It’s been a little while, but here we are with another driver for a vehicle that came without one, missile specialist Fast Draw driving the R.P.V. (Remote Piloted Vehicle), which launches a drone back before drone warfare become such a big thing. (Vehicle image comes from 3DJoes.com.)
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We continue the driver series with one that admittedly is a bit of a cheat. This design for original team member Grand Slam is based on his appearances in G.I. JOE #59, the first issue to feature the SLAM vehicle. (The vehicle image here is borrowed from the really great 3DJoes.com website.)
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The next vehicle driver is the team’s original tank driver, Steeler, assigned to drive the Armadillo mini-tank. He’s looking a little less formal, wearing a hat from his hometown’s NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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Another drivers-for-vehicles-without-them post, here is Spirit. And what better vehicle for a tracker than the LCV Recon Sled? One of the toy lines’ strangest but unique vehicles. And again, here’s a vehicle pic from YoJoe.com!
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Continuing with giving drivers to G.I. Joe vehicles that didn’t come with one, here we have a version of Torpedo meant for the MANTA windsurfer toy, which was available through mail order only. Also, here’s a pic of the vehicle, borrowed from the great Joe website YoJoe.com!
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Here we’re continuing with giving official drivers to vehicles that weren’t sold with action figures back in the day. Today we’ve got Lady Jaye, as the driver for the Silver Mirage motorcycle. This one has kind of a vintage look, but that’s nothing new looking at the classic era of figures.
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To get inspired to create new designs, it helps to try to come up with a theme. Here we’re starting something new. The premise of the next batch is giving drivers/pilots to some of the G.I. Joe vehicles that were sold without a figure, but to use existing characters. Starting with Airborne, Sky Hawk pilot. A new version of the little one-man aircraft did get a pilot (Tomahawk) in 2010, but here we’re talking about the original toy line.
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Continuing our Tiger Force repaints, here is Clutch (along with his original design). The sub-team had the Tiger Sting, a repainted version of the Vamp Mk II. Who better to drive it?
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Once again, another “repaint” based on a figure’s first design. This time, Stalker has joined Slaughter’s Marauders. Here he is, next to his original look.
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The somewhat obscure Steel Brigade Command action figure set came with the expected generic troopers, but also included Gung-Ho and Dragonsky as commanders. A while back we had a Scarlett “repaint” here, and now we have a similarly themed Grand Slam.
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Let’s go back to some repaints. This time it’s Rock ‘n Roll joining Slaughter’s Marauders. But this time, we’re basing it on the variation of Marauders’ uniforms as seen in the DIC cartoon series. As usual, we have the original Rock ‘n Roll here, too.
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There isn’t really much of a concept behind this beyond a new version of Jinx, but it turned out to be dark and maybe a little sinister, so Stealth Jinx seemed like a good description!
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Star Brigade is one of G.I. Joe’s most infamous sub-teams. It included a lot of over the top designs, and many simple repaints, but I never thought it was a terrible concept. So, just on a whim I thought about making some new members, so here we have Lifeline, Star Brigade medic.
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Returning to the series of “repaint” figures, looking at what if some other characters became part of the early sub-teams. Here’s Cover Girl in Tiger Force colors alongside her original look.
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Sometimes the designs on this site are based on half an idea that sounds like fun. Here we have kind of a “mirror universe” where G.I. Joe is evil and Cobras are the good guys. These are pretty simple mostly “repaint” designs of Grunt looking more like a Cobra trooper, and a Tele-Vipery Breaker.
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Here’s a new version of Admiral Keel-Haul, this time wearing something closer to an actual uniform you may find Navy officers wearing on a ship. I kind of imagine here the admiral has to quickly arm himself when Cobra boards his aircraft carrier.
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This “repaint” figure is another member of Slaughter’s Marauders. Despite having a few vehicles as part of the team, the Marauders had no official driver, so Crankcase has been given the job. Here he is alongside his original figure design.
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We’re back to another of the “repainted” action figures, this time Tiger Force Airborne. Like most of the others, his original design is here, too.
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The second post featuring early Herb Trimpe concept art for the original G.I. Joe. Here we have Snake-Eyes, looking mysterious but with his face visible. Colors here have to be improvised, so I gave him an appropriately dark outfit, but didn’t go all black like the final version of the character.
