Iceberg was the opposite of Snow Job, accessory-wise. Where the Joe team’s first arctic trooper came equipped with snow traveling gear, Iceberg has nothing. Not even a pair of snow shoes. He did get a rifle, and a handily colored white one at that. I’ve often wondered why Snow Job didn’t get a white rifle, or at least one wrapped
Read moreThere are so many ’82-83 Joes that to me seem so iconic, I have a hard time deciding which one would be my choice to be the definitive early figure. Sometimes I think it’s Grunt, other times it’s Flash or Clutch, or even Snake Eyes. Then again, it could be Rock ‘N Roll. I guess I’ll never decide. Even though
Read moreSpearhead and Max are a weird, inexplicable pair. First, there’s the weird, inexplicable colors. Spearhead wears the orangiest of camo patterns. I don’t know what alien planet’s vegetation he’s meant to blend into, but he’s certainly not bland. Even his backpack is orange. Was somebody colorblind at Hasbro? The fit of accessories was an important feature in the small Joe
Read moreI had thought that Stars and Stripes Breaker would be the pinnacle of bad Joe figures. It was lazily produced and ineptly accessorized. It was unadulterated, high octane action figure poo. Could another figure come close to it in sheer disappointment? Duke comes pretty close, especially considering the classic mold on which he’s based. Duke came packaged with a reproduced
Read moreWhen is a desert trooper not a desert trooper? When he’s been repainted for the 2000-2002 Real American Hero Collection, a line populated with a share of the cool, the strange and the lackluster. Wait, that’s pretty much any Joe line. The ’91 Dusty mold is, like many others from the same year, among my favorite figures of the 90’s.
Read more1994 was such a bittersweet year for a Joe collector, well, at least for this Joe collector. Having jumped back into collecting just three years earlier, not only was I starting to gain some ground on picking up the figures I had missed, but I was excited at the prospect of new figures on the horizon. Those prospects fizzled out
Read moreCombine parts from two molds that later in the decade would become some the most overused in recent memory, and what do you get? Rock ‘N Roll–I mean Crossfire, the new machine gunner introduced in the Real American Hero Collection series. The arms and torso belonged to Big Ben, and the waist and legs to Dial-Tone. Bits of those two guys guys
Read moreFinally, I’m covering a Joe astronaut figure that wasn’t first a Star Brigade member. The mold did get repainted to death for the later astronaut sub-line, but I find this original version to be the best. Like other 1989 GI Joes, his interest for me lies in his accessories. I recall seeing this figure listed on the back of 1990
Read moreI never had the interest to pick up this figure as a kid. Something about it just didn’t appeal to me. I think it may have been the head. It always seemed overly large. Maybe that’s just due to size of the hat. That thing is like a tent sitting on top of his head. I like the figure now,
Read moreThe second iteration of the now overused AWE Striker was the lone vehicle of the Eco Warrior Joes. It would have been nice to see a more enclosed vehicle, like the APC or the Warthog, but the Joes don’t care about getting sprayed with toxic goo on the battlefield. Ultimately, this version of the venerable Striker mold functions well as
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