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May 23, 2007
Yo Joe! M. Bison Meets Cobra Commander
Video game characters have been transplanted into the world of action figures for years, but how often do gaming characters muscle into someone else's action figure property? Back in 1993 Hasbro tried to make their G.I. Joe line of toys relevant once again, and one of these attempts was to bring Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and the rest of the Street Fighter 2 team into the Joe team. Some of the action figures even feature "martial arts action", e.g. springs that let the characters punch and kick. And guess what? They even come with accessories! YoJoe.com has photos and information on each toy (look under the column on the right marked "Street Fighter 2").
M. Bison came with two black rifles, a black pistol, a green missile launcher (spring loaded, actually fired), two black missiles, an orange grappling hook, a black string, and a black figure stand. Some versions of M. Bison came with silver shoulder pads. The grappling hook can be pulled apart into two component pieces.
Hasbro captured the character likenesses for the most part, but some of the toys just don't look quite "right" because most of them were crafted from existing torsos and other body parts that were already in use for other figures from the Joe world. When Street Fighter: The Movie was released, Hasbro took another run at the characters, crafting variations based on the film's interpretation of the famous figures. These action figures aren't part of the G.I. Joe line, however, so pitting this version of M. Bison against Cobra Commander for a battle royale is strictly forbidden.
Posted by MattG on May 23, 2007 at 10:31 AM in General, Retro/Classic | Permalink
Comments
I have a few of those, they're pretty nice.
Actually they're not, they suck, but hey. I got them for free.
Posted by: | May 23, 2007 3:56:12 PM
"Hasbro captured the character likenesses for the most part"
Liar! I had all of those - they SUCKED! In retrospect, outside of three or four characters' custom body part or two (I'm guessing?), that they were half-assing it with other GI Joe parts was blatant. I mean, freaking Ryu, THE Street Fighter character, they had him wearing some long-sleeved turtleneck-looking thing with black gloves and shoes. Ken had like, Ninja Turtle-esque sais in his uniform! Zangief had some weird fursuit thing on and was the same size as the rest of the characters. And Blanka... just looked like some bright green shirtless army guy with long dayglo hair. Which is technically better than the flattop they showed him with on the box! The one positive thing I can say about the lot of them is that all of the figures have seriously amusing (if generic) frowns and grimaces.
Sorry, just thinking about how much money must've been spent on all that crap just because I dug throwing a hadouken every now and then. By the way, they made crappy Mortal Kombat figures, too!
http://www.yojoe.com/archive/actfig/mortalkombat.shtml
Posted by: Eric | May 23, 2007 10:38:25 PM
Love the links...
As a side ntoe, if you are interested in voting to get the Street Fighter II figures re-released under the Real American Hero line (they have a timeless cheesiness to them), I recommend heading over to http://www.hasbro.com/gijoe/rah/ and placing a vote for Street Fighter II.
You know you want it. ;)
Posted by: RyanDG | May 24, 2007 8:16:56 AM
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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Yo Joe! M. Bison Meets Cobra Commander:
» Yo! Street Fighter II from Kotaku
Man, Chun Li looks PISSED. Perhaps she wasn't happy with the licensing deal Capcom struck with American toy maker Hasbro. Riding on the wave of Street Fighter II popularity, the in-game characters got G.I. Joe figure likenesses that look,... [Read More]
Tracked on May 24, 2007 4:02:25 AM

