I’ve been in an Exosquad mood lately, which is all thanks to Exosquad Archive’s Exo Gear set I reviewed a couple weeks ago. Since then, I’ve retrieved the rest of my Exosquad toys from storage, organized them with the toys I had here at home, and sorted out all of my extra parts. I even spent way too much money on a few bits and pieces on eBay.

Since I’m currently fixated on Playmates’ mid-90s sci-fi mecha toy line, it was pretty much inevitable that it would be the subject of a review.

Today we’re looking at Special Missions Typhonus with Deep Submergence E-Frame, which was released in 1995. This was one of the six Exosquad toys I had as a kid, so it’s pretty special to me.

This toy also does a lot of things, even though it looks pretty basic on the surface. But there’s a lot to uncover and unpack here, so I’m excited to share it with you.

Are you ready for a deep dive?

1995 Exosquad Typhonus w/ Deep Submergence E-Frame as My Childhood Neosapien Army

As a kid, I had six Exosquad toys. I already mentioned that. I probably got into Exosquad in mid or late 1994, so it wasn’t always easy to find the first two waves of toys, and those were the waves that included many of the show’s most prominent characters and iconic mecha designs.

I watched the Exosquad TV show on USA Network whenever I could find it, and I was enamored. I loved the story, the characters, and the E-Frames. One of the E-Frames I wanted the most as a toy was the generic Neosapien infantry E-Frame, which was represented by Typhonus with his High Speed Stealth E-Frame in the toy line. Though I managed to find Alec DeLeon and Phaeton from the first wave, I never saw an original Typhonus.

Sometime in 1995, I received Typhonus’ second figure as a gift. The Deep Submergence E-Frame was part of the Special Mission series, the fourth wave of regular-sized Exosquad toys. They were all significant retoolings of earlier releases, and this wave allowed Playmates to get some main characters back in circulation, reuse some parts, and put out some toys that weren’t connected to anything in the cartoon.

Though they weren’t accurate to the source material, they were very cool toys in their own right. They’re not as universally beloved by fans and collectors as the toys in the first three waves are because they never appeared in the show. The Special Mission boxes also boasted “twice the firepower of a normal E-Frame” when all of them had fewer conventional weapons than their earlier counterparts.

It’s easy to argue that Playmates ran out of ideas for Exosquad by 1995. The first two waves of toys were all pretty much show-accurate and represented important characters. Wave 3 featured a couple of non-cartoon E-Frames, but Tanaka and Madison were both important characters and their battle machines looked cool and had great designs.

Wave 4 was Special Missions, a retread of what came before, but taken to strange new places. They’re still great toys, though. Wave 5 was completely bizarre, featuring a gorilla, a knight, a (largely unreleased) football player, and one cool show-accurate E-Frame that Thrax piloted in one episode– and Marsala was the designated pilot for the toy.

Then, Exosquad folded Robotech into the brand to bolster its toy offerings. I like those toys and will be writing about them very soon, but it’s doubtful that Playmates was still bursting with fresh ideas in 1995. Thankfully, most of the later Exosquad toys are quite cool despite the lack of inspired new designs.

This 1995 Typhonus figure and Colleen O’Reilly were the final Exosquad toys I owned in the 1990s. They joined Alec DeLeon, Wolf Bronski, Phaeton, and Draconis. While my collection was small, having six characters opened up quite a few possibilities for play time stories. I never did get that generic Neosapien infantry E-Frame from the first wave, though, so this Special Mission toy never represented Typhonus the character. This toy became my Neosapien infantry E-Frame, and it held the honored title of “cannon fodder” in all of my subsequent childhood stories.

Since the 1995 Exosquad Typhonus with Deep Submergence E-Frame was my entire Neosapien army as a kid, it’s a very special toy to me. It was one of the first toys I sought out when I was rebuilding my Exosquad collection, and it still remains a favorite despite its many flaws.

