It’s almost October, which means we’re getting close to New York ComicCon, and Funko has announced an awesome looking exclusive Pop available at the convention.
None other than the COBRA weapons expert and leader of the Iron Grenadiers – Destro! Check out the image below, and hit up NYCC October 5th – 8th to get your own.
I’ve been going back and forth on this for a long time now, but after the events of the last twenty-four hours, I think it’s time that I make a decision.
GeneralsJoes will no longer be covering or providing coverage of IDW Publishing’s G.I. Joe comics until something can be done about writer Aubrey Sitterson.
From a personal perspective, I can respect his devotion to his political beliefs. Hell, to be totally honest, I share some of those beliefs. But over the past several months, Mr. Sitterson has systematically worked through social media to generate a sense of ill-will for the majority of the G.I. Joe fan base, and I’ve reached a point where I just don’t want to discuss it or give it any exposure any more.
It started in the G.I. Joe: Discussion Facebook group where some members were talking about a particular G.I. Joe cover, which caused Mr. Sitterson to get exceptionally hostile towards the fans to the point where he posted an image of himself giving the middle finger with a blatant image of the president blowing his own brains out on a t-shirt.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Donald Trump (an issue I will NOT be discussing further so don’t bother asking) but the gesture struck me as being completely out of line for a creator who is attempting to engage with the fan base. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when one of the admins stepped in, Mr. Sitterson fell back to his personal social media platform and proceeded to accuse the entire group of being homophobes and racists, a complete and total misrepresentation of the facts. He has used this same tactic with a recent exchange regarding folks expressing sympathy and emotion for the events of September 11th.
Since then he has continuously posted virulent and aggressive posts through social media while at the same time promoting G.I. Joe, and over the past several weeks I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with how closely linked the G.I. Joe brand has become with his own mode of online commentary. Mr. Sitterson has spent a lot of time in the wrestling world, and he certainly seems to be working to generate heat, hoping that this heat will spill over into sales and attention for the G.I. Joe comics. Unfortunately, sales continue to falter and I see disgusted fans by the dozens unsubscribing or expressing their distaste for the way the current writer is handling himself.
G.I. Joe, at this moment, strikes me as a brand in crisis. I strongly believe any curator of that brand in a professional capacity needs to express himself in a professional manner. Mr. Sitterson has not been doing that for a very, very long time, and eventually his agenda is going to drive away what few hardcore fans the G.I. Joe brand has left.
Believe me, I am about as far from the “hardcore G.I. Joe military RULEZ” crowd as you can get. I have plenty of room in my love for the brand to accept the more eccentric and outlandish stories. That’s a huge part of what has made G.I. Joe what it is today. In another life I would enjoy and appreciate the outlandish nature of what Sitterson is trying to accomplish, but his aggressive belligerence makes it impossible to do so.
What I cannot do is accept the fact that one of the brand’s creative members seems to feel a need to work so hard to ostracize the fans who have supported this brand for decades. His recent tweet about September 11th was poorly worded and borderline offensive, and when folks have called him on it, his response was (and I quote):
“But as a guy who stood in the streets of lower Manhattan, where he lived, and watched it all unfold: F*ck you.”
Is that really the brand ambassador that we all want at the head of the ship? Also, did he forget that the events of 9/11 not only impacted New York, but Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and thousands of people who lost family members aboard the aircraft that crashed into the two towers?
From a personal perspective I will no longer be buying IDW Publishing’s main G.I. Joe title. I’ve been purchasing every single G.I. Joe comic since 1984. It took until 2017 to get me to stop, but I have finally been worn down to the point of just not being able to support it anymore.
Mr. Sitterson has complete and total freedom of speech and as I’ve already said, I fully respect his opinion and his intense desire to share that opinion regardless of what others may think. It’s an admirable trait.
However, in this case, I think he is actively damaging a brand that cannot withstand the continued punishment, and the best interests of IDW Publishing’s G.I. Joe universe do not necessarily align with his. For that reason, I’m expressing my own freedom in not promoting or commercially supporting IDW Publishing’s endeavors with the G.I. Joe universe. It’s unfortunate, and honestly I’m sure my little voice in this big, huge world doesn’t mean much, but I’ve gotta do what I feel is right.
I couldn’t love the looks of this any more if I tried. Over on the Marauder Facebook Page (as well as via an update to his Kickstarter Page), Marauder has revealed a 3D image of the upcoming Marauder Task Force Exo-Suit.
And yes, it looks amazing.
Big, bulky, yet promising some impressive articulation, this fantastic looking mechanized Exo-Suit has been designed by the action figure wizards of Boss Fight Studio, which alone convinces me that it’s going to rock. Check out the 3D image below, and if you haven’t kicked in some cash for the latest Marauder Kickstarter yet, what are you waiting for? We all need this exo-suit in our lives.
The G.I. Joe Collectors Club has posted another image this morning with three more samples of FSS 6.0 figures from China. In this image we get our first look at the actual samples for W.O.R.M.S. Officer, Rampart, and Not Ghost Rider.
