The early 2000s o-ring repaints were a surprise among the new t-crotch figures. I didn’t expect to see Vipers (both regular and Alley) among the newly created figures. Among the Joes was a late ARAH figure that would make its way to many army builders’ extras bins–the good old Mirage mold. Originating in the oft-maligned Mega Marines sub-team, he was
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This version of the Lamprey inherits its specialty from the previous release of the mold, the Sonic Fighters Lampreys. Whereas the original was a specialized elite hydrofoil pilot form the Eels corps, the later Lamprey are assault troopers. I guess they’ve gone back in a way to their Eels origins. I found the Python Patrol set’s color scheme to be
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What do successful and long-lasting toy properties have in common? How about a memorable and ubiquitous enemy? From Megatron’s Decepticons to Skeletor’s Evil Masters to Cobra Commander’s minions, any bad guys worth their salt had a variety of troops at their disposal. What separates Cobra though from the others–an amazingly diversified cadre of specialists. The Tele-Vipers stand out to me
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It’s Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday, and I wouldn’t be a good geek if I didn’t pay tribute. Although the man didn’t contribute to the GI Joe brand, he did some work on Mattel’s Adventure Team-styled competitor Big Jim. While the Big Jim concept was interesting and the toys decent, things had to be shaken up a bit in light of
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I’ve probably said this way too many times during the life of the blog, but I don’t really care if I repeat myself–I loves me some color in my toys. They are toys after all, and if they have that magic combination of sculpt, playability and color to catch my eye, that’s a plus. If the color alone catches my
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By KansasBrawler Like I’ve said before, I’ve never been too interested in international Joe variants. There aren’t a lot of differences between the 1988 Iron Grenadier Destro released in North America and the one released in South America aside from the fact that the US version came with the Despoiler and the South American one was released carded. Sure, the
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By Past Nastification “Deformed” toys typically hold little appeal for me. Star Wars Galactic Buddies, or whatever they’re called… The cutesy Marvel figures with oversized eyes… Anything ever made by Pop… I just don’t get the adoration. So imagine my self-loathing when I discovered that I liked the GI Joe Micro Force mini-figures from 2012. Micro Force was one of
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Okay, GH needs to get some sun. Milky and somewhat translucent, the odd skin color was symptomatic of the RAH collections years’ Caucasian figures. Some folks prefer the vintage plastic skin tones over painted skin, but it’s all subjective. While the early 2000s crew are a departure from their predecessors in terms of deco, I find them to be an
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Clutch was my favorite character in the early Marvel comics issues. Rather than a cookie cutter personality, he was a colorful and opinionated (to put it mildly) presence among his teammates. His back and forth with his comrades made for the kind of character interaction that drew me into the world. As a figure, he’s also unique. It would have
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The hits just kept on coming in 1987. If the figures that year veered further into pulpy and weird directions (particularly on the Cobra side) the vehicles followed suit. That’s not to say they weren’t fun toys. On the contrary, the rides on this dealer catalog page are some of my faves from the post-86 era. You don’t get much
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