by generalsjoes | Jan 7, 2013 | 30th Anniversary, Comics and Cartoons, Dollar Store, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Comics, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Sunbow
In a clear sign that these discount store G.I. Joe figure repaints are likely on the way to retail stores, eBay seller viperkingdom has posted them all up on eBay. This second wave is full of some great homages to the classic Joes…some obvious, some not so much:
Now most folks have identified some of the clear inspiration for these figures. Cobra Commander is based on his comic deco, while Storm Shadow uses T’Ginzu from Ninja Force as his base. Duke’s interesting uniform color pulls inspiration from the animated Sunbow Breaker.
Shipwreck looks like a great OG13 base, and Snake Eyes looks to be based on the unheralded and extremely underrated Toys “R” Us Heavy Assault Set 6-Pack version from the new sculpt era. But perhaps the most interesting here (and maybe the most overlooked) is the Cobra Trooper.
Many folks have identified the Cobra Trooper as having a comic inspiration, with the light blue and tan. But it goes beyond that, at least from my view. I’m sure folks remember those animated commercials way back in the day. Well, the Cobra Troopers in those animated commercials look exactly like these figures, all the way to the blue mask. It’s a very obscure and really neat homage for Joe fans who are interested in that type of thing.
I’ve mirrored the original gallery of images courtesy of Gyre-Viper from JoeDeClassified, and I’ve also included some low res images from those old school commercials. I think the inspiration is clear. Very cool stuff.
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And below some very low resolution screen shots of those animated Cobra Troopers…notice the blue masks, blue gloves, and yellow straps? Pretty cool.
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by generalsjoes | Jan 2, 2013 | Comics and Cartoons, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Making of a Dio-Story
I’m not sure how many of you are even aware of the fanfic I wrote, entitled G.I. Joe: The Price of Peace…I wrote it a loong time ago, probably going on ten years. This was before Devils’ Due, way before IDW, and even before Hasbro announced that G.I. Joe would be coming back to retail full-force. This was written in a G.I. Joe fiction vacuum, with the assumptions that any continuation of the G.I. Joe universe had to be a product of one’s own imagination.
I kind of surprised myself when it was all said and done, and the story clocked in at over 300 pages, but it’s probably one of the things that I am most proud of in my online G.I. Joe history. The story (to me) felt organic, natural, and really kind of told itself as it trucked along, and yeah, to a point I think it holds up today.
Certain things happen within the confines of the story that may have influenced other media at the time, though I have no clear proof of that, of course. Perhaps it’s just something I like to believe to make myself feel better. 🙂
I’ve had the fanfic posted to my Fanfic page all along, but I know the html formatting is kind of a nightmare, the navigation isn’t great, and especially if you’re reading a 300+ page monster, I would think you’d like it as cohesive and readable as possible.
Enter: Smashwords.
I was introduced to Smashwords by fellow G.I. Joe nerd Don, who has already posted his great Tales From Castle Destro books there, and decided I wanted to get my stuff up there as well. It’s a terrific self-publishing source that allows you to essentially publish your own books. I’ve got mine listed for free, for obvious reasons, as making money off of the Hasbro brand is…well… sorta illegal. The great thing about Smashwords is that it auto-formats the book for web viewing, as a downloadable PDF, or even converted to formats friendly to e-readers! It will, hopefully, make the fanfic a lot more accessible to a lot more people. Not only did Don tell me about Smashwords, but he spent a lot of his own personal time assisting in the formatting of my story for Smashwords and really went out of his way to help get it posted. I owe him a huge debt of thanks for that.
Keep in mind this book was written a long time ago, so you probably want to go in the “way back machine” to what the G.I. Joe universe was like back then. It was also the genesis of my Dio-Story universe, so fans of that storyline can certainly brush up on the history there as well.
Check out G.I. Joe: The Price of Peace right here. I would imagine the (much shorter) follow up, The Cost of War will be up shortly as well.
by generalsjoes | Jan 1, 2013 | 5 Page Previews, Comics and Cartoons, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Comics, IDW
After a small Christmas hiatus, IDW is hitting G.I. Joe full steam ahead with two exciting new issues hitting comic stores on Wednesday! Even with the New Years Day holiday coming at us, we’ve got previews up for these two issues, Danger Girl/G.I. Joe #5 and Cobra #20. Just from the previews these two issues look like such polar opposites within the scope of the G.I. Joe framework, but they both look like a whole lot of fun.
