By KansasBrawler While I’ve always loved Destro, I never felt the need to track down the original Destro. I thought the 1988 Iron Grenadiers version was perfect. However, it does make sense that when Hasbro started the 25th Anniversary line, they gave us the original Destro first. It’s an iconic look and while it’s not my cup of tea, I
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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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By KansasBrawler I’ll be the first to admit that the 25th Anniversary line had its problems. However, if there was one thing it handled well, it was character diversity. Yes, there were a lot of Dukes, Snake Eyeses and Cobra Commanders, but Hasbro also tapped the back bench of the Joe team pretty often. One of the earliest examples of
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By KansasBrawler This is a hard figure for me to review. I generally like variations on a theme, however, my least favorite variation is the “battle damaged” version. The modern Joe line has done it well with the Battle Damaged BAT from the Defense of Cobra Island set, but I think part of what made that particular figure work is
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Time to revisit a figure that’s become one of my favorite modern o-ring Joes. I’ve harped on it before; I really really miss these guys. I really miss GI Joe in general. Maybe we’ll see him return to toy departments some day. Looking at the comic pack figures through the lens of the recent rise of factory custom o-ring Joes
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A series of the 2008 comic packs featured new material that took place between the pages of classic Joe comics. The Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow pack gave us issue 21B, another “silent issue” set among the existing story of the rescue of Scarlett from the silent castle. At the end of issue 21, Snakes had suffered a rip to
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By KansasBrawler The two Resolute-branded comic packs were kind of interesting. The two Joes in the comic packs didn’t show up in Resolute at all (at least in a meaningful way, I can’t remember if either Shockwave or Tunnel Rat were in a group shot) and the Cobras included were in Resolute but looked nothing like the figures released. I’m
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If I had to point to a single impressive element of the 25th anniversary series, it would be the detailed accessories. The small GI Joe scale certainly has a history of amazingly intricate weapons, backpacks and other gear, and the revamped figures continued the tradition. As the modern figures have evolved, Hasbro refined its approach to the layered style of
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Scarlett was one of the first group of Joes to be released in the 25th anniversary series. She was also among the first few modern style comic packs, alongside a uniquely designed Hawk. While the deco of the main line figure hewed closer to the card art and original 1982 toy, the comic pack version put Scarlett in a much
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