Mutt & Junkyard (25th Anniversary)

by KansasBrawler

If anything made the Joe line iconic to me as a kid, aside from their great articulation, it was the simple concept of the animal sidekick. I don’t know why, but for some reason, the idea of a Joe trooper working alongside an animal to accomplish their mission seemed really cool. I realize that they weren’t “pets” per se, but that’s kind of what I thought of them as. Both the Joe team and the Cobras had men partnered with animals. However, the one that made the biggest impression on me was Mutt & Junkyard, albeit in their Slaughter’s Marauders form rather than the original release. His filecard made it clear that to Mutt, Junkyard was more than just a working dog. They were each half of the same person…plus the joke the filecard about there being a reason Mutt was the one wearing the muzzle made me smile. I was very glad to see Mutt & Junkyard in the 25th Anniversary line, so pleased in fact I wound up buying one with a damaged card (the bubble was intact so it’s clear that it wasn’t someone trying to steal the figure but somehow the top of the card got pretty badly torn up and mangled), which is unusual for me. I’m not someone who keeps their figures carded, but I still do my best to avoid damaging the card too much while I’m opening to preserve the art. I had trouble finding them when they first released and I wanted Mutt & Junkyard so badly, I was willing to accept a damaged card just to get them. While he does have a few construction and paint issues, being able to add Mutt & Junkyard to my collection was a moment I enjoyed a lot. They’re probably one of my top ten nostalgic favorite Joes and I’m glad he had enough of a following in the Joe community that it was a no-brainer for Hasbro to put him out on the pegs.

Mutt & Junkyard were part of the first wave to reap the benefits of the initial offerings of the 25th Anniversary line doing so well. Hasbro was originally just going to do limited figure offerings (I believe the theory was to do a total of 25 figures), but when the line took off somewhat unexpectedly in 2007, they decided to take a chance. While there was still a lot of parts reuse, Hasbro was willing to invest more money into tooling and it really helped Mutt for the most part. The only parts he shares with another figure are his torso and upper arms, which also saw use with the 25th Annivesary Viper. Everything else, though, is brand new. His legs are nicely detailed and really do a good job of looking like Mutt’s original mold. Unfortunately, his legs are where we see some of the flaws of this figure. Mutt’s got some pretty thunderous thighs. I didn’t notice it at first, but after somebody pointed this out in the comments here at Joe-A-Day, I can’t unsee it now. It really throws off the look of the figure. His thighs are so huge they really don’t even fit in his hip sockets correctly. It’s kind of a shame since it really does hurt his overall look. To cover up the Viper torso (which is a decent, generic military look), Mutt has a brand new vest. I really like Mutt in a vest here since it has kind of a bulletproof vest look. It looks very police while at the same time, it’s clearly military. It’s pieces like this that really make me like the new construction style. I like the idea of guys who wear protective vests looking a little bulkier than their counterparts just wearing regular shirts. His arms also do a great job at faithfully creating Mutt’s original look. Those Viper upper arms looks like Mutt’s rolled up sleeves and the bare arms are good, though it looks like the top of Mutt’s gloved upper arm is a bit larger than his bare arm. It might just be an optical illusion caused by the bulk of his glove, but I’d swear that his left arm is bigger than his right when I compare the elbows. Speaking of the glove, I love the new design they came up with for it. I think the glove was probably my favorite thing about Mutt back in the day and Hasbro really stepped up their game with it. The details are incredible, with straps running around the padding and giving it even more bulk than they gave it originally. The dog-training glove is a make-or-break detail for me with Mutt and Hasbro really made the figure for me with it. Mutt’s head is brand new and unfortunately, I think they fell short a little here, too. Mutt’s trademark grimace seems less angry and more idiotic. I don’t know why, but I think he has the same problem that 25th Anniversary Major Bludd did. Neither one really looked angry for some reason. While Mutt’s grimace-turned-I-justhad-a-root-canal look wasn’t as bad as Bludd’s, it still isn’t quite what I’d like from Mutt. Mercifully, you can hide his mouth with his helmet and muzzle, but I always had Mutt running around helmetless back in the day because of his angry snarl and I’m kind of sad that my modern Mutt needs to keep his helmet on so he doesn’t look like a slackjawed-yokel.

