We Had That

G.I. Joe's enemy: Cobra Frogman "Eels" (Hasbro, 1985) 1985 was an awesome year for GI Joe!  Hasbro gave us some of the best bad guys of the entire Real American Hero run with The Crimson Guard, Snow Serpents, and the first three Dreadnoks!  Even with all of those awesome new characters from Hasbro, the Cobra Eel was definitely one of the figures that caught my eye right from the first time I saw the new figures pictured on the back of my Footloose card!  Just from that tiny picture, I knew I wanted to add this guy to my Cobra team. Cobra Eel: Ready for Action! At that point, we didn't have many underwater figures.  Torpedo was a great figure from wave 2, but my Deep Six figure who came out in wave 3 spent most of his time living in a shoe box and rarely saw any action at all.  Torpedo needed someone to fight against and the Cobra Eels fit that role perfectly! GI Joe: Cobra Eels file card According to their file cards, the Eels are Cobra's demolition experts....

  G.I. Joe's enemy: Cobra Communications Specialist "Tele-Viper" (Hasbro, 1985) When Hasbro first introduced G.I. Joe as a 3 3/4" "Real American Hero" in 1982, I fit their target audience 100%. I wanted all of the toys, I read the comic books, I watched cartoons and got excited when there was a commercial for GI Joe.  By 1985, I had a nice collection of Joes and Cobras who shot, punched, kicked, stabbed, and blew each other up pretty much daily.  When I saw my first wave-four figure in the toy store (It was Footloose, by the way), I looked at the back of his card and saw so many cool characters that I couldn't wait to find them!  Some of the most exciting were: The Dreadnoks, Snow Serpents, Crimson Guard, a new Snake Eyes figure with a sword and a wolf!?  The Tele-vipers, honestly, had some pretty serious competition for my very-few dollars.  The stars never aligned and I never brought home a Cobra Communications figure. Cobra Tele-Viper in the field Al...

  Sectaurs: Zak and Bitaur (Coleco, 1985) The seed for the idea of Sectaurs started way back in 1978 when Tim Clarke made a hand puppet Fly for a Halloween party.  People at the party loved it.  A few years later, when coming up with ideas for toys, Tim brought out the puppet again.  It was suggested that action figures could ride on the puppets and sketches were made for some characters which would eventually be developed into the 7" Sectaurs figures and their flying companions that came out in 1985. Four Sectaurs: Night Fighting Dargon, Zak, Mantor, & Skito I don't remember much about Sectaurs from my childhood.  I probably saw a TV commercial for them, but I don't even remember that.  I only know for certain that I had two Sectaurs.  I'm positive that one of them was Mantor and I'm 95% sure that the other one was Waspax...mainly because it really seems like I had his flying companion, Wingid.  I also distinctly remember selling both figures...

Vultura from the "Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones" line (Galoob, 1984) Mattel had phenomenal success with their Masters of the Universe line starting in 1982.  In 1984,  Galoob's sword and sorcery line 'Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones' was released to serve as a companion series to The Masters of the Universe, but targeted towards girls.  Mattel's own "She-Ra" line would serve essentially the same purpose shortly after and, in the long run, achieve much more success.  However, despite Mattel's application for the She-Ra trademark being filed about a week before Galoob's application for the Golden Girl trademark (She-Ra trademark filed on Oct. 23, 1984 vs. Golden Girl trademark filed on Nov. 2, 1984), Golden Girl was able to beat She-Ra to the stores. Teela (Mattel, 1982) - Vultura (Galoob, 1984) - She-Ra (Mattel, 1985) At about 6" tall, the Golden Girl figures were slightly taller than the female Masters of ...

Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones (Galoob, 1984) Mattel released the original Masters of the Universe toys in 1982.  Although they were popular upon their release, the final push that turned the franchise into one of the biggest in history was the Filmation cartoon "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" which debuted in September of 1983.  For the next few years, He-Man was absolutely unstoppable!  His popularity led to many imitators.  Other toy companies were manufacturing buff, squatting, almost nude 5.5" action figures in the sword & sorcery style that walked very close to the line of trademark infringement.  Because professional wrestling was also popular at the time and many of the wrestlers were running around in nothing but shorts and boots just like He-Man, there were also many different lines of wrestling action figures produced in a similar style as well.  It was really no surprise.  When 12" G.I. Joe was the top sell...

GI Joe RAH: Cobra Rifle Range Unit (Hasbro, 1985) From 1982 through 1984, I loved GI Joe toys!  I think I had every figure and vehicle for the first three waves.  I picked up every issue of the comic book and I sometimes watched the cartoon.  By the time the fourth wave hit the shelves in 1995, I was still a big fan, but no longer a completist when it came to these real American heroes.  Don't misunderstand, I was as at maximum excitement to finally have action figures of the Dreadnoks!  I had been reading about them in the comics and just thought they were the greatest.  Even with the fourth wave, I picked up almost all of the figures, but the vehicles and such just didn't grab me as they had before.  I did have the Bridge Layer (although I honestly don't know why) and the awesome Snow Cat!  I must have never seen the Cobra Night Landing raft in stores because that's definitely a piece that I would have liked.  However, for some reason,...

1985 Wave 2 Kenner Super Powers Martian Manhunter Martian Manhunter's first appearance was in Detective Comics in November of 1955.  This is considered by some to be the beginning of the Silver Age of comics (although the redesign of The Flash from Showcase #4 in October of 1956 is the more common starting point for the Silver Age).  In March of 1960, the first appearance of the Justice League of America included Martian Manhunter as one of the seven original members (along with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Flash) in issue #28 of The Brave and the Bold.  Throughout the Silver Age, Martian Manhunter and his alter ego, Detective John Jones, appeared regularly as the backup story in Detective Comics.  Martian Manhunter was also often a featured character in the Justice League of America comic book.  He appeared in several other DC comic books throughout the years as well.  However, when Kenner released this figure in 198...