Hasbro has been slowly filling out the ranks of the Dreadnoks in G.I. Joe Classified Series. We got their leader, Zartan, early in the line, with his sister Zarana soon after. We soon got the three others that first appeared with Zartan (Ripper, Buzzer and Torch). Now, we get Zartan's brother and Zarana's twin, Zandar is #146 in the G.I. Joe Classified Series.

Usually, when a comic book company adapts another property, such as from toys or movies, it keeps it separate from its main comics. There may be an occasional one-shot when one of the company's heroes meets characters from the licensed property, but the story is a one-off and is not reflected in either series. Marvel in the 1970s took a different route.

When the G.I. Joe cartoon first premiered, it was not for a full season. The initial cartoon was a 5-part miniseries. In it, Cobra has built the M.A.S.S. (Molecular Assembler Scrambler Sender), a device that can teleport anything from and to anywhere. G.I. Joe and Cobra were in a race to get the three rare elements to power their own respective devices.

The G.I. Joe Classified Series has been remarkably successful in updating the larger animal companions from the original line. From Timber to Junkyard to Porkbelly, their animal figures are almost …

The latest edition of the Otaku Box has reached my home in the Great White North. Liz promised the return of actual Waifus to the box starting this month. Was it all a lie? Let's take a look What is the Otaku Box, you might ask? Well, it is a monthly subscription box that delivers original anime merchandise like in this box to your door.

Cartoon mascots have been used for years to sell their products to their target audience, usually children. Breakfast cereals often feature mascots, from Digg'em the Frog to the Trix Rabbit. One character that has been around since the 1950s is Tony the Tiger. The mascot of Frosted Flakes and related cereals, his look and catchphrase are known by kids and adults all over the world.

The Sunbow G.I. Joe cartoon was many kids' introduction to the toy line. Unlike the comics, which had a bit more leeway with violence and mature themes, the cartoon towed the line on what they were able to show. Cobra's schemes were large, grandiose, and more than a bit ridiculous. Teleportation devices, weather control systems and mystical MacGuffins were their key to ruling the world.

There have been video games based on Marvel comics since the 1980s. From Spider-Man on the Atari 2600 to the X-Men 6-player arcade game in 1992 to Capcom's Marvel Versus series through the late nineties to mid-2010s, there have been many types of games featuring Marvel's superheroes. The Capcom fighting series is one of the most popular ones, with a collection of games being released earlier this year.

2025 finally saw Marvel's First Family, the Fantastic Four, officially join the MCU. The FF (as the kids call them) have been in three movies before (four, including the unreleased Roger Corman film), with varying levels of success (the films from 2005 and 2007 were not that bad, but the 2015 one was rough.) While there was a Reed Richards cameo in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Fantastic Four: First Steps is the debut of the new MCU version of the team.

Sometimes, collaboration can happen between the most unlikely sources. Who would have thought that one of America's most famous horror writers would contribute to a boy's military toy line? That is what happened when New England writer Stephen King and his son, Owen (who was a G.I. Joe fan) created a new character for Hasbro. This character, Crystal Ball, has now made his way to the Classified Series as figure #159, Richard "Crystal Ball" King.

The G.I. Joe cartoon from the early 1980s brought the toy line to life on television. When translating the toys to a cartoon medium, Sunbow made some subtle design changes to some characters. Cover Girl was one such character. In her first appearance, her coat went from brown to green, and her hair was long and blonde. Subtle changes were made to her design throughout the series.

Jada Toys is slowly completing the entire cast of the Review: Ultra Street Fighter II- The Final Challengers game. While all of the characters are memorable, I was waiting to see how they handle the larger sized characters. So, I got the Sagat figure (I skipped Blanka, for now), so let us take a look. Sagat is one of the original characters that come from the first Street Fighter game.

It is time for another Otaku Box review! The August 2025 edition had landed so let's take a look at what is inside. What is the Otaku Box, you might ask? Well, it is a monthly subscription box that delivers original anime merchandise like in this box to your door. Options include adding a T-shirt and upgrading for a 1/9 (or sometimes larger) scale figure.

The Street Fighter franchise is still going strong after over 35 Years. The latest game (Street Fighter 6) just released its third year of DLC characters, there is a live-action movie being filmed, and there are two 1:12 scale figure lines based on the characters. One is the Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3, and the other is Jada's Ultra Street Fighter II- The Final Challengers line by Jada Toys.

