Valor Vs. Venom
Series In Review
Valor Vs. Venom seemed as if it got instant condemnation based purely on concept alone. Those Joe fans who were died in the wool realism fans completely blasted it for it's genetic engineering, Venom-induced "monsters" storyline, and in some cases completely overlooked the fact that supernatural storyline or not, Valor Vs. Venom was proving to be the pinnacle in new sculpt Joe construction. Hasbro seemed to be finally getting a lot of things right, and while they still had a way to go, they were making some great progress.Personally, I had no issues at all with the storyline, and said so in my many reviews. I am a comic book fan, and I am a fan of fun stories first, realism second. I need an element of realism in G.I. Joe...I want it to feel like it takes place in the current day using current technologies. But I have no problems with genetic engineering being used as a means to an end, and to make COBRA more sinister and more dangerous. In fact, I've always loved the idea of human/animal hybrids, and I think integrating this concept into G.I. Joe was a fine and novel concept, and something I could get behind 100%.But none of this would mean anything if the toys were no good. Thankfully, Hasbro really seemed to sort of settle into a style as Valor Vs. Venom went on, and it was a good style to boot. Where Spy Troops would give you a number of questionable decisions mixed in with a few good figures, Valor Vs. Venom managed to swap those ratios. Sure, there were still a fair share of head-scratchers, but it became obvious to me that those would be in the minority and for the most part, VvV started getting things more right than wrong. Unfortunately, when they did do something wrong (like, oh...say..."Action Attack!! ARGH!") they screwed it up nice and good, but the good stuff, in turn, ended up being pretty darn good itself.
Wave by Wave Breakdown
Things already started off on a shaky foot with fans when first glimpses of Duke and Storm Shadow came to light...what looked to be really impressive action figure designs were once again being pooped on by substandard gimmicks and sales ploys, which affected articulation and play value. Duke's huge knob on his rear end took away some of the pleasing asthetics of a military man toting a weapon, and Storm Shadow's extremely non-ninja like motion limitations completely baffled pretty much everyone, myself included. We'd all thought that Hasbro had learned their lesson...and it turns out they kind of did, they just tried to fool us at the beginning. Besides those two questionable figures, though, Wave 1 was pretty darn cool all around. A great COBRA Commander repaint...a nice Snake Eyes figure and Scarlett to go along with him. The single best Dr. Mindbender figure ever conceived, as well as some pretty effective COBRA Vipers and Sand Scorpions...all in all, it was a nice, healthy selection of decent figures. The "monster armor" that a lot of the venomized troopers came with was easily removable and left no ill effects on the figures themselves, and the terrible proportion carry over from Spy Troops only seemed to seriously effect one figure (the absolutely laughable Alley-Viper II). Things looked to be off to a pretty good start.
Wave 2 was a slight stumbling block, but only slight. While there was unadulterated crap like action attack Kamakura, we also got some great stuff like Swamp Rat, Baroness, and the new B.A.T. (which no one else on planet Earth likes except me). Hard Drive and Alpine had some proportion issues as well, but really it seemed as if there was a style coming together and the figures looked more...cohesive somehow, not like completely different toys as they had in the past. The Euro-trash Destro was almost a cool looking figure, and the Spy Troops-influenced Beachhead would have been cool as well, if he wasn't wearing sweatpants. We got a couple of repaints, but they were COBRA Troopers, so no one was really complaining.
Things continued along at a pretty decent pace here, too...sure, we got a potentially cool Coil Crusher figure reduced to uselessness by his special "ohh bendy-arms!" feature, and Electric Eels was all legs and no spine, but overall the figure designs were crisp and interesting (especially Firefly!! Love it, even in "midnight purple!!!). Wild Bill was different and fun, as was Stalker and Dusty. Once again, repaints were limited to COBRA troopers, and again, no one seemed to care a whole lot, even though one of them was a proportion train wreck from GvC Wave 3. The new hockey player Zartan didn't thrill too many folks either, though personally, I thought he had potential.
Daaaayaaamn.... much in the way Wave 4 really defined what was great about G.I. Joe Vs. COBRA, this is really where Valor Vs. Venom started to not just shine, but absolutely illuminate. Wave 4 was pretty chock full of G.I. Joe goodness, even amongst the Navy S.E.A.L. veteranarians and action attack Marines. What would end up being one of the best new sculpt Joe figures ever got it's start here in wave 4, although he was saddled with a t-crotch and thumb-wheel, really not a great combination. General Abernathy got rid of his Tomahawk moniker and grew some great street cred in his first new sculpt rendition. Storm Shadow earned himself an o-ring and quickly became one of the gems of the entire new sculpt line. Duke got himself a ring, too, although he ended up sufficiently less successful, still suffering from some pretty serious proportion problems and stunted growth. Hasbro had a way of taking substandard figures like this and still making them cool, simply by giving him a kick butt machine gun, which breaks down into several different componants, and looks great doing it. Link was nothing special, and the repaint Night Creeper didn't leave me smiling all that much, but the new Overkill with a different hand attachment and portable brainwave scanner was pretty fun...and then there was this guy named Venomous Maximus. One of the most controversial characters in the Joe mythos, this Roman-themed monstrosity immediately looked interesting to me in concept, and Hasbro quite simply hit a grand slam with him in figure mode as well. Huge, imposing and sinister looking, while retaining all functionality and all of the fun that a G.I. Joe toy brings to the table. He isn't your run of the mill terrorist, but it was still an exceptional toy, and the crowning moment of the Valor Vs. Venom run.
