Cooey's Toy Box

I haven't had the chance to see the new G.I. Joe film. Mainly because of the poor reviews I've read. But I will watch it. Eventually. In the meantime, here are three of my favorites from the 2009 film G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.

Deep Six is all set to dive deep with his ADS!   Deep Six is known as a solitary person, spending his free time on solitaire and crossword puzzles. He became a Navy diver so that "I could be alone." When Deep Six first joined the G.I. Joe team, most Joes found him to be unfriendly and gruff, but he earned their respect for his skills.  The figure can be attached to a plastic bellow and a rubber tube. Pumping the bellows lets air and water run through the hollow body and are released thru holes in the feet. Squezzing the bellows makes him float up and releasing it makes him sink.

Here's the ARAH Wetsuit v1 in the G.I. Joe Polar Sharc sub from the G.I. Joe 2009 film. All systems green! Ready for launch!

1:18 True Heroes Combat Divers with a DPV diver propulsion vehicle Wetsuit, Deep Six and two Soldier Force divers get ready for some pooltime play. Deep Six prepping his atmospheric diving suit (ADS) a diving suit

12" Buzz with Ironman and the robot bunch.

Our grumpy cat displaced some Tatooine toys from their display shelf the other night so I packed them in a plastic crate for the meantime. As a consolation, I picked up a few more denizens from Tattoine to accompany them. Hopefully, I can display these soon.

I just found this neat web page that has reviews and photos of the Star Wars action figures in a variety of useful categories and thematic lists. Foir example, you can search for "Tusken raider" and it'll offer you a list of all the known figure releases, pictures, a review of each fgure, accessory counts, articulation counts, release year, date stamp and more! There's even a very cool comparison tool so you can look a figures  side by side! No market prices though, but more than enough info to help you decide which figures to add to your collection. In fact, this is how I'm currently planning my purchase of secondary market figures. Really neat! Check out  Jedi Business here . Their beginners page is here .

These are the Stikfas Skeletons sold under the Dark Lands banner and came in blisters packed with Alpha Male Pirate or Gamma Male Viking accessories. These arem some of the last products released by the brand before its unexplained cessation of business in 2008.

Pontiki models!

  Stikfas are 3.25 inch action figures made in Singapore until 2008. Each ball and socket “blank” figure can be customized with a variety of parts, accessories, equipment, etc and stickers. The figures - sold in various kits with different accessories and additions - offer exceptional poseability, interchangeability, and articulation. In 2008, the brand suddenly stopped producing products and disappeared from shelves. There has been no news so far about what happened to the company nor of a possible comeback. That said, I enjoyed collecting and customizing these toys for a while and I was pleasantly surprised to discover a plastic chest in my toy bodega containing unassembled kits and blisters. I'll be cracking some oopen in the future for some Stikfas fun.

 A Pontiki is a construction toy for building models of unusual creatures constructed from colorful plastic components of two different types: a hollow shape dotted with holes and smaller parts which fit into the holes. There are four standard body shapes, a cube, a cylinder, a cone and an egg. They can be divided into sections and combined with the body parts of other Pontiki. A friend gave me one for Christmas a year or two back and I was delighted by the little toy. Sadly though, after managing to buy a few more models, the toys disappeared from the local toy stores. I only managed to find a few references online and this seems to be the product page . However, though functioning, it doesn't say anything about the availability of the product nor point out sellers. More on these fellas soon!