Favorite Dreadnok

From YOJOE.com forums, which is your favorite Dreadnok? I haven't over-analyzed the file cards lately on these guys, but, I think they're all fairly interesting, in an "other" than Cobra way.
Here's the Dreadnoks in the YOJOE ARCHIVES for your reference.

Right now, on the classic Dreadnoks, I'll have to edit this post for my favorite after I think about it some more. In some ways I'm leaning toward Zandar (the guy no one remembers), but what makes a good 'nok? Pirates, poachers, thugs, arsonists, assassins, wild childs,...what have you? I think of the Motor Viper file card, too, when it comes to Dreadnoks. The Motor Viper Corps attracts the type of individual who without a benefit of an education or ambition, would have joined the Dreadnoks. So, do Dreadnoks simply live for the thrill of the danger itself, in the moment?

Dreadnoks in my collection through the years.
If I remember right, Thrasher and the Thunder Machine, along with Zandar and Zarana were my first 'noks. These three figures have been in my collection since way back in the day. The Thunder Machine appealed to me in a somewhat Mad Max way, and it was often pitted against the Tiger Cat. Thrasher was a rather muscular bad guy with his stick, and along with Sea Slug was one of the "bigger" tough guys. Zandar and Zarana took on their color changing abilities on the window sill many times. These two were easily placed on the Dreadnok Cycle when I obtained one for my original collection, maybe the box illustration swayed me on that.

Next up, I inherited my best buds Buzzer and Zanzibar w/ skiff.I may have gotten an incomplete Road Pig 2nd hand through my best buds trade efforts with another kid.
I did buy the Ninja force Zartan off the shelf, which I do like, but had the green pants been blue jeans it would have been better. Not to mention anything but orange weapons and action gimmick. This was my Zartan for quite awhile, a figure I really wanted for the obvious reason of being Dreadnok leader.

That was pretty much the Dreadnoks for me from 1991 to 1999/2000-ish.

Since 2000 I have added the original Ripper, Torch, Monkeywrench, as well as the 2000 Zartan and '05(?) comic pack Zartan. Gnawgahyde joined the crew, still incomplete, as well, for $4.95

Interestingly, within the past 10 years I've bought a double of many Dreadnoks essentially upgrading to a nicer condition figure. I found these at the GIJoe convention in '05, and even locally at some pre-ebay explosion collector/ used video game toy shops. Figures that have been replaced with an upgraded version are Buzzer, Torch, Zanzibar, Road Pig, Zandar, and Zarana, and even Thrasher if memory is right. That's a lot of replacement, but I really have some nice figures.

More thoughts on Dreadnoks

Monkeywrench is a figure that really looks the part next to the original trio of Buzzer, Ripper, and Torch, with his blue jeans and tough looking build. I've found that the figure itself is really a solid figure with a great look and usability that I don't feel ever has been upgraded in a modern form. Monkeywrench really stands out to me in that way.

MAMBA

The Cobra MAMBA is a vehicle that I traded away back around 2000. This was a used MAMBA, which was complete, but had a crack on a wing between the two tails. I only had it a couple years, but I'm not sure what else I didn't like about it that I traded it in so soon. Perhaps the size of the thing? Not sure, but I've been thinking about older stuff, and the MAMBA does come to my mind sometimes.

I like the FANG II the most, it's a fairly imaginatively advanced aircraft with loads of bombs, and the Gyro-Vipers look good in it to me. And it's small size makes Cobra that "sneak spelled sideways."

However, the MAMBA would look good next to the FANG II's as I think about it now. The Inter-meshing rotors are fairly advanced, and two armed rocket pods up the ante on the assault side. A shade of purple-blue and black with red missiles.

Perhaps this is a vehicle that could have used a handle, not unlike the NAC. And the apparent lack of landing gear may have bugged me a bit, too.

Anybody have the MAMBA out there that totally digs or dislikes it?

Space, the final frontier...

Space the final frontier..., but for GIJoe?

