Incoming! The absolute legend from down under, @shark_eyes_pix, has secured his copy of the G.I.Joe Classified Series #193, David “Red Dog” Taputapu & Varujan “Taurus” Ayvazyan and has posted a review over on his YouTube channel, @sharkeyestoyview. Check it out below:
Your first comprehensive review of the GI Joe Classified Red Dog & Taurus 2-pack.
Hope you enjoy the video, let me know in the comments if you’ll be picking this set up or is it an easy pass?
Thanks for watching. If you’d like to see some images of the set, head over to my insta sharkys_pix
Official product details haven’t dropped as of yet, but there are a few official images to check out from New York Toy Fair:
There’s a corner of the G.I. Joe universe that doesn’t get nearly enough love. Not Cobra Commander. Not Snake Eyes. Not the endless debate over who had the coolest vehicle. I’m talking about a couple of bruisers from the short-lived but utterly fascinating Renegades sub-team — two guys who felt like they wandered in from a different, rougher comic book entirely and somehow made the Joe universe better for it.
I’m talking about Red Dog and Taurus.
Who Were the Renegades, Anyway?
Before we get into these two specifically, a little context. In 1987, Hasbro introduced the Renegades as part of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line — a trio of former athletes who had washed out of the military and were given a second chance by serving with the Joes. They were rougher around the edges than your average soldier. More volatile. Less polished. They weren’t the kind of guys you’d send to a diplomatic function. You sent them when you needed somebody to run through a wall rather than around it.
There were three of them: Mercer (a former Cobra Viper, which was its own wild backstory), Red Dog, and Taurus. Today, we’re here for the latter two.
Red Dog: The Linebacker Who Never Stopped Blitzing
Red Dog’s real name was Craig S. McSwain, and his file card painted the picture of a man who was essentially a force of nature wearing a jersey. A former pro football player whose aggressive playing style got him booted out of the league — and later, out of the Army — Red Dog was the kind of guy who solved problems by hitting them as hard as possible and asking questions later.
He wore a sleeveless red football jersey into combat. Let that sink in. No body armor. No tactical vest. Just raw attitude and the apparent belief that nobody was going to be able to tackle him anyway. He carried a submachine gun that looked almost comically small in his hands, as if the accessory designers weren’t quite sure what to do with someone this physically imposing.
As a kid, that figure meant something. There was an authenticity to the roughness of him. He didn’t look like a recruitment poster. He looked like someone you genuinely would not want to make angry. In a line full of highly specialized operatives with codenames like “Mainframe” and “Lifeline,” Red Dog was a welcome reminder that sometimes the Joe team needed someone whose primary qualification was being nearly impossible to stop.
The figure itself was solid — wide-shouldered, powerful build, that red jersey giving him an instantly recognizable look on any shelf or diorama. He didn’t have a ton of gear, but he didn’t need it. Red Dog was the gear.
Taurus: The Acrobat Who Defied Gravity (and Fashion Norms)
If Red Dog was thunder, Taurus was lightning. David C. Ferrari — code name Taurus — was a former circus acrobat and gymnast whose file card described a man of almost supernatural agility and physical grace. Where Red Dog bulldozed, Taurus flipped, vaulted, and outmaneuvered.
The figure leaned hard into the circus performer aesthetic in a way that could have been ridiculous but somehow worked. He came with a distinctive look that set him apart from the rest of the Joes, feeling almost gladiatorial — a barrel-chested acrobat in a costume that suggested he’d gone directly from the big top to the battlefield without stopping to change. His accessories included what was essentially a large, weighted ball and chain, which is the most circus-weapon thing imaginable and also somehow completely perfect.
Taurus represented something the Joe line occasionally flirted with but rarely committed to: the idea that elite performance could come from completely outside the military tradition. A circus acrobat shouldn’t be able to hold his own against Cobra’s forces. And yet, the character made you believe it. The file card sold you on the idea that a man trained to perform death-defying stunts for a crowd might actually have more practical skills in a firefight than half the trained soldiers around him.
There was also just something delightfully weird about him that the 1987 line wore confidently. That era of Joe was willing to get strange, and Taurus was part of that.
Why They Deserved More Time
The Renegades as a concept had enormous potential that was never fully realized. Three athletes-turned-soldiers with checkered pasts, redeemed by service — that’s the backbone of a great ensemble story. The Marvel Comics run gave them some spotlight, most notably in the “Unmaskings” era, but they remained supporting players in a universe bursting at the seams with characters.
Red Dog and Taurus suffered from what a lot of the 1987-and-beyond Joes suffered from: they arrived at a moment when the roster was already staggeringly large, the animated series was winding down, and kids’ attention was beginning to scatter toward other franchises. They didn’t get a starring episode. They didn’t get a feature vehicle. They were two exceptional action figures with compelling file cards and limited real estate in the larger mythology.
But here’s the thing — that almost makes them more interesting, not less. They exist in the space between canon and imagination. If you had these figures as a kid, you were the writer. Red Dog didn’t need a cartoon episode to be great; he needed a kid with a good sense of story and a sandbox big enough to let him play.
The 1987 Nostalgia Sweet Spot
There’s something specific about the 1987 wave of G.I. Joe figures that hits differently in memory. The line had matured. The sculpts were more detailed. The characters were more eccentric. Falcon, Law & Order, Tunnel Rat, Chuckles, Outback — and yes, Red Dog and Taurus — all had a texture and personality that felt richer than some of the earlier, simpler figures.
Pulling these guys out of a bin at a flea market or stumbling across them in a retro toy store is a particular kind of time travel. They’re not the famous ones. You won’t find them on lists of the “Top 10 Most Iconic Joes.” But for a certain generation of collector, finding a complete Red Dog with his gun, or a Taurus still clutching his ball and chain, produces an almost electrical nostalgia — the specific joy of remembering something you didn’t know you’d forgotten.
A Toast to the Overlooked
So here’s to Red Dog and Taurus — two characters who were weird and wonderful and slightly out of place and absolutely essential to the flavor of their era. They remind us that the best toy lines aren’t just about the headliners. They’re about the deep cuts. The guys in the back of the drawer. The ones with the interesting file cards and the oddball accessories and the backstories that make you think, wait, a circus acrobat? A football player? Yeah. Yeah, that works.
They were Renegades. Of course they were overlooked.
That was kind of the point.
Did you have Red Dog or Taurus growing up? Drop a comment below — I’d love to hear your stories.
SURVEILLANCE PORT 
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