Night Creeper Leader appeared first in the infamous DIC produced animated series. He was, naturally, the leader of the Cobra Night Creepers themselves, a high-tech band of covert ops ninjas. I quite enjoyed his portrayal, as he had a strong sense of self importance and was quite the quipster to boot. It didn’t hurt that he was also voiced by Maurice LaMarche, the voice actor famous for his role as the Brain, everyone’s favorite mouse out to take over the world.

The figure bears no resemblance to its animated counterpart, who simply wore a Night Creeper uniform with an open face mask.

The following year, he was repainted with an eye-achingly wild color scheme of yellow, gold and purple. Sadly, though prototype pictures showed them, the tiger stripes on his pants didn’t make the transition.

Oh, and by the way, that’s not a blindfold he’s wearing. According to his file card, it’s an eye-masking bandana. Nice. Just when you’d thought ninjas had come up with every conceivable goofy accoutrement.

Kamakura was a part of the Valor vs. Venom series, and he’s one of the more interesting choices for a 12 inch figure to come out of that period. The character was given a decent share of new figures in the small scale beginning with the previous year’s Spy Troops assortments. He’s a natural to have included in the toy line, since he was well known at the time as the apprentice to Snake Eyes. He’s even making appearances to this day.

The all cloth uniform is impressive, especially in light of many other figures in the series that were produced with molded shirts. It’s almost like Kamakura was a more premium figure when compared to others that year. Somebody in the design team must have liked him. As nice as the uniform is, the face mask is quite unimpressive. The eye hole is just too small, and the stitching (at least on mine) is sloppy.  Taking the mask off doesn’t help matters much, as underneath is a flat black painted featureless head. Other removable details on the figure are well done, like the arm and leg guards, as well as the new boots.

There is a pretty good assortment of ninja-centric accessories as well. There’s the standard katana, as well as a large bladed thingamabob, shuriken (which can neatly tuck into his sash), and a grappling hook with zip-line.  What is it with GI Joe ninjas and zip-lines? I don’t remember them from the mail order sections of the one-off 80s ninja mags I had as a kid. I do remember tabi boots, shuriken, and wooden practice swords, however. But I digress.

Kamakura also has something every ninja really needs: a radio. That’s a new one, but it makes sense, if he’s out on covert missions. I just hope Snake Eyes isn’t on the other end, otherwise KK’s going to be waiting a very long time for responses to his reports. “Snake Eyes? Come in, Snake Eyes. This is Kamakura. Do you copy, over? Snakes, are you there?”

1990 is also notable for accessories, both in number and originality. Salvo, who eschews modern computer controlled weaponry for good old fashioned heavy ordnance, carries not just one, but two unique weapons. There’s the ambitious missile launcher, which is an incredible accessory, in terms of size and audacity. Is it ridiculously huge? Of course, but this is GI Joe, and I don’t really care. The man who wields it looks plenty big to heft it without assistance. The other is the mine launcher, an interesting idea for a weapon, and one that I’m surprised hadn’t been done before. Yeah, it’s ridiculous too. I think it may also have a shotgun attached to the top of it. I suppose that would explain all the shells on Salvo’s legs. It may be the single nuttiest GI Joe weapon ever. Maybe Tripwire would have had more cool cred if he’d carried something like it.

The figure itself is full of character, from head to toe. Under the helmet, Mr. Hasle is sporting the Mr. Clean look, and it suits him well. Along with his large build and “The Right of Might” t-shirt, he’s got a look that begs Cobras to just try to mess with him. I wouldn’t want to go up against him even without his heavy armaments. The mold is such a perfect tough guy rendition that none other than Big Brawler himself borrowed it for one of his later versions. How many GI Joes are tough enough to strap bandoliers around their legs? For me, he ranks right up with Steam Roller as one of the surliest looking Joes.

And remember, if you’d like to contribute entries to the Field Reports section of JAD, just drop me a message via the Contact page. Anything and everything GI Joe related is open for coverage. Hey, even non-Joe stuff is fair game. I do it all the time.

