Beachhead (1993)
The Battle Corps series of the final years of the Real American Hero line gave rise to quite a few core character redesigns. Some, like Duke, Roadblock and Gung Ho were updates of the character’s established look and specialty. Others like Flint, were placed into unfamiliar roles. Beachhead fortunately remains a ranger, but gets a sort of SWAT look that seems like it could have fit in with the DEF series alongside Shockwave and Mutt.
Speaking of Shockwave, the legs are from the 1988 version of that character. Maybe the parts reuse subconsciously made me think of a SWAT theme. The colors aren’t too bad for those who like their Joe togs a little more on the subdued side. The same can’t be said for the 1994 repaint, who traded in his black vest for a safety yellow model. Speaking of yellow, as much as I’m a fan of the bright paint jobs of the later RAH years, I can’t in good conscience bring myself to outfit this Beachhead with any of the weapons included on his yellow accessory tree. I like the figure too much to do that to him.
A couple noteworthy items from later series are worth mentioning. First, the file cards with sometimes helpful, sometimes uselesss equipment call-outs. A cool idea in general, but do we really need to know about Beachhead’s water proof combat pants? Also from the file cards, the propensity to give characters a secondary specialty as a driver of a current vehicle–a cross-sell technique that’s about as subtle as a velvet cudgel.
Always loved this figure – the colors and the sculpt, especially that great-looking head. Definitely an underrated figure from the latter ARAH years. Those yellow weapons were unbelievably terrible, though, so I really appreciate you giving him that black rifle. They had to bring back that ugly Recoil double gun. And then they went and messed up a good thing by using that same awful yellow on the vest the next year… what were they thinking?! The vehicle thing on the filecards irked me a bit too.
Something you ought to have noticed–they swapped the places of the Shockwave Lower legs. I wonder why….
This is a great figure. Giving him black versions of v1 accessories makes all the difference. I’d have loved a modern repaint. But this guy is solid enough to stand on his own.
I wasn’t collecting Joes by ’93 but I still checked them out on the pegs and those file card changes were the worst. The equipment description would make more sense in the current web gear/working holster era but not back then.
Nice 1993 figure.
I have this figure, but it’s not one of my favorites….
Oh, 1993. In my humble opinion, 1993 is perhaps the worst year for the G.I. Joe line. When I saw the card art for this figure, I was aghasted. While the figure looks a little better than the card art, I cannot get over Beachhead’s head. The mesh look reminds me of scales (the head could be reused for a Cobra snake/human hybrid). The rest of the body is fine; it’s just the head. Perhaps the third worst figure out of the ’93 line (with fly fisherman Bazooka and safari Leatherneck in first and second place).
Didn’t this comment of yours appear on an earlier post?
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