Beach Head is a G.I. Joe character that has been around since 1986 and has appeared in both the Marvel G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic book series and the various G.I. Joe cartoon series. Now, in 2020, he is part of the second batch of 6 inch scale action figures to hit stores in the United States.
Beach Head is a Target exclusive sold as part of a set called “G.I. Joe: Special Missions: Cobra Island” a surprise line of action figures that began showing up in August 2020. By mid-August the G.I. Joe Target exclusive action figures were already very hard to find but there is speculation that more will be hitting the shelves in a few weeks. That remains to be seen. I was, however, able to get my hands on one of the figures: Beach Head.
Beach Head's real name is Wayne R. Sneeden. He was born in my state of Alabama, hailing from Auburn, Alabama, and according to his Wikipedia page he grew up living in abject poverty. This led to him being bullied by his classmates throughout while growing up. This pushed Sneeden to become an overachiever and he ended up as the valedictorian of his high school.
He enlisted in the US Army, where he went through Airborne and Ranger school Ft. Benning, Georgia (near Auburn). After he completed training there, he went on to join Central America's Covert Ops as an Observer/Advisor. After his training in Central America, he returned to Ft. Benning as an instructor. He was then offered a spot in the G.I. Joe team as a Ranger. Beach Head's habits include getting up hours before his teammates and going on a 10-mile run, then undergoing rigorous physical training that would make the most gung-ho of his comrades weary - and all before breakfast. He was sometimes portrayed in the cartoon series as having poor hygiene. His role in the G.I. Joe cartoon series was far more prominent than in the Marvel comics.
It is interesting to note that there are currently two known variants of the Beach Head G.I. Joe Classified action figures- a blue eye and a brown eye version. At the time of this article it is not yet known which is more rare. The only one my local Target store had was a brown eye version.
There is very little to be critical of, so far, in the Hasbro G.I. Joe Classified action figures. The articulation is fantastic, the sculpting is exceptional, and the likenesses splits the difference between the retro G.I. Joe action figures and modern era upgrades without going too far in either direction.
The one, almost universal criticism, however, is the accessories. Many of the G.I. Joe: Classified series guns are modeled closely to NERF guns and lack real-world realism. I personally don’t find this a negative at all. When I was a kid and I want to “pretend” to be Gung-Ho, or Snake Eyes, or Beach Head, I had to find a stick remotely shaped like their weapon. Had I been able to go one aisle over in the department store and buy an actual NERF gun that matched my action figure I would have been in hog heaven. Still, I will say I wish the weapons were all cast in black. I am not a fan of Beach Head’s green guns.
While I have a vast 3.75 inch G.I. Joe collection, I don’t actually have an original Beach Head. For whatever reason, he wasn’t one of my favorite characters back then. I have grown to like him over the years, however, and really like how the new Beach Head honors his old look, yet modernizes him too.
So far, I have been very happy with the entire G.I. Joe: Classified action figure line. Every single figure I have (and, yes, more reviews are coming to When It Was Cool) has been a homerun in my opinion.
The G.I. Joe Classified line-up scales very well within itself. As shown here, Beach Head and Duke are about the same size as you would expect, while Destro, Roadblock, and Gung-Ho, all scale taller and larger.
G.I. Joe: Classified action figures also seem to scale very well to the six inch Star Wars line. Here is Beach Head with Boba Fett and Fett is slightly shorter than Beach Head.
Unfortunately, the G.I. Joe: Classified action figures don’t scale very well with Mattel’s WWE action figures. I want to display my Sgt. Slaughter action figure with my G.I. Joe’s but he towers over all of them, even dwarfing Roadblock. Here is Beach Head with Bob Backlund who, in the real world, would be close to the same size and, as you can see, Bob Backlund towers over Beach Head and is considerably more bulky too. The sculpting on the Hasbro G.I. Joe: Classified action figures is far superior, however.
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