Hasbro did go on to confirm that there would be a ComicCon exclusive, and that they were committed to getting the Fan Vote winner Stiletto out to collectors as well. Beyond that, pretty much nada.
Many Joe fans lept to the attack citing a Tweet from Entertainment News International that seemed to say there would be a G.I. Joe presence at retail this year, but in fact, that Tweet merely said a “few reveals” would be at JoeCon. I consider an SDCC set (or two) and the Stiletto release a few reveals, to be sure.
At this point, as it has been several times in recent years, the future of G.I. Joe as a retail brand remains murky. The one main difference now is that while G.I. Joe at retail was sketchy, we at least at the Collectors Club to fall back on, which was generally good for 30 – 40 releases per year, a nice healthy number. Now as we push forward towards 2016 and 2017 not only is retail looking unhealthy, but rumors persist that the Collectors Club is off the brand as well.
So what the heck is going on here? It makes no real sense to jettison Fub Publications if you’re also jettison a retail presence unless there’s some kind of fallback plan, which at this point there doesn’t appear to be. All Hasbro will really tell us right now is “wait for a movie”, but that does us no good in the short term. Over the past few years, the G.I. Joe collectors community has been dwindling with no real catalyst to bring us together, aside from the Kindle Worlds fan vote, which was a fantastic experience, but ultimately came and went.
As we look towards 2017, we have no clear vision of a retail brand, and simply no clue on any product from any sort of Collectors Club, and hell, we may not even have an annual G.I. Joe Convention to look forward to.
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on, but I hope that we can get some kind of information from Hasbro at some point, just so we don’t continue to be left adrift, wondering. I’m one of those few who actually enjoys some healthy speculation, but speculating on something vs. nothing doesn’t do much for me.
Hopefully we can find out what’s next and get some kind of answers beyond just waiting for the next movie.
Please bear with me today as I try and power through some post Toy Fair recap and news reports, both within and outside of the G.I. Joe realm.
First and foremost, for any G.I. Joe fans who are concerned with the recent rumors of the future of the G.I. Joe Collectors Club and JoeCon itself, the folks from the Regular Joes podcast posted an episode discussing this very event.
Anyone who has listened to this podcast before knows that these guys are long time G.I. Joe fans and collectors who really have their fingers on the pulse of things when it comes to the G.I. Joe Collectors Club. I’m not saying this episode has any sort of secret inside information or anything, but Barry, Dave, and Todd certainly know their stuff, and any insight they provide here should be considered quite valuable.
It feels like forever since I’ve been able to say this, but a new episode of the What’s on Joe Mind podcast is HERE.
Rescued from technical purgatory by our esteemed editor Gary, the 46th Special Edition focused on the fun of JoeCon 2015 in Springfield, Illinois! It’s a review of the excellent 2015 G.I. Joe Convention hot on the heels of the four day foray into G.I. Joe fun and nerdery.
Go check out this latest special edition on our Podbean page, or check it out embedded below.
Last year, the G.I. Joe Collectors Club strongly indicated that they would provide a hint to the 2015 G.I. Joe Convention set in the Diamond Solicitation of their convention comic.
Sure enough, in the comic, an ad for the 2015 G.I. Joe Convention appeared, complete with a tiger pattern on the background. As we all know, last year’s set had Tiger Force elements.
Fast forward to this year… the Diamond Solicitation of the JoeCon comic hit shops last week, and there is another G.I. Joe Convention advertisement… but the background is different:
That’s right, it’s the clear blue sky.
Now, the G.I. Joe Collectors Club never stated this year’s comic would contain a hint to the JoeCon set, but if we’re to go by previous years, they could be throwing us a bone here.
Could we be seeing Sky Patrol in 2016?
And if so, who would they be facing off against? The G.I. Joe newsletter has been featuring Action Force pretty heavily, but I’m not sure how Action Force dovetails with Sky Patrol (especially considering they’re both good guys).
Who knows, the whole thing could be a red herring, but it’s certainly going to make for some interesting speculation. Hopefully we’ll hear more details about the 2016 G.I. Joe Con set soon! Keep watching GeneralsJoes and GIJoeClub.co for the latest info.
All the way back in the mid 80s, during Season 3 of the Transformers animated series, the Sunbow writers made their clear link between the G.I. Joe and Transformers universes by introducing both Marissa Faireborn (daughter of Flint and Lady Jaye) and even more directly bringing forth the character of “Old Snake” a mysterious former terrorist who looked and sounded remarkably like COBRA Commander. Leveraging the whole idea of Synthoids only went to further that story.
Seems like forever that fans of both properties have been clamoring for some kind of official toyline joining the G.I. Joe and Transformers lines together. Certainly there have been some heavy homages over the years (including the Combiner Wars Viper figure just released last year) but this joint exclusive between the G.I. Joe Transformers Club and the G.I. Joe Collectors Club was the first time the joint effort was made somewhat official. Yes, there were ComicCon boxed sets (that were pretty awesome), but is the first real in Sunbow continuity attempt to make both universes gel.
Both this installment as well as the Marissa Faireborn/Afterbreaker pack use Season 3 of the animated series as a heavy influence.
