G.I. Joe Spy Troops 2003 – Dart

And here he is ladies and gents,the figure that pulled me into the G.I. Joe Spy Troops line,and his name is Dart!Now don’t let the mediocre almost un-Joe-like name fool you,where this figure lacks in the name department,it more than makes up for it in  aesthetics.I must admit on having a bit of a toy crush  on Dart after seeing him on a Joe site which featured the whole Spy Troops line with reviews on each of them.Here’s that link  http://generalsjoes.com/reviews/archive/spytroops.htm#2packs

I just love the different renditions of characters like Destro and Lady Jaye and new comers like Agent Faces and Dr. Talbot look pretty cool!Dart is my favorite figure of the bunch,by far, and has many similarities to Spirit.For starters both are Native American Trackers and while  Dart  is a little heftier than Spirit,both sport the cool Bravestarr-like pony tail.Another area where this figure shines is in his accessories.I like the guns/pistol he comes with and the knife can be inserted into a holster on Dart’s leg.The coolest accessory ,though,is the Ghillie suit.Other cool details on this figure include the feather on the side of his helmet,the gold eagle chest plate and the G.I. Joe logo on the back of his vest.

G.I. Joe Spy Troops 2003-Kamakura

Everyone knows how abundant the different lines of G.I. Joe’s are,and to be honest I’ve been stuck in a POC/ROC rut for ever it seems.I’m pretty much done with the 80’s A.R.A.H. Joe’s as I’ve already gotten most of the figures that i wanted from that line.The Sigma 6 stuff is pretty cool,but not quite the scale I’m into.In an effort to breathe new life into my G.I. Joe action figure interest,I began doing some Google image searches of  G.I. Joe lines that in the past I had given the cold shoulder to.One figure really caught my eye….and it wasn’t this  Kamakura either.I think I’ll  keep the name and details on the figure on the down low to build a little suspense up until i actually post about it.I will say that he is from the G.I. Joe Vs. Cobra  Spy Troops line that released in 2003,the same line that introduced us to this version of Kamakura.These figures remind me of the CORPS figures of today only with the G.I. Joe brand name and a ton of  original characters/sculpts to choose from.I’m super psyched about Spy Troops and will totally be picking up more figures from this awesome little line of Joes!

After doing a little research it seems that this is not the correct file card for this figure although it’s still from  G.I. Joe Vs. Cobra  and has pretty much the same bio.

 

G.I. Joe ROC-Zartan 8/27-9/2

One of my favorite characters from the G.I. Joe ROC movie was Zartan.Played  by actor Arnold Vosloo,the Zartan character was a ruthless and unforgiving assassin who cut first and asked questions later.He was bad a#$ in ROC and I believe he’ll be making an appearance in the new Retaliation movie as well.This was one figure I really wanted to get but could never find anywhere.I was finally able to track one down for  a decent price after several refined searches on eBay and now I can add him to the old ROC collection!Enjoy the pics 🙂

G.I. Joe ROC- Zartan

I was  lucky to find this guy pretty cheap online and had to pick him up.I’m hoping to have most of the figures of characters who actually made a movie appearance and I can pretty much scratch this one of my list.I’ll do a full post with pics and my thoughts on the figure Monday morning 😉

G.I. Joe POC – Cobra Jungle Viper

The Cobra Jungle Viper is another awesome figure from the POC line.This is one of those figures that I would just love to see the concept art for.He sort of has a “Nemesis Enforcer” vibe to him.Don’t know why but to me he just does.If you’re into troop building,then this is the viper to do it with.One Jungle Viper is intimidating enough,imagine an army!You would think that all the jungle stealth armor would take away from his pose-ability but it really doesn’t.Although I picked this guy up back when they first released him,I read somewhere that he recently popped up at a Wal-Mart on clearance.Not 100% sure of the credibility of the story,but it won’t hurt to keep your eyes peeled!

