Blue Box Toys International Limited, or BBi, has been very prominent in the world of 1:18 scale toys, especially during 2008, when they were prolific at retail. The attention to detail is admirable when it came to land vehicles and aircraft but it was their main weakness in action figures. Very forgivable. For once, Joes can, then, have better scaled and realistic military motor pool, from M1A1 main battle tanks, to Apache helicopters and Fighter-bomber aircraft, in the guise of F-18 Hornets and F-16 Vipers.

Then, suddenly, it stopped.
Naturally, prices sky-rocketed and their value more than doubled.

Fast forward to the present and, in 2011, BBi struck back with a vengeance.

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G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra toys have finally been released at Retail!

…and I do not mean the special expensive retail shops ;) 

I have made it a habit to take pictures of Joe store displays at retail as, sooner or later, some evil munny-grabbing Terry the Toy Terror Taliban will use his mummy’s ill-gotten blood munny to hoard these…

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Back in the day, The Joe APC was an enigma to me. I have never seen it on retail and all I got was a sketchy drawing on an 80’s catalogue. It claimed to be able to transport 30 people and that was something I wanted badly, as a kid. Imagine, no more walking plastic!

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Customizing military vehicles will mean adding weapons, sooner or later. At its simplest, it could just be poking a hole on the roof to mount a machine gun. However, to make a weapon interact with action figures means the weapon itself must be poseable.

Case in point, Bbi’s Mk 19 Auto Grenade Launcher.

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Normally, when the word “Technical” is mentioned, the first image comes to mind is that of a Toyota pick-up truck overloaded with AK-toting gunmen with a mounted Warsaw Pact light machine gun mounted on top.
Nothing new there.

What is now interesting is the modern Western equivalent used in Afghanistan. Usually a Ford pickup truck loaded with gear and M4 wielding soldiers. Now, that’s stylish.

While writing for my upcoming WIP vehicle, I came across this article from Adam Wilder on a project involving a Toyota Hi-lux. I just had to feature this.

Special Forces Hi-Lux

Words cannot describe the end result of this project. The contrast of the glossy racer red and military gear is perfect!

Copyright ©2009 by Adam Wilder. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2006-12-10

Now, the really cool part?
The base body is available in 1:18 ! A friend of mine in Thailand asked me to buy a few things and one of those is a Ford F150. I see much potential here as the F150 is of the 4 door variety and it came pre-painted with a glossy finish. That will definitely cut down on paint work so one could just concentrate on gathering the little details like weathering, gun mounts, and gear.

I could see a lot of possible configurations and my personal favourite would be the Mark 19 AGL from Forces of Valor, which is very abundant lately. The set even comes with a crewman helmet and desert pack so it is definitely worth it. Otherwise, the standard M2 .50 cal. or even the M240B machine gun will do. Again, both available in abundant supply with extra accessories.

Well, I do hope my friend will do a custom F150 when he gets it. I am still behind schedule with 2 pending vehicle customs. One, of which, will be similar. This year is definitely a very exciting year for 1:18 scale action figures. I really can not wait to see how it turns out.

Special acknowledgment to Adam N P Wilder for the excellent pictures.