By Past Nastification You’re probably shaking your head right now, disgusted that I’m not calling this figure by its proper name, “Cobra Officer”. On paper, you’d be right. Technically, it is simply a Cobra Officer, released by the GI Joe Collectors Club in 2007 as one of the Night Stalkers in its “Tanks for the Memories” set. But this one,
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Spirit is a favorite that goes all the way back to 1984 for me. I can still recall picking up the figure at Children’s Palace. I was enamored with the character from the sight of a tiny version of his card art on a package back, and the specialty, tracker, along with the presence of an eagle companion, placed him
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My first exposure to this set came in the pages of Lee’s Action Figure News and Toy Review magazine. I still have that particular issue, the first toy magazine I had seen on a newsstand–well, a comic shop stand to be exact. So is this the first example of the GI Joe line packaging a vehicle and “driver” figure together?
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By KansasBrawler Battle Force 2000 is a bit of a strange subteam for me. It was another one that KansasBrother and I only had one figure each from growing up, but it never really captured my attention all that much as an adult. However, having a brother who’s your partner in Joe crime is a bit of an interesting thing
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Here’s the audio along with accompanying slides of our recent GI Joe/Transformers lineage panel. We think there’s some intriguing connective tissue between the two properties, and the Microman/Mego connections are fascinating to me. Big thanks to Flag Points Page for co-presenting, and to Flag Points Dave and Twitziller for their always valuable insight. Slide images via microforever.com, hisstank.com, vectis.co.uk, seibertron.com,
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Local con time came a bit earlier this year, and JAD was there to cover it again. The Joe toy presence at this year’s Planet Comicon was very light among vendors, but The Finest showed up and showed out again with impressive cosplay and life-size playsets. Along with the bivouac and watchtower was an impressive version of Scrap-Iron’s missile launcher
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The Desert Assault Squad set was an interesting mix of known and new Cobra troopers. Along with Frankensteined figures, the pack also included two straight remolds of the 25th anniversary style CGs. I’ll admit that I initially found their placement in a desert theme to be out of character for the type, since these guys have not only functioned as
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By KansasBrawler Zap is another figure I have a weirdly complicated relationship with. I wasn’t old enough for the original Zap figure to have been on my radar. The first time I met Zap was in 1991 when he joined the Super Sonic Fighters. The filecard mentioned that he was one of the original Joes and while I didn’t know
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Who hasn’t wished for an army of Vipers at some point? I know I have. While I’d love to build up masses of the 1986 version, I just wasn’t in the troop building game at a time when the guys could be had cheaply. Luckily the 2000s were kind to us, if you didn’t mind a few recolored figures, like
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As hit or miss as the comic packs were, I sure do miss them. Actually, I miss o-ring GI Joes at retail in general, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. I’m just glad I was able to catch a few of them on clearance back then. They are impressive looking when grouped. The Cobra Officer was one of my early
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