I don’t even remember where or when I found this scan of an Eaton’s catalog GI Joe page (apologies if anyone knows where it originated) but I’m in love with the basic but dramatic lighting effects. Often these dio shots feature realistic skies to match the terrain, but this setup goes for a more evocative tone. There’s also some craziness
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Over the years, we’ve not covered one of the most integral elements of the 1980s Joe toys: blueprints. These little extras, printed on the reverse side of vehicle/playset instructions were yet another tool in Hasbro’s world-building arsenal. If a kid were so inclined they could pore over the more technical aspects of their new plaything. Another brilliant low-cost marketing feature
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By Past Nastification When the grocery store is three blocks out of the way, and all you really need is milk, Family Dollar is there. It doesn’t have to be milk. Maybe it’s shoelaces. Or batteries. Whatever sundry items you need, Family Dollar probably has them. And this time of year, they also carry various GI Joe knock-off items as
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By KansasBrawler I’ve always been a big fan of the old-school Battle Stations and Battlefield Accessories. Heck, my very first Field Reports before I became a weekly blogger here were on the 1990 mail-away Battlefield Accessories. However, I never had many of them growing up. I thought they were cool, but I just don’t really remember ever seeing them in
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If there’s one thing Cobra does better than the Joes, it’s to come up with outlandish and ultimately dangerous vehicles. I salute them in this regard, as it takes a special kind of nuts to knowingly develop machinery that will do severe harm to life and limb of troops. Further, that said troops will look gloriously goofy in their final
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GI Joe’s 80s period stands as a triumph of interconnected toys and accessories. Thanks to the common design and size of the figures, there are very few instances of characters not being able to fit in vehicles or borrow weapons and backpacks from their comrades (or opponents). As the series continued into the 90s, Hasbro veered off the compatability path
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This page has not only some ’86 and ’87 Joe favorites like the Tomahawk and Mobile Command Center, but it’s also got a sampling of non-Joe product. This one shows a couple of vehicles from the Gung Ho branded line. The amazing thing about these two molds is the fact that they continued to be produced into the 2000s. Also
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By KansasBrawler I’ve reviewed a lot of modern product during these Field Reports. I suppose that means it’s time to review the one that started it all—25th Anniversary Snake Eyes. The 25th Anniversary line began when I had just started graduate school down in Kansas. As such, I was actually completely unaware of any new, non-Sigma 6 Joe product being
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Can you believe this is a page from a coloring book? From what I can tell, it came from the same Rise of Cobra book that featured a color by number page comprised of three colors, most of which were black. Makes sense though, when you consider the movie uniforms were done in black, off black and slightly less black.
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Looking back at the 25th anniversary series figures, I’ve got to say it’s often a bittersweet reminiscence. On this tenth year since the first appearance of the Joe and Cobra packs, the differences between the action figure market of just a decade ago is striking. I see fewer toy lines featuring individual character art on their packaging. Matt Trakker (and
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