What is the one specialty you’d think wouldn’t be represented in a military toy line like GI Joe? How about a reporter? This is Scoop, the Joe team’s combat information specialist. Field reporters have been no strangers to American combat ops. However one wouldn’t expect it in a covert outfit like GI Joe. Scoop was part of the late 80’s
Read moreRepaints. If you ask collectors about things that bother them about their hobby, it’s a word that often comes up. Many see them as a cheap way for toy manufacturers to get a new toy on the shelves with little added expense. Take figure A, slap a different color of paint on him and presto-change-o! you have Figure B. I
Read moreLifeline is the Joe team’s Rescue Trooper (sounds better than medic I guess). He’s actually the vintage line’s second medic. The first was Doc, released in 1983. What I find most interesting note about Lifeline is his portrayal as a pacifist in the comics and cartoon. However, his action figure included a pistol, and his card art prominently showed him
Read moreHey, it’s another mail-in! This figure, like his GI Joe Steel Brigade counterpart, is an action figure with a personalized background. Again, kids could make up a code name and specialty. Being that he comes to us from that Day-Glowiest of decades, the 90’s, he has no compunction about going into battle looking like this: Some Joe collectors like to
Read moreEver collect cereal box tops as a kid to send away for a cheap plastic tchotchke, or eat 10 horrible subway sandwiches just so you could get the 11th horrible sandwich free? If you were a kid buying GI Joes during the 80’s and 90’s, there were similar offers, only the results weren’t so disappointing. In fact, they were downright
Read more
The Joes’ original Hostile Environment specialist hails from the second great improvement year in the line–1985, when Hasbro added neck ball articulation. In 1983, when they introduced a bicep swivel, it was emblazoned on the packaging as “Swivel-Arm Battle Grip.” I don’t know why they didn’t use they same kind of ballyhoo for the neck ball. I think “Head-Nod Battle
Read more