By KansasBrawler Retaliation really fleshed out the concept of a G.I. Joe team. While I like the idea of a Joe team being nothing but named operatives, a military group can’t realistically work like that. I’m all for nameless, faceless Joe troopers. While they had those in Rise of Cobra as well, they didn’t fit in with their named counterparts.
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Aside from a starkly decorated Sears exclusive, Hasbro’s Atomic Man didn’t get the benefit of a coffin box. Instead, like other later line releases, he was packaged on a blister card. Granted, he got a nice pose out of the deal, but the fully painted box of old was surely missed. The UK got a throwback of sorts with its
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I’ve always had a thing for GI Joe pilot figures. Ace, although he spent a lot of time in the cockpit of his Skystriker, was a favorite of mine as a kid. Years later, when I began to collect the 1960s GI Joes, I gravitated toward the Scramble Pilot and even the Air Police. At the same time (the mid
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I’m more than a little surprised that Hasbro dipped into the post-1986 well with the last of their Kre-O line. Considering that the bulk of the minifigures represented the first few years of the 80s (the sweet spot for many Real American Hero era aficionados), those of us who wanted to see a little more variety welcomed characters like this.
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Lately, I’ve been thinking more deeply about the history of action figures, and the GI Joe line’s place in it. Of course, Joe was technically the first of what came to be known as action figures, although toy soldiers and dolls have been around for centuries. Captain Action was an early attempt by another toy maker (Ideal) to build on
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As the 1987 figures were showing up, I was on the cusp of losing interest in toys. However, one figure in particular seized my attention. A new, battle-ready Cobra Commander was just too cool to pass up. Here was the Commander as super villain. Being a comic book fan, I loved it. As such, he also survived my GI Joe
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By KansasBrawler The 25th Anniversary comic packs did some pretty great things with a limited parts library. Considering how small Hasbro’s plans for the 25th Anniversary line originally were, they fleshed out the line with some quickly assembled comic packs. Unfortunately, not all those figures were winners and Breaker is unfortunately one of those early 25th Anniversary figures with so
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There’s irony in the fact that the relaunched 1980s GI Joe line, originally conceptualized as a vehicle toy line, became as much about action figures as it did their accessories. Once more colorful characters beyond the green garbed originals were introduced in 1983, the concept took off like a rocket. It’s no surprise then that when Hasbro commemorated the 25th
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The GI Joe Kre-O line wouldn’t have been complete without the inclusion of Zartan’s crude crew of miscreants, the Dreadnoks. As early as Wave 2, we got Ripper, a nice interpretation of the 1980s figure, complete with his “jaws of life.” Torch continues the trend of the ‘Noks coming to the brick world, and I have to say that I’ve
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This isn’t the first placemat we’ve covered here at JAD. A while back, I happened upon a Ninja Force themed mat, and it was appropriately glorious. The military side of the line also got some love from the housewares section that year, with a mat that featured 1992 and 1993 figures and vehicles. On the front side, we’ve got Duke,
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