gijoe – Page 17 – European Joe's

Impel Trading Card #22

It has been a while, but we are back on track with the review of the Impel Trading Cards. Today we arrived at # 22, First Sergeant Conrad “Duke” Hauser.

Duke is the field commander and second-in-command of the G.I. Joe team after General Hawk. He was first introduced into the comic in issue #22 (and this is the #22 of the Trading Cards, talk about coincidence). He is introduced alongside Roadblock on the funeral of General Flagg, shooting down a Cobra Rattler. The character has been a love him or hate him character all these years. Even Larry Hama (God for the admirers) admitted not really being able to handle the character.

However you feel about the guy, he has played a major role in all of the Joe storylines. In the Marvel run, he keeps on duty till they fold the flag. In the Devil’s Due main comics he takes over active duties from an – spoiler alert – disabled Hawk. In Amera’s Elite, he leads the Joes into the battle against the Plague during World War III. In Reloaded, he gets knifed by Scarlett (Go Red!).

Not only in the comic books, but also on the small and big screen Duke plays a big role in the Joeverse.

In the ARAH cartoon, he is field commander for General Flagg and later second-in-command under General Hawk. In the animated movie, he is the older half-brother of Lt. Falcon and should have been killed, but Hasbro intervened and at the end of the movie a small line was added – uttered by Doc I think – to indicate Duke would survive. In Sigma 6 he is the Joe leader. In the Resolute story, he finally gets a shot with Scarlett. During my research I came across some fanfiction that goes deeper into this (I haven’t read them though). In Renegades, he is part of the fugitive band of heroes that fight the Cobra Corporation. This is grittier, darker setting and so is Duke. He even gets a role in Prime Time TV show Community – Episode G.I. Jeff – where he leads a court-martial against the main protagonists of the show alongside Scarlett and Flint.

In the Live Action movies, Duke is the main character in the first movie and becomes a part of General Hawk’s team. Only to be killed in the second movie…

This brief overview again shows that it’s a difficult character for the writers as well. While one depicts him as a hero saving the day and the world, the other might just have him shot in the nuts.

Personally, I have nothing against the guy. I thought he was a regular Joe in my toyworld. It wasn’t until I started getting into the comics that I learned he was a big shot. The more recent IDW comics show some more of Duke (having a wife and all that). They’re making him into more of a tragic hero and I think that is fitting for a guy you either love or hate. Basically a good guy, that can do bad things if it means saving someone or something he loves or believes in.

Until next time!

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

50 (or 51 actually)

No the 50 does not reflect my age 🙂 The last post I did, was actually the 50th post on this blog. So this is effectively the 51st post and a celebration of the previous 50 writings.

Feel free to check them out!

Now this shouldn’t just be about the 50 posts. I also have some great new additions to my collection. This weekend I was on a short city trip to Haarlem and Amsterdam. We also blitzed into The Hague as well, but only for a few hours. I wasn’t hoping for much, but imagine my surprise when I found a second-hand toy store above a popular concept store in Haarlem. The concept store Meneer Paprika occupies the ground floor of a big space in the center of Haarlem and they rent out part of the ground floor to a bike store, part of the first floor to the vintage curators and the second part of that first floor to the ToyBoys.

They have a big collection of toys from Action Man to Yu-gi-Oh over Star Wars and Star Trek and of course G.I. Joe. They also sell comics, games and other merchandise and have their own Youtube channel. They ship worldwide, so check out their site and maybe you could find the missing piece(s) of your collection.

Their web shop has lots more to offer than the store itself, but I was able to score some new Joes for my collection. Pictures are below.

That’s it for now. See you at post 52 in a short while.

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Impel Trading Card #20

We have arrived at the 2oth card. I started this series back in February, and I´m trying to get some writing rhythm going so that I can get posts out more frequently. Any feedback and/or tips you may have, please let me know by adding a comment to one of the posts, sending a Tweet or email. Don´t hold back, every comment can help me become better at this 🙂

Now without further ado, let get talking about Card #20, Shockwave.

I have to confess, that I´m not very familiar with this figure. I never had it as a kid, and can´t say I ever saw him in the stores (or I just can´t remember seeing him).

Albeit that the figure never made an impression on me, I did have a TPB comic of the Special Missions (in DUTCH!) which included #22. In this issue, Lady Jaye, Chuckles, Hit & Run and Shockwave are enlisted by the FBI to assist in a hostage situation where a family is held captive by some terrorists. I won´t spoil the story here, but the ending of this story sure made an impact on little me back in the day. (A review of the story can be found here.)

The card art is a bit strange, the guy is a SWAT member, but is shown running through what appears to be a jungle setting. I suppose Joes should be able to work in any environment, so I´ll go with it. The card describes him as being a gifted singer. Was there ever a musical episode of the cartoon? Other than Cold Slither, I can´t think of any. Maybe there should be a Broadway version of G.I.Joe The Movie. Can you picture that magnificent intro played by a classical orchestra with a full musical cast on stage performing? EPIC!

Looking back, I don´t know why I haven´t looked harder to find a Shockwave figure. I really liked the story and he played a major part in it. Then again, by the time I read the comics (I only had 3 TPB of the Special Missions in Dutch), it would have been around 1994 (I was 12 or there about). After 1994, it was very hard to find Joes in the stores here and I was still far from discovering eBay and online shops.

Since April this year (see Comic book update), I have completed my Marvel ARAH run and thus my focus is shifting now back to collection more figures and vehicles. Of course, the odd paraphernalia associated with G.I. Joe and Trading Cards will always spark my interest. And Action Force, Funko Pops, The Corps (I´ve got my eye on The Beast right now, just waiting for a reasonable shipping cost), LEGO (or other building blocks that can be used with the Joe Kre-O´s), or well, basically anything geek.

That´s it for now. Come back next time when another one bites the … Sorry, no spoilers 😉

Happy Collecting & YoJoe!

Impel Trading Cards #10

It’s a stormy day here in Belgium with gusts of wind going well over 100 kph/60 mph. Nothing the Tomahawk, the all-weather, twin-engine, twin-rotor heavy lift and troop transit helicopter from the Joe team, couldn’t fly through.

I didn’t own the Tomahawk as a kid, but it was one of the first pieces I bought as a collector. I do remember having a friend who owned both the Tomahawk and the Killer W.H.A.L.E. and I went over to play with my Conquest X-30 and Warthog A.I.F.V. Strangely enough, we didn’t have any Cobra vehicles, but the bad guys always got the chance to hijack one of the Joe vehicles.

The card art for the Tomahawk is nicely done. It shows the helicopter in mid flight with it’s six-barreled 20mm cannon blazing. Their fire caused serious damage, if you can go on the smoke seen on the left. It’s a shame that there are no figures shown in the cargo area. You can however see the chairs , so nice details.

I’ve always been very fond of the Tomahawk (and also the new released Eaglehawk) as it is a very multi-functional vehicle. You can use is as a troop transport, but it can also stand on it’s on in a battle. The story from Special Missions #19 is one of my favorite stories in the Marvel run and shows the Tomahawk in all it’s glory. Like the Joes themsleves, even tough their battered up and tired, they get the job done.

Leave a comment if you liked/disliked or want to add your personal thoughts on the Tomahawk.

Until next time, 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 #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.