I struggled to find something truly creepy and Joe-related over these past couple weeks. GI Joe has a few crazy creatures within its history, no doubt. But they’re mostly standard fare monsters, and not inherently creepy. No, for the final day, I had to find something that would freak you out immediately, and then stick with you for a while.
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At the tail end of the Sigma 6 series of toys, Hasbro broke off the style into a couple of different directions. One was a more generic military-based series of figures and the other a return to an adventure theme–the Adventure Team, to be exact. Only three sets were produced, and although two featured characters we’d seen multiple times (Snake
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Sometimes toy packages belie their contents. Being a Star Wars and 80s GI Joe kid, I didn’t get exposed to many action figure series that were in window boxes. As a result, opening a box and finding a toy that didn’t live up to its box art was a surprising experience. It was kind of like opening a Cracker Jacks
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I’ve been on a kick lately of restoring packaging, particularly for 70s lines like Adventure Team and Big Jim. I’ve also been looking at knock-offs whose cards haven’t stood the test of time too well. Here’s the AT Jungle Survival set. I find these boxed outfit sets visually interesting even after you knock out the actual product. It makes for
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For the last several years, the collectors club has been peppering their exclusive twelve inch figure releases with.a sort of expanded universe of Adventure Team era characters. I’ve found the new ideas intriguing, particularly from the standpoint of a small Joe collector who’s not been entirely thrilled of late with the club’s past extensions of the Real American Hero mythos.
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Every good action figure line needs an HQ of sorts. Whether it’s a full-on base of operations a la the 1970s and 1980s GI Joe Headquarters, or smaller themed playsets, your action figures need a place to chill. Within the world of GI Joe, that means prepping for all sorts missions and/or challenges to come. To put it in more
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The Adventure Team morphed into the The realm of super heros when folks like Eagle Eye Joe and Bullet Man joined up. The caveman-like Intruders made up Joe’s first real nemesis in his history. The 1976 JC Penney Christmas catalog featured not only GI Joe, but his also-ran adventuring competitor Big Jim, who has also embraced a more comic book
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When I was a kid, I had checked out a toy history book from the local library (from the reference section not to be taken from the building–shhh! Don’t tell anyone!) and it had old 60s and 70s catalog pages printed throughout. The 12 inch Adventure Team Joes were featured prominently, and I remember being enthralled and perplexed about the
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Following up with yesterday’s post, I thought I’d just go whole hog with the Shark Week concept for this week. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… The Adventure Team series was a perfect opportunity to pit the Joes against the forces of nature, and what more deadly a force lurks in the oceans
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Aside from a starkly decorated Sears exclusive, Hasbro’s Atomic Man didn’t get the benefit of a coffin box. Instead, like other later line releases, he was packaged on a blister card. Granted, he got a nice pose out of the deal, but the fully painted box of old was surely missed. The UK got a throwback of sorts with its
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