Ten Classic G.I. Joe Icons That Require a Pursuit of Cobra Makeover

March 4, 2011 | Monte

Monte Williams returns to Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation to counter the cloying Mattel love with some praise and speculation for the world’s greatest toy company, Hasbro.

Ten Classic G.I. Joe Icons That Require a Pursuit of Cobra Makeover

Or

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Loving Small-Scale G.I. Joes

The Pursuit of Cobra series features the most awe-inspiring figures Hasbro has ever produced under its many G.I. Joe banners. Like Mattel’s Masters of the Universe series of 2002, Pursuit of Cobra takes classic character designs and increases their dynamism by roughly three hundred-percent… and then adds stellar articulation and a dizzying array of accessories.

Thus far, Hasbro has treated Joe fans to Pursuit of Cobra updates of Destro, Spirit, Firefly, and many other classic G.I. Joe characters.

So who should they update next? (more…)

List > Five Action Figures Who Cost Us Better Ones

September 10, 2010 | Poe

One of the greatest tributes to a pop culture character’s popularity is to be made into the immortal idol known as an action figure. And while many characters have been so blessed, there are still many deserving characters who remain un-sculpted in plastic.

And yet, while we have no figure of Dutch Schaefer from Predator, Rasputin from the Hellboy comic or Buzzard from The Goon, we do have  these obscure or unwanted characters who not only got their own figure, but were given spots in action figure lines that ended immediately after their appearance, thereby preventing a more desirable figure from getting made. (more…)

Top Five Variants I’d Like to See in MOTUC

September 2, 2009 | Poe

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Look, I won’t pretend that these are necessarily the five variants you, or even most collectors, would like to see in MOTUC. They’re my five top picks, and if you disagree, then feel free to show me the error of my ways in the comments.

To clarify, by “variants” I mean alternate versions of characters, not factory errors. I’m also excluding figures that are somewhat different characters, like Prince Adam and Keldor–we all want those.

While I almost always prefer to own just the one, iconic version of a character, Masters of the Universe has an unusual preponderance of pretty cool variants alongside the really bad ones.

Here are my five top picks for variants I think would make good MOTUC bonus figures. (more…)

5 Good (and 5 Not-So-Good) ’80s Toy-Based Feature Films

April 7, 2009 | Poe

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With the imminent release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and the announcement that Tom Hanks may star in a Major Matt Mason movie, big-budget films based on toy lines are big business. The last (and first) time this happened was in the 1980s, when there was a slew of feature films based on the various fad toys of the era.

Here’s a look at some of the best and worst toy-based films of the 1980s. With one exception, all of these movies received a theatrical release. (more…)

The Top Ten Mail-Away Action Figures of All Time

March 19, 2009 | Poe

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For young action figure collectors in the 1980s, the most desired, treasured, magical items were those enigmatic mail-away (or “mail-in”) figures. Unavailable at regular stores, they required a quest in order to get them.

It was a quest that required begging one’s parents for enough action figures to cut out the required number of Proof-of-Purchase cards, then begging them again to write out a check for the $5 or so needed for “shipping and handling.”

And even once that was done, you had to wait six to eight weeks for the figure to arrive–an eternity in childhood.

But one day, your parents would come back from getting the mail and hand you a small, nondescript brown or white box, labeled only with your address and a return address of “Hasbro” or “Kenner.” And inside would be a little clear baggie, and inside that…

At that moment, you knew what it felt like when Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb–or when Indy first laid eyes on the Ark. (more…)