By KansasBrawler I don’t know why, but I’ve never really had much of an affinity for Spirit. I always thought his original figure looked a bit like they grabbed as many Native American stereotypes as they could and made a figure out of them. The filecard made him seem more like a real person, but the figure looked pretty stereotypical.
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As a toy collector, I’m not the biggest fan of the concept of “chase” items, especially when they’re planned and advertised as such. For me, there’s no thrill of the hunt when it comes to spending disposable income on toys. I don’t want to go through a bunch of hoops to collect them all. If others do, that’s cool. It’s
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By KansasBrawler Sometimes, a Joe figure really catches fire in the collecting community. I got to witness this first hand at Joe Con in 2009 with Pursuit of Cobra Zartan. Everyone (myself included) was very interested in this new direction for the brand, building off the good parts of the movie, but leaving the bad parts behind. However, the figure
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By KansasBrawler Pursuit of Cobra was a great re-branding of the Joe line. Hasbro learned from the mistakes they made in both the 25th Anniversary and Rise of Cobra lines and was putting out great figures that fell into two categories: incredible nostalgic updates of classic figure or new characters and specialties. To up the ante even further, the second
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By KansasBrawler Pursuit of Cobra Dusty was a figure that really surprised me. For whatever reason, in my area of Kansas, he never caught on like I thought he would. Though he wasn’t as epic of a pegwarmer as Arctic Threat Destro, he was still pretty likely to be on the pegs right beside him for a while. I thought
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By KansasBrawler Sometimes an action figure really just captures your imagination. I don’t know why, but I’ve always really loved jetpacks, and the crazier-looking the better. At Joe Con in 2009, the Hasbro team found a way to make me buy another movie Ripcord figure—by making him into the Desert Battle jetpack trooper. While I wasn’t wild about Marlon Wayans’s
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By KansasBrawler It’s hard to believe that only four short years ago, the Joe brand had such ridiculously strong retail support. I’m not saying that to sound bitter, but it’s a little disappointing how weak the 50th Anniversary line roll out was compared to what the line was during the shift from Rise of Cobra into Pursuit of Cobra. Rise
Read moreBy KansasBrawler I’ve never had any special affinity for Recondo. I never had him growing up so I don’t have any real memories of him and by the time Pursuit of Cobra Recondo came out, I’d only had the Assault on Cobra Island Recondo for a short time and he really hadn’t made an impression on me. Honestly, the strongest
Read moreBy KansasBrawler Ah, phantom waves…the bane of every collector’s existence. It always seems like some really good stuff gets shunted off into final, hard-to-find waves of toy lines. Be it the WarriorsThree from Thor, Kwinn and company from Retaliation or the great figures in the last wave of Pursuit of Cobra, it’s always maddening when Hasbro brings the heat in
Read moreCity Strike Destro, more popularly known as Money Bags Destro, was an absolute bear to find. It marks the only modern figure for which I’ve paid a premium price. It hurt a bit (mainly because I’m a bit thrifty when it comes toy purchases) but I’m glad I picked up the figure. He’s a great little detailed version in the
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