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Months back, the G.I. Joe Museum Facebook page posted concept art of some of the original G.I. Joe characters as designed by Marvel’s first G.I. Joe artist, Herb Trimpe. CobraIsland.com also posted the images here on their site. It is interesting to see that some of these are very similar to what eventually appeared, but some are not. Many do not even resemble Hasbro’s eventual action figure designs. In my mind, these could be seen as young versions of the Joes at the very start of the team. Here we have Scarlett and Zap based off Trimpe’s concepts.
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One more Tiger Force repaint, this time G.I. Joe‘s original Marine, Gung-Ho, alongside his original figure design.
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An often-forgotten member of G.I. Joe is Sparks, who showed up in a few episodes of the original cartoon as another communications soldier, got no action figure, and didn’t appear again until a Devil’s Due comic in the 2000s, then made more comic appearances after that. He got a figure finally in 2007, but was built from other figures’ parts. This version is based on the cartoon, and his new Tiger Force design is inspired by the brightly-colored Action Force version of that team.
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Another repaint sub-team is about as obscure as they come. The Steel Brigade Command set came with the expected generic soldiers, but also included Gung-Ho and Dragonsky. Here is Scarlett in a similar design to those figures, based on her original 1982 figure.
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This repaint design is cheating a little, since Polar Force was invented just for this web site. Here we have Zap as a member of that team, beside the original 1982 version.
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Here we go with another “repaint” figure, this time it’s 1982 Hawk as a member of the Anti-Venom Task Force, a six-figure set from 2004. See it here on YoJoe.com. It’s a fairly obscure team, but with some interesting colors. As before, the original version of Hawk is here, too.
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Two days in a row? Here is another of the G.I. Joe repaints, turning original figure designs into one of the many Joe sub-teams. Today it’s Night Force Short-Fuze, alongside the original version.
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As I did earlier with Grunt and Breaker joining Tiger Force, this time around we have the original Flash “repainted” as a member of Slaughter’s Marauders, the very strangely colored sub-team from 1989. This time, I’ve included the original version of Flash, too.
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Some more fun using the original action figure designs, and making some “repaints.” This time we’ve got Tiger Force Breaker.
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I was trying to faithfully recreate some of the original G.I. Joe action figure designs, but figured seeing the unchanged designs on this site would be somewhat boring content. So, here is Tiger Force Grunt, as if he were a repainted version of the original 1982 figure.
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Sub-teams in G.I. Joe are one way to be inspired to create some alternate designs for characters. This site may invent more as a common theme for characters. Here we have Polar Force, another excuse for the often popular “arctic” theme, along with their own polar bear patch. To start, here’s Snake-Eyes and Cover Girl.
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The Oktober Guard will return later, but now it’s another character design timeline, this time Jinx. The choice of Jinx was made sort of randomly, after just looking for a character with some interesting design differences and that didn’t have TOO many versions. There are more versions of Jinx than you may realize. (There may be a Snake-Eyes timeline in the future, but that would be a LOT of variations to tackle.)
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Recent issues of Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero reintroduced Heather Collins, the daughter of Wade and sister of Sean who we first saw as a child. Despite being a civilian she proves to be a skilled hacker and a capable fighter. Here she is if she did join the Joes.
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The final member of the six-Joe Urban Assault Team is the team’s communication expert, Dial-Tone. This also happens to be the 100th post on this blog! Thanks for following along, and there will be more to come!
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The newest member of the Urban Assault Team, Clutch. The original G.I. Joe driver seems like a good choice to be speeding through the city to backup the team.
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More of the Urban Assault Team, this time its leader: Bullet-Proof. Last seen leading the Joes’ D.E.F., he has a more “law enforcement” design here.
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It’s been a while again, but now we continue with the next member of the Urban Assault Team, following Mayday and Mutt. Red Zone is a pretty obscure character, only appearing in the 2006’s Plague Troopers vs. Steel Brigade set as Steel Brigade’s urban assault expert. A fact not noticed by me until after coming up with this concept! His file name (Luke Ellison) and his likeness come from a real fan who won a contest to be made into a G.I. Joe figure. Note that Red Zone proudly displays his Steel Brigade patch!
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After creating a new design for Mayday earlier, I thought of focusing on other characters who could also specialize in urban warfare. This newly designed Mutt (with Junkyard) was meant to compliment her design, and others will soon follow as part of a G.I. Joe Urban Assault Team. Customizers have been known to create action figures with common themes, and this is the same idea.