Another army building wave...like Spy Troops Wave 7.75, Hasbro repainted some Joes into more theme colors (Desert Squad, Tiger Force, and Night Force) and gave us some more repainted COBRA troopers to work into our mal-shaped new sculpt COBRA armies. Robots, ninjas, and Python Patrol made up this run of figures, and there was nothing really new or different here. Some shaky proportions from Spy Troops and VvV, some okay stuff, a bunch of new paint, and not much else going for it.
Then things got a little dicey, but only because they got so darn cool. Wave 6, before it even got released, was the talk of the town, mostly for the new injection molded shoulder joints. A major complaint from day 1 of the new sculpts was oversized shoulders, so design genius Dwight Stall came up with a new style of shoulder articulation that hid the rivet, trimmed the size, yet retained all of the functionality of the original shoulder. All available in Dreadnok Torch, for the first time. All you had to do was find it. Rumor has it Wave 6 was produced in equal numbers as Wave 7, and yet for whatever reason, Wave 6 has proven to be extremely difficult to find. Fantastic figures like the aforementioned Torch and Snow Wolf already demand a premium on the secondary market. Along with these two figures, COBRA Slash was a great one, in my opinion, and the new Razorclaw really brought a whole lot more to the table than his predecessor. Wave 6 did get hit pretty hard with repaints (Shipwreck, Eel, Frostbite, Bazooka, Wild Bill, Coil Crusher, Tunnel Rat, etc...) but many of those figures were originally only available with vehicles. We also got an o-ring for Slice, who originally came T-crotch'd in Wave 3. All in all, Wave 6 was a pretty nice looking wave, and almost immediately gained cult status because it became somewhat hard to find.
This is the end....my friend, the end....this is the end... okay, Jim Morrison I'm not, but Wave 7 would get the dubious distinction of being the last wave of G.I. Joe sold at retail shelves (well...for a little while, anyway... ;) ) and I think for the most part, Valor Vs. Venom went out on a pretty strong note, repaints aside. And Wave 7 had a lot of repaints, flat out...there were a bunch of figures that got new treatment and got worked into this assortment, but the fact remains that the new figures that did make it in here were some very, very nice figures. The nearly perfect blue/red/black COBRA Viper repaint...the o-ring'ed Gung Ho from Wave 4. The completely new Overkill, not to mention Barrel Roll's long lost sister Bombstrike, Croc Master, and everyone's favorite Snake Eyes ever released. Yeah, Wave 7 was a pretty strong one, and left a lasting impression on a lot of Joe fans...perhaps it's only right that it was the swan song for Valor Vs. Venom, a line pretty underappreciated and under-noticed, in my opinion.
And it wasn't just the figures getting some awesome overhaul treatment in the latest new sculpt figure line...the vehicles were some of the greatest new sculpt vehicles produced since the "good old days", with stuff like the Ice Sabre, Jungle Strike, the Mechs, Night Adder, and Thunderwing...there was a ton of great new sculpt stuff available in this run, and it's a shame that a lot of it kind of got lost in the shuffle.
We can't forget the Toys "R" Us 6-Packs either, although a lot of us would like to. The Valor Vs. Venom era on the TRU packs started out with the COBRA Infantry Forces...and well, you can't possibly go up from there, so we go down, down, down, and by the end of the exclusive contract period, we had pretty boring rehashes of a ton of existing molds that we've already seen...non-sensical weapons allotments, and some would say outright laziness on the part of whoever designs the things. Here and there we had some great highlights like the Winter Operations Set, which was a pleasent surprise, and the Crimson Guard sets, which ended up being a lot of fun, even with the strange red camouflaged Firefly in each pack. The Urban Strike Team was pretty great, and the Anti-Venom set had some redeeming qualities. But the use of common molds, common characters, and the lack of thought process became an obvious ongoing theme especially towards the end, and you can really see, with the Direct to Consumer 6-Packs, how much difference a fresh point of view makes. It might be naive of me to think that we might once again get classic sculpt themed 6-packs with as much thought and feeling as we get in the DTC ones, but there's always hope.
And of course, Valor Vs. Venom also brought us the famous comic packs. Like the TRU 6-Packs, the comic packs started off really strong, with an awesome representation of some classic characters and looks that we have not seen in a long time, and that we've never seen in this capacity...but they are quickly becoming almost status quo, and that makes me a little nervous. With the recent announcement of Comic Packs #44 and #101, I am once again getting excited for them, even though recent offerings haven't left me with a huge impression. Still I'm holding out for Billy, Dr. Venom, and Kwinn in his jungle khakis, although while I had my hopes high when the comic packs were first announced way back when, I just don't feel as confident now.
Valor Vs. Venom was a great time to be a Joe fan, I honestly think. The animated feature was fun, the characters tied in well, and the figures were making terrific strides. I think there was a very bright future for G.I. Joe at retail, and who knows, there probably still is, we just haven't gotten a glimpse yet. ;)
Whether you like new sculpts, classic sculpts, Sigma 6 or even those 12" guys, I hope you at least find my reviews interesting, entertaining, and enlightening, and as always, feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts, impressions, and opinions.