Last year, to celebrate G.I. Joe's 60th anniversary, Hasbro released four figures based on the four Armed Services branches that comprised the original 12-inch line. For this year, the 60th Anniversary line has become the Legacy Collection, and the theme seems to be First Responders. The first figure is the Search & Rescue Fire Fighter. There has not been a generic G.I.

Valaverse's Action Force is a modern military action figure line that competes directly with Hasbro's G.I. Joe Classified. While Valaverse is not a large enough company to go toe-to-toe with Hasbro, the Action Force line introduced ideas and innovations that certainly influenced the direction that the G.I. Joe line has taken. When Hasbro announced its first vehicle, Haslab for the Classified Series (the HISS Tank), Valaverse stated that they would bring vehicles to Action Force at a cheaper price.

When NECA obtained the license to create figures based on the LJN Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line, they were well-received. The sculpt, articulation and paint were done perfectly. They were a bit pricey, though. NECA, however, has followed in the footsteps of other companies by re-releasing the figures with fewer accessories, classic paint colours, and on a retro card back. Let us look at three of them: heroic Strongheart and Elkhorn, and evil Zarak.

When the 1:18 scale toy line came out in the 1980s, G.I. Joe's design elements often referred to the military in the 1960s and 70s. The vehicles, weapons, and often the look of the characters often had a Vietnam-era look. The G.I. Joe Classified Series tries to keep the look of the original toy while modernizing it for today's audience., But with figure #156, Footloose, you can almost hear the chopper blades of a Huey, with "Fortunate Son" playing in the background.

With the appearance of Tobey Macguire's and Andrew Garfield' Spider-Men in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, Hasbro has been releasing figures based on those older movies. We've seen Spider-Man and Electro based on the Amazing Spider-Man 2 and now we are getting a Tobey-based Spider-Man from Spider-Man 3. Spider-Man 3 was the final installment in the Sam Raimi trilogy and proved to be the most divisive.

In the summer of 2024, Hasbro announced their next G.I. Joe Classified Series Haslab. Following the success of the Cobra HISS and the G.I. Joe Dragonfly, the crowdfunding campaign shifted its focus to another of Cobra's iconic vehicles, the Cobra Rattler. Now, less than a year after the campaign closed, the Cobra Rattler Ground Attack Jet has arrived. The Cobra Rattler was first introduced in the G.I.

To reiterate what I said in my review of the G.I. Joe Classified Series Reto card Snow Serpent, the retro card line helps collectors get the figures that they could not find. Such is the case, for me, with the G.I. Joe Classified Series Retro carded Doctor Mindbender. The first one was an SDCC/Pulse exclusive that sold out quickly., Now we get him again, with lighter colours and fewer accessories.

The G.I. Joe franchise has introduced numerous characters to its mythology over the years. New characters were added, and their stories were told through file cards, comics, or the cartoon series. With the G.I. Joe Classified Series, newer characters come from the comics, such as Agent Helix, Kamakura, and Shooter. There is one brand new character, though. Someone not featured anywhere else before their action figure debut.

The G.I. Joe Classified Series Reto-carded line is good for two reasons. For one, mint-on-card collectors can get their favourite figures on a card that resembles the old 1980s line. The other reason is that it gives collectors a chance to get figures that they missed in the regular line. That is the case for me when it comes to the Cobra Snow Serpent figure.

The X-Men have had some weird storylines over the years. There was a time when, believed to be dead, Wolverine hid his identity by changing his appearance...with an eyepatch. He also called himself Patch. There was also a time in which the X-Men writer took a certain British telepath, made her Japanese, up her powers and made her a ninja. This is the story from with the two figures in the pack, Wolverine and Psylocke, are based on.

A lot of smaller, third-party companies have become very brazen when they release unlicensed figures form popular media. There have been unlicensed figures based on Marvel and DC IPs, some of which put the licensed stuff to shame. I covered the Patriot Studio's Alcina Dimestrescu (Resident Evil 8). Other such figures skirt a fine line like the Samurai Turtle Spring, which, with an add-on pack, can be turned into Michelangelo from TMNT.