Short Fuze (1997)
Oh boy, the Stars and Stripes set. What can be said about it beyond holy cow did Hasbro ever whiz a great opportunity down its leg? I’m sure others with inside knowledge of the inner workings of the GI Joe brand know why things were switched and swapped from the time of early press photos to final product. While the carded sets of 1997 had their hits and misses, the big boxed set gets a fair share of flak. It’s not really a great product, and aside from Stalker, Snake Eyes and Scarlett, the rest of the boxed team kind of stunk up the joint. How did three of the figures end up as effective remakes when some of the rest were best left in the box? Probably because they maintained most of thier original look.The recipe for the rest was simple: either substitute iconic body parts and accessories with impunity, or add odd paint apps, and mix well.
Having said all that, Short-Fuze has kind of grown on me. Sure, some of his accessories (borrowed from Zap) are inappropriate, and the helmet/visor combo feels incredibly cheap, but over the years it’s acquired a kitschy charm. Much of the reason for me is seeing a formerly basic green 1983 figure given a bit of fancy fancy with a few more paint apps. Of course, the star of the repainted show for me are the pants. Painted with a wide swath of camo, and the spray nozzle apparently set on full bore, the pattern evokes a bit of the old Stalker camo, with more than a little feeling of cheesy style not seen since the early 80s me-too days. Maybe a disgruntled former Remco employee snuck into the factory one night and reset all the Short-Fuze paint masks. The result? Nice knockoff-ish pants.
I wonder why the hair color got affected too? And why he came with another Zap bazooka…..
Surely, Zap from the set is a decent figure, right?
Both Zap and Grunt came off relatively unscathed, yeah.
Short fuse is one of my favorite characters. Its a pitty his paint job is only half complete but that seemed to be the trend with the stars and stripes set.
Compared to the wretched abominations passing themselves off as “Breaker” and “Rock ‘N Roll” that were unleashed with the SaS set, this figure is a masterpiece. It could have easily passed for a Playskool offering or one of many other foreign rehashes. At least Hasbro found the character’s original mold parts, unlike what happened with those two other “Original Thirteen” wannabes.
As for the topic at hand, the Remco look actually provides a touch of realism. You’d think that a guy who keeps firing his mortar would have easily stained his pants by now.
From what I’ve heard over the years, the factory in China made the mold changes at the last minute without asking, mostly due to being unable to locate the originals, and Hasbro’s deadline to get the exclusives to stores was tight so they ran with what they had.
The results were an epic shame all around both in appearance and quality.
That doesn’t excuse why Hasbro continued to run with 1997 quirks, like Duke legs on Alley Viper and Roadblock waist on Snake-Eyes v1 years later when quality control was better. Just laziness, I guess.
Nice camo!
It seemed like this was one of the more higher priced items of all the ’97/’98 releases I saw back in the day at the store. And I don’t remember it ever going on clearance, but it seemed to sell through. I just had no interest in it enough to pay full price, especially with much more awesome vehicles along side it.
I have no official inside information of course, but I think this set was cursed by the desire to not only just put the original early series of figures out, but also to capture those very early first days of the Marvel comic adventures. The set was painted into a corner, when it could have been a more updated look across the board with more later ARAH run figures. (more articulation, more accessories, unlimited possibilities.)
It’s almost like the early GIJoe Club had a strong hand in this set, and while intentions were good, by the time it was sent overseas and came back, many changes had to be made. Time tables were rushed. Flexibility in considering anything outside of 1982/3 was hindered. The “faithful homage.”