The Cobra blueshirt specialists were one of the concepts I found most interesting during the 25th anniversary line. With air, bazooka and para-viper troopers, the Cobra army seemed like a throwback to its early Marvel comic days. Rather than specific troops with new gear, colors and nomenclature, these seemed to be the generic trooper given a bit of extra training
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By KansasBrawler I love the Battle Platform Assault set, but it’s so big it’s hard to review. I think the set also suffers a little bit from being kind of disjointed. All the major pieces of the Arashikage Temple set are linked together either physically or stylistically. I think that adds to the overall cohesiveness of the set. Unfortunately, the
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What better way to start off spring than to cover a cold weather themed figure? Actually, the weather around the JAD HQ the past few days has put me in the mind of winter. After a few days of warmth and sunshine, we’ve been treated to snow twice this week. Weird. Maybe Destro decided to take the Weather Dominator out
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How do you know when your toy line is a big success? When other companies scramble to catch some of your lightning in a bottle of their own. Sometimes it’s successful, sometimes it isn’t. Remco’s Sgt. Rock line, based on the long-running DC war comic, sought to capitalize on Hasbro’s small scaled GI Joe relaunch. The company even went as
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I was perusing my hard drive for interesting GI Joe images when I came across this oldie from 2004. Remember when Hasbro’s weird press image style was a stark white background with accessories laid flat or superimposed among the figures? Well, at least it’s a more accurate representation of the toys than the weird satin Photoshop filter that’s used on
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I never had a Major Bludd on card. I got mine in one of those Christmas catalog 3-packs. I’m not complaining, but I missed out on staring at a full-size example of his card art. However I did have his file card, and the example of his poetry brought me great joy. “and make the suckers jump and dance” still
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Not only do I miss the days of o-ring figures, but I miss the days of o-ring multi-pack exclusives. I guess I should say o-ring Toys R Us multi-pack exclusives. Maybe I should put it even more succinctly. I miss 2002-2006. It was a time when GI Joe seemed to still be viable, or at least a time when Hasbro
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We at the final stretch of the 1991 catalog, and this page is all about Joe vehicles. The three new features rides are instantly recognizable as 1990s efforts. Not only does each one incorporate some form of brightly colored plastic, but each also features a firing weapon. I can remember looking at the early 80s packaging and taking note of
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By KansasBrawler Pursuit of Cobra was a great re-branding of the Joe line. Hasbro learned from the mistakes they made in both the 25th Anniversary and Rise of Cobra lines and was putting out great figures that fell into two categories: incredible nostalgic updates of classic figure or new characters and specialties. To up the ante even further, the second
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I realize that I promised another big Joe vehicle for this part of the catalog coverage, but I thought I’d change it up and go with the pages covering Cobra rides and other smaller price point (and flying!) items. First off, I have to admit that the backgrounds in this catalog are very well done. The Ice Sabre is moving
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