European Joe's

Terror

I will still put posts online about the Impel Trading Cards (and in the future, about other trading cards – if all goes well), but I wanted to write something about the events of this week here in Belgium.

We’re all still coming to grips after the terror attacks in Brussels from Tuesday and maybe it’s my inner child and Joe fan that is talking here, but we really need a Joe team busting up the IS. I believe that no God or country is worth killing or dying for. We only have one world and we are all humans.

I could start quoting John Lennon, but there is a Flemish singer-songwriter who wrote something in the line of Imagine and I’ll just let his words speak for me (Translated from Dutch so the rhyme and rhythm is off).

You won’t find any virgins, nor spoons of gold

These holy scriptures are confusing and old

It is not written that any fool

may kill and abuse in the name of God

Because God is love and definitely not hate

There is no reason for abuse or a phony caliphate

It says so in both the Bible and the Qur’an

Without love, there is no heaven

I don’t care if you pray to God, Allah, Vishnu, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or you just believe in yourself. There are universal values that are found in any religion. We should respect these and – as humans – be bigger than religion or country.

Impel Trading Card #9 – Rolling Thunder

We have arrived at the 9th card of the series. The Rolling Thunder. I’ll let you enjoy this magnificent vehicle for a moment.

The Rolling Thunder was first released in 1988 and was sold with the driver Armadillo. Please read JoeADay’s blog for a full analysis of the figure.

I didn’t have this vehicle as a kid, but it was the first Joe toy I bought on eBay as an official adult collector 🙂 To me, this is a huge playset. The only thing that came close was the General, but I didn’t have that too and I never even heard about the Flagg (I don’t think they released the Flagg in Belgium). I remember opening the box it came in (complete with driver, but just in a plain box) and feeling like a kid again. Then again, I still feel like a kid most of the time.

The Rolling Thunder (the name alone gives you shock and awe) can hold a lot of figures and it comes with missiles inside of rockets or is it rockets inside of missiles? In any case, if you’d see them comin’, you’d better be runnin’, right? It even had a big rotating cannon that needed to be controlled by 2 figures. And it had a missile on top of the gun barrel. Firing that would probably kill – or seriously injure – one or both of the figures operating it, but hey, in times of war, you need al the ammo you can get.

The colors on the card art here, don’t do justice to the bright shades of the toy. Yellow rockets, red missiles, a missile launcher base, a small ATV, guns and cannons all around. This is one mean looking vehicle. 8 wheels of Cobra smashing trouble.

With this ninth card, we arrive at the last card in the first Ultra Pro sleeve of my Trading Card collection. I’ve had several really good comments on the series and so I’ll be very happy to see you again when the next card is up for review. As always, leave a comment below or through Twitter.

All that’s left for me now is, Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

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.

Impel Trading Card #8 – The Skystriker XP-14F

This post should have been online yesterday as I plan to post at least once a week, but unfortunately my children fell ill and they needed my attention. Luckily both are now back to health and so I have found the time to finish this post and put it online.

This week, we leave the ECO-Warriors behind us and continue with one of the most iconic G.I.Joe vehicles of all time.

I present to you Card #8 in the 1991 Impel G.I.Joe Trading Card set.

The Skystriker XF-14

Impel_C_008

Impel_C_008b The Skystriker was first released in 1983, with it’s pilot Ace. While many other vehicles are rather future-tech oriented, Hasbro built the Skystriker as an F-14 clone, looking exactly like the famous jet fighter. That’s probably why the Skystriker is a huge fan favorite and also one of my favorite vehicles. I currently have 2 jets in my collection, one in mint and complete condition and one that has seen it’s share of action over the years. I actually have a third plane, but that is called the “Sky Striker” MISB, the 30th anniversary version released in 2011.

The card art for the Skystriker depict it in a battle with a Cobra Rattler, which the Skystriker won, duh. A lot of the decals that are on the toy are not shown or visible on the art. The most striking decal on the plane is the red globe with the eagle that is located on the tail sections. In Belgium, the official G.I.Joe fan club organised a mail-away offer. For 9 Flagpoints and the equivalent of €1 in stamps, you could receive a sew on patch with the Skystriker logo on it.

Screenshot_2015-08-26-10-07-14-01

I have several of these patches in my collection, let me know if you’re interested in one (or more), we can make a deal 🙂

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.

Impel Trading Cards 4 – 7

Card number 4 in the series is the Sludge Viper.

Producing methane gas is the final step in the decomposition of biomass. So does this mean that the Sludge Vipers are decomposing inside their suit or are they just farting a lot in there? To have an unlimited ammo supply, Cobra chefs must have created the ultimate union soup with beans and Cobra Cola especially for these Vipers.

Next up is Clean Sweep.

Originally Clean Sweep was designated to be Anti-Tox. The action figure comes with a water shooting robot and has parts of color-changing paint that – uh – changes color whet it gets wet. The figure also came with one of the most impressive mustaches ever to be found on an action figure. Who said Nigel Mansell? Also, can anyone tell me how you move like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs?

Card numer 6 is up, the Cobra Septic Tank.

The anti-ECO equivalent of the HISS tank has an unlimited supply of sludge to fire at the Joes. I guess there are a lot of Sludge Vipers in the back enjoying their Cobra Soup… I could make some jokes on the Pit and a the Septic Tank, but let’s not get into that. Fact is that although this Eco-Warriors series is very colorful and is sometimes frowned upon by the collectors, I like the design of the tank and think it works great in the setting.

Okay, time for card 7. Here is Ozone.

I’m kinda missing the ninja of the team. But hey, at least Ozone got to be an astronaut on the next sub-team of the Joes, the Star Brigade. As they did with Cesspool, and with a few other characters, Ozone was named after David Kunitz, a member of the G.I. Joe design team working for Hasbro at the time of this figure’s release.

All in all, the Eco Warriors are a colorful bunch that heralded the nineties G.I.Joe line and defined the rest of the line. The wacky colors, strange accessories and just plain weird stuff. But hey, if you’re a fan, you stick by. For better or worse, through Sludge and Monstro-Vipers, till the DEF and Ninja Force comes and beyond. Oh and the Mega Marines.

Anyway, feel free to link this page to friends and family, heck even to people you don’t really like. If you have suggestions or remarks, leave a comment below or tweet me @EuropeanJoes.

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.

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.

Feel free to link this page to friends and family, heck even to people you don’t really like. If you have suggestions or remarks, leave a comment below or tweet me @EuropeanJoes.

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.