Takara Jerry!

The Combat Joe series are hard to find now, but equally sadly also little known. There are seven figures in the set. I paid quite a sum for the five I collected but due to their rarity and how little known they are, they fetched a pittance when I finally came to sell on.

Here's the article James Long wrote for the GI Joe Collectors club magazine some years ago (it was preceded with a piece on Tsukuda Action Man):

Tsukuda was not alone in realizing the potential of the G.I. Joe collector market. Takara, who had previously released the original G.I. Joe line and their own New G.I. Joe figures, noticed the success Tsukuda had been having with their Action Man imports and decided that they should get back into the 1/6th game, leading to the creation of “Combat Joe.” Takara recognized that they were now dealing primarily with an adult collector audience rather than the young children that New G.I. Joe had been aimed at, so when developing Combat Joe, they geared their efforts toward the more discerning tastes of adults. The result was the first high-end 1/6th scale collector line of G.I. Joe-style figures.

At the heart of the Combat Joe line was the figure itself. While not an exact copy of the original Hasbro G.I. Joe figure, the Combat Joe body utilized the same basic design as G.I. Joe, giving him a very similar body. One change was that Combat Joe would not use the hard plastic hands of either G.I. Joe or New G.I. Joe, but would instead have hands modelled after the Kung-Fu Grip hands of the Adventure Team era. Since Combat Joe was not meant to be a duplicate of G.I. Joe, no effort was made to recreate the earlier Joe face. This allowed Takara to create several different heads for their new figure, giving Combat Joe his own distinctive look.

The initial release of Combat Joe in March of 1984 consisted of three figures; World War II-era American and German Soldiers, and a modern American Soldier. When it came to clothing these three, Takara aimed to give their figures as realistic a look as possible, so each of these figures wore very accurate recreations of their uniforms, including a fabulous tan field jacket for the WWII American and an fantastic camouflage pattern for the modern American uniform. As nice as these were, there were a few shortcuts taken with these uniforms. While some, like the unwieldy plastic straps on the helmets, could be easily seen, most were generally invisible within the outfits when worn on the figures, such as the shirts for the WWII American figure having no sleeves, and the use of an elastic waistband instead of snaps on the pants. But these were minor detractions that were generally compensated for by other details, such as the excellent sculpting on the soft rubber boots each figure came with.

While the figures were fairly complete as they came from the box, the Accessory Collection gear Takara offered for the two American Soldiers and the German Soldier could be used to upgrade the figures by rounding them out with web gear, canteens, ammo pouches, gas masks, shovels, and the like. To arm these three figures, there were the rifles of the Small Arms Collection, including a Thompson submachine gun, a Schmeisser, and an M-16A. These rifles were actually more akin to snap-together model kits than toys. Coloured in silver plastic, these rifles could be easily built, and included features like removable ammo cartridges, cloth shoulder straps, and even a movable shoulder stock on the Schmeisser. Though the rifles could be used as they were, Takara included painting instructions like those found in model kits to help industrious collectors
make these rifles look more realistic.

Takara created two different heads for the Combat Joe figures, a brown-haired head for the two Americans, and a blond for the German. Takara sold both the three uniforms and the two figures separately as well, with the basic figures coming dressed only in blue shorts and a sleeveless green shirt. This gave vintage G.I. Joe collectors the option of dressing their vintage Joes in the Combat Joe uniforms, as well as allowing collectors the opportunity to fill some of their vintage uniforms with Combat Joe figures, all while avoiding the higher price of the fully dressed figures.

Combat Joe was quite popular with G.I. Joe collectors, and soon Takara released a second wave of figures; a German Officer, a German Tank Commander, and a S.W.A.T. police officer. These three figures utilized the same heads as before, with the blond once more being used for the two Germans, and the brown haired head for the S.W.A.T. figure. As with the first figures, the details on the uniforms were impeccable. Improving on the earlier release, the elastic bands on the pants were replaced with a traditional snap closure.

Takara also decided to do away with the separate accessory and weapons sets, releasing each figure complete with their gear. This meant that the S.W.A.T. figure came with such niceties as his web gear, a knit cap, a gas mask, and an M-16, while the German Tank Commander was equipped with headsets, binoculars, and a Walther P-38. The German Officer, with little in the way of accessories that he could be packaged with, came with a die-cast metal P-38 as a form of compensation. Like the three uniforms from the first wave of figures, these three outfits were released separately as part of the growing Combat Joe Uniform Collection.

1984 ended with the release of two more Combat Joe sets. The first of these was a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer, clothed on the brown-haired figure. The C.H.P. uniform was nothing short of amazing. Along with the pants, shirt with C.H.P. badge and a white sleeveless undershirt, the uniform had a crash helmet, sunglasses, and black rubber riding boots. But it was the accessories which truly were stunning. The gun belt carried the holster for the officer’s pistol, a case for his handcuffs, an ammo case for two quick-reloads of bullets, a loop ring for his baton, and all the gear needed to fill these. The set even had a wristwatch and a shotgun with a moveable shoulder stock!

The second figure was a bit more unusual, and definitely a change in direction from the rest of the line. This set was that of a Godzilla costume. Yep, Combat Joe got to try his hand at being the man in the big rubber lizard suit. To be fair, the costume is very well done, creating an excellent 1/6th scale version of Godzilla when dressed on Combat Joe. The set even came with two different Godzilla heads, one duplicating the fiercer look of Godzilla in his early films, and one replicating the friendlier look Godzilla had in his later films. One item of note is the Combat Joe figure that came with this set. Rather than using either of the two existing Combat Joe heads, Takara created a Japanese head that was available only with this set. To help recreate the look of a well-known publicity photo of the Japanese actor putting on the original Godzilla suit, the figure included a blue spotted headband to help keep the sweat from his eyes.

Of course, as was done with the other uniforms in the Combat Joe line, both the C.H.P and the Godzilla suits were available separately, though the Combat Joe figure with the Japanese head remained exclusive to the deluxe Godzilla set. Sadly, while Combat Joe was a hit with G.I. Joe collectors, it did not gain enough popularity with the general public to continue. With eight terrific uniforms to his name, Combat Joe quietly faded away.

Here are the three German set alongside the different packaging for the respective sets:

Each set had a boxed figure, uniform card, accessory card and weapon card:

De-card and enjoy it Mat!

keep it carded mate they are rare!!!!! and I seen the gorilla set on the bay a while ago and thought somebody was taking the pi$$ and didn't bid it was only later I found out how rare they are

Touching a nerve this one, where's Mikey when we need a good debate about decarding

Remember folks, it's not VAM

That's true I suppose.  As it says in that article you reproduced, the Takara stuff was really aimed at the adult collectors market in the first place, so there are probably loads of unopened ones knocking around, unlike VAM where any kid worth his salt ripped them open immediately on receipt!

I'll change my vote then.  Rip them all open Mat, assemble and paint them up and let's see them as they were meant to be! 

I thought the 40th fallschirmjager was a copy of a Takara uniform?

I do like that Godzilla costume. Someone got an amazing BIN bargain, but sorry to say it wasn't me

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMBAT-JOE-COSTUME-GODZILLA-No-8-TAKARA-MIB-RARE-LAST-CHANCE-TO-BUY-BARGAIN-/262298543609?hash=item3d123625f9:g:ujoAAOSwB4NWw5TT

The three Tsukuda sets, each with two variants:

i have the fally without the webbing yeah!!!

Lol. DO NOT decard. Looks so much better unopened with everything intact. The thought makes me feel ill. I even hate getting the kids new toys out of the package. Yes I do suffer from OCD.