The main problem with the toy is that it’s designed for underwater combat. In itself, this is not an issue– if you’re a long time reader, you know that I love aquatic army dolls. But, as a kid, I needed this toy to be more versatile. There were no underwater E-Frames on the good guy side, so the Deep Submergence E-Frame had no one to fight in its designated arena of combat.

My imagination won out as a kid, though. I rarely used this E-Frame’s snap-on flippers or its propeller attachment. I did sometimes use the claw attachment but, most times, I left all attachments off of the right arm and just pretended the green connection point was the barrel of a powerful energy cannon. This allowed the Deep Submergence E-Frame to function on land and in space, as well.

Once I acquired two of the 1993 High Speed Stealth E-Frames in the late 00s, I finally felt like I had a little army. I used my sole Deep Submergence E-Frame as a squad leader for those two infantry E-Frames. Then I got another, nicer Deep Submergence E-Frame. The two Special Mission E-Frames then reverted back to their original, intended purpose– amphibious assault weapons.

Last week, I finally got a 2001 Tech Wars SHOC Infantry Tech Suit (a repaint of the original High Speed Stealth E-Frame), so it has become my de facto squad leader. If I see any more Tech Wars or High Speed Stealth E-Frames for a good price, I’ll probably pick them up. But, for now, I feel like my Neosapien army is fully built. I am happy and satisfied with what I have. How often does that happen for adult collectors?

So, let’s take an in-depth look at this mostly-complete 1995 Exosquad Special Mission E-Frame with Typhonus. I have a lot to say about this obscure old toy, but that’s probably not surprising.

1995 Exosquad Typhonus w/ Deep Submergence E-Frame (Special Mission) Review

This Deep Submergence toy was released in 1995 as part of wave 4, Special Missions, and featured a combination of new and old parts. The E-Frame itself mostly uses the same central body as the 1993 High Speed Stealth E-Frame, but there are some changes in the upper torso. The shoulder missile cover panels are completely new, as are the flood light array and the radar dish. The legs feature different thrusters and a few of the upper torso details are different, as well. We’ll get to in-depth comparisons later. The E-Frame’s arms were completely new, and featured an interesting modular mix-and-match feature. The Typhonus figure and its weapons used the exact same mold as the original, just presented in new colors.

Here’s the box. Mine isn’t in great shape, but I’m glad I have it.

The artwork, as always, is incredible. I don’t keep much toy packaging around, other than GI Joe card backs. The exceptions to that rule are Exosquad and Gundam MS in Pocket, as the boxes for both toy lines are really special. These Exosquad boxes, in particular, contain a ton of text, photos, and diagrams that really bring the toys to life.

The back of the box gives you some information on Typhonus and shows off some of the toy’s features. The little bio card is hilarious to me, as it basically says that Typhonus sees himself as too good to pilot an E-Frame, but will use this one to kill JT Marsh. But it’s an undersea E-Frame and Marsh uses an Aerial Attack E-Frame, so you can imagine how that might work out.

As cool as Exosquad boxes are, they’re often rife with errors. All of the Special Mission packaging flip-flops on which weapons and tools are which, and they really fail to properly label many of the included accessories. My favorite bit is the “Wind-Up Powered ExoMotorized Arm,” which has text just copy/pasted from the good guy Exofleet figures. Does Typhonus really want to use “Neo Defeating Utility Tools?” I don’t think defeating the Neosapiens is his goal, as he’s one of their highest ranking generals.

You can also see some paint/color differences between the prototype pictured on the box and the toy itself. The snap-on flippers were intended to be painted at some point.

Here’s the top of the box, which basically gives a sales pitch for the toy and its features. This same information and layout is featured on both sides and the bottom of the box, as well.

The Special Mission boxes have a lift-up flap on the box, which hearkened back to earlier toys in the line. The underside of the flap contains some more great info about Exosquad’s story and premise, and shows off some of the toy’s features in greater detail. Any inaccuracies aside, I absolutely love this stuff.