The more I see the Phantom X-19 pilot the more I like his build, though in this image he looks a little bit short and squat. Rampart remains one of my favorite looking figures in the sixth FSS, with this image outlining some of the nice highlights of his modern parts, though his missing head scarf looks a lot more noticeable than I thought it might given the early digital mock ups.
W.O.R.M.S. Officer is pretty lackluster, to be honest. I mean basing him off General Mayhem makes sense, leveraging the officer’s jacket, but the restrictive articulation and the difference between torso and arms just ends up looking ridiculous. Not a big fan of the overall look here.
Keep watching the G.I. Joe Collectors Club Facebook Page for more updates, the latest image is mirrored below.
In the rush of HasCon news, the G.I. Joe Collectors Club dropped a little reveal showcasing what looks to be their first in hand samples of upcoming Figure Subscription Service 6.0 figures.
Dojo, Sub Zero and Skip were shown on the G.I. Joe Collectors Club Facebook page and can be seen below:
Things look like they’re coming together fairly nicely. Skip’s build isn’t bad, though I’m not wild about that webgear riding up on his torso. Sub Zero is decent enough, though that parka tooling is pretty restrictive. I understand the desire to give him his hood, but there are times when it’s okay to modernize someone’s look to improve functionality.
Dojo looks pretty good in the background there, too, and I think he’ll look pretty awesome alongside TJBang from the 2014 Convention set.
Good to see things are coming along.
Part of the whole HasCon weekend experience was a first look at IDW Publishing’s new Visionaries comic (well, technically Transformers vs. Visionaries comic) and the first glimpse at the design aesthetics for these more modern Visionaries.
So far, as one would expect, the reactions have been visceral, with a lot of hate being piled upon them. Myself? Honestly? I love them.
I won’t lie, I’ve been more than a little discouraged by IDW’s recent track record with G.I. Joe comics (aside from Hama and Gallant’s stellar continued work on ARAH) and as much as I’ve tried to get into and excited for Revolution, Revolutionaries and First Strike, I can’t quite get as pumped up as I want to be.
However, this first look at the Visionaries? I’m loving it. Over at Visionaries.Net, they’ve really dissected the reveals and taken a deep dive into this first peek into this side of the Hasbro universe and have done a spectacular job at it, too. If you have even a passing interest in Visionaries, you need to hit TheVisionaries.net and see the cool stuff they’re doing.
Check out some of the mirrored images below, courtesy of IDW, but a bunch more are also over at TheVisionaries.net. Some good stuff.
First and foremost… for some of the best coverage of HasCon you MUST check out the following two places:
Both Christopher and Carson went above and beyond documenting the experience in video and image form, and have a lot better detail there than I’m providing below. This is just my own take on the experience.
On paper, it looked like kind of a crazy idea. The coordination, the early mornings, the blood, sweat, and tears.
Oh, I’m not talking about HasCon itself. I’m talking about my plans for HasCon weekend. Deciding to forego the VIP treatment this year (going by some peer reactions, this was a significant lack of judgement on my part) I elected instead to make HasCon a day trip. Grab a ticket, cruise down to Rhode Island for the day, have some fun.
(Image courtesy of the 3DJoes Facebook Page)
Then they decided to bring James White from the New England Patriots, and my daughter caught wind of it, and those plans went out the window. She had to see him on Sunday, and I had to see my friends on Saturday, so I decided on back-to-back road trips of nearly 3 hours each way.
I don’t regret one second of it. If anything, I regret not bringing my second daughter along for the ride.
As we near the end of Fun Publication’s license for the G.I. Joe Convention (with Botcon already come and gone) Hasbro had elected to take over some of the convention reigns themselves, putting together a combination con involving all of their various brands. HasCon as it was dubbed was immediately greeted by mixed reactions (my own included). But as more and more of my friends expressed their interest in attending, I decided I’d go along for the ride.
(Images Courtesy of the 3DJoes Facebook Page)
Next year, it’s VIP all the way.
While I missed Friday, from everything I heard, the G.I. Joe panels were informative, interesting, and fun, a deep, introspective dive into the history of the world’s first action figure. Certainly a lot of the discussion focused on the Real American Hero side of things, Hasbro pulled out all of the stops with actually recreating some of the old prototype vehicles and restoring many items for display. Alan Hassenfeld himself was on site during the dinner to give a rousing speech, with the always present and always enthusiastic Derryl DePriest carrying the torch as well. By all accounts they were both fantastic. If you missed Friday like I did, you absolutely must go check The Full Force on Facebook, as the stalwart Chris McLeod managed to capture the majority of it on video.
I showed up on Saturday, shortly before noon, and the place was slamming. It was wall-to-wall people waiting in line for autographs by David Ortiz, or playing along with a DJ, having a blast in the HasCade, or enjoying the G.I. Joe history lesson courtesy of Dan Klingensmith and an entire cadre of design legends from the hallowed halls of Hasbro. I gravitated towards the G.I. Joe display of course and ran into some great friends there from 3D Joes and the Flag Points podcast, Dan K. himself, as well as members of the G.I. Joe Discussion Group on Facebook. Less than thirty minutes into my arrival and it was like old homes day, especially for this old man who had missed the past two JoeCons in a row.
