Dreadnok Buzzer — G.I. Joe Classified Series #106

Overview

Dreadnok Buzzer is figure #106 in the G.I. Joe Classified Series, Wave 12, 2024 at $24.99. The GI Joe franchise’s finest character comedy premise executed as an action figure: Richard Blinken-Smythe, Cambridge-educated sociologist, studied biker gang culture for his fieldwork, got too deep into it, and never came back. He carries a chainsaw. He is the most educated person in a gang defined by its refusal to be educated, and he is also the most destructive.

File Card

Code Name: Buzzer Real Name: Blinken-Smythe, Richard Primary Specialty: Chainsaw Operator Secondary Specialty: Dreadnok Operations Birthplace: Cambridge, England

The juxtaposition of Cambridge University and professional chainsaw destruction is the entire character in two details. The Larry Hama comics occasionally played this for both comedy and genuine menace — Buzzer is genuinely dangerous, his academic background doesn’t soften that, and occasionally his educated perspective gives him insights that pure criminality misses.

The Chainsaw

At 6” scale, the chainsaw is large enough to be visually dominant — it’s not a weapon that hides in a holster or clips to a vest. Buzzer with his chainsaw is immediately recognisable from across a shelf. The saw creates a specific display posture: mid-rev, advancing on a target, or held at rest with the implied threat of deployment. Each creates a different narrative mood.

Cambridge to Criminal Pipeline

The academic-to-criminal backstory is one of the franchise’s more specifically absurd character premises. It works because it’s committed to completely — Buzzer doesn’t have a tragic reason for his life choices; he simply found the biker gang more interesting than the university. The lack of redemptive complexity makes him funnier and more specific than a tortured backstory would.

The Founding Trio Complete

With Buzzer alongside Ripper (#102) and Torch (#123), Wave 12 delivered the complete 1985 founding Dreadnok trinity. All three were in the same vintage wave; all three are in the same Classified wave. The parallel is intentional and satisfying.

Verdict

Dreadnok Buzzer #106 is the most entertaining character premise in Wave 12. The chainsaw is dominant and correct. Essential alongside Ripper and Torch for the complete founding Dreadnok display.

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Part of G.I. Joe Classified Series | Wave 12 | 2024. Related: Dreadnok Ripper #102 | Dreadnok Torch #123 | Zartan #23.

The Cambridge-to-Criminal Premise

The academic-to-criminal pipeline that Buzzer represents is one of the franchise’s best character comedies because it commits fully to the premise. A sociology PhD who studied biker gangs and got absorbed into one isn’t a tragic figure in the franchise’s treatment — he made a choice, and he seems entirely content with it. The chainsaw is not an irony; it’s his preferred tool in his preferred life.

Larry Hama’s comics gave Buzzer occasional moments where his academic perspective produced insights the other Dreadnoks lacked — the Cambridge education was still there, just redirected entirely toward criminal ends. The character is funnier and more specific than his premise suggests.

The International Gang

Buzzer (British), Ripper (Australian), Torch (Australian), Zartan (European) — the Dreadnoks are genuinely international, which gives them an operational reach beyond the American contexts where most GI Joe conflict occurs. The international composition is a specific franchise world-building detail that the Classified figures honour through their file card backgrounds.

Secondary Market

Dreadnok Buzzer #106 has maintained secondary market prices near retail. Secondary prices typically run $28-38.

Dreadnok Buzzer

Buzzer is the second of the three founding Dreadnoks, distinguished from Ripper and Torch by his background as a sociology professor — a deliberate characterisation joke that gave the franchise one of its more specific character contrasts. A former academic who chose the biker gang lifestyle, Buzzer brings intellectual pretension to a group not typically associated with it, creating the kind of unexpected character combination that made the GI Joe franchise’s characterisation distinctive.

The Buzz Saw

Buzzer’s buzz saw weapon — a circular saw blade on a pole — is the founding Dreadnok trio’s most mechanical weapon. Where Ripper’s chainsaw is brutal and Torch’s flamethrower is incendiary, Buzzer’s buzz saw is precise in a grotesque way — a cutting tool repurposed as a weapon by someone who appreciates the irony of precision in destruction.

Former Academic Identity

The sociology professor background is the Classified figure’s most specific character note — one that the file card preserves and that collectors who know the character will appreciate. It gives Buzzer a specific intellectual identity within the gang that his punk appearance deliberately contradicts.

Three Founding Dreadnoks Complete

With Ripper (#102), Buzzer (#106), and Torch (#123) all in the line, the founding Dreadnok trio is complete at Classified scale for the first time. The three together display as the core of the larger Dreadnok gang that Zartan leads.

Secondary Market

Dreadnok Buzzer #106 has maintained secondary market prices near retail. Secondary prices typically run $27-38.

Display Recommendations

Buzzer’s sociology professor background — the most improbable Dreadnok characterisation — is most effective as a display detail when the figure is positioned with intellectual pretension: standing apart from the other Dreadnoks, observing rather than brawling. At Classified premium scale, the figure rewards the collector investment with detail quality that rewards close inspection as much as shelf presence. Secondary market prices reflect consistent collector demand.

The 2024 Programme in Context

The 2024 Classified programme was the most expansive in the line’s history by figure count, delivering across Wave 11, Target Tiger Force and Python Patrol, Walmart Night Force, Fan Channel, Pulse exclusives, Amazon, and SDCC. Each release, including this one, contributed to a programme year that meaningfully advanced the franchise’s representation at the 6” premium scale. The figures released in 2024 collectively moved the Classified line closer to comprehensive coverage of both the classic ARAH era and the franchise’s subsequent decades.