Photo courtesy of Exosquad Archive

Here’s a photo of everything the toy comes with. I’m missing the arm connector pegs, the fusion pack, and Typhonus’ hand weapons. I do have extras of the 1993 Typhonus weapons, though, so that’s what you’ll be seeing in this review. Only the colors are different. Mine are grey, but they should be blue. Please reference the photo above if you get confused.

So, before we get into exhaustive coverage of the E-Frame, let’s take a look at 1995 Special Mission Typhonus himself.

The figure is 3” tall and moves a lot like a vintage ARAH GI Joe, minus the waist swivel.

As mentioned above, this figure is a straight up repaint of the 1993 wave 1 Typhonus figure. I absolutely love this color scheme. The silver, dark blue, and aqua/teal colors are a perfect combination. This is probably my favorite Neosapien figure in the entire Exosquad line, just because of the colors.

I own three of them and kind of see them as my generic Neosapien troopers. Granted, Playmates never made the generic Neosapien troopers we see in the show (many of whom wore helmets and red/yellow armor), but we have to take what we can get.

There’s not much new detail revealed when you look at Typhonus from the side, but the sculpt is great and everything is cohesive. Interestingly, the lower arms are cast in aqua plastic and the upper arms are cast in dark blue. The lower arm’s half of the elbow joint is aqua and the upper arm’s is blue, when one or the other side should have been painted to match. It’s a little bit jarring when you notice it. This is a cardinal sin when it happens on a GI Joe toy, but here I’m able to easily forgive it, for some reason.

Typhonus has a little silver pistol holstered on his left leg. Neat!

Around back, we can see the continuation of his chest armor and the little wires and hole that connect him to his E-Frame’s cyberjack.

Here’s the figure All Geared Up. Again, right here he’s using the wave 1 weapons but they’re the exact same pieces in different colors. He includes a rifle and a pistol. I don’t think either of these weapons were seen too often in the Exosquad cartoon series, but they do follow the curved, almost-organic design language as most Neosapien weapons.

The rifle is a cool piece. He can actually grip both handles if you need him to, but I prefer to use it one-handed.

I always liked the pistol more than the rifle. It has an odd design, but it just works for me.

There’s a cool detail on the back of the pistol. It appears to have three chambers, which gives it sort of a revolver look. I always thought that these might be special explosive or incendiary rounds, or that maybe they could even be grenade rounds. I love this thing.

Here he is with the original 1993 Typhonus. I like the color scheme on the Special Mission version more, but the first Typhonus has more paint apps and more paint variety. The 1995 Typhonus features five colors, whereas the 1993 version features seven. The original Typhonus has many more of his details picked out, using a neon green highlight color. The markings on his forehead are also rendered in two colors, which is show accurate. The 1995 version only uses one color for the forehead markings.

A rear view really shows off the paint difference. 1993 Typhonus’ cyberjack port is fully painted, and you can easily tell that it’s a cybernetic implant. On the Special Mission version, that detail is washed out in a sea of silver paint. No matter, though, because I still like this one more! You just can’t beat this color scheme.

Now, we’re finally getting to the E-Frame itself. Much like its pilot, this battle machine has a glorious color scheme. The 1995 Exosquad Deep Submergence E-Frame is cast in a beautiful aqua/teal plastic with purple camouflage splotches. These are two of my favorite colors and they work wonderfully together. It really has a “late Generation 1 Decepticon” type of vibe that I can’t get enough of.

Much of the hardware, including the radar dish and the floodlights, are cast in dark blue plastic. There are also some neon green highlights to pick out other small details. I particularly love the sculpting on the canopy and shoulder missile panels.

The right arm adds another color, as it’s cast in a shiny silver plastic. This is the “Wind Up Powered ExoMotorized Arm,” which is one of the toy’s main, unique features. So it definitely needs to stand out. Even without an attachment installed, it looks cool and powerful. You can see the wind-up knob itself here, but it’s pretty well hidden and nicely integrated into the sculpt.

