doing. It's what I have. I can't afford 2 lines, which I would separate since they really are that different to me. And when most figure characters were simple format changes on the cheap, I feel like I already have these in some ways.

And it would have been too much more stuff to manage. I want to have stuff I have out so I can enjoy it. Rubber maids full of toys are not fun, take up space, and well, if I'm not using it, why do I have it?

After a death in the family, it's amazing how much stuff a person can accumulate. When I go out, I would rather anyone that knew me could say, or at least see, what I had important in life--like my GIJoe hobby! And instead of a pile of boxes full of toys, a person might see a single life-long collection of GIJoe stuff from the '80's. A little more personal statement, I guess.

One or none, is my collection statement, though. (not that I wouldn't be getting everything in multiples if I was very rich in a big house... no denying that.)

When vehicles ruled the collection

I miss my old vehicle collection. I could have kept it all, but back in late 2004/ early 2005, I had a lot of vehicles. And it wasn't even close to all the vehicles I could have acquired!!

I think the worst thing about collecting for me is that I want to have it all out, all the stuff out on shelves, ready to be set up for action. Being in a renting situation, though, having a lot of stuff is just a pain to move. And this proved true for me when I moved in the spring of 2005. Where in 2002, I had just one Ford Taurus Wagon filled with boxes and rubber maids when I moved into an apartment, in 2005 it took me almost three.

I may have been able to pack it better or more efficiently to get it down to 2 wagon loads, but either way, it was quite a bit of stuff. And to think of all the other small amounts of toys I picked up along the way. I'm a HUGE toy fan, that's why I came to this town for school to be a toy designer, but I had a lot of stuff. It had to get trimmed.

I started at the 2005 Joe con, trading and selling vehicles for figures I didn't have. From there, I made numerous vehicle for figure trades, or just outright sells, online. And I did a store trade-in with the old www.MyGenerationToys.com.

I moved again in 2008, and still had a lot of stuff, though. I made a few more trades online, and made a trade-in with www.BBTS.com (nearby, so that was cool), and got a lot of more figures in the processes.

I've got things down fairly bare-bones in the vehicle department, especially with Cobra, but I rather like the way things are shaping up.

I'm spending more time, as I get it, with vehicles that I really like more. I have more space, and I can really get everything out on a shelf. It's really been more fun with the simplicity, something I'm thinking of starting to carry over into my figure collection.

Storing Figures

With the scores of GIJoe figures in baggies, it's not as much fun to play or pose or...well, anything. They are well organized in the baggies and separated by year, so it is pretty easy to find something. It's rather tedious to search through the collection of figures however, and not as much fun. There's not as much "random" in the picking. I need to know "who" I am going to get as I open the rubbermaid containers before hand. And even then, I usually don't have a plan of action after that.

I did try some jumbo plastic drawers where everything was loose, the only categorizing factor was what the figures primary job figure was. Those drawers filled fast. But the potential danger of the drawer plastic affecting the figures, and the fact that they kept sliding around with accessories sliding all over just didn't scream fun.

As I look back on the organizing of little figures, I remember when they all fit into a small tin many, many years ago.
Then, into a small box with fold in tabs. And then they got divided into two boxes of Joe and Cobra, each starting to fill a Payless shoe box as each sides forces grew.
About the 100-150 mark I found a pair of matching cardboard boxes that weren't deep, but were somewhat square with a top lid that opened. I think that was pretty good.

I'd like to find a nice tackle-box like thing to store the figures in. Kind of a jumbo-jumbo-size action figure case. I haven't found any that would be perfect for the figures size, though. And it is hard to estimate if all the figures will fit, and if I will like it better than scores of baggies.

I did try a 30-drawer hardware organizer at one point. Perhaps that was back when I had about 30-50 figures. I can't remember, but the opening of the drawers individually were ok, but, still I needed to know what I wanted so I could look for it. So, while I have thought of gaining a big hardware organizer to take on all the figures...well, I'm not sure if I would like it.

I've also considered buying a hunting rifle case, and then somehow fabricating an inner dividing system, almost like the older tray-style Hot wheels cases had. I'm not sure exactly how I would make that, otherwise I probably would have already. I think it might be a good way to go, where it's portable, could be put away in a closet, opened for action fast with figures and weapons and all ready to go with no opening of small individual bags or compartments. I think a "small accessory" lock down holder would be good for those figures that need it, like the Frag Viper or Sub Zero. But that would only be in those figures slots.

And on slots, what's the fun way to organize GIJOE figures? I've got them by year now, but I think by environment or specialty is really the way to go. The Arctic figures are the easiest, in my opinion, so they would go in a section. Pilots are fairly easy, too. Aquatic type based guys are kind of easy, as well. Past that, one almost has to assign certain figures into their own departments in which that is how they will be thought of to be found.

Still, lots of considerations towards little plastic army men, where it's almost a job trying to figure out how to manage these guys! Perhaps Colonel Courage could get this organization thing in line!

Big Boa

I like the "named" Cobras quite a bit.
Big Boa is a guy that, to me, has so much more potential than just a Cobra Trainer.

I view the Vipers as rather well-trained, motivated, and very well-equipped. This is based somewhat on the 1986 Viper file card.

To be well-equipped, I think Destro very much helped Cobra early on as a Weapons Supplier. Cobra pays better than most. And the good training has to come from someone who is an expert. To me, that "expert" is Big Boa.

Rather than just a trainer, I wanted to see Big Boa out in the world as a Cobra commando, of sorts. An "anti-Snake eyes," if you will.
I just used parts, I haven't done well with paints in that I don't like the tacky feel that is my result on that method. On the left, the HEAT Viper version 2 torso had the physically strong look that I mixed on the somewhat armored legs of the few Mirages I had laying around at the time. It was close, and I liked the look, but I went with a totally different direction after I found some of the later TRU exclusive arah mutli-packs not as fun.

So, my "anti-Snake eyes" Big Boa really came about after picking up the Night Fighter Guile figure. The vested torso was very bulky and felt good with the arms. I like the look of the '91 Duke, and totally dig the vest on that figure, but the arms can't go to the sides on that guy...why I dislike that one...and that dislike carried over to the Desert Patrol Stalker. It looks great, but the arm movement bugged me. And as I slowly disliked most of the Anti Venom and Desert Patrol offerings, I thought Dukes legs would help bulk up my Big Boa commando figure.

So the figure on the right is where I have my non-trainer Big Boa. Yes, that is an American flag belt buckle, and I can totally see Big Boa being a former soldier or Marine ( I think it gives him a little "anti-Duke" personality, as well). I can also see Boa joining a PMC at some point for more money and power, and that is the core of my Cobra forces main goals. Perhaps he started as a Viper but surpassed everything Cobra could toss at him prior to 1987.

I kind of imagine the helmet as his own personal field battle helmet with its own HUD and comm. gear, and well as built-in imaging capability and limited hostile environment capability. This guy has to be a good survivor to hang out with Vipers, in my mind.

I think "the Plague" was an alright idea both for the toys and the DDP comic. I think a combat version of Big Boa would have been a good choice for that team, or even the DDP Phoenix Guard. But Boa usually gets written off by most, which is just fine, as that is something one can do with ones own "Joe-verse."

1986 figures

Here's the 1986 crew in my collection. Low light, Hawk, and Slipstream are from my original toys from back in the day. I've "upgraded" Sci-fi and Wet suit to figures that were in better condition than my original ones. My best bud from back in the day added Lift Ticket, Sgt. Slaughter, Leatherneck, and Beachhead... these being very possibly THE actual figures.