Gasman (Lanard CORPS!)
Yes yes, I laughed at the name too, but it’s not any worse than Skidmark. The CORPS! line had a few figures that looked like they could be villains, but were not. With his gas mask and shirtless look, Gasman sure looks like he should be a member of the enemy forces. Wait, as near as I can tell, there are no enemy forces in the line.
So then who is he? The back of the package describes him as a “crowd attitude adjuster” whose weapon specialty is “tear gas, mustard gas, paralyzing gas, KO gas–he knows gas.” I’d say so. He also apparently tried all the armed services, and none of then were tough enough for him. Wow.
The accessories are effective, and while the backpack is pretty much a direct steal from Blowtorch, the gas canisters and carrier are unique to Lanard and well detailed.
Make fun of the name and the look all you want, but at least the character provides some visual interest. Some of the early CORPS! were I thought quite bland. It wasn’t until the 90’s that some designs were released that piqued my interest.Â
The 90’s also brought in some bright color and wild patterns. So it wasn’t just Hasbro who went crazy with this stuff. In fact, both were part of the fashion and fad of the time, if you remember. Like other figures in the line, Gasman was included in several repaint sets. This one, with its amoebic, light colored patterns, struck me as possibly arctic at first. But since the bright orange details don’t fit that environment, along with the gas mask, it further cements him in my mind as part of a low-rent Eco Warriors.
The canister and carrier accessories would fit right in with some of the more urban-based Joe figures.
Nice accessories. The figure is horrible i.m.o.!
Gasman is cool. I like his bio, it makes him out to be a tough specialist who’s done it all right out of the gate. The lone DDP comic featured a cool version of him. He also changed his ethnicity at one point.
I thought I wasn’t imagining that my original Gasman was caucasian. Must have been exposed to some mutagenic gas, maybe that’s what happened to Ripcord.
I do like the older Corps figures but they did have a lot of repaints to suit several environments, desert, jungle, arctic, Mardi Gras parade…
What’s great about this guy is that he wears a gasmask but runs around in a tank top wearing black gauntlets.
I had the green white guy version of this figure. This is definitely one of the best and more iconic molds in the entire Corps! line.
I have one of those guys no accessories plus the thumbs are broken off lol