The Defiant with the complex gets much love, and deservedly so. It's big with a ton of fun built in. I've only seen two Defiants in my days, never had one myself..., not sure if I want one, either.

I did have the Crusader for a short while. It was a more expensive purchase for me when I bought it, but I'm glad it was the one I did buy. It was as white as the day it rolled off the assembly line, and I got to put it all together.

Back around 1995 in the summer, I found a whole bunch of Star Brigade figures on clearance for about $1 each. I kept them all in the package in the hopes of scoring a Defiant, then busting them all out to man the thing. "Space Joes" are just fine in my view, but, they're like pilots or divers or cold weather specialists; very, very, environment oriented. I had the Starfighter, too, kept that thing in a plastic bag to keep it dust free, as well as the Invader and a Stilleto.

In the end I never did open them up, life priorities changed, and mostly, I decided I'm not a MOC collector. I traded them in, with the Crusader, for the opportunity to get more of the original main line figures. Also, I had traded away my previously owned space vehicles well before I bought the Crusader, trading them since I felt like I would never get a Defiant and therefore no real "space force."

And it's all good, as I've trimmed my collection, and I've made mention to my cutting most "sub-teams," the Star Brigade and potential space missions were for me logical cuts. Eliminating the same character figure and keeping just one was part of that decision. Star Brigade Ozone was nixed and Eco-warrior Ozone was kept, as that made him a unique character, as an example of how that worked. Skystriker is my only Tiger Force guy as he is a unique character, and the others simply duplicated an original figure.

Where I haven't had an easy time in trimming is in the astronaut area, Countdown and Payload are both great examples. These guys are very much unique figure characters, but beyond space missions or at the very least, flying the X-19, just don't have much more to offer other than being "officers." That I've found, anyway.

Without a space mission, what do these guys add to the original ARAH team?

Too much stuff, but can it be really be slimmed down?

After essentially turning the basement upside down, again, I find myself asking myself, what am I doing? I got a lot of stuff, but it's really not near as much as I could have, or have had!

It's also that line between having everything out, or put away. I would like to have it all out, but, it would simply be out getting dusty. If it is "away," the room becomes Rubbermaid container storage. And there is the ever-presence of the other people in the household, who I would like to share the basement space with. I also want to build a two-sided basement with a huge base for Cobra on one side, and Joe on the other, and a big "battle table" in the middle.

When I look at how many dreams, plans, aspirations, and other ideas that I have had and how far they got implemented, I wonder if I should just really trim everything (joe) down even further?

I try to think back to when I had the most fun with the Joes. Which, in some ways was almost all in the '80's into the early '90's. I had a big (for me) shopping spree from '94 through '99 with the original lines clearances, Street Fighter and other lines on clearance, and the '97/'98 TRU line. The 2000/'01 ARAH Collection line was pretty big for me, too.

Being more in college at the time (2000/'01), I think it would have been better had this line not been out. I was always working or going to school since '98, and it was a distraction to run up to Kmart to check out and see if there were any new or "on sale" Joes. It didn't help that in the Spring of '99 I discovered the Toy-Riffic store here in town, either. Another shopping distraction, but hey, how many times does one see a Terrordrome in a downtown shop window?

It was about this point in with the '97/'98/2000-'01 Joes that I think I had a pretty good time with them. I didn't have near the original figures that I have now, and getting these "new" joes with all the original accessories was huge for me. Add in that the uniforms colors sort of made a more "team" look, well, huge.

Now, most of my stuff was still packed up since leaving the parents, but having just a small box of loose Joes to toss up onto the shelf was where it was at. Still kind of sucks I lost Brehkov's hat in a dorm room. But, just a hand full of stuff, really.

Here at this point, I wonder if the "handful of Joes" is the most fun. Back in the day in the '80's and into the early '90's... I think the 1991 Snake eyes was my 50th Joe figure. Still roughly 25-some figures a piece for each team.

