Cobra Commander v1 & v1.5 - GI Joe '82-'83

Like all the original GI Joe figures "Battle Helmet" Cobra Commander was released in a straight arm version in 1982 and a swivel battle grim version in 1983. Every time I look at these early goes I just think I'm so glad they added the swivel arm feature. It really did make the GI Joe figures so much more poseable. Who would have ever guested that when they created this nameless faceless villian in 1982 that people would still be making toys, comics, and movies about this character 30 years later.

Cobra Commander wears a blue military dress uniform with a large Cobra logo on the front. His identity is covered by a blue helmet with a silver face mask. The entire figure mold (except the head) would later be reused for a hooded version of the Commander

Cobra Commander comes with a dark gray hand gun tha is often described as a hair dryer. The coolest thing about the gun is that his back is molded to allow the gun to be stored on his back. This is a pretty unique feature in a line of over 500 figures only a few can have their weapons attached to their bodies.

Unfortunately my swivel arm Cobra Commander has yellowed quite a bit with age. I used him as one of three main villains in my stop motion animated series Action Figure Adventures. My friend Don Langsdorf provided a very funny voice for the character.

In addition to the two styles of arms  Cobra Commander was released with, there are also two versions of the straight arm figure. Very early samples of Cobra Commander's logo was not very clean looking. These figures are lovingly called Mickey Mouse Cobra Commanders and command a higher price (ha ha... pun intended). Quickly the logo was changed to the one we all know an love today.

In 2004 my entire family went to Joe Con in Florida as a day trip while visiting my Grandparents. My sister remembered that I was looking for a straight armed Cobra Commander at the convention and tried to get me one at Christmas time. At some point she emailed me a description asking if it was what I was looking for. I told her yes, and then I pasted the description into ebay. The auction came up an the Straight Armed Commander she was bidding on was actually a miss listed Mickey Mouse Commander. So I watched her win the auction because I wanted to jump in if she bailed out before it reach a decent price for a Mickey Mouse Commander. My sister won the auction, gave it to me for Christmas, and I told her how much more awesome this figure was than what she thought she was buying for me.

Allentown Comic - Purchases & Autographs

 Yesterday I posted all the photos of cosplayers and other fun things from the show. Along with getting my photo taken wih "Jason" from Power Rangers I was able to get my Red Ranger figure autographed.  Last year at Allentown I had Walter Jones sign a Black Ranger figure.


Along with the Power Ranger figure I also took three comics with me to get signed by Inker and Artist Bob McLeod. I know Bob's work from the GI Joe: A Real American Hero comics from Marvel. I didn't really follow New Mutants, but he created the series with scribe Chris Clarmont.


I took GI Joe issue #1 (which was previously signed by author Larry Hama), GI Joe Special Mssion #21 because it has one of the coolest Joe covers. Both GI Joe books were inked by McLeod. I also took with me the only New Mutants issue I own, #3 which Bob drew.

The Great Allentown Comic Con is held in an antiques mall, so in additon to the show floor there are also venders in the regular stores and a few shops carry comic/toy type stuff. One shop was having a crazy 50% off everything sale. I'm not sure if they were going out of businees or what. I picked up Disc of Doom Skeletor from the New Adventures line for $2. He don't have his accessories, but his little visor things are still intact. I like how he has the light up eyes. The back of his head is made of clear plastic allowing the light behind him to light up his eyes.

I snapped up the three main mutants from Thundercats at 50% off. No I need to look around for accessories for these guys. Slithe, Jackalman, and Monkian are all welcome additions to my collection. Monkian was the only one of the three I had as a kid

On my first time through the store I passed on the Tuska Warrior and Ratar-o. Later in the day they had been moved to the $2 table so I snatched them up. Again these guy are in nice shape but have no accessories. I had Tuska as a kid.

I bought a set of kids sized GI Joe suspenders. They were originally marked at $5 but they were half price. I love all the weird merchandise created for vintage lines. They feature the card back art for Lt. Falcon.

The next two piece of interesting GI Joe merchandise I purchases were actually for sale on the Comic Con sales floor. I got a pack of the vintage GI Joe plastic bandages (Band-Aids). The box features Flint's card art. I also got a pack of eight birthday invitations. They feature Shockwave, Repeater, and Spearhead. They are vary similar in design to ones that features Roadblock, Hawk, and Sgt Slaughter that I had as a kid.

The items I was most excited to find at the store that was selling every thing at half price was carded Star Wars figures. I don't own a single carded vintage Star Wars toy even though I have the entire collection loose. I like to have a few carded specimens in my collection. I my excitement to snap up some figure I didn't look closely enough an the Bib Fortuna isn't really sealed. His bubble is kind of taped closed. At least I got him pretty cheap. I guess I bought a mint complete figure with his card back.

Weequay is actually carded, but you can see there is a little wear on the cornor of his package. Still fun to have a carded figure, and I got a good price.

Nikto here is just about perfect. His bubble is crystal clear, his backer is is flat and straight and it's even un-punched.

