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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When the initial 25th Anniversary five-pack sets made their way to toy shelves, I believe we all assumed Hasbro was simply going to revisit the most popular characters in a limited commemorative run intended for collectors. As such, I didn’t hold out a lot of hope that the toys would be as playable or as popular as their forebears. Both
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By KansasBrawler Hands down, the figure I was looking forward to the most out of the Defense of Cobra Island set was the Lamprey. I didn’t have the original Lamprey growing up but I was so impressed with the one KansasBrother got from one of those vehicle driver mail-away offers that when I saw the bright orange Gone Hunting Lamprey
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By KansasBrawler Ninjas have always been a rather controversial element in Joe history. Personally, I have no problems with them. Storm Shadow was established as a ninja from day one and shifting Snake Eyes over to the ninja category makes sense from a certain standpoint. However, during the 90s, the ninja ranks of both the Joe and Cobra teams expanded
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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 Having already reviewed the Retaliation Ultimate Cobra Commander, this figure is a lot tougher to like. However, I still have to applaud at the good work Hasbro did with the first 25th Anniversary Cobra Commander figure. Yes, I got extremely tired of seeing this mold by the end of the 25th Anniversary line, but there are a surprisingly
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By KansasBrawler Growing up, I never had the original Snow Serpent, but ever since I got back into G.I. Joe in high school during the relatively early days of the Internet, I’ve always been strangely obsessed with the original version. It was impressively well-detailed. I liked the look so much, I instantly snapped up the Joe Vs. Cobra version and
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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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By KansasBrawler I’ve mentioned before that though I’ve always liked the concept of the Dreadnoks, I never actually had any of them growing up. The closest I got to having a Dreadnok in my collection was the Ninja Force Zartan figure. Most of the Dreadnoks came out just a little before my time and though they played a big role
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By KansasBrawler Hasbro did an excellent job making most of the Cobra hierarchy in the 50th Anniversary. The first year we got Destro and Baroness. The next year, we got Cobra Commander and Zartan. While I think Cobra Commander was kind of unnecessary, I really find myself drawn to Zartan. I didn’t think it would happen, but Hasbro finally made
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