G.I. Joe POC – Cobra Shock Trooper

Looking over some of my older posts I realized that alot of my POC/ROC figures have yet to be highlighted here on AF&T, so these next couple of days will be dedicated to those specific figures. Now while the 25th Ann. Joe’s paid homage to the popular and my personal favorite 80’s  line of Joe’s,there was something about them that seemed a bit off.Don’t get me wrong,I liked them but I also felt like some of the figures were a little too elongated  or symmetrically challenged.Take my 25th. Ann. Roadblock and his lop sided eyebrows..not cool.Then the ROC line of Joes released and while the movie didn’t live up to expectations,the figures did.They were sturdy,well made with almost flawless paint applications and tons of accessories!Not only were there figures of characters who came out in the film,but also of pastime greats like Gung Ho and Doc with a revamped look!The POC line then took the ball and ran with it,releasing never before seen characters like Shadow Tracker and improving on existing characters like Snake Eyes and Firefly!After POC there was the 30th Ann. line and then the well pretty much went dry 😦 So while 25th Ann. G.I. Joe’s set the modern day standard as far as articulation goes,ROC and POC raised the bar.Here we have the Cobra Shock Trooper,a shining example of how impressive the POC line of Joes  is 😉

G.I. Joe ROC M.A.R.S. Troopers 3 Pack 8/20-8/26

After  checking out my local Dollar General yet again for the exclusive Joe figures and not finding any,again,I decided to see what the Big Lots next door had going on.Nothing but the usual smaller scale Transformers and a bunch of Dark Knight Rises figures .I did however spot these  ROC  M.A.R.S. trooper sets for $7.00.At first I was a bit hesitant to pick this set up because I’m not big on troop building.It would have been like buying one figure for the price of three if you can understand that logic.It was only after I saw the 7 dollar price tag that my train of thought changed from “1 figure for the price of three” to “three figures for the price of one”. I also needed a new backdrop to display figures with and this set had the cool M.A.R.S. facility dio insert.And lastly,ROC merchandise is scarce around these parts these days and if I didn’t pull the trigger now,they would probably be gone had I decided to come back for them  later.

When looking at these guys inside the packaging,they don’t look very impressive.Their helmets don’t appear to be removable and the color schemes seem a bit drab.All that changed after taking these guys out of the box!It turns out that their helmets are removable and while the colors on the troopers look o.k.,the officer’s color scheme really stood out more so than when inside the packaging.Needless to say I’m digging the officer more than the two troopers. Another Easter egg is the insignia on the officer’s helmet,which clearly pays homage to the insignia on the 80’s Cobra Officer’s helmet.The web gear for all three figures is solid and the officer’s sports a horizontal holster for his removable pistol.Notice how none of the three figures sport a Cobra faction symbol as these are James McCullen’s (Destro’s) personal security troopers and have yet to join the ranks of Cobra.I may have to load up my ROC DVD to see when or if these guys ever make an appearance in the film.Also,these figures may have changed my mind about army building 😉 Enjoy the pics!

The Year Was 1988!

Just recently  while on vacation,my family and I stopped at a nearby pizza joint close to the hotel we were staying in.After placing our order, the lady behind the counter proceeded to give us our total which happened to be $19.88!  “That was a great year!” I replied, thinking out loud as i do so very often.Others call it “talking to oneself” ,I on the other hand would prefer to call it “thinking out loud” ;)Anyways,the clerk cracked a wide eyed smile,electing to echo my sentiments with  a gesture rather than coming out and saying “I too think 1988 kicked royal a#$!”Now don’t get me wrong,certain years and times in my life will stand out for one  memorable reason or another,but 1988 was magic!I can still hear Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible” playing in the background as i methodically organized my Joe’s,separating their weapons and categorizing their file cards.My mom would always have the radio playing in our kitchen and I jammed out to whatever she was listening to while simultaneously playing with my G.I. Joes.That coupled with the intermittent cartoon + cereal breaks pretty much summed up my idea of  the perfect day!I  still enjoyed  playing outdoor sports and never ending games of manhunt,but nothing beat laying back in my bed with a Marvel comic or watching ALF over a bowl of  Cinnamon Toast Crunch 🙂 It goes without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent chilling at home. Christmas of ’88 was by far the most memorable for me.I remember getting the G.I. Joe Rolling  Thunder and the Phantom x-19 and being so sleepy that I wasn’t able to finish putting them together.By the end of  1988 my collection of Joes was pretty impressive,but  I remember slowly growing out of actually playing with them to mainly just displaying and organizing them(kind of like what I do now). In ’89 I began collecting comics and then moved on to baseball cards and Kenner Starting Line Up figures. Then video games started to become more prevalent,mainly NES and SNES, so collecting would ultimately take a back seat.Flash forward to the present,and here I am essentially picking up where I left off in 1988.Who knows what the future holds?Maybe comic books and baseball cards?Maybe lunchboxes?I’m leaning more towards lunchboxes.Oh goodness!Only time will tell.Until then,here’s to 1988!

