By KansasBrawler By my nearest estimation, I must have seen G.I. Joe: The Movie for the first time sometime in either 1989 or 1990 on the USA Network during their afternoon block of cartoons. Since then, I’ve been obsessed with Cobra-La. I don’t consider many figures “missing” from my childhood collection, but I remember being disappointed as a kid that
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It’s fall in my part of the world. The leaves are changing color, the temperatures are getting cooler, and pop-up Halloween stores are appearing in strip malls as far as the eye can see. It’s a beautiful thing to see, especially if you grew up a monster kid. This time of year brings back just as many memories for me
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The CORPS! Bio-Wing Battle Squadron is a unique set of figures/vehicles within Lanard’s Joe competitor brand. Most importantly I believe, it’s a fairly original concept that doesn’t borrow from established Hasbro material. Okay, maybe there’s some Cobra CLAW influence, but only in relation to the concept of a one-man glider. I could have easily featured this entry on Power of
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One of my final childhood GI Joe purchases, Fast Draw was nevertheless a favorite figure. I guess I liked the out and out crazy angle of a human missile platform dressed as an oven mitt. The toy’s weapons were intricate, and there’s something fascinating about Joes with cool helmets. The card art really sells the action that you can imagine
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Only three out of the eight figures in the Stars and Stripes set were worth a darn to me. The rest were either ill-advised repaints or Hall of Fame stinkers (looking at you, Breaker). Stalker, Snake Eyes and Scarlett were acceptable remakes. Weird semi translucent plastic skin tone notwithstanding, I like the changed paint scheme here. Scarlett is more colorful
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By KansasBrawler Sometimes the Joe line surprises you. I’m honestly a bit tired of seeing repainted Snow Cats. I’ve never really liked that vehicle, yet I have three of them now. The Wolfhound was a clearance impulse buy (seriously, I think I got it for five bucks somewhere during a post-Christmas inventory sell down), the HAVOC was a brilliant cross-sell
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I know I’m unusual in this, but I’ve got a thing for the 1993 series. I won’t say it began when I was buying the figures off the pegs back in the day, but it certainly started to take hold when I re-visited my collection as part of this blog. The year’s Battle Corps offerings are a combination of brightly-colored
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At the tail end of the Sigma 6 series of toys, Hasbro broke off the style into a couple of different directions. One was a more generic military-based series of figures and the other a return to an adventure theme–the Adventure Team, to be exact. Only three sets were produced, and although two featured characters we’d seen multiple times (Snake
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Back in the 80s, before I’d discovered that my hometown had a Local Comic Shop, I was buying comics from the rack at the drug store or gas station. A trip to 7-11 usually gave me the opportunity to scope out what was available. Being a Marvel Zombie from a young age, I was only checking out the likes of
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While the Kre-O series nailed many a minifigure version of classic GI Joes, the vehicles in the line left a lot to be desired. There were attempts to replicate classic playsets, like the Checkpoint and Outpost Defender. The Terrordrome set was probably the most successful in bringing an 80s favorite into the building blocks concept. Venerable Joe rides like the
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