Hello everyone. I hope you’re doing well and that all of the Tylenols and ibuprofens are defending your body’s pain receptors from the rigors of old age. My results on that are a bit mixed.

Today we’re looking at a figure I’ve been wanting to review for quite a while. It’s also a figure that’s been with me since childhood. It survived a house fire and is still in pretty good shape– I’ve never even had to replace its original o-ring!

So settle in for a cozy little review of Hasbro’s 1993 GI Joe Headhunter Stormtrooper, which saw plenty of action during my formative years. And watch your fingers because this is one spiky little guy.

The Invincible 1993 GI Joe Headhunter Stormtrooper of My Youth

Many older ARAH GI Joe fans think of 1993 as the weakest year of the toy line. On one hand, I get where they’re coming from. 1993 was the year Hasbro mostly did away with unique accessories for every figure. There were a ton of single-carded Joes released in 93, many of which reused older parts or were repaints of previous figures. The colors were also brighter than they’d ever been.

That last aspect is a positive in my book, it will not surprise you to know.

But 1993 also gave us plenty of great things, especially when it comes to what fans refer to as Cobra “army builders.” Now if you were a kid in 1993, as I was, you weren’t army building shit unless your parents were both very rich and very generous. So we’d have maybe one of a few various Cobra troops and they’d represents the terrorist horde our brave army man dolls fought against.

And, in 1993, Cobra got some real All-Timers. You had a black and yellow Alley Viper, a gorgeous Astro Viper, the menacing Crimson Guard Commander, a fun repaint of the 1992 Eel, an orange Flak Viper, a devastatingly neon HEAT Viper, oddball Night Creepers, a nice little repainted Headhunter, and his bigger, meaner cousin– the Headhunter Stormtrooper.

And there were even more than that, of course. I feel like Cyber-Viper, Mega Viper, and TARGAT all deserve some praise, too. Sure, they’re bright and weird, but they are also a ton of fun.

If you wanted Cobra legions in 1993, the GI Joe toy line absolutely had you covered. You had plenty of neon weirdos (which are great), but you also had some pretty straightforward troops like the Headhunter Stormtrooper. And that figure gave off an aura of sheer evil and malice that the toy line had really never seen before. And that’s why it became one of my most-used Cobra figures once I received it in 1993.

Prior to 93, a BAT, a Sludge Viper, A Headhunter, and a Desert Scorpion were probably the Cobra troops I played with the most. In 1993, though, my options greatly expanded. That year I received the Crimson Guard Commander, HEAT Viper, a TARGAT, and the Headhunter Stormtrooper.

The CGC immediately became Cobra’s elite trooper, the mini-boss the Joes had to go through to get to Cobra Commander or Destro. But the 1993 GI Joe Headhunter Stormtrooper represented something even more sinister.

Due to his spiky armor, the Joe team couldn’t even touch him. He’d often body-check them and inflict serious pain. He had plenty of weapons, but sometimes he didn’t even need to use them. In my childhood brain, he represented pure evil. Cobra only called him in when they wanted things to get really, really nasty.

I often had battles where a squad of Joes would have to face off against several Headhunters before they got to the Headhunter Stormtrooper, and he always gave them a run for their money. When HHSS was involved, things got deadly serious.

That’s why I’m happy my childhood Headhunter Stormtrooper has survived this long and is in such decent shape. Sure, the gold paint is a little weaker than it was 30 years ago, but his joints are still tight and he still looks great.

The figure was just so different and so much more ominous-looking than anything else I had at the time that it became an unforgettable presence in my toybox. And that’s why I’m sharing it with you today.

1993 GI Joe Headhunter Stormtrooper Review

The Headhunter Stormtrooper was released in 1993 as part of GI Joe’s Battle Corps line, which was the “main” toy line at the time. It was a regularly priced, single carded figure.

Here’s the card:

This card design is often frowned upon, but I’ve always liked the look of the laser background. It’s eye-catching and fun.

Here’s the card back:

The file cards themselves did see a decline in the writing quality in 1993, and this file card is no exception. It’s fine and basically tells you what Headhunter Stormtroopers do, but it’s also boring and poorly-realized. Are they guards or are they frontline, rapid assault troopers? I guess the choice is yours, dear reader, because Hasbro sure as shit didn’t know.

I gave this carded example to a friend a few years ago, but I did take some photos of it first. Today we’re looking at my childhood figure, as previously mentioned.

