Spirit
I have to admit that Spirit is one of my favorite characters. While not my favorite he always lands in the top ten. The reasons are varied but my major one is that he is such a departure from the previous figures by his first release. While the departure (being that he looks so different from so many other "general issue" figures) has caused some controversy over the years, really it sparked my interests in a great many things outside of GI Joe.
From the first time I saw Spirit in the comic he was referred to as "Spirit Iron-Knife" which was something that perplexed me. Of course I have noticed his file card and thus his true last name is Iron Knife, but why use his name in his code name. In later years with odd copy write laws it made much more sense, but this usage started in the early #30's of the Marvel comic. Something that hadn't been done before in the comic (Nor do I believe since). Beyond the fact that Iron Knife did sound cool, I really never found an explanation.
Spirit came around about 1984, A year that saw some interesting developments in the line. Some ideas that stretched believability were introduced (The flying submarine called the SHARC) as well as some very interesting figures. Spirit really caught my eye at the time, part of it was the color choice of course, but one of the major things that caught me were his braids.
Obviously these had been growing for a while, so I wondered how a military man was allowed to have them. At first this really bothered me, but it grew on me by the following year. His character in the cartoon also helped me gain a liking of the character. A wise and thoughtful soldier who seemed to always know more than he said. Some mystery but not the overdrawn kind like I would feel with Snake Eyes a few years later. For years I just ignored the braids and went with it, but later my adult sensibilities questioned too many things. He obviously didn't get his head shaved in basic, why? While I later found out that such things as hair were more lenient in an organization like GI Joe, still he had been growing that hair for years (my hair grows pretty fast according to my hair dresser and it would take me at least 2-3 years to get to that point).
Still I went and tweaked Spirit's character a bit. Obviously he was a traditionalist to his tribe. The year before Airborne had been released, also a Native American, but also obviously not as entrenched in his heritage as Spirit. Generally I made this a point of conflict between the two. I brought it out more so between Spirit and "General Tomahawk" (Named such as sort of an irony of his heritage, but of course I took the name from the renamed General Hawk figure). What made me like this conflict better was I added some background with Spirit and Tomahawk. This made their fight a personal one (and we all know personal conflict is often the most dramatic). Still though I was wrestling with the idea of someone with such a traditionalist background being in a Military Organization.
One day while researching some other subjects for a report in college, I ran across an article about "Code Talkers" (Made popular by the movie a few years later called "Wind Talkers" in 2002) Some ideas formed around Spirit as I read about these men from WW2. My idea was that Spirit was approached outside the normal chain of advancement into the GI Joe team. I had the reasons quite varied, they ranged from exemplary military service when he was younger as well as connections from his Grandfather's time from being a "Wind Talker." The point was that is why he had the braids, he hadn't went through the normal chain of advancement (as such he never had his head shaved).
On aspect of Sprit that I thought was interesting was his fight with Storm Shadow in The Revenge of Cobra (otherwise known as the Weather Dominator). In it Spirit not only holds his own but almost wins it seems. Many people on the internet have complained about this over the years to the point of nausea, but a valid point did emerge: How could Spirit do so well in hand to hand combat? While some explanation might come from Army training, really that didn't seem like enough.
Keep in mind too that at the time Ninjas were thought to be superhuman. While I have mentioned in other profiles that I do not hold to this, the point is still valid, Spirit is not a martial artist or so I believed. Some answers would come from a very unlikely source: Mortal Kombat.
Or should I rather say looking into something related to Mortal Kombat. The short story is I was looking for the Mortal Kombat Ninjas when I stumbled across something completely accidental. First I discovered that the Ninjas of Mortal Kombat were not Ninjas at all. They were the Chinese equivalent (more or less a basic assassin) and as it turned out almost every Oriental culture had its version of the "ninja." But in following some of these lines of assassins, a quote stuck out to me. I cannot say for certain who wrote it at this point, but it stuck with me long after I read it for the first time. "Every culture has had its own form of martial arts." Wait what, as I thought about it I began to see this had to be correct. The Knights of the Dark ages, the Roman Legions, the Spartan Soldiers, the Zulu Warriors and on and on all had to have their own versions of hand to hand combat. Suddenly I saw Spirit in a whole new light which shed a lot of light on his fight with Storm Shadow.
The next part of Spirit's martial arts came from Dio-master Cap. I was discussing my findings with him one day and he brought up that there were knife fighting techniques in Native American tribes. My thought was that Spirit must have modified this to a hand-to-hand style, as such Storm Shadow would have been dealing with a form he had never seen and would have very little defense against. This caused all the pieces to fit into place on his character.
But before I look over his figures, grant me a moment to look over his most important accessory: Freedom
Another unique quality to Spirit was his "pet" Bald Eagle Freedom. While probably not a "pet" in the traditional sense of the word, I am really at a loss to call him anything else. Still it was another aspect that made Spirit unique when he came out. Sure Mutt had Junkyard in the same year, but a dog was kind of expected, an eagle was unique.
While I don't want to spend too much time on Freedom, I will say my favorite is the DTC version released in the single pack. At first I thought the 25th version was exactly the same, but there are some important differences in wing position and pose. Still the detail on the DTC Freedom beats the others by a long shot.
