An e-mail has gone out to all members of the G.I. Joe Collectors Club and Transformers Collectors Club advising us that as of tomorrow around noon Central Time, the online store will open and begin selling items. Footloose figures, loose, carded, and signed, are all on the docket, though the Club is strictly enforcing a one-per-customer limit. Even with that limit, don’t expect them to last long.
Check out the full context of the email below, and have your browsers ready tomorrow!
“This quick update is going out to all members of both clubs.
Both stores are closed until tomorrow at approximately noon CDT when we are planning to bring the G.I. Joe Club Store online. The Transformers Club Store will come back online at the same time.
For the Joe Club members:
Please note that there are LIMITS on the loose Footloose, carded Footloose and signed carded Footloose membership figures.
You are limited to ONE of each (per membership account) until we see how the demand goes. We can track exactly how many of each are ordered by account. If you place more than one order, we WILL CANCEL all of your orders and charge you a 25% administration fee. Please do not try this as we want as many members as possible to get these figures at the offering price. Quantities are limited.
In addition, we are still adding items to both stores, so it will take approximately another week to get all of our inventory back in the new stores.
Thanks to both groups for your patience and the two great conventions this year!
Retirement? Did someone say retirement… as I am in the midst of several 10 – 12 hour days in a row at work that word sounds awful nice right about now…
But enough about real life! Thrust yourself back into your imaginary G.I. Joe filled existence with What’s on Joe Mind Episode 64. We are joined this week by podcasting experts Slick McFavorite and Mrs. McFavorite from the Open Your Toys Podcast where we discuss the critical issues of the day like how to fill your entertainment center with San Diego ComicCon exclusives, whether a gimp suit equals a “vinyl toy”, and where to find the best french-speaking poutine. It’s a live one, folks.
As always, hit up the full show notes after the jump, check out our Podbean Page, or listen to the embedded player below.
Wow, I think it’s safe to say this episode was packed. We had a bunch of stuff to talk about, so we brought on The Mike from the Canadian JoeCon, the guys from the JoBurg Podcast, but we also really wanted to pay some close attention to the guys from Go Go Dynamo, who are behind The Hero Project and also were the lifeblood behind a little 8″ toy line you might have heard of… Sigma 6.
As many episodes of these podcasts that I’ve done, it surprises me that we can continue to talk to folks who I consider personal heroes. Wayne and Tuck from Go Go Dynamo are absolute revolutionaries in design and art, and I considered it a true privilege to talk to them for an hour or so. Cast whatever stones towards Sigma 6 that you might want to, but listening to their absolutely brilliant insight behind toy design, the G.I. Joe universe in 2005 and how that whole thing translates to The Hero Project was one of the most interesting and captivating 60 minutes I’ve ever spent on the show. Truly awesome stuff.
Please consider supporting The Hero Project on Kickstarter, and once you’re done, come on back and hit up our Podbean Page to listen to the latest episode, especially because we also talk a ton about the awesome Canadian JoeCon and keep the JoBurg guys up way past their bed time. Things get pretty wacky!
Check out the embedded player below, and the Show Notes after the jump.
Here we are. Number one. My most requested, most admired, and most longed after item that we saw in the Concept Case at the 2012 G.I. Joe Convention. I will admit something, though. If we’re talking about being impressed by a specific item itself, I would have to admit, the Coyote was probably the most impressive toy that I saw, standing on its own. But with the thought in mind that we will likely never see this thing at retail, I wanted to place the number one moniker on a more realistic goal. A figure with some new tooling (but not too much), and a figure of a character that I have loved for a very long time.
1 – G.I. Joe: 30th Anniversary Hit & Run
In 1988 I was just starting high school, and trying to figure out what I wanted to be “when I grew up”. I bounced between being an artist, being a writer, and pretty much as far away from Information Services flunky as you can get. Back in those days, well before I ever heard the term “fanfic” I explored my writing by diving into the G.I. Joe universe. With it being 1988, and the last Sunbow G.I. Joe adventures being behind us, it felt kind of like a new start, even though I was a devout comic fan, and the comic was still going strong. One of the first figures I bought from the 1988 series was Hit & Run, and I was immediately blown away. As a 14 year old kid, I was especially impressed by his background on the filecard, involving the death of his parents, and it immediately gave the character an immense depth in my mind.
