The National Ledger spent some time speaking with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje about his role as Heavy Duty in the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA film, mostly focusing on the training and conditioning required for the action-packed movie.
“The actor known as Mr. Eko to fans of “Lost” (see photo right) and as Wally as a schoolboy back home in London — tells us that in his role of ordinance expert Heavy Duty, at one point he shoots a 120-pound cannon “that’s normally strapped to a helicopter. They don’t call him Heavy Duty for nothing. Everything on that film was heavy duty, man.” He also found himself “suspended on hinges and strings from a spacecraft, firing 500-600 rounds per second. And for all that pay, you have to look good, not sweat, say the line on cue and not fire over the words. You have to keep a cool head.”
There’s some other interesting tidbits as well, click here to check them out.
Joining brick and mortar retailers this morning, SmallJoes.com has blown the doors off of their Rise of COBRA section with lots of figures and vehicles available to purchase! They also have Agent Helix, Flash, and many others available for pretty decent prices. The full newsletter is posted below.
When the news cycle rains, it pours…not only is today the official jumping off point for the new Rise of COBRA toys in retail stores everywhere, but a new Japanese trailer has also premiered featuring some footage of the much-maligned Rex “The Doctor” Lewis. Most of the rest of the footage is the “same old, same old” but there are enough new tidbits in here to get me interested at 5:25 on a Monday morning.
Thanks as always goes to HissCommander and Ramses from The Terror Drome for the information.
I have also, of course, updated the Rise of COBRA Movie SuperPage as well.
Yeah, we knew that July 6th was the break date for BBTS, but I didn’t realize they’d get them up so quick! They are LOADED. Agent Helix, Flash, COBRA Commander, Accelerator Suit Duke & Ripcord, the Doctor. They have it ALL. Well…except for the Pit Commando and Scarlett in her Reactive Armor, those two figures are currently sold out.
Anything else you want, though, they got it bright and early this fine summer morning.
Joefans far and wide are getting their hands on new Rise of COBRA items (present company excluded, unfortunately… :shifty: ) and lots of folks have started showing pictures and giving their thoughts. JoeBattleLines member Duck has posted some VERY nice images in a couple of different threads over there. There are some links and photo mirrors below.
I gotta say…the more pics I see of the COBRA Gunship, the more I’m rethinking my opinion of it. In fact, I swore I wasn’t going to buy any Rise of COBRA vehicles, mostly for budgetary reasons, but seeing this thing and the Steel Crusher (and The Pit for that matter) more in depth…man, I don’t know if I can hold out. Some great looking vehicles that fit in nicely with the Joe movie style. Love all the hidden features, too.
The exclusive that seems to have the fanboy’s drooling, the RHINO w/ Rampage is in stock now at Target.com. Click here to check it out, but expect to pay a hefty price… $54.99. Ouch.
Along with a barrage of Rise of COBRA figures today at Target Department Stores, word comes in from SpaceMonkeyMafia and PalatineScott via the GeneralsJoes Comments sections that the Agent Helix/Flash wave has been spotted in the wild!
This wave also comes with the Pit Commando, COBRA Eel, Crimson Neo-Viper, and single pack General Hawk. To see more details about that wave, check the RoC SuperPage here.
With lots of reports coming of certain Targets breaking street dates, they have been hit pretty hard the past few days, but I’ve been reading reports that lots of Joefans are still coming away empty-handed. However, someone with a source inside Target reported last week that the Rise of COBRA “street date” at Target was authorized to be broken today. So even if your local Target didn’t have anything of consequence yesterday, you may want to check again.
I’ve gotten a personal report from Smokescreen from one-18th.com that his local Target was absolutely FILLED with product, and he picked up a number of figures he hadn’t seen at Toys “R” Us or Target yesterday, including Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, Reactive Armor Duke and Scarlett, and COBRA Commander! So, keep on double-dipping Joe fans, it’s coming!!
I’ve been right there with the majority of the fandom on my displeasure over the Pit playset. Maybe if it were simply named as an updated Mobile Command Center or something, there would be more love for it amongst the fans, but most of us have a very distinct idea in mind when it comes to “The Pit”, something that is almost as iconic in G.I. Joe lair as some of the characters themselves.
Even when I got a pretty up close view at Toy Fair, I came back thinking that it looked pretty cool, but was not nearly worth the hundred bucks it was going to cost. Well, I gotta tell you, I’m softening up that hard edge BIG TIME. Over on HissTank.com, GeneralHawk59 has posted an exhaustive gallery of images for the Pit playset, and I’m starting to get won over. This thing is huge, with a ton of potential play value, and I can think of many fun things I could use for future dio-stories. Still, the price continues to be at least a bit prohibitive, but man, it’s more tempting now than ever. Combine that with the awesome Joe-scale ping pong table, the mini-posters, an awesome memorial jersey from Bazooka…I mean come ON. There are a lot of very neat little touches mixed in here. Still trying to hold my hard edge, though…
The thread is posted here, but I’ve also mirrored the massive gallery below.
In celebration of the big “Launch Day” at Toys “R” Us, cmderinchief from JoeBattleLines has posted a very nice series of images of the two TRU exclusive Headquarters for Heroes figures, Barbecue and Firefly.
It should be noted, these are the only two figures in the assortment, and come in their own case…12 figures, 6 of each. Check out the images below.
