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Last two TV Spots from The Rise of COBRA have been YouTube’d in High Res!

We got a great look at the latest two TV Spots yesterday, but not in the best quality.  Today that’s rectified, as YouTube has them posted up in glorious HD.  Check them out below, with a bonus of a 9th TV Spot, though it contains pretty much all existing footage.

Good grief.  I don’t think I can wait!  Big thanks, as always, to The Terror Drome for staying on top of this!

News Recap July 20th – Harry from AintitCoolNews.com saw The Rise of COBRA… and LOVED it

I know there’s a stigma attached to AintitCoolNews.com, and specifically to Harry Knowles, but truth be told, it’s a very reputable site amongst the online film crowd, and there are lots of folks out there who  take AICN’s word as gospel and trust what they say.  I’ve been an avid reader of AICN for many years now, and though I’m not the film nerd I used to be,  I still reference it several times a day and take particular interest in their reviews.

Many times I’ve heard their opinions are slanted depending on what studio, what director, etc…  but I’m not sure I buy that.  After all, I’ve seen many of the same things said about me, so I kind of know (in a VERY limited sense) what it’s like in their shoes.

So, with all of these early screenings kicking around, I was really hoping to see some professional opinions about The Rise of COBRA.  We got pretty good word from Collider.com, but many folks were yelling “PLANT!” at every positive word that came around.  Well, I’m sure the word plant will come up again, but Harry Knowles got some face time with Rise of COBRA himself, and his review of it is glowing.

There are spoilers scattered about, so I’ll paste the entire thing down below.

I know there are still haters out there looking for the ultra realistic “Platoon” version of G.I. Joe, but it’s looking and sounding more and more like this is going to be right up my alley.  I’ve always loved the way the property bridged science fiction with the military, and that’s exactly what’s going on here.  Perfect.  Anyway, full review is below.  Thanks very much to The Terror Drome for pointing out this info.

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News Recap July 20th – StephenSommers.com Exclusive Clip and VFX Preview

Miss a day in the world of G.I. Joe these days and you miss a LOT.  Along with new figures, G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA director Stephen Sommers has launched StephenSommers.com and celebrated that launch by posting some awesome exclusive videos.

The gem here is the exclusive clip featuring some Snake Eyes acrobatics and general coolness, and it is amplified by a nice behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into the visual effects and everything that you DON’T see on the screen in front of you.  Embedding is disabled by request, but you can check out the videos below:

Thanks again to SNAKE EYES and TheLongestDay of HissTank.com for that info.

I am so stoked seeing that Snake Eyes clip…sure he comes across as more Spider-Man than military commando, but THAT is going to fire up a kid to go out and buy his toys and dress up like him for Halloween.  Love that.  I also love the fact that all of the clips we’ve seen so far are pulled from the battle through the streets of Paris.  This is only one of 4 or 5 elaborate action set pieces that make up the film, and it’s nice that they’re using it as a source material, and leaving so much else to be discovered in the theater.  I’ve read the script and read the novelization, and there are even bigger, better, and cooler things than what we’re seeing here.  August 7th can’t come soon enough!

News Recap July 20th – New Rise of COBRA figures revealed

I first caught wind of this thanks to SNAKE EYES from the HissTank forums, though unfortunately wasn’t in a spot that I could do an update until now.  Gyre-Viper from the afforementioned HissTank.com has uncovered some images of upcoming figures.  Unfortunately (in my book) the figures consist of three repeat characters, and a troop builder that is tough to make out.  Arctic Storm Shadow and City Strike Duke are especially underwhelming.  The list is as follows:

  • Storm Shadow (Arctic Threat) – Looks to be an amalgamation of Storm Shadow and Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes, which is an interesting combination, but it’s not nearly as cool as the individual figures that make it up.  Plus the camouflage that is supposed to be an homage to the ’87 version of Stormy looks kinda splotchy and out of place.
  • Duke (City Strike) – Pretty much a repaint of Reactive Armor Duke, perhaps with some other legs, but he comes with all rehashed accessories and a somewhat uninspiring paint scheme.
  • Ripcord (Jungle Assault) – This figure looks pretty freaking incredible.  Love the boonie hat, love the gear, and the paint apps are pretty nice, too.  I’d rather get a desert version of Rip over this, but it still looks like an awesome figure from this grainy photo.
  • Desert-Viper – Honestly can’t really tell.  Lots of shadow, some heavy gear and a scarf.  Has potential, but I’m not big on the environmental guys.  Time will tell on that one.

If this is a run of single packs, I’m kinda bummed out.  It seems things took a bit of a step back, at least with two of these figures.  I know, I won’t jump to conclusions, but this selection doesn’t win me over.  I know Hasbro  traditionally tends to mix in a pretty repaint heavy wave in the later months, so maybe this is it, it was just looking like such drastic improvements between Wave 1 and Wave 3, that this seems to go in the opposite direction.

We’ll see.  Images are mirrored below.

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News Recap July 20th – Where the hell was I today?

So as folks probably noticed (at least I hope some folks noticed…  :shifty: ) I was noticably absent today during a fairly busy news day.  But just because I was absent doesn’t mean I was out of the Joe loop…in fact, I probably had my busiest “G.I. Joe” day in a long time.  For folks who don’t know, I live pretty much out in the boondocks.  Not much in the way of local stores to speak of.  There’s a single Wal-Mart that hasn’t carried G.I. Joe figures since 2003, and pretty much nothing else, so when I had the opportunity today to travel to civilization to attend a training seminar, I said “sure”, especially since it would afford me the opportunity to check out some REAL retail locations and get an idea what’s out there.

First place I actually stopped was a 7-11, where I started the day with a Liquid Artillary Slurpee and a cup of Go Joe Cappuchino.  Yes, I am THAT much of a geek.  From there I swung by a Toys “R” Us and was thrilled to see that they were in the midst of setting up their G.I. Joe showcase in the front of the store!

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Very bad ass.  The cardboard displays are 3D and I just love seeing such a huge presence for the Rise of COBRA.  Of course, the store itself didn’t have much…I did take advantage of the 2 for $9.98 sale and grabbed a pair of Neo-Vipers.

I won’t bore you with the details of the entire trip, but I had a chance to get a decent sampling of a few Wal-Marts, Targets, and Toys “R” Us’, and came away feeling like there was a pretty hefty push for The Rise of COBRA.  Each of the four Targets I hit had at least two endcaps (one had FOUR) filled with Joe product.  I hit three TRU’s, one had the showcase going up, the other two had four feet of devoted space at the front of the store.  Wal-Mart was the most disappointing.  I stopped by two of those, and only one had any RoC stuff, all the C1W1 assortment.

Anyone who is having trouble finding COBRA Commanders or Reactive Armor Scarletts obviously isn’t shopping in Southern NH, because that assortment was everywhere.  I must have seen three dozen COBRA Commanders in my travels (and all of them had holes in the chest, but no hoses included), not to mention at least a dozen Scarletts, and Paris Pursuit figures all over the place (no gray Timbers in sight).  In fact, all of the first two waves were in abundance, though alas there were no Wave 3 gems to be found.  I came away with a little squad of Neo-Vipers (mostly because I didn’t want to pay full price for them) and that’s about it, but it was great seeing all this stuff on shelf.  A country boy from the boonies like me doesn’t see it very often.