Special Force comes to us from Sungold, a company perhaps best known for the Galaxy Warriors series, a Masters of the Universe knock-off line that is now beloved for collectors of me-too cheapness. These days there’s a cottage industry of custom bootleg art toy offerings that take their cues from what were once the odd castoffs of the past. We live in
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I wasn’t exposed much to the Condor until I began collecting again in the 90s. I recall seeing it fleetingly in Toys R Us ads at its time of release (yes, I was peeking at the Sunday paper toy adverts in my teens). Later, I discovered the Operation Dragonfire miniseries and found the Condor in a prominent scene featuring Serpentor
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I’ve been on a kick lately of restoring packaging, particularly for 70s lines like Adventure Team and Big Jim. I’ve also been looking at knock-offs whose cards haven’t stood the test of time too well. Here’s the AT Jungle Survival set. I find these boxed outfit sets visually interesting even after you knock out the actual product. It makes for
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As we’ve often covered on this blog, GI Joe has not been without its imitators over the years. While it’s easy to see such things as me-too cash grabs by competing toy manufacturers, I am impressed when the imitations carve out their own niche. I am particularly fond of the subjects that get weird. Such was the case of Big
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I’ll just leave this right here. Do I really need to say anything?
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Somewhere in an alternate dimension, there’s a Bizarro version of 3DJoes that catalogs and restores the artwork of lines like Devil Warriors. Wait–that’s happening right here, today. Whoa. There’s a scummy sort of beauty to these knock-off packages. They certainly deserve to be seen in better condition than they’re often presented, if only for historical purposes. However, I doubt many
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Sometimes the gang over at Funskool surprises us with wild new art modified or inspired by the original domestic designs, and sometimes they stick with the originals. In the case of Rock ‘n Roll, I guess it’s a little of both. The colors certainly have been intensified, which makes sense considering the source figure. The most unique aspect here is
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Every good action figure line needs an HQ of sorts. Whether it’s a full-on base of operations a la the 1970s and 1980s GI Joe Headquarters, or smaller themed playsets, your action figures need a place to chill. Within the world of GI Joe, that means prepping for all sorts missions and/or challenges to come. To put it in more
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Funskool often gets laughs based on its later offerings of domestic GI Joe figures, but earlier along in their history they were less crazy, and even made some interesting color variants. Snake Eyes came in two flavors, black with silver highlights, and blue. The card art is inspired by the domestic ’82-83 version, and even though it’s comparatively crude when
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I’m not afraid to say that I adore the Sigma 6 line. That’s not too odd a thing to say these days, as more Joe fans seem to appreciate the series than when it was first released. However, while much more respect is paid to the large scale figures, the smaller vehicles and action sets stil don’t seem to get
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