Arctic Threat Doc
By KansasBrawler
Store exclusives are sometimes the bane of my existence. First of all, it’s kind of annoying when you can only get a figure at one certain store. It’s even more annoying when the store is not in your town, and it’s even more annoying when there’s only one of those stores within reasonable driving distance. That being said, though, Toys ‘R’ Us seems to be the best store to deal with when it comes to handling exclusives. Unlike Wal-Mart and Target, I’ve never really had trouble tracking down the Toys ‘R’ Us exclusive Joes (at least until the 50th Anniversary Marine Devastation set). Since the line’s relaunch, there have been a shocking number of exclusive Joes released through Toys ‘R’ Us. While I didn’t think I needed Doc decked out in arctic rescue gear, I have to say that Arctic Threat Doc is a pretty cool addition to my collection. I passed on him a few times, but when a sale rolled around, I figured I might as well give him a try, and I’m not really disappointed. He didn’t exceed my expectations, but he’s still a pretty solid figure so I have to applaud him for that.
Doc is a fairly simple figure. From the neck down, he uses 25th Anniversary Arctic Snake Eyes parts. The mold is very well-executed and looks like your basic winter coat and heavy pants. I’m glad they went this way with Arctic Threat Doc rather than busting out all the arctic parts they had from Rise of Cobra. Those were nice, but they felt a bit more military to me. I realize Doc is in the military but I prefer his gear to reflect the fact that he’s a doctor, not a soldier. The detailing on the mold is nice and it looks appropriately bulky without restricting his movement. There are lots of pockets on the coat and pants and the coat looks realistically wrinkled while not looking too busy. To help make the coat look a little different from Snake Eyes, he’s also got the collar from Rise of Cobra Ice Storm. It’s a nice touch since Doc doesn’t wear a facemask like other Joes so he’s going to want to have something to protect his face from the elements. The last thing Doc needs to worry about while administering to a wounded Joe in the field is frostbite on his face. Doc’s head comes from the 25th Anniversary Doc figure, which makes sense. You can definitely tell it’s Doc and it looks really good. It’s nice to see Hasbro was able to get a little more mileage out of the tooling they used for the mail-away exclusive Doc figure while not diminishing its uniqueness. Yes, there are two versions of Doc now, but they look absolutely nothing aside from their shared head. I’m glad that they decided to take Doc in a completely different and brand new direction for him in this particular exclusive.
Arctic Threat Doc is probably the most colorful modern figure in my collection. While he’s bright, his vibrant color scheme makes a lot of sense. People involved in arctic rescue operations, be they civilian or military, usually wear very bright red jackets in order to help them stand out against the field of white so the rest of the team can spot each other easily. Doc is no exception. Doc is wearing vibrant orange coat and yellow pants. While on any other figure, fans would be screaming bloody murder if they used both of these colors (and I’d probably be right along with them), it works fine here for Doc. It really helps make him stand out and that’s what you want if you’re saving people from an avalanche or are waiting for a helicopter extraction in the middle of the arctic. You don’t want to be missed. My favorite detail, though, is the silver piping on his coat and pants. It makes me think of the reflective stripes that paramedics often have on their clothing so they can be seen in the dark and again, that sort of thing makes sense for an arctic rescue specialist. The word “RESCUE” is printed across Doc’s back so you’re not going to mistake him for a soldier. To add a little variety to his color scheme, Doc also has a blue helmet and gloves. The blue is a great color and pairs surprisingly well with the orange and yellow. The only paint choice that I’m a little confused about is the black knees I just don’t understand why he’s got it there. It really stands out against the overall brightness of the figure, but there’s no clear reason for it to be there. Finally, Doc has some great tampo work. Both his helmet and his jacket have the Rise of Cobra Joe logo on them, but as an added little nod to his specialty, there’s a little EKG line at the bottom as well. This logo is also used on his backpack and stretcher. Someone in Hasbro’s art department deserves a commendation for this move. The Rise of Cobra Joe logo is great already, but throwing in a little detail like that makes it really shine. I’d love to see every Joe medic using this logo design just because it feels very military. It’s a simple change, but it really makes Doc stand out.
