By KansasBrawler Sometimes, figures you don’t expect to show up in your collection do. The 25th Anniversary Tiger Force Duke is the clearest example of that phenomenon in my collection. I passed on him a lot of times. The 25th Anniversary Duke mold had a lot of problems and Tiger Force Duke really didn’t do much to fix those. However,
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By KansasBrawler I think every Joe fan out there has that one figure that makes them realize the brand is doing something special. I don’t know what that figure would have been for me in the vintage line, but during the relaunch era it was probably Barrel Roll. That figure was the perfect combination of design and character and it
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By KansasBrawler I think my favorite part of the 2000s Joe relaunch was the new uniform the artists at Devil’s Due Publishing designed for Storm Shadow. It was a unique look, but it really worked well for the character and it was honestly a pretty cool design. I was kind of shocked that, considering all the versions of Storm Shadow
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By KansasBrawler In my opinion, it’s hard to find a Joe vehicle more iconic than the original VAMP. While there may have been larger Joe vehicles, the VAMP started it all back in 1982. I wasn’t familiar with the original VAMP, but I knew the design pretty well thanks to my brother’s Tiger Sting. Including the VAMP in the first
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I always wondered just what the acronym AVAC stood for. I didn’t notice anything referring to its meaning until the release of this figure in the first lineup of 25th anniversary vehicles. Air Viper, Advanced Class is referenced on the newer file card, and that makes perfect sense in light of the original figure’s file card. It referred to the
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The DVD battle packs gave us some very popular characters that didn’t make the single-carded releases. Guys like Dusty and Alpine were welcome additions to the modern line, and their nostalgia factor was quite high with me, thanks to their original figures and memorable Sunbow appearances. The sets also produced more interesting accessories based on the cartoon series. In the
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The Battle Android Troopers’ first appearance in the GI Joe cartoon was at the same time amazing and disappointing to me. While I liked the concept of robotic troops for Cobra, and thought both the toon and figure designs were just plain 80s Joe cool, I didn’t much care for their being trounced single-handedly by Sgt. Slaughter. At the time,
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I kind of kick myself in the butt over the Target exclusive Ultimate Battle Pack. I should have kept it sealed rather than opening it. The presentation and sheer size of the set is very impressive. Mine survived unopened for over a year, then I tore into it in an effort to save storage space. Oh well. The Cobra Vehicle
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I went a little nuts buying the Cobra Legions box set. Just a couple years earlier, the army builder bug had bit me. I have a couple gallon bags full of new sculpt Vipers (both red and blue), Ninja Vipers and Night Creepers to show for it. I also have a few of the legions sets unopened. Looking back, it
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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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