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Today we have a sometimes-forgotten G.I. Joe character, Cutter, the team’s only member from the Coast Guard. Here his uniform is similar to the modern uniforms worn by the Guard.
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In the early 2000s, Devil’s Due gave us the G.I. Joe recruit Paige Adams, who went on to become a full-fledged member code named Mayday. (Not to be confused with G.I. Joe Extreme character Mayday.) This new design includes “urban camo” to match her Urban Warfare Specialist title.
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This has only been done twice before, once for Grunt, and a much longer one for Scarlett. Gung-Ho‘s character design timeline includes 24 variations of the Cajun Marine, though a few simple repaints were left out. Obviously these take a long time to create, but hopefully you’ll see others now and then.
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1994 Star Brigade action figure Gears was another straight repaint of another figure, 1992’s Barricade. He came with the Power Fighter mech, but his filecard says he is an “invention technician” so this outfit is meant to fit in well at an R&D lab.
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The 1997-2002 era of G.I. Joe was not the only time straight repainted figures became new characters. Ninja Force included T’Gin-Zu, the operator of the Pile Driver vehicle and repainted Storm Shadow. This variation makes him more unique, muting the bright colors and mixing the ninja style with a more typical G.I. Joe driver design.
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Wow, two updates in two days! Today’s concept is for an obscure character that came with the remote control Crossfire vehicle, Rumbler. I don’t think he ever showed up in any stories (the Marvel comic incorrectly used his code name for Armadillo instead), and he’s just a cobbled together figure. This is somewhat inspired by Rumbler being the latest Joe featured at GIJOE365.com. This new Rumbler is based on a NASCAR driver, combining those colorful logo-covered outfits with some military details.
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An updated version of Beach Head, this time ditching the balaclava and giving him a Ranger beret. no special theme here, just “new Beach Head.”
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While fans sometimes overlook new G.I. Joe material in favor of the “classic” Joes, IDW’s comics have introduced characters to the canon, too. From those books, here are tech guy/scientist Brainstorm, and Ronin (formerly known as Chameleon). Both characters’ designs vary in their different appearances, so these include some elements from various issues.
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Wow, three posts in three days! Today is another of the redesigned clones from 1998, the Thunder repaint, tank commander Thunderwing.
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Here’s yet another theme, characters inspired by the memorable two-part G.I. Joe cartoon episode “Worlds Without End,” featuring an alternate universe where Cobra as defeated G.I. Joe. “This” world’s Clutch, Grunt and Steeler decide to stay behind to fight Cobra there. These designs are those three Joes fighting the Cobra empire as rebels.
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Fury Force will continue later, but now we go back to new versions of the renamed “cloned” figures from the year 2000. Before starting this I had forgotten that we did get a new Whiteout in 2010 that used some new parts, but here’s another version, anyway…
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This is a design that fits into no particular theme beyond new designs for old characters. Here’s Lady Jaye in desert gear.
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Continuing the redesigns of the “identical twins” figures from the early-2000s, here is Side Track, originally a repainted Ambush. Not to be confused with… Sidetrack. Yes, two unique characters released two years apart have names differentiated only by a space in the middle.
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Around the year 2000, G.I. Joe returned as Toys R Us exclusives. Much of the new toys were simple repaints and many got mixed reviews. Some were old figures with new names and identities, so this is an attempt to fix that. Here’s Double Blast, no longer Roadblock’s identical twin.
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A final 1983 character design, this time First Sergeant Duke. Not any special concept here, just a new jungle-camo version of the character.
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Based on a suggestion from a Facebook follower, here’s a Tiger Force variation of the new Tripwire from the previous post. Once the initial design is done, changing the color scheme is pretty easy!
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Next up from 1983, a new version of mine detector Tripwire. He looks a little bit more hi-tech here, complete with a heads-up display in his face shield.
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Also from the 1983 G.I. Joe vintage is Gung-Ho. This time it’s GH in a desert-themed outfit.
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Continuing with Joes that debuted in 1983, here’s a new version of Cover Girl armed with a rocket launcher and a wrench — both useful when your tank breaks down. Her original filecard refers to her as a mechanic, too.
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Continuing on with making some new versions of the 1983 Joes, here is a new Ace, and Wild Bill ready for cold weather.
