1989 Slaughter's Marauders Footloose

 

As a rule I very much enjoy the subteams offered throughout the Real American Hero run. I consider myself a "90s" kid since most of my accessible memories come from the 90-94 years of the run. Of course I have recollections of memories prior but they are a little harder to mine out. The best thing about subteams from my perspective was that it allowed kids access to figures and vehicles that had been released earlier in the line if they had missed out due to being too young or not yet interested in the ARAH line. With that said Slaughter's Marauders Footloose didn't play any role in my childhood and I actually acquired this figure (well not this exact one) during my senior year of high school. For much of the winter and spring of 2000 leading up to my high school graduation I went on a pretty epic run of ARAH collecting since I had a job and some expendable income.

My previous write-up of the Desert Striker really got the memory bank churning as I began to remember all the figures and vehicles I sold off soon after acquiring the Desert Striker for college shenanigans. Out of all the figures the Slaughter's Marauders Footloose really stood out in my memory. It was a figure I really liked and it was always at the center of my collection and display shelf. I would also use him quite a bit for my smaller scaled battles and adventures and recall loading him up on the Tomahawk for one man recon missions in our basement living room. I can't really explain why he was such a key memory for that time of collecting. I did always like the original 1985 Footloose as a figure. My older brother had a pretty beat up one that survived into the 90s that I would play with quite a bit. I would guess that is the root of my appreciation for the Slaughter's Marauders version.

Revisiting the thoughts I jotted down in the paragraph above I think I just moved towards the more realistic offerings from the line for collecting as my Joe adventures starting veering more towards realistic type scenarios and battles. This seems to have been a stage most of us Joe lifers have gone through at some point once we all hit our teen years - embracing the realism, less fantastical elements of GI Joe. Even when I was heavily collecting the new sculpt VvV, Spy Troops, Joe vs Cobra, DTC stuff I still found myself using the more "realistic" figures and vehicles from the era. If I really think about it I'd say that perspective of collecting and the general make up of my Joe-verse followed me right up to 2016 when I jettisoned the modern era stuff and pivoted back to the ARAH 3.75 scale. Needless to say that lines up pretty well with how I would have viewed Slaughter's Marauders Footloose as a 17 year old kid.

I won't say that SM Footloose is a better figure than the original 1985 Footloose. The version 1 was a near perfect fully poseable green army man. With that said the Slaughter's Marauder's version wasn't too far off. I know a lot of the criticism around the Slaughter's Marauder's figures is the puzzling use of blue which disrupts the otherwise very cool woodlands camo paint scheme of the figures but for Footloose it does not bother me too much. The small pops of color add some depth to the figure and the blue used on him when compared with the other figures from the team seems to be the least objectionable. The figure design is essentially just a very good representation of an US infantry solider in the mid 1980s. His equipment was very basic and realistic - helmet, backpack, M-16 with strap and a Law missile launcher. Very simple accessories but they are the perfect pairing with Footloose. At it's core Footloose is just a better updated version of Grunt. 

The only real criticism of the Slaughter's Marauder's subteam is that the thumbs seem to break off with great frequency. When I was looking to re-acquire this figure I couldn't help but notice how many of the SM figures (it affects all of them) had broken thumbs. From what I understand and have read this is more or less due to the figures being made in Brazil and the plastic quality not being as good. One of my two SM Footloose figure's has stress marks on both thumbs. Slaughter's Marauders Footloose is also highly priced even if not complete. I just did a quick search on Ebay and even the incomplete, broken examples are all listed above $20. I only re-acquired Slaughter's Marauders Footloose in the last couple of years and neither figure I acquired was complete. I thought I had his helmet and machine gun but could not locate them for this write-up. For the the photos I took I used one of the excellent M-16s that was used during the 2000s comic book era and an accessory pack Footloose helmet. Overall, I really think this version is pretty strong but if I had to choose just one I'd go with the original Footloose because in my opinion he's a top 10 figure. I also hesitate to use the SM version of Footloose much because I am wary about snapping off the thumbs.

