By KansasBrawler Overall, the 25th Anniversary line, while far from perfect, did a great job at referencing just about every facet of the small scale Joe brand’s history. One of the biggest surprises for me was the Cobra Night Watch set. I passed on the original set pretty easily when it first came out during the new sculpt era. I
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Cover Girl’s figure doesn’t quite live up to her code name or to the reputation put forth in her file card as a stunning beauty. However, consider this is a figure produced in 1983, when female action figures weren’t all that prevalent, and the production techniques of the time didn’t lend themselves to the kind of detail and realism that
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When you think of a GI Joe “driver” figure, your mind probably goes immediately to Clutch, the famous man behind the wheel of the VAMP, the first series Real American Hero’s general purpose ground vehicle. The concept of a vehicle with an included action figure was a brilliant piece of marketing, and something that have Hasbro a leg up against
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Cobra Commander. Is there a more iconic 80s bad guy? Okay, Skeletor and Megatron are without a doubt equals in the pantheon of action figure villains. Those two guys however can’t hold a candle to the Commander’s sense of style. After all, could Skelly or Megs have rocked two different styles of headgear equally well, or dared to wear two
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Cobra wouldn’t be where it is today without the legions of nameless and faceless troopers that make up the backbone of its ranks. In the early 80s, these voluminous villains were perfect fodder and foil for the Joe team. Before the myriad Vipers and all of their specialization that would come, we were happy to collect hordes of blueshirts to
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Bring on the bad guys! Now here’s the beginning of what really separates the relaunched GI Joe from his forebears, and many of his imitators. You’ve heard it before: a hero is only as good as his villains. Whether it’s myth, literature, film, comics, or any other form of storytelling, the rogues gallery is often as interesting as the protagonist.
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By Past Nastification The original Cobra Mortal figure was a repainted Snake-Eyes figure for Argentinian kids back in the early 80’s. In 2006, the GI Joe Collectors’ Club made this version. Aside from the arms (which are the ’83 swivel-arm battle grip version upgrades for the American figures using that style of arm) and the waist (an ’86 Roadblock one),
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By KansasBrawler Hasbro made some pretty great exclusives during the 25th Anniversary line. While I thought it was a bit overpriced considering how much of it was stuff I already had, the Ultimate Battle Pack from Target was pretty impressive. You got six figures, two large vehicles, one small vehicle and a JUMP pack. I couldn’t afford it at its
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I thought Star Brigade was a neat concept–combat astronauts. Joe has had a long history with the US space program, and the Real American Hero era had its share of space adventuring before things went all-out sci-fi in 1993. Though the figures were a mix of spacesuit-adjacent molds, at least Countdown made it into the mix. Countdown was one of
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I grabbed this image way back in the 2000s from an eBay auction. If you were into collecting back then, you probably remember the plethora of auctions originating from China. Among these were pre-release offerings of figures that made it to retail, but more interesting were the toys we never saw on shelves. This Cobra Officer image was labeled as
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