On this Labor Day in the US, we remember the sacrifices of American workers who brought massive positive changes to working conditions and workers’ rights in this country. I can’t think of a more hump-busting Regular Joe than Tollbooth. He’s one of those oft-forgotten figures who drives a vehicle that provides a much-needed service for the team. And in my
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What do successful and long-lasting toy properties have in common? How about a memorable and ubiquitous enemy? From Megatron’s Decepticons to Skeletor’s Evil Masters to Cobra Commander’s minions, any bad guys worth their salt had a variety of troops at their disposal. What separates Cobra though from the others–an amazingly diversified cadre of specialists. The Tele-Vipers stand out to me
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I’ve probably said this way too many times during the life of the blog, but I don’t really care if I repeat myself–I loves me some color in my toys. They are toys after all, and if they have that magic combination of sculpt, playability and color to catch my eye, that’s a plus. If the color alone catches my
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By Past Nastification Imagine taking the rough shape of a stealth bomber and squeezing it down to hold a crew of one. Add on a strange rotating “tail”. Now go crazy and deck it out with four cannons and six bombs/rockets. Congratulations, you’ve just made a Tigerhawk. Introduced in a grey camouflage pattern and then a tan camouflage pattern, the
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There just aren’t enough monsters in GI Joe for my tastes. I know that wishing for more crazy elements in the brand is not among the popular opinion of a majority of the fandom, but I don’t mind being weird. The Adventure Team I suppose is more suited to the concept than the Real American Hero, and although not monsters,
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Is there anything that can’t be made cooler with a animal mouth motif painted on the front of it? Not that the Devilfish needed any help in the coolness department. For a small vehicle, it sure rose to the top of my list quickly in ’86 and saw tons of use both in the living room and pool. I suppose
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The Sonic Fighters repaints are an interesting lot. Straddling the years of 1990 and 1991, they seem to be of two worlds. Based on older molds, the figures bring back memories of what came before. Equipped with enormous noise-making backpacks and a few strange color choices, they serve as a kind of herald of what was to come. Gimmicks, sub-teams
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If you hadn’t made the connection between the designs of Mad Max and the Dreadnok concept in its first year of release, you sure couldn’t escape the comparison by ’86. The Thunder Machine is a straight-up toy rendition of a vehicle Lord Humungus and his crew might have rocketed through the wasteland. This was one nutso vehicle–and I loved it.
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The GI Joe Kre-O line wouldn’t have been complete without the inclusion of Zartan’s crude crew of miscreants, the Dreadnoks. As early as Wave 2, we got Ripper, a nice interpretation of the 1980s figure, complete with his “jaws of life.” Torch continues the trend of the ‘Noks coming to the brick world, and I have to say that I’ve
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I remember first seeing trace plates from ads for the Mighty Men and Monster Maker kit. The commercial (see it here) was burned in my brain. This GI Joe set, released in the 90s, and based on many of the DIC era figures, is along similar lines, although you build two parts of a scene rather than new characters. Now
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