By Past Nastification When GI Joe relaunched as “A Real American Hero” in 1982 and into 1983, there seemed to be two cardinal artistic rules about good guys and bad guys within the toy structure: 1. Good guys didn’t hide their faces (except for Snake-Eyes, of course). Figures like Tripwire and Snow Job, with only exposed partial faces, were frustrating.
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By KansasBrawler Sometimes when you want a certain character when you’re a kid, you wind up buying some pretty subpar figures. By the time 1993 rolled around, KansasBrother had had his version of Snake-Eyes for a while and I kind of wanted my own version. While at the Toys ‘R’ Us near my grandparents’ in the south suburbs of Chicago,
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The 80s team’s original “big man”, Gung Ho was in my universe a hard-nosed and super powerful brawler. I had him delivering two-handed punches that rivaled the power of Superman. In contrast to this superheroic strengthening were the size of the figure’s arms in relation to the comic and cartoon. By 1985, GH looked puny in the guns department. His
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If you need an early example of the specialization of the 80s Joes, Tripwire is a perfect subject. Like Breaker, he’s one of the few figures not to include a weapon. Although his mines count, I suppose. He’s the perfect support trooper to help get the Joes through Cobra-laid mine fields. I know The Enemy used to put down a
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By KansasBrawler Generally speaking, I don’t have strong memories of most of the trips to toy departments when I came home with Joes. However, I do remember the origins of ones that I got as presents for Christmas. In my household, we sort of had two Christmases. My father was a pastor (he’s now since retired) which meant traveling to
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Cobra’s only 1982 accessory was this monster, the legendary Missile Command Headquarters. Yep, no jeeps, jets or tanks for The Enemy’s inaugural year, just a cardboard playset. I don’t mean that as a knock, because I love this set, not despite but because of its construction. As a Star Wars kid, my cardboard-based imagination was already primed by the cantina,
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The Mobile Missile System is one of the most real-world of the early GI Joe battlefield weapons. Where the HAL and JUMP were fantastical pieces of future technology, the MMS more closely resembles any number of mobile systems in use during the latter 20th century. As a toy, the MMS is more playset than vehicle, and provides a smaller environment
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By Past Nastification Released as “Mercenary Wraith”, this figure is based on a character pulled from the GI Joe comic book while under the direction of Devil’s Due. If I remember correctly, the character was created by Brandon Jerwa, not Josh Blaylock. This might explain why despite the over-the-top super villain costume, the character was handled with more finesse. Although
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By KansasBrawler It may be hard to beat the look of the vintage Alley Viper, but man did Hasbro come close with the Resolute Alley Viper Cobra set. I don’t recall seeing Alley Vipers in the Resolute cartoon. However, it’s also been a really long time since I’ve watched it, so I may just have missed them when I first
Read moreHere it is, the first big vehicle of the Real American Hero era. It’s strange to think that this was the high price point item when the line would later produce truly gargantuan items like the Flagg, Terrordrome, Defiant and General. For the fledgling relaunch, the MOBAT was the big toy to have. It may not have the size or
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