The Real American Hero series had the distinction of being the first comic book advertised on television. It was also Hasbro’s creative way of marketing its relaunched toyline without having to stick to the regulations of the day regarding animation and toys. Have we mentioned here how effective the 80s Joe marketing was? Why else would we still be talking
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By KansasBrawler Kids can be funny sometimes. I don’t mean in the lame Kids Say the Darndest Things way, but it’s interesting to watch how your opinion of a toy changes after seeing a kid’s eyes light up while they’re playing with it. I was talking with a couple of Hasbro design team folks near the “free play” area they’d
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Meet the new Joes! Back when I was a teenage Marvel Zombie, I actually bought Marvel Age, the all-house-ad comic, every month. Somehow I missed this issue, and I’m bummed that I did, since I also missed the oddly colored (and named) new Joes inside. Hot Spot?
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Wow, that’s a mouthful of a post title. It’s fitting, considering that the Talking Battle Commanders spoke quite a bit, at least for the time. Hey, three lines of scratchy sampled audio was pretty amazing back then. The early 90s saw an explosion of this sort of feature, with many action figure lines sporting oversized talking backpacks. The Joes were
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Well folks, we may never see the likes of this again. GI Joe party supplies. I suppose there’s always the possibility of a future movie tie-in, but I don’t think I’ll walk into Party City in the foreseeable future and spot actual Joe toys depicted on a cheap plastic table cover. Excuse me, I’m getting a little emotional–sniff (blows nose).
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In 1973, while the GI Joe line was well into its Adventure Team period, competitor Mattel introduced Big Jim, a less militaristic adventure and sports based 10 inch figure, as an alternative. Unlike Joe, Big Jim from its beginnings incorporated action features into the figures. The toys’ biceps bulged when arms bent at the elbows. In 1975, Big Jim’s image
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For some collectors (and especially customizers) of small scale GI Joes, Lanard’s Wow Action Girls! series is highly sought after. The line was a godsend for those looking for figures, accessories and vehicles that just hadn’t been replicated by Hasbro. Stylistically similar to the o-ring figures of the 80s and 90s, the toys were produced with an array of accouterments
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By KansasBrawler Retaliation really fleshed out the concept of a G.I. Joe team. While I like the idea of a Joe team being nothing but named operatives, a military group can’t realistically work like that. I’m all for nameless, faceless Joe troopers. While they had those in Rise of Cobra as well, they didn’t fit in with their named counterparts.
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Aside from a starkly decorated Sears exclusive, Hasbro’s Atomic Man didn’t get the benefit of a coffin box. Instead, like other later line releases, he was packaged on a blister card. Granted, he got a nice pose out of the deal, but the fully painted box of old was surely missed. The UK got a throwback of sorts with its
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I’ve always had a thing for GI Joe pilot figures. Ace, although he spent a lot of time in the cockpit of his Skystriker, was a favorite of mine as a kid. Years later, when I began to collect the 1960s GI Joes, I gravitated toward the Scramble Pilot and even the Air Police. At the same time (the mid
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