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The original Alley Viper figure was an unknown to me until I came back to collecting in the early 90s. The concept instantly hooked me, and the color scheme and helmet design were extra touches of oddness that drew me to the trooper. When the Battle Corps versions hit, I was able to build a squad of the yellow and
Read moreMany of our familiar friends from the 80s ended up with extra name descriptors during the post-ARAH years. From Agent Scarlett to Sgt. Stalker, the Joes had to adapt to the needs of copyright. Such is the life of men and women of action. Of course, this kind of parsing of character names is mostly a concern of nerdy toy
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Looking through a present day lens, the early small scale Joe convention exclusives have a sense of being a bit of an afterthought in comparison to their later counterparts. While the set was intriguing in terms of bringing along new factions and reusing interesting troop molds, the storyline around them doesn’t grab one’s attention. In fact, this set is probably
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My name is Rob, and I am a HISS IV owner. I can’t quite say how I came to that point in my collecting journey, but being a completist between the years of 2002 to 2006 may have something to do with it. That’s right, I was snapping up every new figure pack and vehicle at the time. If I
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The 2002 relaunch of GI Joe afforded collectors with the opportunity to build their forces in two different scales. Among small scale Joe fans, the redesigned line often gets short shrift. I am still a fan of the period, not only due to the memories of collecting a new line at its beginning, but also for the interesting redesigns of
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Here began Hasbro’s infatuation with Heavy Duty, which continued until the GI Joe: Retaliation film pulled Roadblock back to the forefront of the brand as the team’s heavy machine gunner. Some fans at the time surmised that Hasbro was having some sort of rights issue with the name a la Hawk and others, but Roadblock appeared (alongside a later version
Read moreHoly cow! Now this is action! I really want to see what happens in this book, but unfortunately that’s not the point of the Captivating Cover feature. We simply judge the book by its–you know… The book appears to feature the relaunch series version of Frostbite. However, like other covers in the same series, the character design differs from its
Read moreI’ve found several of these GI Joe vs. Cobra books of late, and I find myself fascinated by the fact that in the early 2000s, the brand was deemed viable enough by Hasbro to procure licensing deals to produce ancillary bits of cross promotion. Some of the books lack the boldness of the 80s offerings, but this one I find
Read moreI’ve often wondered why Cobra didn’t have more traditional looking pilot figures over the years. While Wild Weasel was a classic character, and one of my early favorites in the line, he didn’t look much like a real world pilot. Later figures such as the Strato-Viper were interesting designs, but not the most functional. Available as the driver of the
Read moreNo, it’s not the infamous Star Wars bootleg, but a second version of the former Headhunters leader. My, how times change. A character who was once a drug kingpin changed to a smuggler and thief in just one decade. I wonder if what was once an up-front bad guy for the brand was deemed a touchy subject during the early
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