Black Manta

Black Manta

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

the Unknown Soldier











Rangers lead the way:  Lonzo is the highest caliber special forces Green Beret.

Stalker is the proven truth when it comes to Army Special Operations; ready to deploy by land, air and sea anywhere in the world at a moments notice to respond to the latest contingency or crisis.  This Green Beret has executed the most critical special missions of direct action,  hostage rescue,  clandestine night fighting,  air field seizure,  infiltration and advanced Recon.  Missions so critical his superiors , superiors can't even talk about them.  The perfect warrior and epitome of the Ranger Creed.



The field commander of the original G.I.Joe team which consisted of Rock N Roll, Short Fuse, Scarlett, Breaker, Grunt, Zap, Grandslam, Snake Eyes and Flash.




Stalker has been in the OA1 top five figures since 1982, his first appearance.
Me and Stalker has destroyed all my neighborhood  friends teams of Joe's.
We firecracker ed their guys, won their vehicles and took home their weapons. Alpha Fight stands undefeated.

I still have multiple versions of the figure. Their a little rough for wear but who doesn't have battle scars? Here's one or two from my collection,  I added in a few new one's with my old ones and a couple of custom jobs too just to let you know were ready to roll if that's what you want to do (just saying).






Stalker with Rhino vehicle



Stalker: Infiltrator unit


Stalker was always prominent in the figure realm and has a multitude of action figures. In the G.I.Joe comics and cartoon though he had no true presence. After the first season of the cartoon he wasn't included at all.  Roadblock was the big strong Black guy that spoke everything in rhyme, that always bragged about being a gourmet cook. He's the African American that is G.I.Joe spotlighted not the multilingual medic bad ass Green Beret.?.  Don't get me wrong, I like Roadblock and I chalked it up to Stalker and Duke are figuratively the same guy;  the leader, the main character, the most interesting character to build around. So they couldn't have two (riiight). Add in that later the word stalker became a socially used negative descriptive word. Still, no excuse not to use Stalker the G.I.Joe in the mainstream (unless you have no creative talent).
Well Stalker was cool when he was in the cartoon.




Stalker could easily move right into his own individually mainstreamed verse in the world of G.I.Joe. With his own supporting cast of joes to go along with him. 
His squad would be Beach head, Gung Ho, Airborne, Shipwreck, 
Doc (Carla Greer) and Bomb strike.




Duke's team is usually Roadblock, Scarlett, Flint, Lady Jaye and Stalker

Snake Eyes support team is usually Storm Shadow, Jinx, kamakura, Quinn, the Hard master and the Blind Master. sometimes Stalker.

So these guys can cameo when it's Stalkers time to shine. 
I'd back up Lonzo's 1st team with 
 Spirit, Snow Job, Recondo, Bullet Proof, Dial tone and Alpine. 
But this is a OA1 dream production so who knows who might show up.
the October Guard would for sure.











16 comments:

  1. Hell yeah! So old GI Joe love. Stalker was always solid, especially in the comics, since he was so close with both Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Hell he was in the same unit as them.

    Cool line up of Stalker figures too. Wish I'd kept mine. Damn I had so many!

    Sweet trip down memory lane Tiger:)

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    1. I hear Ray Parks wants to do a spin off Snake Eyes movie. I saw the 2nd movie. The Snake Eyes segment was the movie. The rest was bull.

      With Stalker and Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow being so close it would be cool if Stalker represented G,I.Joe (the military) in a Snake Eyes movie.

      Stalker is the past, present and future. Like Batman he's forever.

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  2. Stalker was one of the only Joe Toys I ever had. He just looked mean and came with a canoe, but otherwise I mainly only brought the bad guys. Hey, what can I say, I was a dark and angry kid :)

    Speaking of Unknown Soldier though, if you haven't definitely check out the Vertigo series by writer Joshua Dysart, that deals with race and social punishment in Uganda. God damn is it brilliant!

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    1. Good looking out Dan. Stalker is my guy. The very first one I had fell behind the fire place lost forever. It took months, years even before I found another one. The Tundra Ranger is one of the best Joe's ever. A modern version is on my wish list.

