#602 G.I. JOE - MACE, LONG ARM and GRISTLE (Nr. 29, 31 and 33) (1993)

1993 was, to call it so, the last year of design and production for the G.I.Joe: ARAH era. There were still some figures released in 1994, but very few compared to 1993 or any other previous year.

Despite the fact that the creators of the line were running out of ideas, and they had already exploited all posibilities (space, ninjas, shooting weapons, popular videogame licenses, anti-drug forces...) the people in the design and casting unit would still produce great figures.

I have the impression, that in these last years figures´ paintwork is much worse than in the previous year, resulting in figures with one base colour and only a few painted details... totalling a three colour uniform. Take any of these figures, Mace has only painted boots and those details in his chest, Long Arm is almost completely orange and Gristle is a little bit more colourful, but still has only three base colours.

 

All figures in this series (Battle Corps series) came with a spring-loaded rocket launcher and a lot of accesories attached to a plastic tree. The missiles for the launcher and a plastic base were always included, the rest of the weapons, varied from figure to figure. So did the colour of the weapons. In some cases, there were catalogues, promotional or mail-in leaflets included in the blisters, as in Long Arm.

Another interesting fact is that despite being quite late figures, they are collected still by many people, who usually stop collecting figures made later that 1994. Because of the many accesories included (one of them is usually a very small knife), they are very difficult to find complete, and loose are often more expensive than carded. Depending on where you live, the shipping costs might be even higher than the figure itself.

The cardbacks include the famous filecard written by Larry Hama, but after hundreds of figures, the stories are not so interesting anymore. The format of the card was changed in the early 90s, and part of it is dedicated to comment the weapons, so there are less space left to create and elaborate a story.

In one of my first entries in this blog, I commented two more figures from this wave: Please visit entry #4.

 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MACE, LONG ARM and GRISTLE (Nr. 29, 31 and 33)
• Toy Line: G.I. Joe (Wave 12)
• Year: 1993
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 9,5 cm (3 3/4'')