There aren’t many GI Joe figures that made it through to this day from my original childhood collection. I was much more conscientious with Star Wars in that respect, maintaining all of my original toys. The Joes and Cobras unfortunately fell by the wayside, for the most part. I had thought that the only figures that survived the teenage-years purge
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Released as a member of the mail-in International Action Force four pack, Big Ben was repainted to reflect the more colorful palette prevalent in the last two series of 90s Joes. His original 1991 version is one of the best of that under-appreciated bunch. By the 2000s, collectors had been treated to several more releases of the character, and I
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By Past Nastification Hawk is my favorite of the OG 13. But so is Stalker. And Scarlett… and Steeler, and Short-Fuze, and Grand Slam. It’s a good problem to have. When the 25th Anniversary/modern era figures launched in 2007, Hawk was missing from the lineup. Sure, Hasbro rolled Duke towards kids and collectors, but the character most deserving of getting
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By KansasBrawler With the main set covered, it’s now time to move onto the souvenirs from Joe Con 2016. This is the first time I’ve been able to cover these pieces in a series of con reviews since the Crimson Strike Team set, since I was actually able to attend. For Sky Patrol vehicles, the GIJCC picked one vehicle that
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The early 2000s o-ring repaints were a surprise among the new t-crotch figures. I didn’t expect to see Vipers (both regular and Alley) among the newly created figures. Among the Joes was a late ARAH figure that would make its way to many army builders’ extras bins–the good old Mirage mold. Originating in the oft-maligned Mega Marines sub-team, he was
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This version of the Lamprey inherits its specialty from the previous release of the mold, the Sonic Fighters Lampreys. Whereas the original was a specialized elite hydrofoil pilot form the Eels corps, the later Lamprey are assault troopers. I guess they’ve gone back in a way to their Eels origins. I found the Python Patrol set’s color scheme to be
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What do successful and long-lasting toy properties have in common? How about a memorable and ubiquitous enemy? From Megatron’s Decepticons to Skeletor’s Evil Masters to Cobra Commander’s minions, any bad guys worth their salt had a variety of troops at their disposal. What separates Cobra though from the others–an amazingly diversified cadre of specialists. The Tele-Vipers stand out to me
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It’s Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday, and I wouldn’t be a good geek if I didn’t pay tribute. Although the man didn’t contribute to the GI Joe brand, he did some work on Mattel’s Adventure Team-styled competitor Big Jim. While the Big Jim concept was interesting and the toys decent, things had to be shaken up a bit in light of
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I’ve probably said this way too many times during the life of the blog, but I don’t really care if I repeat myself–I loves me some color in my toys. They are toys after all, and if they have that magic combination of sculpt, playability and color to catch my eye, that’s a plus. If the color alone catches my
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By KansasBrawler Like I’ve said before, I’ve never been too interested in international Joe variants. There aren’t a lot of differences between the 1988 Iron Grenadier Destro released in North America and the one released in South America aside from the fact that the US version came with the Despoiler and the South American one was released carded. Sure, the
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