Adventure Team Commander (2010)

I don’t have much recollection of 12 inch GI Joes from my youth. I was of an age at which the bigger guys were phased out before I reached a level at which I wasn’t simply chewing or throwing all my toys. Consequently, my parents didn’t buy me many toys with arms or legs that could be pulled off, or tiny bits that could be ingested or sucked up a nostril. I also didn’t have an older brother or cousin to share or pass down older toys. My earliest memories of action figures are the Fisher Price Adventure People, a 3 & 3/4 inch toy line. Later, I was introduced to some toys from a galaxy far, far away that took up most of my toy attention until the small Joes came on the scene.

My only childhood memory of 12 inch Joes goes back to a neighbor kid, a few years older than me, who had Adventure Team figures as well as the HQ. I remember being fascinated by the big strange figures, and especially the vinyl building in which they were hanging out. We played with the Joes together just one time, and actually I had forgotten about the experience just until I began to write this entry.

In my college days, my interest in the 60’s Joes was high, and I picked up quite a few figures. The 70’s era didn’t hold much interest for me at the time, but that has changed over the years along with my tastes. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I have an appreciation for the more strange corners of Joe history. A lot of the Adventure Team appeals to that side of me. Some of it is the 70’s kitsch factor, but more of it is the sheer playability and imagination of the Adventure Team toys.

The collector club really struck a nerve with me by bringing the AT into the small scale. The 25th anniversary parts worked well in approximating the mod styles of the 70’s. The Commander is set apart from his teammates thanks to the longer safari style jacket of the vintage figure. At first, I didn’t realize that the jacket extension came from arctic Snake Eyes, an impressive reuse. The head sculpt is an excellent shrunken rendition of the old fuzz head. It’s too bad the series didn’t continue, as I’d love to see the AT