After chatting the guys up for a few minutes, I was swept into the main exhibit hall which was simply astounding. Every single Hasbro brand was represented there from Transformers to Nerf to My Little Pony and Magic: The Gathering. Disney Princesses, Star Wars, the whole ball of wax.
Well, except for G.I. Joe, which maintained its position on guard outside the front door. If anything, though its placement gave it more visibility, not less.
Each section of boys toys goodness was crammed with new and old toys, fantastic, elaborate diorama displays and a bunch of great Hasbro designers to talk with. I was able to play catch up with John Warden (though I kept missing Bobby Vala in the Marvel booth) and the enthusiasm with which they talked about their craft and the product lines they work on was infectious. Moving from booth to booth (dodging the 15 foot tall Bumblebee dancing around) was an experience in glorious sensory overload. HasCon is like JoeCon + Botcon x 10 squared. It was really amazing.
(Video Courtesy of The Full Force Facebook Page)
But the audience was manageable. It was large, but not TOO LARGE if you get my meaning. Things rarely got to San Diego ComicCon shoulder-to-shoulder level, but on Saturday there was a constant stream and presence of people, but it never quite reached overwhelming status.
As a collector, though, once you pulled yourself away from the Boys Toys alley, things got even cooler, especially for those of us parents in the room. Sprawling out throughout the rest of the exhibit hall was booths upon booths of fun, colorful, interactive demonstrations of Hasbro’s core brands. Stuff like My Little Pony (full make up stations), Littlest Pet Shop (you could customize your own pet, or win free pets by spinning a hamster wheel), Baby Alive (changing stations, feeding stations, the whole nine yards), Nerf (shooting ranges and Dude Perfect trick shots), and even a Troll section where you could get your hair done up like one of those crazy plastic dolls that actually have names and a mythology now.
I’m so old.
There were kids and families. Everywhere. Just as it should be. Boys and girls of all ages being exposed to Hasbro brands, discovering just how cool the various Nerf weapons or the latest Beyblades were. Getting smacked in the face with a whipped cream pie or sprayed by a toilet (don’t ask)… it was a tradeshow, a family fun day, and a full blown fan convention all wrapped up in a single package.
And it all worked.
Upon my return trip on Sunday, with my 12 year old in tow (who was thrilled to meet and get her picture taken with James White) the crowds were smaller and more scattered, making the floor more manageable. She was able to play at the various game stations and although she was ‘way too old, dad’ for Baby Alive or My Little Pony, she eagerly traveled the floor with her little passport to collect all the stamps and get her free water bottle. She customized her own Littlest Pet Shop and won a couple of free ones to bring home to her sister. All that plus enough free Play-Doh to choke a stable of horses.
Sure, there were hiccups as there always are the first year around, but overall the experience was exceptionally smooth. Busy, but not packed. Lots to do and see, but not sensory overload. Just enough great stuff happening at regular intervals, but not so much that you felt like you were going to miss something.
I’m not sure HasCon will become a regular thing, I can’t even imagine the coordination it took to bring it all together. But I hope it does. And if it does, I’ll be there next year. I may even bring the whole family.
Dan, Derryl, the G.I. Joe legends, and everyone involved deserves some serious props for what it took to pull this off. Yes, the best part (as always) was seeing all my friends and hanging with great people, but the Convention itself was a blast, and something I can see myself attending every year, and even better, something I can bring the family to as well.
Great success and congrats to all.
We are ramping up to HasCon this weekend, and The Full Force Podcast has posted a brand spanking new episode covering all the latest G.I. Joe news and intel with some awesome perspective.
Check out the latest episode over on Podbean and be sure to stay up to date via their Facebook Page.
There have been many rumors and tales told about what “could have been” for the past year’s 50th Anniversary line from Toys “R” Us, many of them involving vehicle sets that were canceled due to the retailer’s request for a more scaled back exclusive line.
YoJoe hits us with some tangible proof that many of these items were in the production chain when canceled. An anonymous YoJoe supporter has uncovered what looks to be an early sample of a Rock n Roll figure with many similarities to the concept case version from a few years back.
Using parts from G.I. Joe: Pursuit of COBRA and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the figure looks very cool and I love the camouflage pattern on the legs. He’s got a new head and a pretty cool aesthetic, all told.
With the Collectors Club slates to release their own version of Rock n Roll v2 as a membership figure for 2018 it will be interesting to see how similar or different it is to this one. Check out the YoJoe forums for the full details, I’ve mirrored a couple of images below, but you’ll find many more over there.
Man, I get goosebumps every time Fresh Monkey Fiction posts a new one of these strips. All my life I’ve wanted to write comics, and so far this is the closest I’ve gotten, and I’m loving it. Huge thanks to Bill for giving me the opportunity to do it, and major props to the legendary Ryan Lord for his stellar artwork!
Eagle Force Returns on Facebook is where you want to be to see all the latest! I’ve mirrored them below as well.