European Joe's

What goes POP when you put a pin in it?

Don’t answer that, just admire my rad wordplay skills and check out the latest additions to my G.I. Joe collection.

I’ve always been collecting stuff related to the G.I. Joe action figures, and they sure do release some paraphernalia – most of it through licensing. I’ve collected the Funko Pop figures, but this time around, I finally pulled the trigger on the Funko Pop Pins and naturally, I got all 4 of them in one go 🙂

We got Storm Shadow in his G.I. Joe camo outfit, Cobra Commander with battle helmet (I think we really are never going to get a hooded version under license again), Destro and Snake-Eyes, both in their ‘traditional’ look.

Not only is he depicted in the white camouflage from the time he joined the Ninja Force, he’s also a glow in the dark pin. Not very stealthy for a ninja if you ask me.

Strangely enough, the big head really works well with the chrome battle helmet.

As with the Cobra Commander pin, the big head really makes the chrome pop. Get it, chrome and pop, cause it’s in chrome and it’s a pop… Moving on.

Of course they had to include Snake Eyes in the mix. The all black figure gets details shown in chrome and it’s really well done.

Now these aren’t your ordinary lapel pins, they be BIG. Each one is around 4 inches (roughly the size of an OG 1982 style action figure). They come in these sleek black boxes with a clear front and gold accents which give them a rather exclusive look. Just look at the G.I. Joe logo popping out from the black background, just gorgeous! While you’re looking at it, do you notice the “Cobra – The Enemy” tagline on top where you’d expect to see “A Real American Hero”? I’ve never seen it shown like that before, not going to lie, I don’t hate it. Is it weird? Kinda.

As for the practical part, they have 3 prickly bits on the back (the actual pins if you will) and come with a built-in stand that is removable showing the Funko crown.

That’s all for now. See you back again soon(ish). Until then… Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Time to channel my inner Dora The Explorer.

Backpack, backpack
Backpack, backpack

I’m a backpack loaded up with things and knickknacks too.
Anything that you might need, I got inside for you.

A while back, I saw a post on Facebook by The Full Force Podcast that they discovered a G.I. Joe themed backpack on Fun.com. Since I try to get all sorts of knickknacks for my collection, I went ahead and tried to order one. Unfortunately, they don’t ship to Belgium, so I had to get creative.

I remembered I once created an account with myUS, a mailing service in the US and UK that will ship packages to you from suppliers that don’t ship to your country. I never actually tried it out, so this seemed like a good time to try it out. I purchased the backpack on the fun.com website and entered the address of the forwarding provider. It shipped quite fast to them and I got an email that an inbound package was expected. They immediately charged me for the shipping costs and the import taxes and duties. This was a bit higher than I expected, but considering they all did this for me, it was acceptable. Just under 3 weeks later, the package arrived at my doorstep.

They actually put a bland brown cardboard box around it to ship it to Belgium, but that’s not so interesting to show. The backpack itself is colorful and camo, although the print quality isn’t as sharp as I would have hoped. Maybe I had too high expectations. See for yourself.

Another choice I wouldn’t have made are the gold colored zippers. They look a bit out of place with the camouflage print and the colors of the figures.

On the front of the backpack is an extra pouch with another gold colored zipper and a big rubbery G.I. Joe logo. Unfortunately, there is spot of red paint on the blue line of the logo with my backpack. Quality control should have picked this up because it does stand out. Maybe I’m nitpicking, but you really do notice it when you look at the bag.

Red, white and blue and another spot of red.

On the inside, there is no padding or extra sleeve to put your laptop in, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to be sure your laptop doesn’t get damaged. There is a separate pouch on the inside that can be closed with a zipper, big enough for your wallet or cellphone. Another G.I. Joe logo is found here as well, but it’s just on a label that is stitched on quite loosely, just 2 strips on the short edges. I feel that this may become loose sooner rather than later.

All things considered, I’m glad this is a part of my collection and I probably will be using it when I go to a convention in the future. If anything, I’ll be flying the G.I. Joe colors.

