Land Adventurer (2006)

When GI Joe transitioned to the Adventure Team, Hasbro maintained the basic figures’ breakdown into what previously represented the four main armed services. The army, navy, air force and Marines were reconfigured into a less overtly militaristic organization. In what surely must have been a cost-cutting move, the four main figures retained their original uniforms.

The Land Adventurer then would be in the civilian version of the spot occupied by the marine from the original military GI Joe team.

The Land Adventurer was a quite popular Adventure Team face. He seems to appear on the front of quite a few package illustrations, although some are from the “Life-Like” Adventure Team years, which added an Eagle Eye Land Commander. It would make sense to cross-sell a newer figure, although they look essentially the same.

Just some of the items on which he’s pictured:

Devil of the Deep
Recovery of the Lost Mummy
Search for Stolen Idol
Mobile Support Vehicle
Drag Bike
Escape Slide
Thermal Terrain Scanner
Capture Copter
Big Trapper
Avenger Pursuit Craft
Atomic Man Secret Mountain Outpost

Whew! That’s a lot! I missed out on a perfect window to get into the Adventure Team back in the 90s, as the figures were fairly easy to obtain and much cheaper than the then much more popular military Joes. WalMart later released a series of commemorative AT figures in 2006, and I jumped in on the chance to get these fun guys. The figures don’t look exactly like their old counterparts, and things like the head mold size, flocking and skin tone are a bit off. The Joes also included the more familiar holsters rather than rifles included with the Kubg Fu Grip figures. Small complaints for 12 inch figures sold fairly cheaply. Unfortunately the line didn’t last.

It’s a shame that the commemorative AT releases also didn’t continue long enough to feature some of the classic accessory sets. Modern kids I think would go for something as cool as the Capture Copter. At least I would.