In the 90’s, I frequented the Half Price Store as part of my regular action figure hunting rounds. The store was a sort of close-out seller, much like Big Lots. Back in the early to mid 90’s, they regularly closed out Hasbro and other toy makers’ stock from the previous year. I can still picture the large deep bins holding
Read moreThe ’86 Viper mold. A fan favorite design that continues to resonate to this day. It’s also a mold that’s been repainted more times than my uncle’s 1974 Monte Carlo. Speaking of the 70’s, what’s more representative of the horrid decor of that decade than brown and gold? I think Cobra Commander was pining for his days as a young
Read moreInsufferable. That’s the one word that describes for me the GI Joe animated movie’s portrayal of Falcon. Here’s a guy who’s a lieutenant, right? He should have been an all-business type, yes? No. He was Don freaking Johnson, and he was a slacker/hotshot who later helped save the day. Ugh. Oh, and he was also Duke’s younger half-brother. Talk about
Read more
By Acer The year 1994 was one where Hasbro was making a few gambles, two of which predicated on the success of two movies based on two popular fighting video game franchises: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Street Fighter, which tied in to the 1994 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia (in his final film role), saw Hasbro
Read more
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
Read more
By KansasBrawler There are not a lot of figures in my collection that actually make me sad inside. Sometimes, there may be a bad figure, but I can usually find at least one redeeming quality. Unfortunately, 25th Anniversary Lt. Falcon isn’t one of those figures. That’s a big shame because I liked KansasBrother’s 1987 Falcon—so much, in fact, that I
Read more
General Hawk returned to the pegs in 1991, and his look was one of the most significant departures from established lore. After all, he was first an artillery colonel, then a field equipped general. Neither too out of the ordinary. ’91 saw him adopt a full-on Rocketman-like flightsuit and jet pack. Yikes! Never one to ride a desk, Hawk was
Read more
By KansasBrawler Intellectually, I knew there were probably more members of Battle Force 2000 than just my Dee-Jay and KansasBrother’s Blaster. However, they weren’t ever on the pegs when I was a kid, so I never really knew all that much about that subteam. As such, the only other guy I knew was part of Battle Force 2000 was Dodger,
Read more
By KansasBrawler Zap is another figure I have a weirdly complicated relationship with. I wasn’t old enough for the original Zap figure to have been on my radar. The first time I met Zap was in 1991 when he joined the Super Sonic Fighters. The filecard mentioned that he was one of the original Joes and while I didn’t know
Read more
Python Patrol needed someone major in their group. Major Bludd may not be the prototypical leader type, but at least he’s a named Cobra from the upper echelons of the organization. I imagine Cobra Commander was paying him a princely sum to head up a sub-team, along with most likely some extra cash thrown in to dress up in such
Read more