Check out the preview pages below.
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Cobra #20
Mike Costa (w) • Antonio Fuso (a & c)
OKTOBER IS BURNING! The covert G.I. JOE team is in for the fight of their lives as they go toe-to-toe against the OKTOBER GUARD! But who are they? Where did they come from? And what do they want? The answers will shock you—but we can tell you that MAJOR BLUDD is looking for retribution!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
*Variant Covers:
Joe Eisma & Juan Castro variant cover!
Bullet points:
- The OKTOBER GUARD are here—and they want to take down G.I. Joe!
- The biggest story COBRA has ever told!
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Danger Girl / G.I. JOE
Andy Hartnell (w) • John Royle (a) • J. Scott Campbell (c)
The two most incredible covert action teams the world has ever known—so covert, in fact, that neither knows the other exists—are meeting for the first time ever! Repeat: Danger Girl and G.I. JOE, together. Spies! Girls! Ninjas! COBRA!
(Text appears to be from the TPB Solicitation, the preview above is for issue #5)
by generalsjoes | Dec 27, 2012 | 30th Anniversary, Comics and Cartoons, Dollar Store, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 2, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Collectors Club, G.I. Joe Comics, G.I. Joe Kre-O, G.I. Joe Retaliation Toys, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: The Movie, IDW, Podcasts, Sideshow, Sunbow, What's on Joe Mind
And in the true Spirit of Christmas, join us while we talk about female body parts for a couple of hours…
In all seriousness, this was a homecoming of sorts as we all got back together to do a real live episode for the first time in well over a month, and we had a ton of news to cover! If that’s not all, the rest of the crew (alongside YoJoe guru Terry Dizard) spoke with Bill Ratner, the voice of Flint in the Sunbow animated series.
Make sure you don’t miss me and Chuck throwing down about Michael Bay and the Transformers franchise… it’s one for the ages!
Check out the latest episode on our Podbean page, or via the embedded players below. Show notes are after the jump.
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by generalsjoes | Dec 27, 2012 | 30th Anniversary, Comics and Cartoons, Dollar Store, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 2, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Comics, G.I. Joe Retaliation Toys, G.I. Joe Special Ops, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe Video Game, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, G.I. Joe: Renegades, G.I. Joe: The Movie, Podcasts
Whatever you think about the state of G.I. Joe throughout 2012, I don’t think anyone can argue that it was a slow year for news. Quite the opposite! Going from nearly daily reports of movie updates, to the downward spiral of G.I. Joe: Retaliation confidence, and finally finding some middle ground with the great regional gatherings of Joe fans and the countless great independent projects.
It was quite the interesting year for G.I. Joe, and in celebration of 2012, I’m picking the top 12 news stories for the year. They may be good, they may be bad, but the end result is a collection of events throughout 2012 that paints a pretty cool picture when we look back on it. Click the Read the Rest of the Story link below for the run down.
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by generalsjoes | Dec 26, 2012 | 12" Scale, 30th Anniversary, Comics and Cartoons, Dollar Store, Film, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 2, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Collectors Club, G.I. Joe Comics, G.I. Joe Convention, G.I. Joe Retaliation Toys, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, G.I. Joe: Renegades, G.I. Joe: The Movie, IDW, JoeCon 2012, Other Toys, Podcasts, Pursuit of COBRA, Roll Out Roll Call, Show and Convention Coverage, Sideshow, Sigma 6 (8" Scale), Sunbow, What's on Joe Mind
So did you think 2012 was a slow year for G.I. Joe? While the fine folks behind the What’s on Joe Mind Podcast did drop down their recording schedule a bit to accommodate a slow trickle of Joe news, there were still many exciting G.I. Joe events to talk about.
From animated voice actors to movie news and toy reports, What’s on Joe Mind covered the gamut of G.I. Joe news and events for the year.
Even with a much slower recording schedule in the back half of 2012, it was tough to pick out 12 isolated episodes, but with Gary and Mike’s help, somehow I made due.
Click the Read the Rest of the Story link below for the full list!
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