Ace - Fighter Pilot

I don't think Hasbro thought too long and hard to come up with Ace's codename. Having a pilot named Ace is like having a card player called Lucky. It's a little obvious.

That being said, Ace's codename might come from his gambling as well. He is know for being a card player.

I also remember him for his stinky helmet. Something about the plastic they used made his helmet stinky. The glass canopy for the Skystriker had a similar issue. I can still kind of remember that odor...

Anyway, for Ace, I used another well known pilot, Wedge Antilles.

I opted not to add Ace's weird cone collar thing. Makes him look like a dog after surgery.

-c

Wild Bill - Helicopter Pilot

Who doesn't love Wild Bill?

Wild Bill was not one of my favorite figures, mainly because his head seemed too large for his body, but I've always liked the character.

If there's one thing G.I.Joe benefits from, it's larger than life characters like Wild Bill. It's no wonder he got so much time in the cartoon.

Speaking of which, I might have to do a Sunbow version...

For Wild Bill, I started with the Heroclix Hal Jordan and added his hat, guns, and vest with green stuff.

Oh, and his shades and cool 'stache.

-c

Duke - First Sergeant

I said I wasn't going to do Duke. I swore up and down that I wouldn't do it.

But...

Two things I realized: 1) I'm a completist so of course I want even the lousy Joes in miniature form and 2) I could make him *better*.

Ah, that's better. No stupid grin. This is a Duke I would have gladly had as a kid. All it took was a Steve Rogers Heroclix and some green stuff for the bandoleer thing and collar.

I suppose I could have had a snake sticking out of his heart, but that might be going a little too far.

-c

Gung-Ho - Marine

Gung-Ho was the first G.I.Joe figure that made me do a double take when I first saw him. People joke about the day-glo colors of some of the later figures, but look at Gung-Ho. What is he going to blend in with in teal camouflage?

Gung-Ho is one of the iconic early Joes and, like Roadblock, got a lot of use in the cartoon as "the big guy". For that reason, I don't mind the fact that I couldn't find a good grenade launcher for him to use. In the cartoon, he rarely used anything other than his fists anyway.

I used the Samandahl Rey Heroclix for Gung-Ho, adding his hat with green stuff and trying to approximate his chest tattoo.

Since the cartoons like to play up his Cajun side, maybe I should have given him some gumbo.

-c

Grunt - Glider Pilot

I have a couple of unofficial rules when it comes to painting up these mini Joes.

1) I won't reuse that same miniature for different characters (at least in the same toy line.)
2) If a character gets a totally new costume, I'll use a different mini for it.
3) If a character has an alternate look that's just a repaint of the original (for example, Tan Grunt), I'll use the same mini.

Of course, there are exceptions to these rules.

Anyways, here's Tan Grunt:

I'm not sure why Grunt was selected as the pilot of the Falcon Glider, but it gave him something to do other than just be a bullet-stopper. I'm pretty sure I played with Tan Grunt way more than original Grunt.

I wasn't originally going to do alternate costumes, but after doing original Hawk (and since I had the extra Zerboz Military lying around) I went ahead and did it.

If I start to run out of Joes to paint (hah!), I may delve into the repaint teams like Tiger Force and Slaughter's Marauders, but I'd probably hit the odd foreign characters first.

-c

Cover Girl - Wolverine Driver (Again?)

They say the third time's the charm...I certainly hope so, because I'm not planning to do Cover Girl again.

I should have waited to do Cover Girl later. When I did the first one, this Heroclix Brandt from Iron Man 3 wasn't out yet I think. Then, because I wasn't happy with the first one, I did used an extra mini for take two.

Finally though, I found a good looking mini to use for her and this will be the last Cover Girl I do.

(Probably.)

-c

Grand Slam - Laser Artillery Soldier

Some G.I.Joe figures never got popular because of questionable designs or due to being sold with outlandish vehicles. Some never get a chance due to the order you buy them.

Grand Slam never got a fair shake from me for two reasons: 1) He shared Grunt's head and 2) he had Flash's body. Since I'm pretty sure I had Grunt and Flash before I got Grand Slam, I kind of felt like his figure was a change of outfits for Grunt. It wasn't until that silver pads version of Grand Slam came out that I used him much.

For Grand Slam, I picked the Star Wars Miniatures Human Soldier of Fortune mini. He's got a pretty similar look, with shin armor instead of thigh pads. But close enough.

And for once, he doesn't just look like a repaint of Flash.

-c

Cobra H.I.S.S. Driver - The Enemy

If I had known what the Power Rangers were in 1983, I would have said the Cobra H.I.S.S. Driver looks like a Power Ranger.

So, perhaps it's appropriate that I choose to use a Zerboz Power Rangers figure for Cobra's first tank driver.

I didn't plan on it, but the pose for the Zerboz Green Power Ranger Super Samurai is similar to the card art for the 2008 version of the H.I.S.S. Driver. Nice!

I trimmed his Super Samurai Shoulders a bit, since they were Super Pointy. Using green stuff, I added his little helmet ridge and chest plate.

I tried painting a decent Cobra symbol but...there's a limit to how much effort I'm willing to go through for these guys and that was it. I decide to settle for a close approximation, squint-and-you'll-see-it version of the Cobra logo.

I was going to give him the thigh-high boots but after I started painting I preferred the look of the lower boot. I think it balances nicely.

-c

Airborne - Helicopter Assault Trooper

Other than Snake Eyes and Scarlett, most of the original thirteen G.I.Joes were just a bunch of guys in various shades of green. Great at first , but a little dull after a while.

Airborne was one of the first ones I picked up from the second wave and for quite a while, he was my new team leader and the one who got to go on all the choice assignments.

I guess that means Airborne was my Duke.

