#gijoe1987

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After a lotta hard work the 1987 packs are now available in the GIJOE365 online store  . I did the smart thing of producing both packs at the same time so you can save on shipping and not have to wait! Each of the 1987 packs is filled with a whopping 25 cards, and some stickers! This brings the total amount of unique figure cards up to 152, capturing every single figure created for the G.I. Joe ARAH line from 1982-1987 so far.

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UPDATE: The full 1987 set is now IN PRODUCTION. You should be able to order soon! This includes BOTH parts/packs btw, with totals a whopping 42 FIGURE CARDS, plus all the extras on top of that!

There are several fun aspects to this year of packs but one of them is that for the STEEL BRIGADE card, I left BLANK LINES on the back so you can write in what YOUR figure and his specialties were if you want!

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152: “The Fridge.” G.I. Joe “Real American Hero” Series 6, 1987.

This caps off 1987! This figure is William “The Refrigerator” Perry, aka THE FRIDGE. This was another figure only available via mail-in. I actually really liked this figure a lot! Obviously it was radically different and kinda off the wall comparatively to other figures, but it was fun and he was a powerhouse!

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151: “Steel Brigade.” G.I. Joe “Real American Hero” Series 6, 1987.

This is quite possibly one of the most “important” things that happened throughout the entire G.I. Joe “A Real American Hero” series. This figure was available via mail-in and the idea of it is that it is YOU. Or, your CHARACTER, if you prefer. But basically there was a form you would fill out that allowed you to choose the codename, and several aspects of the character via multiple choice, and this would include specialties etc, just like on file cards.

You have to imagine this from the perspective of a 10yr old boy. It was truly remarkable. I think everyone loves the ability to customize anything, and the fact that after loving and collecting GI Joe figures for the prior 5 years, you could suddenly create your own, in a fashion, was VERY exciting. You would receive the figure, accessories, your custom file card, AND a snazzy PATCH! Very very exciting for a 10yr old lemme tell ya.

Now, as for the design of the figure itself, the head/helmet was the only new piece, and the torso, arms, waist, and legs were all repaints of previous figures parts. It gets a bit complicated because there were several variations, but I have chosen to draw the version that I personally received in the mail, which consists of (017) Airborne’s torso, (028) Grand Slam’s arms, (020) Gung-Ho’s waist, and (040) Scrap Iron’s legs. It’s generally accepted that there are 5 main variations, and one of the main distinctions is (031) Duke’s torso. You can see great comparison and details and photos at http://www.3djoes.com/steel-brigade.html

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149: “Maverick.” G.I. Joe “Real American Hero” Series 6, 1987.

This is “Maverick.” He caps off of the six initial Battleforce 2000 figures. He was paired to the vehicle called the “Vector.”

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146: “Blocker.” G.I. Joe “Real American Hero” Series 6, 1987.

This is “Blocker.” Another of the six initial Battleforce 2000 figures. He was paired to the vehicle called the “Eliminator.”

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150: “Starduster.” G.I. Joe “Real American Hero” Series 6, 1987.

We’ve had several figures already that were initially only available via mail-in, and we are gonna cap off 1987 with three, in fact. Starduster here is the first of those three.

Starduster was first available through the G.I. Joe Action Stars cereal. Later,  Starduster was available via other mail order offers through Hasbro.

One recurring element that we’ve seen as I’ve been pushing through this project is the idea of “repaints” of some figures, or parts of certain figures used for other figures. What this means is that the molds from a previous figure are used to create parts for a “new” figure. Starduster is one HECK of a Frankenstein’s Monster in this regard and in fact has several variations that were issued. I won’t bother to go over all those versions, as there are archival sites like yojoe.com and 3Djoes.com that do an amazing job detailing all that. However, I will say that the version I have chosen to draw has the Duke torso/chest, Flint arms, Recondo Waist, and Roadblock v1 legs. The head is supposedly not a recycled part but it looks VERY similar to Flash v1 to me.

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141: “Golobulus.” G.I. Joe “Real American Hero” Series 6, 1987.

Welp. This may in fact be the weirdest figure I will draw for this entire project.  

Here we have the first of another 3-pack: COBRA-LA. This was the sort of “partner pack” to counter the Renegades pack preceding it. All of these characters were featured in the G.I. Joe movie that came out this same year. Ol’ Golobulus here was voiced by none other than Burgess Meredith (who played The Penguin in the Adam West Batman TV series, AND Rocky’s trainer Mickey in the Rocky movies).

Even as a kid, I remember holding this figure in my hand and thinking “Hmm.”