I know I’m not alone when I initially considered late 2009 my “off time” from collecting G.I. Joe heavily. Since 1982 I’ve been a “completist” (yes, even as an 8-year old I had a bizarre compulsion to get every Joe item released in any given year, a goal which I was never able to accomplish until the late 90’s). The anniversary line actually cured that completist “disease” due to the numerous repaints and re-releases, but I figured my desire for a full run of figures would even further deteriorate as the movie grew closer.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m far from a Real American Hero “purist”…I want to see G.I. Joe grow and evolve, and I think there’s something distressing about how “stuck in the past” some overly-nostaligic collectors can sometimes be. I am, by no means, married to G.I. Joe being exactly what it was in the 80’s, but I really didn’t see anything from a design perspective that made me think the movie line would be the least bit appealing. I’m a big Sigma 6 fan, so I really like those “super hero” type uniforms, but honestly a whole run of figures in various shades of black and blue doesn’t appeal much.
But then a funny thing happened… I actually saw some pictures. Take, for instance, the movie version of Shipwreck:
I’m about as uninsterested in Shipwreck as a character as I could possibly be. He has really never appealed to me whatsoever. From his dated “sailor” appearence to his sarcastic “goofball” persona in the Sunbow cartoons, he was just someone that I had no desire or inclination to really work into my G.I. Joe world. Devils’ Due was able to update his look a bit, but the character was still pulled from the 80’s cartoons, which again, sort of turned me off.
But this is the movie, and thus, pretty much a whole new world. And even though the Shipwreck character isn’t one of the main cast, he has been rumored as a potential “cameo” and I think this pretty much confirms that. So what is it about this figure that makes him so cool to me? Well, they managed to take elements from the classic (the full beard, the parrot, and somewhat cocky facial expression) the Devils’ Due version (his knit cap), and the movie look, and they managed to merge them all perfectly. He also manages to pretty strongly resemble the Sigma 6 version, which is neat, too– (continued…)
I plan on talking about the movie toys quite a bit more in the coming days, but I figured I should at least talk about them a bit since the pictures debuted today as we reported they would. By now most folks have seen the actual pics scattered across the internet and everyone is chiming in with their two cents. I’m sure everyone is just dying to know my thoughts… :shifty:
Cmdrinchief from the Coil Club has become a very reliable source of information in the past, and he’s reporting that we should expect to see some pictures today of the first wave of G.I. Joe: Rise of COBRA single packs. Included in these packs is:
Abel “Breaker” Ehaz with urban camouflage uniform, spring-loaded weapon, and lots of other gear
Heavy Duty with a very “Roadblock” vibe (tank top w/ open vest) and huge chain gun.
Wallace “Ripcord” Weems in his “Accelerator Suit” and spring-loaded weapon
Shana “Scarlett” O’hara in an urban camouflage dress uniform (looking a lot like the movie version of Cover Girl) with spring-loaded weapon and other gear
Shipwreck in a combination urban camouflage pants, the typical movie upper uniform, and a knit cap with a ton of underwater gear
COBRA Viper Commando, looking straight out of the TV spot with the tall armored collar and vest
Zartan, obviously in some sort of disguise, as he’s in an urban camouflage uniform, the same pattern as the Joes are wearing.
We’re expecting to see these in international circles today, so keep your eyes peeled for pictures! From what I can tell, these sound pretty interesting…happy to hear Hasbro is keeping the spring-loaded stuff on the weapons, and leaving the figures alone. The best part is they’re not all different shades of black and gray, there’s actually some nice camouflage patterns and design aesthetics.
This news was broken on TFW2005, as they report that the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen TV spot was the most watched commercial online following it’s debut during the big game on Sunday, but the best news to Joefans is that this same article shows that the G.I. Joe TV Spot ran second. While Revenge of the Fallen still beat out G.I. Joe by nearly 2 million unique views, the fact that G.I. Joe ranked second is great news. According to this article, the TV Spot beat out the Pepsi commercial “forever young” by over 50,000 views, and was uploaded to the internet 279 times compared to the Pepsi one, which was only uploaded 33 times.
This is a great sign that the G.I. Joe film is appealing to a mass audience, and hopefully the momentum continues to build… and just because I’m always looking for an excuse to post it, here’s the trailer again, courtesy of SuperHeroHype.com:
So the official countdown begins… Toy Fair 2009 is less than 2 weeks away (the Hasbro event is Saturday February 14th), and yours truly will be traveling to the Big Apple like I do every year to check out the upcoming new products, harass the Hasbro employees and see exactly what’s in store for the rest of ’09.
GeneralsJoes will have extensive coverage of the event with pictures, details, and a few blog posts over the course of the weekend. I plan on digging into G.I. Joe, of course, as well as the new 3 3/4″ Marvel line, and probably even some Transformers stuff. That’s the beauty of this blog format now, I can do whatever I want with it. 😛
Anyway…if there are any burning questions or anything Hasbro related you want to know, shoot me some comments, and I’ll see what I can do to find out some answers and get the pictures everyone is looking for. It’ll be a blast as always!
I’m about as uninsterested in Shipwreck as a character as I could possibly be. He has really never appealed to me whatsoever. From his dated “sailor” appearence to his sarcastic “goofball” persona in the Sunbow cartoons, he was just someone that I had no desire or inclination to really work into my G.I. Joe world. Devils’ Due was able to update his look a bit, but the character was still pulled from the 80’s cartoons, which again, sort of turned me off.
