If you had asked me who was my favorite Joe figure back in 1983, I would have said Flash. He’s still high on my list, but you can understand why things would change considering the constant release of amazing characters throughout the 1980s. Coming from the world of Star Wars, I imagine the mere concept of a guy with a
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GI Joe wouldn’t be nearly as long-lived and remembered if it weren’t for the depth and breadth of toys available to spark kids’ imaginations. From the 1960s line’s plethora of gear and weaponry to the Adventure Team’s motor pool of fantastical vehicles and accessories, the brand had gained a firm foothold with a variety of product in the boys toys
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Imagine if you will catching the commercial for the original assortment of the 1982 GI Joes on morning television. You’re outfitted in your favorite PJs (Empire Strikes Back, or course), enjoying a bowl of Cap’n Crunch while taking in the latest episode of The Great Space Coaster before getting ready to head off to school. What should catch your bright
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Yesterday we covered Grunt, the Everyman figure of the initial 1980s series. Today we start to venture into the more specialized individuals. Versatility is the keyword for the mix of characters produced in the first year of the Real American Hero series. With just a few different body parts and key paint app choices, Hasbro was able to introduce enough
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It’s a new year, and I thought a fresh start was in order to ring in 2019. With that in mind, we’re going back to the beginning of GI Joe’s reintroduction in 1982. My plan is to continue most weekdays in release order, covering each of the straight and swivel arm figures in one post each. Who better to start
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I thought Star Brigade was a neat concept–combat astronauts. Joe has had a long history with the US space program, and the Real American Hero era had its share of space adventuring before things went all-out sci-fi in 1993. Though the figures were a mix of spacesuit-adjacent molds, at least Countdown made it into the mix. Countdown was one of
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By KansasBrawler Everyone really loved the Night Force con set a few years ago from the GIJCC, but I wasn’t totally sold on it. I thought it was cool, but I also thought that it was a little lame that those characters were all getting released in color schemes that came from a relatively hard-to- find set of exclusive figures
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Here’s a blast from the past, a custom (and the photo itself) from almost 15 years ago! At the time, I was customizing figures in the Toy Biz style. I also made some Joes now and then, and this Snake Eyes was fairly easy to create. The body is Stealth Guile from the Street Fighter movie series. The head is
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By Past Nastification Computer nerds. Gotta have ‘em. Sgt. Hacker is a figure that was well done for the time, but isn’t memorable. The shortened chest/back is the only poorly proportioned area, and it’s not horrible. The figure is much better than many of the other figures from the New Sculpt era. The uniform is a light grey jumpsuit with
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By KansasBrawler When I look back on the Rise of Cobra line, I find it amazing at how many different store exclusives there were during that line. Wal-Mart got some exclusives, Toys ‘R’ Us got a few, Target got a pretty wide variety of them, and even K-Mart got in on the exclusive game. I don’t know about you, but
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