snake eyes – European Joe's

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.

Don’t punch the screen, punch the page!

A while back, I ordered these Pagepunchers 2 figure packs from McFarlane Toys over on Amazon.com and they finally arrived today. Let’s check them out.

First up are Duke and Snake-Eyes. The packaging of these little figures is great and reminiscent of the original G.I. Joe figures with the explosion in the back. The figures themselves are pocket sized, around 3″in size. They feature 6 points of articulation “for maximum play value” (that’s what the description says). The package also includes a comic book display stand featuring the G.I. Joe logo and 2 comic books (issue #253 of the IDW ARAH run and #10 of the Chuck Dixon run). There is also a bookmark included with the classic Snake-Eyes card art.

The Snake-Eyes figure is looking as bad-ass as ever. This iconic classic design is immediately recognisable and is really cool looking. The Duke figure on the other hand is, well, less so.

I don’t see the resemblance with Duke to be honest, aside from the blond hair and tan shirt, this could be a generic green shirt trooper.

Next up we have a set of Cobra Commander and a Crimson Guardsman. This set includes the #267 from the IDW ARAH run and the 2012 Annual from IDW. It also has the stand and same bookmark.

These figures look their part and closely match the original figures.

Again, we’re seeing the Commander with his battle helmet. No-one is willing or going to touch the hooded version it seems. The color is bright blue and the accents pop out in red and black. I would have liked to have seen his classic pistol, but alas, no accessories are included.

A lot of red on the Crimson Guard, and some black and white. The printed decals are really fine and sharp. No quality issues here it seems.

That’s all for now. See you back soon.

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

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!

Spoiled mystery box

You’ve all seen the GameStop Funko Mystery Box and all of it’s contents online before. It has been pretty hard to find one over here in Belgium, but I’m glad to tell you that I had one shipped out to me. Let’s check it out (again).

GameStop Exclusive Funko Pop Mystery Box

The box itself features the classic G.I.Joe art with the original Joes and the MOBAT. The colors are really lively and bright, and very sharp as well. The contents are thrown in quite loosely and therefore rattles a bit when shaken.

Profit Director Destro/Pimp Daddy Destro, call him what you like.

The ‘biggest’ piece in the box is this Director Destro Funko Pop figure. Based on the 1997 figure (3.75”), but definitely taken more after the Classified Series Profit Director figure, this one sports the leopard collar and leg pieces, along with a gold suitcase and a stack of burning money. I’ve been collecting some of these Pop figures over the years (not just the G.I. Joe ones, but also some of the other classic toy based ones (Care Bears, My Little Pony, Trolls – I have 2 daughters who like them) and also some Disney ones (Aladdin), Movie/TV ones (Jurassic Park, Knightrider, Star Trek, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters). They have just about every possible franchise covered and they are reasonably priced and they just hook you in I guess. Not everyone is a fan, but I really like them.

The rest of the contents consists of a Snake Eyes keychain (Funko Pop Style) with filmcarrière, a G.I. Joe sticker, an official Membership Card and a G.I. Joe dog tag. Nice to have, but not that must-have things as you’d like from an Exclusive box set. Still, it will all look great in my collection.

That’s it for now. It has been a while since I posted something, I’ve been struggling with some health issues, but I’m working through them and I hope to be back to full health soon. I hope to be posting some new things rather sooner than later. Thanks for sticking around and keeping the views/visits to the site growing every day.

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!