Posted over at HissTank.com, Gyre-Viper once again gets his purple-fingered mitts on some soon to be released G.I. Joe items, this time around, from the Vacation in the Shadows Convention set! Sure, we’ve seen official production images of these awesome figures, but Gyre-Viper gives us some great comparison shots with some of the originals, which is just plain bad ass. Seeing Red Laser next to the updated Red Shadow is all sorts of cool. A great idea for him to do this, and some images that I’m really enjoying.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but this year’s set has really stoked the fire for Action Force for me, and I think Joe fans are doing themselves a disservice if they don’t check out how the universe unfolded over the pond. Some great untold stories that I hope to spend some time on as we lead up to the Con.
Thanks again to Gyre-Viper for taking these pics! Good stuff.
Okay…yeah, the floodgates have pretty much blown open. Suddenly over the past week, a few gray market sellers have started stocking the Pursuit of Cobra pre-production items and test shots again. While I try to make it a policy not to promote the sales themselves, I do, for nosey reasons, like to host the images, just so we can go through them with a fine tooth comb and pick out all the imperfections while they’re still in an unfinished state. :shifty:
Some observations here. Yeah, we’ve been choking on Dukes over the past 5 years. That doesn’t change the fact that Jungle Strike Duke is the balls. A great military look, awesome accessories. If Hasbro slapped Muskrat’s name on here, or even Leatherneck, I think fans would be climbing the walls. As such, it’s a great looking figure, and the new head sculpt makes it even better. Interestingly enough, these pre-production shots have the old Tatum melon.
I’m not really feeling that Snake Eyes. He’s all pouched up like crazy, and I can’t really tell what they’re going for. He started out as an Arctic Threat version at JoeCon, and he’s now a Desert Battle version, though apparently with the same wardrobe. Not real sure how that works. The concept of Timber is a noble one, but not really sold on the execution, at least from what we can tell here. Granted, things might be a bit different at production level.
Storm Shadow looks pretty nice. Very ceremonial, somewhat middle eastern. Looks like he’s all decked out with some crazy cool ninja weaponry. Not bad, though not sure where he really fits.
The Arctic Threat Cobra Commander looks fat, cobbled together, and just sorta… crappy. He’s one figure I’m not sad about losing.
Alley-Viper is, of course, awesome. How long have we been asking for an Alley-Viper with the vintage design, but in better colors? We’ve got it right here. He still looks very Cobra, but a whole lot cooler than the orange and purple. This guy will be flying off the pegs.
All told, a nice assortment. Some really good, some pretty bad, but mostly a solid selection of product to look forward to. I really can’t wait to see what JoeCon brings. Check out all of the various mirrored images below, most pulled from my buddies at The Terror Drome.
Now looks like a great chance to pick up some of those Rise of Cobra or 25th Anniversary stragglers you were sitting on the fence about. BBTS is having a massive sale on all of their G.I. Joe related product! Check out the full details!
Hi – Here is a quick update from http://www.bigbadtoystore.com about a
variety of new arrivals and more new preorders, we’ve also just started a
new sale:
———————
SPRING CLEARANCE SALE
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Prices have been cut on hundreds of items and we have over 2000 total
items on sale! Over 500 of these items have been discounted between 50%
and 90% off our list price. We’ve also added some bonus sale menus with
additional savings:
40% Off GI Joe Movie Items
20% Off GI Joe 25th Anniversary
30% Off Transformers Busts
30% Off Star Trek Movie
The main listing for all 2000 sale items can be found here: http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/content.aspx?content=18
The bonus menu with GI Joe and more can be found here: http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/list.aspx?list=1056 (more…)
IDW, well known in the comics world for taking full advantage of technology with their iPhone comic apps, has jumped on the iPad train as well, and announces that they will have fully functional apps for reading your favorite IDW comics (including G.I. Joe).
In fact, they’ve also uploaded a video demo of the iPad IDW app in action. Check out the embedded video below.
Comic Book Resources has been onsite for Wondercon 2010, and posted some news on the IDW Panel that happened yesterday. There wasn’t a wealth of G.I. Joe news, but Max Brooks was on hand to talk a little bit about Hearts and Minds, a limited series focusing on some Cobra and Joe characters in the new Joe universe:
“Brooks, the writer of “The Zombie Survival Guide” and “World War Z,” talked about “G.I. Joe: Hearts and Minds,” a five-issue miniseries he’s doing with artists Howard Chaykin and Antonio Fuso.
“Basically what I wanted to do was not do a linear story, but take a step back and examine the lives of certain Joe characters and certain Cobra characters,” Brooks said. Each issue will be divided into two stories – one about a Joe and one about a member of Cobra. Characters he’ll focus on include Major Bludd, Doc, Spirit, Blowtorch, Deep Six, Dr. Mindbender and a regular Cobra recruit.
“What would make someone join Cobra?” Brooks said, adding that he wanted to make them real terrorists. “I try to infuse mine with as much reality as Hasbro would let me get away with. And they let me get away with a lot.”
Brooks noted he grew up in the Reagan-era 1980s, a time of “harmless violence.” He said “G.I Joe” was perfect for that.
“There were a lot of lasers, a lot of explosions, but nobody ever died,” brooks said about the “G.I. Joe” cartoon. “A character named Roadblock used to rhyme his words, which they’re not doing anymore, thank God. But you kind of can’t do that anymore. Because America’s different. The times are different. We’re not only at war, but we’re in two separate wars. So you can’t do harmless violence.” Some of the issues he’ll tackle include medical malpractice, human evolution, science vs. religion and child development and sensory integration disorders.”
Sounds like an interesting experiment, and very cool to see a credible writer taking on some G.I. Joe duties. Looking forward to reading it.
