Krunch (1997 Bronze Bombers)
Ever seen a purple Skidmark? Sorry, couldn’t resist. But that’s exactly what Krunch here is. Well, except for the head, of course. He hails from that strange chapter in Joe knock-off history, the 1997 Bronze Bombers. The set included twelve Hasbro driver molds, eight of which were topped with new head sculpts. By the way, can you really call them knock-offs if they legitimately used Hasbro molds?
Olmec’s first 1980’s line of Bronze Bomber figures were interesting conceptually, but lacking in execution when compared to Hasbro’s Joe line. Although, what could one expect from a small manufacturer when compared to a Goliath like Hasbro? I give them props for the effort, and for the fact that they actually tried to put together some sort of storyline to go along with the toys. The same holds true for the 1997 set.
Acting as the team’s head of security, Krunch has an impressive resume of six years as the US President’s head security advisor as well as SWAT and anti-terrorist experience. He’s vigilant for criminal activity even when off-duty, patrolling his own neighborhood. Man, that’s dedication.
Krunch sports a nice head sculpt, particularly in relation to some of the other 1997 figures, some of whom appear to be sneering, smiling or in some sort of generalized pain. The only drawback to the head are the disconcerting eyes. In fact, all of the newly created head molds were painted with odd white pupils. His lone accessory is the Track Viper/Nitro Viper gun, which makes sense as the Track Viper itself was also among the Hasbro molds used in the set.
The Skidmark mold is one of those figures that’s hailed as a great sculpt encumbered by a poor color scheme. It’s well proportioned, loaded with great detail and I think it’s one of the best figure molds of the ’82-’94 line. It makes for a fantastic generic trooper, even in purple.
Skidmark’s body mold can’t catch a break color-wise. First orange, now a nice shade of grape soda purple that would make the Dreadnoks sit up and take notice. Krunch here also doesn’t benefit from looking like he just downed a whole box of Twinkies. Sugary sensory overload! Nice to see the torso’s details being highlighted a lot better this time around because it really is a great sculpt.
So much customs potential from the heads sculpted in that set. Too bad they are so damn spendy. I don’t remember ever even seeing these in stores. Pity, I might have picked it up back then just for the curiosity of it.
Only certain Toy R Us stores carried them. And they were dirt cheap, like $15 for the set.
Great mold!
Skidmark is one of my favorite Joe drivers. His mold is so great! I was lucky enough to score a Bronze Bomber set from TRU back in the day, but never cared for or used the figures so they all ended up as custom fodder. The headsculpts are awesome, and make for great original characters.
Krunch’s head is now an original character, a Green Beret named Jazz.
Krunch = looks like a grape candy, sounds like an 80s cereal. Great write up! — “in some sort of generalized pain” haha!