snake eyes – European Joe's

Bearely a Ninja

I’m back with a new addition to my collection. This time it’s something I knew existed, but I didn’t know they had made one with a G.I. Joe connection. Until now…

You may have to grab a magnifying glass, because it’s printed quite small on the box. For reference, the box is 7cm tall and 4cm wide. For those that use Imperial measurements – Execute Order 66 and get with the rest of the world 🙂

Changes of getting the G.I. Joe Hero Bearbrick, yes, it’s Snake-Eyes, are slim… Only 4.16% of all boxes ship from the factory with this figure in it.

Bearbrick – Hero G.I. Joe with only 4.16% chance

I didn’t get so lucky though, No, I cheated and bought me an open box so I was sure I was getting him.

The figure itself is the iconic Bearbrick shape with an all-over Snake-Eyes print. The ears are made of clear plastic, the rest of the figure is black. The print itself is very clean and sharp.

Bearbrick – Series 51 – Snake-Eyes file card

The back of the file card – by lack of a better word for it – shows the classic Snake-Eyes artwork we have all seen countless times before, but it still looks so good.

That’s all for now. See you again soon and don’t forget… Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Honey, I shrunk the Joes!

A few years back, I got my hands on a set of G.I. Joe Minimates figures. Apparently, they have made a second set of figures for the 2022 New York Comic Con. I recently came across this set when browsing the interwebs for Joe stuff. Naturally, I got myself a set.

As you can see on the picture above, this set is focused on the Ninja Force sub-team. The cover of the VHS tape inspired box, features Snake-Eyes front and center, flanked by Scarlett and Storm Shadow.

The back shows the fourth figure that is included, Dr. Biggles-Jones.

The inside box is made to look like a VHS cassette, a nice touch of nostalgia for the G.I. Joe fans that used to watch the cartoons on tape..

This nod of VHS renting is recalled on both the front of the inner box (2-night rental sticker) as well as on the back with a reminder to rewind the tape when you return it. Check out the song Rental Patient by fellow Joe fan Wordburglar if you want to submerge yourself into that nostalgia.

The figures themselves are a bit taller than a regular Lego mini figure. Storm Shadow gets his 1992 look with black & white. Scarlett and Snake-Eyes resemble their 1993 figures, all from the Ninja Force sub-team. They come with a lot of accessories and even an extra set of hair for Scarlett.

Dr. Sidney Biggles-Jones only got one semi-official action figure release in 2017, a whopping 24 years after her introduction in the Marvel comic books (issue 135 from 1993). The figure was part of the G.I. Joe Featuring Ninja Force and Transformers box set from the Official G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club. To be fair, this mini figure looks better than that 3.75” version if you ask me.

That’s it for now, see you again soon. Until then… Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

You’d almost feel sad for the trees.

This morning, the mailman stopped by to drop off a package. Not too big, but very thick.

Collecting the first 50 issues of the G.I. Joe Marvel comic cook series, this massive book comes in at around 1160 pages of not only exciting stories, but also real pieces of art.

They state that Pop culture changed forever, and I fully agree with that. This series has had an impact on so many of us. It’s only fitting that it gets a prominent place in our collections. I couldn’t financially get in with the Kickstarter for the Hardcover books, but when I saw this pop up online, I tried to get my hands on one. My local comic book store couldn’t order them for some reason, luckily I was able to find one online.

I’ve put in a Classified scale Snake Eyes, so you can get a feel for the size of book. It really is a thick one. The paper itself is quite nice, almost like the original floppy comics. I just hope that the spine is strong enough not to tear over time.

That’s all for now. I have some reading to do 🙂 See you again soon, until then… Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Vintage three-dimensional hot potatoes.

As a kid, I had a FisherPrice View Master with all kinds of discs. Mostly fairy tales or pictures from around the world. On one of my flea market trips, I came across these discs with a G.I. Joe story.

On the discs, the text is printed in Dutch, but on the actual 3D cells, the text there is in English. The discs tell the story of issue #1.5(?), where Scarlett, Snake-Eyes, Stalker and Rock ‘N Roll have to get out of Trucial Abysmia with a package.

I had seen these discs on eBay a few times before, but I never really had much interest in them until I saw them in hand on a local flea market. I had recently found my old View Master in one of the many boxes containing toys and memorabilia from when I was younger and it felt meant to be that I should come across these G.I. Joe discs.

I’ve had to put a backlight to the discs in order to get these images up. But they do look really nice. Each cell is about the size of my pinky’s nail, so not that big at all and still all these images are really sharp and looking good.

Kids these days have their phones and VR goggles, but back in the day, this really was some cool tech. You needed to aim the back of the View Master to a light source to see the images clearly, but you didn’t really need that much light to enjoy the pictures.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon, keep an eye out. Until then… Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Encore une fois

In 1997, DJ Sash was hitting the charts again with a new song titled “Encore une fois”. I was 15, still had all my childhood G.I. Joe sitting in my room and no new G.I. Joe toys were to be found. Little could I have known then that 27 years later, I’d be writing a blog post about some more French comics. If you missed the previous post, check them out here and here.

As promised, I’m back with another addition to my French G.I. Joe collection. This time it’s the Maximum Silence TPB, aside from the French commentary pieces, even non-French speaking/reading people can read this one!

The book starts with the remake of the iconic #21 from 2022 where each page was drawn by a different artist.

The next story in the book is the #21.5 that was first released in 2008 with the Snake-Eyes & Storm Shadow figures from the 25th anniversary series. In 2014, the comic book was released to comic book stores officially by IDW in honor of the 30th anniversary of ARAH. Called “Silence between borders”, the story is the same as in #21, but it’s shown from different perspectives and showing scenes from the viewpoint of other characters.

Next up is the story “Hush Job” from the Yearbook #3. This was released 3 years after issue #21 and is situated sometime after #52. It shows Snake-Eyes being held prison in the Cobra Consulate in New York and being subjected to the Brainwave scanner by Dr. Mindbender. Scarlett is asking Storm Shadow to help her free Snake-Eyes. They infiltrate the consulate building, both in their own ways. Snake-Eyes is able to beat the Brainwave scanner, and together they escape (with a bit of a ruse at the end and the Baroness without her catsuit).

It would be best if Destro didn’t get to see this.

The 4th story in the TPB is “Timber”, #19 from the G.I. Joe Origins series from 2010. It tells the story of how Snake-Eyes first encountered the lone wolf Timber.

And we’re already at the 5th story without any word balloons. This is the #85 from 1989 called “SFX”. The lack of words in this story is more than covered by the sound effects shown, hence the SFX title. Lot’s of sounds in this one.

And the silence doesn’t end yet, we get one more silent issue. #214 from the ARAH series from 2015, part 3 of “The Death of Snake-Eyes” story arc. After a lethal fight with Serpentor, the entire Joe roster – both troops and vehicles – are paying respect to Snake-Eyes.