1991 Mail-In Quick Kick

A few years ago, I wrote an article on Quick Kick, where I wasn’t really a fan of the figure, or character. That was one opinion that came about for a couple of reasons, one the figure I’d recently purchased was beat to hell (I think I even mentioned that in the QK article), it also came about during the transition period of being a dogmatic collector of 1982-1984 style figures, so my previous biases against anything not in that style, were still much more on the surface. As time went by, and I’d gotten tired of only using one style of figures, for damn near 15 years, I started to branch out, and use figures I’d not really done much with.

One of the aspects of collecting, I have a bad habit of, is I acquire things, and then go on a role of continuously acquiring more and more. With the cost of figures these days, a lot of that acquiring would get subjugated to whatever was a good deal. So I once saw some place advertising “1985 Quick Kick (Skintone variant)”, but it was under $20, so I bought it. My 1985 version is a junker, and the O-Ring snapped, so I’ll probably never bother repairing it, might as well just buy a new figure.

When I received it, I was shocked at how different this figure was, in comparison to the 1985 figure. So I looked it up, and learned that it was a Mail-In figure, produced in Brazil where the mold was located at the time. I knew it was a South American figure, by feel, but it was good to know it was a domestically released figure. When Estrela would produce figures for release by Hasbro, they’d up the quality of the figure, slightly higher than that of the stuff for Brazilian consumption, but I figure that was something due in part, to the fact they were acting as a licensee, and the standards for a US release were much higher. Don’t want to cross the boss.

The major difference between a 1988 Mail-In release of Quick Kick and the 1985 original, is the skin tone. The Mail-In is a much darker skinned figure, with a skin tone similar to that of the 1988 Tiger Force Recondo or the 1989 Slaughter’s Marauders figures. The paint masks are sharp, and I don’t think there’s any differences in the colour pallet than that of the 1985 release, just shading differences. The other major difference from an appearance perspective is the shoulder rivets are painted flesh tone, rather than just being stained. It’s a better look, but I’m not one who minds the stained rivet look either. Another place of difference between the two figures, is how Quick Kick’s hair now covers his ears, unlike the 1985 domestic version, which has visible ears. This is Quick Kick’s late 60s look, I guess.

Plastic quality is worse, but not quite as bad as figures released solely for the South American market, tends to be. It’s one of those things where as a kid I probably would’ve busted both thumbs, and been pissed off, but I’m an adult, and I know what these figures are capable of using and what they aren’t. Another thing that puts plastic quality into perspective, is that for the last 10-12 years, the majority of the O-Ring G.I. Joe product available, has been factory produced customs, which are never going to be to the standard of a billion dollar corporation, so as a collector, I’ve become more nuanced and understanding of what production levels are working with.

Quick Kick is one of those designs that can be a love it or hate it, kind of design. He’s someone who wouldn’t be able to get service at a 7-11, since he’s got no shoes and no shirt, but the figure itself is quite well done. The wrinkles in pants are well done, the sash with the throwing stars is cool, and his musculature is quite well detailed. The figure is obviously a martial artist, but also someone who isn’t going to be mistaken for a ninja, something that was beginning to run wild in the G.I. Joe universe.

A lot of complaints about him being a Bruce Lee knock off are fairly unfounded, and probably made by people who’ve never watched a kung fu movie in their lives. If Quick Kick is based off of anyone, it’s Bolo Yeung.

I used to not be a big fan of Quick Kick, until one day I paired him up with another shirtless weirdo, Road Pig. I took a picture and realized just how well the figures paired together, and I wound up finding myself going down some weird little rabbit hole, that consisted of a bunch of the odd, late 80s COBRA figures, as well as Quick Kick and Jinx being some underlying part of the G.I. Joe vs. COBRA conflict, where in a bunch of maniacs were going around trying to kill each other. It’s funny, because the first Quick Kick figure I got as an adult, was from a timeframe where I didn’t view anything after 1984 as something I’d come up with any silly little G.I. Joe daydreams, to the second Quick Kick being something that actually got me developing silly little G.I. Joe daydreams about post 1984 figures.

The Quick Kick filecard is interesting, but I disregard most of the personal life stuff, because it doesn’t factor in. The bottom paragraph about sending Quick Kick into to dirty work on a fortified villa, is where I find interest in the character. I see Quick Kick as someone who’s used specifically for liquidation of targets. Quick Kick isn’t really so much a rank and file G.I. Joe, as he is a technician who’s given dangerous assignments, not only for his own personal well being, but for also being ones that could cause the G.I. Joe and COBRA conflict to spiral well out of control, in a never ending game of one-upmanship.

One of the earliest G.I. Joe comics, issue #09, The Diplomat, featured COBRA Commander, when being told that the American Diplomat, who Clutch and Scarlett were tasked with protecting, even though he was actually a COBRA Agent, had been killed, making a comment about “Well, that’s just part of the game.”. For some reason that aspect of the issue stuck out to me, and I at some point wanted to bring that kind of “game” into my G.I. Joe ideas. It was hard to do in the 82-84, era, since a lot of the figures are too militarily inclined for it to be believable. Quick Kick is perfect, since he’s an unconventional looking figure and character, but still a high quality figure. So having him wander through some of COBRA Command’s small but lucrative black market schemes, liquidating characters that are also decent figures, but too unconventional for the battle field, gives an alluring sense of danger to my G.I. Joe world, without being something that could have any great impact on how things actually go.

There were a lot of uses of the Quick Kick mold, but all of them fall under the exact same design. Black pants, a red sash and a white headband. While the mold was only used once with Hong Kong/China production, there’s plenty of others that can be sought out, such as Brazil, Argentina and India. If I was going to have a choose a singular figure to use for the Quick Kick character in my collection, I’d have to go with this, Mail In version. He’s a much better looking figure than the 1985 original, with higher quality control than that of the Funskool or Estrela or Plastirama versions, even if he’s got fewer changes than some of those other releases have.