Dreadhead Cletus (2004)
I find that I like the 2004 convention set’s character choice, color scheme and mold selection much more than its 2003 predecessor. With a set of new and old Dreadnoks, a group of identical “army builder” miscreants, and a few Joe Tiger Force members, it appealed to my love of unusual and colorful toys.
Dreadhead Cletus was one of six army builder figures in the set, and joined his family members in hooking up with the Dreadnoks. The whole gang apparently received similarly colored uniforms, splitting off with sub-sections of ‘Noks in matching attire. No, seriously. I have to wonder if this all was the Zartan family’s doing, since he and his siblings liked to gad about in variations of Mad Max-esque accessories. The colors on Cletus here shouldn’t work, especially the bubble-gummy hued camo pants, but I can’t resist the shock of it all.
Though the Dreadhead concept was supremely goofy, and overkilled the swamp dweller/redneck stereotype, I can’t argue with the selection of the body molds used on these guys. The Muskrat figure is one of my favorites, and getting it in several different colors within one set was exciting to me. The Aero-Viper head, one of the nicer of the few removable helmet Cobra troops, was a good choice since it’s not immediately recognizable. The cherry on top is the impressively intricate Dreadnok symbol on the do-rag.
The Dreadheads were a terrible idea and should have been abandoned. What’s odd is that the Dreadnoks and Heads in the set are obviously colored into factions. Was that ever explored?
The maddening thing about this figure was that the Aero Viper is a great, but underappreciated figure. (He’s semi tough to find so I think he stays below the radar.) He would have been a great repaint for the 2003 Rattler or other release. His head here, though, cheapens the original. Then, you have the Muskrat body. Hasbro took it out of circulation in India to produce this and the Chief Torpedo from 2004. Then, nada. He would have been great in any number of TRU sets. But, it wasn’t to be.
Of all the con sets, this one has the most stinkers, by far. They should have either just gone with an all character subset (this body as the basis for 6 Joes might have actually worked) or come up with a different army builder. They called Mega Vipers “Swamp Vipers” the year before. So, they could have taken any later army builder, painted it up and called it a Dreadnok Viper and it would have been better received than the Dreadheads.
It think Dreadnok Viper is bad idea, too. Any army builder for the Dreadnoks hurts their whole concept. They work as a relatively small gang, the more characters added to it, the less special the Dreadnoks feel. Devil’s Due didn’t get that, and the fan club didn’t either. And Hasbro must’ve realized the Dreadnok concept was tired after Gnawgahyde (who never made it to the vintage comic).
They could’ve used the Dreadhead parts combo for one new Dreadnok and it would’ve been special (at least more creative than Zangief in Gnawgahyde clothes). But 6 identical cousins was too much and plain silly
I do give them some props for at least trying something else before resigning themselves to the “let’s cater to fans who want 6 identical figures” crowd.
“Brandine! Git my fancy britches ready”
I was going to say “Some folk’ll never eat a skunk but then again some foke’ll”
I agree with everything Forgotten Figures says above. The head is terrible IMO it was awful as a Cobra trooper to begin with–whats the deal with the facial hair on trooper builders? Not to mention the whole figure is just one big stereotype.
I always hated the aeroviper head too, looks more like it should’ve been a named Cobra, rather than a whole legion of Don Diamont fanboy pilots…and the half-mask? Somewhere The Dread Pirate Roberts is rolling over in his grave at that poor attempt to pull it off.
I do like the camo paint mask on the pants, though. You could use the lower half to make a O-ring version of the 2010 Elite Viper (Flight Pod set). And is this guy’s vest the same pearlescent red used in the 2005 Imperial Procession set? It’d be awesome to whip that Cobra Commander’s head on this body!