Wait, didn’t we just cover this guy recently? Sort of. He was part of a comic pack in 2006, but before that was a single carded DTC release. This original figure features a really large Freedom sidekick as well as a unique belt and rifle. All three elements add more interest to the character and I prefer this one to
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Can you remember a time when we didn’t know beforehand about every single product that was scheduled to hit shelves? It seems odd to say that in 2004 an internet connected toy collector Joe wasn’t aware of an exclusive set of figures to be released at a major retailer, but that’s what happened to me. Maybe I missed the write-up
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The constants in GI Joe since the 80s are I think a large part of what keeps collectors coming back to new iterations of the line. The well-known characters are like a well worn ballcap, or a favorite couch. They just feel really comfortable, and we (at least guys like me) can be averse to throwing them away when they’ve
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By Past Nastification Hawk (released as “General Abernathy”) got this spiffy ARAH treatment in 2005 as a comic pack action figure. Made of previous body parts from different Hawk figures, plus a great new head, this figure was intended to represent how Hawk appeared in Marvel’s GI Joe #76. The colors are a bit bright, maybe because the colors in
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The Real American Hero Collection series was a welcome sight on toy shelves. It represented Joe’s return to regular retail after a couple of Toys R Us (sniff) exclusives. Sorry about that, but the thought of TRU going the way of other toy stores is a truly sad thought. I know in the grand scheme of things it’s only a
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A year before large scale Joe returned to regular retail with a newly designed highly-articulated body, Target offered up a series of Hall of Fame based interpretations of World War II officers. I had to make a trek to Wichita in order to pick up the set, as my area didn’t get a Target store until the 2000s. At the
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By Past Nastification You’re probably shaking your head right now, disgusted that I’m not calling this figure by its proper name, “Cobra Officer”. On paper, you’d be right. Technically, it is simply a Cobra Officer, released by the GI Joe Collectors Club in 2007 as one of the Night Stalkers in its “Tanks for the Memories” set. But this one,
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Spirit is a favorite that goes all the way back to 1984 for me. I can still recall picking up the figure at Children’s Palace. I was enamored with the character from the sight of a tiny version of his card art on a package back, and the specialty, tracker, along with the presence of an eagle companion, placed him
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The Desert Assault Squad set was an interesting mix of known and new Cobra troopers. Along with Frankensteined figures, the pack also included two straight remolds of the 25th anniversary style CGs. I’ll admit that I initially found their placement in a desert theme to be out of character for the type, since these guys have not only functioned as
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By KansasBrawler Zap is another figure I have a weirdly complicated relationship with. I wasn’t old enough for the original Zap figure to have been on my radar. The first time I met Zap was in 1991 when he joined the Super Sonic Fighters. The filecard mentioned that he was one of the original Joes and while I didn’t know
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