G.I. JOE VEHICLE SHOWDOWN, Part 10 - Tiger Force

Enter The Repaints...

    Starting in 1988, we got a landslide of repaints.  Hasbro really leaned into the idea of sub-teams on both sides of the Cobra and G.I. Joe battle.  These different groups would give a second life to both the figures and vehicles.  It would also allow both teams to use each other's equipment.  On one hand, I liked it.  Especially with figures I missed, as they were now available again.  On the other hand, after a while, the introduction of so many different sub-teams got annoying.  Seeing so much stuff get re-hashed one after the other got stale fast.

    Tiger Force was first, and I'll tell you - from the start I didn't like it.  I got a few vehicles for Christmas '88 though, and that changed my mind.  The vehicles themselves were already great vehicles and the "tiger" color pattern was certainly eye-catching!  

    The idea behind Tiger Force was that the Joes were refurbishing some of their own equipment while also using captured Cobra vehicles for a special mission team.  Each team member now sported different colors from their original, but often with some form of tiger stripe somewhere on their outfit.  The vehicles would all have the same unifying paint jobs of yellow, white, and red with some black stripes.

    So let's see how the first wave of repainted vehicles went.  First let's re-hash the same old rating scale... 

10 - Awesome, Fantastic

9 - 7 - Various levels of Greatness

6 - 4 - Various levels of "Okay"

3 - Mediocre

2 -1 - Levels of Crappiness 

1 - TIGER PAW  (re-colored Cobra Ferret)

    The Ferret was way cool back in the day.  I like the idea that the Joes got their hands on one and are using it for themselves.  This is a great vehicle for desert use and perfect for Tiger Force and Dusty!  It's taking a 10!

2 - TIGER SHARK  (re-colored Cobra Water Moccasin)

    If these are desert vehicles, why do they need a swamp boat?  Plus, it needed a proper driver.  The color scheme looks good on it, I just don't get why they need it...?  It's a 6.  

3 - TIGER CAT, with Frostbite  (re-colored Snow Cat)

    Again, I don't get why this vehicle is needed by Tiger Force.  Ski-Torpedoes to skim over the sand?  Okay, I guess that might work.  Frostbite wearing winter clothes in the desert?  That's just weird.  But it's a cool vehicle with a cool color scheme...  I guess an 8.  

4 - TIGER FLY, with Recondo  (re-colored Dragonfly)

    The Dragonfly looks good in the Tiger Force color scheme!  I would have preferred Wild Bill come with this instead of Recondo, but it's still awesome!  It's a 10.

5 - TIGER RAT JET  (re-colored Cobra Rattler)

    Again, I love the concept of the Joes repurposing Cobra equipment.  The bright colors really set it apart from the sinister dark color of the Rattler.  The pilot, Skystriker, deserves a better name - it's epic on the jet, yet generic for the figure.  Hard to top this mold though.  Another 10!

6 - TIGER FISH  (re-colored Devil Fish)

    I still don't see why Tiger Force needs boats in the desert.  I really liked the original, but going from bright orange to bright yellow isn't much of a change.  It's alright, I guess.  It gets a 6.     

7 - TIGER STING  (re-colored VAMP mkII)

    Looks fine.  Needed a proper driver.  I think a Tiger Force Clutch would have been pretty cool.  This paint job just doesn't "set it apart" much from the original.  It's still nice...  I'll give it a 7.

    ...And that was Tiger Force!  I ended up being quite fond of this particular sub-group.  It was probably because the concept of re-coloring vehicles for a specific team was relatively new.  As I said, it grew stale after awhile.

    I also liked that most of the vehicles had drivers.  Though there were a few that needed one.  For future sub-groups, they would omit drivers altogether.  A repainted Skystriker or Conquest was just expected to be flown by anyone.  I didn't care for that so much.

    Did you like Tiger Force?  What did you think of all the sub-groups that were coming our way?  How would you rate the vehicles on this team?