On to Spirit V1
A very simple figure, but one that stands out in the crowd. The light blue shirt is not impractical, yet very defining. The skirt was one of those accessories that could have been laughable but here I think it works on many levels (both in mold and in color which helps to accentuate the red of the torso). The brown pants while simple are defiantly a perfect accent to the outfit. Basically he looks realistic while still maintaining an individuality defiantly needed for a figure like this.
One of the funniest images I have ever seen is a picture of Spirit, Tollbooth, Shipwreck and I believe Law posed for the "YMCA" pose. While I couldn't find the picture for this profile, the first time I saw it I laughed for an hour. Unfortunately since I was unable to find it I cannot give credit to whom it is due. Still defiantly a wonderful parody.
This mold was repainted for the Slaughter's Marauders sub set in 1989. The plastic for the mold was apparently very brittle and as such I have never seen one intact. Still it is a repaint I haven't searched very hard for since I find only to be a fair variation of the original.
In 1992 Spirit was released again with the Air Commandos. The mold was good but the green (which was one shade below lime) didn't suit Spirit at all in my opinion. The mold was repainted in 1993 for the international set, this time though I questioned if he was supposed to be a medic with his bright red and white torso.
Spirit would be ignored for a long while after this, but there was a controversy surrounding a figure in 2002 named Dart.
It has been said that Dart was supposed to be a new version of Spirit but there was some copy write issues with Disney and a certain horse under their brand. Most of the controversy I would think stems from the long hair he obviously has and of course his Native American background. One thing I did not understand though was why Hasbro didn't simply name him Spirit Iron Knife like they did a few years later if this is the case. Either way we have another Native American character in the ranks and I always welcome more diversity with my Joes.
With 2005 the line had gone to Direct to Customer or as we call it DTC.
One of the better releases from this era was Spirit. I have already spoke of the version of Freedom that came with this figure. The details on this mold are something to take to heart. The Fringes on the boots are indicative of his heritage. His braids have been replaced with his hair being down, while odd at first glance it is perfectly acceptable as well. One of my favorite features to this figure is the huge knife sheath on the hip. While the handle does get under the shoulder somewhat, its just cool looking.
My one complaint is the color. The green is just too bright for me, its not terrible but at the same time doesn't show a whole lot of range as his original release did. Even the messes that were V3 and V4 showed some effort in creating a mesh of colors, this was just one. One color can work on a figure, and this mold it does work just not THIS color.
In some ways that is why I was happy with the way the Comic pack voting went.
Black defiantly suits this mold much better. At least you can see the practicality of it. While part of me wished the figure had the Knife sheath, I am satisfied without it. Really I have said what I love about the mold above and the only thing I can add is this color palette makes the mold much more tolerable.
This comic pack was met with some levels of controversy when it was selected. Some implied the votes for it were rigged. While I obviously can't say one way or the other I will say that I am glad this version of Spirit came out of all of that.
When I heard Spirit was to be part of the 25th lineup of course I got excited. When I spotted him at my local Wal-Mart I grabbed him with barely a glance.
Perhaps I should have looked harder. First I am going to get something out of the way right off the bat. It's sort of the elephant in the living room. That face sculpt is butt ugly. First his face is flat as if the Indiana Jones Marion figure came over and hit him flush with her frying pan. This action apparently cause his head to widen as well thus creating a "melon head" look from the front. This effect is very ironic when you consider Spirit was one of the figures from the 80's that really didn't suffer from the dreaded "Melon head syndrome." Also he looks old, now I have always figured Spirit to be an elder (meaning he is in his late 30's while the other Joes are mostly around early 30's) but his face looks like a man in his 40's at least (maybe older) which to me is a far cry from Spirit. I have a thought that the sculptor might have been trying to add some "look of wisdom" to his expression. However what we get is a figure that more resembles the guy from the pollution PSA's of the 70's (yes I showed my ages with the reference). Another major disappointment is the fact the face looks nothing like the card art. While this was forgivable back in the early days due to technology, the Hasbro team has done an excellent job of making many of these 25th figures look like their original card art. Why they failed so miserably here is beyond me.
Moving on, while this is a minor point it really has to do with color balance. The 25th Spirit's chest is bare while the original had a red shirt underneath his button up shirt. What happens here is the ranks on the arms are actually weakened and in some ways feel out of place now. While the skirt is still there to lighten the impact it was still something I never really noticed about the V1 until I saw a similar color pallet without it.
While another minor complaint, I think the chest gear is a bit overdone too. One strap for the knife would have been sufficient in my mind. The second one wrapping around interferes with the lines of vision on the figure to me and is distracting rather than enhancing.
I think the Knife sheath on the chest should have had a removable knife. Another minor thing but in all honesty I would have preferred no knife removal at all instead of the one on the thigh.
Some positives, I do like the knife sheath on the thigh (but again would have preferred all or nothing). The legs are a great match to the original, simple yet effective. The arms, while somewhat droopy, do have great accents that are enhancements to the V1 design.
So at this point I hope its obvious I didn't go with the 25th version for my default.
Really the DTC Comic Pack wins hands down. Simple design while having interesting details. Like many other figures from the VvV to DTC era this version also feels like an evolution to the character rather than a step backwards.