Doc may technically be part of the Rise of Cobra line, but his accessory load is more in line with Pursuit of Cobra than Rise of Cobra. It’s all stuff we’ve seen before, but it also all makes sense for Doc to have in the field. Starting off small, Doc gets his old helmet, this time with a lot of additional paint details. The helmet is blue (which gives it kind of a UN vibe) and the pill bottles strapped to the side of it are painted orange and white like real pill bottles. I’ve never quite understood why he’d be carrying pills on his helmet, but he always has, so
whatever. It’s just nice to see that they got some attention from the paint team which helps clearly define them as pill bottles. Over his shoulder, Doc is carrying his medical satchel, this time painted white and red. Also he’s still carrying his silver flare gun. Since he’s a Rise of Cobra doctor, he’s got the injector tool we’ve seen a few times. I like that Doc has finally upgraded his medkit with gear made since the 1980s. Speaking of medkits, Doc has a pretty impressive one…though it all originally came with the 25th Anniversary comic pack Firefly. The backpack opens and can be set up on a stand. Inside, he’s got a removable water can, flashlight, multitool and gauze wrapped in with his stethoscope. These accessories were great when Firefly had them and it’s amazing that a shift in paint colors can turn a saboteur’s toolkit into a field medkit. I’ll admit, owning a Leatherman multitool similar to the one that Doc is carrying I’m not sure I’d want to use it for medical purposes, but if it was the only option I had, it’s better than nothing. Plus, in the arctic environment, I can see something with both a pliers and a knife (along with other tools) as being more useful in the overall rescue operations than a scalpel would be. The paint work on his backpack is great and they really brought out the sculpted details that are inside this pack. Doc wouldn’t be Doc without a stretcher and he’s carrying his old stretcher again, this time in white. However, since he’s rescuing people in the arctic, he’s also got a blanket, courtesy of Pursuit of Cobra Snow Job. Finally, to make sure Doc doesn’t get hurt while he’s trying to get to his patient, he’s got ice cleats for his boots. They slip over his feet well and have peg holes in him so he can wear them and still stand on his figure stand. All this gear comes together really well and helps complete Doc as a character.
I may not have thought Doc was great right away, but I really did warm to as time went on. Viewing him more as an arctic emergency specialist rather than a field medic does help. I still see him as Doc, but who’s to say that the Joes don’t get called up sometimes as individual troopers in the event of some emergency. Since he’s part of the Joe team, Doc is supposed to be one of the best medics in the US military. It’d be silly to have him sitting on his duff at base if there’s not someone that needs help there. I can see this version of Doc working in concert with National Guard troops after an avalanche just as easily as I can see him working alongside the Joes, dodging bullets to get to men and women in need. It’s nice to see a Joe figure that can work both as a Joe but also as someone assisting Americans that aren’t under threat from Cobra. The bright colors are eye-catching and since there aren’t a lot of Joes rocking orange or yellow, let alone both, that does make him look pretty distinct a display shelf. I don’t mind bright colors as long as they make sense, and a brightly colored Doc rescuing people in the mountains really does make sense, so he works. I don’t think this figure would have been nearly as successful without them, so it’s good to see them here. This version of Doc, like the 25th Anniversary one, really is the perfect exclusive. He’s made of a lot of reused parts, but they work well together. At the same, though, he’s not going to create a gaping hole in your collection if you passed on him, like I did quite a few times before weakening.
They went Funskool with the colors on this one. Well, except for the fact that the paint’s not sloppy at all. Overall, this is a nice looking figure and it’s a good change of pace for Doc.
