Major Storm (1990)

The General is one unwieldy vehicle. I’m not just talking about the fictional sense of how the heck it moves around, let alone manages to make turns, but in the size of the toy itself. Yes, the USS Flagg is monstrous, and the Defiant is a giant unfolding behemoth of a playset, but the General is an absolute beast of a wheeled vehicle. Unlike the other two big Joe vehicles, the bulk of the General does not disassemble. I have a General in storage–scratch that–I have it sitting on top of other stuff in storage. That’s how big the General is; it will not fit into any kind of normal plastic storage tub. I think I’d have to buy a 65 gallon trash bin to house it. The toy is so big, it has a smaller vehicle that sits on top, like a remora attached to a blue whale. The General doesn’t just have headlights on its front, but rather football stadium lights.

The file card makes Major Storm out to be an appropriately experienced tank commander. What’s with the star on the helmet? If the man is a Major, shouldn’t he have an oak leaf? Maybe it’s just for decoration and not rank. After all, the Joe team doesn’t seem to have much use for traditional command structure.

While quite a few of his 90’s brethren and even his vehicle showed up in the DIC animated series, the Major never put in an appearance. It’s a shame too, since the insufferable Captain Grid-Iron, with his awful football puns, often took the role of Joe leader in the early episodes.

A double-breasted jacket always lends an air of command to a figure, and in this case it also reminds me somewhat of the World War II era’s army Ike jackets. The figure also sports a very nicely subdued color scheme. In fact, the head is the only element I don’t care for. That has to be the tallest noggin in Joe history, and the helmet only serves to accentuate the fact.

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