Oh boy, where to begin? I’ve not made it a secret that the 25th anniversary style figures are, at times, frustrating and disappointing to me. There were articulation issues, strange proportions, and a lack of consistency among figures. This wasn’t a new concern, by the way. It had been happening regularly since the 2002 relaunch. For some reason though, I found the later o-ring figures had a toy charm to them, much like the vintage figures. As improved as the modern no-ring construction has become since the first movie line, this new figure just conjures memories of bad figures from early in the modern era.

These construction issues are particularly a problem when a mix and match process is used to create new figures. In the RAH era, pretty much every figure could interchange parts with others, and though the first few years featured thinner builds than later releases, the arms, legs, heads, etc. were generally of the same scale and could work together.

At times, the mix and match of modern parts works well. When it fails, the results can be fairly hideous. Witness poor Iceberg. The man couldn’t catch a break with this figure. I bet he’s almost wishing he’d been turned into a killer whale again.

So much of this figure just doesn’t work. It never really comes together as a whole. The biggest problems lie from the waist cut down. First off, the legs. In order to get the furry boot effect, he’s got Sprit’s pants, which not only have fringe on the sides, but they’re just too thin in relation to the upper body. Are there any other modern figures with furry topped boots? I can’t think of any, but the arctic Snake Eyes mold had some snow boots that could have worked out, had the design not been so dependent on the classic figure’s look. Then again, I suppose the figure isn’t totally vintage accurate, what with Snow Serpent’s mink stole draped over his shoulders. Even that doesn’t fit quite right, as the holster underneath keeps it from sitting flush on the shoulders. Don’t try to display the figure without the shoulder fur, unless you’d like a giraffe-necked Iceberg.

The accessories I must admit are pretty incredible. The missile launcher and the snowboard clip to the backpack, which is nice. The snowboard gets massive points from me as a callback to the Battle Corps Iceberg. I only wish an alternate yellow ski-masked head had been included to complete the homage. The original Iceberg was lacking in accessories, and this new one atl least kits him out to the extreme. The two rifles are also pretty great, and having Recondo’s rifle cast in white is a great bonus. Hmm, an arctic Recondo custom? I could somehow justify that weird concept.

Finally, the vintage style head doesn’t work. I understand why it’s here, but wow, is it ever out of place. Iceberg is a valiant effort, but this is one figure that may have benefited from a translation into a Pursuit of Cobra influenced uniform, rather than going for a primarily vintage look.

Enter Battle Corps Shipwreck. Not as tied to the deck of a ship as his previous look would imply, but now stuck as an environment specific figure. Poor Shippy would have to wait until the Valor Vs. Venom series to get a decent land ops uniform. That’s not to say this is a bad figure, far from it in fact. For me, this is the best combat diver figure in the Real American Hero series. Torpedo and Wet Suit were great figures as well, but they seemed more sporting than military to me.

Interesting accessories were a nice change of pace from other Battle Corps figures. Most notably, his face mask was well integrated with the figure, fitting perfectly on his head and plugging into his chest harness. He’s also carrying a large but unique missile launcher, one that he holds more like a suitcase than the usual shoulder mounted models. Labeled a Hydro Blaster Underwater Rocket Launcher, it’s an impressive weapon.

Imagine a 1994 figure with absolutely no bright colors to be found. Like other figures in the final assortment of ARAH figures, he’s a return to the older, more military look of the early 80s. It’s also wonderfully detailed, even down to the seams on the wet suit. He may not be useable in all situations, but he’s an amazing figure.

This mold has since seen release two other times, once in black, and another with a strange paint wipe. To me, however, the most memorable appearance of this figure after 1994 was as a member of the cast of Nickelodeon’s Action League Now! shorts. Anyone else remember Stinky Diver?

