Dial-Tone (2014)

Usually with these Kreons, the printed graphics are what give the biggest impression of the original figure’s design. With Dial-Tone however, his gear, particularly his comm backpack is so ingrained with the figure’s identity that any new iteration has to make some sort of callback to it. I wondered how the unique communications backpack would be rendered in brick form.

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Cobra Officer (2008)

Environmental specific figures have been favorites of mine since the 80s. I enjoyed playing with the arctic, desert and aquatic characters and imagining them in their unique locations. Living in the midwest, I had snow in the winter, and summer sandboxes stood in for the desert. Outside of the seasons, things like bedspreads and books represented snow fields and mountains.

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Interrogator (2006)

The original Interrogator is one of the gems of the latter years of the Real American Hero era. He had all the hallmarks of what made the early Cobra agents interesting and menacing. Though he was a driver of one of the most ridiculous GI Joe vehicles, the figure was wonderful. Mysterious, imposing and well designed, he was a favorite

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Storm Shadow (2004 Urban Division)

The Ninja Force Storm Shadow has been one of my favorite of the famous ninja’s redesigns, at least in terms of the uniform. There’s something really interesting about the black and white pattern, and the hooded head is a cool nod to his second figure. But being a toy with spring-loaded action, he was hampered by poseability and proportion issues.

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Duke (2004 Walmart)

A while back I talked about the famous early 80s tan repaints of Grunt and Clutch. Here’s another continuation of the venerable desert repaint theme, along with a bit of new sculpt era Frankensteining. Duke was a member of one of three Walmart exclusive Valor Vs. Venom two packs. Each pack had an urban camo Cobra and a desert tan

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12 Joe A Days of Xmas: Day 6

It’s the sixth day, and sort of relating to six geese a laying is this exclusive six pack, with which Hasbro and Toys R Us laid an egg back in 2005. The “greenshirt” concept in modern GI Joe is something of a mismatch, considering the team’s nature as a group of highly trained specialists. From the beginning of the Real

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Scrap Iron (2008)

Here’s something I never thought I’d see: an arctic themed Scrap Iron. He hails from the internet exclusive multi pack known as the Extreme Conditions: Arctic Assault Squad. What a mouthfull! The pack was decent enough at least for its offering of a couple more 25th anniversary style Snow Serpents, as well as a Snow Serpent officer. Scrap Iron here

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