Allow me to share with you a little bit of my childhood. There exists a website named "Yo Joe". It is, as you may suspect, all about G.I. Joe. Specifically, it has extensive details about G.I. Joe action figures.
My childhood nostalgia is pretty big; at times, it reaches elephantine proportions. However, pictures of G.I. Joe action figures are not enough to make me experience any sort of geek contact-high. What does drive me into convulsions, though, is the extensive collection of filecards. These are the little cards that came on the back of the packaging for every Joe and Cobra figure released. Part of what makes the cards so great, part of what makes Joe figures so much cooler than green plastic army men is the personality and detail that each card lent to the figures. Characters are proficient in named martial arts styles and with specific weapons. Each member of the team has his specific role to play and Serpentor was cloned to have "the fiscal accumen of Attila the Hun." I'm willing to believe that, since Attila's fiscal accumen seemed mainly limited to killing people and taking their stuff. Or taking their stuff in exchange for not killing them. And then occasionally killing them anyway. And that's exactly the sort of shit Serpentor was good at.
The cards have put me on the road to a somewhat false nostalgia, for the G.I. Joe comic book. It was published by Marvel and lasted one-hundred fifty five issues. I've read a few of them, here and there, but never a lot. I sort of wish I had, though, since the stories always seemed so interesting and involved. Of course, now I can read them all, thanks to the fine folks at Marvel. Or I could just read the extensive summaries here
Comments (10)
i remember the figures i always tought that cobra had cooler uniforms :)
if im not mistaken around this time was also
MASK, the transformers, and the thundercats all of them i enjoyed :)
Posted by gus | August 26, 2004 11:38 AM
Posted on August 26, 2004 11:38
Cobra, huh? Yeah, I guess by and large they did have the cooler outfits.
I always thought Mask was cool, if a little low-key. I mean, the toys were sort of weak-ass transformers and I'd never want to have worn one of those trade-mark masks, even if it was to fight crime.
Thundercats was cool. Poorly animated and acted, but cool. About the only time outside of something Japanese that I've ever thought anthropomorhic furry creatures of any type were cool.
Transformers, of course, was the be-all and end-all of childhood toys. They were, simply, the best.
Posted by jason | August 26, 2004 4:51 PM
Posted on August 26, 2004 16:51
on an odd thing its funny how for a war comic there were little to no casualties in the joe comics :)
guess all their weapons were set on stun.
Posted by gus | August 26, 2004 6:26 PM
Posted on August 26, 2004 18:26
Forget "stun," man. The Joes and Cobras had color-coded laser weapons in that cartoon. The Joes shot blue and the cobras shot red/pink. What's up with that?
Posted by Jason | August 26, 2004 6:54 PM
Posted on August 26, 2004 18:54
Color coding? Enter: Star Wars. Snake Eyes is still the coolest of all costumes.
Posted by Reluctant Ogre | August 26, 2004 10:10 PM
Posted on August 26, 2004 22:10
Too true, vis-a-vis lightsabers and shit. Color-coding also shows up in a lot of anime. It's because, as Erik once said to me, "good is higher in the electromagnetic spectrum than evil."
And Snake Eyes not only has the coolest costume, but also the coolest pet (a wolf!), the coolest weapons (a katana and an uzi!) and is just generally the baddest mofo in town. Plus, in the comic, he bags Scarlett. Even cooler.
Posted by Jason | August 27, 2004 10:47 AM
Posted on August 27, 2004 10:47
That begs the question then:
With or without the mask?
Posted by Erik | August 27, 2004 11:17 AM
Posted on August 27, 2004 11:17
Perhaps a Spiderman mask 1/2-way pulled up session. Well, the odd thing about star wars is, if I am remembering the classic movies correctly, is that the good guys shoot green, and the bad guys shoot red...UNTIL you get into space, where it reverses.
Posted by Reluctant Ogre | August 27, 2004 3:49 PM
Posted on August 27, 2004 15:49
Truly, the atmosphere has a strange effect on laser weaponry.
And as for Snake Eyes... dude, he's a bad mother-fuckin' ninja! He doesn't need to take his mask off! He is doubtless just as capable of any sort of action with it as without. If not moreso. And I do not believe I'm having this conversation.
Posted by Jason | August 28, 2004 10:54 AM
Posted on August 28, 2004 10:54
You're all assuming it IS a mask.......
Posted by Reluctant Ogre | August 28, 2004 3:08 PM
Posted on August 28, 2004 15:08