By Past Nastification Why, Hasbro, why? Heavy Duty started off right in 1991, a mixed bag year for GI Joe. The character’s initial figure featured a good design with realistic coloring. When Heavy Duty returned in 1993, things weren’t so good. This wasn’t just a Star Brigade figure, it was further specified as an Armor Tech figure. As someone who
Read more
I thought Star Brigade was a neat concept–combat astronauts. Joe has had a long history with the US space program, and the Real American Hero era had its share of space adventuring before things went all-out sci-fi in 1993. Though the figures were a mix of spacesuit-adjacent molds, at least Countdown made it into the mix. Countdown was one of
Read more
Star Brigade! GI Joe and space travel have a long history, and even though the 90s flirtation with the final frontier was more based in sci-fi than fact, I appreciate the branching out of Joe into new themes. Unfortunately the end of the era came much too quickly, and the team was back solidly on Earth for its 2002 reboot.
Read more
Happy Birthday to Me! Now I’m gonna a have a big ol’ piece of chocolate cake on a Star Brigade napkin, and a cold brew in a Sky Patrol stein. Yo Joe!
Read more
I’ve said this before: I’m a big fan of the 1994 assortments of GI Joe. To me, there’s a little something to appeal to different tastes within its offerings. If you enjoyed the vibrant color schemes, action-featured accessories and sci-fi leanings, there’s plenty to be excited about. If you were more interested in the series’ early 80s origins of near-future
Read more
Today’s Toy Fair catalog page comes from Hasbro’s 1994 catalog. The new items for the final year of RAH Joe included the Power Fighters, a pair of Joe and Cobra mechs. I find this interesting because mechs later became something of a focus in the 2000s and modern years. These two are chunky and limited in mobility, but both came
Read more
The Manimals certainly would have been a unique experiment within the Real American Hero line. I say would have since their planned release at the tail end of the RAH era was axed. Fortunately, three of the figures saw release via K-B Toys in 2001. Warwolf transforms from an ugly humanoid to a…ummm…alien crocodile? Whatever he is, he doesn’t resemble
Read more
Even late in the Real American Hero era, packaging art was impressive. The Armor-Bot as a toy is itself marvelously huge for a 90s Joe vehicle. Heck, the painting of Hawk in his Armor Tech duds is much more interesting than the actual figure. Now there’s a fig that needs to be revisited in the modern style. I wonder if
Read moreWell, this is as close as I could come to a Star Wars figure on this evening of the premiere of Episode VII. Digging back into the vaults tonight, so check out Star Brigade’s answer to Han Solo right here.
Read more
In all of Roadblock’s years of release, which sub-team or iteration of GI Joe hasn’t he been a part of? Tiger Force, Battle Corps, Anti-Venom, Heavy Assault Squad, Sound Attack, Resolute, and the movie-verse. As the team’s heavy machine gunner, probably his most “against type” appearance came in 1993, when he became an astronaut. It may not make a whole
Read more