Toxo-Zombie (1992)
Zombies. These days you can’t look left or right without hearing about ’em in some form of media. Have they become passe yet? I think when Ace Hardware has zombie survival tips on its website, the cool factor is pretty much gone.
This is the Toxo-Zombie from 1992’s Eco Force sub-line, a time before the current fast-moving super strong zombie phase. These guys appear to be the old rotting corpse variety, albeit in fashionable neon 90’s colors. Like other figures in the series, there is color change paint in the figure to represent toxic sludge when the figure gets wet.
Most of the mold is a based on the Toxo-Viper of the previous year, with modified parts to portray the rotting aspects of the character. This is where the mold really shines, as there is quite a bit of damaged and broken detail all over the figure. The head is particularly impressive with its cracked faceplate. There’s no rifle this time out, and the only accessory was the usual Eco-Warriors water squirting cannon. Guess zombies don’t have much use for guns.
So if the Toxo-Zombie is essentially a Toxo-Ziper who’s been subjected to all kinds of chemicals, how does the purple and dark green outfit become hot pink and neon green? Must be a side effect of exposure to horrid chemicals and such. Maybe they don’t know how to do their laundry–“Wash only with like colors”–Bah!
This is another 90’s mold that could have benefited from a repaint into less garish colors. Seeing it makes me anxious for the new Cobra zombie figure we’ll (hopefully) get next year. By the way, why does today’s background look different? Tune in tomorrow…
Zombies have never been up my alley and the fact that this garish figure “infected” the RAH brand in an attempt to draw in the TMNT and Toxic Crusader audiences only drew me further away. But why DOES today’s background seem different? I sense a playset review in our future.
I think this figure would have been pretty cool if they had chosen differnt colors to paint it with.
The detail does really stand out. I think the cracked visor looks like oozing brains, which is especially creepy. But, it might just be me.
Wow, Ace really IS the place of the “helpful hardware man”!
considering all the bazaar experiments Cobra has been known to perform on it’s numbers, this concept seems at least interesting. Generally I don’t get into the zombie craze much, but I can enjoy some specific outings for different reasons. Sadly, the horrible colors of this thing negate any genuine attraction to this offering of either the zombie or Joe genres.
LOL! I like this one. GI Joe was ahead of the times with the zombie movement. I love that the 90’s zombies are neon. I wish I could repaint the face to be more bloody and goey.
Neon brightness aside, I love this figure. the mold really highlights the attention to detail the Hasbro designers and sculptors were able to fit into a 3.75″ figure.
Had the Joe line continued further into the nineties, I would have loved an anti-zombie subset with zombie hunting Joe’s and zombified Cobra’s…Good idea for a custom project!
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His colors must have changed in the same way that the Joker’s face changed. The colors were just bleached out being being bukkaked from compound z.