The STAR Force series flew under my radar during its time in store shelves. I was looking for new Star Wars toys and wasn’t paying much attention to Lanard’s venture into space toys. It’s too bad, as the series produced a few real gems for collectors of unusual small Joe scaled vehicles. The APC is the granddaddy of STAR Force
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Lady Jaye made perfect sense to rejoin the Joes’ return to shelves in 1997 since she’s a popular member of the team. Further, her role in the new Commando Team set is a perfect representation of her specialty. What’s more covert than a black and grey uniform, and who can argue with getting a set of her original accessories in
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By Past Nastification Unlike his teammate GI Jane, a recently reviewed figure, GI Joe got an action figure in 1:18 scale during the initial ARAH run. I’ll be referring to this figure and the character as “General Colton” for this review, not GI Joe, as to avoid confusion with the toy line as a whole. As the Hasbro/Marvel timeline would
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It’s not often that I get to scratch my monster kid itch on this blog. Halloween is the perfect excuse to throw a little horror into the mix of GI Joe, so yay! I only wish I could do this more often. Son of Dracula was offered along with other Universal Monsters back in the late 90s. While Frankenstein’s Monster,
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Cobra Commander was the first GI Joe figure I got way way back in 1983. I traded a Return of the Jedi Weequay for him, one of the most impressive feats of bartering in my younger years. My acquisition of this Chinese Cobra Commander isn’t as memorable a story. I picked him up back in the 90s at the Half
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This particular Mortal Kombat mold was available in a veritable panoply of colors during the run of Hasbro video game and film tie-in toys. I did not hesitate to Taste The Rainbow when the figures hit the shelves of my local Kay-Bee Toys. Thanks to the chain’s dubious two/three-for-one sales I was able to stock up easily. Scorpion approximates his
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I was so bummed to miss out on the tundra Stalker figure. Released just two years after I had stopped collecting Joes as a kid, I spotted him at one my friend’s house, in the collection of a little brother who was a few years younger than us. The fact he came with a kayak and crazy mask fascinated me.
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Talking figures were a big deal in the early 90s. Not only did the Joes venture into this territory, but the knock-off market did as well. Toymax’s M-PACT line was heavy presence on toy shelves at stores like K-Mart and other discount retailers. Over the years, I’ve come across the figures’ accessories in random Joe lots, but hadn’t found any
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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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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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