You know what’s really weird? I haven’t covered the original 1984 Storm Shadow in the six plus years I’ve been doing this blog. I need to remedy that soon. In the meantime, here’s another version of the classic mold. Black Major’s custom figures haven been expanding the common classic character designs into new and unique colors for years. The Cobra
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I'm a big fan of action figure carrying cases. What seems like such a utilitarian item can be an interesting collection focus. In the heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, it seemed every toy line had its own case. These days they're just not as plentiful, at least in the plain "just a glorified box" sense of the past. GI
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Toy Fair and retailer sale catalogs are always interesting to look at for their propensity to showcase not-quite-retail release versions of well-known toys. The subjects can range from kitbashed concepts to almost-finished product that differs only in paint scheme or small details. The toys in these shots appear to be similar if not the same as those appearing in the
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By Past Nastification When it comes to naming, sometimes simplicity is best. And sometimes simple is too simple. Two teams in 1:18 scale have lazily laid claim to the group name “Bad Guys”. One of them is “The Bad Guys”; the other is simply “Bad Guys” without a “The”. The Bad Guys. Remco’s The Bad Guys are fully known
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By KansasBrawler Growing up, I never really knew all that much about Sky Creeper. Having only heard the name and never seeing the figure it was associated with, I thought Night Vulture was Sky Creeper because Night Vulture looked kind of like a Night Creeper and I thought the SkyCreeper was a Night Creeper on a glider. As nearly as
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I’ve said this many times over the history of the blog: I miss o-ring GI Joe figures. While I don’t have a problem with the modern figure construction, I simply prefer the style and sensibilities of the older guys. Some of the allure is nostalgia, since they’re the Joes of my childhood and some of it is an appreciation of
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As you probably know, I'm as big a fan of GI Joe and other toys' marketing campaigns as much as the products themselves. I also dig catalogs and toy ads. That's why I'm totally jazzed about a new book project on Kickstarter. Philip Reed has produced similar books covering general action figures, Star Wars, Transformers and even carrying cases over
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By Past Nastification The A-Team was a logical choice for Galoob. The same kids who bought GI Joe toys and watched the GI Joe cartoon surely idolized NBC’s campy-but-virtuous soldiers of fortune. Galoob was obviously trying to shoehorn some A-Team toys into kid’s GI Joe adventures and grab a buck. Fair enough. The 1:18 scale line featured mediocre figures,
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By KansasBrawler If there was one Sky Patrol member I was a little concerned about the GIJCC making, it was Altitude. The vintage altitude figure used Slipstream’s body as a base, and the modern Slipstream wasn’t all that great. Thankfully, the GIJCC decided to think a bit outside the box with him. The vintage elements are there, in a form,
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I have a lot of fun playing a bit of clean-up with card art images. The Adventure Team sets didn’t often offer a lot of real estate to show off product paintings, but the carded outfits gave up a little more package width to showcase the set. The paintings were often evocative, and certainly helped to fire one’s imagination. This
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