Allentown Comic Con was a blast!

This is at least the 3rd Great Allentown Comic Con I've attended. Each time it's been a lot the same, a little different, and totally worth going each time.

This year I was super excited to meet Austin St. John who played Jason the Red Ranger on the first couple seasons of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

He was the leader of the team and as cool as anyone could possibly be when I was in 5th grade. I loved the show but was kind of getting out of action figures at the time.

Austin has stayed out of the public eye in recent years. He's been doing a lot of work with soldiers as a paramedic. He sort of dropped off the radar for a long time, but has just recently started doing Convention appearances. He seemed super nice when I got to meet him, more friendly than I felt Walter Jones (The Black Ranger) was when I met him.

The cosplayer dressed as Sgt Slaughter may be my favorite costumer ever! I've seen him do Sarge as well as Peter Griffin from Family Guy. He looks good in both costumes and does an awesome job of doing both character's voices. He bought the "Big" Millennium Falcon off one of the dealers within the antiques mall that the Con is held. I had to get a picture of Sgt. Slaughter with his toy space ship.

As I was going around asking the different Cosplayers if I could take their photo with Baby Skeletor, Nicole Marie Jean said sure, but first she had to take a selfie with him.

 I really liked this group of DC Characters. Lex Luthor, Flash, Kid Flash, and Raven.

Baby Skeletor was hanging out with the Dreadnoks part of the day. 

They kept pouring grape soda in his bottle. The caffeine kept him up last night.

 

 These two lovely ladies had no clue who Skeletor was and were very confused. At least they were nice enough to pose for a photo. Good looking Wonder Woman and Supergirl outfits.

For more photos of the Great Allentown Comic Con check out the video below.

I'll be posting more about the con tomorrow. I picked up some cool action figures while I was there.

Retro Con 2014 Commercial ft. Larry Kenney as Lion-O

It took a lot of animating and just about as much editing, but the Retro Con 2014 Commercial is complete. I was so excited by the fact that Larry Kenney, the voice of Lion-O from the vintage cartoon, was willing to perform for the commercial. When I got the audio file I kept closing my eyes and listening to it. Takes me back to my childhood. I was smiling ear to ear the entire time I was cutting up his takes to put into the commercial. Hope you guys enjoy it, but I've got to go get ready for the Great Allentown Comic Con.

Below are a couple of my favorite photos that went into creating the commercial.

Sword of Omens give me sight beyond sight!

We forgot to get a dozen eggs!

Ninja Turtles Pizza at Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut has a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles promotion going on in conjunction with the new TMNT movie. They are serving up four different pizzas designed to match the four Turtles' personalities.


I decided to order one just for fun. Plus, I felt like it was a funny topic for a video. I hope you enjoy. Let me know who's pizza you like best if you try any of them.

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 If you are going to the Great Allentown Comic Con tomorrow make sure you grab a flyer from me. Of course all the info is posted right here... so you've got the details either way. This FYE grand re-opening is a pretty big deal for me and I'd love to see as many of you guys there as possible. It's kind of near Staten Island so if any readers from NY are interested in going it would probably be a pretty easy drive.

Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles Blind Box - Kidrobot

I recently picked up two blind boxed TMNT figures. I've posted about several other blind box series in the past, but I'm a huge sucker for Ninja Turtles.  These little figures each come with three points of articulation (neck and shoulders) and little weapon accessories. I've seen the Turtles weapins, but I'm not really sure if the bad guys come with weapons or not. I'm very happy with my luck at pulling blind boxes. Michelangelo & Leonardo are probably my favorite Turtles, Mickey for sure.

Action Figure Adventures Animated Review

Here's a shot of the two blind boxed Turtles with a Funko Pop Turtles, Nick Turtles action figure, and Loyal Subjects GI Joe figure to show off their scale. The detail on there accessories are incredible, but the sculpting of their hands don't allow them to have a super tight grip. Leo holds his swords pretty well, but Mickey drops his nunchucks pretty easily.

Blind Box Mikey is sharing his nunchucks with vintage Michelangelo. I only have one vintage nunchuck and I put a pretty bad stress mark in it over the weekend when my finger slipped trying to put it in his hand. I destroyed both of the vintage nunchucks that came with my original vintage Michelangelo just by playing with them as a kid.

Cryotek - Visionaries

There were three different 80's toy lines made by Hasbro that featured similar body construction, although they were all in different scales. GI Joe being the smallest, Visionaries in the middle, and Cops & Crooks being the largest. Visionaries are actually very similar in size to the Sgt. Savage GI Joe figures. What was special about the Visionaries toy line was that the figures, vehicles, and weapons featured holograms similar to the Super Naturals toy line.

My cousin gave me this Cryotek figure 2nd hand as a kid. Growing up I never knew what his name was because I didn't have any of the other figures from the line. I don't think I watched the cartoon either. I remember the toys being in stores and seeing commercials for Visionaries, but as a kid I had to be pretty selective about what toys I collected because we didn't get new things very often.

