by KansasBrawler Growing up, I only had one Eco-Warriors Joe and that was Clean Sweep. Because of my long ties to the figure, I was really excited that he was tapped for an update in the Zombie Initiative con set. However, this also meant that the modern version of the figure had a lot to live up to. I thought
Read moreby KansasBrawler I realize the original Eco-Warriors subteam gets a lot of well-deserved criticism for both its inception (trying to jump on the popularity of environmentalism in the 90s) and its gimmick (water-triggered color-change plastic). However, the one thing I loved about the original subset was that it was mostly new characters. By 1991, we were starting to see a
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by KansasBrawler I’m KansasBrawler and I’ve professed my love for Flint a few times already on this blog, however, I have a different confession to make this time. I never owned (and honestly hated) the 1991 Eco-Warriors Flint. I don’t know why, but it was the one Flint figure I could never get behind. I didn’t get any of the
Read moreby KansasBrawler In my opinion, if you’re going to revisit the Eco-Warriors concept, you have to go all in and bring the Toxo-Zombie back as well. Thankfully, the GIJCC shared my opinion on that one. While I never had the original Toxo-Zombie, I thought the idea was pretty cool but felt the color scheme was pretty lacking. However, since Hasbro
Read moreby KansasBrawler Every now and then in large figure sets, there’s one figure that gets included that just doesn’t make any sense. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad figure, but it’s still a bit of a head scratcher when you think about it in the grand scheme of things. As much as I love T’jbang from the Zombie Initiative
Read moreby KansasBrawler In my opinion, the one glaring hole in the 25th Anniversary line was how many late 80s army builders got missed in favor of additional version of named Cobras that we’d already seen somewhere in the line. While the Hazard-Viper from the 30th Anniversary line was a spiritual update of the Toxo-Viper in my opinion, I was a
Read moreby KansasBrawler Every good zombie story needs that one character who is prepared for the zombie outbreak. For the Zombie Initiative, the GIJCC decided to make it be Outback—and I love that choice. As the Joe’s resident survival expert, Outback has the requisite skills to survive a full-on zombie apocalypse and while that’s not quite what happened in the Zombie
Read moreby KansasBrawler Part of what I find myself enjoying about the GIJCC’s con sets is that they are able to include great concepts into sets that might not necessarily be successful at retail by virtue of orienting their product towards older collectors like me. A prime example of this is the Cobra Lab-Rat from the 2014 Zombie Initiative set. Cobra’s
Read moreby KansasBrawler The way figure sets of any size work, there’s always one weak figure. It doesn’t matter if it’s a figure three pack at retail or a fifteen figure set like the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club does every year for Joe Con, there’s always one figure that, for whatever reason, manages to get the short end of the stick.
Read more2010’s Vacation in the Shadows set marked the end of Collector’s Club exclusives based on the o-ring format. I still miss the older construction style, but I suppose things have to move on. The use of the Indiana Jones German troop car makes a lot of sense, as the original Red Shadows trooper figures were based on WWII era German
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