Wild Boar (1989)
A few days ago I wrote about a Cobra figure that looked like an Iron Grenadier but was not. Today, it’s the opposite, an Iron Grenadier that doesn’t look like one. In fact, I’m not really sure what this figure looks like. It is dang weird though.
Wild Boar is the strange driver of a strange vehicle, the Razorback. I have to hand it to Destro on the forethought of the namings here, he really tied them together. Kudos, Laird Jimmy.
This figure has always perplexed me. Maybe not the entire figure, but the helmet at least. The rest of the figure is decent enough, if lacking in paint details (a common issue for drivers of the time). Wild Boar’s helmet is the oddest I can recall, and that’s a bold statement in a time when guys like Long Range were pushing the envelope of chapeau fashion.
This helmet looks like a shower cap as designed by Buckminster Fuller, with a little stealth technology thrown in. The really odd thing about the helmet is that it doesn’t quite seem to fit. The coup de grace of this odd lid is the hose that connects from the side to the figure’s arm. Maybe I’m off base, and this thing is based on some real life advanced military technology of the 80’s. Whatever the case, it makes Wild Boar look like a real snickerdoodle.
Another point worth mentioning is the end of the guy’s nose. It’s got to be pointiest nose on any Joe figure. It’s so bad that the paint has been scuffed off of mine. Painted face–wait a minute, that means this figure has a dreaded painted face rather than molded flesh colored plastic. Noooo! Nerd rage!
He’s definitely one of the uglier driver figures, but I like having him. At least he’s not as bad as Armadillo, though… Even though I try to collect every driver figure, I can’t bring myself to pay for one of those.
Wild Boar is one odd duck. The lack of paint apps on the 1989 drivers is just as bad as the slacking which followed as the line died out in 1994. It’s even weirder that they would paint his face while skimping on the sculpted details. Too bad, because he really is unique for the reasons you noted here.
And the funniest thing is, his was one of the driver molds used for the 1997 Bronze Bombers set.
Terrific figure.
He’s got IG colors or close enough. At least he’s not bright orange and purple.
That’s not Wild Boar, it’s Michael Jackson! Geez, one would think a chromedome like Destro would give his schnoz-less troops metal noses. Metal noses actually give instant credibility to be a space vehicle pilot as they would be a regular Tyco Brahe!
Man, you deserve a prize for the Tycho Brahe reference. Nicely done!
Um the hose that ataches to his helmet and his hand and the thing and his Right hand looks like the remote control I see on the web of a carrier deck crew. The x-47b deck controllers on deck controling and moving the x-47 ON THE CARRIER DECK! HE WAS WAY VERY ADVANCED EVEN IF HE STILL LOOKS WEIRD. Maybe he could drive the razorback by remote too?
Looks like a member of Devo or the aquabats