Bullet Man the Human Bullet minifigure :: Yo Joe!

"I'm #1 with a bullet, I'm a power pack."

Although I have picked up quite a few Kre-O Transformer minifigures aka Kreons (Arcee, Nemesis Prime, Galvatron), I have been able to avoid any of their GI Joe offerings. Mostly because I was never really a GI Joe fan.

But that all changed with this guy!

I spotted these Series 5 GI Joe Kreons at Toys R Us and my eye was immediately drawn to Bullet Man, the Human Bullet. I couldn't believe my eyes - Hasbro made a minifigure of this classic GI Joe superhero action figure dolly! I had to have him!

Now in the past Kre-o have been pretty good about printing codes on their packaging - at least where their Transformers offerings are involved. Making finding the figures you want, while avoiding the dumb ones you don't quite simple.

Well no more, Mr. 'buy only what you want'! All the packages have the exact same number printed on them now! ARGH!

To the squeeze method!

Thankfully Bullet Man has that pointy noggin (a re-used jet nose from the Transformers Kre-ons), so he's relatively easy to find.

I was also trying to find Zaranna, but she eluded me. I imagine she'll be popular, so she may have already been found by someone before I got there. But that idiot passed on Bullet Man, so it's their loss!

Bullet Man comes with a small flat brick and a decal to make like he is holding a MOC action figure of his own self. So meta!

The Human Bullet really appeals to my love of all things 'superhero', as well as my love of classic and nostalgic toys (although I never did own an original Bullet Man myself. I was never into dollies!)

And as if he wasn't fun enough, they added a clear 'jet pack' tube and a string, so you can zip-line Bullet Man into action!

After squeezing every mini-figure on the shelf, it seems these may be two to a shipment. So if you're good at feeling-up, you should find him easily enough.

If you are not good at feeling-up, I suggest you get to practicing!

League Post :: A Real American ZERO!

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment:

"What piece of pop culture did you HATE as a kid?"

Me? I hated GI Joe.

Okay, maybe 'hate' is too strong a word. I wasn't entirely averse to the toys. I had a soldier who you could peg onto a little glider and toss through the air, and that was fun, and I had an Lt. Torpedo that some kids left at a construction site next door to my house that I 'findered keepered.' The toys were fun, I understood the appeal, and even have a handful of modern Joe toys today.

What I really hated was that insipid cartoon.

First: Lasers. WTF?!?! Where are the live rounds? The hot lead? The full metal jackets?

Lasers. Pfft.

Second, they never shot SHIT! Ok, they shot planes down all day long (while the director made sure to show us the pilot eject and the parachute open every. single. time. EVEN FROM HELICOPTERS!) but they never shot a single PERSON.

THIS IS WAR, NOT TIDDLEY WINKS! 

There would be a firefight, seven Joes on one side hiding behind a boulder while fifteen feet away sixteen Cobra soldiers hid behind a similarly sized boulder. Eightseventhousand laser beams are flying through the air bouncing off rocks and cactus and firing in every direction including those that only exist in the fifth dimension and no one ever hit anyone.

Ever.

LAME!

At least Transformers and GoBots got blasted in the arm or leg or shot out of the sky on occasion. Sure, they are robots and they can be repaired and there's no blood, but at least they ran the risk of being hurt! But watching an episode of GI Joe was like watching Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles play darts by moonlight. Actually, even that would have been more entertaining than an episode of GI Joe.

So there you have it. I hated the GI Joe cartoon.

What other hatemongering awaits?
Henchgirl hates Hermione, for fu%* sake!
Geeky Vixen hates your little pony, gawddammit!
And Retro Toy Safari hates dollies that are full of $#!t!

Paranoia may Destro ya

I never got into GI Joe as a kid, but recently came into possession of the two main baddies from the series, Destro and Cobra Commander.

Was this Cobra Commander's first look? The sheet over his head? Or did this evolve from his mirror mask? I was never sure which came first.

I always saw Destro as the 'Boba Fett' of the GI Joe universe. Mysterious and masked and a badass who could and should be running the show. Sort of like Soundwave. Anyways, looking at this guy I have to wonder, is he wearing a tan undershirt or is he bare chested? Because if he's bare chested and wearing a metal gimp mask...well then I just don't know what to think about this guy any more.

Not much else to say about these guys except...yo Joe?

Avengers vs. GI Joe

I am loving the new cartoon series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. After decades of being in the shadow of DC, finally Marvel does an animated series right. Avengers takes all that was great about Justice League Unlimited in terms of scope and story, but of course is rocking the Marvel Universe. And like JLU, Avengers packs tons and tons of superheroes and villains into almost every episode. The comic book eye candy alone is worth the price of admission.

I am more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy, so a lot of the subordinate characters are either new to me or I'm only barely aware of, which is a fun change of pace since my DC knowledge is pretty encyclopedic.

But beyond the Marvel Universe, the recent episode 'Gammaworld Part 2' featured a cameo I did recognize and was surprised as hell to see:

Piloting a helicopter and attempting to subdue the Hulk is none other than Wild Bill of GI Joe fame!

Okay so he never says 'Hi, I'm Wild Bill of GI Joe fame. Now you know...and knowing is half the battle!' but if that ain't Wild Bill I'll eat his hat!

Stuff like this makes me all giddy inside. Thank you to whomever was involved in bringing this little Easter Egg to the Avengers cartoon.

And if you haven't already seen them or need to watch again to catch Wild Bill's cameo, you can watch parts one and two of Gammaworld at Marvel.com