Ah, Robo-JOE. Is there any more lovable a loser to come out of the waning years of the Real American Hero era? Crazy idea, funky execution. Conceptually, I love it. The bright color and paint splatter is just a bonus. Maybe someday he’ll give Bulletman a run for his money in the annals of legendary GI Joe goofballs. If you
Read moreby KansasBrawler Every now and then in large figure sets, there’s one figure that gets included that just doesn’t make any sense. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad figure, but it’s still a bit of a head scratcher when you think about it in the grand scheme of things. As much as I love T’jbang from the Zombie Initiative
Read moreWhen the GI Joe Kre-O line began last year, I hadn’t intended to get into it more than looking at a few of the figures that struck my fancy. I remember being a little bit let down that five of the first twelve blind bag figures were martial arts or ninja themed. Then again, the packaging matched the full-on ninja-fied
Read moreHey kids, we’re hard at work putting together our video presentation for the annual Lanard Toys sale, which began today. We plan on getting the article and video out to you very soon. Check our Twitter feed to the right for some preview pics! Stay tuned! In the meantime, it’s time to break out the crayons (or other writing implement
Read moreThe second year of Eco Warriors figures took things into an interesting direction with its Joe team figures. From a squad of three specifically environmentally themed operatives, year two brought the comparatively plain specialties of firefighter and deep water specialist. Both however functioned well within the concept. As much as I liked Barbecue back in 1985, his specialty seemed a
Read moreI’m sure most Joe collectors (and toy collectors active in the 90s) remember the saga of Recalled Roadblock and his Deadly Spinning Launcher of Death and Dismemberment. The thing apparently didn’t pass muster back then, the story being it either broke easily or was too powerful, so the powers that be recalled it. Was it because Hasbro didn’t want kids
Read moreI used to think that having the 1982 Joes was an afterthought in comparison to picking up the “improved” 1983 versions. I only went back and bought the straight-arm first run of the original thirteen after the completist bug had bit me in the early 2000s. Looking at the 3 & 3/4 inch line as a whole, and from a
Read moreby KansasBrawler Every good zombie story needs that one character who is prepared for the zombie outbreak. For the Zombie Initiative, the GIJCC decided to make it be Outback—and I love that choice. As the Joe’s resident survival expert, Outback has the requisite skills to survive a full-on zombie apocalypse and while that’s not quite what happened in the Zombie
Read more1994 was a bittersweet year for this GI Joe collector. While the 30th anniversary salute was a fun tribute to the brand, the Real American Hero line also came to an end. Having just come back to collecting Joe in 1991, I was disappointed to see it exit when it did. The last mail-in of the first small Joe era,
Read moreAt yesterday’s Assembly Required, I was talking to Steve, one of the Code Name Iowa organizers, about how the blog has been branching out into covering GI Joe merchandising, when he excused himself for a second and returned with a large figure case. Inside was the strangest collection of 80s GI Joe merchandise I’ve seen: four costume masks. “Do an
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