The League of Shadow

This is not a list of the all time best toys. This is the top five all time best gifts from Santa.

#5  Sears: Bat Mobile

This was such a surprise for me. I have no idea how old I was (it was young), but I was blown away. My Mom had also made a Raggedy Andy style kid sized Robin and had him in the car to ride with me. In my stocking were Batman underoos, and a hand made blue felt cowl and cape. Awesome.

#4 He-Man: Castle Grayskull

 This was the coolest toy ever (on that day). As a little kid it was the only evil looking thing I owned, plus this was my first year of playing with He-Man and I had THE playset. 

#3 Star Wars: Millenium Falcon

 This was a fun toy/spaceship/playset. IT had lots of things to do all over the place. Plus it was the mother-fucking Millennium Falcon YO! The 2008 Falcon blows this on out of the water and Hasbro should be ashamed of the $140 price tag as it makes this a collector toy and way too much for parents who are not insane. No I don’t have the new one….My wife would not allow it. I did really want it though…

#2 Transformers: Jet-Fire

Really this was just a sweet-ass Robotech toy. This is the most solid, well built, Transformer of all time…probably. I have no idea why, but I always loved this toy. Jet-Fire would make the list of all time toy line figures for me. (not character, but toy)

#1 G.I. Joe: The Cobra Terrordrome!!

To this day this is the greatest toy ever. Even on a list of all time best toys this would have a shot, if not totally lock down the number one spot. This was one of those toys that I knew even at that age, we couldn’t afford, but I dreamt about this damn toy. I never questioned it then, but I think I need to ask my Mom how the hell she even managed to get this for me. Do I even wanna know? (NO not that…I meant maybe she held someone at gun-point) jerks.

How many toys today suck ass? I always find myself strolling through a toy isle from time to time to see what toys my kids are going to start asking for. Not only do the toys suck, but the toy line I loved as a kid was fucking desecrated by horrible later versions. Like this 1992 horrible “Duke” figure. Where is that camo going to hide him, in a tampon?

After the Transformers movie, I was curious to how good the new line of toys would be. They are pretty sweet, but that’s not what this entry is about. My eye caught a G.I. Joe figure named “Sgt. Stalker” in what looked to be the original type packaging, complete with the proper file card on the back. Let’s get in some history before I finished what I had found on the special shelf that day.

As a kid my greatest love in life was the G.I. Joe toy line. I had every figure, (not counting convention specials) including mail-ins from 1982 to 1989. I still remember I was allowed to get about 1-2 figures a month at the local K-Mart. I would have to totally lie to my mother and convince her that I did not have the generic Cobra Trooper. Of course I did, but I needed an army because after all, on the cartoon and in the comic there were a ton of solders. Who the hell wanted to fight 6 G.I. Joes vs. 3 Cobra? I needed a ton of Snake Eyes fodder to smoke before the showdown to come.

After 1989, 2 things happened that would stall my obsessed collecting. Middle school and mostly the toys started to suck. They really got horrible during the 91 series and continued to get worse until they looked crappier than the local drug store rip off version of G.I. Joe.

By the way if you want to visit a fantastic archive site for Joe toys go to www.yojoe.com. The site is not very pretty and loads really slow (especially from work) but has fantastic historical information and pictures.

Enter, 25th anniversary G.I. Joe figures. These are actually by far the best Joe figures I have seen (including the originals). These toys add additional movement at the wrists and feet. Also most of the straps and helmets on all these figures are removable.

The exceptions are few, but a couple figures look stupid. Lady Jay, Gold-head Destro (with leopard print, the battle armor one is sweet), and Serpentor come to mind as bad ones. I can’t believe they totally screwed up Serpentor that bad.

So far from research I have seen up to 5 waves of confirmed figures, releasing about 4 figures a wave. They already have out 3 five figure sets. One is a Joe set and 2 are Cobra sets. These sets are good too. Normally these types of sets will have about 1-2 of the actually toys you want. Here is the list of toys that come in each set. Joe Set: Snake-eyes, Duke, Agent Scarlett, Roadblock, and Gung-Ho. I think maybe Gung-Ho or Roadblock should have been switched out with Rock n Roll, but over all, its solid. Cobra set: Cobra Commander, Cobra Soldier, Storm Shadow, Baroness, and Destro. Very sweet.

They are also releasing comic 2-packs, with reproduction Joe comics with two of the featured characters in toy form. These things are also selling like hot cakes. I have yet to see more than 5 figures at a store, and never the same group at the same store within days of each other. The “Flint” toy in wave one seems to be the rare toy of the group and the most popular among the ebay and auction crowds.

This $5.99 toy, if you can find it, will fetch you 50-100 bucks the day you buy it. With these sales I would love for them to continue to release sets until they get all the favorites in there. Missing so far to my heart is, Tomax and Xamot, Dr. Mindbender, Major Blood, and of course Tunnel Rat.

Check out www.toynewsi.com for updated info. This is also where most of the pics came from. Thanks guys!