By KansasBrawler If there’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about the Joe brand, it was the team’s diversity. America’s highly-trained special missions group has traditionally been almost as diverse as the country itself. More importantly, those characters were fleshed out in a way that made their race a secondary thing. It’s not like Stalker and Airborne were tokens on the
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Going back to the 25th anniversary well, Airborne was another figure I really wanted to see recreated for the new line. What we got was not without flaws, but a good looking if not entirely playable figure. If you’re into revisions that look good on a shelf and are able to achieve a few decent poses, it’s a figure for
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A Crimson Cobra Commander. Why not? After all, every good totalitarian madman needs to match not only his legions of jackbooted thugs, but also his elite, more stylishly dressed personal guard. The forces of evil, though they’re always wrong and ultimately vanquished by the forces of good, are nevertheless style mavens of the highest order. Cobra Commander, even from the
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By the time the 2008 assortments of the 25th anniversary series had been announced, I already had a list of must-have figures in my head. Among them was Torpedo, one of my favorite 1980s Joes, and also one of the earliest figures I recall seeing on the pegs in my local Montgomery Ward. Unfortunately the new figure was incredibly difficult
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By KansasBrawler The generic cop that I dubbed Hi-Po might not have been the greatest introduction to Lanard figures via a garage sale, but the other figure I snagged is actually a pretty great figure if you can look past the ridiculously terrible Native American stereotypes around him. I’ve taken to calling him Thunderbird, but your mileage may vary. I
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Somebody at Funskool was either super high or prone to taking things way too literally. As the pilot of the Skystorm X-Wing Chopper, his original namesake was most likely chosen in relation to the vehicle’s design. It’s not all goofiness however, as Funskool gave his uniform a nice spruce up of color. The original was just an odd combo, and
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Black Major has long cornered the market for Cobra trooper variants. From basic infantry to the elite troops, his customs run the gamut from environmental specialists to Cobra sub-teams, and has even branched into 1984 Storm Shadow and Night Vipers. All look pretty cool in a rainbow of unique colors that Hasbro never made. Crimson Guards in a desert theater
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By 1985, Snake Eyes was equal parts commando and ninja. Just a couple of changes to uniform and weaponry transformed the Joe team’s mystery man/soldier into a mystical warrior. With the introduction of Storm Shadow, an entire ninja mythos was born. It continues to this day. In 2007, the anniversary series met with enough success that the pegs saw the
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By Past Nastification Sgt. Rock figures are frustrating. They could have been amazing, but for the flawed arms. I’ve hit on this in reviews before, but the short arm problem merits its own rant. This was to be a review of the medic figure (quick review: I like it), but those arms have an undeniable gravity I have to address.
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By KansasBrawler When the Joe line reinvented itself in a smaller scale in 1982, they really managed to capture lightning in a bottle. Those first 13 figures were interesting characters and to me, one of the coolest was Rock ‘N’ Roll. KansasBrother and I were both too young to have started with the Joe line when it came back in
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