European Joe

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

This news isn’t Classified!

It’s been a while since I posted an update and we’ve been getting a lot news from Hasbro about new figures that are coming or are in the pipeline. This time however, I’m here to talk about the 2004 Thunderwing jet. Yes, I finally added something new to my 3.75” Joe collection.

The 2008 G.I. Joe Thunderwing vehicle was released as part of the Valor vs. Venom. It’s a jet, based on the F-22 Raptor, that has a control handle that you can pull out.

The Thunderwing Jet features 10 top-loading missiles that can be launched from a button on the handle, firing the missiles from behind the canopy. It also has 4 trigger-activated dropping bombs that are released with the push off a button on the underside of the plane.

The sound system – yes, a lot of sounds can be produced – makes engine noises and simulates the firing of a Gatling gun, which is molded on the side of the cockpit. There are also more than 10 phrases that can be activated from a button on the top (“Switching to bombs,” “Bombs away,” “Target destroyed,” “Switching to missiles,” “Missile away,” “Cobra goin’ down”, “Break right”, “Break left”, …).

The rear exhaust ports of the jet doubled as targeting sensors and could be switched from bomb to missile mode. This is achieved by some clever system of angled mirrors hidden in the frame of the plane. You might call it a gimmick, but it really is very cool.

The Thunderwing was originally released with the v3 of Slip Stream, later a version with Ace (v6) was released as a Toys ‘R Us exclusive. The Slip Stream figure came with a removable helmet with hose attached to it. He does lack his signature mustache though. This time, the figure also sports a more grey look, rather than the tan original.

Even though the focus of most of the interwebs has shifted towards the Classified Line, it does feel good to have a new “vintage” Joe toy to add to my collection.

See you next time, until then… Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

The Eel has stranded

From what I’ve been reading and hearing it’s been quite difficult for some of the US collectors to find the Classified Series Cobra Eel. I was able to order one from Amazon(.com) when they popped up and it finally arrived here.

Whilst it was just recently announced that the EU Hasbro Pulse store will be shipping to Belgium (just in time to back the Dragonfly), this figure was not yet available and so I had to check the .com site of Amazon when they were announced. I was lucky enough to be able to order one and for around $45, it was delivered in a very clean box. It would seem that Amazon takes better care of their international shipped products than they do for domestically ones if I look at some of the horror packages some of the US collectors received.

The figure itself is a nice callback to the original O-ring figure with it’s red, grey and black colors.

As has been the case with so many of the Classified Series figures, the box art is on point yet again. We get a close up of a very mean looking Eel. I must say that I’m still in doubt about the new plastic free packaging. On the one hand, it’s a shame you don’t get to see the figure and the accessories when you look at the box, on the other hand, the box art does look great and really gets all the attention. I also like the smaller footprint of the boxes.

That’s all for now, keep following me on the socials and here because more is coming (sooner than later it would seem).

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Guess what made my Pulse go racing?

Yes, SDCC is going on far, far away across the ocean and very likely some really cool stuff is being shown there, but I’m not there. No, I’m here in Europe and we were being treated a bit poorly by Hasbro when it came to G.I. Joe over the last years. I said ‘were’, because just last week, they decided to open up the EU Hasbro Pulse to all 27 countries.

BREAKING NEWS… and breaking my wallet in the future.

This means that I no longer need to use a German proxy service to get my plastic crack. I can just place an order and get it delivered to my home address for a reasonable price straight from Hasbro.

Now, for some really weird reason, I got a refund from Hasbro on the Arctic B.A.T., claiming they had no stock, but the figure itself was still available on the site to order. So, I went ahead and placed my first order to deliver directly to my home.

It actually got delivered in 2 days, so no complaints here. The packaging was decent, not to much padding, but these all-cardboard boxes need less protection I guess.

The figure comes with quite a good set of accessories. I personally really like the blade to cut the ice and the interchangeable chest plates. The gun isn’t necessary if you ask me, but that rifle sure is very nice. Talking about nice (yes, I’m a big child), check out the number on this bad boy…

Naturally we need to discuss the artwork on the box. It’s looking very nice as usual. The B.A.T. is looking very menacing with his central viewing lens (I can’t really call it an eye, can I?). The gun does match the one he has in the box, but I’m still not convinced this is the best weapon for an android trooper.

That’s it for now. There are still some orders I placed with EU Pulse when they didn’t ship to Belgium and whilst they are not yet sent, I can’t change the shipping address on those orders, so I guess I’m still going to have to cover the additional costs to ship them here. Keep an eye on on the socials and this site, because for some reason, it would appear that a lot of those pre-order figures have been prepped for shipment all at once. See you soon.

Until then, Happy Collecting and YoJoe!