In nearly 9 years of profiling Joe figures, I have never featured the Baroness. It's a glaring omission but speaks to the figure's importance in my collection. Not that she's a bad figure by any means. She's just not a character who has had great relevance in my collection.

http://www.forgotten-figures.com/joe/84baroness.htm

Enjoy!

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Wow. Baroness is KEY to my Cobra organization, second only to the Commander himself. Great figure and a very cool character.

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Interesting read as usual and while I do agree with alot of the points you made about the Baroness (i.e. under accessorized for '84 and bland colour palette) I have to ask if the gender of the toy had anything to do with you and your brothers not using her during your play sessions?

Like you mentioned, at the time in Value City she was among the only three new releases, and by process of elimination your youngest brother ended up with her. I'm just wondering if this was a factor in her under-utilization.

I don't have the stats on it but I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that female figures don't perform well in the young male demographic even though Hasbro has done its best to release a female every year:

1982 - Scarlette
1983 - Cover Girl
1984 - Baroness
1985 - Lady Jaye
1986 - Zarana
1987 - Jinx

Still this takes nothing away from the figure/character - Baroness was an intricate part of the comic arc, she was prominent in the Sunbow 'toons, and no collector would exclude her if they had to rattle off the Cobra hiearchy on a dime.

Anyways, I'm just curious if the toy's gender had anything to do with not beign a part of your well established joe-verse from childhood.

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Best Mike T quote ever.

- R

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I'd hardly call the Baroness a forgotten figure.

I don't own a V1 Baroness. I just use Chameleon as my RAH-sculpt Baroness. I like the character but I just ignore the ties to Snake-Eyes. The leftist student radical turned terrorist is more appealing. I typically don't use her as the 2nd in command to CC, I see her more as a field agent, out performing wetwork and using sexpionage to Cobra's (and her own) advantage.

I think in the jist of this article in particular is that she's considered a forgotten figure in his collection. I don't think the Baroness as a character/figure is forgotten in joe-dom

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I also toss out the snake eyes tie in origin.

I think she works much better as an elitist and a fascist. Who'd rather keep the common man under her boot heel then get revenge on a mute. Also with her being from parts unknown in Europe and both Destro and Bludd being from other western countries that are friendly to the US it always gave me the feeling that cobra was a global organization that has come together to dominate the entire world and not just the U.S.

I do prefer the Chameleon version as my baroness she has everything the original has plus red paint aps.

Thanks to the comic she usually has a spot in my rattler.

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Wow couldn't disagree more.

The Baroness was one of the first figs i wanted to pick up when i got back into vintage, and particularly because as a kid there was just NOT ONE regular female figure in the line (they had butch heads and offered nothing. Even Lady Jaye for god sake. Jinx had a mask, while Cover girl and scarlett were almost boys.)

You have to look at it this way.
At that age kids are inclined to one of two generic play ideas. Either it be the all masculine no girl characters type thing, or with all the influence love, and relationships had in society, fairy tales, etc. a play idea involving love interests and perhaps damsels in distress.

When i was a baby, before joes, my grandma god rest her soul would tell me stories about princes and princesses, and i think that shaped the core of what i wanted to emulate in my play ideas.

However, i had NO female figures. Ninja force scarlett didn't come out yet, and i had no outlet or funds, being a poor immigrant kid, to seek vintage figs (i didn't even know they could be got or that there was such a thing as vintage toy stores).

THE best i could do, was use a sea slug figure as a female because of the coloring, sort of protruding chest, and mask.

Now come on that is pretty weak isn't it?
Then Chun Li came out and i had a love interest, but because of the influence on same ethnic couples, where in integration was not popularized and ingrained with children, only Ryu, and Budo had a damsel to rescue, where as my faves shockwave, and Hawk were out of luck.

Then i got the ninja force scarlett (who had terrible articulation like chun li) and FINALLY FINALLY, Sonya Blade came out and i was literally in love with the concept of a more widely usable female lead love interest in my play ideas.


To sum up, because of the way i was brought up and what i wanted out of play figs
to me the baroness, is one of the most important figs in my collection.

It is one of the few vintage figs i just do not want to replace because of her appearance.

It was one of the first two figs (along with dress blues gung ho) that i really went after once i realized there was such a thing as vintage toy shops.

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This was my first thought. However, I acquired a Scarlett figure in December of 1984. I still have that figure and it is beat to hell: indicating that she got a lot of use. Also, my Cover Girl figure from the year before simply disappeared. Usually, that was a sign that she was put into some bushes on a mission and was left behind. Again, indicating that she got use. I think it really had to do with the accessories. Scarlett's crossbow was cool. The Baroness' weapon was bulky and it was hard to pose her in many ways where the weapon didn't end up looking awkward. So, since that made her less fun to play with, she was relegated to the "forgotten" box.

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