In the early 1990s, likely 1992, Hasbro produced an odd assortment of figures that would find themselves released on Chinese language cardbacks. While the idea of doing exclusive runs for international markets isn’t new, and had been happening as early as 1983 or 1984, there’ still an oddness to the Chinese run, that none of the other odd runs of exclusives really manages to top.
What makes it such a strange run is the figure selection is all over the place, features three never before seen figures, a few examples of what are probably secondary runs on previously existing figures. The known releases are:
- 1983 COBRA Commander
- 1983 Tripwire
- 1984 Storm Shadow
- 1986 Dial Tone
- 1986 Lifeline
- 1988 Tiger Force Roadblock (As “Barricade)
- 1989 Stalker
- 1989 Recoil
- 1989 Snake Eyes
- 1990 Salvo
- 1990 S.A.W. Viper
- 1990 Laser Viper
- 1991 Dusty
- 1991 Hawk
- 1991 Snow Serpent
- 1992 Destro (Cardback features the 1983 Destro art)
- 1991 Sludge Viper
- Exclusive Major Bludd
- Exclusive Flint (Colloquially known as Tiger Force Falcon)
- Exclusive Duke
I figure anything from and up, was from those figure’s initial production run. Tiger Force Roadblock is a bit of an oddity, as there were three other molds (Duke, Lifeline and Tripwire) that had shown up in the 1988 Tiger Force line up, that all reverted back to their original colour schemes. The stuff from pre-1989 is interesting, because those molds were also used subsequently in different paint schemes, and weren’t available as mail away figures to the best of my knowledge, but they were molds has Hasbro had possession of, and too much time had past from the original release for it be overstock. Lifeline for example is interesting, because Hasbro returned to the 1986 colouring for the Rice Krispies mail away, in 1990, albeit with Frostbite legs. The Major Bludd is an odd frankenstein too, with half the figure consisting of almost brand new parts (Flagg and Sonic Bludd’s head) and half being Lampreys, a mold recently used in the Sonic Fighters line.
COBRA Commander’s mold had been in constant use since 1984, but solely as the Hooded COBRA Commander mail away figure, and the battle helmet was never to be seen again, this version also didn’t include the 1983 Hair Dryer (unlike the Hooded), but rather Shockwave’s pistol. The 1984 Storm Shadow mold had been getting a lot of use in South America throughout the 1980s, but did return in 1990 for the Ninja Viper. Recently I looked at the bootleg Chinese Carded Storm Shadow, but there was also a Hasbro produced one on a much higher quality Chinese cardback.
The idea that Hasbro would make a line featuring a bunch of (highly probable) reissues for a foreign market, might sound kind of odd at first, but if one is to look at the Transformers line, Hasbro was doing that exact thing, in 1990 and 1991. Europe was given a bunch of reissues of early G1 Transformers, sold as “classics“. The Generation 2 Transformers also had some fairly close to the 80s releases, being sold domestically in late 1992 as well.
The Chinese Duke is one of three “exclusives” in the Chinese releases. What separates it from some of the figures, like Dial Tone, that were likely a new production run of an old figure, is that this Duke isn’t the same as the 1984 figure. Because Duke was released initially as a mail away, it kind of gets forgotten how little of the figure is an original mold. The arms, waist, and back torso were shared with Doc, while the legs were a combination of Gung Ho and Major Bludd. So when the Doc mold was shipped off to go serve in South America, it appears that the Duke was going to be armless and waist-less, so Hasbro replaced them with the waist of the 1982 COBRA, COBRA Officer and HISS Driver, and the arms of Hit & Run, when adding Duke to the Tiger Force subteam.
For the Chinese series, the 1988 Duke was done up in the same colours that the 1983 had been released in, providing a dramatically similar to the original figure, but with a few little changes. It’s not the original, but it’s a hell of a lot closer than what passed for it in the 2000s. Duke’s overall design is solid, the tan and green were common colours amongst 82-84 G.I. Joe releases, so he matches with pretty much all of his contemporary releases. The mold changes on this version aren’t major enough to be a cause of derision, and frankly, the COBRA waist is a little more likely to survive than the Doc waist used on the vintage Duke.
In a lot of ways, how close a match this figure is for the vintage 1984 release is pretty spectacular. It’s not perfect, but for something being released almost a decade after the fact, and most of the colours on this figure had long left the G.I. Joe spectrum, it’s quite something.
There was something about Duke’s initial appearance in the Marvel Comic that I was always blown away by. He shows up at a funeral to tell everyone he’s going to make real soldiers out of them. Because of this, the Duke character has always been someone I figured was relatively unlikable, and hard to really get along with. Just a jerk. The stereotype of Duke from the cartoon was that he was always doing everything and succeeding, so I kind of came up with the notion that Duke would be one who’d take the lowest percentage play, and succeed. A jerk that could get away with some crazy attempt, because he didn’t lose.
Since I always liked the 82 G.I. Joe figures for their continuity in design and team aspect, I realized I often times, kept them from doing too much intermingling with the 1983 and 1984 releases. As my daydreams about G.I. Joe started to shift in certain directions, based mainly on what photos of figures I enjoyed taking, I kind of came up with a little bit of a theory that the 82 Joes were put in place to combat COBRA, and that there was a secondary, smaller commando team put together to go after unaffiliated agents (One of which being Destro).
This commando team was led by Duke, and consisted mainly of Airborne, Gung Ho, Roadblock. Known for daring missions, that they managed to never have any real failures. Eventually they would find themselves crossing paths with the Joe team on occasion, where there wouldn’t be much cooperation, as the Joes main target COBRA, wouldn’t really register for Duke. If Duke could trade off some COBRAs for information on his target, he would. As some of those targets would find themselves in the employ of COBRA Command, the Generals in charge, thought that perhaps Duke’s cowboy team should be integrated into the G.I. Joe team, much to the chagrin of the Joes who felt they’d been undercut by these guys time and again.
The world of G.I. Joe is one of those things that having that many top level performers, would more than likely cause a lot of tensions to come to a boil. Allowing for some conflict to happen amongst the good guys, is something that is needed to provide them some form of personality development other than doing this nonsense for creed and country. It’s one of the things that allowed the major COBRA Characters to become a little more fleshed out, than most Joes other than Snake Eyes, in the comic book. I find the idea of any true feuds between Joes and COBRAs to be a silly thing, unless it’s done really well, which might be more likely to be the case if it’s some member of the Joe team, developing an obsession with defeating a specific COBRA agent.
This Duke is just as good as the vintage release, though sturdier and younger, so it does have a fair amount of value to a collection. Vintage Duke figures are fairly notorious for breakage, discolouration, or even having the lousy first release head, which was wide and under-detailed. This figure provided all the good of the original, with little drawbacks, except maybe looking like you weren’t able to afford a 1983 figure.
For a spell in the 2000s, this version of Duke was widely available loose with no accessories for dirt cheap. I got three of them from some long defunct website for around $5 bucks a piece, and I think the Chinese Tiger Force Falcon was available at the same time for the same price. Maybe 5 or 6 years ago I saw more Chinese Dukes on eBay at a relatively low price, but I forgot to buy some, and forgot the address to the BIN, when I decided that maybe I did need more Chinese Dukes. Oh well, c’est le vie.
However, that’s the kind of thing, that needs to be recognized, that a lot of these figures are out there in greater numbers, than one would have you believe. If someone is selling a lot of these Duke’s with no accessories at more than $5 a pop, they’re trying to line their own pockets. Is there a place for a reasonable mark up? Sure, but if it’s anything over $12 they’re ripping you off.