I can’t believe I’ve been so remiss to not yet share the card art for Snow Job. He’s one of my (many) faves from 1983, and one of the reasons why I got hooked on Joes that year. I don’t think I need to do much more gabbing at this point; I’ll just let the images speak for themselves. Although
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Battle Force 2000 needed an enemy as futuristically odd as they were, and Destro’s Iron Grenadiers obliged. The Joe line in 1988 was fully into sci-fi territory, and the vehicle designs evidenced the shift. Despite this, the line was consistent in the quality of its packaging. The toys may have looked a bit crazier, but the presentation remained enticing. The
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Boys won’t play with female action figures. That’s a familiar refrain to toy collectors. It’s true, to a certain extent. However, in the 80s I think boys changed their minds when they saw the Baroness. Here was a female character who more than held her own against the male heroes and villains, both in the comic and cartoon. The card
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You’re probably thinking: Okay, Rob–you’ve been skipping days here at your supposedly daily GI Joe blog, and now you’re once again featuring something non-GI Joe. For the first part, yes–I have missed quite a few days. No big deal. For the second part, yes–this isn’t a GI Joe toy, but is shares Joe DNA. Takara’s Henshin Cyborg evolved from the
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What can I say here? Raptor is fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.
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Here in the US, the Shadow Ninjas subset was given a generic card featuring Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Not so in the UK, where each character got its own unique art. What I like about these cards are the color schemes that don’t match the figures themselves. I think a true translucent figure with subtle paint apps would have
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I was not one of the kids who didn’t buy female figures. Scarlett, Lady Jaye, Cover Girl and the Baroness were as much a part of my adventures as the male Joes. I didn’t hesitate to pick up Jinx, as she was a ninja dressed in red. The dragon symbol on her uniform was especially intriguing–what did it mean? I
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I didn’t have any of the PAC/RAT vehicles as a kid, but I remember thinking they were pretty cool in their appearance in the Revenge of Cobra mini-series. They even made cute R2-D2 like sounds. The explosive packaging is anything but cute. In fact, it’s awesome.
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The Big Jim series from Mattel is endlessly interesting to me. What started out in in the 70s as a toyline in a pure adventure/sports vein morphed into a spy series full of crazy characters (with some package art provided by Jack Kirby!) and continued well into the 80s with heavy sci-fi elements. If you dig into its history, you’ll
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What more can be said about the original first assortment of 80s Joes? Many of these guys (and gal) went on to become the all-time greats in the brand, and continue to be big players in the modern comics and other media tie-ins. Stalker to me was the team’s no-nonsense field leader, a role he’s often fulfilled in the Joe
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