And that’s a wrap. It always feels like the annual convention reviews are a sprint, with coordinating all of the images, the Photoshopping, the organizing and the page layouts, and then by the time the whirlwind week is over, there’s a feeling of some sort of satisfaction.
I have to be honest, though, I didn’t feel a whole lot of satisfaction with this one. Ultimately, most of the figures and vehicles felt underserved and overpriced, which is unfortunate.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that the Collectors Club is able to put together these figures for a fanbase that has no other outlet currently, but in looking back even to just 2015 the blatant and obvious degradation of quality is a shame. There were some highlights last year with Sky Patrol, several of them in fact, but this year everything felt pretty run-of-the-mill with very few exciting surprises. I felt there was a handful of serviceable figures that did the source material right, but there really was nothing that surprised, impressed, or blew me away. Perhaps I’m asking too much given the limited tooling supplies and resources available, but when the Club is asking nearly $1,000 for a set of exclusives, I gotta say, I expect more.
Anyway… the last three reviews can be viewed below:
Nearly four action-packed hours of G.I. Joe talk post JoeCon with the latest news and intel, as well as an interview with Boss Fight Studio’s own Andrew and Erik to talk about Bucky O’Hare and all sorts of other awesome stuff.
But wait… there’s another pretty massive surprise… Hasbro Vice President, Global Brand Management Derryl DePriest himself also joins the show! What did I tell you? It’s a big one!
The 2017 G.I. Joe Convention is over and Chris from The Full Force Podcast has pulled together a panel of experts to talk about what was shown, what was seen and what exciting things happened during the week down in Disney.
Join Chris, Troy and IDW artist extraordinaire Adam Riches as they discuss the trials and tribulations of JoeCon 2017. Check out The Full Force on Facebook, or just hit up the podbean page below.
Quite possibly the coolest item to come out of JoeCon 2017 was the vintage o-ring style Sightline which was available at the JoeDeClassified booth throughout the convention weekend.
They gave out the figure all weekend long and many fans were able to take advantage of the offer, but they still have a few hundred figures left over. Naturally, many fans (especially those who couldn’t make it to Orlando) were wondering how they might get their hands on one of these fantastic looking figures.
JoeDeClassified has revealed the info! Hop on over to the DeClassified Facebook Page to find the full details on how you can try and get your very own vintage style Sightline figure. I think DeClass is handling this perfectly, finding a way to get this great action figure into the hands of kids, DeClass supporters and G.I. Joe fans everywhere as fairly as possible.
The full details can be found below.
The Much-Anticipated Sightline Post:
As mentioned previously, Joe Declassified has approximately 400 Sightline figures to give away. This was almost wholly unanticipated. We expected most if not all of the figures to be given away at Joe Con, and the intention of the figure WAS to be a Joe Con exclusive. Since that didn’t happen, we’ve been batting about solutions with a few primary goals in mind:
1. Get Sightline into the hands of as many kids as possible. Our mission is to promote the brand, and a huge part of this is to engage a new generation of collectors.
2. Distribute Sightline as fairly as possible. We realize that not everyone will be happy with our process no matter what we choose, but believe us when we say that we’re going to do our level best.
3. Solve the logistical hurdle. As the G.I. Joe community’s only not-for-profit, we’re not exactly rolling in cash. Mailing out 400 individual figures, even at the most conservative average of $4 each, would cost us $1600. That’s a price tag we cannot afford.
All that said, we have some priorities for distribution that need to be waded through before we begin to send out figures to the masses. Also, we have realities that you may not be aware of:
1. We cannot sell the figures. Our arrangement to use the Sightline name precludes us from selling them. Yes, having you “donate” directly for that purpose is still selling. We honor the spirit of our agreements, not just the letter. You may, of course, donate at any time, and in doing so support future projects, but it will have no impact on you receiving a Sightline figure or not.
2. We required financial backers in order to make this work. Some of them chipped in CONSIDERABLE amounts of money to make this project happen, and do not themselves have a figure.