My own personal G.I. Joe universe developed over the next couple of years, and in 1990 I really dove into my writing, which involved the Joe team picking up the pieces after a massive battle had eliminated much of their leadership team. Stalker was the new commander, Bullhorn played a key communications role, and Hit & Run earned his spot as the trademark “lone wolf” being rather anti-social and angry at the world because of his rocky upbringing and his inability to stay in one place for too long. As a big fan of Wolverine and The Punisher back then, the whole lone wolf mentality was fresh in my head, and the character was without a doubt the focus of my entire G.I. Joe universe. He wasn’t a ninja like Snake Eyes, but he was fast, awesome with a weapon, and he just didn’t care about anything but killing Cobra.
The character has just always resonated with me, and continued to when I wrote my fanfic The Price of Peace (which is pretty different than what I was writing in 1990, but still had some of those elements in place), and then when I moved over to my Dio-Stories. Hit & Run has always remained a constant, and even as I’ve watched several other characters evolve through new designs and concepts, my trusty ’88 Hit & Run has maintained his place. Yes, we did receive a 25th Anniversary update in the Attack of Cobra Island boxed set, which both surprised and impressed me, but the end result, unfortunately, didn’t really give the character justice in my mind. I wondered if a new version ever would.
Turns out that yes. A new version could do the character justice. Justice in a huge way. As I walked to the Concept Case up ahead, after grabbing my parachute figures from the Sales floor, I had already heard the whispers of people milling around. No less than four people walked up to me in the 20 minutes I was in line, a couple of them practically jogging, to excitedly tell me there was a Hit & Run in the case. I almost couldn’t believe it.
After waiting in line I rushed over, and there it was. A newly tooled head, with the necessary green facepaint and camouflage. Lots of borrowed parts, but parts borrowed from as of yet unreleased figures (upcoming 3-Pack Firefly torso, upcoming 3-Pack Agent Mouse arms) and using the fantastic parachute rig that was never included with Lifeline…essentially the figure looks all new, but with lots of borrowed tooling. Parts choice was perfect, the weapons used were simply fantastic, and the new head, helmet, and goggles simply topped the whole thing off. This figure is freaking gorgeous. Gorgeous. Not only does it look amazing, but it does a perfect job of taking one of my all time favorite characters, as obscure as he might be, and planting him firmly in the modern era, capturing all of the old school spirit, yet making all of the right updates. If I was allowed to make the perfect update to Hit & Run myself, this figure would be the end result. I love this figure so much, I’m desperately trying to not imagine a world where it is never released. I’m trying to convince myself that fan demand will somehow prevail and this figure will end up at retail or as some sort of online exclusive somewhere, some time, and some place. I don’t care when, I don’t care how, and I don’t care how much, this figure must happen.
A huge thanks goes out to JoeCzar, a G.I. Joe fan of all formats who stepped up and submitted an awesome review for the 12″ Adventure Team “Last Man Standing” Convention Set! I was wow’ed by this set, especially with the obvious similarities between the Henchman and the Cobra Trooper.
You can find this review in the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club Exclusives section, or just linked below. Again a big thanks to JoeCzar for hooking me up with the review and helping out!
We’re getting down towards the end of this massive top 10 list, breaking down all of the coolest things we saw in the Concept Case at the 2012 G.I. Joe Convention. Even though I strongly suspect that the G.I. Joe: Renegades vehicles have zero chance of ever being released (and according to JoeDeClassified’s interview with Derryl DePriest, he agrees with me) I can’t help but give them spots on this list.
I already talked about Flint’s Jeep with my number 4 ranking, but here at number 2 I had to focus on the big beast itself.
2 – G.I. Joe: Renegades Coyote
I think most of us fans of the G.I. Joe: Renegades animated series have been dreaming about the eventual release of the Coyote, but realistically I never expected it to happen. Considering the quick dismissal of the excellent Renegades animated series by Hasbro, even considering that they would invest big money in tooling up a new, larger sized vehicle, seems totally out of the realm of possibilities.
That being said, I was so blown away by the look, feel, and playability of the Coyote vehicle shown in the Concept Case, that I just had to mention it within the confines of the Top 10 list. I know it likely won’t be released, but it looks awesome, the press-button play feature is golden, and it would make the perfect endcap for a G.I. Joe: Renegades collection. I think that is perhaps what is so painful about the whole G.I. Joe: Renegades situation. The fact that we may not even get a complete Renegades team (where’s Roadblock, HASBLoowWW/??!1/?) and even if, by some massive stretch of the imagination, we do get Roadblock, there is probably a 2% chance we’ll ever see their trusty vehicle. So close, yet so damn far away.
But that won’t stop me from looking at the pictures of the Coyote from the 2012 G.I. Joe Convention Concept Case and dreaming a little dream…
