GI Joe comic fans waited years to get an action figure representation of the legendary Eskimo mercenary, and in 2004, Hasbro delivered with this first ever version, released as part of the Valor Vs. Venom comic packs–wait, what’s that? I put up the wrong picture? This is his son, Ghost Bear? Say what? Well, sorry about that–meant to post the
Read moreMercer is an interesting character who’s been sadly underused in the GI Joe comics and cartoons. The idea of a Cobra defector could make for a lot of intriguing story possibilities. He showed up in a few issues of the Devil’s Due comic, the animated movie, and two episodes of the DIC cartoon, and that’s pretty much been it. This
Read moreWhenever the Joes encountered a tech or computer issue back in the day, they generally relied on their communications specialists. First, it was Breaker (and Sparks in the toon), then later Dial-Tone. Short-Fuze, Clutch and Steeler’s out-of-the-blue design and build of a killer satellite in the MASS Device mini-series doesn’t count, by the way–that ridiculous thing was shot down in
Read moreWhat’s the most ridiculous military specialty you’ve heard of for a Joe team member? How about veterinarian? Maybe it’s not ridiculous for the Joe team. After all, somebody’s gotta be around to give Junkyard, Order, Lamont, Sandstorm, Max and Timber their parvo and heartworm shots. Dr. Link Talbot made his debut in the Valor vs. Venom series, the storyline in
Read moreSay what you will about Lanard’s Corps! line and its copycatting of RAH GI Joe, there’s no denying its appeal to collectors of the odd and unusual. At the line’s beginning, there were plenty of cribs from Joe, including some incredibly close representations of Joe equipment. For years, I’ve had a backpack that resembles Major Bludd’s as well as a
Read moreFemale figures don’t sell. It’s a marketing mantra all too familiar to action figure collectors. We don’t like to believe it, but it really is true. As much as we communicate via forums, Twitter and the like, sometimes we mistake the loudness of our online voices for greatness in number. The fact is, those of us who are online are not the
Read moreDear Pursuit of Cobra/30th Anniversary toyline, What a crazy couple of years it’s been. Seems like only yesterday I met you at Joecon in KC, and look how far we’ve come. We’ve both changed since that first meeting; you looked like Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans and Rachel Nicols, and I was a jaded collector who didn’t think Joe could be
Read moreTextures. They’re not something that I think about often in terms of the RAH toy line. Other than armor, I can’t recall a lot of figures whose uniform reflected some kind of different surfaces among pants, shirts, etc. Early in the line, sculpted details like folds and bloused pants weren’t depicted in much detail, if at all. I’ve wondered if that was
Read morePit Vipers are the stealth, infiltration and evasion specialists of the Cobra forces. They’re trained to be sneaky and persistent, and equipped with highly sophisticated gear that allows them to avoid detection by most security systems. This figure is the second iteration of Cobra’s sneakiest troops. While the initial version of the Pit Viper wasn’t garish, the color scheme didn’t
Read moreA lot of us Sunbow freaks have a laundry list of “cartoon only” characters we’d like to see in action figure form. Sparks was always at the top of my list. His presence on the cartoon confused me, since the Joes had a communications specialist (Breaker) since the first mini-series. I still liked his look however, with his odd helmet
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