Custom GI Joe Moray Hydrofoil

When it comes to toys and packaging, sometimes what you see is not what you get. The 2005 GI Joe Moray Hydrofoil is a perfect example. The box art depicted a white and black colored repaint of the classic Cobra Hydrofoil. It looked something like a law enforcement vehicle to me, and the matching flames on the hull were just too cool looking to pass up. Of course, the toy inside was not the starkly colored vehicle on the box art. Instead, the deck was cast in a swirled plastic mix of greens. Disappointing to me. What was a fellow to do? Well, wait on the boat to go on clearance, and buy a second to paint up to match the box. I think the result is an improvement.

I’m still not sure what happened with the color change. I wonder if it was intended during the design phase to match the unproduced Night Force variant figures that surfaced around the same time. Those versions of the Toys R Us multi-pack were outfitted with white pants rather than the dark digitial camo of the final release. Who knows? I’m happy to have a sweet custom Joe patrol boat.

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7 comments

  • I’d forgotten this one…still, I don’t like the design…whats with the red missle holder? Good effort as a custom though Rob…

  • Hmm… got any more pics showing off more of the white? Like a somewhat more overhead angle?

  • Nice paint work – looks factory! Any pics of what the original “letdown” version looked like before you customized one?

  • ”What was Hasbro thinking????-Doing a remake of the 85′ Cobra Moray?This version definitely looks like a piece of junk!”

    • I’m suprised this thing even exists. I heard most of the ARAH vehicle molds were either lost or beyond use due to degredation

      • That’s what Hasbro wanted you to think. It was easier to say that than admit they were too lazy to look for them. It’s likely they had many more vehicle molds than they released. There was a point, though, where a lot of vehicles were actually in the U.S. A few items were made in the U.S., but the plastic quality wasn’t great.

        It’s amazing how much of the TRU stuff went to clearance. But, Hasbro’s abandonment of the line largely killed the collector base that was left, so the ’05 stuff was pretty much doomed. I remember my TRU having stacks of these at deep discounts. But, the color wasn’t great and the figures were rehashes of pegwarmers from the year before, so I passed on them all. (Same for the clearanced MCC’s. Do wish I had bought one of those, though. Just didn’t want more junk in the garage at that time.)

        This custom is awesome, though. I have no idea why the box art was so different from the toy. But, I suspect that, like a lot of the last run of vintage mold stuff, the plans for the items were much more ambitious than the lackluster efforts we actually received.

  • The box art still has the lower deck missile box as classic Moray red. I suppose there is no answer, but could the art be an old existing Moray that was repainted and then photographed and then Illustrator/Photoshop/etc.’ed into the package art.

    I have also wondered about the “swirled” camo and its use in the 2005 Moray as well as the 2006 Coil Ferret? But also, the blue deck of the Hydrofoil was available at the 2005 Convention, sans hull?

    Separate topic, at over 10 years later, has anyone had their “swirled” G.I.Joe Moray disintegrate as some of the plastic expert fans speculated at the 2005 Convention?

    Either way, excellent, excellent, excellent boat all around. It’s a nice custom paint and looks just like what the package was selling!

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