That’s all for now. See you back soon, until then, Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

They say that reading is like travel, allowing you to exit your own life for a bit, and to come back with a renewed, even inspired, perspective. The book I received today is more like time travel, where you wish you could go back in time and have bought more G.I. Joe and other action figures.

Action figures of the 1980’s by John Marshall

The book gives an overview in 160 pages of the most popular action figure lines of the 1980’s. It also gives an indication of the prices, both loose and carded/boxed. The thing is, the book was published in 1998, so those prices are eye watering low compared to the prices we see now.

Jinx is kicking Zarana’s butt, while Rafaël is “playing” with E.T.

Inside, there are chapters for each toy line, starting with G.I. Joe, The Corps, over He-Man and the masters of the Universe all the way to Star Wars. I’m honestly only really interested in the G.I. Joe section.

Carded Snake-Eyes, Stalker and Grunt. Notice the original price tags of $2.69.

For each year, from 1982-1989, the figures are listed and given a value, both loose and carded. If somebody still wants to sell me the figures at the prices listed here, send me a PM 🙂

1982-1983 figures with values for loose and carded.

That’s all for now, for those looking for the book themselves, the ISBN number is 9780764304941.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the dapper looking author with his favorite Cobra T-Shirt.

See you back soon. Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Is there a doctor among the readers?

First of all, let me wish you and your friends & family my best wishes for the new year. Let’s hope it brings us more G.I. Joe (I’d really like to see a new cartoon) and more collecting fun.

It’s been a while since I posted something, but I’ve been having some health issues, nothing major, but lots of annoying little things that kept me from being creative to be honest. 2023 has been a good year for the site, we’ve been getting more visitors and interaction than the years before, so the growth is real 🙂 Thank you all for your time and interest. The G.I. Joe community truly is a warm and inclusive group of people.

I was originally going to continue this post with some pictures of the Classified Dr. Mindbender (Deluxe figure) I received a while back, but then I realized that I’d put all my figures in storage already, so there will be no pictures 🙁 It wasn’t just everyone’s favorite orthodontist I received and put in storage, but also Serpentor, Wolf Spider, Scrap-Iron, Snow Serpent, Grunt, the Python Patrol Trubble Bubble, Tripwire, Mole Rat and the Steel Corps Troopers. More on this below.

Frequent readers will know that my entire collection is in storage since we moved house in 2018. The plan was to make 2 rooms in the attic, one for my daughter and one for my collection. We had to give priority to other things in the renovation of the house and my health issues played a big part in the lack of progress for the attic. This year however, I’m determined to continue the work on the attic and to be able to put my collection back in our house and back on the shelves rather than being boxed up in storage.

Keep on coming back to get updates and naturally, I’ll be posting some more of the new toys that eventually make their way over into my collection. Some big ones should be coming soon, and there’s also a small book on the way with some artwork… Keep you posted!

Until next time, YoJoe and Happy Collecting!

Read this post! This I COMMAND!

Well, if you haven’t guessed what this post is going to be about by reading that title, then I truly don’t know what you’re doing here. All kidding aside, thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to go through my ramblings about G.I. Joe. Feel free to drop a like on the socials or a comment here.

This post is all about Serpentor, more specifically the # 57 figure of the Classified Series, and his Air Chariot. It finally arrived here (my pre-order was made way back in September 2022!) and I have to say it’s a big boy box.

No image of the actual figure and vehicle on the back of the box this time, but a really nice piece of artwork covering a lot of the Serpentor lore in G.I Joe history.

As I mentioned before, my pre-order was made in September 2022 and I honestly feared that I would be getting a mail from Pulse saying that they had to cancel my order. I’ve seen multiple people online posting such an email and since it was taking so long I thought it was going to happen to me too. I still have nightmares about that time my Snake-Eyes order was canceled by Zavvi. Luckily this didn’t happen this time around and I am really glad to add this set (a figure and a vehicle can be called a set, right?) to my collection.

Along with the Emperor, I also ordered a certain orthodontist. More about that soon. For now…

Happy Collecting an YoJoe