Toy Fair Flashback: 1993 Battle Corps Figure Assortments
It’s Toy Fair time again, and unfortunately there’s no GI Joe news to share from Hasbro. So why not take a trip in the wayback machine to February of 1993 to check out all the new Battle Corps series? Enjoy these scans from the 1993 Hasbro dealer catalog. It’s just like being there–sort of.
I love the alternate weapon colors, especially the soft purple of Outback’s weapons. I enjoy most of these figures as they were the final remnants of Joe that I hunted at mid ’90’s retail. 23 years ago is a long time. Hard to believe it’s been that long.
I had every one of these except Snow Storm, this version of Frost-Bite, and Crimson Guard Commander, who looks like he’s playing laser tag, by the way. I was never big on the rocket launchers and the accessories trees got old real fast.
As i had most of those guys, i’ve spent more time tracking them down then i have for earlier figures. Some of them are garrish but they were the toys i had
Yeah, the accessories took a nosedive after 1992. 1991 felt like the last classic year, for the most part before rocket launchers took over the line but 1992 at least had a lot of variation. 1993 is full of cookie cutter accessory trees and rocket launchers shared between a few figures. Only a few had something breaking up the monotony, like Iceberg’s snowboard. The loss of Eel’s awesome robot shark was terrible though.
Some of the 1993 figures had good molds but the garish colors really start to take off. Crimson Guard Commander & Dr. Mindbender really could’ve benefitted from better colors. It was nice to see a lot of classic characters return (well, Outback, Backblast, HEAT Viper weren’t classic. Keel Haul was ok to salvage given he was a driver of an extremely pricy vehicle. Only Payload & Hardtop were on a pricier vehicle though AVAC & Rumbler were in pricy territory too). It does feel like a glut (3 arctic Joes in 1 year?), even if we factor out the returning figures from 1992 (their repaints can be seen as a way of sprucing up figures resold for a 2nd year as GI Joe’s practice was for ages until 1991-92). Many of them look very distinctive at least (Snow Storm is the weakest link for the arctic trooper).
Notice all the 1992 figures didn’t have their 1993 repaints here.
Huge rocket launchers aside, these were all fantastic toys in the sense that they brought back iconic characters from the earlier years with new molds. I remember being stoked to be able to get my hands on Wild Bill, Bazooka, Gung ho etc at that time
This assortment was a year of firsts for me! First Mindbender, first Gung-Ho, first Keel Haul, first Leatherneck, first Firefly (I was so excited about that one!), Wet-Suit, Alley Viper and Night Creeper Leader (even though he looked nothing like the cartoon).