Here’s the figure:

The 1993 GI Joe Headhunter Stormtrooper featured all-new parts. Nothing was reused from previous figures. And to call it a unique sculpt would be an understatement.

The skull-like helmet, with its evil red eyes, is maybe only rivaled by 1990’s Range Viper when it comes to projecting sheer terror and malice. The bulked-up body makes for an intimidating look, too.

Then there’s the spikes, which are technically child-safe but still a bit prickly to the touch. Those spikes make for a much more tactile experience than you get with other GI Joe figures, and it absolutely rules.

The sculpting is also quite intricate, with layers of armor, pouches, a knife, and a pistol.

The color scheme is a pretty simple one, but it’s both very effective and very different from other figures released in 1993. It’s mainly dark grey with black and gold highlights, and there’s a little pop of red for the eyes. This color scheme blends in very well with 1992 Headhunters, 1993 Headhunters, and Headman himself. It even looks pretty good next to Gristle.

There were only four unique molds produced for the Headhunters faction (or sub-faction), and Gristle kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s the guy in maroon, neon yellow, and beatnik sunglasses, by the way. In 1992, Headman and the Headhunter were released. In 1993, Hasbro released a repaint of the Headhunter (the green one), Gristle, and Headhunter Stormtrooper. And that’s it.

Still, they look great as a group and Headhunters remain a pretty popular subset among GI Joe fans– even among older fans who generally don’t care much for 1992 or 1993 releases.

Headman himself got a pretty fun orange repaint in the Joe Vs. Cobra years, but we wouldn’t see much more from the Headhunters until 2008, when a convention exclusive set was released. I don’t have most of those figures, but I do have two of the 2008 Headhunter Stormtroopers because they were very cheap and easy to find at some point.

The 2008 convention version is the only other version of the Headhunter Stormtrooper that’s been released in any GI Joe toy line. The colors are pretty nice, but it has one big problem– it reuses the original figure’s upper body, but from the waist down it’s made from 1990 Rock Viper parts. That wouldn’t be a bad thing by itself but, much like the 2000 Snake Eyes figure I looked at recently, one leg is longer than the other so it’s kind of touch to stand up or play with. Oh well.

Like almost all 1993 figures, Headhunter Stormtrooper’s core accessories came attached to a plastic sprue or “weapons tree.” The figure included a black (slightly modified) version of 1990 Rock Viper’s rifle, 1992 Destro’s submachine gun in black, a black version of 1988 Shockwave’s knife, two black missiles, a black figure stand, and an orange missile launcher. The image above is a screenshot from YoJoe.com, as I’m missing the figure’s knife and the correct missiles.

These were very common accessories for Cobra (and Street Fighter) figures in 1993 and 1994, but at least they’re cast in black plastic here, which makes them a bit more useful.

It’s a shame that I’m missing the knife, as it’s a great accessory and it looks just brutal enough to go along with the figure. But onto the accessories I actually do have.

Let’s start with the SMG. This weapon was all over the place in the 90s and 00s. I used to be kind of a snob about it and only associate the weapon with Destro, but then I got over myself. It’s a decent little weapon and it was basically Cobra’s standard-issue gun in the 1990s. It looks like it’s easy to use and packs a punch. It also somewhat resembles the laser guns Cobra Troopers often used in the 1980s Sunbow cartoon, so that gives it a little bit more legitimacy in my eyes.

Next up, we have the larger rifle. I’ve written about this one before since it comes with so many figures, but I guess I’ll do it again. I believe this is based on a real world sniper rifle (Nekoman of The Viper Pit would know), but Hasbro’s version doesn’t look much like a sniper rifle. When I was a kid, I wasn’t really aware of drum magazines, so I always saw this as some kind of high powered laser rifle with a battery pack. Either way, it seems like a heavy-duty, rapid-fire assault rifle to me. And, in that sense, it works pretty well for an armored powerhouse like the Headhunter Stormtrooper.

Finally, we come to the missile launcher. This is probably my favorite missile launcher of the 93-94 era. It clips onto the figure’s arm and almost any vintage GI Joe figure can hold it securely, hold it up, and hold it without falling over. Plus it just looks cool as hell. It’s high tech, it’s massive, and it’s unlike any other weapon in the GI Joe toy line. As a kid, I used it as a high-powered arm cannon that shot energy blasts, similar to what I saw in video games like Mega Man X. I think the orange plastic of the launcher looks very nice with Headhunter Stormtrooper’s color scheme, as well.

