By Past Nastification The label “fortress” appears nowhere on the box, but it feels like the right word. The fortress was the anchor piece of the playset in which the previously-reviewed Imitation Vamp was also included. Released as part of the “Heroes Playset” and found at Family Dollar, the fortress is a mess. A wonderful, adorable mess that is impossible
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From the land of the the cheapest and craziest of 80s Joe knock-offs comes Demon Ranger! My absolute favorite enemy-centered toyline ever, and a much more inventive series name than Remco’s The Bad Guys. However, the individual character names are where things fall apart. Instead of colorful code names, simply add a plain first name and rank. Voila! My favorite
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What can I say about a card like this that isn’t apparent just by looking at it. If I could narrow my list of favorite GI Joe package art down to a single piece (which would be incredibly difficult) Destro would vie for a top spot. There’s just so much going on here that makes this a perfect example of
Read moreBy Past Nastification Say, it’s Shipwreck! Wait, that’s not Shipwreck, but only because it has Alpine arms! It’s… Footloose? Yes, it’s Footloose. Despite being a near head-to-toe repaint, not to mention the too-short chest/back, this is a pretty enjoyable figure. Most of the body, even the head, came from an earlier boat driver/SEAL version of Shipwreck. Topping the parts off
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By KansasBrawler This is a hard figure for me to review. I generally like variations on a theme, however, my least favorite variation is the “battle damaged” version. The modern Joe line has done it well with the Battle Damaged BAT from the Defense of Cobra Island set, but I think part of what made that particular figure work is
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Lanard’s twelve inch Ultra CORPS! line filled a niche that the large scale GI Joe series wasn’t focused too heavily in at the time. Although the Joes were available as both real-world military and large scale versions of then current small figures, the execution of the scaled up little guys was lacking. With few exceptions, Hasbro had forgone full cloth
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Oh you gotta love the 25th Anniversary San Diego Comicon variant figures. Yesterday I recounted a tale of the joys of toy collecting in the 90s, when figures appeared in dump bins like manna from heaven, plentiful and inexpensive. Today, witness the horrors of snagging online exclusives. The Lord giveth, and Hasbrotoyshop pisseth off. This is the last SDCC GI
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Cobra Commander was the first GI Joe figure I got way way back in 1983. I traded a Return of the Jedi Weequay for him, one of the most impressive feats of bartering in my younger years. My acquisition of this Chinese Cobra Commander isn’t as memorable a story. I picked him up back in the 90s at the Half
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By KansasBrawler I think I’ve made it clear over the years that I’m a fan of the later years of Joes. My love of figures from 1993 and 1994 is usually fairly controversial, but my love of those great figures from 1990 leaves me in pretty good company. Looking over the figure listing from YoJoe, KansasBrother and I had almost
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Time to revisit a figure that’s become one of my favorite modern o-ring Joes. I’ve harped on it before; I really really miss these guys. I really miss GI Joe in general. Maybe we’ll see him return to toy departments some day. Looking at the comic pack figures through the lens of the recent rise of factory custom o-ring Joes
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