I’ve always had a thing for GI Joe pilot figures. Ace, although he spent a lot of time in the cockpit of his Skystriker, was a favorite of mine as a kid. Years later, when I began to collect the 1960s GI Joes, I gravitated toward the Scramble Pilot and even the Air Police. At the same time (the mid
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I’m pretty late to the party when it comes to the classic Adventure Team figures. Although I was old enough to see them a couple of times as a kid (through older neighbor friends) I didn’t have an older brother to hand down his Joes for everyday play. For that reason, I had little experience with or attachment to them.
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What do you do when you’re trying to breathe new life and interest into a product? Anything you can, of course. For Hasbro’s GI Joe brand over the years, that’s meant venturing into hitherto unknown areas of science fiction, fantasy, and even super heroics. It only stands to reason that a product whose existence has been fairly omnipresent over the
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Not according to View-Master. Who knew?
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I’m back from vacation, and I’ve got a special feature. I spent some time interviewing Jim Beard, author of a Kindle Worlds GI Joe novella based in the Adventure Team era of the 1970s. The novella is a real page turner written in a pulp adventure style and it’s sure to please fans of GI Joe as well as bringing
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The Intruders as a concept have been a mystery to me. I’d heard them called, according to commercials “Strong Men From Another World” and described by collectors as alien cavemen with advanced technology. Since I hadn’t seen packaging for the figures, I had no idea how (or if) the toy line had explained the methods by which these weird, diminutive
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The GI Joe Collectors’ Club is focused mainly on the 3 & 3/4 inch era these days, and that’s only natural considering that those of us who grew up with the brand in the 80s and 90s are now of an age to pass through a time of nostalgia as well as access to some discretionary funds. Of course, some
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Customs have been a fascination of mine within toy collecting for some time. The first time I can remember customizing a toy myself was back in the 80s, when I asked my mother to make a set of arctic clothes for my ’82 Snake Eyes and ’83 Stalker. I had been so smitten with issue 2 of the Marvel comic
Read moreThere just aren’t enough shouting bearded men on kids’ toys these days. What the hell, toy companies? In all seriousness, there just aren’t enough painted packages any more. I liken it to the almost lost art of the movie poster, in which photographs and photorealistic renderings have taken the place of evocative and stylized art. Oh well, at least we
Read moreSo where does GI Joe go from here? The second movie has come and gone, and not too long from now apparently, the associated toys as well. There’s no cartoon on the horizon, and no other toys have been revealed as yet. A third film is reportedly in the works, but that’s a few years off. Some are hopeful for
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