Toy Bender

Well, I finally found the mother lode after picking up the single carded 25th Anniversary Snake Eyes the other day. For this mission, I resorted to going to a K-Mart in the ghetto that had 30th Anniversary figures that I wanted. I figured I should try it again in case they had any McQuarrie figures laying around. Last time there was one of the ugly ass Chewbaccas that my roommate reluctantly ended up buying. By the way, when I say ghetto, I don’t mean Boyz in the Hood, but we did see an armed security guard there once and there’s about eight million liquor stores located on the same block so this store isn’t exactly nerd friendly. Still, if there are rare toys there, safety be damned.

Instead of the Star Wars figures we were looking for, we (my fiancee, my roommate Shawn, and I) found a whole crapload of 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe five packs. I picked up the Cobra pack without hesitation. I left the five pack of Joes behind, because I’ve never been that much into the early Joes while I’ve had a complete obsession with everything Cobra. Plus, I’m ultra mega super poor at the moment so that made the decision a lot easier.

The real story here is when I got home, though. You see, I was happy enough to keep these guys in their package because it looks fricking awesome. However, I wanted that Storm Shadow out and on my Tactical Battle Station in a real bad way. After reading the bottom of the package, it looked like it was a simple enough operation to take the figures out without destroying the package, thereby leaving me the option of putting them back in it when I grow tired of them. After getting Storm Shadow out though, I realized how hopeless it will be when I want to put him back in. Why on God’s green Earth does Hasbro pack the figures half in and half out of the plastic? I nearly destroyed Storm Shadow’s swords getting them out without wrecking anything. Since he was out, I figured I might as well get the rest of them out too. When I pulled Baroness out, I nearly ripped off her arm.

Despite the problems I had freeing the figures, these toys rock harder than almost any Joes I’ve ever owned in terms of looks and poseability. It’s a little odd that Cobra Commander’s helmet can come off leaving him with this bizarre chrome-dome, but other than that this set is pretty much perfect. I can only hope and pray that if I do want to put the figures back into the case, then I’ll manage to figure out the complex geometry involved with doing so.

By the way, here’s a picture my fiancee took of my new Storm Shadow riding a 25th Anniversary My Little Pony named Snuzzle. It clearly illustrates the dangers of living with a female.

toy, toy collecting, action figure, G.I. Joe, 25th anniversary, toy blog