Steel Brigade
by NFCJD
Steel Brigade. The mail away Joe figure that was supposed to be “you” as a GI Joe task force member with a personalized file card with info the buyer specified on the order form. It even shipped with a textile high quality patch for your clothes! And damn I love this figure in all its Frankensteined repainted glory.
I have no memory of what I named mine back when I sent away for it in ’83 but I’m certain it was probably ridiculous and laughable to my adult “mature” mind… But to this day in 2012 I’m just as fascinated by their helmets and mysterious black-ops faceless personas as I was back then. The figure in the pictures is not the one I got as a lad; I bought this one off eBay but I experienced the same rush upon opening up its bubble mailer as I felt in ’87 tearing opening the Hasbro Promotions box. I played the crap out of my childhood SB figure, now I look back and wish I could’ve ordered a second one back then to have a ready replacement for the worn out one, hahaha. Seriously, the STEEL BRIGADE is so awesome Hasbro even gave us a modern update of it for the Pursuit of Cobra!
I was REALLY excited when I found a Pursuit of Cobra Steel brigade figure in the store. Like, visibly shaking, because of all the nostalgia. I’d long since lost my childhood figure, and having this new updated one is a great feeling.
The Steel Brigade figure is one of my all time favorites. I always enjoyed reading the application for the figure in those old comic book ads. Even though I haven’t had mine in a long time, I’d love to go back and read the dossier Hasbro sent with my figure. At the time, I didn’t have many vehicles, so he often got paired with Skystriker and the Tiger Rat. Thank God for the wonderful memories.