Funskool Wild Weasel
If there’s one thing you can’t accuse the later Funskool releases of, it’s drabness. The colors ran pretty wild and wooly near the end of their time with the GI Joe license. Of course, I’m not complaining, because I have a streak in me that prefers polychromatic playthings.
Wild Weasel is I think famous in collectors’ minds because of both his characterization (he seemed like a laconic Boba Fett type to me) as well as his almost monchromatic deep red color scheme. This one however is bright red, red, red. With yellow bits. And a slop of bright blue paint on his visor.
At first glance, you might think this figure shares the same mold as its Hasbro counterpart. But look closely; those forearms come from Cross Country. Funny enough, the Funskool Cross Country from the same period was given Wild Weasel’s arms. Oops! Mix-up in the factory.
Skystriker will always be the best use of the Wild Weasel mold.
Odd colors!
And, he came with a parachute! I really miss Funskool. The Hasbro releases of the time were a sea of banality. While the Funskool stuff may not have been the best, it was drastically different. The later release Funskool figures have gotten a bit pricey and tougher to find, even though thousands and thousands of them were brought to the U.S. It’s been 12 years since Funskool stopped producing new Joes, though. Doesn’t seem that long.
I can’t believe it’s been 12 years. Wow, time is on a rocket sled.
I have this figure.and it’s an absolute favorite of mine.
Wild Weasel got the better end of the arm swap. Funskool Cross Country’s forearms are freaky.
Just having a carded release of any vintage driver was great, bad art, bad colors…who cares? The inclusion of a parachute was great, Hasbro never made a Cobra one for ARAH. And they created new paint masks or whatever, they painted parts Hasbro didn’t on the original.
The file card mentions the Rattler, a vehicle not released in India. LOL.