The flaws in Mutt’s mold are pretty annoying, but I’m more annoyed by some of the issues I have with his paintjob. Mutt’s colors are great. The dark green and brown offset against each other really well, but man, there are a lot of fuzzy spots if not outright paint bleed on his arms. Even the photos on YoJoe show the same problems that mine have. These clearly aren’t isolated issues, but indicate that Mutt had a larger quality control issue when it came to his paint work. The cuffs on both arms bleed down onto the flesh of arms. It wouldn’t be so bad if the green wasn’t so dark, but it really stands out against his kind of pale flesh-tone plastic. The red used on his shoulderpads is also a little gloppy and I think that the details in there get a little obscured. The silver paint on his knife is also a little shoddily applied, with a lot of bleed onto the vest. The brown for his helmet’s headband goggles is also a bit fuzzy. While it’s not sloppy, the line between the helmet and goggle isn’t that crisp, which is a bit of a drawback. When they were able to use molded plastic to create the colors, they did a good job, but the actual paint application is a bit shoddy. I will have to admit, the silver detailing on the buckle for his nightstick sheath was done well, but other than that, the paint team did a rather shoddy job on Mutt. He still looks like Mutt, but this isn’t the quality of paintwork I’ve come to expect from the Joe line.

While I’ve had a lot of complaints about Mutt’s design and painting, I really don’t have anything bad to say about his accessories, and that helps Mutt out a lot. First off, I really like his newly designed helmet. The original helmet and muzzle always seemed kind of flimsy to me. I think that’s part of why I never used it growing up, but this new version looks far more substantial and less generic. The muzzle does seem a little oversized, but I’m willing to forgive it because they managed to put more detail in it as well. Mutt’s signature weapon has always been a silenced Mac-10 submachine gun and again, Hasbro didn’t disappoint on this front. The mold for it is very well-detailed and it looks like it belongs in Mutt’s hands. Finally, as befitting a police officer, Mutt carries a nightstick. While the look is a little dated compared to what police carry around now, it’s a faithful recreation of Mutt’s original nightstick. I do like it when Hasbro updates accessories, but the 25th Anniversary line was more about nostalgia than updating so I’m okay with Mutt running around with an older-style nightstick. Of course, Mutt isn’t complete without his buddy, Junkyard. This mold of Junkyard was used during the DTC experiment towards the end of the new sculpt era. There, he looked just a little oversized. However, the modern Joe figures are just a bit larger and now Junkyard doesn’t look oversized. I like the sculpt for this version of Junkyard. The original Junkyard was a bit too small and his pose wasn’t that intimidating. This version of Junkyard looks mean and ready to attack. The paintjob also adds a lot to Junkyard and makes him look like a real dog instead of a lump of black plastic like the original one was. Even though he’s reused, Junkyard looks great next to his master and I’m glad to see this modern Junkyard showing up again. It’s good tooling and it makes sense to save a little money where you can.

I’m willing to admit that Mutt has some problems, just like a lot of the 25th Anniversary figures did. However, Hasbro still did a very good job with him. From a nostalgic standpoint, Mutt succeeds on just about every level possible. I do wish his head sculpt was better, but beyond that, it’s still clear he’s Mutt and he hasn’t changed much since 1984. I think Mutt would benefit from an update somewhere along the lines, but really, you can’t beat his classic look and Hasbro did a great job replicating it. Add in a great version of his pal, Junkyard, and Mutt looks great. I’ll admit, he’s at the back of a shelf, and that does help hide his construction issues but he’s still good enough to make my display case and unlike Zanzibar, he hasn’t been cycled out for someone better after writing up a Field Report that was more unkind than I expected when I first started writing it.