I was actually somewhat surprised at the level of G.I. Joe news and info over the past few days…it’s been downright sparse! At least in official type stuff…I am glad to see lots of sites really ramping stuff up, though, and getting some great reviews posted, some leaked pics, all the good stuff we expect as toy fans. Now that the family is in bed recuperating from a few hectic days, I’ve taken a couple of minutes to scour the web and find some worthwhile recaps.
HissTank.com – G.I. Joe Desert 5-Pack Toys “R” Us Exclusive
This set has me REALLY excited. I’m not normally a big fan of desert figures or environmentally specific sets, but I am loving pretty much every figure in here. I really like that we have so many new characters… Dial Tone, Law, Repeater, and Footloose all make up for a very neat cast of characters, and it’s amazing that with so many reused parts we get such a cool and diverse 5-pack. The desert camouflage is actually pretty unique as well. Rulz got his hands on an early sample and has posted a ton of pictures here. I mirrored a few of them below.
no images were found
Terror Drome – Pictorial Review of Rise of COBRA Dragonhawk
Listen, I’ve heard all the complaints about the size of this thing, and I share many of them. This is a VERY small vehicle. But I gotta admit, I love small little mini-copters. Stuff like the Locusts of old have some really cool potential…but of course, those Locusts of old didn’t have an MSRP of $25.00. I have yet to see a Dragonhawk first hand at this point, so maybe in person the size issues really will be too much, but from the distance of a computer screen, it still looks like a bad ass little helicopter and I dig it. Check out the review at the Terror Drome here, and I’ve mirrored some images below.
no images were found
Terror Drome – Review of JoeCon Exclusive 12″ Crimson Guard
12″ figures have never really blown my skirt up, but some recent examples have softened my stance a bit. Obviously the Sideshow stuff is amazing, but even the 12″ Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, SDCC Baroness, COBRA Commander, and the upcoming Destro all look fairly cool, too. But this Crimson Guard takes the cake. It seems evident that the GIJCC wanted to give us a good 12″ figure at semi-Sideshow quality without the Sideshow level prices. I mean, it was still $50, but that’s better than a hundred. Figure doesn’t look perfect, but it’s still very nice. Check out the review here, with some images below as well.
no images were found
The Crimson Guard figure is well worth the $50. Not only is it a cool figure but it fits in with the Sideshow figures really well.
I’m tempted to buy two desert packs just to use the spare Zartan head and the Footloose body to make a correct Repeater.
I can’t share the enthusiasm for that desert pack. Seems pretty half-assed as far as vintage homages go. These guys are using vintage names, but really do nothing to fill holes in the 25th anniversary area unlike Thunder, Motor-Viper, Monkeywrench, etc. are doing under the movie banner.
I have the Dragonhawk, and I like it. The design is good and the action feature is good. However, it is pretty small, and it just doesn’t seem to have the same value as, say, the Steel Crusher (which I like a lot more than I originally thought I would). So, nice vehicle, but yes, it should’ve been $5 cheaper for sure.
After looking through the Superpage I’m going to only go with one desert pack and use the Footloose body / extra Zartan head to make Repeater. I’ll then use the Repeater is comes with as Hardball. Then I’m going to use the Target Attack on the PIT HQ, Pit Commando to make a jungle Footloose. Plans… plans… plans… we gotta make out plans.
I’m a little confused by Repeaters skintone, it’s extremely dark compared to the art on his filecard… that’s not to say that I particularly care what color Repeater ends up, its just odd how much it seems that they didn’t notice the inconsistency during production.
It’s a shame we all have to make plans like M6D said; because we have to put pieces together of different figures to get our beloved characters as they should look. too bad they just put the names and almost every one of these figures are just bland joes and janes, nothing in particular makes them look at all as they were in the good ol’ days. i’m sorry but this desert pack is just crappy.