At New Jersey Collectors Con this year we got a little peek at the upcoming Wave 3 Lord Vehemous from the Vitruvian HACKS fantasy collection. Now, we have a little more (awesome) backstory courtesy of Infinite Earths, who Boss Fight allowed to reveal the package art and temporal log.
The package art is by James Griffiths and looks absolutely amazing. I love the influence of the purple energy throughout, signs of some disturbance of the timeline by the looks of it.
Even cooler is his backstory:
Lord Vehemous
Dragon Cult War Priest Self-proclaimed leader of a sect which worships dragons as avatars of the gods. Vehemous found a tome that grants him the ability to control these mighty beasts. Using this power, he has amassed a substantial number of followers, each of whom have been granted supernatural powers by the liberal imbibing of dragon blood. The blood has addictive properties and causes physical deformities but dragon cult members do not care. The telepathic powers, immunity to disease and tolerance to pain they gain are worth it.
Temporal Log: Vehemous has lately begun to preach that a magical item exists in the blasted lands that will allow his followers to take the next step and become dragons themselves. It appears legends of Stheno’s staff have reached his ears. Will he do the unthinkable and resurrect the long absent Gorgon horde if he finds it?
Definitely take a run over to Infinite Earths to see the full reveal and this looks like another awesome Vitruvian HACKS character I’ll want to get my hands on.
Over on the Animal Warriors of the Kingdom Facebook page, several updates have been posted on pre-production samples of their upcoming action figure line, and I gotta tell you, things are looking really good.!
Recently another exclusive character, Scraps has been unlocked, and pre-orders are open via BackerKit until November 1st, so you still have a chance to pre-order some of these great looking figures on the pre-order page now.
Even with some not-so-fun retail issues with 1:18 scale figures at the moment, it’s really awesome to see such ingenuity and creativity from these up and coming toy folks, and I’m wishing the Spero Studios guys all the success in the world. It’s looking like a fantastic product line coming together.
Make sure you hit up BackerKit to get your pre-orders in.
If you’ve been following along with Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero book you’ve likely seen some of John Royle’s excellent cover work.
John has reached out to let me know that he’ll be attending the Isle of Wight Comic Convention on November 4th and 5th and he’ll be in Malta at their Comic Convention at the beginning of December. Information about the Isle of Wight ComicCon can be found on their Twitter Feed.
Keep following John on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for the latest cover updates and check out his work on the new Dawn-themed Snake Eyes costume below.
This past weekend I was lucky enough to join Mike and Fred from Just Another G.I. Joe Show and talk about GeneralsJoes, my writing, and a bunch of other fun stuff. I had a great time and the latest episode (for anyone who missed it) is now up on YouTube.
There was some great conversation about G.I. Joe, doing G.I. Joe reviews, and my struggling author career, and I think many of you would dig it.
It’s coming up quick. The latest G.I. Joe regional show in Des Moines, Iowa is coming up November 4th, 2017, and there are a bunch of great updates to share leading up to it!
November 4th at the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center in Des Moines, Iowa, the show always promises to be a blast, and with its exclusive minimalist posters and what is apparently a set of great exclusives shaping up, this is one year you won’t want to miss.
As of a few days ago, the folks who backed the latest Marauder Task Force Kickstarter should have started receiving their “BackerKit” surveys, which allow backers the opportunity to tell the Kickstarter creator specifically what products they want (and if they want any add-ons).
But the Marauder Task Force Backer Kit came with a nice little surprise. Marauder has announced that along with the surprise Agency Ops figures that were added to the Kickstarter in the later stages, they will also be releasing female versions of the Agency Ops figures as well! Those figures were available in the Backer Kit and we should expect them to be in the store afterwards as well, which is very exciting news!
Check out the concept art below by the exceedingly talented Troy McKie, good friend of GeneralsJoes and fantastic toy designer to boot. Great stuff, and even more awesome things to look forward to with the release of the Task Force Kickstarter items!
While you wait, make sure to hit up MarauderInc.com and get all the gear your characters will need when they hit your mailbox.
This week the fine folks at Fresh Monkey Fiction posted the final installment of the Eagle Force “Shattered Peace” webcomic that I wrote and the always impressive Ryan Lord did the artwork for. To say working with Ryan and the Eagle Force guys was a pleasure would be a massive understatement. Ever since I was 8 years old I wanted to write comics, and the opportunity to craft the stories with these characters, both classic and new, has been an awesome experience.
You can check out the comics on the Eagle Force Returns Facebook Page and I’ve also mirrored all 18 parts below. I truly hope you enjoyed them and that they helped quench some thirst as we wait for these awesome characters to be in our hands in physical form.
Rest assured, though, this isn’t all. There will be plenty more Eagle Force related excitement to come, so stay tuned.
Some exciting and unexpected news from our friends at Boss Fight Studio today as they announced a new “Evil Skeleton” action figure that will be sold on BossFightShop.com as of October 31st!
It’s a nicely weathered skeleton with some terrific accessories, but even more interesting is one of the images that goes along with the info (posted exclusively on Infinite Earth).
If you check out the product photo you’ll see the Evil Skeleton is labeled as a “HACKS Basic” figure. Could this be the start of a new product line of figures with fewer accessories and dialed down deco? More news to come on this front, I’m sure, but for now, check out the great images of the upcoming Evil Skeleton below.
Limited to just a few hundred, the Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. Evil Skeleton has all the same great features and functions that fans loved about the original, but will be available for just $19.99.
So, whether you’re looking to recreate the classic Skeleton Dance, or unleash an army of Skeleton Warriors that would make Todd Armstrong nervous, the Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. Evil Skeleton is sure to be right up your alley!
Look for it to arrive on the Boss Fight Studio web store beginning October 31st.
Everyone will remember where they were the day The Full Force dropped a six hour marathon podcast on unsuspecting toy fans everywhere. Stuffed to the gills with MASK intel back to front, this fantastic podcast features interviews with Brandon Easton (writer of IDW’s MASK comic), Doug Stone (the voice actor behind the MASK of Matt Trakker) and a metric ton of other MASK content (as well as the latest G.I. Joe news from yours truly).
In all seriousness, this is a great episode with lots of excellent toy insight and it’s one you do NOT want to miss. Check it out on Podbean or embedded below, and make sure you’re hitting up The Full Force on Facebook for all of the latest news and updates!
Anyone who has watched an animated series from the 80s and 90s has likely watched something Larry Houston had a hand in. An exceedingly prolific storyboard artist, director, and all around animation legend, Houston was directly involved in much of the Sunbow product, and most famously was the storyboard director for quite possibly the greatest three minutes in animated G.I. Joe history, the opening to 1987’s G.I. Joe: The Movie.
Mike and I sat down and talked all about his work on G.I. Joe as well as other landmark animated series of the time and he was a fantastic interview.
