The original Chuckles figure remains one of my favorite Joes, even though he’s a bit out of place among his teammates, considering he’s a guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Then again, there are fellas like Bazooka and Outback who don’t exactly follow standard military dress when it comes to shirt choices. Included in both the regular Toys R Us release
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Sometimes toys are great, when a concept and execution come together to produce a toy that lives on beyond its original purpose. In the 80s and 90s GI Joe lines, there have been more than a handful of them. As vehicles go, the GI Joe Skystriker stands out among its peers as a classic. Alongside the Star Wars X-Wing, it
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The saga of the interchangeable Recondo and Clutch (or Double Clutch, as he was known for a while) in the early 2000s can be a confusing thing. In 2003, the same mold represented these two very different characters. Not an odd thing in the GI Joe world, considering that mold re-use has been pretty common since the days of the
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By KansasBrawler The vehicle sets from the early part of the 25th Anniversary line were a bit of a high wire act sometimes. The vehicles themselves were usually pretty awesome, however sometimes the choice of drivers was a little odd. When I think of an odd driver/vehicle combo, the first set I think of is the RAM and Breaker. It’s
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With the GI Joe relaunch in 2002, the o-ring style originated in the 80s made a limited comeback. In just the first two years, the classic Viper mold (well, most of it–more on that in a minute) had been revisited five times in the mass market, and once (okay, twice if you count the fuschia fiasco) as a Collectors’ Club
Read moreThat’s a mouthful, huh? I wanted to be able to differentiate from the other Cobra Commander figures released as part of the Retaliation line. I was actually surprised to see the Commander as a driver figure. It’s kind of an oddity, considering that named command level Cobras have usually been paired with smaller vehicles, like Serpentor and Overlord in the
Read moreApologies for the less than pristine figure, but that’s how these guys are often found. The Viper Pilot is of course the standard original Cobra trooper mold, with a silver sigil in place of red. Something about the silver paint used for the chest emblem just doesn’t hold up to play over the years. Viper Pilots certainly got their share
Read moreMan, was my first impression of this figure ever wrong. I initially covered it quickly as part of a video review of the Battle Below Zero pack, and didn’t really put much thought into it at the time. I really regret that, as upon closer inspection, it’s a pretty amazing figure. For a modern driver figure, the details are very
Read moreThere’s a horrible affliction that strikes over 4 in every 10 white or light grey plastic toys produced in the 70s and 80s. It’s a condition with which many collectors of GI Joe and Star Wars are particularly familiar. I’m talking about yellowed plastic syndrome or in medical terminology, color jaundicia mutationem. While not as debilitating a condition as Gold
Read moreThe Cobra CLAWS mold was quite well traveled from 2002 to 2004. It seems like whenever a fill-in troop builder or driver was needed, the CLAWS was there to fit the bill. This particular flavor was the driver of the Venom Striker, a crimson-hued redeco/remold of the Joe team’s assualt quad from earlier in the relaunch era. Back when this
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