By KansasBrawler I don’t know why, but I’ve never really had much of an affinity for Spirit. I always thought his original figure looked a bit like they grabbed as many Native American stereotypes as they could and made a figure out of them. The filecard made him seem more like a real person, but the figure looked pretty stereotypical.
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Here’s a double your displeasure ad if you’re a toy collector. An ad from an almost defunct department store for a brand that’s in hibernation. Yay! Sorry I didn’t get this one out on Black Friday, but I didn’t want anyone to run to their local non-existent K-Mart looking for GI Joes fighting Yetis or Sound Attack Choppers.
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By KansasBrawler I generally like it when Hasbro and the GIJCC do more spiritual updates of characters. I like a lot of figures’ vintage looks, but at the same time, military gear has changed since the 80s, so I don’t mind seeing a little more modern take on a figure’s look. However, I was a little bummed when the first
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By Past Nastification One of the early 25th Anniversary Comic Pack figures, the Hard Master came packaged with a ninja-in-training Snake-Eyes figure. The Hard Master first appeared in Marvel Comics, as the co-head of the Arashikage ninja clan alongside his brother, the Soft Master. Both of them wore traditional gi uniforms. But here, this figure sports a recolored a Snake-Eyes
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When the initial 25th Anniversary five-pack sets made their way to toy shelves, I believe we all assumed Hasbro was simply going to revisit the most popular characters in a limited commemorative run intended for collectors. As such, I didn’t hold out a lot of hope that the toys would be as playable or as popular as their forebears. Both
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By KansasBrawler Hands down, the figure I was looking forward to the most out of the Defense of Cobra Island set was the Lamprey. I didn’t have the original Lamprey growing up but I was so impressed with the one KansasBrother got from one of those vehicle driver mail-away offers that when I saw the bright orange Gone Hunting Lamprey
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By Past Nastification You already know how I feel about head-to-toe repaints, but we’ll look at Wet Down anyway. It’s impossible to look at this figure and not see it as Torpedo. Even with a semi-masked head, it’s just too iconic to be any other character. 2001 was an odd year for the figure, many of which were full repaints.
Read moreBy KansasBrawler I love when new characters are introduced into the Joe brand. While Rise of Cobra was mostly about reinterpreting classic characters into a new aesthetic, the last wave of figures brought in some brand new characters. Though they weren’t all gems, from the moment I saw Night Adder I was hooked. Cobra’s never had a dog handler and
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By Past Nastification As a non-golfer, I had no reference for the name “Rip It”. Once I understood that it was a golf term, my bewilderment turned to amusement. The filecard explains how Rip It learned golf as a means of understanding terrain, so it’s a good way to link what could have been a silly name to a figure.
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By KansasBrawler Ninjas have always been a rather controversial element in Joe history. Personally, I have no problems with them. Storm Shadow was established as a ninja from day one and shifting Snake Eyes over to the ninja category makes sense from a certain standpoint. However, during the 90s, the ninja ranks of both the Joe and Cobra teams expanded
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