Hot Wire (Lanard CORPS! Construction)
If there’s one thing that the GI Joe line has lacked, it’s civilians. What is a kid to do if he wants to populate his battle scenes with background characters? Where are the support personnel–you know, the police, bystanders and general onlookers? Nowhere in the official Hasbro offerings. Luckily, Lanard Toys came to the rescue with a couple series of regular (and non-military) Joes. One of those series was titled CORPS! Construction.
Based on the same o-ring design of the 1980s figures, the construction line offered up some nicely generic fellows who could easily populate the background of any number of dio scenes or display setups. This particular member of the crew, an electrician named Hot Wire, is clad in shorts and a simple t-shirt. These simple, nondescript outfits have often been a boon for vintage o-ring GI Joe customizers, as they have the kind of clothing options that GI Joe often didn’t present. I’ve seen used the shorts from this same mold used in several Kwinn customs.
As cool at the figure itself is, the accessories are equally impressive and useful. With a wheelbarrow, tool box, drill, saw and even a screwdriver, this is heaven for diorama builders. I’ve often said not to give Lanard’s offerings too shirt a shrift simply because of their perceived status as a GI Joe “me-too” product. They did turn out quite a few toys that were fun, and even useful alongside Hasbro’s Joe. You just need to keep an open mind.
One day I hope to own a screwdriver that rivals my drill in size. Still an interesting concept though.
Fisher Price Adventure People were always the go-to for civilians. My best friend had the news van and crew. The fat cameraman and Stalker’s girlfriend were always in the line of fire.
I got two of these in a large bag of corps figures i bought at the weekly boot sale back in 2010. I managed to make a British 8th army soldier from one and i intend to make a British Indian soldier out of the second one.
On the sunbject of civilans. I wish Hasbro would make a Hector Romirez figure.
Also on that day when i was going through that bag, my neice grabbed four random figures [a very coincidental group] and put them in the small, pink Barbie jeep that was included in the lot.
These construction figures were an inspired idea and nicely executed.
I’ve always sang Lanard’s praises in regards to their products’ compatibility with Hasbro’s output. Lanard and various other companies such as as Remco and Olmec helped the competition thrive, inspired Hasbro to maintain their quality standards, and gave collectors a bunch of neat stuff to better flesh out our collections.
I remember the first time I saw one of these guys was in the Dio-Stories over at GeneralsJoes and I thought it was a really cool idea. As I recall, not only were they used as actual civilians, but I know a couple times they were used as specific Joes on a stakeout. Making civilians in this scale was genius and it’s nice to see Joe’s most famous also-ran did come up with a few new ideas that never aped what Hasbro was bringing to the market.
That guy is now my favorite character.
IIRC, they came out with the construction (and rescue) stuff when there was no real GI JOE presence on the market, besides rotting Extreme products or maybe late 90’s TRU exclusives.
@Bravo
If i recal, they appeared in late ’99 [time for christmas] where i lived. My brother picked up a couple of the police sets to act as substitute C.O.P.S figures
I do like these figures and the vehicles they came with too. I’d love to find an extra one of the pickup trucks to convert to a tactical. Conincidentally I’ve just found a spare set of these construction figures MOC this weekend while tidying up so I’ll have to pop them up on eBay.
Nice accessories!