I think it’s pretty fair to say that when six open slots were available under the Oktober Guard emblem for the 2012 G.I. Joe Convention reveal, most fans just assumed that we would see the six most famous Oktober Guard members as part of the boxed set. Even though Dragonsky didn’t make an appearance until a little bit after the rest of the team launched in G.I. Joe #6, most fans identify him pretty specifically with the old school Oktober Guard.
It would certainly appear, though, that either this mission takes place without him, or he’s slated for a spot in one of the attendee exclusive sets available in New Orleans for Con attendees. Regardless of where Dragonsky appears in the grand scheme of things, the release of the Convention brochure last week identified one member of the Oktober Guard that no one had yet heard of. And I love that.
I’m all about the story aspects of the G.I. Joe universe and one thing the Collectors’ Club has done amazingly well is using their characters to tell a story. Now we have a totally new Oktober Guard character, General Iron Bear. I think common hypothesis is that this Iron Bear may very well be the guy who turns tail and becomes General Mayhem from the awesome 2005 MARS Attacks convention set, but we likely will not find that out for a while.
Until then, we can enjoy the reveal of the figure itself! Check it out at GIJoeCon.com or mirrored below.
That is a pretty cool looking figure, I have to say. I love it when the Club throws a curve ball, as they so often do, and I think this one is a cool one. A mixture of Arctic Snake Eyes/Snow Serpent and G.I. Joe: Resolute Duke, it looks like an arctic themed commander, and I think the whole idea works well.
EDIT – Of course thanks to Caped Crusader for reminding me that the figure is essentially Resolute Duke (Siberian Attack) with a new head, which is equally cool to me, as I enjoy that figure quite a bit.
Along with the figure reveal, they also have showed us their convention T-Shirts and Hat for 2012, which is always a popular item at the Club store throughout the weekend. Check those images out below.
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So are we all getting hyped up, Joe fans? Registration is going to be happening soon, and then it’s all downhill for New Orleans, and I can’t wait! Keep your eyes peeled here and on GIJoeCon.com for the latest details.
This word comes in from those great G.I. Joe fans from TS118 who have provided images and details for some amazing dioramas over the past several years:
“TS118 has secured an agreement with Solar UIP (local movie outfit who will show GI Joe Retaliation in the Philippines) as of this week.
We shall be providing them action figure displays and dioramas for the promotion of the movie (June 10-30, 2012) and will be helping them in the premiere and regular screening set on June 20 (Thursday). We’ll also be their official partner for the upcoming 11th Philippine Toycon on June 15-17, 2012 where one of the main attractions will be the GI Joe movie.
Looks like the Philippines gets first peak on the new flick, but we won’t post any spoilers…”
This sounds like a pretty excellent coup! TS118 has always been very involved in the G.I. Joe and toy convention world in the Philippines, and now they’re branching out into the movie scene. This is awesome!
For fans from the Philippines, definitely something exciting to look forward to, and for the rest of us, I’m sure pictures will be online. Kudos to some devoted fans for getting their work out there and making the Retaliation premier even more exciting.
Make sure to keep hitting up TS118 for the latest details and information.
The guys jump back into our regular weekly show with a full compliment this time around as Chuck, Gary, Mike and myself all come together to uncover more G.I. Joe related secrets! I’m sure everyone remembers that little 16 bit G.I. Joe themed game that was floating around the internet a few weeks ago, Attack on Cobra Island? Well, we dig down into the center of it in this show, tracking down and interviewing the mysterious creator behind the video game. He gave us some terrific insight and information about the game, tells us its current status (PS, you can download it RIGHT NOW) and what happened with the whole Hasbro situation.
We also took a few minutes to talk to Counterpunch from the Seibertron Twincast Podcast to uncover how Transformers fans feel about Fun Publications and the Collectors’ Club, and I think G.I. Joe fans will find some of his responses very interesting. Check it out at our Podbean page, or via the embedded player below. Don’t forget, Show Notes are after the jump.
Couldn’t quite get them all finished up last week, but I managed to wrap up the last three reviews among packing and moving this weekend, and you can check them all out on my G.I. Joe: Retaliation Review Page.
Of course you could also just click the various links below:
And, of course, do not forget that awesome review sponsor Big Bad Toy Store is loaded up with pre-orders for these figures and future ones as well! Wave 2 looks especially awesome with movie accurate Roadblock, Snake Eyes, Flint, and Firefly! Check out the links below.
There has been a slight flurry of interviews over the past few weeks in regards to G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but I think this one has been one of my favorites. DJ Cotrona and Adrianne Palicki talk to Collider about the tone of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, what they used for inspiration and what homages we can expect. Cotrona talks about some of his parkour training and they break down the realistic tone of the film, while still trying to maintain a sense of fun and excitement.
Check out the embedded video below, or check out Collider itself.
Social media continues to infect G.I. Joe: Retaliation, this time with the Cobra Special Forces on Facebook. They’ve been slowly releasing images of various Cobra Troopers and even Firefly, but this image might just top them all!
Here we see the immortal Cobra Commander standing menacingly in front of a Cobra symbol on the wall of his lair. A very malicious, very cool image. Check it out at Cobra Special Forces, or mirrored below.
Well, look at that! Along with a figure reveal of Voltar today, we also get our first peek at the official 2012 Convention brochure! The brochure, as usual, breaks down the entirety of the 15 figure convention set, and we have a surprise!
While it lists Horror Show along with his Oktober Guard comrades, it doesn’t mention anything about Dragonsky, instead making reference to “General Iron Bear”. Verrrry interesting…
Check out the full brochure right here, and I’ll be back later tonight to break it down even further. Big thanks to Scott “MadMac41” McAllister for the information!
So now it gets good again… I think most of us sort of knew what to expect from the last two days once the first Iron Grenadier: Elite Trooper was revealed. It was evident that the Club was using that canceled 5-Pack as inspiration and we were likely to see most of those troopers within the confines of the Convention set.
Well, all three troopers have been revealed, and with the Club publicly stating that they would not include Destro with this set, the floodgates are wide open again! What will they reveal today? Dragonsky? Horror Show? An Iron Grenadier character figure?! My mind was running wild… and like clockwork, at 3:20pm Eastern Time, we got our answer!
VOLTAR!
Wow! What a terrific looking figure! The combination of Accelerator Suit parts, Pursuit of Cobra Beachhead parts… he retains the general look of his color scheme, yet is darkened just a bit. A new head sculpt and awesome removable helmet! In spite of the slight dip of the grey uniformed Iron Grenadier, this Convention Set is shaping up to be one of the best of all time. Truly an amazing looking addition to the set with this figure and I am giddy with anticipation to see what we might get at the show itself. As always, keep your eyes peeled to GIJoeCon.com for the latest information as it appears.
Bring on the brochure and bring on registration! Let’s do this thing!!
As promised, we have also begun the huge task of listing our vintage toy inventory. This will take some time, but new updated sections are now live for many Palitoy Action Force era products:
This is going to be an ongoing project as we continue to list all Palitoy and Hasbro lines, so if there is anything you are looking for that you don’t see there, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line and we will do our best to help.