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  3. shit man those Stalker variants you made are cool. i was watching Predator earlier today and this posting has got me thinking of a Carl Weathers custom figure from that movie. of course you'd need to have a version in which he was . . . dare i say it, disarmed?

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    1. KeKeKe...Random you crazy.

      @Shlomo: I got a new custom I'm about to start on for real and a vehicle. While doing this post I pulled out the Joe's man and got emerged into the world of Joe again. I even found my old lunch box. I just been staring at it for 2 days.

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    2. YO! check it out: http://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2013/08/vixen-and-black-panther.html

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  4. The only G.I. Joe figure I had was Scarlet (I know, shocker) and she never got to play with the cool guys, because my brothers were doody heads. I loved watching the show, though, and when I was older I really loved reading the comics. Especially the bits with Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and Stalker. I'm sure that had a little bit to do with the whole Scarlet/Snake Eyes thing. But really, they were just cool. You're right, Tiger, about the best part of the second movie being all Snake Eyes. I'd be really happy with a movie based all around that group. Excellent collection of figures. :)

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    1. Why thank ma'am. And I would love to see a Snake Eyes movie as well; with me cameo-ing as a Japanese Blackman that runs Don Cheadle's card game under the BT dojo. Or a background extra that you'll never see unless you pause the movie and use a magnifying glass. Either way is good right?

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  5. @Random: Gee I never would'be guessed Scarlet either;)
    The show was indeed he shit, but then that was just a really great time to watch cartoons as a kid back then.
    @Dan: LOL'ng at the fact you only bought the bad guys. That's funny as hell since you're such a nice guy;)

    As far as the comics go, I was a major fan, as I was collecting Tansformers comics. Stalker was in the same vietnam unit as Snake, Storm Shadow, and one other guy, Fred something, I forgot. If you haven;t already, go find #'s21-22. It's the origin, and shows a cool scene of Snake-Eyes going back for Storm Shadow, dodging VC bullets. He's get shot to shit, but uses his training to avoid any deadly hits. So bad ass. But yeah, Stalker/Storm/Snake/Scarlet, they were all tight for so many years in the comics.

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    1. Snake Eyes/Scarlett/Stalker/Stormshadow was core GIJoe. I would spaz out for a comic book that featured that. A movie would be historic.

      Dan and the bad guys, I said the same thing. Dan is such a good guy how would he play Captain Boomerang at a con? Instead of Boomerangs he'd throw candy. Dan was at my last family cook out playing batminton. Dan was at Shlomo's lighting candles for the holidays.

      Dan I'm joking man. You are the good guy of our little band of bloggers though, or at least that's how we see you. SuperDan.

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  6. Ha ha, lol Tiger!
    You forgot to mention how Dan had just come from saving some kids form a burning building on the way to that family reunion or yours.

    Or how he was actually allowed to host a bar mitsvah and perform bris on several new young inductees to manhood. Nothing says bris, like a Dan bris;)

    Love ya mate;)

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    1. Hilarious my friend, this could go on forever. I went back and read Richard Dragon 1-3 and gosh it was not good. I like the art work but story wise :( it's awful. I said all of that to say...uhhh it was awful.

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  7. I just got the Showcase edition of DC Comics Presents [ the Superman team-up comic with various heroes from the late 70s, early 80s] an done issue actually featured The Unknown Soldier. apart from the confusing timey-wimey timeline, he was portrayed almost like Steve Trevor on acid, some crazy all-knowing quick disguise artist.
    Mind , I only got the tome for two reasons - Black Canary refusing to help Supes on a mission because her hair was still wet from taking a shower [gotta love those sexist old writers who knew to put wimmen in their place - joke] and Superman kicking the absolute SHEEETTTT out of Mongul.

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    1. I'd luv it just to see big blue slap Mongul around. I can't stand that guy.

      Quick change artist you say? Was he worth keeping tabs on or does he need to meet Wonder Woman from Flash Point?

      Oh, Canary and those fishnets has a place in any medium, Yes sir those legs are amazing.

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