In many ways, I'm an odd collector.  Mostly, it's due to the fact that my primary interest in Joe all revolves around the toys.  Specifically, the action figures.  While I enjoyed the comic and watched the cartoon when I was a kid, I often found them at odds with the actual toys that were on the shelves.  I liked the toys for what they could be.  And, while I incorporated aspects of the comic and cartoon into my little Joe world, it was the flexibility of the actual toys that kept me around and brought many amazing things to life.  As such, after I had long aged o ..read more

Headman is one of those figures that was hated for many years.  But, over time, his quality has shone through and he is now an accepted Cobra villain.  The figure's sculpt is good and matches his purpose.  Sure, he's still a little Hamburglar-y.  But, in the context of 1990's Joe villains, that's fine.  So, here's a bit of content featuring the 1992 Headman.  Check it out. Headman Profile Headman at Nekoman's Viper Pit Headman by thedustinmccoy Headman by doksewage Headman by thedustinmccoy Headman by ironman3719 Headman by kitbash_joe Headman at JoeADay.c ..read more

So, here is the top 10 most viewed pages on the site for 2024.  The main takeaway is that Cobra Commander is always popular. (Different photos of him made up 2 of my top 9 Instagram photos, too.)  People also like to read about terrible vintage figures: especially from 1987.  Posts made in the first half of the year dominate the most viewed.  Traffic really fell off in the second half.  But, big social media sites now deliberately throttle posts with links to outside websites.  So, that limits who can see any promotion I do.  But, there were still 260,000+ pa ..read more

Recently, General Liederkranz undertook a project to photograph the remaining figures in his collection that he had yet to take out for a photo shoot.  It got me to thinking: what figures do I have left to profile?  There's over 1600 posts on this blog...most of them showcasing a G.I. Joe figure of some sort.  So, who do I have yet to look at?   It's a tough question since you can put various boxes around it.  Do I just look at the vintage run?  Do I include the repaint era?  What about convention figures?  Funskool was easier to get than many of th ..read more

One of the great things about the 1982 Cobra Troopers and Officers was that they were completely compatible with all the Cobra vehicles of the era.  You could drop one into the FANG, HISS, Stinger or Rattler and the figure would look perfectly in place in whatever position you chose to use the figure.  They were the everyman of the enemy line.  As figure designs progressed, though, more specialization was introduced.  And, in just a few years, Cobra was a highly diversified army with figure and vehicle pairings that were less general and more specific.  (To be fair, th ..read more

The Crimson Shadow Guard was a low effort release that Hasbro dropped at the end of the retail line.  It joined the HAS Set as the final sets Hasbro would give to Toys R Us as exclusives.  But, sometimes low effort is still OK.  And, in the case of the Shadow Guard, the black uniform take on the Crimson Guard worked out quite well.  We didn't need 6 of them in a single set, of course.  But, as an army builder, there were many worse releases in the repaint era.   Of course, the Shadow Guard were flawed as they included terrible, non-sensical accessories that w ..read more

The RAM was my first G.I. Joe toy.  My younger brother had gotten most of the entire series for his birthday in October of 1982.  I desperately wanted some figures of my own.  I had to wait for two months before my birthday would come along and give me the chance.  However, I was to be mostly disappointed that day.  Instead of a full collection of Joe toys, I got just one: the RAM.  It was nice as we didn't actually have the RAM among my brother's birthday bonanza.  But, I also owned no figures to ride it.  Not really sure what to do with a motorcycle wi ..read more

The 1988 Repeater is a pretty solid figure.  The only real downside is that he might be a little bland.  The Night Force version that was released the following year, though, rectifies this.  The Toys R Us exclusive figure brings some splashes of color to Repeater and is, in my opinion, an upgrade over the 1988 original.  The black and dark brown better offset the green torso.  The best part, to me, though, is that the figure isn't too "Night Force" and can be used in any context as a replacement for the original figure. Back in my early collecting days, I tended to av ..read more

The Super Sonic Fighters Rock and Roll is one of those figures that, on the surface, seems bad.  But, upon a deeper review, it's a surprisingly good figure.  The base colors are amazing.  The orange is a lot of fun, too.  His gear is excellently sculpted and should be more popular.  In total, he's an underappreciated gem from later in the line.  Here's some of the best of him from around the web. 1991 Super Sonic Fighters Rock and Roll Profile 1991 Rock and Roll by corpscommandercody 1991 Rock and Roll by thedragonfortress 1991 Rock and Roll by ronnie_trickshot 19 ..read more

This is a good product.  For $44, it's properly priced and the packaging is a perfect combo of collector friendly and space conscious.  I'm not a huge fan of the "retro weathering".  But, it's consistent with the retro offerings from Star Wars and gives a vibe...I guess.  Even if they never do another o-ring homage with a media property, it's awesome that these toys exist. The figures are what they were supposed to be.  The price is right.  I can only image Joe 4 packs that had been done in this format and at this price.  Maybe they'd still be viable.  B ..read more