Wet-Suit (1993)
Wet-Suit has just never looked like a combat diver to me. That’s not really a complaint, because I’m not always hung up on military realism with GI Joe. Ever since I bought Torpedo back in 1983, I’ve been a fan of the diver figures. Though they’re limited in use on land, the appeal of the underwater outfits and accessories, and the thoughts of playing with these guys in the water always excited me. Looking back at even the 12 inch Joes of the 60s, that’s been a central part of the play for the aquatic Joe toys. Worried that the screws may rust? Throw ’em in the water, I say! Have some fun!
As a repaint from the 92-94 years, the figure fares better than others in terms of a revised paint scheme. Poor Bulletproof for instance went from tan camo to bright yellow. Wet Suit is a bit toned down for his Battle Corps release. The orange isn’t quite as bright, although I really didn’t have a problem with the previous version’s yellow. It just worked more toward his adventurer -type look for me. He was like a throwback to the 70s Adventure Team. After all, yellow is the official Adventure Team color, isn’t it?
The torpedo firing sled is one of the better spring loaded gimmicks to come along in the 90s. Its presence makes sense, and the size is just right for the figure. The only issue is the figure’s inability to hold onto the handles with both hands. Not a deal breaker though, as little details like spots for the extra torpedoes to snap in makes it a cool little bonus vehicle.
Joe mullet
The most surprising part of this mold was the mullet. He’s got a lotta hair back there!
http://www.3djoes.com/wet-suit-v4.html
I had the yellow version, and hands down, I think his sled was my favorite missile launcher ever. That mold is great and I liked that Hasbro got some good use out of it over the years since 1992.
Oreobuilder did a really nice custom update of this figure for his “Battle Corps Month” Project from last month:
http://oreobuildersblog.blogspot.ca/2013/07/battle-corps-month-day-19-wetsuit-and.html
And for those of you who might be interested, the harpoon gun is in this lot on Listia right now:
http://www.listia.com/auction/11964256-vintage-gi-joe-guns-arrows-knives-swords
The yellow version of this guy was the second Joe figure i bought with my own money. I still remeber seeing the “new” battle corps stuff next to the “really old stuff” in the misers toy store. Still if it werent for that miser i would never have been exposed to Joes in the first place 🙂
Cool figure. Nice to see a BC missile launcher that makes sense.
Although I prefer the yellow and black Wet-Suit, this is a great looking figure, too. Also, it doesn’t seem to get mentioned very much, but these backgrounds you use in your photos are pretty good most of the time. Even though this is just a plain blue background, I really like it. It helps give the impression he’s actually swimming in the ocean. Good job. 🙂
Yes, a great diver figure and I always liked the 12″ Action Man frogman way back in the mists of time so this was a nice reminder. I do prefer the yellow/black version though, in fact, it’s hard to think of a repaint that was better than the original.
This underwater mini-vehicle is very cool.
Red is the first color to disappear from the light spectrum under water. Orange isn’t far behind.
That sled is really cool!
Best part: if you’re going to do a second version of a helmeted figure, do it with an “unmasked” head. Transplant this head on an ’87 Falcon body and you’ve got a decent SEAL land ops Wet Suit.
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