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
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 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 moreDespite being pretty much a flop, and not well remembered even among a less popular era of GI Joe, I found the Built to Rule series fun, especially the vehicles. Among the figures released, a few were quite memorable. My favorite was Firefly, covered some time ago on the site. Gung-Ho was another figure that impressed me, if for no
Read moreI don’t always have a good memory for the old days of toy buying as a kid, but I can still remember when I got the Water Mocassin. Near our neighborhood was a small shopping center, with a couple of larger stores. One of the stores was a local grocery store chain and the other a TG&Y, a department store
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The modern collector’s frustration with one of the great vintage RAH figures began in 1997.The prospect of a remolded Viper, well remembered from 1986 as a replacement for the original Cobra blueshirt troopers, was a welcome sight on store shelves in the 90’s. Unfortunately, we only got half of the Viper. The waist and legs had gone missing, replaced by
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When did Nintendo’s Mario join the Joes? In all seriousness, figures like Slip-Stream amaze me because the face is not an idealized, chiseled image of an idealized male, but more of an everyman. It’s something that the small Joe line has done since the beginning. Just look at Grunt from the first series. Not an attractive guy. Sure, the team
Read moreCannonball is another driver made entirely of reused parts. It’s not surprising considering he was released as a driver of a Direct to Consumer vehicle, the Rhino. The DTC line utilized a lot of existing molds, with some strategically inserted new parts and weapons. Cannonball’s body is made up of Barrel Roll and Switch Gears, two of my favorite figures
Read moreIf the Joes got their top pilot in 1983 with Ace, Cobra followed suit the next year with Wild Weasel. The two even had a very memorable dogfight in the pages of the Marvel comic. However, that’s not my first memory of him. I first recall seeing him in Marvel issue 25 during the swamp battle with Zartan. Seeing a
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