Karate Choppin’ Snake Eyes (1994 Hall of Fame)
I won’t say too much about the Hall of Fame figures’ articulation; there isn’t much to say. With Barbie cartilage elbow and knee joints that moved about three clicks, the toys were hardly up to the standards of their forefathers in terms of movement.
The series appealed to me mostly on the level of costume design. The first series for the most part presented characters in a current look. There were also some attempts at play features, although the light and sound weapons of the first series were comically oversized, especially Snake Eyes’ uzi.
This version of Snake Eyes came into the line as a figure with a built-in arm swinging action feature, hence the Karate Choppin’ name. It wasn’t a bad idea, but I would have preferred more articulation, like the updated Hall of Fame style body of Hasbro’s 90’s Action Man. But it was not to be, and the Real American Hero based 12 inch Joes faded away until the next decade.
Though the figure’s movement is lacking, I find a lot to like about his outfit. It’s somewhat based on his 1993 Ninja Force look. The mask is the most obvious resemblance, and Snakes went from his traditional goggles to a mask with eye holes. It’s an interesting change, and one that reflects a more super hero look for the character. This was also the time that the GI Joe comic for four issues prominently titled itself “GI Joe (in small print) featuring Snake Eyes (in large print) and Ninja Force.” The whole affair was quite…Wolverinesque.
This Snake Eyes was also fortunate to be provided with a more in-scale uzi with folding stock and holster. It gives the figure a nice commando element in addition to the ninja, which the `93 version lacked. In the end, I like this design more than the small scale Ninja Force version.
I wonder if someone will attempt a small-scale custom based on this….
The only Hall of Fame figure I ever got was the second, mass released Duke. The sorry lack of articulation killed my interest but it did remind me of my Geyper Man days. As the line continued releasing more RAH characters, I wondered if the heads and uniforms would work with repro bodies from the 70’s era. I suppose some customizers probably gave it a shot but I had dropped the RAH line in general by then, so I never tried it myself.
Didn’t have any of the HoF figures, but I did have a 12-inch Darth Vader from 1996 or 1997. Pretty much the same articulation, and you better not dream of taking off those boots, because you’ll never, ever, get them back on again.
I have that same Vader–I managed to get his boots back on.
I loved the HoF line! I was in a transition period having just graduated HS and also moving to new state I decided to pick up on the HoF line to fill the void of having left my ARAH stuff back home. Your criticism are dead on, the articulation sucked, the gimmicky articulation and jumbo weapons were a bust. That said, the head sculpts and uniforms were really pretty good, I have a friend who went on to do a bunch of HoF customs and also converted most of his figures over to Action Man and Classic Collection bodies. There were certainly improvements in the 12in line over the years but then again we also have the RoC 12in figures…
Not bad at all!