Mutt & Junkyard (1993 Battle Corps)
There isn’t enough Mutt & Junkyard in our lives. Consider that he only had two distinct molds during the Real American Hero era, one release in the new sculpt period, and a single figure during the 25th anniversary series. He’s one of the most memorable 80s Joes, yet he hasn’t been as heavily exposed as many teammates. Heck, just look at the number of times Blowtorch made it back to shelves in the modern era.
The Battle Corps assortment in 1993 included several figures that were originally slotted to be in a second series of the DEF sub-team that had been introduced the previous year. Mutt & Junkyard didn’t simply get a new color scheme (which I honestly prefer to the first) but also a new missile launcher and a fantastic rifle. Well, at least the two accessories were new to this figure. They showed up first as Headman’s set. Maybe Mutt confiscated them and found that he preferred them to his plain Jane pistol. On the other hand, he probably should have repainted it.
This Mutt is one of the harder to find 1993 repaint figures. I remember opening one back in 2002 or so and being surprised to find the golden rifle. I thought it was a mistake until I looked up the figure. I like this mold and wish we’d seen it in a TRU set back in the day.
Guess it was cheaper to use Headman’s launcher without the electronics than use Mutt’s large one with the cloth ‘net”.
Poor Shockwave and Headman would have to wait until 2002 to get repaints.
Great mold, but I prefer the Slaughter’s Marauders colors of the DEF version.