2001 Desert Striker

 

In retrospect my first blog post about my personal Joe collecting journey should have been the Desert Striker rather than the random 2010 Hiss I purchased on a whim a few weeks ago. I came across Mike T's write-up of the 2001 Desert Striker ( https://forgotten--figures.blogspot.com/2004/07/2001-desert-striker.html ) over the holidays and it became the catalyst for me to finally decide to take a stab at a blog of my own. Reading that post unlocked some real core memories for me from 2001 and it being very near the beginning of being an "adult collector" of GI Joe.

The 2001 Desert Striker was not my first purchase as an adult collector of Joes. In fall of 2000 when the Real American Hero Collection was launched I was 18 years old, working part time, going to school part time prior to going off to be a full time student during the spring semester. Needless to say I had some time on my hands and expendable income. I was able to track down some of the RAHC items - namely the MOBAT, Firefly/Undertow, Dusty/Law & Order and the Locust. What escapes my memory from these initial "joe hunts" are alot of the details. This is not the case with the Desert Striker which has unlocked some core memories. 

Fast forward to December 2001, I was home from school on winter break and it must have been after Christmas because I had some spare cash to go out and track this vehicle down. While I cannot recall if the Desert Striker was the driving force of this Joe hunt or if I just wanted to buy something from the line since I had been out of Joe collecting for most of the year. It was a Friday night, lightly raining and I remember listening to 98 Rock during the drive. I remember feeling awkward being a 19 year old buying a toy (a theme that was always present during my Joe hunts) and relieved once I left the store. Once I got home, I waited until everyone was asleep and then went into the backroom in the basement where my parents let me keep my Joes and assembled the Desert Striker. Once done assembling it I wasn't blown away by the vehicle however I did like and appreciate it. It certainly could play a role in me Joe Verse.

When I first acquired the Desert Striker I thought it was very cool that Hasbro essentially given us a VAMP. Sure it was modified but it fit in very well with the other vehicles being released at the time from the early years of the ARAH (MOBAT and Firefly). I do recall thinking it would have been better in the drab olive green but it certainly was not a deal breaker. The VAMP became heavily used in my early adult Joe verse days. It was versatile - Law used it as his patrol jeep, it was used as a light scouting vehicle and also served as a transport for injured Joes getting ferried back from the front  lines.

Looking at the design overall I thought Hasbro did a pretty good job with the Desert Striker. It is unmistakably a VAMP with a few modifications. The overall base design is classic, I don't think their is much debate that the VAMP much like the HISS is a very iconic vehicle. The changes from the original design was mostly good. I think that Hasbro did a good job with the additional front bumper, the ammo boxes and opening hood. The front bumper with the additional ammo or storage boxes always reminded me of the British jeeps during the North African campaign in World War 2. The removable passenger side machine gun was also a very cool switch up from the original VAMP. I think the roll bar was done decent but I have never been a fan of the removable missile launcher that clips onto it. To me that seems like Hasbro just trying to add an additional action feature that was not needed. I did like the back engine cover/flat area, as mentioned before I utilize this quite a bit. The barrels with the dropping spikes were a bit of an odd gimmick as well. Certainly not the worst because I liked the 6 black mines and the barrels were at least removable. The details in the plastic were scarce giving the vehicle a very smooth and undetailed appearance. 

The Desert Striker came with a driver, Flint. It was based off the 1991 Eco-Warriors version but in tan and black rather than the loud bright green and yellow of the original. I do actually like this re-release of the figure but even back then it did not make sense as to why it was chosen to be the driver. If anything the mold looks like it would fit in more as a pilot or paratrooper.  Hasbro did a good job with the colors to match up with the Desert Striker but the fact Flint came with no accessories really downgrades the figure. Even just getting a black version of the helmet from the Eco-Warriors version would have helped.

Overall,  the Desert Striker is an important vehicle to me. It's not the flashiest, it certainly does not seem very popular today. I have no recollection of it's popularity (or lack thereof) back when it was released. It plays a role both in my "Joe verse" and just unlocking some very vivid memories of me as a young man. I still have my original Desert Striker 25 years later. It's funny because I remember a few weeks after getting this vehicle I ended up a bit of my Joe collection I had acquired during my senior year of high school for beer money. A decision I somewhat regret! I am glad to still have this vehicle in my collection, it's still in great shape too.