When I saw the Amazon exclusive Renegades four pack, I was intrigued by three of the figures, with their incredibly different design styles. I didn’t pull the trigger on picking up the set until it recently dropped in price. I’m glad I did, as the style of the two ninja figures is a cool departure that reminds me a little of one of my
Read moreSome GI Joe figures are quite realistic and close to their actual military subject matter in terms of design. Others have been extrapolated out to the next generation of technology, the “five minutes in the future” that we hear about so much. Still others just make you scratch your head. I’ve been scratching mine since I first saw Lightfoot. Is
Read moreAs luck would have it, Storm Shadow had a new figure released the year after I stopped buying GI Joes. I had also stopped reading the comic, and had stopped buying comics altogether, so I was oblivious to this new look, and to his turn to the roster of the “good guys”. The first sight I had of his figure
Read moreWhat do you get when you cross the Buzz Boar with a Big Wheel? The Lanard Corps line’s craziest vehicle, the Chopper Trike, also known as the Desert Digger. As far out as some of the Corps figures were, the early vehicles generally had been quite restrained in their design. There was a patrol boat, a tank and helicopter near
Read moreThe new sculpt era was filled with new troop types for Cobra. I totally dig that. After all, why create a new line if it ends up being solely a recreation of something we’ve already had? At the beginning of this new era, Cobra was free from classically styled blueshirts, Vipers, Crimson Guards, and the like. They were replaced with
Read moreCan we get a little love for Steeler? The man’s been there from the beginning, one of the first driver figures, and he seems to be either left out or when he does appear, to be given the half-arsed treatment. The sadness of this figure rivals the depths of laziness plumbed by some of the 1997 rereleases. We’re not up
Read moreI was asked by Howie Decker of Underscoopfire to be part of a panel of other bloggers, podcasters, and collectors to choose among the myriad of Joe characters to be compiled in a list of the greatest. Luckily it fell to Howie and his crew to break it all down scientifically (I think). Check out the final list here, and
Read moreThe Joe formerly known as Shockwave for a time shared a dubious honor with the fan favorite Decepticon of the same name. Both were renamed to the much less threatening and apparently less copyright infringing name Shockblast . Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? I’m not too excited about most of the modern versions of classic Joes, but
Read moreYesterday I covered a modern interpretation of a classic Cobra trooper, one that wasn’t a direct copy of an old figure into the modern aesthetic. Today’s figure goes a different route towards remaking something that came before. The Alley Viper of 1989 was an odd duck, to say the least. Not a bad figure, just incredibly outside of the norm
Read more1986 Vipers are the darlings of vintage army building collectors. I have a few; enough for a squad. I never bought dozens and dozens of them to stand in neat rank and file, even when they were plentiful and cheap. Such is not the case with the Valor vs. Venom Viper mold. I went nuts on buying this figure. Why?
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