Anyone who’s collected toys has most likely at some point experienced being looked down on or ridiculed for pursuing such a hobby. We all come across those people in our lives, maybe a parent, a partner or an “ex”, who fail to see the joy that these pieces of plastic bring into our lives. They refuse to let their inner child out and miss out on realizing often times how much care,expertise & talent go into producing some of these “toys”. Some of these toys truly are “works of art” in one way or another.
Admittedly, most of the toys I collect ARE kids toys, or at least kids CAN play with them if you manage to pry their hands off their iPads or DS. But I’d like to focus on a couple of toys in my collection that definitely ARE directed towards collectors like me. Unless you want your kid accidentally swallow or stuff one of these little pieces up their nose, it would be better to leave THESE two to the grown ups….
Meet two joes…Lowlight & Lifeline. These two joes first came out in 1986. Lowlight was a night spotter/sniper, and Lifeline, well…a field medic. When the 25
th Anniversary line came and went in 2007, with Hasbro releasing over a 100 newly designed and sculpted updates of the original 3.75 line, these two were unfortunately left out. They weren’t the only ones though since the original line had more than double the number of unique characters, it was inevitable that there would be a lot of characters excluded. But Lowlight and Lifeline were two of the more GLARING ommisions from the 25
th Line (no one really cared that
Skidmark didn’t get a proper update).
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| I wanted a Lowlight SO bad...I made one |
Anyway, in 2011, Hasbro made up for their mistake by by finally releasing updated versions of these guys for their “Pursuit of Cobra” & 30th Anniversary lines, and BOY did they pull out all the stops. Joes have always been known for their accessories ….but THESE guys really put all the others to shame.
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| New & Improved! |
Lets start with Lifeline. The original 1986 figure came with a total of 4 accessories: a pistol, a backpack, a rescue case & an oxygen mask….not bad huh? The NEW lifeline came with a whopping 15 separate accessories! Here’s the rundown:
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- removable helmet
- 2 removable kneepads
- rifle
- pistol
- syringe
- knife
- medic pack
- oxygen tank
- 2 defibrillator pads
- IV bag
- IV tube
- scoop stretcher
- personalized stand
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It gets even BETTER with nightspotter Lowlight. The original figure came with four accessories, a backpack, an submachine gun & sniper rifle w/ removable bipod. New and imporved Lowlight comes with 18 separate accessories!
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- removable goggles
- removable vest
- backpack
- rifle case
- rifle stock
- scope
- rifle
- suppressor
- bipod
- submachine gun
- knife
- field telescope w/ removable antenna
- spotting scope
- tripod
- ammo case
- GPS locator
- personalized stand
- 1 bullet!!!
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Yup that’s right! The guy comes with ONE BULLET! How crazy is that? Now if you think this is overkill fpr just one action figure and that it would be impossible to keep track of all these parts, fear not! Hasbro made it possible for both figures to neatly pack up ALL their acessories so that they could conceivably hold on to everything and rush into battle fully equipped and not leave anything behind. AMAZING!
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| ONE bullet! Try fishing THAT out of your nose! |
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| All packed and ready to go! |
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Now you tell me if these two masterpieces were made for kids! I’m telling you, it really is the BEST time to be a toy collector
