Flint (1985)
Flint was another figure that I obtained back in the day via a trade with a grade school friend. Unfortunately, I can’t recall what or who I traded to get him. I do know that he was complete initially, but I soon lost his shotgun. Even sans weapon, Flint quickly became one of my favorite Joes, and was in a position of command in my forces, even moreso than his second-to-Duke role in the Sunbow cartoon.
Parts of the figure seem thin and I daresay dainty compared to some later figures. Then again, it could just be they look small in relation to Flint’s big forearms. I’ve seen quite a few o-ring customs over the years that use Flint’s legs as the basis for female characters. I’ve also thought that his chest looked a little “busty” but maybe I’m just imagining things.
Flint is another figure whose sculpt isn’t totally on par with his package art. I remember thinking, even all those years ago, that his beret seemed to sit unusually high on his head, and the face didn’t look as tough in comparison to the image on his card. I do however like the fact that they mention his lopsided grin in the file card.
I also liked Flint because of his Midwestern background. He hails from Wichita, Kansas, which although not exactly next door to my hometown, was still fairly close to a Joe hailing from my area. Which reminds me, why are there no Joes from my hometown of Kansas City, MO? I know some folks consider it cowtown flyover country, but throw us a bone, Hasbro. I guess St Louis gets all the glory (as usual) with Duke.
Well if it makes you feel any better, hometown – Baltimore – only got one Joe, and that was Deep Six, who is certainly a contender for worst Joe of all time. In his initial incarnation, certainly, he was almost unplayable, and his filecard makes him out to be a huge jerk.
It’s funny how apparently the molds to Flint’s original forearms were lost in the 90’s, and as a result, for the next versions that used the original mold (Night Force Flint, Comic Pack Flint), they ended up using the forearms of Roadblock V1.
This is one of my favorite figures in the entire line. Great colors, strong mold and awesome accessories.
I remember part of what drew me to Flint as a kid was the filecard hometown of Wichita. I didn’t have the original but the Tiger Force was always one of my go-to characters and a big part of it was the cartoon characterization, but equally important was that he was born in Kansas like I was. For some reason, that really appealed to my kid brain…and I think was one of the things that drew me to the Joe line in general. Superheroes were based out of places I wasn’t familiar with (primarily NYC for a Marvel fan like myself) but G.I. Joe had people coming from all over the country, including states I was familiar with, like Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa–places that don’t get a lot of attention in pop culture for some reason. And hey, Rob, at least Missouri gets some Joe love…it took until the DTC line before my home state of South Dakota got a single Joe, and even then, he was pretty meh…;)
I got Flint on his own at a TRUs back in ’85 but he had a wobbly neck (never quite figured out why) so the guy didn’t see much action in the field. Nowadays, this is one of my favorite figures from that year. Flint also wins easily over Duke as field leader of the Joes, especially if we’re talking about his Sunbow cartoon portrayal. The lop-sided grin and cavalier attitude mentioned in his file card adds a lot to this iconic character.
Did you ever fix the neck as you got older?
I never liked this figure going all the way back to his debut. He always seemed preoccupied with Lady Jaye all the time. I have almost all of the vintage era figures from 82-89, yet I still don’t have this one.
In fact, I have a Starduster and two Listen N Fun Tripwires,but no Flint 😛
Awesome action figure!
He his a lucky guy! He “sleeps” with Lady Jaye…
Yeah man, even my city of Little Rock gets a bit of love from Chuckles. Seems odd they’d overlook Kansas City.
Reviews reminds me. I never got “Flint is better than Duke” stance that some fans have. Flint’s a dark-haired Duke in a beret with a taste for brunettes over red-heads. In the comics, they were both jerks. In the cartoon, they did share too many moments probably because they were too alike to be featured together. Flint has a slight edge only because he had less comas and maybe got captured less often. On the other hand, Flint was ragingly jealous when it came to Lady Jay’s affections.
I feel so much better after reading this post. I thought it was just me that thought Flint’s chest was a bit too busty. The really bizarre thing is, it doesn’t seem so noticable in the comic pack version which uses the same tooling – go figure!
Well, Flint was a good luck charm. Kansas’ nearest MLB team the Kansas City Royals got to and won the World Series in the same year Flint came out.
You don’t have to remind me about that one. Being a KC native, I have fond memories of the 1985 World Series, especially game six.
I never had this one, but I always wanted it. Especially as Flint was my favorite leader character of the Joes. This is a classic figure all around.