ACTION FIGURES & MERCH | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Dec04

The TOP 13 GI JOE ADVENTURE TEAM Accessories and Playsets

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Dec 4, 2021

The TOP 13 GI JOE ADVENTURE TEAM Accessories and Playsets

TOYHEM: Adventure Team time with Jim Beard! — Welcome to TOYHEM! For the third straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan — Last week, we kicked off this year’s TOYHEM with 13 GREAT ACTION JACKSON OUTFITS AND PLAYSETS since it’s the 8-inch hero’s 50th anniversary. 13th Dimension columnist Jim Beard did the honors and you oughta click here to check it out. But, hey, even those of us who love Mego’s AJ know that he was a response to Hasbro’s GI Joe. So turnabout being fair play, Jim is back with the TOP 13 GI JOE ADVENTURE TEAM ACCESSORIES AND PLAYSETS. Most of you know Jim from his Batman ’66 books or his Marvel expertise, but he’s also a writer who’s published two novels about a character very much like G.I. Joe (and Action Jackson): DC Jones – Adventure Command International. The covers look just like retro outfit boxes and have appropriately pulpy titles: Secret of the Sunken Tomb and Rescue at the Arctic Outpost. So now you have a couple things to add to your holiday list: They’re both available at Amazon (click here). Not just that, but Jim was the editor of The Joy of Joe, a history of the beloved action star. (Click here to grab it on Amazon.) Anyway, Jim’s GI Joe bona fides are crystal clear — so here we go with his TOP 13 GI JOE ADVENTURE TEAM ACCESSORIES AND PLAYSETS: — By JIM BEARD My problem is that it’s hard for me to know where to start with the GI Joe Adventure Team. See, since Christmas of 1969, GI Joe has remained not only my most favorite toy of all, but a part of my psyche. The Adventure Team looms so large in life, it’s become an inspiration in my writing and a basis for friendships. Given all that, the idea of picking just 13 aspects of the action figure line seems a daunting task, but in the spirit of action and adventure taught to me by Joe and his colorful crew, I brave the challenge...

Dec02

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite 1960s COMIC BOOK TOYS — RANKED

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Dec 2, 2021

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite 1960s COMIC BOOK TOYS — RANKED

A TOYHEM tour of the Swingin’ Sixties! — Welcome to TOYHEM! For the third straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan — UPDATED 12/2/21: This groovy column by Paul Kupperberg first ran in 2020 but it was so popular, we’re re-presenting it this year. Dig it. — Dan — As we get ever closer to Christmas, we get ever closer to the end of TOYHEM 2020 — but we’ve got a couple of really groovy ones for you to wrap things up. First is this terrific piece by 13th Dimension columnist Paul Kupperberg and then, on Christmas Day, we’ve got a finale featuring Jerry Ordway. Getting right to it, here are Paul’s 13 FAVORITE 1960s COMIC BOOK TOYS — RANKED: By PAUL KUPPERBERG We live in a golden age of comic book toys and tchotchkes. Action figures. Statues. Props. Accessories. Clothing. Jewelry. Home decor. Name it. But this wasn’t always the case. Even the explosive success of the 1966 Batman TV show gave way to a relatively small increase in such product. Still, a minor increase is better than nothing, but the appearance of a really great toy (singular, as opposed to entire toy lines like the later G.I. Joe or Masters of the Universe, et al) was a significant event. While I desired deeply, and for a variety of reasons, all of the following, I didn’t actually own all of them. Toys were expensive. And, hey, what were we? Made of money?! (Sorry. Childhood flashback there!) Thanks to Batman, 1966 seems to have been the pinnacle of toy activity for the decade, and I, the budding 11-year-old comic book reader and fan, was perfectly positioned to take in this sudden explosion of comics (and comic book-like) related toys and games. — 13. Aurora Super-Hero Model Kits (Aurora Plastic Corporation, 1960s). I was never much of a model builder. I didn’t have the patience or manual dexterity to do a very good job of it and I was always disappointed by my lopsided, over-glued results. I’d given up even trying after a few...

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