Hard to believe it’s been almost eight years since I started this project. It’s probably even harder to believe that in those years, I’ve not covered the original Storm Shadow figure. 1984 Storm Shadow: the figure that launched five-dozen variations and pushed GI Joe into places the brand had never been before. As much responsible for hooking American kids on
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By Past Nastification The Medi-Vipers’ origin date waaaay back to the Marvel Comics run, where they popped up from time to time. They wore the old-fashioned head mirrors on their masked faces. If you’re wondering what a “head mirror” is, it’s the reflective circle on the metal band going around the Medi-Viper’s forwhead. Doctors used to wear them and I’m
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By KansasBrawler I’ve professed my love for the sci-fi elements of the G.I. Joe brand quite a few times before on this blog. With that context in mind, it should surprise no one here that I loved the ideas behind Rise of Cobra. While the execution of the film itself wasn’t great, the idea of Cobra using nanobots to cause
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35 years ago today, this issue hit spinner racks. It quickly became a touchstone in my GI Joe collecting, and was one of the first issues that sold me on a ton of toys all at once. The issue featured the first full exposure to Zartan and his Dreadnoks, as well as Firefly and Wild Weasel. On the Joe side,
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During my recent refocus on chronological coverage of the Joe team, I uncovered a few surprising subjects missing from my years of past posts. One of the biggest exclusions was Mutt, a figure I could have sworn I covered early in the blog’s life. Not so, unless his entry was somehow went down the wrong tube during a site migration.
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By KansasBrawler Ever since I rediscovered the Joe brand in high school during the relaunch era, I’ve been strangely fascinated with a few vintage figures I didn’t have as a kid. Usually, my figure tastes tend to skew towards ones I had as a kid because I have strong memories of them and, for the most part (save Battle Corps
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By Past Nastification The fingerprint of Devil’s Due is all over this Zartan, although nothing on the packaging would indicate it. DD might have been denied any credit deserved for this design, but it made for a nice figure. It’s not a direct take on Zartan’s DD appearances, but more of a blending of them with elements of Zartan’s ARAH
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Blowtorch was one of the first figures of 1984 that I was excited–and I mean really excited–to get. I was also excited to find out what the figure’s code name was. At the time, I hadn’t yet bought any vehicles or accessories for the year and thus didn’t know any code names for the new figures. After all, it was
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There are a few GI Joe figures that have passed beyond the realm of simply being well made and memorable to the die hard fans. Figures like the original Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes I think are recognizable even to those who only have a casual knowledge of the toys. Then there are others, who may not be
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Man–it’s hard to believe I’ve been chronicling the amazing toy line that is Large James for almost eight years! As you know if you follow this blog regularly, I hold a special place in my heart for the weirder corners of the BJ mythos. Whether it’s the mid-70s P,A.C.K. (featuring package artwork by none other than Jack “King” Kirby) or
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