The left side features the toy’s missile launcher arm. It doesn’t look like much without the missiles installed, but I still like the sculpt and the little details. I also really like the overall shaping of the arms, with their big curved fins sticking out the rear. It’s a cool design.

On a fun side note, the shoulder launcher’s “wave riding smart bombs” fit perfectly into this arm, too. They don’t launch, of course, but they look good and stay securely. Those parts are a bit easier to find on the secondary market than the longer, shooting missiles are, so it’s a way to make the toy still look good when it’s incomplete. This is what I do for my second Deep Submergence E-Frame, which you can see in some of these photos.

Around the back, you can see the little wheel you can turn to spin the radar dish. You can also see the holes where the shoulder missiles stick out. And, glaringly obviously, you can tell that my copy is missing its clear blue fusion pack. I might find one someday, but I’ll probably just give up and turn to 3D printing. Those parts are tiny, expensive, and hard to find.

Instead of the 1993 release’s leg thrusters, the 1995 Special Mission Deep Submergence E-Frame has little turbine propellers. That’s a neat detail. These can be easily removed, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that. You’ll lose them and never forgive yourself. I know from experience.

To position the figure in the E-Frame, you’ll need to open everything up. Swing the torso canopy upwards (which will likely open the shoulder missile covers, too) and make sure the radar dish is out of the way. Then, open the thigh covers and open the foot covers.

Then, you place the figure inside, making sure the clip is secured around his waist. You can plug the cyberjack into the back of the figure’s head if you want to, but I never bother with it.

Finally, place the figure’s hands on the handles extending from each arm. I really like the handles Playmates used after wave 1, as they’re made of flexible plastic and they’re much easier for figures to grip than the old, rigid handles were. Once Typhonus is holding on for dear life, close up all the panels again.

Now you’re ready to add some weapons and accessories!

The Deep Submergence E-Frame has a couple of different configurations, but most parts remain the same between the two of them. You load a “wave riding smart bomb” into each shoulder compartment, and then load two “aqua missiles” into the left arm’s spring loaded launcher. Then, you attach the snap-on flippers to the feet. Everything stays on securely and looks great.

You have two choices with the right arm. The toy comes with both a propeller and a claw, and either one works with the wind-up mechanism of the arm. You can see the propeller attached in the photo above.

The propeller is the least exciting accessory the toy comes with. The sculpt and paint are nice, but it’s not really a weapon of any kind. It could possibly give the E-Frame some added speed underwater, but that’s about it. This kind of thing is common across the Exosquad Special Mission range– each toy basically comes with one useful attachment and one dud (though I’d argue that both of DeLeon’s are actually fairly good).

Luckily, you also have the option to install a huge, articulated claw as an attachment. It can easily grab and hold on to Exosquad action figures or grapple an E-Frame, but don’t expect the attachment point and the toy’s arm joints to be strong enough to lift another full E-Frame off the ground.

The claw makes sense as an underwater weapon. It doesn’t need ammo, but it can grapple, rip, and tear up enemy machines and equipment. It works well enough on land, too. I’d rather have some sort of gun installed in the right arm, but I still think the claw makes perfect sense. In season 2 of the cartoon, the members of Able Squad greatly lamented their lack of close range melee weaponry. Typhonus, though, has that covered.

The claw has sort of a spring mechanism inside of it, so it can really only hold a fully closed or fully open position most of the time. That’s just fine for play and display, though.

Once you get the claw attached and open up the shoulder missile pods, this thing looks absolutely fearsome. I love it.

All Exosquad E-Frames came with a big sheet of stickers, allowing you to fully customize your E-Frames. I always love seeing how previous owners kitted out their Exosquad toys before they land in my lap. Here, you can see an optional sticker that adds some detail to the inside of the shoulder missile compartment.

