By KansasBrawler By the end of the relaunch era, I was a bit tired of the vintage Firefly figure. I’d never had it as a kid, but I had at least three versions of it by the time that era of the Joe line had ended. It’s not a bad mold, but it had gotten awfully overexposed by the end
Read moreThe Cobra Strike Team Urban Division was one of the more problematic of the Toys R Us multipacks. The illustrations of the characters on the front of the package did not match the contents, at least in terms of their uniform’s coloring. All were colorful and resembled some previous version of their figures. Alley Viper looked to be based on
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I covered the variant (or is this the variant?) version of this figure in a haiku post a long while ago. I think he deserves a more standard entry this time around. After all, he’s somewhat of a legend. For me, the mystery of Big Brawler only deepened with the Toys R Us Tiger Force exclusive release. His initial figure
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Pathfinder found his path to the modern GI Joe releases twice in the early 2000s. he was included first with the 2001 AWE Striker sans weapons. I assume he was chosen due to his uniform, as its nicely nondescript when given a subdued paint job. I do miss the orange and green camp however. No nice pants this time around.
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The 2016 Special Forces three-pack serves up another mass-market modern version of a figure that’s needed an update since the days of the 25th Anniversary series. I didn’t pick up the 2011 Marauders set, or the Collector Club version in 2014, so this is my first go-round with a new Falcon. Unfortunately, this isn’t a direct port of either of
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Only three out of the eight figures in the Stars and Stripes set were worth a darn to me. The rest were either ill-advised repaints or Hall of Fame stinkers (looking at you, Breaker). Stalker, Snake Eyes and Scarlett were acceptable remakes. Weird semi translucent plastic skin tone notwithstanding, I like the changed paint scheme here. Scarlett is more colorful
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While the Kre-O series nailed many a minifigure version of classic GI Joes, the vehicles in the line left a lot to be desired. There were attempts to replicate classic playsets, like the Checkpoint and Outpost Defender. The Terrordrome set was probably the most successful in bringing an 80s favorite into the building blocks concept. Venerable Joe rides like the
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Backblast? Isn’t this Avalanche? Welcome to the 2000s world of replaced and lost code names. It’s not the first time we’ve seen things change as far as molds and names. Remember the ’84 Roadblock mold becoming Double Blast for the collectors series? This time however the file name matches the older Backblasts from 1989 and 1993. I wonder why this
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The release of the Kre-O Terrordrome set was bittersweet. The set was probably the most highly anticipated, and also the most accurate to the original toy design. The Cobra launch base was finally the source of several demanded Kreons. I don’t know if I’d count Mainframe high among them personally, but he was a welcome addition thanks to his specialty,
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Airborne was one of the first GI Joes, along with Scrap Iron, that made me realize Hasbro was reusing parts to create multiple characters. The kneepads and boots were a dead giveaway. The backpack was another suspiciously familiar accessory. Was he borrowing it from Duke, or vice versa? Much of the success of a minifigure based on existing material, especially
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