Textures. They’re not something that I think about often in terms of the RAH toy line. Other than armor, I can’t recall a lot of figures whose uniform reflected some kind of different surfaces among pants, shirts, etc. Early in the line, sculpted details like folds and bloused pants weren’t depicted in much detail, if at all. I’ve wondered if that was
Read more1991 is my favorite post-1986 year for figures. The main line saw new interpretations of old standbys for the Joe team and Cobra’s forces. This new edition of Sci-Fi is a tasteful update to his original figure. Say what? A 90’s Joe tasteful? Yes. Regardless of what you’ve heard on the grapevine about the dreaded decade of Eco-this and DEF-that,
Read moreWow, looks like someone spent a little to much time in the Dreadnoks’ tanning bed. I haven’t seen such an inhuman pallor since the talking General Hawk or Jersey Shore. Now that I think of it, Hawk was from the same sub-line as Road Pig here. What was going on in the Hasbro factory? Was the color mixer asleep at
Read moreInsufferable. That’s the one word that describes for me the GI Joe animated movie’s portrayal of Falcon. Here’s a guy who’s a lieutenant, right? He should have been an all-business type, yes? No. He was Don freaking Johnson, and he was a slacker/hotshot who later helped save the day. Ugh. Oh, and he was also Duke’s younger half-brother. Talk about
Read moreIf you asked me before I started this blog what one Joe figure was my favorite, I’d have thought a bit, then eventually would have gone for the usual; ’85 Snake Eyes, ’84 Storm Shadow or Firefly, etc. Now that I’m looking across the years as part of this crazy blog thing, I’d most likely have a really hard time
Read moreI was out of Joe collecting in 1988, the year of the original Hit & Run’s release. As such, I didn’t have a strong connection with either the character or figure. In fact, I probably didn’t pick up his first version well into my Joe re-buying days of the 90’s. The paint scheme seemed boring and the camo pattern looked
Read moreMutt was my favorite Joe in 1984. Yes, even more than the ubiquitous Storm Shadow. ’84 was a year in which the Joe line went in exciting new directions with accessories. Mutt was impressive for not only having an animal sidekick, but also a cool MAC 10, nightstick, muzzle (for himself!) and new helmet. He had a cool military police
Read moreHow is it that in 1991 the UK and Europe got a cool repaint like this and we in the US got a neon skinned Road Pig? Spirit is still one of my favorite vintage Joe molds, and this repaint is endlessly intriguing to me. I’ve never seen an explanation as to the origins of this figure. Other countries did
Read moreThe character of Zap, a bazooka soldier, was one of the Joe team’s original members. The first group of Joes released in 1982, usually referred to as the “original 13,” were made up of simple molds, many of whose parts were shared among the figures. Simple paint schemes set this first group apart from later releases; most were simply a
Read moreFor the collectors out there: what got you back into Joes? Some folks were pulled back into collecting with the release of the 25th anniversary line in 2007. For others, it was the 2009 movie or even the most recent Pursuit of Cobra line. Some others never stopped collecting since their youth. When I think back on my time as
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