Blizzard (1988)
I can’t believe I missed so many arctic Joes in my time away from the toys in the late 80s. The regular troops, vehicles and drivers were all beefed up. Blizzard stands out as a favorite.
Blizzard is chock full of accessories, including skis, ice shoes, two weapons, a backpack and helmet. This alone would be enough to draw one’s attention, but he’s also unique in that many of those accessories combine into a mini-vehicle. The arctic attack sled, as the instructions printed on the cardback so handily point out (thank you, Hasbro) is formed from the backpack and skis. The end result is bit unwieldy, but I don’t think a kid would complain about a free sled armed with a machine gun. I sure wouldn’t. Although it looks like Blizzard is going to be dragged to his death, I still think this thing is really cool. The best part for me is that when it breaks down, the individual pieces still work and look good.
The helmet on the figure looks a little large, particularly in comparison to the card art, but I’m sure that’s down to the technology of the time, or there was some production reason why rubbery plastic was used rather than the ABS normally used for helmets. The white material is prone to attracting dirt, and almost every loose example I’ve seen has been marred in some way. It’s too bad the helmet didn’t turn out differently, considering the design. Maybe someday we’ll get a modern remake done up by Boss Fight.
The mold has seen its share of re-uses over the years. There was a unique and bold international Tiger Force variant that is just so over the top it works. On the other end of the spectrum is a less-than-stellar remold and name reassignment in a multi-pack. Yeah, Blizzard showed up in an arctic themed pack as Short-Fuze. More on that at a later date. Somewhere in between, his body was used in the movie Street fighter line as a cold weather equipped Jean-Claude Van Damme. Both of the former were released sans helmets. Poor guys. Hope they at least packed some earmuffs.
For fans who’ve made up their own Joeverses, a character like Blizzard is a nice, blank slate. Without any comic or animation appearance and a fairly generic file card, he doesn’t carry any canon baggage that I know of.
The Tiger Force variant is one of my favorite figures. Very colorful for the Arctic environments (don’t mention yellow snow). I never knew a (normal) white version existed as a kid. He does actually appear in the IDW comic issues #167-168, where they are going back to the Russian base from issue #2, from back in August ’82.
Most of my familiarity with Blizzard comes from the NES game. That’s where I was first introduced to the character.
Great figure!
Blizzard looks prepared for a battle! The sled and its easily-lost handles is a bit much, but I like the figure. Brings to mind how cool Snow Job was with all his gear.
Plus, in Brazil, he was a Cobra.
This was one of three or four 1988 figures my youngest brother had after I stopped buying Joes. I thought he was great and a spectacular upgrade from Snow Job. I think the Street Fighter is my favorite coloring of the body and works as an lbc with a Blizzard head and gear.
”Great background pictures. Makes you feel you are there with Blizzard.”
I heard that Blizzard was a bit of a shelfwarmer and the unsold figures were prizes in Chuck E Cheez resturants
That is in fact true. The same fate befell the Python Patrol Officer. Both were available that way in 1991.
By ’91, I was no longer going to Chuck E. Cheeze. If I were and had I known they had Joe figures, I probably would’ve cheated big time to win tickets.
Excellent figure and accessories and character. Details of winter gear with sensible colors. Skis, snowshoes, long arm, side arm, and backpack to hold it. Effective helmets are realistically big looking on humans, this one brings the overall design to a more technologically packed level.
I recognized the name, but not the figure from the first photo. I must’ve made sure I lost that helmet fast, cuz I remember all the other accessories.
I love that the instructions for using his backpack/sled are careful to note that Blizzard needs his helmet on when using the sled.
Blizzard was the best equipped arctic Joe. He not only came with weapons, he had skiis, ice shoes, and a sled. I missed out on Snow Job so my first arctic Joe was Iceberg, who carries the least amount of accessories on a carded arctic Joe besides Avalanche (who was part of the Battle Force 2000 experiment and at least came with a very retro sci-fi ray gun rifle). Iceberg didn’t have much appeal to me because the figure’s equipment left much to the imagination arctic environment-wise. Storm Shadow, Blizzard, Iron Grenadier were the highest priority figures for me back in 1988. I’d rank Blizzard as the best arctic Joe from the line.
Yeah, I’m not sure what’s up with the rubber mask either. Arctic Stalker’s mask was soft too, likewise Scoop’s helmet. Wasn’t Downtown’s helmet made from a softer plastic too?
Ah yes, the GI Joe game. That’s one of the hidden gems of the NES. It offers a lot of versatility in characters controlled and their attributes & attacks and in the stage layouts (horizontal, vertical, area map with checkpoints) plus offered use of some mini-vehicles.
The odd part with the Chuck E Cheese figures is of the 3 (Python Officer, Blizzard, Keel Haul), only Keel Haul visibly shelf-warmed (all the USS Flaggs with prices slashed). The only visible shelfwarmers in that timeframe were Crystal Ball & Dee-Jay. The Python Patrol figure that seemed closest to shelfwarming from my experience was Python Crimson Guard, with that bright yellow uniform (Copperhead seemed to be the best-selling of the six). I don’t remember Blizzards gathering in any noticeable amount.
Let me add to the Chuck E. Cheese side of the story, there might’ve been something up on the production side. Maybe there was a miscommunication and more Blizzards were produce than needed and they remained in warehouses, the case assortments keeping their planned allotments? I recall with Transformers: Beast Wars, certain figures were epic shelfwarmers (Transquito) but with research, as it turned out Transquito was quite uncommon in its release year (1997) and over 1999-2000, certain older case assortments had new shipments to stores (cases not officially part of the product line that year), the other figures Transquito came with sold (like Inferno), leaving Transquito to pile up. There were tales of people going to get Zelda: Majora’s Mask on release day (October 2000), walking by the toy aisle and seeing brand new Transmetal Optimus Primals & Megatrons, figures that were out in 1998 and superceded in 1999. People speculated for whatever reason, excesses of these case assortments were produced and were sitting in warehouses for 2-3 years before being shipped to stores alongside late Beast Wars assortments and Beast Machines assortments. … Didn’t someone from Hasbro then get interviewed a few years ago and they explained why Roadblock was recalled in 1992? Maybe whatever site organized that interview can pass along the Chuck E. Cheese question to someone who worked at Hasbro in the GI Joe line ~1990 for an answer?