By KansasBrawler While I didn’t have it growing up, ever since I got lucky and found the Wal-Mart exclusive Rise of Cobra Outpost Defender, I’ve been kind of obsessed with that little set. It’s a great little piece and the design is perfect. As a fan of the Outpost Defender, it’s pretty easy to guess what my feelings towards the
Read more
By KansasBrawler I’ve never been a terribly big fan of Dusty. It’s not that I don’t like the character, it’s just I’ve never found his figures to be terribly interesting. It kind of surprises me that I have so many modern versions of Dusty. The Pursuit of Cobra version is great and I find myself strangely drawn to the 50th
Read more
By Past Nastification The modern era has given us new versions of Blowtorch. The first, from 2009, is a modern interpretation of the classic 1984 design. It’s packed with detail and sculpting. Plus extra gear that would indicate Blowtorch has some cross-training as a firefighter, which makes sense. Like many modern era figures, the added articulation doesn’t mean that the
Read more
By Past Nastification Continuing from the 80s original, Blowtorch got a second figure almost 20 years later. I was delighted to see the new color set was a light brown uniform with gold armor and black accouterments. The gold is a little much, but I can live with it. This is a new sculpt era figure with some sculpting issues.
Read more
By Past Nastification Based on his specialty, Blowtorch could have been one of the most fear-inducing characters of the GI Joe team. If you’ve ever seen any footage of their use in WWII, you know that flamethrowers are effective-but-vile business. Blowtorch has several versions over the last 30 years. But there are enough differences between some of them to provide
Read more
By KansasBrawler As much as I love Kre-O, sometimes the choices they make with their sets are a little strange. Case in point, the Thunderwave Jet Boat set. While it’s probably the second-weakest set, I wanted it because Cutter is one of my favorite Joes. It’s obvious the Thunderwave Jet Boat set was a refugee from the unsuccessful Battleship line
Read more
By Flag Points Dave Two experiences I had fueled the crazy thoughts I was having as I drove home to see the new puppy my family picked up while I was away. I couldn’t stop replaying comments the remarkably-prolific Ron Rudat made while looking at a modern sculpt located just above a Gung-Ho Marine Dress Blues 2-up on the Hasbro
Read more
By Flag Points Dave Saturday morning came early, but I was ready. I was so pumped to be around the designers in the area that was set up to pay tribute to Joe, I hardly realized that there was a showroom floor. As a matter of fact, I didn’t go there until the afternoon. The area outside of the main
Read more
By Flag Points Dave GI Joe has always been a “local” thing to me. I grew up in the Catskill Mountains of New York, played with the toys in my woods, my streams and my fields with my good buddies for hours. Like many others, I imagined myself in the role of my favorite character(s) while playing with neighborhood friends,
Read more
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
Read more