By KansasBrawler There are not a lot of figures in my collection that actually make me sad inside. Sometimes, there may be a bad figure, but I can usually find at least one redeeming quality. Unfortunately, 25th Anniversary Lt. Falcon isn’t one of those figures. That’s a big shame because I liked KansasBrother’s 1987 Falcon—so much, in fact, that I
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By KansasBrawler Sometimes, it’s hard to improve on a classic, but other times, a character’s original design isn’t the best. Hawk (then a colonel) was first released in 1982 alongside the rest of his team as the operator of the Mobile Missile System. However, due to a combination of being a vehicle driver and sharing a lot of his look
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The original Storm Shadow figure for me is the perfect example of what I love about the 1980s GI Joe thing. Ninjas were and always are cool, masked bad guys in white are unique, and ninjas are cool. Could the figure be improved? That’s doubtful, with the exception of possibly adding a ball-jointed neck. 2005’s comic pack edition I don’t
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By Past Nastification Hawk (released as “General Abernathy”) got this spiffy ARAH treatment in 2005 as a comic pack action figure. Made of previous body parts from different Hawk figures, plus a great new head, this figure was intended to represent how Hawk appeared in Marvel’s GI Joe #76. The colors are a bit bright, maybe because the colors in
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Spirit is a favorite that goes all the way back to 1984 for me. I can still recall picking up the figure at Children’s Palace. I was enamored with the character from the sight of a tiny version of his card art on a package back, and the specialty, tracker, along with the presence of an eagle companion, placed him
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As hit or miss as the comic packs were, I sure do miss them. Actually, I miss o-ring GI Joes at retail in general, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. I’m just glad I was able to catch a few of them on clearance back then. They are impressive looking when grouped. The Cobra Officer was one of my early
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By KansasBrawler It’s taken me a while, but I now finally get to talk about something unusual from the 25th Anniversary line: a Duke figure that I didn’t regret getting. Yes, Resolute Duke was a 25th Anniversary line figure, but the Resolute sub-branding means I tend to place him with his Resolute brothers and sisters rather than the 25th Anniversary
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The early issues of the Marvel GI Joe comic in particular presented the characters with varying differences among their uniforms. Herb Trimpe, Mike Vosburg and others had an artistic license that isn’t seen much in the current era of highly focused marketing. That’s a shame, as I find the resulting anachronisms interesting. There’s not much heart to the modern adherence
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I will confess that I haven’t always been kind to the 25th anniversary figures here at the blog. Like most collectors, I was excited to hear about a new super-articulated series of GI Joes. The early efforts however didn’t exite mean in terms of the toys’ playability. That’s the main gripe I’ve had about them over the years. Whether it
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I’m not afraid to say that the 1987 Battle Armor equipped Cobra Commander is one of my favorite figure versions of the infamous enemy leader. When I picked up the figure back in ’87 (one of my last kid purchases of Joe toys) I found the concept interesting. I had not viewed old snake face as a front-line fighter, and
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