Sky Patrol in 1991 International Catalog

The 1991 international catalog is a great source of the kind of diorama setups that the US pack-in catalogs had moved away from. There’s something compelling about these toys in a simulated environment. There’s an artistry that’s missing from straight studio shots against plain backgrounds. For me, the dio catalogs evoke memories of Toho kaiju films, with their painstakingly detailed worlds of action and destruction. Of course, there are no giant monsters to crush the sets here–not that I would have complained if Hasbro worked them into the Joes series. After all, Hasbro’s Inhumanoids were lurking in the mid-80s alongside the Joes.

6 comments

  • James From Miami

    Great photos, but, wasn’t there giant creatures, and giant robots, in some of the 1980’s episodes? Like Bazooka Saw A Sea Serpent. And why didn’t they called the Autobots to help them with that problem? That episode would have been the perfect episode for a G.I. Joe, and Transformers, crossover. Anyway, looking at these photos got me wondering about why didn’t the DIC cartoons have a five part mini series made for season one to introduce all of the 1990 characters, like the Sky Patrol, and then another one for season two, to introduce the 1991 characters. Could it be possible that the two part episode, Victory At Volcania, was originally meant to be the one to introduce the 1990 characters, and then to be followed by the episode, United We Stand? If so, then somebody, or some people, got the episodes list for television, wrong. And why did they only made nineteen episodes for season one, but then decided to make twenty episodes for season two? So many strange decisions were made during that time.

  • Isn’t “stealth” coating for aircraft supposed to be radar-absorbent? Wouldn’t a radar-reflective coating simply make the the object more readily-detectable by the consequently amplified return?

  • Walter McCloud

    The coating made it so laser fire bounced off of it. I remember that from the commercial

    • Yes, but the ad-copy from the catalogue page posted above states that it’s supposed to reflect radar waves.

  • James McFadden

    Aren’t their parachutes gonna get tangled up when they jump that close together? Spread out!

  • This sub team was cool! Wish I’d picked up one of those shiny vehicles.

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