General Hawk returned to the pegs in 1991, and his look was one of the most significant departures from established lore. After all, he was first an artillery colonel, then a field equipped general. Neither too out of the ordinary. ’91 saw him adopt a full-on Rocketman-like flightsuit and jet pack. Yikes! Never one to ride a desk, Hawk was
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The 1991 international catalog is a great source of the kind of diorama setups that the US pack-in catalogs had moved away from. There’s something compelling about these toys in a simulated environment. There’s an artistry that’s missing from straight studio shots against plain backgrounds. For me, the dio catalogs evoke memories of Toho kaiju films, with their painstakingly detailed
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By Past Nastification GI Joe was dead, at least in 1:18th scale, in 1996. Like many of us now in our mid 40’s, even if 1:18 GI Joe wasn’t dead then, it would have been dead to me anyway. I had outgrown it around 1988 and wouldn’t rediscover my love of GI Joe as adult collector/customizer until the Stars ‘n
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The news of a possible return of Kay-Bee toys reminds me of the defunct chain’s mall stores and the oddities often found within. A visit was equally likely to result in deep disappointment at finding the same-old same-old for ridiculous prices as it was shock and surprise at happening upon a rare or unusual item. KB is the place that
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Man it’s amazing just how many Sio Bibble figures Hasbro has produced over the years! With the release of super-articulated versions back in the Vintage Collection as well as more recent offerings like the six-inch Black Series edition, the breakout star of Episode I has seen plenty of toy iterations. My favorite however remains the OG Bibble, released in 2000
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During my last search for blog subjects, I ran across my set of Mortal Kombat figures, including the movie versions. Though neither the game nor film-based figures were part of the GI Joe mythos (unlike the initial StreetFighter II assortment) the toys were produced using GI Joe parts. Rayden doesn’t look too much like his game self, but bears a
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By KansasBrawler Part of what I loved about the Joe line as a kid was the wide range of specialties that characters had. Sure, there was some overlap between guys like Grunt and Footloose (though the original Grunt was before my time), but generally speaking, there weren’t too many duplicated specialists. When it came to specialties, one of the more
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I don’t think any figure quite sums up the crazy possibilities (with maybe the exception of Lightning Mobutu) of what’s possible when a knock-off toy maker throws caution to the wind and goes all-out on a ridiculous concept. Witness Condor Strike, a baseball/-themed me-too corollary of 1980s GI Joe, produced years later in the 1990s. The most apt comparison I
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GI Joe’s 80s period stands as a triumph of interconnected toys and accessories. Thanks to the common design and size of the figures, there are very few instances of characters not being able to fit in vehicles or borrow weapons and backpacks from their comrades (or opponents). As the series continued into the 90s, Hasbro veered off the compatability path
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If you’re into the twelve inch scale, and have an interest in unusual figures and accessories, the 90s Action Man range may be worth a look. I’ve been picking up examples every now and then, and I find quite a few outfit sets speak to my affinity for bright colors and unique concepts that separate themselves from the usual Joe
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