The Rebellion. Featuring.. Jim's wife?

By the way, this is not actually a review of a set of toys but more of a “hey, check all this stuff out” kind of deal. I warn you that my photography sucks. You can find detailed reviews of all this and much much more on a whole host of dedicated fan sites out there.  Better photos too :-).

editor’s note. Jim, are you REALLY telling people to go check out OTHER review sites? grumble grumble… sigh, continue..

One of the greatest things about these figs is the level of articulation. Almost any pose is possible. They have ball and/or swivel at neck, shoulders, elbow, wrist, waist/legs, knees, and feet. Some of the figures pictured here are from older lines but anything done in the last two years by Hasbro is insanely poseable. That’s an older Chewie above. I think he’s from the SAGA line. Good stuff there too but can’t hold a candle to the new figs. They haven’t redone Chewie yet. The other big deal with the Vintage Collection  is that the face sculpts look like the actors. That Leia Hoth face is about the size of my pinkie nail but it looks like Carrie Fisher . So does my wife, strangely enough 🙂

Big daddy pimp Vader. And Crew

Yeah, that’s right. Check out Vader and his posse. These are stormtroopers from one generation back. The newer ones are even MORE poseable. Vader’s helmet is in two pieces so you can have him rockin’ the hamburger head if you want. I really love how cleverly the joints are all concealed, across the board. Most poses look seamless and natural.

"Comander, what good does chest armor do if our faces and crotches are exposed?"

The Hoth imperials above are a mix of new and older stuff. Snowtroopers, At-AT pilot, and Commander are TVC. Veers and AT-ST pilot are SAGA. At-AT Commander (far left) is a must. Seriously, just go spend twelve bucks on ebay and get one. Right now. Oh, there’s IG-88 hiding behind him. Get him too. He’s so poseable he can break dance.

Bossk

Big bad Bossk here shows you just how far action figure design has come in 3 decades. I LOVE this guy. I loved him then too although he clearly looks like a freaking muppet next to his contemporary counterpart. Another thing I’ve done is go back and collect all the recarded figs up through the second wave of ESB. That’s about when I quit collecting Star Wars in earnest when I was a kid. I moved onto GI Joe then punk rock and girls. This is fun too. You can buy restoration kits for cheap on ebay. Collect nice specimens of your favorite old figs and recard them yourself. Multiple variants of cardbacks are available too so you can match the backs you had as a kid…if you even remember. I don’t. I mean, I’m a geek and all but…

Snow Job

Yeah, GI Joe is doing it too. These figs are taller. More like 4″. They still feel just right. Check out Snow Job above. This is one of the single coolest figures in my collection. The illustration and graphic design on the packaging  is really tight and homes looks all set to take out a Deep Powder Bramble or a Snowballer droppie with his recoilless. All of the previous comments RE Star Wars apply to this guy. Where he leaves them in the dust is the accessories. See the pic below. He has his rifle with removable swivel tripod, a backpack, 2 skis, 2 poles, camp stove, skillet, gas can, radio and handheld, an ice pick for mountain climbing and, get this, a tent (not shown) that utilizes his skis and poles as the structural elements. Oh, and his jacket comes off, and he comes with a base and cool fold-out mission insert. Is that crazy or what? That’s accessorization at the level of a 12″ fig! These are fetching about 20 bucks after-market. Still a steal at that price, sez I.

Snow Jobs Stuff, wow!

Snake Eyes. Badass and going strong since 1982.

The Snake Eyes above, from the Pursuit of Cobra line by Hasbro (Snow Job is too) is so dripping with accessories that I get lost. There are two knives with sheaths, a pistol with a holster, two katanas with two removable sheaths, explosives pack on shoulder strap, removeable tac vest/harness, trademark UZI and pistol (both have removeable silencers), an assault rifle (not shown), and a head variant (not shown). Whew! My only issue with the Pursuit of Cobra Joes is that they are weirdly long in the legs and the hip articulation, just like the old skool figs, detracts from the presentation.  Most of the new Joes are just as goofy as the later waves of the originals so you have to dig around to find the good stuff.

They have that OG G.I. JOE smell

In addition to the Pursuit of Cobra, there are several other GI Joe lines that have interesting features or that might appeal to peeps. The pic above is of some figs that are the real equivalent of the Star Wars Vintage Collection. They are well articulated, nicely sculpted updates of their 1980-1982 counterparts and sport the original card art. Flash was my first back in the day. $1.50 at Best Products! It took me 6 weeks of allowance to save up for him. I fell out after the 2nd wave cos I grew up (sortof). Snow Job was my favorite fig as a kid. How could he not be. He had skis! There are a couple of nice figs in the Rise of Cobra line as well as the new stuff available at Target/TRU based on the animated series. Cartoony but lots of fun.

One last bit on all this stuff: it’s built to be chewed on by 2 year olds and dogs, go through the wash, and handle at least one bottle rocket shot. Enough Black Cats or a blowtorch will probably kill them (like they did in the eighties) but the point is that these are meant to be played with. They can handle it. Sometimes I think I get lost in the “value” of the relatively shoddily constructed art toys  I’ve collected over the last year and a half and treat them too gingerly. Just pose them occasionally and let them sit there. Give yourself a rest from the fear and go slumming for some cheap thrills. For what you drop on a 12″ fig, you can get buckets of this mass-market stuff to mess around with. I guess I’m just an old guy. The mass-market stuff is so massively better than what I had as a kid (and in many ways, better than 3A) that I can’t help myself. If the devil himself handed me the Bossk and the Snow Job that I feature here back in 1981, I kid you not, I would have sold my soul.

Rock on, brothers and sisters!

Jim Bailey aka Grindhouse

www.grindhousegames.com