Lady Jaye (1997 Commando Team)
Lady Jaye made perfect sense to rejoin the Joes’ return to shelves in 1997 since she’s a popular member of the team. Further, her role in the new Commando Team set is a perfect representation of her specialty. What’s more covert than a black and grey uniform, and who can argue with getting a set of her original accessories in black?
The paint job is similar to Vypra’s spray-op camo, a nicely varied departure from the old days of Joe gear. It may look sloppy in comparison to the pattern of a figure like Recondo, but I like the uniqueness of the design. It’s simplistic in an almost knockoff way, and in my eyes that gives the figure an added charm. Before a new reader runs to eBay and buy one, a bit of disclosure: I’m a weirdo like that.
She’s a bit difficult to photograph due to the contrast between her black uniform and strangely waxy skin. It seems when Hasbro brought the Joes back for this series, they lost the recipe to the old Caucasian flesh tone. The question is: was it a hopeful improvement turned bad a la New Coke, or did an absent minded factory worker knock a bottle of Translucent Dye #1 into the vat?
I didn’t like this figure for many years as the spray on mine was applied oddly and it made her torso/waist connection look odd. But, this was probably one of the most sensical repaints we got during that era.
Classic character whose original figure was expensive? (Lady Jayes were often $25+ figures in the pre-Ebay days.) Check.
Radically different paint job in collector friendly colors? Check. Included with two other classic figures that no collector could refuse? Check.
$10 for three figures? Check.
Really, it’s surprising this figure isn’t more popular these days.
The problems with the 1997 joes, skin tone, unpainted/non-dyed larger rivets, etc. I recall reading that the factory Hasbro used had never produced GI JOE before. It seems odd because the 3 3/4″ Mortal Kombat movie figures came out in 1995, not that long before. If only they’d used that facility. Maybe part of some disconnect between the end of Hasbro’s team and Kenner’s team? If things hadn’t changed at Hasbro, 1997 stuff would’ve been golden…but that’s just Castle in the Sky talk.
I was really digging the 1997 and 1998 figures and vehicles in those years.
As a set, it was a first of many “firsts” for me. My first fully original mold Storm Shadow and a first original Snake Eyes mold for me, and having (mostly) original accessories with the figures was huge. But I had my ’88 Storm Shadow and my ’89 and ’91 Snake Eyes figures and the “original” mold figures just didn’t overshadow them for me.
Lady Jaye on the other hand was completely new to me here, definitely my favorite of the trio.
Ultimately, the softer plastic (the 1997 figures, more so) and the lighter skin tone made the figure less appealing. And as much as the black and gray is a more covert action color I found myself wanting more details on the mold to be painted. Like it seemed almost a a little too flat.
As much as the cartoon Lady Jaye javelin has that almost iconic connection to the character, the toy javelin here just didn’t add much to the figure for me.