Cryotek is dressed in red and blue armor and has a bear hologram on his chest. The holograms were very vivid and clear on all these figures.


 Originally Cryotek came with a blue helmet, silver staff, and silver three-headed morning star. All the staffs that came with Visionaries figure included a hologram similar to the one on their chest.

I used to play with this figures with my GI Joes some times even though he is extremely tall compared to them. I also used to pretend he was part of the Kenner RoboCop and the Ultra Police universe.

For such an interesting action figure, his head sculpt is super generic. He has an everyman look to him. The Visionaries didn't last long in stores and I'm not really sure why. I heard they were expensive to produce, but maybe too many kids like myself passed on them for other figures. I think I picked up his helmet at a yard sale in a lot, but I didn't put it with him right away, so it's not photographed.

Up Coming Local Events

I know many of my readers are not from the PA/NJ area but I wanted to share these events incase anyone local is unaware. I love going to conventions and shows. I always run into many friends and fellow collectors.

 First up is the Great Allentown Comic Con on July 12th. This is a small show but always a good time. Merchants Square is a building full of shops, sort of like an indoor flea market. The carry all sorts of items from vintage video games, to action figures, to antiques. There is even a giant silent auction. That's all just on a normal weekend. The Comic Con is a large vendor area with a small section for celebrity guests. The vendors at the con  mostly carry comic books but sometimes there are some toys. I am supper excited  that Austin St. John  who played Jason the original Red Ranger on Might Morphin' Power Rangers will be there.

The next event is the Grand Re-Opening of the FYE (For Your Entertainment) store in Woodbridge New Jersey. They will be hosting a variety of events all weekend long from August 15th-17th.  The new store will be more modern looking and stock many more toys and collectables. The new FYE will focus less on CD's and DVD's. I'm pretty excited about checking out the new store. I haven't been to my local mall since the FYE here closed. There isn't anything there that interest me. Hopefully if the Woodbridge store is successful we will see some FYEs reopen. Several bloggers and youtubers have been inviited to the Grand Re-Opening. I don't know who all they have invited, but Action Figure Adventures will be there on Saturday and Toy Pizza will be there on Sunday.

The next New Jersey Collectors Convention (NJCC) will be held in Cherry Hill NJ on August 17th. There is always a great variety of toys available at this show, from GI Joe, to He-Man, to Transformers. Boss Fight Studios, the guys who sculpt the new heads for the GI Joe Collectors Club exclusive figures will be there as well as toy book author Mark Bellomo. They always have insane door prizes at this show, so you never know if you might go home with something cool just for hanging out.

The last big event is Reto Con, which is held in Oaks PA. This show is always an incredible time. They have a great guest list including the voice actors behind 80's cartoon characters Lion-O & Tigra from Thundercats, Zartan & Baroness from GI Joe. Live in the flesh, WWF Wrestler and real life GI Joe, Sgt Slaughter will be at this show! I can't wait for this event. I'm actually working on filming a stop motion animation commercial for the organizers of Retro Con.

Hawkman - DC Comics

Hawkman came as part of a DC / Masters of the Universe 2 pack with Stratos. The two winged warriors from their respective franchises packed together. My best buddy Derek has the Super Powers Hawkman when we were kids and he was an important part of our Star Wars Universe. This new DC Universe figure is incredible. He comes with large articulated wings and a really cool mace. The wings are articulated via a big hinge in the center of Hawkman's  back. They also have a pivot point at the top of the wing which is visible from the back of the figure.

 Hawkman has an insane wingspan and that's what makes this figure so impressive. I bought this two-pack for the MOTUC figure, but the DC Universe figure blew me out of the water.

Donatello - - Vintage TMNT

Well, I skipped going out to the flea market this morning because the people from the hay ride wanted me to come up to the farm and work on stuff. We are like 90 days away from the start of the Halloween season. Sorry, no flea market finds this week.

Yesterday after starting the Retro Con commercial Mike, Tony, and I went to a toy shop in New Jersey I hadn't been to in years. I picked up a few cool things, but today I'm focusing on Donatello from the original wave of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As a kid I was very proud of the fact that I owned every figure from wave 1 of the TMNT line. Unfortunately I sold them all off at a flea market in middle school or high school. So, I've been slowly recollecting them as I find them at flea markets.

My Donatello came with his belt, bo staff (x2), kama (hook weapon) and one of his fist daggers. New in package he also originally had an additional smaller fist dagger and two throwing stars. I'm happy with the Turtles in my collection just having their belts and main weapons.

A fun little side note, this is a soft head Donatello, which means he is form the earliest run of Turtle figures. Once it was known that the Turtles were a hit, Playmates started making the wave 1 figures with hard plastic heads.

Here's a little question for all the AFA readers out there. My buddy Tony was telling me that some people say the accessory pictured above is a pizza slice and that the handle is just there to help the Turtles hold it. The original package lists a fist dagger as an accessory but says nothing about pizza.

Did anyone of you guys use these as pizza slices as a kid? Just wondering... leave a comment below.