By Past Nastification They can’t all be winners. Before the Iron Grenadiers existed, Destro’s organizational presence was MARS. The only MARS/pre-IG character figure to gain action figure status was the 1984 Scrap Iron, somewhat erroneously presented as a Cobra figure. With an amazing no-frills dark blue uniform and red padding, the figure didn’t look like an employee of Destro. It
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Repaints. They can be the bane of a toy collector’s existence. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but at some point as an adult buyer of children’s toys, you just get a little frustrated with the necessities of the marketplace. It’s easier to just accept the fact that Batman, Spider-Man et al are going to be be repainted at some
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Sepentor–love him or hate him, you can’t deny his ability to spark lively conversation among Joe fans. In his various incarnations, be it toy, cartoon or comic, he’s at least unique. My personal opinion of him is based mostly on my first impressions as a kid, particularly as an 80s Marvel Zombie. I thought he would personify, at least conceptually,
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By Past Nastification There are figures that Hasbro absolutely got right. This modern era Zap is one of them. The first year or so of the modern era figure had a few issues, such as arms with a limited range of motion at the elbows or peculiar sculpting. By the time Zap was released, Hasbro had these kinks ironed out
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By KansasBrawler Ace is kind of a tough figure for me. I agree with Rob that pilot figures are often the most difficult to use when they’re not with their signature ride. Since large vehicles weren’t initially on the docket for the 25th Anniversary line, that meant Ace came in a comic pack alongside Wild Weasel. Weirdly, I don’t think
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The cover of the UK’s Action Force Monthly features Falcon in a wet suit. How can we tell that’s Falcon? Well, his name is handily printed on the leg of his suit. Convenient. I don’t mean to sound snarky, in fact this sort of thing is necessary in a comic, especially when a character’s identifying features are obscured. The best
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Imagine a time when a few toy lines were so popular that other manufacturers created product not only to capitalize on the popularity of superstar toys, but also advertised them as being compatible with their competitors. Remco was very good at adapting existing properties into lines that could “work with” other popular series. Sgt. Rock was a prime choice to
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The original Scrap Iron figure got a lot of play time in my group of early Cobra figures. With his unique accessories and tank-busting specialty, he was a mainstay among the named Cobra characters. He looked mean and nasty, thanks to his rather grim visage (at least what was visible of it under his helmet) and to me seemed like
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By KansasBrawler After the incredibly weak sauce that was FSS 2.0 Red Pads Grand Slam, the mystery figure that was a repaint of something that was already released in FSS 2.0, the GIJCC had a lot to make up for. Fans were absolutely livid about his inclusion, especially after how great the mystery thirteenth figure was in the first Figure
Read moreTalk about the early days of online GI Joe exclusives. The BAT pack was offered way back in the comparative dark ages of the early oughts. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. It’s not like the set was an alt.toys.gijoe exclusive or something. Regardless, it’s crazy to think that the set is nearing fifteen years old. Dang. That means I’m old
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