Details revealed about vintage-themed mystery G.I. Joe figures

by generalsjoes | Apr 16, 2012 | 30th Anniversary, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Retaliation Toys, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

So with big thanks to Gyre Viper and JoeDeClassified, we got a very nice look at some potential upcoming figures to be released this year.  With much of the focus being placed on the G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie line, this figure assortment (which contains some very old school classic deco’s) sort of came out of left field and has many fans scratching their heads.

Well, looking to find some answers, I asked around a little bit to see what I could find.

A reliable source tells me that these figures are themed as a low price-point assortment, mostly targeted for Dollar Stores.  The idea of the assortment was to take some of the well known core characters and get them into retail outlets, but to do it in interesting ways, and ways that existing tooling would allow.

With the idea of paint applications, apparently some decisions had to be made for cost purposes, and even though a figure like Cobra Commander looks to be somewhat bland, he has the same paint apps as anyone else, they’re just applied differently.  As far as paint applications go, too, each paint app adds cost to the overall product, so to keep pricing low, the number of different paint applications also had to be kept low. While the price has yet to be revealed, we can expect to see these priced lower than the mainline items.

Release dates are uncertain, but we should expect to see these hit Dollar Stores this summer.

Obviously at this point, these details could be subject to change, but I consider this information to be extremely reliable.  Again, to see some images of these figures, check out JoeDeClassified.com.

If nothing else this assortment brings a certain enlightenment to me.  Ever since its release, I’ve always hated the Ninja Force Storm Shadow.  I wasn’t entirely sure why, but it’s clear to me now.  I think the design and the limited articulation of the original figure significantly impacted my overall opinion of the uniform itself.  Seeing this similar design on a much better base figure really gives new light to the look of the figure in a way I didn’t appreciate back in the 90’s.  It’s amazing that after 15 or so years, taking old school deco’s and applying them to newer figures can still bring things to light after all this time.

A great looking assortment, and great news about them potentially hitting discount and dollar stores.  Hopefully there’s more still to come!