Over the years, we’ve covered many different flora and fauna of pant. Some have been flashy, some short, some animal print. Snake Eyes, though he tends to dress in variations of black, black and black, has sometimes ventured into the more decorative realm. Usually, these detours have been related to environmentally specific uniforms. This time however, Snake Eyes is sporting
Read moreThe pilot of the Wave Crusher, a repainted SHARC released as part of the Real American Hero Collection, the Sub Viper is itself a redeco. Though his vehicle is something of a lackluster repaint of a craft that’s been done to death, the Sub Viper himself is welcome reuse of a cool 90s mold. The Sludge Viper figure on which
Read moreIs it just me, or is this Gung Ho really pale? He appears quite pallid, like he’s just seen a ghost. Though the series of figures released after the late 90s Toys R Us sets were an interesting mix including later molds, the paint schemes and even the plastic itself were of a strangely different quality than what was produced
Read moreThe 2000 Real American Hero Collector series were, for the most part, a drab lot in terms of paint schemes. That wasn’t a liability when it came to producing a nice homage to the original Bludd figure. Based on the Super Sonic Fighter figure, Major Bludd has been given the kind of repaint treatment that fans of 90s molds have
Read moreWell, if you like your GI Joe figures done up drab and gritty, this is the Firefly for you. The third appearance of a classic mold, and one that would wear out its welcome by the end of the decade, Firefly worked for me in whatever environmental variation Hasbro chose to place him. This could be jungle Firefly, or even
Read moreI’ve wondered about the 2001 GI Joes, with their odd renamings and new head sculpts. Remolds of Roadblock, Torpedo and even Duke were turned into new or different characters. Some of it I’m sure was due to rights issues with names, like Shockwave, whose moniker Hasbro also couldn’t apply to its Transformers brand. Creating new Joes was at least a
Read moreLeatherneck? Really? Though I generally enjoyed the 2001 series of figures, this one strikes me as quite a lazy attempt at creating something new. Just one year before, the entire ’92 Duke mold was re-released. To repurpose the top half, slap on a new head, and give him Roadblock’s pants just makes me wonder if they really even cared on
Read moreBy 2001, I was firmly entrenched in the online GI Joe and toy geek collecting world. Instead of getting info on new releases from Stone Age places like magazines, I was going to the fan sites, message boards and Usenet (can it be considered Bronze Age?) for the latest scoop. I had been buying the Real American Hero Collection two
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The modern collector’s frustration with one of the great vintage RAH figures began in 1997.The prospect of a remolded Viper, well remembered from 1986 as a replacement for the original Cobra blueshirt troopers, was a welcome sight on store shelves in the 90’s. Unfortunately, we only got half of the Viper. The waist and legs had gone missing, replaced by
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I’m a huge fan of the 1991 figures. There’s not a one that I don’t find some reason to like. It’s a series that, for better or worse, seems to bridge what came before with what would come to be. It was our first exposure to spring-loaded weapons as a routine. It also featured several reinterpretations of existing figures. Wherever
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