Gung Ho (2001)
Is it just me, or is this Gung Ho really pale? He appears quite pallid, like he’s just seen a ghost. Though the series of figures released after the late 90s Toys R Us sets were an interesting mix including later molds, the paint schemes and even the plastic itself were of a strangely different quality than what was produced in the 80s and 90s. The end result wasn’t necessarily bad, just different.
I would liked to have seen an update based on his 1983 figure. A pair of larger arms could have done wonders for a figure that never measured up to its hulking size in various media portrayals. Instead, the Battle Corps mold was revisited. Once of my wish list items has been this figure repainted in the older colors–the classic blue and camo. However, there is something about the muted colour scheme here that really works well. Call it either a combination of jungle or desert gear, but this Gung Ho is just plain versatile.
I won this in one of my first Listia auctions, in a lot with the 2000 Wild Bill, Big Brawler, and a junker figure. I only just completed this version of Gung-Ho recently.
If you wanted to get a close approximation to the figure you desired, Rob, you could switch the upper half of this figure with that of the 2004 Desert Patrol Squad version. It’d be close enough, at least.
I think it works. He does need a darker skin tone though.
The colors of the vest/uniform are cool! He reminds me Gene Hackman in “Uncommon Valor”!
He does look like Gene Hackman at that! I wasn’t crazy about the Rambo-ish headband look for Gung-Ho when this figure first came out in ’92 but the mold has slowly grown on me over the years. A repaint in the ’83 original’s colors would have been an interesting find.
It seems Hasbro went either ghost-pale or Malibu-pink with skin tones in the early ’00s. The Battle Corps mold for Gung-Ho isn’t bad and I appreciate that his tattoo, if smaller, is on his chest again versus his ’93 figure.
I had the red shirt mold (’93 Battle Corp) of this Gung ho first. That figure got some pretty use at that time, however with the more (non-red shirt, essentially) military drab colors of this particular Gung ho, it pretty much took its place when I got it.
While only a few years down the road on later ARAH figures, I really liked the 2000-2001 series as it allowed me to use “new” figures that were really close to the originals down to the accessories without risking damage/ wear to older original ARAH figures.
However, someone made mention to me that they didn’t like the 2001-2002 collector series figures due to the pale skin tones, which I had never really sat and considered on my own, however, ever since that was pointed out to me I slowly lost some love for these figures and started picking out more earlier, original ARAH figures.
So, the ’93 Battle Corp figure kinda became a more favored figure to me since.