SO…..our current distribution plan is:
1. We’ll be sending out a figure at our cost to the remaining backers who do not have a figure (9 of them).
2. We’ll be making a few available to our staff that participated in the planning process, who also have not yet received the figure they invested their effort into.
3. We will make figures available to Gary’s close friends. We know who they are.
4. We plan to make a SIGNIFICANT amount available at shows later this year – Assembly Required, Toy de Jour’s G.I. Joe day in Chicago, etc. This will allow us to hand many directly to children. Probably 1/2 the remaining figures will go out this way.
5. To those that have donated to Joe Declassified prior to 13 June 2017 – Many of you donated money over the last decade with no expectation of any direct return, so you will be eligible to receive a figure. We will contact YOU to determine if you wish to have a figure, but will need you to cover the shipping costs.
6. Contests! We’re going to run several contests, to ensure that anyone who doesn’t otherwise get a figure has a shot. Customs, art, writing, scavenger hunts, trivia, etc. If you’re not good at one thing, we want to find something you can participate and compete in. We do plan to deliberately aim several of these at children. Winning the contests will make you eligible to receive the figure, but you’ll need to cover shipping.
There are a couple ground rules to also be considered:
1. If you received a figure already, you are ineligible to receive another.
2. There is no “list” for you to get on. We appreciate the interest in this figure, but our inboxes have been flooded with PMs from fans asking for one and frankly, we won’t be taking these requests into consideration as we continue to distribute our remaining figures. We appreciate your support and are impressed with your dedication to G.I. Joe, but your level of fan-hood will not be a deciding factor.
3. This process will likely take us MONTHS. Patience will be a virtue. Each step of the way, we will need to re-assess costs, processes, quantity remaining, and account for production errors. Please remember, this is all volunteer labor done by guys with day jobs.
We also plan to auction off several items in the immediate future to directly benefit the Capua/Head family. We have Jason Sobol’s original Sightline art and Artist’s proof, the hand painted Sightline prototype, and 2 Alyosha customs of the Goggled One himself that were donated to us for this purpose.
Wow! Once again, huge props to Chris McLeod from The Full Force who has come through HUGE upon returning from his whirlwind trip to JoeCon. He was kind enough to send along video reviews for all of the rest of the JoeCon exclusives and they have all been posted to the GeneralsJoes YouTube Channel.
I couldn’t make JoeCon again this year, a fact that I was quite disappointed about, and Chris came through in a massive way. Huge thanks to Chris from The Full Force and check out the embedded videos below.
The G.I. Joe Collectors Club Panel is currently happening at G.I. Joe Con in Orlando, Florida.
First, they revealed a scattering of new G.I. Joe Collectors Club exclusives, including the 2018 Membership figure.
2018 Membership Figure
Rock n Roll v2
Additional Sets
Heartwrencher w/ Dreadnok Ground Assault 4WD
Nightstalkers 3 Pack (same bodies as this years female COBRA Troopers)
They also announced two figures from FSS 7!
Crystal Ball
Tomax
Brian also (mostly) confirmed that next year will most likely be the final G.I. Joe Convention, and it will be June 21st – 24th in Chattanooga, TN. Big thanks to Patrick and Phil from YoJoe and Chris from The Full Force for the updates!
Derryl also confirmed that there is no other G.I. Joe product at retail this year nor next year. The next time G.I. Joe will be at retail is with the next piece of entertainment (working alongside Paramount). There is no news on that right now, but they are working hard to get that entertainment to cinemas as soon as they possibly can.
HasCon has not been developed as a replacement for JoeCon, and this year its about getting up and going with brands at large, but G.I. Joe WILL be a part of HasCon in the future.
G.I. Joe “VIP Experience” at HasCon Friday, September 8th. Largest assemblage of G.I. Joe: ARAH “legends” (creators) with a special dinner event. Dan Klingensmith working alongside Hasbro to bring this to the fans.
VIP Experience is $600, Derryl is working hard to make sure the fans feel as if the ticket price is worthwhile.
Derryl is also curating some never before seen things that will be revealed at HasCon, product from their archives and exciting new stuff that people have never seen.
