1998 The Corps! Bio-Wing Battle Squadron Kash Kobra

On December 7, 2021December 7, 2021 By thedragonfortressIn The Corps!12 Comments

Today we’re going to keep it simple and look at a fun, brightly colored toy. I’ll go over all of the basics about the figure and its accessories and provide plenty of photos. We’ll do it in that same gallery/quick review style I use for most small GI Joe vehicles.

So while you’ll probably learn everything you want to know about the toy, this won’t be a full review. I just don’t have it in me right now. But we can still have fun anyway.

Let’s take a look at the 1998 The Corps! Bio-Wing Battle Squadron Kash Kobra. He’s green and yellow and fun all over.

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The Corps! Lightning Mobutu (1992) Review

On October 28, 2021October 28, 2021 By thedragonfortressIn The Corps!10 Comments

Lightning Mobutu, produced by Lanard for its Corps! line in 1992, is a figure I’ve wanted to review for quite a while. This week, I got a wild hair and decided to actually do it.

Several of the photos contained in this review are pretty old. You might even recognize some of them. There’s even one with hilariously bad green screen editing and visible figure stands. It’s a photo I was always kind of historically embarrassed about. But, when I revisited it, I actually found it kind of charming. So it got to stay.

Anyway, please enjoy these old and new photos.

This review is also a reminder that I need to focus on The Corps! more often. Maybe the next time I can’t decide on which toy line to pull my next review from, I’ll look to Lanard again. It seemed to help me this week.

So let’s take a look at the figure who might be my all time favorite toy from Lanard’s bold and beautiful sci-fi military toy line.

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The Corps! Whispering Willie (Version 1) Review

On June 10, 2021June 10, 2021 By thedragonfortressIn The Corps!8 Comments

(Editor’s Note: Today’s review comes from my good friend Cody, who you may recognize from our Whipsaw review. Cody is a fantastic photographer, action figure customizer, writer, and storyteller. You can find Cody’s work on Instagram.)

Article by Corps Commander Cody

The Corps! is one of my favorite toy lines of all time. While most others write them off as cheap imitations or, at worst, complete and inferior knockoffs, I think The Corps! is a worthy brand. They have continued to provide products with all the fun of GI Joe at reduced cost. In fact, they are still producing figures today- some of the non articulated ones are not to my taste, but they’re constantly on store shelves, unlike some brands I could mention.

Even the biggest Joe Bro who says that every military figure that’s not a Joe is a Corps! figure may agree that the greatest “Lanyard” “Corpse” was Whispering Willie. They may not know his name, but they love his face. And brother, I do too.

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The Corps! Whipsaw Review (All Versions)

On March 24, 2021July 20, 2021 By thedragonfortressIn The Corps!11 Comments

I love Lanard’s The Corps!, but you’ve probably noticed that I’ve only published one article on the toy line up to this point. That’s because each figure has so many releases and variants that you have to be an expert to write anything comprehensive on the franchise. Good information on the toy line does exist, but it’s often buried in labyrinthian forums, so it’s tough to compile. Especially when you’re blessed with a short attention span like mine.

Luckily, I found an expert. Today I’m joined by my friend Cody (visit him on Instagram), who’s exhaustively researched and chronicled every version of The Corps!’s Whipsaw– which happens to be his favorite figure.

To me, Whipsaw was always just one of “the hat” guys, and was sometimes the “bare chested harness” guy (which made him more interesting).

Hopefully Cody’s passion and attention to detail rubs off on you, too. Because now I’m a diehard Whipsaw fan.

Cody will be doing most of the heavy lifting on this article, with both photos and writing, so almost everything you see here was submitted by him. I’ve left a little note in each section and a couple photos here and there, but he did all the hard work.

Thanks, Cody!

Let’s begin.

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The Hardest of the HardCorps! – A Love Letter to Lanard’s The Corps!

On November 10, 2017November 12, 2017 By thedragonfortressIn The Corps!21 Comments

Only GI Joe is GI Joe. Nobody Beats GI Joe. GI Joe Is There.

But what if someone else is GI Joe? What if someone might, in fact, beat GI Joe? And what if someone else is there?

Dear readers, I present to you– Lanard’s THE CORPS!

The Corps! is a highly skilled group of soldiers, hockey players, skiiers, wrestlers, spacemen, forest rangers, and street punks recruited from all over the world to fight a nebulous enemy force. No, not that team… the other one. Members of The Corps! are divided into units based on each individual’s skills, weapons, specialties, pants-wearing preferences, and the colors of their outfits.

If you can afford them (and you probably can), then you can hire THE CORPS!

A few weeks ago, I got bored of looking for the few GI Joe figures on top of my “most wanted” list. They’re all painfully expensive and hard to come by. Granted, there are plenty of great figures I don’t have, but I was feeling defeated.

To curb that feeling of rejection and further feed my plastic army man habit, I purchased a few lots of vintage, o-ring style Lanard Corps! toys from eBay. I bought one carded “8 man team” collector’s pack and a few mixed lots.

This caused me to remember everything I love about The Corps!… and just a few things I don’t.

The Corps!, oddly, aren’t written or spoken about too much in the GI Joe community despite their similar construction, great sculpts, awesome vehicles, and neat character concepts.

So, in an effort to fill that void, I assembled a crack commando squad to nerd out about THE CORPS!

Since this is a huge post, even by Dragon Fortress standards, I’ve included a handy table of contents below. Simply click the chapter you’d like to read or, better yet, enjoy the whole post.

Let’s party.

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The Dragon Fortress

Category: The Corps!