This is one of my favorite features of both the Deep Submergence and High Speed Stealth E-Frames. I love a missile launcher that’s covered by an opening hatch. It recalls classic mecha anime like Macross and Gundam, as well as Western franchises like Battletech.

Now that you’ve seen how everything goes together, I’ll list out all the gimmicks and features this toy has:

• Rotating radar dish, activated by spinning a wheel on the back of the toy
• Shoulder missile launchers with opening panels, the missiles can be “launched” by flicking the back end with your finger
• Two missile launchers on the left arm, activated with a well-concealed button on the underside of the launcher
• A wind-up mechanism that can spin the propeller, claw, or (most) any attachment from the other Special Mission E-Frames
• Removable arms that are interchangeable with other Special Mission E-Frame arms
• Connector pegs that plug into the E-Frame’s outer shoulders, allowing you to connect even more Special Mission E-Frame arms to it

Wait, did I say the toy’s arms come off? And that they can be replaced by other E-Frame arms?! And that you can even add more than two arms to the toy at once??? Yes I did. But hold your horses, as we’ll get to that in a moment. There’s a lot to cover with this toy.

Here’s a gif showing the wind-up arm in action. These mechanisms deteriorate over time, and mine is no longer strong enough to reliably spin the claw attachment, which is a bummer. But it still works and still looks good in photos and on display.

The coolest thing about the wind-up mechanism is it has a stop/start button. There’s a cleverly concealed slider on top of the arm. When you click it into “locked” position, it prevents the mechanism from spinning. So you can wind the arm up to your heart’s content without losing any momentum. Then, when you unlock the mechanism with the slider, it will start spinning like crazy.

It’s a cool, well-engineered gimmick and is really the kind of thing that sets Exosquad apart from all of its contemporaries. Even when Playmates ran out of big ideas, they were still making amazing, well thought out toys.

Before we get to the removable arms, let’s do some quick comparisons.

In this first image, you can see a lot of what was retooled between the 1993 High Speed Stealth E-Frame and this one. The arms are the big standouts, but the upper torso has a lot of differences, too.

The arms on the High Speed Stealth E-Frame look a lot more “complete” without their missiles. The Deep Submergence E-Frame kind of needs its missiles and at least one attachment to look good, but the original does not.

Around the back, the main difference you’ll notice are the leg thrusters.

Both toys look undeniably awesome when they’re fully kitted out and geared up. If you have both, you have the makings of a great generic Neosapien infantry with some good variety.

And just for fun, here they both are alongside the 2001 Tech Wars SHOC Infantry tech suit. An extra Exowalking E-Frame Marsala is piloting my Tech Suit, as Tech Wars figures are very fragile at the elbow joint, so I don’t handle them very often.

Now, let’s get into the toy’s other big feature– the arms! There are so many possibilities here, as each Special Mission E-Frame includes two attachments for the wind-up arm and, in theory, you can use any attachment for any E-Frame. The arms themselves are also modular, but let’s take this one step at a time.

Let’s start with the JT Marsh with Deep Space Exploration E-Frame attachments. On Marsh’s packaging, both attachments are labeled with both names, so the designers and copywriters were not on the same page. So I’m just taking my best guess on which is which. This little satellite-looking thingy is either a “sub space signal” or “solar collector,” so I choose to believe it’s the sub space signal.

Regardless of what it is, it’s fairly underwhelming and doesn’t serve any real purpose. If it is a solar collector, I guess it could gather additional power for the E-Frame from nearby stars. But the E-Frame already has a fusion pack, so I’m not sure why that’s necessary. But still, it fits just fine and is a thing you can do.

In my opinion, JT Marsh’s second attachment is the coolest one in the entire Special Mission line. It may be a signal or a solar collector according to the box, but we all know what it is– a huge laser gatling gun! JT Marsh’s original Aerial Attack E-Frame also had a gatling gun arm, so in my brain it has to be that. I love this thing, and it looks even better when you get it spinning. The colors look decent with the Deep Submergence E-Frame, too.

