If there’s one thing that the ARAH line got right from the get-go, it was the figures’ packaging. From the bold design elements to the focus on the specialty and personality of each character, the success story of the marketing arm of the series was laid. While the figures themselves improved from year to year in those first few assortments,
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By KansasBrawler Growing up, I always wanted the original B.A.T. figure. It came out just a little before my time in the Joe brand, but it was still shown on the cardbacks of some of the earlier figures I managed to find. However, for whatever reason, the original B.A.T. eluded me. I had the 1991 version and I really do
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I’ve long sung the praises of Blood for the Baron, the premiere online resource for all things Action Force. For a collector with a historical bent, it’s a gargantuan resource of information regarding the small-scale GI Joe’s UK cousins. Now there’s an equally exhaustive reference book for the toys and ephemera. The Palitoy Collectors’ Guide was a Kickstarter project that
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By Past Nastification Where does the time go? Two decades have rolled by since Kenner rolled out the second version of the Joes’ first dedicated arctic trooper. Yep, this was technically a Kenner-labeled product following the Hasbro/Kenner merger. A repaint of the original Snow Job, except for the upper arms, Kenner expanded its use of long-dormant molds. Sure, I’m probably
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I remember this time of year as a kid being filled with excitement and possibility. Fall meant a return to school, as well as the arrival of a new round of Christmas catalogs. In the days before collectors’ magazines and the internet, they were the best source from which to get a sampling of the year’s top toy lines. The
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Black Major has been producing interesting variants of Cobra troops using the 80s trooper mold for some time. His most recent offerings include a new troop type code named Hercules. With a deco based on the Palitoy Action Force range’s SAS detachment, this new figure joins the ranks of familiar faces like Blades, Stalker and Hunter. The color scheme echoes
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By KansasBrawler While I may not have had the Air Commandos figures growing up, I’ve always been fascinated by obscure Joes, and that definitely describes that particular subset. Personally, I always liked Skymate the best, so when I saw that he was a souvenir figure at Joe Con 2016, I was really excited. He’s by no means a household name
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In the interests of equal time, we present another in a series of occasional GI Joe Extreme posts. The series isn’t anyone’s favorite, but it deserves coverage, if only for historical context. To be honest, there’s a bit of the line that I don’t mind. Some of the vehicles in particular contain interesting features, and the bold design and construction
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By Past Nastification The further away from it we get, the more quality I find in the New Sculpt era. This isn’t a whitewashing of the badness, but a taking in of the good despite the bad. Ripper made his NS debut in 2002. Unlike many of the NS figures, this one has no real proportion issues. It smoothly bridges
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One of the more impressive of the late 1980s vehicles, the Rolling Thunder is a real beast. It’s too bad we didn’t see it in an animated series. It would have made a great focal point vehicle for the Joes. It’s certainly not as unwieldy as the General.
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