While package pickup was late last night, the first official day of the 2016 G.I. Joe Convention is today! Already we’ve seen the parachute drop and panels by Adam Riches and James Kavanaugh, Jr., and some great updates are over at the G.I. Joe Discussion Group on Facebook. Dave Tree’s Action Man panel is hot on their heels.
Hot ticket item for the Con this year appears to be the carded Pythona, which was apparently sold without limits and burned through very quickly in the Club store.
G.I. Joe Con attendees will be getting their first sneak preview at the sales floor today at 2:00pm Mountain time, which includes the Hasbro booth, but don’t be alarmed if there isn’t much to look at there yet. Generally Hasbro puts out most (if not all) of their new product AFTER their panel, which happens tomorrow morning at 11:00am Mountain time.
It does look like someone got an advanced sneak peek at the Hasbro booth, and so far they’re just showing the SDCC set (priced at $99.99) but as I said, we can anticipate seeing much more than that tomorrow after their panel.
It’s Con Set pick up day! That means a first look at all of the various Convention exclusives (aside from the boxed set items). Several different folks on the G.I. Joe Discussion Facebook page have posted images from the pick up line, and the extra exclusives are as follows:
G.I. Joe Glider 2 Pack w/ Cloudburst and Skymate ($75.00)
COBRA Heli-Viper 3 Pack ($85.00)
Sky Patrol JUMP 6 Pack ($55.00)
COBRA JUMP 6 Pack ($55.00)
Sky Patrol Sky Sweeper ($68.00)
COBRA Hydra w/ Aero-Viper ($85.00)
Sky Patrol Skystriker ($160.00)
Paradrop Freefall figure (loose $35.00 and carded $45.00)
Pythona Carded ($38.00)
Free Attendee Air Raid
The Skystriker and Sky Sweeper are in the familiar Sky Patrol metallic colors, while the majority of the other items are reminiscent of their vintage look and feel. Interestingly the Aero-Viper is very similar to the version released during the Rise of Cobra line, but with some different parts to remove the Neo-Viper-esque ties. Check out all of the images below.
Rumor from the convention floor is that product for JoeCon is “stuck in customs” and won’t be at the hotel until late tonight. What that means is Golden Ticket pick up is now slated for around 3:00pm tomorrow, so don’t stay up late tonight to see the news, East Coast. 🙂
If there’s any advantage to not making the trip to Loveland this year (and really, this is about the only advantage I can think of) it’s that I can at least try and sit back and offer some coverage of the JoeCon excitement. With this being only the third Convention I haven’t been able to attend in thirteen years, you’ll have to excuse me if I’m a bit melancholy and a little unaccustomed to the coverage from this perspective.
Today is Wednesday, which means it’s Golden Ticket pickup! There will be no special attendee exclusives revealed today, HOWEVER Golden Ticket holders will be getting their Convention Comic, and within the pages of that convention comic should be the details about the rest of the convention exclusives!
Golden Ticket pickup is at 8:30pm mountain time tonight, which should be around 10:30pm eastern. It’ll be here before you know it.
Check out my post from last year to see how this tends to look, and while we won’t get a specific idea of many of the individual characters or how they look, the list of exclusives will shed some light.
Even though I’m not in Colorado, I do have some “boots on the ground” and will endeavor to get the information relayed as fast as humanly possible… although I would much rather be in Loveland enjoying my favorite weekend of the year, there are still plenty of exciting things to come over the next several days, I hope you’ll join me in this year’s JoeCon coverage!
Hold onto your butts… What’s on Joe Mind is here with Episode 104, just recorded last week and ready to roll for JoeCon 2016! We cover the latest news, talk about the Joes of 2004, and lose track of what we’re saying consistently for nearly two hours. Just another day at the WOJM studio.
You can listen to the episode on Podbean, or the embedded player below.
Show Notes
We talk about the Joes from 2004, catch up on the news, begin to set the table of what will happen at JoeCon…and generally get side tracked – A LOT. Download it now and listen to it on your way to JoeCon!
Speaking of JoeCon, be sure to catch Mike, Gary, Joe and Chris McLeod from the Full Force at our JoeCon panel on Sunday, June 19th at 1:00. It will be the last ever panel at JoeCon. Join us as we turn out the lights…forever (maybe, maybe not, we will see – we’re looking at you Hasbro!)
If you have not signed it already, be sure to sign our petition to Save the GI Joe Convention! If you want a Joe-only convention like us, make sure you sign the petition and let the powers-that-be know what you think! More than 2500 people have signed. Sign on the campaign today!
I know, I know… it’s about damn time! Yes, yes it is. But, the way I look at it is we waited over 30 friggen years for a Billy figure, what’s another couple of weeks to get the review done?
But it is done! I’ve got full blown text reviews as well as YouTube video reviews all polished off for both Billy and the Interrogator, two characters that are very near and dear to me, and two characters I was greatly looking forward to. One of them mostly meets my expectations, while the other falls a little short.