Whereas the original Corps! line-up was full of obvious military based GI Joe design cribs, the later series branched out farther into the fantastical, much like Joe. Night Lazer is reminiscent of Sci-Fi to a certain extent. He’s equipped with night vision and what’s described as cutting gear. Somebody must have remembered the scene in GI Joe issue #1 when Flash cut a communications cable with his laser rifle.

Like many Lanard sculpts, Night Lazer tends toward a simplified, almost doll-like style. Just look at that face. He looks like he’d be more comfortable in a Fisher-Price dollhouse than charging across a battlefield. In a vain attempt to make this friendly faced fellow look more like a hardcore badass, one of the repaints gave the figure black hair and a Fu Manchu mustache. Difficult to do when you’ve got a face like Rick Astley.

In 1998, I picked up a select few of the second series of Toys R Us sets. The Oktober Guard set was exciting to see on the shelves, simply because I had always wanted to see some action figure versions of the team back in the 80s. The paint apps on the set were an improvement from the previous year’s releases, but the figures were still made from a milky looking sort of plastic. The skin times in particular looked a little odd.

Can you believe this is supposed to be the same guy who appeared in a later comic pack? When he joined the Oktober Guard in later years of the Marvel comic, he was the pretty boy of the team. That look doesn’t come through here, since he’s just a repaint of Big Bear. He’s also armed with the old figure’s weapons, with the exception of the missile launcher. At least the file card made an attempt to reconcile the different look of figure vs. comic, stating that Gorky grew a beard in order to look less fresh-faced.

I like to think of this figure more as a third variant uniform for Big Bear, since he’d already gotten a night ops paint scheme in the International Action Force mail-in set. It’s a much lighter shade than his original, and could almost be suited for a winter environment. Maybe, like Stalker, the Oktober Guard could have had a tundra themed color scheme variant.

This well-traveled mold showed up first in Spy Troops, and has made four other appearances since. It’s been in the regular line three times, once as a discount store repaint, and even showed up as a driver in the DTC series. This particular version is my favorite flavor, with a subdued, yet interesting color scheme. The armored bits complement the uniform underneath well, and the darker straps provide a little needed contrast.

The figure has the long limbs and short torso problem that was prevalent during part of the relaunch era, but I can look past it thanks to sleek design and extra articulation. The strange proportions I think work for this version of the Night Creeper, giving it a kind of inhuman serpentine quality. The unearthly, glowing eyes add to the mysteriousness of the figure. I’m surprised they didn’t make it one of Mindbender’s venomized troops. Having a little snake DNA mixed into this guy would have made perfect sense. Overall, a fantastic and memorable design.

Steeler is just a damn cool early RAH figure, even though I found him to be odd looking back when I was a kid. I actually didn’t have a MOBAT, so my only exposure to this figure was via visits to a friend’s house. He looked so different from the first and second series Joes I had, I didn’t quite know how to take him. Admittedly, the gold undershirt is a bit strange, but the details on the sleeves and especially the gold pistol are quite cool. Like other unique drivers such as Clutch and Grand Slam, those differences really set him apart from his single carded early teammates. It’s amazing what just a change in the torso mold and a couple of accessories can do.

The visor is another unique element that makes him stand out from the pack. For some reason, it reminded me of a welder’s mask. Again, I didn’t have Steeler himself, but I had the visor from an accessory pack. I often put it on Flash to use as a secondary visor.

Even the Sunbow cartoon put Steeler into a different outfit from what the other early Joes wore. The only thing he really had in common with the figure is the short collared open jacket and a slightly different version of his visor. He even wore a gold (well, yellow) undershirt too. I’ve always wanted to see some of the Sunbow exclusive uniform designs make their way into the toyline.

Steeler may be best known to toon fans for having a major role in the excellent two-parter “Worlds Without End.” I won’t spoil the ending, and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t seen it. It’s very freaky stuff, Sunbow-style.

Can’t get enough of Steeler? Check out this figure and more in 3D, over on our partner site, 3DJoes.com.