Wild Bill is one of those figures that not only looks different in his cartoon incarnation, but in his original comic appearance as well. Maybe that’s because he’s usually pictured sitting in the pilot seat of a helicopter rather than running about with his teammates. As a kid, my Wild Bill figure pretty much stayed in the Dragonfly. Being an
Read moreCover 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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The Mega Marines were a part of the sub-line mania that swept through GI Joe in the 90’s, a part of Hasbro’s strategy of varied gimmicks intended to stoke kids’ interest in the Real American Hero. Of all the extra features added to the line, Play-Doh armor was my favorite, as it allowed extra playability that didn’t detract from
Read more1987 only produced one single carded Cobra army building trooper, the battlefield technician, or Techno-Viper. Some folks look at ’87 as the year things started to go downhill with the Real American Hero line, but I don’t agree. There was still a mix of Joe and Cobra personalities with new and different designs and specialties to keep things interesting. The
Read moreMajor Altitude, a mail-in figure included in a two pack with the uniquely crazy repaint of Interrogator, comes from a year that was chock full of exclusive repainted figures. While the figure mail-ins began as a way to obtain as yet unreleased figures like Duke and Major Bludd, there were also figures never made available as part of the regular
Read moreSome GI Joe figures are quite realistic and close to their actual military subject matter in terms of design. Others have been extrapolated out to the next generation of technology, the “five minutes in the future” that we hear about so much. Still others just make you scratch your head. I’ve been scratching mine since I first saw Lightfoot. Is
Read moreAs luck would have it, Storm Shadow had a new figure released the year after I stopped buying GI Joes. I had also stopped reading the comic, and had stopped buying comics altogether, so I was oblivious to this new look, and to his turn to the roster of the “good guys”. The first sight I had of his figure
Read moreThere are lesser known GI Joe characters that discussing from time to time seem like breaking new ground. Then there are the big guys that have been major players in the toy line, comics, and cartoons and whose ground has not only been broken, but entire homes, strip malls, and condos have been built upon it. Stalker belongs to the
Read moreImagine piloting a vehicle that puts so much stress on your body that you have out of body experiences. That is the most trippy thing I’ve read on a GI Joe file card. Talk about dangerous and a liability for your air forces. Once again, Cobra pushes the limits of safety for its troops, and puts itself at a combat
Read moreMan, has Hasbro been in love with Heavy Duty since his debut or what? Being a recent addition from just two years earlier, he got a spot on the Armor Tech team alongside longtime Joes like Duke, Hawk and Rock N Roll. Considering the color scheme, I would have assumed that he was Stalker, but not so. Then again, a
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