Hasbro Jurassic Park G.I. Joe Heavy Gunner Action Figure Hasbro, 2010
Day #372: April 6, 2012
Jurassic Park G.I. Joe Heavy Gunner Face Tattoos, Roadblock Body
Jurassic Park Unreleased G.I. Joe-Based Action Figure
Item No.: n/a Manufacturer:Hasbro Includes:Vest, ammo belt, rocket, pick axe, machine gun Action Feature:n/a, ca. 2010 Retail: n/a Availability: Unreleased Other: The most common to date of the "Jurassic Joe" test shots
The G.I. Joe Heavy Gunner figure has no actual name, so let me describe what it's made of-- the head is based on Duke and the body is a Roadblock from G.I. Joe Resolute, except white. His left arm and the side of his face are inked in tattoos, giving the figure a quasi-menacing look. It's not like he's inked with "JP4LIFE" or the face of Jeff Goldblum, so obviously, I do not understand the body art's significance. He wears gloves, has brown pants, and sports a swell green vest which reads "JP" on one side and "InGen" on the other. He has a belt under his vest which is unpainted, so the figure actually looks pretty stupid if you take it off. Oddly, the 4 1/3-inch figure has no copyright markings so he's sure to confound future generations of toy collectors who don't recognize the style.
Jurassic Park toys since the third film were a bunch of repaints-- and the human figures from that line were pretty primitive, looking like 1980s Kenner figures when put up against the Star Wars releases of the day, so this is the first time we've seen a human with a JP logo and more than 5 joints. Sporting 16 joints, this dark-haired, extremely tall character was probably meant to be some form of "Dino-Tracker," a kind of off-screen character to expand the adventures with the dinosaurs and go beyond infinite versions of Grant or Malcolm. As far as I've seen to date, this "Jurassic Joe" line was mostly a mishmash of existing parts and pieces with no human characters taken specifically from the films. Hasbro has been denying that this line will come out (or exists) since 2010, but well, here it is and I have it.
As of right now it seems this figure won't be released at retail, but dozens (if not hundreds) have been posted to eBay and elsewhere in the past 2 years. I got mine in January 2012, when the prices dropped from $60ish to $30ish to about $15 shipped over the course of three months-- lately, it's closer to $10 shipped. I asked a seller why his were so cheap, and was informed he was selling them at a lower price to get the cash and to recoup his investment as he had several of the figures. If memory serves, when they first hit it was in decent numbers for a pretty low price. One never knows if a figure which shows up first on eBay will be just an early release, or a sample of a line which will never make it out to stores. I'm really fond of the idea of recycling G.I. Joe parts for other movie lines-- I hope if Battleship warrants action figures, they make those in Joe-style. If nothing else, it'll give them more parts to play with for future lines.
The figure's weapons are also repeats of Roadblock's gear, and are largely.... well, what do I need a bomb for? A small pistol would have been nice, but the gargantuan machine gun with ammo belt isn't exactly a bad option for fighting dinosaurs. The InGen logo would make me assume he's here to wrangle them, but generally speaking pick axes and bombs aren't used for herding sheep. I love the concept here, particularly because it expands the world of two licensed properties with a bizarrely great figure line, but at this time it looks like it's not going to come out. Other leaked figures from this line include repaints of Firefly as A.W.E. Striker drivers, although those don't turn up as often as this brown-haired giant.
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