Long before 80s nostalgia fans dreamed of ways for G.I. Joe and Transformers to co-exist, Sunbow tied the two universes together during Season 3 of the Transformers cartoon featuring the mysterious “Old Snake” an obvious connection to COBRA Commander. It only seems right that if the Collectors Club were to revisit a joint G.I. Joe/Transformers series that they start by building off of that old school connection.
Old Snake appeared back in the 80s as a man in a reflective mask with a hat and trenchcoat, with some easily identifiable COBRA Commander trademarks and just enough additional disguise to not be too obvious. The Collectors Club uses these trademarks in developing this figure.
COBRA Commander’s head with Rise of COBRA Storm Shadow torso/coat and arms give the figure the familiar face and trenchcoat. Underneath the coat they use Resolute Snake Eyes legs to represent a baggy pair of blue pants underneath. While the Rise of COBRA Storm Shadow jacket does restrict movement quite a bit, due to the nature of its design, the elbow joints and knee joints are nicely poseable and utilize some relatively modern parts.
The color scheme is gray throughout the coat and hat, with the pants a familiar blue, looking a lot like COBRA Commander’s original uniform from the 80s and from the Sunbow series.
Accessories
There aren’t a ton of accessories here, with the RoC themed laser pistol (which fits in the holster) the backpack that originally came with Retaliation Lady Jaye, as well as a pair of Energon cubes. I will warn folks to be careful with the backpack. The straps are very thin, and one of mine snapped when trying to put it on Old Snake’s back.
The end result of the Old Snake figure is a pretty effective looking version of the classic future-COBRA Commander character that looks and moves the part.
Stealth B.A.T.
I’ve always had a weird relationship with Transformers. I’ve never been especially attached to the familiar G1 aesthetic, mostly because I collected them as a kid and their restrictive movements always left me frustrated when attempting to “play” with them as a youngster. As a result, while I was captivated by Transformers for a short period of time, it was a hobby that went out of vogue around the same time as Transformers: The Movie killed off all my favorite classic characters. Hasbro’s marketing scheme backfired in that case, and instead of being inspired to buy a whole new cast of characters on store shelves, I merely retired my Transformers collection and moved on to other things.
However, in the 90s my Transformers love was reignited by Beast Wars and in the years since I’ve collected most Transformers that jived with their animated appearances. I didn’t do the Energon trilogy stuff, but I did collect Transformers: Animated and Transformers: Prime. Because of my interest in Transformers: Prime, I was already familiar with the figure that the Stealth B.A.T. is based off of, Transformers: Prime Soundwave. As a Transformer that uses a Predator type drone as an alt mode, it makes a lot of sense in the G.I. Joe aesthetic. The Soundwave figure doesn’t necessarily look a lot like classic fans view Soundwave, so there’s no conflict there with the classic G1 universe.
The size of the figures works well, too, because they are a little larger than your standard G.I. Joe figure, but not so large that they fall out of scale (or out of the price range) of the collectors who want to buy them. As with most of the recent Transformers offerings, articulation is pretty great here, too, with nice knee, hip, and elbow joints. Clearly the Club is using deco to translate this figure to a B.A.T. type android, using the familiar black and yellow paint scheme with a semi-translucent red face mask, as we often saw in the Sunbow animated series.
The transformation is relatively straight forward for an inexperienced rookie Transformers fan like me, and both modes work pretty well. The Predator-style drone looks like it would fit within the aesthetics of the modern G.I. Joe universe, and would be an effective COBRA weapon even in vehicle mode. I could see the Stealth B.A.T.s being used in vehicle mode as surveillance, then transforming and attacking in a devastating new way in robot mode.
The small detachable mini drone is a cool touch, too. With the original Soundwave figure it was basically a Transformers: Prime version of Laserbeak. Here it’s a separate spy drone component that adds a neat new element to the figure and is also a cool (if perhaps unintentional) throwback to the old school Night Raven.
At the end of the day, the two Stealth B.A.T. figures look like somewhat oversized attack robots that you might find in the G.I. Joe universe, and the paint scheme works as a B.A.T. type offensive weapon, too. It’s a nice combination of base figure and paint scheme and adds some interesting twists to the Old Snake pack.
These Stealth B.A.T.s manage to be a nice combination between Transformers design and G.I. Joe aesthetics and is a really nice marriage between the two in both robot mode and alt mode. It’s a fun and flexible toy that works as a bridge between two universes, but also is just a flat out fun G.I. Joe themed action figure as well.
All in all, there are some great vintage homages here as well as some great new elements. Something that appeals to many different crowds. This set is expensive, to be sure, but I’m finding it surprisingly enjoyable and a neat new take on the typical G.I. Joe stuff.
Old Snake was a character that many G.I. Joe and Transformers fans have locked onto for the past nearly three decades, an obvious link between the G.I. Joe and Transformers franchises in the 80s. Along with a few other attempts over the last year, the Collectors Club developed a unique formula for Old Snake, also pairing him with two Transformers: Prime Soundwave repaints as Stealth BATs and the end result is actually quite impressive. A great mixture of parts gives us a very nice looking vintage inspired Old Snake, and the pair of Stealth BATs will appeal to G.I. Joe fans with their derivative paint scheme, but could also draw Transformers fans in as well. It’s a great pack of figures that does both franchises credit and adds some nice elements to each side of the aisle.
