I’ve said it before, I’m a sucker for clear and translucent figures. I can’t explain why; the best I can liken it to is the old mountain climber adage: because it’s there. Mirage was the strangest part of the Winter Operations Toys R Us exclusive of 2005. The package art and the file card make no mention of what the
Read moreBack in the day, I bought a lot of my comics at 7-11 of all places. I didn’t get the chance to pick up issues each month, so my following of the Joe comic was sporadic. Even so, I had a good time reading the issues I could get, sometimes many times over. It’s almost hard to remember the times
Read moreGather round all ye Joe fans and let Uncle Joe A Day tell you a story of the dark days of the mid to late 90’s. They were dark times indeed. With nary a small Joe on a shelf, wandering bands of collectors were forced to venture into the wilderness of flea markets, garage sales and swap meets to stifle
Read moreOne of my favorite aspects of the 2009 movie line was the Toys R Us exclusive figure series. It gave us some straight repaints, a few new combinations of 25th anniversary parts, and also one brand new character. Barbecue falls into the straight repaint category. The 25th anniversary mold has been done up in a more movie reminiscent style. I
Read moreBet you didn’t think you’d see another snow ninja after Bushido, New York’s own snow ninja. Well, here we have the Night Creepers snow ninja, a sub group of a specialty trooper. Apparently in the late 90’s, Cobra was so hard up for troopers that they were letting their ninjas sub-contract. This figure was part of the Cobra Polar Assault
Read moreThe 2000 and 2001 series were interesting in that they utilized vintage molds with some paint application processes previously unseen on Joe figures. Those two years presented figures with a new kind of swirled colored plastic to approximate camo, and they also made use of paint washes. Washes are generally used in modeling to convey shadow and bring out deep
Read moreIs that ninja sporting an M-16? Why yes he is. Ninjas don’t carry automatic rifles. You wanna tell him that? Go right ahead. What vintage 3 3/4″ fan doesn’t love the ’84 Storm Shadow mold? I don’t care how many times it was repainted, I still think the figure is awesome and represents the style that made the 80’s Joes
Read moreWell, here I am again, trying to spread some love for the 2000’s Joes. There were some genuine diamonds in the rough of this now forgotten era. Case in point: Guillotine, part of one of the DTC/Toys R Us exclusive packs that brought to a close the “new sculpt” era. The multi packs of the time were hit or miss,
Read moreThe Valor vs. Venom line of the 2000’s produced its fair share of types of packouts, or ways in which figures were offered. There were two packs of hero vs villain and army builder, comic book three packs and five and six pack themed sets. But the days of single packed figures did return for a few series of somewhat
Read moreI miss the days of the big retailer catalogs. Each year around back to school time brought the beloved Christmas catalog or Wish Book in the case of Sears. Before the days of instant coverage and inside intel from the internet, the catalogs were the way that a kid like me found out about all the latest toys. I think
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