I thought Star Brigade was a neat concept–combat astronauts. Joe has had a long history with the US space program, and the Real American Hero era had its share of space adventuring before things went all-out sci-fi in 1993. Though the figures were a mix of spacesuit-adjacent molds, at least Countdown made it into the mix. Countdown was one of
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I’m sure every kid has been subjected to a relative buying a cheap, me-too toy knocked off from the day’s popular properties. Some of these figures from years gone by have skyrocketed in value–just take a look online at the myriad He-Man also-rans, and Remco’s many Joe imitators. These days, the stuff seems even lower quality than it was back
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Here’s a mash-up I never would have imagined until I saw it–the Plague Invasor. It’s the sort of idea at which Black Major excels. Adapting the International exclusive Cobra Invasor concept to the 2000s era Plague sub-team is a brilliant step. When I first spotted this figure I assumed it was a Desert Scorpion type trooper, but the insignia tells
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By KansasBrawler Everyone really loved the Night Force con set a few years ago from the GIJCC, but I wasn’t totally sold on it. I thought it was cool, but I also thought that it was a little lame that those characters were all getting released in color schemes that came from a relatively hard-to- find set of exclusive figures
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Here’s a blast from the past, a custom (and the photo itself) from almost 15 years ago! At the time, I was customizing figures in the Toy Biz style. I also made some Joes now and then, and this Snake Eyes was fairly easy to create. The body is Stealth Guile from the Street Fighter movie series. The head is
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Glasslite produced an impressive series of figures and vehicles based on some of the most popular 80s TV action properties. The A-Team was available alongside TJ Hooker, the Fall Guy, Knight Rider and others. Imagine if this hall of fame assortment of toys were available in the US! My head would have exploded! As it was, I did get the
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By Past Nastification Computer nerds. Gotta have ‘em. Sgt. Hacker is a figure that was well done for the time, but isn’t memorable. The shortened chest/back is the only poorly proportioned area, and it’s not horrible. The figure is much better than many of the other figures from the New Sculpt era. The uniform is a light grey jumpsuit with
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By KansasBrawler When I look back on the Rise of Cobra line, I find it amazing at how many different store exclusives there were during that line. Wal-Mart got some exclusives, Toys ‘R’ Us got a few, Target got a pretty wide variety of them, and even K-Mart got in on the exclusive game. I don’t know about you, but
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By KansasBrawler While some folks may not have liked the movie, the Rise of Cobra line was very effective at what it did—getting screen-accurate action figures out quite quickly. However, some of my favorite pieces were the repaints. Without even trying, I amassed a pretty impressive army of Neo-Vipers and I’m fine with that. I really liked the movie’s take
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You know what I love most about Desert Scorpion? Is it the amazing weapon complement? The unique uniform design? The cool, Snake Eyes-Esque mask? I appreciate all those great elements, but my favorite part of the figure is Unexplained Giant Scorpion. The accessory list printed next to the card bubble calls it a pet scorpion, but I prefer my name.
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