European Joe's

50 (or 51 actually)

No the 50 does not reflect my age 🙂 The last post I did, was actually the 50th post on this blog. So this is effectively the 51st post and a celebration of the previous 50 writings.

Feel free to check them out!

Now this shouldn’t just be about the 50 posts. I also have some great new additions to my collection. This weekend I was on a short city trip to Haarlem and Amsterdam. We also blitzed into The Hague as well, but only for a few hours. I wasn’t hoping for much, but imagine my surprise when I found a second-hand toy store above a popular concept store in Haarlem. The concept store Meneer Paprika occupies the ground floor of a big space in the center of Haarlem and they rent out part of the ground floor to a bike store, part of the first floor to the vintage curators and the second part of that first floor to the ToyBoys.

They have a big collection of toys from Action Man to Yu-gi-Oh over Star Wars and Star Trek and of course G.I. Joe. They also sell comics, games and other merchandise and have their own Youtube channel. They ship worldwide, so check out their site and maybe you could find the missing piece(s) of your collection.

Their web shop has lots more to offer than the store itself, but I was able to score some new Joes for my collection. Pictures are below.

That’s it for now. See you at post 52 in a short while.

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Another intermezzo

The next post about the Impel Trading Cards will come soon, but today, I’ll show off The Corps! Beast Bomber. As I mentioned before, it’s next to impossible to find a toy store here that sells 1:18 scale military toys, let alone they would have G.I.Joe. The Corps! is probably the second best-known brand for 1:18 soldiers and vehicles, but over here, no stores sell them.

I bought the True Heroes C-130 a while back as a troop transport for my Joes and when I found out about the Beast Bomber on hisstank, I knew I needed to add this to my collection. There is a member there that created a very nice custom Joe plane out of this. It’s my goal to customize my C-130 and the Beast Bomber as well, but I’m not confident I can do as good a job on it. So I keep pushing the customizing ahead of me.

Back to the Best Bomber now. I was able to find it for an affordable price with Smyths, but they don’t ship to Belgium. I tweeted the question if someone in the UK could help me out and the guys from Action-Figure-Supplies were very kind in purchasing the Bomber and sending it to me in Belgium. I figured the plane would be a bit bigger than a Rattler, but I was slightly mistaken. The Beast Bomber is a genuine Beast and is the same size as the True Heroes C-130. Below is a shot of the Beast Bomber on top of the C-130. It´s not that easy to spot the C-130 below that Beast.

Here´s another view of these 2.

The pilot of the Beast Bomber is Condor. His file card tells he is an expert jet pilot and an ace dog fighter. And yet he gets to fly a huge bomber 🙂 The other figure packed with the plane is Troll. He´s an interrogation expert and master-at-arms. He´s a member of The Corps!´ nemesis, The Curse!. (Those marketing people sure like their exclamation points!)

Just now I realize I haven´t taken any pics of the figures themselves. You can see some of them in the pictures above. I guess there lies the weakness of The Corps!. The figures don´t have the same articulation as the Joes and the quality is just not there. I really like the vehicles and the storyline is ok (Good vs Bad, how wrong can it be?), but the figures are just pieces of plastic. I have to say, that the female characters do look better, so I´ll have to chase these down somewhere.

I´ll probably try and get some more of The Corps!. I hope some local store will start selling them. Check out the website www.thecorpshq.com if you haven´t done so already. Since Hasbro is not releasing a lot of new Joe toys, I´m glad to find some other 1:18 scale toys to combine with my Joes.

For now, Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Impel Trading Card #21

In casino´s, 21 is the aim when playing Blackjack. The Impel Trading Card #21 however, is showing Dusty. Air Conditioning Repair Man. Oh and G.I.Joe desert mission specialist. Now that´s a different kind of cool.

I try to read up on the characters that feature on the cards when I post about them. Dusty is one of those figures that don´t ring a bell for me. I can´t remember ever seeing him in the stores here and I can´t remember having the figure in my collection. After browsing on yojoe.com, I can now say that I have 2 versions of the figure. The v6 from 2002 that came with the Sand Razor and the 2015 Specialist Dusty figure that was released in the Sneak Attack set that includes Bazooka and Firefly. I remember Zandar better than Dusty… 🙂

Going through the page dedicated to Dusty on the G.I.Joe wiki site, I read that he plays quite a prominent role in the Action Force Weekly Comic series. I always thought that these stories were 1 on 1 copies from the Marvel ARAH run (after the Baron stories). Seems that there were several stories made for the European market. As a European Collector, I have to admit I feel a bit stupid not realizing this sooner. On the other hand, it gives me another excuse to go shopping the web for Action Force Weekly Comics.

