Dodger (1987)
Dear Battle Force 2000,
I’m sorry to have mocked and disparaged you several times over the course of this blog’s existence. I’ve since come to respect and even admire elements of your team’s design and sculpts. I don’t know why I hadn’t appreciated the strangeness of your concept and execution, considering the fact that I love a lot of the wackier Joes from later in the line. Maybe the crappiness of Dee-Jay sullied my outlook on the team as a whole.
Now that I’m looking at the group again from a less cynical perspective, I see some things that I really like. From a sculpt perspective, there are some wonderful details on this figure. Most notable for me is the fine texture on the tunic underlying his chest piece. I can’t believe how well the crispness and detail was brought out. I can’t recall too many other figures that had this kind of chainmail like texture on their uniforms.
In previous coverage of BF2K, I’ve complained about the goofiness of the group’s heads and helmets. I still see those elements as weak points, but Dodger doesn’t fare too badly. The helmet just doesn’t strike me as being as interesting as other parts, like his chest harness. I also like the removable headsets sported by some of the figures.
When the other members of the team were killed, Dodger was the only one saved from death. I wonder why he was chosen to survive? Maybe because he was the only one tough enough to go sleeveless.
P.S. Though I’ve now come around to BF2K, you have to cut me some slack with my treatment of Dee-Jay. Even a guy like me with no shame or taste has his limits.
I’ve always been a fan of BF2000, despite the goofy vehicles. The sculpts were always a bit odd; seemed rushed to me.
I think Dodger survived because he got promoted and was issued a massive Sonic weapon. The other guys in BF2000 laughed at him. See what happened?
LOL! Good point, Tom. I always thought the whole Sonic Fighter thing seemed like a happy coincidence for Dodger considering what he endured in the comic.
Dodger was spared because Hama said there were too many characters to use in the book and asked Hasbro which characters he could kill off and Dodger was likely excluded because he had a Sonic Fighters repaint around the time the deaths in the desert happened.
He was only saved because Hasbro reused his mold.
I actually like BF2K, and Dodger is on my Top 20 favorite Joe characters. So far, the only BF2K figure I have is Dee-Jay (who I don’t find too bad-looking, BTW), but when I start adding more members, Dodger will be the next one I get.
Dee-Jay is the peg warmer to end all peg warmers. The rest of the Battle Force 2000 is solid, though. Especially Dodger, Blaster, and Blocker. The team has always sort of reminded me of the Space Marines from Aliens a bit (or something along those lines) which is definitely a good thing.
Great to hear that you finally saw the light! I was blown away by the detailing on these guys since I first got them in the two-packs back in ’87. Dodger’s chainmail tunic is especially notable as is the padding on Avalanche and the paint work on most of the original sextet.
I was happy that Dodger survived the Great Character Purge of ’91 and even more so to have him return as a vehicle driver in the DDP series. The Force had lots of potential as individuals even though they didn’t make the cut as a sub-team. It’s about time fans gave them a second look.
Dodger…my first G.I.JOE: ’nuff said.
Blaster is my favourite but I still like the whole BF2k concept, figures & vehicles, even Dee-Jay and the Pulverizer. Despite the fact that 2000 seems so long ago now.
I never understood the BF2000 hate, but then I liked the high-tech vehicles anyway (the HAVOC is one of my favourite Joe vehicles and that’s even more implausible than the BF2000 stuff, which at their worst were a similarly odd design and at their best were outstanding, like the Dominator.)
On the other hand, it’s pretty cool to think that with the current “build a figure” mania going on, the Joes were the first line to my knowledge to have something like that* with the Future Fortress.
* – I’d differentiate the FF from gestalts from TFs, because once you built the FF you still had six individual vehicles lying around to play with.