There were only a few GI Joe Naval artillery pieces.  There was the water-cooled 40mm deck machine gun in WWII GI Joe Battleship Row Defender. There was the air-cooled 40mm deck machine gun in the modern GI Joe Coast Guard Harbor Security The biggest piece was the WWII GI Joe Navy Gunner with Twin Mount […]

In 1979, Paramount released Star Trek the Motion Picture.  This was the first film from the Star Trek franchise after Hollywood awoke to the potential of Science Fiction films in 1977. Since Kenner was making a bundle of money with the toys for Star Wars and Mattel was doing reasonably well with Battlestar Galactica, Mego […]

One of my favorite toys as a child was the Mike Hazard Double Agent action figure by Marx.  The figure was constructed the same as the very popular articulated Johnny West figures had solid colored molded bodies with flesh-colored heads and hands which came with tons of little parts. Only the heads had paint originally. […]

Mattel sold Big Jim, the ten-inch answer to GI Joe from 1973 to 1977 in the US.  During that time, Big Jim was mostly a sportsman with the last two years being a pseudo-spy adventurer with “Big Jim’s Pack.”  Big Jim continued in International markets into about 1988, but there was one more push for […]

In 2000, a small company named N2 Toys released figures from the Matrix trilogy in various sizes, including a 1/6th scale. “N2Toys” was originally founded as “Warner Brothers Toys” by one of the Kenner Executives.  Most of the staff had worked at Kenner at one time also. At the time, it has a loose association […]

Part one of “Having a Blast with GI Joe” discussed the grenades and smaller explosive accessories for Joe. Part two will discuss the larger ordinance. GI Joe Bomb Disposal bomb Although this figure was a higher price point and targeted to collectors, I pushed for making the bomb have a feature while keeping it still […]

Vintage GI Joe Grenades – GI Joe Action Soldier Combat pack The first GI Joes that I played with were the vintage Action Marines and Action Soldiers. Of course, they were not vintage at that time. During my backyard battles, front yard battles, vacant lot battles, and alley battles, grenades were indispensable equipment. At least […]

When superhero action figures started to make their appearance on toy shelves in the early 1960s, they were mostly versions of little green army men.  If you were lucky, you found one of the great six-inch poly figures created by Marx.. During this time, they released a set of Marvel superheroes of Thor, Spiderman, Daredevil, […]

GI Joe Saluting Hands in White Gloves There is a fun story behind the GI Joe Millennium Salute.  If you have never played with this figure, there is a lever on its back that when you pull it down, it causes the arm to turn and elbow to flip up into a crisp salute.  On […]