Ice Ranger Bio
I’m having a great time with these American Defense bios. They’re just as insane as the figure designs. Ice Ranger continues many of the themes we saw with Yeti. Very—cool.
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Zartan (1984)
I don’t have too many GI Joe toy memories that stand out as much as my first experience with the Zartan figure. The story is as vivid in my mind as the original two Joe figures I obtained early on in the Real American Hero era. I first got wind of the toy (before seeing it in a store) via
Read moreCatalog Page: Super Adventure Team with Big Jim!
The Adventure Team morphed into the The realm of super heros when folks like Eagle Eye Joe and Bullet Man joined up. The caveman-like Intruders made up Joe’s first real nemesis in his history. The 1976 JC Penney Christmas catalog featured not only GI Joe, but his also-ran adventuring competitor Big Jim, who has also embraced a more comic book
Read moreFSS 3.0 Muskrat
By KansasBrawler FSS 3.0 Muskrat is kind of a big deal for me since he’s about the only member of the lineup I wasn’t exposed to as a kid. Yes, I had Battle Corps Muskrat growing up, but that guy is so bizarre, looking back, I don’t know if I ever used him as Muskrat. He was usually a cyborg
Read moreThe Power of (International) Packaging: Funskool Snake Eyes
Funskool often gets laughs based on its later offerings of domestic GI Joe figures, but earlier along in their history they were less crazy, and even made some interesting color variants. Snake Eyes came in two flavors, black with silver highlights, and blue. The card art is inspired by the domestic ’82-83 version, and even though it’s comparatively crude when
Read moreCaptivating Cover: Marvel GI Joe Issue 30
This issue quickly became worn out from re-reading. The Dreadnoks’ attack on McGuire air force base was brilliantly staged, and remains one of my most vivid comic memories. The issue had it all; from Zartan’s impersonation of Hawk to the ‘Noks taking apart an F-14 with their unique and destructive weaponry. Oh, and of course a Mike Zeck GI Joe
Read moreSuper Joe Cross-Sell
Sadly, the Super Joe packaging did not feature a full color card back. As a result, the packaging looks comparatively cheap compared to Kenner’s Star Wars and Hasbro’s later GI Joe offerings. Even so, it’s great to see many of the team together in one image fighting their foe, Gor. Other cross-sells pictured Luminos, another of the light fighting member
Read moreHydro-Viper (1988)
Looking back, I sure am disappointed to not have gotten in at the ground floor with the 1988 series. My childhood Joe collection stopped in the midst of the 1987 series. I like the ’87 releases, but the Cobras were…odd. With several cool new Joes as well as Cobra army builders, the followup was a fine year. I recall spotting
Read moreHappy Birthday Will!
Hard to believe, but it’s been six years since JAD co-reviewer Will joined me and Mrs. JAD on our life journey. He’s almost exactly one year older than the site, and today was his epic 6th birthday party. The theme this year was something near and dear to my heart–Star Wars. As such, with all the prep and activity involved,
Read moreYeti Bio
Bet you didn’t know the Yeti had a bio. Okay, so it’s not the actual mythical creature. This does however make me want to track down old episodes of In Search Of. The American Defense line from Remco went bat excrement crazy after starting out as a bunch of me-too copies of concepts made popular by GI Joe. The amount
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