There are probably a ton of different minis that would work for Airborne, but I knew from my previous Alley Viper that the Heroclix S.W.A.T. Heavy Weapons would work. The helmet, vest, and knee pads all match pretty well.

Looking at it now, I see I forgot to add the patch on his sleeve. Might have to go back and touch that up.

Now, where am I going to find a 28mm sized Dragonfly copter that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

-c

Doc - Medic

Doc is a character that I never really cared too much about when I was little, but has grown on me in later years, for a couple of reasons.

First, the realization that Doc is kind of the Donatello of the Joe team. In the cartoon, when the Joes needed an intelligent or scientific solution to a problem, their only choice was to go to Doc. Even  though he was a doctor, not a scientist, I guess he was the only smart guy they had.

Also, while I *do* like Lifeline, I think the way Doc's pacifism was handled in the early Marvel comics run was better than how they treated Lifeline. Doc managed to disarm Destro with a snowball and get a serum from him by basically tackling him and letting Destro pummel him. That's pretty ballsy against a guy with a polished beryllium steel head.

For Doc, I was looking for two main feature: glasses and a sort of doctorly looking outfit. I looked at a few others but decided the Heroclix Lucious Fox mini had a good pose for the Joe's resident smart guy.

It's a pretty good match, although a little more formal than his normal uniform. He looks like he's about to make the rounds at the G.I.Joe hospital.

Hope the prognosis is good!

-c

Major Bludd - Mercenary

Today's mini is kind of a big deal for me, because he's one of my favorites: Major Bludd.

Despite the fact that Major Bludd retreated almost as often as Cobra Commander, I always thought he was cool in a smarmy, pirate-y kind of way. And in the Marvel comic, he was down right bad-ass sometimes.

I think the fact that he had the stiff robo-arm and was the first mail-away figure I ever got also made him seem...special...compared to the others.

Finding a mini with Bludd's unique helmet proved difficult, so I opted for a slightly different take on it. The Heroclix Zod mini just looks menacing to start with. After adding some green stuff to the right arm for his arm armor, and a little eye patch, I think he came out looking maybe even a little better than the original.

Maybe that knife is actually a quill for his poetry writing:

     When you're feeling low and woozy
     Slap a fresh clip in your Uzi!
     Assume the proper firing stance
     And make the suckers jump and dance!
     (from The Attica Gazetta).

-c

Tripwire - Mine Detector

Tripwire is one of those characters that I kind of felt got undermined by his characterization.

I didn't mind him being a little clutzy, but sometimes in the comics it seemed he could barely walk without "tripping" over his own feet.

Terrible puns aside, I always liked Tripwire's costume, so I was happy to find a Star Wars Old Republic Soldier Mini that could stand in for Tripwire.

I added a little green stuff for his goggles and his mine detector. (From this angle though, it just looks like he has a big melted tire on his gun.)

Probably any of the Republic Soldier minis would work since they have similar designs, but the longer rifle on this one worked well to convert to a mine detector.

Cheers!

-c

Snow Job - Arctic Trooper

Snow Job was one of the first specialists introduced to the G.I. Joe team and, together with Torpedo, opened the way for the Joes to become a team of specialists.

Except they usually just used Snake Eyes anyway.

For the Joes resident Olympic skier and con artist, I went with Heroclix Captain Cold with a little green stuff added for his beard.

Surprisingly, Captain Cold matches up pretty well with Snow Job. He even has the holster.

I think I may have overdone the beard a little bit. This might pass as the Zach Galifianakis version of Snow Job.

Better keep an eye on my fridge.

-c

Cover Girl - Wolverine Driver

There are many iconic female characters in the G.I. Joe line: Scarlett, Lady Jaye, Baroness, Jinx, Zarana...

And then there's Cover Girl.

Poor Cover Girl never seems to get a break. While she was used some in the cartoon (when Scarlett and Lady Jaye were busy), she was mostly ignored in the comic and tragically killed in the Rise of Cobra movie. (Not to mention being demoted to an assistant to Hawk.)

Uh...Spoiler Alert?

Anyway, while the other females got cool Specialties like Intelligence or Ninja, Cover Girl was the Wolverine driver. But at one point or another, every other Joe drove a tank anyway, so Cover Girl was left looking like the one guy on a superhero team whose only power is flight: awesome unless others can do that AND something better.

Even Cover Girl's color scheme is kind of dull: brown and tan. The other Joe girls have red, black, pink, green, etc. Cover Girl kind of got shafted.

Finding a mini I thought fit Cover Girl was actually kind of hard *because* she is not well defined.

I went with the Heroclix DEO Agent, but this will just be a stand in until I find a better mini for her.

As one of the second series figures and the second female Joe, she deserves better.

Cheers!

-c

Torpedo - Navy SEAL

Back in the early G.I. Joe days, when Snake Eyes was still a commando and not a ninja, my go to guy for martial arts adventures was Torpedo.

After all, it's right there in his filecard: "Attained black belts in three martial arts by age 19 (Wu-Shu, Kenpo, and Go-Ju-Ryu)."

No real modifications necessary for this one. Just straight paint job on the Reaper Mini Navy Seal Diver (50058).

Now, I just need to find a good mini for a Cobra Eel.

-c

Destro - Enemy Weapons Supplier

Some G.I. Joe fans point at Series VI (1987) as a turning point for the toy line moving away from the military background and into a more science fiction \ supernatural direction. Characters like Psyche-Out, Crystal Ball, and Raptor are common examples.

And yet, in Series II (1983) we got a guy with a steel plated head:

For Destro, all you really need is a bald guy with an open shirt, and Reaper Miniatures' Boris Barayev, Five Suns Smuggler (50002) really fits the bill.

I suppose I could have tried to green stuff on a little medallion for my version, but then maybe some things are better left undone.

Cheers!

-c