I have these great childhood memories of my brother "sending away" for exclusive mail-in toys. He would be constantly collecting UPCs, cereal box tops, Bazooka Joe wrappers, and reading the Free Stuff For Kids books. We always suspected he would grow up to be a problem gambler or an extreme couponer (he didn't luckily). But I was always kind of jealous of the toys he would get. I remember Mumm-Ra coming in the mail, and well as the G.I.Joe Major Bludd and Super Trooper. But the most intriguing one was easily the G.I.Joe Steel Brigade soldier. The big gimmick for this mail-away toy was that it was supposed to be You. The toy would come with a personalized filecard and an iron-on patch to wear. It's was a very cool idea. The toy itself was a little generic. It had a new (helmeted) head with repurposed body parts from other characters. When I saw this Steel Corps 2-Pack advertised, the memories of that old forgotten toy resurfaced. And finally there's a female trooper too. Let's check her out below!
I can admit that I'm a bit let down by this figure. Something about the hips and legs just don't look right to me. Plus the big helmet and bulky armor make her seem a little top-heavy.
Here are the accessories that I assume belong to the female trooper. These guns are slightly smaller than the ones I believe belong to the male trooper. This picture shows all the red weapon effects that would be shared between both figures.
Here are some of the armor pieces that came be removed as well (not easily though).
Here is the original 80's Steel Brigade advertisement/order form.
Time for a Comparison Pic!
Cheers!
I can understand your disappointment with the initial figure, but it is interesting to note that this figure was constructed via a combination of Snake-Eyes Movie Scarlet’s upper torso and arms and Classified #59 Cover Girl’s hips and legs. It actually looks a bit more balanced without the vest and with Agent Helix’s legs instead, although that might just be because I am intending to make a custom figure with that build.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty unimpressed with the leg-to-torso proportions on this figure. I didn't do a deep analysis to figure out how she was built, but I assumed she had parts from a variety of figures. I wanted to remove her vest but it didn't seem like I could safely do it and I decided the green on the chest was too important to eliminate.
DeleteNo, no. That’s a fair assessment, especially since you paid for both figures either at retail price or higher on the secondary market and specifically for the Steel Troopers themselves. I got mine via mostly piecemeal (specifically without the vest as well) and replaced the hands and lower torso and legs to get the custom figure base I wanted, so I definitely didn’t have the expectations you did. So, yeah I get what you mean, especially with the original proportions.
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