A to Z Challenge Day 18: Road Warriors: Roadblock vs Road Pig

GI JOE was a diverse force right from the beginning of the Real American Hero line, and as part of that they had three black characters early on:  Stalker in the first set, Doc in the second, and Roadblock in the third.  Roadblock was a heavy machine gunner who got to carry around a big gun.  Kind of wonder if his design was based on Lou Gossett Jr, because that's who he kind of looks like with the bald head and mustache and An Officer and a Gentleman came out about the time and his character was a drill instructor, so it'd kind of make sense.

Anyway, he was in the cartoon series quite a bit.  Sometimes they had him talk normally and other times he'd talk in rhyme.  I'm not sure what the deal was with that.  Besides being a machine gunner, he also liked to cook.  In one cartoon episode his aunt and uncle open a restaurant that's part of a franchise that's a COBRA front and while on vacation Roadblock visits and does some cooking there.

Roadblock was reissued in the 1986 series with a different outfit.  Maybe he was getting cold in just the tank top and pants so they gave him a shirt and vest.

In the animated movie Roadblock is blinded by Cobra-La but manages to escape using Cobra Commander (turned into a snake by then) as his eyes.  He shows up in the second season of the DIC series, voiced by Blu Mankuma, who voiced Tigatron on Beast Wars.  The original version of it was recalled because it came with a disc launcher that was feared to be too powerful.  A second version was issued.

In the live action GI JOE:  Retaliation, he was played by The Rock.  Though I think he looks more like Terry Crews.

Obviously he was in the comics a lot too. He was one of the more popular characters.

And then you have Road Pig who was one of the lamer, more useless characters.  He's basically a big fat punk whose weapon of choice is a cinderblock on a stick.  Seriously.

He was the third series of "Dreadnoks" who were henchmen of the evil Zartan.  He was too late for the Sunbow show and didn't get in the movie, but he got into the comics a few times.  I have no idea what would have inspired anyone to make such an idiotic toy.  Who wanted to waste even $3.17 back in the day on a guy with a cinderblock?

Reading that file card, I'm sure it was some Hasbro guy's idea of a joke to make his birthplace "Goblu, Michigan."  As in Go Blue, the war cry for the University of Michigan.  They probably figured no one would ever read that.  I mean it's Road Pig.   I hope that wasn't anyone's actual Social Security Number.

Sadly Road Pig was reissued in 1991 as part of the lame "Sonic Fighters" line.  He even got into the DIC series a few times in the second season.  In one episode he has his own zoo of wild animals like wild boards, panthers, and alligators to torture until the Joes show up.  At least he had better weapons than a cinderblock on a stick this time.