Impel Trading Cards 1 – 3

To start this series, we’ll take a look at the first 3 cards from the 1991 Impel series. The first 7 cards of this set are displaying the Eco-Warriors subseries of G.I. Joe. It seems like a strange way to have these cards as first in the series, considering the popularity of the other characters (Snake Eyes, Cobra Commander, Scarlett, …). At the time however, these figures were just released and

The first card is Cobra member Cesspool.

The card art of this entire series is new (apart from the comic book covers on later cards) and I have to say that it looks pretty damn good. The use of vibrant colors may be a bit too much on the actual figures, on these cards it just looks good. Although the figure was released with a full cover helmet, the card art here shows Cesspool’s disfigured face

The back of the cards represent a somewhat smaller version of the file cards on the back of the figure’s cards. Notable here is that Cesspool’s file name is Vincent D’Alleva. That was the name of the Hasbro Executive overlooking the G.I. Joe franchise. Not much love for the boss if you ask me.

Next up is Flint.

The Eco Warriors needed a leader and I guess Flint takes the job personally. I, personally, think he was suckered in. Again, the figure does not do justice to the card art. He does seem to be pointing one way and shooting the other, so probably shooting some Cobra’s and giving battle field instructions to the other Eco Warriors.

The final card for today is Toxo-Viper II.

I must admit that the original 1988 Toxo-Viper (I guess they’ll be called Toxo-Viper I now), is one of my all-time favorite figures. I guess to me they have a Steampunk kinda vibe which I like. This 2.0 version doesn’t have the same impact on me. They are expendable for the Cobra High Command (leaky suit brigade anyone?) and I share that sentiment with CC.

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DISCLAIMER All these cards are in my private collection and were scanned by myself. I don’t hold the rights on the card art or any text displayed on the cards.