When I came back to GI Joe collecting in the 90s, my collecting philosophy was very much one of picking and choosing. I was back into the brand, but wasn’t picking up each and every release. I saved that effort for the Toy Biz Marvel lines, at least for a while. Oops. Anyway, as I perused the Joe selection through
Read moreI almost get tired of saying this, but some of the less regarded later figures are pretty awesome, if you can see beyond some garish colors. Take this Sci Fi, for example. He’s got some really nice things going for him. Considering some of the shortcuts that were happening late in the line, like the weapons trees and limited paint
Read moreCarcass is a perfect fit into the whacked-out end of the Real American Hero era, coming from the second series of Star Brigade, in which the fiction suddenly included interstellar travel and an alien empire. The figure design itself, which recalls something I think I may have doodled in the margins of my third grade English workbook, crosses an alligator
Read moreThink to yourself, which of the original Joes would be most likely to appear in a squad of space-borne fighters? Flash? Grand Slam? Nope. How about a machine gunner and ex-surfer. Hey, maybe that’s why they picked him. Aren’t surfers stereotypically spacey? Yeah, that’s grasping at straws. Maybe Rock N Roll was picked because of his unique look. His blonde
Read moreHas it been that long since I covered a vehicle? I had almost forgotten that I was also covering them as part of this grand experiment in nerdery. At the same time, I noticed that this marks the 200th review. Wow. It’s all been such a blur, I almost missed it. The last year of the original RAH line released
Read moreWhen I cover figures from the spring-loaded missile launcher era of GI Joe, I normally don’t include the launcher in my pictures. They often seem like a tacked-on accessory, not to mention nigh impossible for most figures to hold unsupported. However in Duke’s case, the missile launcher works, and dare I say it–I like it. Several of the ’94 Star
Read moreEffects is one of those figures you dig out of your bin and say, “Oh yeah, this guy came out.” And that’s about all you can say about him. No cartoon or comic appearances, he’s just kind of—there. I have to wonder if this mold was even intended as a Star Brigade character initially. He looks more like an Eco
Read moreEvery collector has his or her own focus, or niche or reason for collecting. There has to be some impetus behind adults buying little plastic toys, right? For some it’s the packaging, for others it’s the storyline and marketing. What keeps me interested in the GI Joe brand, and with toy collecting in general, is just the look. Now I’m
Read moreI really miss my old local mall, and Kay-Bee Toy Store in particular. An odd thing to say, since much of their product was overpriced and then artifically marked down with phony-baloney looking price stickers. If memory serves, I believe they lost a class-action lawsuit about that particularly bad business practice. But I still have a soft spot for the
Read moreIf you weren’t paying attention to Joe in 1994 (and a lot of collectors weren’t) you might have missed the fact that a four armed alien bounty hunter with dreadlocks and a Transformer namesake was part of the GI Joe line. Yeah. The Star Brigade concept was a bit outlandish for a military group like the Joes, but still made
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