As a kid, I often wondered why there was only ever one version of Doc
For me it was not only the original 83 Doc, but it was also all of the other figures that were made before 1986. Especially, when I would be watching the reruns of the 1985, and the 1986 cartoons on tv around 1987, and I would get very angry because all that I had at that time was mostly the 87 figures, and just a few of the 86, because I had just started to collect G.I. Joe figures that year, and the ones from 85, and older, were no longer been sold in stores. So I would get very angry when I would see those cartoons, and I didn’t have those very cool characters’ figures. And that was the reason why I went totally nuts around 1988, when I saw the Tiger Force figures at a Kmart store in Miami. Sometimes I wonder if I was the only kid back then, who had that experience with the 88 Tiger Force repaints. Anyway, the 83 Doc figure could have been one of those 88 Tiger Force repaints. And there could have been other repaints of the 83 Doc, like one with an olive green uniform, another one with an orange uniform, maybe, and why not one with an arctic uniform. And I mean a real arctic uniform, in white, not one like the one that this figure is wearing. I wonder if the Hasbro folks lost the mold of the 83 Doc figure. But, I know that they were selling the 83 Doc by mail around the late 80’s, I think, so I’m not sure about what happened with that figure’s mold.
The mail-in for Doc and other 1982/83 Joes didn’t last too long. I suspect it was after that they shipped Doc’s mold to Brazil. Not sure why Doc didn’t become part of the Marauders at least (they were made in Brazil for Hasbro).
Is this supposed to be an arctic Doc figure, or a Slaughter Marauders Doc figure? Now, why didn’t the Hasbro folks gave us back in the days, an arctic Doc figure? And with a white arctic uniform that would have been most likely made up of various parts from other figures? As for this figure, you are right about the helmet having a kind of UN vibe. I hate the UN, so now that you mentioned it, I can not get your comment, and the visual of that helmet, out of my mind. I find that to be very suspicious. And it is too bad, because this figure kind of looks nice. But honestly, the only things that I want from this figure, are the accessories, for an o-ring arctic Doc custom that I would like to make. And thank you for using the term relaunch in your review of this figure. I always use either the term remake, or reboot, to explain to people the 25th Anniversary, and later similar designed figures. All of them are actually reboots of the Real American Hero story. Which it makes me very angry that the folks at Yojoe.com, have these new figures mixed together with the old o-ring figures, as if they were part of the same series, or collection. They are not, and someone should tell them that. These new figures are a separate collection of G.I. Joe figures, just like the G.I. Joe Extreme figures, or the Sigma 6 figures. These new figures are not meant to be compatible with the o-ring figures that were made between the 1980’s, the 90’s, and the early 2000’s figures, which share the same scale. And the proof of that is the height, or should I say, the scale difference of these reboot figures. That right there is the proof. Anyway, the original Doc was supposedly shot to death by a S.A.W.-Viper, that supposedly became Overkill. So then who was that Doc character that appeared in the Sgt. Savage cartoon? And why did the Hasbro folks allowed the Palitoy company to change the birthplace of some of the characters? They changed Doc’s nationality to Jamaican.
Most likely, the writers of the Sergeant Savage pilot had no idea that Doc had been killed in the comics. Sometimes writers also forget who is alive and who isn’t. Simon Furmen forgot he killed the Decepticon targetmaster Quake in one issue of the comic and threw him back in the next issue.
Palitoy was doing their one thang, and using Hasbro’s molds to do it. Don’t think Hasbro had story/character input. Even the Hasbro Action Force relaunch in 1988 had changed birthplaces for characters (AF Flint and Lady Jaye were NOT Americans), and that went on for a few years.
Sgt. Savage’s cartoon Doc could’ve been just some doctor they called “Doc”. And the cartoon makers gave exactly 0 fudges about what happened in the comic. Show me any anything that has a comic and tv show (or movie) where both universes were “on the same page”.
And that SAW-VIper is probably dead as far as Hama is concerned. He usually gives 0 fudges (snicker) about anyone else’s GI JOE comics.
I won’t even get started on the lie that modern GI JOE is a continuation of 3 3/4″ or whatever. I mostly skip modern era. Buying everything over in a new scale is a sucker’s game. I feel proven right by the fact 70% of the remade ARAH characters wind up being club exclusives.
Eh! Eh! Really Funskool Doc…
Each time I see this figure, my first take is that’s a test shot due to the wacky colors. Love or hate it, it’s something that you would not expect from Hasbro in the 2010’s.