And before you crucify me in the comments or on social media, rest assured that I know I’m picturing the “wrong” missiles here.

As far as how I see the Headhunter Stormtrooper fitting into my own little GI Joe world, it’s a bit complicated. Sometimes I see the Headhunters as just another sub-faction within Cobra. Sometimes I see them as their own entity. This goes along with how Hasbro portrayed them.

In 1992, the Headhunters were an evil band of drug pushers/manufacturers that were so vile that even Cobra was against them. That’s a bit silly, as Cobra uses all sorts of chemical and biological weapons, which seem more evil to me than drugs could ever be.

Then, in 1993, the Headhunters became part of Cobra and switched from “drugs” to just “crime” in general. Granted, Hasbro was planning a continuation of the DEF line in 1993, but all the figures (Mace, Muskrat, Law, Long Arm, Headhunter, Headhunter Stormtrooper, and Gristle) all just got rolled into the Battle Corps line. But still, they were officially part of Cobra and drugs were never mentioned again.

The DIC cartoon was not a big part of my childhood, and I never fully saw the “Don Johnson gets addicted to drugs so Cobra and GI Joe have to team up to murder a man with a ponytail” episode until I was an adult. So that never really factored into how I saw Headhunters.

When I was a kid, they were mostly their own faction. But now I see them basically as Cobra subcontractors. They run guns for Cobra/MARS and they run drugs on their own. They’re Cobra’s eyes and ears in large cities and other urban environments. And, when push comes to shove, they will also assist Cobra in urban combat operations if the price is right.

I really don’t see a global terrorist organization turning their noses up at a drug selling operation. I can see there being some friction between Headman and Cobra Commander at times, though, which makes for some fun drama.

I imagine Headhunter Stormtroopers as Headman’s elite enforcers. The regular Headhunters sell the drugs and are capable of intimidation and providing dumb muscle. But when Headman needs something more, he uses Headhunter Stormtroopers.

To me, the Headhunter Stormtroopers are more than capable of taking on a SWAT team or even the National Guard. You need an elite unit like GI Joe when they show up. They’re Headman’s personal guards, but they’re also the ones he calls in when he needs to do more than just intimidate lowlifes, local law enforcement, or corrupt politicians. In my mind, they’re the equivalent of Crimson Guards, as far as the whole “elite trooper” angle goes. Their weapons and armor are expensive, so there aren’t many of them, but it doesn’t take many of them to be effective.

Before I sign off, I should mention that this figure has a couple of flaws. As you can see on my example, the gold paint rubs off easily. But that’s to be expected from vintage GI Joe figures. His shoulders are also set a bit low (much like Sagat, who I recently looked at), but you can maybe chalk that up to the armor’s sheer bulk. I don’t know. Just spitballing here.

But other than those couple issues, this is basically a perfect figure from GI Joe’s later years. I’m glad it was part of my childhood and I’m glad I still have that exact figure.

Overall: The 1993 GI Joe Headhunter Stormtrooper is a brilliant figure. It’s a menacing presence that radiates pure evil. The sculpt is phenomenal, the colors are great, and it works well with both Headhunters and Cobra alike. Even the reused weapons tree accessories are pretty good and fit the figure well. You have to be careful with the gold paint, but that’s really my only warning about the toy. If you can find one for an acceptable price, this figure is Highly Recommended.

Additional Resources:

• Headhunter Stormtrooper at Forgotten Figures
• Headhunter Stormtrooper at Down the Toytube
• Headhunter Stormtrooper at 3DJoes
• Headhunter Stormtrooper at YoJoe

Closing Thoughts on 1993 GI Joe Headhunter Stormtrooper

Thanks for joining me today! I had a great time writing this review. The photos were pretty enjoyable to take, too.

I know I mentioned it before, but I love that this figure has been with me for 30 years. It’s one I don’t think I’ll ever give up. It may need a new o-ring eventually, though. But 30 years is pretty good for a little piece of rubber!

Next time, I think I’ll dip back into some TMNT or maybe even Playmates Star Trek. But don’t worry, there’s always more GI Joe on the way.

How do you see the divide between Headhunters and Cobra? What’s your favorite would-be DEF figure from 1993? Let me know in the comments!