Dial Tone (2000)
The 2000 releases brought GI Joe back to mainstream retail, beyond its two year stint as Toys R Us exclusives. At first, I wasn’t too enthused about the series, but once I started checking out a few of the packs more closely, I found some things to like. First off, if you’re not a fan of brightly colored figures, this set should be to your liking. The series also features unique paint applications. Earth tones and dark washes abound, along with an interesting take on camouflage deco: marbleized plastic.
Getting Dial Tone in a more subdued and generic looking uniform is a nice change up from his previous color schemes that tended toward a more utilitarian or support than combat look. Thankfully the entire mold was kept intact, making for a consistent look among his other iterations. With a character of Dial Tone’s specialty, it would be a shame to lose some of his unique uniform details. It is a bummer however that his gloves were left unpainted.
This figure bears the distinction of being the only clean-shaven Dial-Tone. Well, not technically, if you’re only going by the code name, as 2009 saw a female release with the same name. You get the idea, though. It’s a little bit of a shock to see the character without his trademark ‘stache, and if you’re not careful, you might think the head mold was different. It’s not, as you can still see his sculpted facial hair. That’s kind of weird. Also gone this time around is his unique communication backpack, replaced by yet another remolding of the 1984 Firefly phone. I imagine that the original pack was not available, so the smaller device was thrown in the mix. From a mythos standpoint, it could stand to reason that the Joe team was way ahead of the curve in terms of miniaturization of communications technology.
I painted the ‘stache on mine, but have yet to try the gloves.
This figure is decent. The gloves and mustache, though, are sloppy reminders that Hasbro really wasn’t fully committed to the line even in 2000. I can forgive the olive tone on this figure since it was the first wave and the color hadn’t been overdone. But, the banality of the later ARAHC figures do diminish this figure somewhat.
I think it was the General Tomahawk from this wave that included a silver Dial Tone gun. So, I swapped all these ’91 Dusty accessories with his vintage weapon and it improves the figure drastically.
”Let’s just stick, with the Vintage Classic G. I. Joes /Cobras, as they were meant to be enjoyed,O. K.?-”Action figures from 2000 and beyond just warp the mind.”
That paintjob makes him look a bit generic
It’s true. We get caught up in what’s “real” and how their uniforms should be standardized, but what worked in ’82 doesn’t work for all the figures. The varying colors & designs are what make GIJoe visually appealing versus other military toys. But these early 2000s figures make great custom fodder and swapping some parts around can create interesting figures.
That’s the best “Flint” head sculpt I’ve ever seen. Way better than the goofy cockeyed beret of 1985’s sculpt.
I know everyone seems very down on this figure but I like it. I think it was nice to have a Dial Tone with the olive color. I know he is missing the mustache but what was he born with it? Maybe he is private dial tone or something. Myself I just use him as a different character. I love the olive military color, I also like the ecentric side of Joe too, but I like it all I am cool with whatever it is as long as it is o-ring Joe, I am happy personally.