Now here’s something I have been pondering over. We could really use a real life G.I.Joe team, be it all American or a joint force from all over the world. We can’t solve this by bombing civilians and opposing fractions in the name of counter-terrorism. We need to attack IS online to keep them from spreading their propaganda, cut off their finances, put a full embargo on weapons dealing in the region. In short, we need specialists doing their stuff and fixing this world. This is not a war between countries, this is a group of fanatics that use a ridiculously strict version of a faith to judge others. Religion is a human invention that the – so called – smarter people used to keep the ‘simple folks’ in check. I have no problem with people believing in Allah, God, Jawheh or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but no one should be forced to believe what you believe. And religion should never be used to control a country or people. There are simple rules one should live by. All men are equal, women too, respect each other, don’t kill, … These should be abundantly clear to every human being that can think straight. I personally don’t feel I need a religion (in the present case some elitist power-hungry idiots) to help me see those values. If you do, take those values at heart and don’t be blind or deaf for the world around you. Religion can give people hope and strength, I won’t deny that, but they also try to put you in a box. You’re either with them or against them. We – as humanity – should be better than those stupid playground politics. I don’t know, maybe after all these years of evolution, mankind is still but a child. Maybe it’s just time for us to grow up and take responsibility. We only have one world and we all need to live on it. We should focus our efforts on making it the best for all of us.

Wow, quite a rant.

And now… back to Dusty. I think he’s a good guy. Not much more to say really. Until next time.

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Impel Trading Card #20

We have arrived at the 2oth card. I started this series back in February, and I´m trying to get some writing rhythm going so that I can get posts out more frequently. Any feedback and/or tips you may have, please let me know by adding a comment to one of the posts, sending a Tweet or email. Don´t hold back, every comment can help me become better at this 🙂

Now without further ado, let get talking about Card #20, Shockwave.

I have to confess, that I´m not very familiar with this figure. I never had it as a kid, and can´t say I ever saw him in the stores (or I just can´t remember seeing him).

Albeit that the figure never made an impression on me, I did have a TPB comic of the Special Missions (in DUTCH!) which included #22. In this issue, Lady Jaye, Chuckles, Hit & Run and Shockwave are enlisted by the FBI to assist in a hostage situation where a family is held captive by some terrorists. I won´t spoil the story here, but the ending of this story sure made an impact on little me back in the day. (A review of the story can be found here.)

The card art is a bit strange, the guy is a SWAT member, but is shown running through what appears to be a jungle setting. I suppose Joes should be able to work in any environment, so I´ll go with it. The card describes him as being a gifted singer. Was there ever a musical episode of the cartoon? Other than Cold Slither, I can´t think of any. Maybe there should be a Broadway version of G.I.Joe The Movie. Can you picture that magnificent intro played by a classical orchestra with a full musical cast on stage performing? EPIC!

Looking back, I don´t know why I haven´t looked harder to find a Shockwave figure. I really liked the story and he played a major part in it. Then again, by the time I read the comics (I only had 3 TPB of the Special Missions in Dutch), it would have been around 1994 (I was 12 or there about). After 1994, it was very hard to find Joes in the stores here and I was still far from discovering eBay and online shops.

Since April this year (see Comic book update), I have completed my Marvel ARAH run and thus my focus is shifting now back to collection more figures and vehicles. Of course, the odd paraphernalia associated with G.I. Joe and Trading Cards will always spark my interest. And Action Force, Funko Pops, The Corps (I´ve got my eye on The Beast right now, just waiting for a reasonable shipping cost), LEGO (or other building blocks that can be used with the Joe Kre-O´s), or well, basically anything geek.

That´s it for now. Come back next time when another one bites the … Sorry, no spoilers 😉

Happy Collecting & YoJoe!

Ms. Kim Arashikage

Just a short intermezzo today. My first Joe signed by Larry Hama has arrived today (purchased through eBay). It´s the 2012 SDCC exclusive Kim Arashikage figure. The seller included a picture of Mr. Hama signing the figure, so I´m guaranteed of a genuine signature.

Well, this is one thing I can delete from my bucket list. The next big thing will be trying to get my hands on a signed Comic Book. Probably through eBay as well, unless I can find a sponsor to get me over to the US for a convention where Larry Hama will be attending.

For now, Happy Collecting and YOJOE!