So, not an exact thought here in this HQ rambling, but, after this bit of though... can I reduce all my figures and vehicles even further?

Do I really need my X-30? Do I need an Arctic team? Does Col. Courage need to take up space at the HQ? Do I need three Sci-fi's, and which one stays?

I am contemplating which figures "could" go. I like the team depth, and many figures have their own unique things that I like..., but picking out just a handle full to keep over all the others? That's a hard thing to do, but maybe I should do it.

I could start with the leadership, but which HAWK would I keep?!

Fleet farm Toyland

While not everyday went super smooth, Summer really did slip by me. Now we really could get snow any time now, though it will most likely melt in the early weeks. One never knows, I gotta think of last year where we had one initial slushy snow drop that did mostly melt early on, but then not too far after another big drop of snow that stayed. It was a good solid drop, not a real gradual set-in to winter drop at all.


But snow is only one part of the onset of the fall-winter season; Fleet farm toyland is opening up this mid-October!

In the big box stores realm, most that are national seem to have a year-round toy department, not so much Fleet farm. I never really paid attention to the seasonal toyland, much like I never paid attention to spring lawn and garden season. Fleet farm is a big box hardware store, essentially, except no-where near the scope of Home depot or Menards. There is the twin Farm and Fleet stores, though, and they also have a seasonal toyland.

I only started paying attention when I saw, what must have been in 2004, the Joe Ice Sabre, and Quickstrike vehicles listed in their flyer. For nearly half the price of what I paid at ShopKo just a couple months prior. I have to see if I can find that advertisement, I hang on to a lot of stuff and may still have it sitting around. The Crimson Command Chopper and the Desert NAC were also listed in a Fleet farm flyer, maybe even in that same year, or the previous...another flyer page I may still have.

While these aren't unheard of low prices, they usually seem like at least one dollar less than the other stores locally. (which those stores drop their prices to match)

This years flyer as you have seen at the top has alpha vehicles and figures. If I remember right, it's a standard $6.99 vs. a lower $5.89 a figure, which is pretty decent. Were the new alphas at stores $14.99 or $15.99? Either way, a couple dollars less is nice.

And what's pictured here, may not be what is in the store. It could end up being all RoC figures. Or none at all, as this happened with the CCC and NAC choppers here; they were found in pallet loads at other stores, but none at the one in town.


In the end, I might browse in a couple weeks after the extremely mad rush on opening week, and really might not buy anything. It's fun to look, though.

A lull

It's been a couple/ few weeks since I really did anything "Joe" that is noteworthy. Some of it is due to simply life as it is, some from me moving my remaining piles of stuff around in the basement.

In the basement, is pretty much where 90-some percent of my stuff is. In this space downstairs, there is a lot of room. It's dry, comfortable, and really has no strange shape... a big rectangle, essentially.

I had originally wanted to make it a big play area for everyone in the house, of all ages, but due to a surprising lack of sound insulation between units, I decided not to go all out on this space. The bulk of the room became storage, as it is probably meant to be used for. The smaller laundry room area, I set up my Joe shop in, but due to where the bathrooms are located in the adjoining units, listening to the users of them..., well, not a thing I was going to expose any of us animals to. Mostly, since I didn't want to have to explain what that sound is to the curious little ones who may join me in the basement.

Seeing as how I don't think I'm moving on to bigger or better things within the next year, I decided to add some insulation in spots I can so this winter I can use the basement with the wee ones present. I bought the faced insulation for header blocking, and a partition wall, but, I wonder if I'm going to have to take it down due to the paper being a potential fire hazard? I also snagged a couple of blue foam boards to place against the adjoining unit walls to reduce sound, but at an r10 value, it might not be enough.

So, in summary, I spent more time as of late trying to organize or lay out a space all for toys. I hope to get the block spots done this next Monday, when little people aren't around the fiberglass insulation can get dusty.

Interesting how I've spent a lot of time manipulating spaces just to give some kind of spot for all these Joes over the years.