I have an extra of this part and I commonly use it with the Special Mission Typhonus E-Frame just because I love it so much. It’s even cooler than the E-Frame’s own claw!

Next, we come to DeLeon’s Special Mission attachments, both of which are pretty good. The first is a “power winch,” which makes interesting use of the wind-up mechanism. The winch’s string retracts when you wind the arm up. The colors don’t match Typhonus’ E-Frame at all, but it still works and is a cool piece.

DeLeon also included an Exo Rip Saw, which also fits in securely and spins freely. I’m not sure why the saw blade is oriented the way it is. I think a vertical configuration would be more practical than the horizontal way it was designed, but maybe it was a safety issue. Again, the colors don’t match but it’s fun to play around with.

Finally, we come to Wolf Bronski’s attachments. The first of which is a jackhammer. It only barely fits into the Deep Submergence E-Frame’s motorized arm, and will fall out of it’s not balanced right. When it’s attached to Bronski’s E-Frame, the jackhammer moves back and forth. It’s great. Here, it will just fall out if the wind-up mechanism starts spinning.

Bronski’s attachments seem to be loose on all other Special Mission E-Frames, and they’re not even totally secure on his own. It’s a weird quality control oversight when everything else was so meticulously crafted.

Bronski’s second attachment is the worst one in the Special Mission line, and possibly the hokiest “weapon” in all of Exosquad. It’s a “rock grinding wheel.” Really, it’s just a tire. The kind you get at Big O. It’s incredibly lame. It’s also not secure on Typhonus’ E-Frame at all, so you couldn’t really use it even if you wanted to.

Okay, now we come to the arms themselves. Each Special Mission E-Frame arm is mounted on a peg. The peg has some added articulation that lets the arms wiggle out to the side a little bit, giving them more poseability than normal Exosquad toys. The arms attach securely due to the pegs’ design, but it’s pretty easy to pull them off.

Then you’re left with this. An armless E-Frame looks pretty weird, but it’s all in service of the gimmick. As a kid, I had fun using this feature as “battle damage.” This toy represented my Neosapien army after all, so it wasn’t rare for a generic Neo infantry unit to get its arm blown off by Bronski, O’Reilly, or DeLeon.

You can replace the 1995 Exosquad Deep Submergence E-Frame’s arms with any arm from another Special Mission toy, which can make for some fun combos. Above, you’ll see it with an arm from All Terrain and Subterranean E-Frames. This is a very fun play feature. I only owned one Special Mission E-Frame as a kid, so I’m sad I never got to try it out back then. I would have had a blast with it.

All of the good guy Exofleet Special Mission E-Frames had their wind-up arms on the left and their missile launching arms on the right. Typhonus was the opposite. That means that, if you have the parts, you can have a dual laser gatling gun setup. Heck yeah!

Or, if you’re all about that 1990s spring-loaded projectile action, you can have two missile launching arms as well.

But wait, there’s more. Each Special Mission E-Frame also included two extra arm pegs. These plug in to the outside of the E-Frame’s arm. Once the pegs are installed, you can attach another pair of Special Mission E-Frame arms to them. The pegs in this photo are being borrowed from Wolf Bronski’s Subterranean E-Frame.

Look at this brilliant nonsense! This thing looks totally insane, but in a very fun way. There are so many fun combos you can do with this system of modular, interchangeable arms. I only tried this one, though. It’s a little bit fiddly to set up, but everything stays on securely once you get it in place.

In theory, if you have all of the Special Mission E-Frames and their arm pegs, you could make an E-Frame with EIGHT arms. Four was enough for me. I enjoy science fiction mecha toy lunacy, but I wasn’t willing to go too much further than this.

This article is getting very long. We’ve covered everything the actual toy does, but I still want to talk about Typhonus, as a character, and how I see the Deep Submergence E-Frame functioning in the world of Exosquad (even though it never appeared on the cartoon show).

