Information was absolutely flying around the ‘net today with the Renegades panel, and I’m endeavoring to gather it all into one sensible location. Been a bit challenging so far! I’ve been following the Cover It Live stream over at HissTank, and also following the fantastic coverage at Toy News International… the tweets coming in from Action Figure Insider have also been terrific.
This is what I’ve gathered together so far:
- As discussed at JoeCon, Renegades is a “Year One” event. See things as they began.
- Cobra is a large, mostly benevolent Pharmaceutical Company
- “The Joes” start off as grunts mostly, on the run from the law for a crime they did not commit (no word on whether or not they drive a black van or are afraid of flying).
- The Joes may not even start off with code names.
- Current cast of characters: Duke, Scarlett, Tunnel Rat, Roadblock, Snake Eyes, Ripcord
- Yes, ROAD-FREAKING BLOCK. And no, he is not a “rapping chef”.
- For the style, they did not want to compete with Resolute, so went back to a more 50’s like “artistic” style.
- Cobra tech is futuristic, but a familiar “15 minutes into the future” type of style.
- We will learn about characters as they learn about themselves. See the evolutions of characters like Zartan, the Dreadnoks, Cobra Commander, etc…
- They’ve worked with Joe fans in the industry trying to make sure the spirit and the mythology are alive.
- Yes, voice actors for Scarlett and Duke will be in the series, but not AS Scarlett or Duke
- Characters will have a slightly different look and take, but the spirit of the character is intact.
- Obviously the cartoon will not be as violent as Resolute, but it will also NOT be dumbed down. Expect a similar level of action and violence as Batman: The Animated Series (I just squealed).
- Epic stories that have ramifications throughout future episodes
- Stories will be very character driven, sometimes focusing on one or two characters at a time
- Speaking of two characters, expect to see Tomax and Xamot down the line
- No concrete timeline for toys, but expect some news at Toy Fair, 2011 (I most certainly WILL BE THERE).
- Renegades will focus on the small core team, but lots of fringe characters will come and go. Nobody is off limits!
- Heavy Duty will make an appearance in the show as well.
- A good balance between fantasy and reality. There will be some fantasy elements, but they will be grounded in the real world.
- Lifeline and/or Doc will likely make an appearance
I think that about covers it. There was a video clip shown, but recording was not allowed. 🙁
Apparently a few folks still had vid cams rolling, so it may show up on YouTube eventually. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and Hasbro will get it out there somewhere as well. Apparently the video clip showed Snake Eyes “kicking ass”, Scarlett in a helicopter and various other action shots. Dying to see it.
Here are some links of interest:
I’ll talk more about the specifics of the character designs in a later post…
I want a figure of Renegades Tunnel Rat yesterday. THAT is the way to update a design. Just totally fantastic.
I’d need to see Tunnel Rat and some of the others in better detail, but my initial reaction to his design, specifically, is not good. I’m not sure why the baggy pants (unless it’s supposed to be some kind of bomb suit?). The others don’t put me off like he does, except maybe for a tendency to tiny little stick feet that is probably exacerbated by the white background, and which I wouldn’t notice while the characters were moving anyway.
However, the designs of the vehicles are made of win. Absolutely fantastic.
Some other things I made note of in the panel that weren’t mentioned above:
-Character designs were shown, and some were radically different. General Hawk looked like Big Boss, with full grey beard and eyepatch.
-No Cobra Troopers, but Bio-Vipers were shown. Gelatinous monsters that made me sigh. That’s what SE is chopping up in the leaked video.
-Scarlett is a CIA spook who forms the team
-Cobra’s benevolence was compared to a company like Kraft. You know, the Cheeze-Wiz guys?
-A girl behind me said of Baroness’ design, “She’s hot.”
-Also, her glasses have extra tech built in
-In regards to tech, Cobra was said to have stuff 5-10 years ahead of DARPA. (I enjoyed the reference to DARPA, specifically because of Hawk’s new design being so MGS influenced.)
-Speaking of MGS, Mindbender looks a lot like Otacon now. Hair and all.
-The word “epic” was bandied about a lot in the panel to describe the feel of the show.
-The character designer said he went for a “simple and elegent” look.
-The production team siad they didn’t want to compete with Resolute, insofar as tone and darkness goes.
-Someone asked about the scale of the toys, and the Hasbro rep said that 3 3/4 is what is working for Joe now, but other scales aren’t off the table.
-Also, no planned crossover with the TF show, but it was strongly hinted that the tems responsible would like to do it, if they could do it right.
-The show was said to start realistic, then evolve to “futuristic and fantastical”.
That’s about it. I’m pretty enthused for the show, and the team seemed very, VERY excited about making it. This bodes well, I think.
LBAM- Tunnel Rat is wearing overalls, with the bib off. Personally, I like the look on the team engineer, and yeah, they COULD easily be the bottom half of a bomb suit.
Huh. It looks like G.I. Joe mixed with skater fashion and Parappa the Rappa.
Glad Flint looks like he’s Malaysian.
Storm Shadow looks like he just came from an 8 year old’s slumber party.
Fail.