1985 Opened Doors to My Imagination I Hadn’t Known Were There
By Destro Designs – Viper Den Studios
1985 started having things outside of G.I. Joe influence my head canon. For instance, movies that hit VHS wound up on my TV, and despite being almost 6 years old, I was watching things like The Terminator, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
The Terminator scared the crap out of me, to be honest—but I loved it. That handgun with the laser dot… ugh, give me that, I used to say.
But also, 55 episodes of G.I. Joe were released this year, so needless to say, I was freaking busy.
But then there are the figures. 1985 is an essential building block to what 1986 and beyond were able to do. Such icons as Cobra soldiers like the Viper, the B.A.T., the Snow Serpent, and the Eel made this, for many, the best year of figure releases. For me, it’s ’86—but this year is more of a 1B than second place.
This year showed that the line was really leaning into a wide variety of specialists, with dudes like Airtight, BBQ, and the Tele-Viper. Just awesome figures like Alpine, Dusty, and Footloose. Icons like the Crimson Twins, the Crimson Guard, the Dreadnoks, and Lady Jaye.
Screw Quick Kick—he’s lame, underdressed, and a hack actor/comic. Boo him right off the screen every time. And this bum got a piece of Storm Shadow? So messed up.
Anyways, this year rocks. Ultimately, I had every figure except Lame-O, and the result was putting my whole collection together and realizing that I wasn’t thinking about everything else—I was thinking about G.I. Joe. I was looking at these figures and what to do with them like a painter looks at colors and what he’s going to create.
Truly, G.I. Joe opened doors in my mind that never shut and are still being used today. Like a good acid trip, this toy line allowed me to be creative in a way never before experienced, and I feel I’ve always been a better person and artist for it.
Need I say more than the undisputed GOAT action figure of all time arrived this year in Snake Eyes V2? How do you improve V1, which was the coolest thing ever at the time? Slap grenades across his chest, then give him a sword and a wolf. Done deal—we have the GOAT. To this day, it’s still the best thing ever, even though I prefer the commando goggles. Whatever. He’s the man.
We’re introduced to Flint, the man below Duke and often the field commander when Duke wasn’t there. Flint had cool uncle vibes all day, instead of Duke’s grandpa vibes—whom I loved.
The Snow Serpent, to me, is maybe the #2 greatest action figure of all time behind Snake Eyes V2. I have a handful of other figures fighting for that spot, but this Snow Serpent, with his loadout, is just incredible—pushed over the top with the missile launcher. Forget about it.
The Eel, to me, was the coolest-looking freaking thing. I didn’t have one for a long time, so I would stare at the card art and just marvel.
I always had beef with the color of the Crimson Guard. I know they’re called “Crimson,” but they were the first Cobra soldiers to deviate from the royal blue, and they were supposed to be Cobra Commander’s elite guards—it didn’t jive with me. They should’ve been blue and called anything but the “Kobalt Guard.” Even the “Royals” would’ve worked. I kid… except they definitely should’ve been blue. That said, they’re a 9/10 figure—as a ceremonial guard or something.
The Viper replaced the Trooper—but how do you replace such an iconic staple of the Cobra aesthetic? You drop a battle-masked badass soldier with full plated chest armor and a loadout featuring an amazing—and arguably the best—rifle in the whole line. That’s how you replace an icon.
The B.A.T. was designed to be cannon fodder—something the Joes could actually mow down. Sgt. Slaughter took his assignment seriously and destroyed these in the first appearance of both, in Episode 1 of Arise, Serpentor, Arise!.
I’ll cover some of these other figures in a different article.
But 1985 is the launching pad from which 1986 sent me through the stratosphere. Without 1985, 1986 isn’t as good. These were transcendent figures, and my mind was opening up like Pandora’s box, ready to accept all the line was offering.
