1993 GI Joe Placemat
This isn’t the first placemat we’ve covered here at JAD. A while back, I happened upon a Ninja Force themed mat, and it was appropriately glorious. The military side of the line also got some love from the housewares section that year, with a mat that featured 1992 and 1993 figures and vehicles.
On the front side, we’ve got Duke, Ace and Wet-Suit. I know, it’s hard to believe that Snake Eyes didn’t make it onto this one, but hey, he had his very own sub-team to lead. Wait–there he is in the Mudbuster! Dangit! Duke is wearing a differently colored version of his Battle Corps uniform. Ace looks to be sporting something based more closely on his Hall of Fame gear, at least in terms of color. He did however wear a flightsuit like this as a Battle Copter driver figure. Wet-Suit looks the most accurate to what was still on the shelf at the time; the Battle Corps redesign in yellow.
Center stage belongs to the Mudbuster, and it makes me happy to see this vehicle on a piece of ancillary merchandise. The toy itself is I think highly underrated, and is one of the more fun and useful Joe ground combat vehicles of the 90s. Maybe if the color had been altered, or the gaudy paper stickers replaced with decorations more traditional to the line’s early days, it would be more fondly remembered.
The back of the mat, like the Ninja Force version, features a number of puzzles and activities. I suppose kids were still capable of being entertained by such things into the 90s. Although now that I’m a parent, I highly doubt it. I know it would have held my interest for all of two seconds. The Shark 9000, another fun 90s entry in the line is given a bit of space in one corner. Now that I see this, I think we really missed out when we didn’t get a DEF themed placemat. Oh, what could have been…
I completely agree on the Mudbuster. If you’ve ever owned one, you quickly see that it’s pretty solid. A repaint in the 2000’s would have been most welcome and likely would have turned collectors onto the vehicle.
The green Duke appears in a lot of places. I believe that the mold may have been planned for a ’95 release in that color scheme. But, it might have been an abandoned color scheme, too. Either way, I’d have liked that mold in these colors.
Ace looks awesome. Would have been cool for a figure designed like this to be a new Ripcord or Freefall, too.
Some of these old licensed products are a great source of abandoned concepts or early concepts that changed.
I got the Mudbuster for xmas in ’93. I loved it. I missed it so much i took a corps vehicle and put four coats of “Hawke turqouise” [a colour games workshop no longer makes :(] to turn it into a new Mudbuster. Duke and Ace also look good in their alternate colour schemes. Granted, i have Duke fatigue but that battle corpse version of him is a pretty good figure.
I dig the mudbuster too. I custom painted one to match Muskrat’s color scheme a few years back.
I guess it’s always good having a ninja commando riding shotgun like Snake Eyes. It was interesting they showcased an odd assortment of figures- a regular 1993 carded figure, a 1993 vehicle pilot (Ace’s green outfit and dark helmet was the 1993 Ghoststriker pilot. The Battle Copter Ace was blue with a white helmet), and a 1992 figure recolored for 1993 instead of 3 new regular carded figures from 1993.