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A while back I posted new designs for the first 13 members of G.I. Joe. Just for fun, here’s a group shot.
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Several times here I’ve gone back to the old Sunbow cartoon for inspiration. This time we go back to the second season episode “In the Presence of Mine Enemies”, in which Slip-Stream is stranded on a dangerous island with a female Strato-Viper, code named Raven. The two join forces to survive and in the end Raven rips the Cobra insignia off her uniform. Slip-Stream even suggests she may be a recruit. So here she is, Raven as a G.I. Joe in a more vintage-style uniform.
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A two-for-one post today. First up we have Major Bludd in Arctic gear which needs no explanation. Then we have a character design from the front cover of the 1983 childrens’ book, The Spy Eye. I am guessing it is supposed to be Ace since he is the only other Joe character in the book besides Hawk, Steeler and Flash. It’s just as possible it’s not him since the outfit doesn’t match the interior art which has Ace in a non-specific uniform that better fits with the 1982 Joes. Click here to see the whole book on 3DJoes.com.
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Back in the ’80s, nearly every licensed children’s characters had their own line of books that gave readers different options to choose, sending you to a different page number to continue the adventure or end it abruptly. Choose Your Own Adventure was the most popular line, but G.I. Joe had 20 Find Your Fate books. Each one included a young member of the team that represented the reader. The character’s look in the illustrations was essentially the same for every book; a generic young soldier in fatigues.
So, here they are:
Bombshell, Brainstorm, Break-In, Cat, Commando, Compass, Delta, Dog Ear, Genius, Headset, Hotshot, Lightning, Outlaw, Presto, Spider, Sting, Wheels, Wiseguy (he appeared twice), and Zapper.
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Today we get really obscure with this character design. Inspired by the 3DJoes.com page, it’s a G.I. Joe recruit as seen in Hasbro’s offer, Mission “Stars ‘n Stripes”, which you can see here at the 3DJoes site (Scroll down a bit).
UPDATE: These recruits actually made a second appearance in a 1987 offer you can see on this page.
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Continuing with these single posts for now, here’s a new variation on jungle trooper Recondo.
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Today we have an updated version of Doc, one of Torpedo’s fellow 1983 characters. This Doc is just a slight update, but after finishing it I think it kind of looks like a younger Doc then we remember, maybe a little more of an action oriented medic…
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This isn’t the project that is coming in the future, but here’s a little something until then. A land-based, commando style Torpedo.
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It’s been a while since an update, but busy things in the real world take precedence. Plus, the Scarlett timeline was very popular and another is now in the works. Consider this a preview of that. It’s the original Sunbow cartoon version of Snake-Eyes, likely the first version many fans ever saw. It’s easy to assume he was made so colorful to avoid a bland all-black character on a kids’ cartoon. It has a certain charm, including Snake’s bare hands.
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While Scarlett‘s Sigma 6 design was seen on the design timeline, today we have a concept a figure for one of the small secondary Sigma 6 “2.5 inch Mission Series.” The design can be seen on this GeneralsJoes.com page from 2009.
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A while back the site posted a number of designs based on concept art revealed by Sam Wells on this page at Nerdrahtio.com. Here are a couple more from there. First is “Cadet Bombshell,” an early name for Bombstrike, and a slightly different version of Hollow Point from the Built to Rule toy sets.
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A while back, I posted a Grunt character timeline. This time around, we’re going way too far with a Scarlett timeline with 34 different variations! This was being worked on ever since the Grunt timeline.
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Today we’ve got a new version of Alpine, this time ready for a snowier mountain than usual.
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This site isn’t usually updated daily, but when a new design is ready, it’s put up. Now we have the last of the New Original 13 series. This time it’s the late (depending on what you’re watching or reading), great Snake-Eyes! The intent here was to make something different and not copy all the very similar Snake-Eyes designs.
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To see all the other original 13 designs you can click the tag below for the whole category. And thanks to all the people who liked the Facebook page!
Almost near the end of the original 13 Joes! Today it’s Stalker and Hawk. And after that, the next post will feature one last unimportant, unpopular character… 🙂
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More of the new original 13 Joes! This time we have Grand Slam (who is all jet pack trooper and not a Flash clone) and Rock & Roll. And like this site’s Facebook page to get all the updates.
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