The GI Joe Club gave us two exciting pieces of news today. First registration for the upcoming, and sadly final, GI Joe Club Convention is now live and second we got our first peak at the GI Joe club set. Get online now to register for the event. The first figure preview from the convention set is Slaughter’s Marauders Infantry Trooper Footloose. We last saw Footloose as the 2012 GI Joe Collectors Club Free Membership Figure and here we get him again as part of Slaughter’s Marauders. If you missed out on the figure 6 years ago here is your chance to get him again… of course in a slightly different deco. This is a very nice first reveal and I can’t wait to see the next.
A couple of weeks back, I posted an honest and forthright update on GeneralsJoes and how my priorities were shaping up. I had elected to relax on the toy stuff for a bit and refocus my energies on writing.
To my pleasant surprise, everyone was extremely supportive. A few folks (Josh, Almon, and Ken you guys ROCK) have even stepped up to volunteer to help with coverage on the site. It’s been pretty amazing.
Now many of the supportive messages I received wished me luck on my writing endeavors and wanting me to focus on things that made me happy. To that end, I did want to take a moment to announce that I’m running a Kickstarter campaign for a new Crime/Thriller novel and if you enjoy what I’ve done with my dio-stories and Kindle Worlds fiction, I think you’ll really love this, too. I’m actually already over halfway through it, there are a measly two weeks left, and I stand at 66% funded. Lots of awesome friends and thriller lovers have stepped up and things have moved along great, but I’d love a boost as we move forward towards a big finish.
If you’re interested in supporting me or my writing, or even just want a kick ass new thriller novel to read, please consider backing the project. I think anyone reading this will really enjoy it, and it would mean a TON to me personally to be able to bring this project to life.
Thank you all so much. Back to your regularly scheduled toy news! 🙂
Duck Duck Goose is a crime/thriller featuring female protagonist Rosa “Goose” Guzman and is the beginning of a new chapter for me as an author with a shift towards realistic thrillers in the vein of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and James Patterson’s Alex Cross.
Rosa Guzman is a child of the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts who has been working her whole life to distance herself from her criminal past. Once a member of an East Coast gang, then enlisted in the United States Army, Rosa keeps on running into obstacles on her quest for redemption. Discharged from the military and back in her old neighborhood she now works as a Fugitive Recovery Agent, operating alongside law enforcement to locate and bring in criminals and fugitives from justice.
When a real estate mogul and local businessman enlists her aid in finding a former employee, Rosa gets embroiled in a sinister cover up and is thrust back into her old life, reliving painful old memories. As she is drawn deeper into this conspiracy, uncomfortable truths emerge between her and the man she’s been paid to find, and the secrets buried there will change her life forever.
It’s officially the final year for the G.I. Joe Convention, and the Collectors Club has released their convention brochure featuring the theme for the Con, as well as some of the figures we can expect.
Okay, up front, I gotta say… not a big fan of getting further exposure to both of those subteams, which have already been done to death in the past, however, based on the figure roster it seems like there’s a good chance we’ll see the TRU deco for the Python Patrol, which is my personal favorite.
Also, looks like we’ll be getting Sgt. Smasher, a potential repaint for Sgt. Slaughter (and a way to repurpose the SDCC exclusive maybe?) as well as Hardball. On the 12″ side, there looks to be a Green Beret Machine Gun Outpost.
Check out the full details in the Convention Brochure and stay tuned for more info still to come for the final JoeCon in Chattanooga!
One of Larry Hama’s other brainchildren, Bucky O’Hare has recently undergone an action figure resurgence with thanks to Boss Fight Studio. Their unique combination of animated styles and crazy sculpting & articulation has completely reinvented the property and catapulted it into the 21st Century.
Now, there are two more pre-orders up and ready for launch, including a super limited edition “Holiday Bucky” repaint limited to only a few hundred pieces. Don’t miss out!
One piece of news that cannot go unnoticed is the latest in a line of Kickstarters by Robert Carson Mataxis of 3D Joes. Robert is in the final week of his Kickstarter for volumes 5 and 6 of Collecting the art of GI Joe. These volumes cover the years 1990-1994 and are a celebration of the painted art of GI Joe A Real American Hero. As of writing this post the Kickstarter has smashed its goal and currently sits at $35,830. You still have 6 days to get in on this Kickstarter and own a great piece of collecting art. Volume 5 will feature 158 unique pieces of art and will cover three years of material. Volume 6 will cover the last two years of figures, vehicles, playsets and peripheral painted art for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. It will also feature 20 pages of unreleased and international painted art.
It’s time for Heartwrencher and the Dreadnok Ground Assault 4-WD. We have been waiting for the release of the Club Exclusive Vehicle with Figure Set since Joe Con last year and as of Thursday we can finally pre-order the set. I for one cannot get enough of the Cobra Stinger mold and as fans we are always clamoring for more females in the lineup. This set looks great and may be one of the last vehicle/figure combo’s we see from the club. Make sure to jump on this right away and get your pre-order in today.
