So with the craze of the movie TV spot, Resolute, and the 25th Anniversary, something flying under the radar is the 2009 Convention set…  with the Convention a little more than 6 months away, we should start getting some idea of what the set is going to be any day now.  In fact, the Collectors’ Club has given us a few hints already, and I’ve made my opinions pretty publicly known already.  I’m pulling for the Red Shadows/Action Force pretty hard core, and the hints so far really do justify that in some ways.  I have to give big props to “Admiral Hunter” of the Coil Club for tying a lot of this together, but what he says makes a lot of sense.

EDIT: Shame on me for not mentioning “ggpike” of the Coil Club as well!  He gave Admiral Hunter the clues, so screw Hunter, George gets the props from me.  😉

The hints are as follows:

• “Imagine something old and something new, something foreign and nothing blue”

This is probably the most obvious…something “old” could very well point to the original UK era of Action Force/Red Shadows, which showed up in the early 80’s at first.  Something new could reference a “resurgence” of the Red Shadows, since they really haven’t existed in the G.I. Joe universe as of yet (at least on these shores).  They could also be talking about newly tooled parts that they’re using for certain figures.  Something “foreign” and “nothing blue”…well…  if they’re “Red” Shadows, that’s kind of obvious…they’re foreign, and they’re also not blue.

• “I see my image reflected back and who is that person not wearing black”

This is most obviously referencing the fact that we’re going to see some repaints in this set as usual…but perhaps this could also be talking about a Red Shadow agent named “Black Major”.  This is a character who very strongly resembles the M. Bison figure from Street Fighter II, which the Collectors’ Club has often used before as a base for their exclusives.  If Black Major were looking at his image reflecting back, the M. Bison figure would be red, not black.  For some great insight on Black Major, check out his WikiPedia page here and his image is below, courtesy of ToyDreams:

I would tell you to check out Blood for the Baron as well, but they’re currently having some server issues.  🙁

The third (and last hint so far) is as follows:

• “I am you, and you are me, that’s why we have our own army”

This could potentially be a bit tricky…but not necessarily.  If you know the Action Force history, you know that Red Jackyl was a highly ranked operative in COBRA’s organization…and he later became Destro according to the Red Shadow/Action Force mythology.  So “I am you, and you are me” could definitely be indicating that Destro and Red Jackyl are “each other”.  And “we have our own army” could be referencing the fact that Destro has his Iron Grenadiers, and Jackyl has the Red Shadows.

Am I stretching it a bit?  Yeah, possibly, but Admiral Hunter made all of these connections, and they make a LOT of sense to me.  If this is what they move forward with, I would absolutely love it.  Big fan of Action Force and the Red Shadows, and I’d love to see what the Collectors’ Club can do with these characters.