Impel Trading Card #25

This week we take the battle with Cobra to the high seas. Get your feet wet landlubbers, here is Shipwreck!

Shipwreck was introduced in the comics in perhaps one of the best story arcs of the Joe line, the creation of Cobra Island in issue 40. He is assigned to set up the new Transportable Tactical Battle Platform on top of an old oil digging site in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the Pyramid of Darkness, Shipwreck teams up with Snake Eyes and infiltrates the Cobra underwater base disguised as Cobra troopers. “Yeah, who’d notice a wet sailor with a parrot and a masked silent man with a Timber wolf.” A while later, both Joes are dancing on stage. I don’t know what those cartoon writer had been smoking…

In the Spy Troops spin-off continuity, Shipwreck is the Joe that get’s to impersonate the big snake himself after Zartan infiltrates the Joes posing as Shipwreck. Not quite James Bond level of spies, but still an entertaining Joe movie.

To end this post, I’d like to link to the ABSOLUTE AWESOME album by Wordburglar, Welcome to Cobra Island. On track 7, Rank & File, Shipwreck is present with some fellow Joes. Go check it out and buy the album. I have it on repeat most of the time in the car. Nautical flows 🙂

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

 

Impel Trading Card #24

Today we are going to take the high road or possibly no road at all. In any case, we are getting high with Impel Trading Card #24, Alpine.

The first memory I have of Alpine is from the Special Missions #2. On this mission, he and Airtight are diffusing a WWII gas bomb on an old bomber that is stuck in a melting glacier. Whilst they are busy with that, another Joe team is in Brasil to protect a wanted Nazi – Doktor Otto Totenschadel. I won’t spoil the story here, if you haven’t read it yet, make sure you do. I feel the Special Missions are more serious and real world than the regular ARAH stories. Words of Honor is one of my favorite stories. It shows the impact WWII still has on our society.

As for the toy line, there have been 7 versions of Alpine released between 1985 and 2015. The original figure did not get a second (and third and fourth!) version until 2004, and I have to say that the 2004 figures are not that great looking. They are all 3 repaints of the same model, and the fourth version made him actually white… This version came in a Tiger Force themed two-pack with Cross Hair. The package art does show Alpine as black, so guess someone in the Hasbro factory is colorblind or something 🙂 They did release a darker version in the same pack later on, so maybe it was a production error? Anybody have any information on this?

That’s it for now. I’ll see you all after Christmas when we will set for the high seas with Impel Trading Card #25… Until then:

Ho Ho YoJoe!

Happy collecting!

I hope you all get to find some Joes underneath the tree on Christmas morning.

Impel Trading Card #23

We have arrived at #23 in our Impel Trading Card overview and review. How clumsy of me to not introduce our Joe Member depicted on the card first…

Here is Tripwire.

There are 6 versions of Tripwire made in the 3 3/4 inch series (http://www.yojoe.com/action/83/tripwire.shtml). My modest collection only includes the original 1983 version. Although I once had a Tiger Force figure, he seems to be MIA. In hand, I always found the figure a bit thin, slender. For a guy working explosives, I should have him wearing something extra padded. Then again, the Joes have always been a bit sci-fi, so maybe he’s wearing the equivalent of this guy below in future tech 🙂

 

In case you haven’t done so yet, go and check out the G.I. Joe reviews from Formbx257 on Youtube. I’ll post a link below to his Tripwire Review. What do you think of the figure? Let me know in the comments.

In the comics and cartoons, the character works great as comic relief between the often serious and dangerous missions of the Joes. The other Joes really need to have steel nerves and cool to go on a mission with Tripwire in the team. Not sure I could cope with someone like him on my team.

That’s it for this week. I’ll try and post #24 and #25 this year.

As always, Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

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