By KansasBrawler Last year’s 50th Anniversary assortment was a bit of a high wire act. There were quite a few good figures, but there were also quite a few more head-scratchers than the previous year. I really wanted to like Hit & Run, but there are some strange choices that make me unsure what to think of him. I like
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Shooter makes it to action figure form for the first time since her obscured one-panel cameo appearance in Marvel GI Joe issue #1, and ten years after her full reveal in the pages of the Devil’s due GI Joe Declassified mini-series. This figure’s file card doesn’t hint at her historic importance as one of the original team members who participated
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The 2016 Special Forces three-pack serves up another mass-market modern version of a figure that’s needed an update since the days of the 25th Anniversary series. I didn’t pick up the 2011 Marauders set, or the Collector Club version in 2014, so this is my first go-round with a new Falcon. Unfortunately, this isn’t a direct port of either of
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I must admit that I initially passed up the new 2016 Joe sets when I first saw them. Maybe it was just my mood at the time, but I didn’t feel all that compelled to make the purchase. I didn’t think the packs were bad, in fact I am excited about the three new female figures in the series. I
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While the Kre-O series nailed many a minifigure version of classic GI Joes, the vehicles in the line left a lot to be desired. There were attempts to replicate classic playsets, like the Checkpoint and Outpost Defender. The Terrordrome set was probably the most successful in bringing an 80s favorite into the building blocks concept. Venerable Joe rides like the
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By KansasBrawler Part of what made me love the Kre-O line so much was that it referenced just about every facet of the Joe brand’s history. We got some great callbacks to the Adventure Team years, we got Bulletman, and of course we got a lot of A Real American Hero Joes. However, for me, what was even better is
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By KansasBrawler Ninja Force is a pretty controversial part of Joe history. To help offset the losses in market share that the Joe brand was suffering due to the rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (a brand Kirk Bozigian said Hasbro passed on back in the day), Hasbro decided to focus on the ninja thing a bit more and
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I couldn’t be a proper geek without commemorating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek today. 50 years–wow. It seems like just yesterday I was playing Interplay’s 25th anniversary PC game on the family’s Packard Bell 386SX. Anyway, how can you pay homage to Trek and stay (tangentially) on-topic with GI Joe? Easy–just add zombies. In 2011, you couldn’t swing a
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By KansasBrawler I don’t know why, but I’ve always been a little fascinated by battle damaged figures. I always wished Hasbro had dabbled in battle damage, especially since they had the B.A.T., which they could damage without making parents uncomfortable since it was a robot. I got my wish with the Defense of Cobra Island set and I was very
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Last year, Lanard surprised collectors with their first-ever female CORPS! action figures. While these girls wowed fans with their added articulation (including more mobile ball-jointed hips), other new offerings joined them on shelves. Alongside new vehicles, Lanard introduced two new scales of toys to their CORPS! universe. One was a bucket of traditionally-sized “army men” and the other was a
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