I’m rewatching Exosquad, probably for the fifth time, right now. I always forget about Typhonus until I watch the show. He’s an important character, but not a very memorable one. He’s a high ranking general who engages the Exofleet in combat. The first flash of personality you see is when Able Squad briefly captures Phaeton in season 1. Typhonus shows that he is willing to sacrifice Phaeton for “the cause” and take command himself. When Phaeton survives, despite being badly mutilated, Typhonus gets a new mission (instead of a trip to the gallows)– track down and kill JT Marsh, Marsala, and Admiral Winfield.

Typhonus is motivated by revenge. He’s shrewd, treacherous, and opportunistic. That’s really all there is to him. Phaeton, Shiva, Thrax, Draconis, and Livia all have much more depth of character than Typhonus does. Marsala is a complex character as well, even though he’s operating on the side of the angels. The most interesting thing about Typhonus is that Phaeton keeps a bunch of clones of him around so that Typhonus can be executed and replaced whenever he botches a mission or displeases the Neosapien Supreme Commander. That’s a fun and morbid story note I’ve always enjoyed.

The 1995 Exosquad Deep Submergence E-Frame is more interesting than its pilot. As a kid, it was my generic Neo infantry unit. Now that I have a couple of the line’s actual generic infantry units, I don’t see the Special Mission E-Frame in the same way I used to.

I see this as an amphibious combat unit. It thrives in underwater combat, but it can also fight effectively on the land. It makes a good backup machine for Shiva’s larger Light Attack E-Frame, but it’s also useful on its own.

(The first 5 minutes of this video, for reference)

I kind of like to imagine it doing something similar to what you see in the opening of Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket– launching from a submarine, deep sea base, or hydrofoil, traveling underwater, and emerging to lay waste to an above-ground Terran installation. I kind of see it as the Hy-Gogg (or Z’Gok) of the Exosquad universe. When it emerges from the water, you won’t know what hit you.

Of course, you absolutely could use it as a generic Neosapien Infantry E-Frame, too. Earth Resistance member Peter Tanaka uses a green version of the High Speed Stealth E-Frame in many of his appearances, so this E-Frame could serve that purpose, too.

It also helps that you can’t fully see the pilot once it’s enclosed in the E-Frame. This can represent Typhonus, but it absolutely doesn’t need to. To me, this represents a mass production Neosapien E-Frame with a no-name pilot. It also helps that the Special Mission Typhonus looks drastically different from his 1993 counterpart.

Exosquad toys make my imagination run wild, and that’s one of my favorite things about them. I have a blast daydreaming about different battle machines, pilots, and what kind of scenarios they could get into. This 1995 Exosquad Typhonus w/ Deep Submergence E-Frame represents all of the creative stories I came up with early on in my love affair with the franchise. For me, it goes far deeper than just being a late-line underwater combat unit with a ton of reused parts. In my mind, this toy is Exosquad.

Overall: I love everything about this toy, even if it’s technically not as accomplished or as iconic as its High Speed Stealth forebearer. The colors are perfect. The gimmicks are both fun and functional. The pilot figure is one of my favorites in the entire line. And, on top of all that, it has some insanely extensive features with modular and interchangeable parts. If you’re an Exosquad fan, you know you need this toy. But, even if you’re just a fan of cool military mecha toys in general, this is one that should be in your collection. It’s Highly Recommended.

Closing Thoughts on 1995 Exosquad Typhonus w/ Deep Submergence E-Frame (Special Mission)

As you can likely tell, I put a lot of work into this review. I took about 60 photos and even included an animated gif. I had a blast the whole time, though, so I’m not complaining.

I have another GI Joe review on deck for next time, and taking photos for that one seems easy by comparison. Still, it’s going to be a wild and wacky one so I’m pretty excited. Thanks for being here, as always!

What’s the most off-the-wall Exosquad toy? When did Playmates run out of ideas? Let me know in the comments!