I am a sucker for the towed artillery that peppered the early years of the Real American Hero line. These weapons bring a variety to the battlefield beyond tanks and fast-attack wheeled attack vehicles. It’s a shame the trend didn’t continue into the later 80s and 90s. I suppose Hasbro figured cannons just weren’t as interesting as variations on tanks
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Wild Bill is one of those figures that not only looks different in his cartoon incarnation, but in his original comic appearance as well. Maybe that’s because he’s usually pictured sitting in the pilot seat of a helicopter rather than running about with his teammates. As a kid, my Wild Bill figure pretty much stayed in the Dragonfly. Being an
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By Past Nastification Released as “Mercenary Wraith”, this figure is based on a character pulled from the GI Joe comic book while under the direction of Devil’s Due. If I remember correctly, the character was created by Brandon Jerwa, not Josh Blaylock. This might explain why despite the over-the-top super villain costume, the character was handled with more finesse. Although
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By Past Nastification You already know how I feel about head-to-toe repaints, but we’ll look at Wet Down anyway. It’s impossible to look at this figure and not see it as Torpedo. Even with a semi-masked head, it’s just too iconic to be any other character. 2001 was an odd year for the figure, many of which were full repaints.
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Somebody at Funskool was either super high or prone to taking things way too literally. As the pilot of the Skystorm X-Wing Chopper, his original namesake was most likely chosen in relation to the vehicle’s design. It’s not all goofiness however, as Funskool gave his uniform a nice spruce up of color. The original was just an odd combo, and
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I have said it time and again: I get a lot of joy out of the new sculpt era figures. It started when they hit the pegs back in the early 2000s, and it continues to this day. These figures represent the most fun I’ve had as a GI Joe collector. I get the same kind of sense when I
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Sebastian Bludd, arguably the most self-serving and cold blooded of Cobra’s operatives, has been a go-to bad guy within my Joeverse since the early 80s. My memory of getting this figure goes back to Christmas 1983. My mom was a frequent catalog shopper, and my wish list was easily fulfilled by Wards, Sears and JC Penney. Bludd was available in
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I used to think this figure was a bit of a boring repaint. I guess I was usually looking at it in bad lighting or something, but I could have sworn that it was mostly grey, and covered in the same sort of washy texture that was common in previous series. I was wrong. Setting it up under the lights,
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One of the things I really enjoy about the Adventure Team package art are the mixing of depictions of the product in both fictional and real-world settings. The Windboat illustrates Joe in his craft at the left, yet the right panel shows a kid hand assembling the toy. Better yet, a closer look at Joe on the windboat reveals that
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The Manimals certainly would have been a unique experiment within the Real American Hero line. I say would have since their planned release at the tail end of the RAH era was axed. Fortunately, three of the figures saw release via K-B Toys in 2001. Warwolf transforms from an ugly humanoid to a…ummm…alien crocodile? Whatever he is, he doesn’t resemble
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