 

 My most memorable action figure from 1988 was this mail-away Super Trooper.Although the date stamp on leg reads 1986,this figure was first available in 1988 via mail-order!Those were the longest couple of weeks, waiting for this guy to arrive.It was well worth it though!

POPULAR CARTOONS IN 1988

1.The Real Ghostbusters                                                                                    

2.Thundercats

3.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

4.Duck Tales

5.Transformers

POPULAR  T.V. SHOWS IN 1988

1.The Cosby Show

2.A Different World

3.Cheers

4.Golden Girls

5.Growing Pains                                                                                                                                                                                    

6.Who’s The Boss

7.Night Court

8.60 Minutes

9.Murder,She Wrote

10.The Wonder Years

  TOP 10 GROSSING MOVIES OF 1988

1.Rain Man

2.Who Framed Roger Rabbit

3.Coming To America

4.Big                                                                                                                                                                                     

5.Twins

6.Crocodile Dundee 2

7.Die Hard

8.The Naked Gun-From The Files of Police Squad!

9.Cocktail

10.Beetlejuice

BILLBOARD TOP 10 HITS IN 1988

1	George Michael	Faith
2	INXS	Need You Tonight
3	George Harrison	Got My Mind Set On You
4	Rick Astley	Never Gonna Give You Up
5	Guns N’ Roses	Sweet Child O’ Mine
6	Whitney Houston	So Emotional
7	Belinda Carlisle	Heaven Is A Place On Earth
8	Tiffany	Could’ve Been
9	Breathe	Hands To Heaven
10	Steve Winwood	Roll With It

Most Wanted 3 3/4 Marvel Universe Figures…

WANTS –

Dr.Doom

Captain America (classic)

Wolverine (brown suit)

Thor (any version except movie)

Daredevil

UP FOR TRADE –

TF Generations Wheeljack

TF Legends Class Leo Prime

Thundercats 2011  Lion-O and Panthro

2010 Playmates Lucha Libre Tinieblas Jr.

(I will also include a couple of surprise extras with each trade)

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Marvel Secret Wars Comic Pack #12 -The Thing & Bulldozer 8/13-8/19

I found this comic pack marked down at a nearby Wal-Mart and could not pass it up.I really needed a Thing figure for my collection and the Bulldozer figure,while not a must have,is definitely a plus.

From what I’ve read around the internet this Thing figure isn’t the most popular but the only flaw IMO is his range of motion,or lack there of.He’s not the most poseable figure but he still looks bad a#$ when displayed!I also like the fact that he’s shorter than my Avengers Hulk figure.

I gotta admit,I don’t know much about Bulldozer other than the fact that he is part of the Wrecking Crew.This really makes me want to find the other three crew members -Piledriver,The Wrecker and Thunderball!I remember seeing these guys a lot as a kid as they would make the occasional appearance in random comics in my collection.

Comic books and action figures go hand in hand IMO.As a kid I would have gone nuts for these comic packs.Back then we were limited to reading a small three-framed strip on a card back or to a mini-comic at best.The comic included in this pack is Secret Wars #12 and while the story is dated,the various pin-up’s found at the end were a nice addition.More than anything, I dug the Marvel Universe action figure advertisements on the back of the cover!