Email from the Club:
(PRE-ORDER) 2018 GI Joe 3 3/4″ Club Exclusive Vehicle with Figure Set: Dreadnok Ground Assault 4-WD Vehicle w/ Dreadnok Mechanic Heartwrencher Figure (1 set)
Part Number: 1-11-18
Price: $64.99
THIS ITEM HAS TO BE ORDERED BY ITSELF IT CANNOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER ITEMS OR ORDERS.
(PRE-ORDER) 2018 GI Joe 3 3/4″ Club Exclusive Vehicle with Figure Set: Dreadnok Ground Assault 4-WD Vehicle w/ Dreadnok Mechanic Heartwrencher Figure (1 set).
Order is billed at the time the order is placed.
FINAL PRODUCT MAY VARY FROM THE IMAGES SHOWN HERE.
First and foremost, I want to give a nice shout out to a few folks who have emailed to kindly volunteer their time and energy to supplying content for GeneralsJoes. I’m hoping to share some more names shortly, but first and foremost is Almon. He volunteered to pitch in with content, and the first thing he sent over was a review of the G.I. Joe episode of the Netflix documentary series The Toys That Made Us.
Let’s give Almon a warm welcome and check out the review of the episode below!
I’ve had these in the queue for way too long, and it’s long past time to let folks know how the second wave of the second series of Vitruvian HACKS figures measures up. Hint – They measure up pretty freaking well.
I’ve updated the Vitruvian HACKS Review Page with the second wave of the Fantasy figures, or you can just check out the reviews by clicking the links below directly.
If you’re a regular visitor to GeneralsJoes, you’re probably thinking that a lot of stuff is new, I just haven’t been talking about it. And yeah, you’d be right.
Why is that? Honestly, I don’t really have an answer. I think it’s a lot of things.
After holding the torch of the G.I. Joe fandom for near twenty years, I think I’ve gotten a little tired. I’ve posted hundreds of reviews over twenty years, thousands of news stories, and seen many of the same themes come and go. Popularity swings from one extreme to the other, but a solid core of devoted, motivated fans who love the brand and want to continue to see it evolve.
One thing social media has done is provided an outlet for many of those motivated fans to continue expressing their feelings of the brand at large and as things have become more social media driven, I’ve felt like a place like GeneralsJoes hasn’t had a very large role in that. Mostly my own fault, but it is the truth.
Also I can’t help but say that my own motivation has been somewhat lacking. As many of you are aware I’ve begun focusing a lot of time and energy on my career as an independent author, an endeavor I’ve found to be exceedingly rewarding and unbelievably enjoyable. Unfortunately as a husband and father with a 50 hour a week job, I only have so much time outside of daily life to contribute to what are essentially “hobbies” at this point. Posting new FSS reviews or writing 20,000 words on a new novel? The novel is going to win out at this point. I need to do what’s best for my own self worth and my own reward system.
Lots of you will say it’s a lack of news or interest that’s driving the site into relative silence, but I can promise you that’s not the point. My site begun in 1998 when we were getting maybe 15 new figures a year (and then none in 1999). My site has survived the Direct to Consumer doldrums, the disintegration of one of my favorite brands, Sigma 6, the rise and fall of the G.I. Joe film franchise, and GeneralsJoes was right there the whole time. It didn’t go anywhere, and it’s still not going anywhere. I’m never going to abandon this site, I’m never going to abandon the G.I. Joe brand, I just have only so much time to go around, and for the moment that time is being spent on other endeavors. I truly hope everyone reading this understands.
That being said, if there is anyone reading this who wants to assist in keeping the heartbeat of GeneralsJoes alive, please drop me line (justin AT generalsjoesreborn.com). I hate to see the site dwindling into obscurity, I desperately want to keep it active and keep it relevant, but there’s only so much I can do personally, and as I said, for my own mental well-being and self-reward, I really want to continue to focus on being an author.
Who knows, if my author career takes off to the point where I can do that for a day job, then that changes my whole landscape. I don’t see that happening for a while (if ever).
That being said, there are rumors that the next G.I. Joe film will be landing in early 2020. Along with that will likely be a new action figure line. The G.I. Joe Collectors Club is officially winding down with their last convention in Chattanooga this coming year. The good news is that there are so many fans of the brand still keeping the fires lit, and trust me when I say I’m doing the same thing, I’m just doing it a bit more quietly than some others. That may change in 2018, but I can’t promise anything at this point.
Like I said, I’m not going anywhere, and if anyone wants to help keep the light on, please drop me a line. Time will tell how things look going into 2018.
I’ve had this wonderful book in my grubby hands for a very long time, and shame on me for not reviewing it before now, because anyone who is a fan of Vitruvian HACKS needs to check this book out.
Total HACKS is a fantastic creation by the brainchildren of Brian Hickey and Paddy Lennon who worked on a similar book for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Paddy is also the one writing the bios for the Vitruvian HACKS characters on the packaging, so he is certainly fully immersed in the universe.
Brian also does the design work on the Bucky O’Hare packaging, so you can believe his eye for design and production is second to none.
Check out my review of the Total HACKS book right here, and from now until December 31st, this book is only $19.99 at BossFightShop.com. You DON’T want to miss out. It’s great.
