By Past Nastification Where does the time go? Two decades have rolled by since Kenner rolled out the second version of the Joes’ first dedicated arctic trooper. Yep, this was technically a Kenner-labeled product following the Hasbro/Kenner merger. A repaint of the original Snow Job, except for the upper arms, Kenner expanded its use of long-dormant molds. Sure, I’m probably
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I remember this time of year as a kid being filled with excitement and possibility. Fall meant a return to school, as well as the arrival of a new round of Christmas catalogs. In the days before collectors’ magazines and the internet, they were the best source from which to get a sampling of the year’s top toy lines. The
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Black Major has been producing interesting variants of Cobra troops using the 80s trooper mold for some time. His most recent offerings include a new troop type code named Hercules. With a deco based on the Palitoy Action Force range’s SAS detachment, this new figure joins the ranks of familiar faces like Blades, Stalker and Hunter. The color scheme echoes
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By KansasBrawler While I may not have had the Air Commandos figures growing up, I’ve always been fascinated by obscure Joes, and that definitely describes that particular subset. Personally, I always liked Skymate the best, so when I saw that he was a souvenir figure at Joe Con 2016, I was really excited. He’s by no means a household name
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In the interests of equal time, we present another in a series of occasional GI Joe Extreme posts. The series isn’t anyone’s favorite, but it deserves coverage, if only for historical context. To be honest, there’s a bit of the line that I don’t mind. Some of the vehicles in particular contain interesting features, and the bold design and construction
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By Past Nastification The further away from it we get, the more quality I find in the New Sculpt era. This isn’t a whitewashing of the badness, but a taking in of the good despite the bad. Ripper made his NS debut in 2002. Unlike many of the NS figures, this one has no real proportion issues. It smoothly bridges
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One of the more impressive of the late 1980s vehicles, the Rolling Thunder is a real beast. It’s too bad we didn’t see it in an animated series. It would have made a great focal point vehicle for the Joes. It’s certainly not as unwieldy as the General.
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Sebastian Bludd, arguably the most self-serving and cold blooded of Cobra’s operatives, has been a go-to bad guy within my Joeverse since the early 80s. My memory of getting this figure goes back to Christmas 1983. My mom was a frequent catalog shopper, and my wish list was easily fulfilled by Wards, Sears and JC Penney. Bludd was available in
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By KansasBrawler When I got back into Joe collecting during high school, YoJoe exposed me to a lot of interesting figures I didn’t know existed. Growing up in Kansas and South Dakota, there was some Joe stuff that just kind of slipped by me. I think that geography is what helped me find earlier figures like Lady Jaye that wound
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By Past Nastification Introduced as a Target exclusive for the Rise of Cobra line, the 2009 Grand Slam is my favorite version of the character. The previous 25A-style Grand Slam had silver colored pads instead of this one’s metallic ice blue ones. The silver pad Grand Slam also shared a head with 25A Flash, making it a head-to-toe repaint. The
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