Oh Lemon Yellow Neo-Viper, how I love your Day-Glo goodness. It’s like you stepped right out of 1993. What can I possibly say that this picture doesn’t? Doesn’t it take you back to your first lemonade stand back in the day? Or maybe it reminds you of the hard hat you wore on your old construction job. You know, I’m
Read moreDirect To Consumer or DTC, Hasbro’s experiment with selling online directly to the collector market was an ambitious and hopeful idea. From a collector point of view it was great. No more putting up with hunting down product in store after store or ordering from a middleman online. No sir, Hasbro was going to make available an entire line of
Read moreLike her brother Zartan, Zarana is a master (or is it mistress?) of disguise. You certainly wouldn’t get that idea from looking at her outfit. Not something that blends in, unless you’re hanging around the film set of a low-budget 80’s Italian Mad Max ripoff. Maybe it’s what she wears on Cobra’s causal Fridays. Say what you will about her, but
Read moreIntimidation. That’s the feeling I get from this version of Cobra Commander. The 2002 relaunch of 3 3/4″ Joes with the GI Joe vs. Cobra line was met with collector disdain, mainly due to the absence of the beloved O-ring articulation. Another love/hate element was the cartoonish sculpting style. Most of the figures were bulky, stylized and almost superheroic in
Read moreWhat? Classified? I thought this was Snake Eyes? Isn’t he a ninja? Why’s he just a dude in a boonie hat? This, dear reader, is a flashback version of Snake Eyes, or as his file card states, CLASSIFIED. Snake Eyes’ real name and place of birth have always been listed as such on his file cards. The mystery related to
Read moreFrom 2003 to 2006, Toys R Us released several themed six packs based on vintage molds. These sets were a great value priced at around $20, and while not always thematically successful, employed vintage molds to create new versions of fan favorites as well as a few new characters. For a ninja commando, Snake Eyes sure does seem to make
Read moreKamakura the Lemon Head Ninja. How quickly you were forgotten. Your Action Attack and yellow-headed tackiness was the bane of GI Joe collectors’ existence for all of three minutes back in the mid-aughts. I have to say, as much as we bitch about Hasbro’s attempts to invigorate the line with gimmicks and such, they do seem to respond to failures
Read moreFrom the original file card: “The Iron Grenadiers, acting as agents, provocateurs, saboteurs or outright terrorists, impel an unsuspecting country towards chaos and turmoil, thereby creating new markets for Destro’s weapons where none existed before. Their pay is a percentage of of gross sales.” The Iron Grenadiers’ specialties include terrorism, sales and marketing development. That Destro, always the shrewd businessman.
Read moreGI Joes were produced in many countries across the world. Argentina, Brazil and the UK just to name a few. One of the most prolific and longest running producers outside of the US was India. The Funskool company released figures from the 80’s through the 2000’s. In the beginning, there were straight releases identical to their US counterparts. As the
Read moreThe GI Joe collectors convention. So much to say, so little time. The annual gathering of Joe collectors of all stripes is for me sometimes equal parts fun and frustration. Most of the frustration from being unable to attend each year, as well as the high cost of the exclusive figures and vehicles offered there. The price for admission to
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