Zartan is one of my favorite GI Joe figures, so when I saw a Funskool version, I just had to pick it up. In the early 2000s, the closest I had to a remade o-ring version of the master of disguise was the disappointing collectors series release. You remember the one, with the SAW Viper body. It would be a
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I went a little nuts buying the Cobra Legions box set. Just a couple years earlier, the army builder bug had bit me. I have a couple gallon bags full of new sculpt Vipers (both red and blue), Ninja Vipers and Night Creepers to show for it. I also have a few of the legions sets unopened. Looking back, it
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Action features are a sticky wicket. While kids love ’em (and they do, believe me) collectors tend to loathe them. I’m okay with action features when they’re integrated well with the figures. Weirdly scaled limbs, giant buttons or fall-apart bits tend to turn me off. However, when the feature is themed with the character and still allows for playability beyond
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The Cobra blueshirt specialists were one of the concepts I found most interesting during the 25th anniversary line. With air, bazooka and para-viper troopers, the Cobra army seemed like a throwback to its early Marvel comic days. Rather than specific troops with new gear, colors and nomenclature, these seemed to be the generic trooper given a bit of extra training
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I never had a Major Bludd on card. I got mine in one of those Christmas catalog 3-packs. I’m not complaining, but I missed out on staring at a full-size example of his card art. However I did have his file card, and the example of his poetry brought me great joy. “and make the suckers jump and dance” still
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By KansasBrawler Pursuit of Cobra was a great re-branding of the Joe line. Hasbro learned from the mistakes they made in both the 25th Anniversary and Rise of Cobra lines and was putting out great figures that fell into two categories: incredible nostalgic updates of classic figure or new characters and specialties. To up the ante even further, the second
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I usually cover these sorts of things on the Power of Packaging feature, but this unadulterated Cobra Rage box art was too cool to pass up for a post. I’ll just let the painting do the talking, and let’s all shed a tear for the bygone days of bombastically beautiful box art and masterful marketing. Sniff.
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By KansasBrawler I’ve always been a fan of the Iron Grenadiers Destro look. It’s regal yet combat ready at the same time. So when I learned that one of Hasbro’s comic packs was going to be an Iron Grenadiers Destro and an Iron Grenadier, I was pretty happy. Yes, I’d already bought the single pack release of Iron Grenadiers Destro,
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Black Dragon has been a name to crop up somewhat regularly in the GI Joe mythos within the last 20 years. First, there was the original EXTREME! figure that carried the moniker in in the late 90s. Then the floodgates opened in 2003, with the introduction of a new, evil Black Dragon character within that year’s collectors club convention set.
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I’ve always been a sucker for Cobra Commander variants. I think the fascination goes back to his hooded mail-in version as well as his battle armored suit. Both were favorites of mine as a kid. As a later adult collector, I picked up the Talking Battle Commanders release, immediately removing the huge backpack, and also quickly snapped up the Battle
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