Friday 10 August 2012

The Man In Black

And now for a post that's a bit different.  It may even be a little unnecessary, but I'm okay with that.  One thing I want to avoid with this blog is spotlighting single figures (when possible).  I'd rather talk about an entire line, a subgroup, even a group of toys from various lines that share a similar theme, than talk about one individual figure (especially from a giant toy line).

BUT

I also wanted to spotlight a figure that will probably show up in every spotlight that I do.



Snake-Eyes.  The Man in Black.  I like toys of all sizes, but if I had to choose my ideal toy size, it would be the good ol' 3 3/4" scale (used by G.I. Joe, Star Wars, CORPS!, Ben 10, Captain Power - the list goes on and on).  When I was a kid the "games" I played were usually filled with 3 3/4" figures.  I had no issues mixing figure scales and payed no mind to it.  3 3/4", 5", and 6" figures all mixed together happily, and I just ignored the difference in scale.  Only the really big or small toys played roles that fit their size.  But the 3 3/4" Joes came into the world the same year I did, and Star Wars toys have been around my whole life.  I just always saw this scale as the scale, even when He-Man or Ninja Turtles were the be-all/end-all of toys.  So when I spotlight toys here in my blog, I always include a picture showing a toy from that line next to this Snake-Eyes, to show how they are scaled in comparison to the toy scale.

Sneak attack

This version of Snake-Eyes is perfect for showing scale, because he's just a shadow.  He has absolutely NO paint on him.  Aside from the screws in his legs and back, he's a perfect silhouette of the 3 3/4" scale to have standing next to any other toy.

Dang.

This particular Snake-Eyes is the 24th version of the character, who came out back in 2005 during the Valor VS Venom theme.  Unlike most of the figures that came out at that time, which were released in two-packs (for the same price as the single packs now - ah the good old days), this version of Snake-Eyes was single-carded and was found at likes of Walgreens, Dollar General, etc.  As such I've always called him "Single Pack Snake-Eyes", even though there has been and will be other single-packed versions of him.  Any more of a review on him could basically be a review on G.I. Joe as a whole, and I have enough Joe figures to spotlight them later (which I'm sure I will eventually).  I'll just say that he's well articulated and one of the few Joes that will never have any paint issues.

Plan B

Bottom line is he'll be seen a lot here at the Plastic Eyeball, and he deserves a spotlight of his own.  And enjoy the comic I've made throughout this spotlight - done with no forethought and a whopping 0 special effects used.

Sometimes the best offence is a good... Offence.

pwned!

V-2-4 bay-bee!

Details revealed!

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, as I go through my older Joes, trying to figure out what to get rid of, I know I wana hang on to this guy.

    I miss the simplicity of these figures, a bit. As you said: the price of a two pack was around what we're paying now - wait, no scratch that. Wasn't a two pack like, 6 or 7.99? We're at 9.99 for a single Joe now, so BAH! Seriously though, if the missing articulation in the Retaliation line any indication, I think we would be saving a ton of money if the figure suddenly went back to this style. Less articulation, boring accessories...

    ...eh, maybe I'll pay the extra for what we're getting. I am nostalgic for even those figures from the early 2000's, but there were some things that were improved SO much that I can't overlook it. I'm still so happy that we're out of that boring accessory slump from back then!

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