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Flag Points Episode 20 has been posted with Kirk Bozigian

Folks who have been going to JoeCon for the last few years have had the unique opportunity to interact with Kirk Bozigian, who was literally one of the architects of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line back in the 80’s.  He was the project manager and VP of Boy’s Toys Marketing back in the 80’s.  He was also the “face” of Law from the Law & Order figure released in 1987.

Well the great guys from Flag Points have gotten him on their podcast, and the results were impressive!

Check it out on their Podbean page.  Great stuff.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation test shot images reveal nice new details on eBay

The figure releases must be getting close, as a few eBay auctions have appeared for test shots of G.I. Joe: Retaliation figures.  Most of the images are pretty vanilla, but there is a very cool shot of the G.I. Joe Trooper’s backpack which shows several awesome holsters and a nice spot for a trenching tool.

At this point the auctions have ended, but thanks to HissTank.com for linking the auctions (and images) and you can see the mirrored images below.

no images were found

G.I. Joe: Renegades Super Site temporarily offline

So in my infinite wisdom, I decided to upgrade the Renegades SuperSite to WordPress 3.3 without verifying that the theme was compatible.  Well, it kinda exploded.  I’ll have to go through and make some repairs, which I plan on doing this weekend, but for a little while at least, the Renegades Super Site is offline.

I upgraded it, intending to get it more current with reviews, interviews, and links to the DVD Pre-Order, and I still plan on doing that after I can get the coding worked out.

Thanks for your patience.

G.I. Joe Initiate fan film shows off Firefly!

When he did his interview with What’s on Joe Mind, Frederic Doss teased that another character reveal was coming, and now here it is!  While Doss also mentioned that they were trying to steer clear with what Paramount was doing with their film franchise, obviously they couldn’t anticipate Firefly being a central character in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

This rendition of Firefly looks very cool!  Interesting that they chose to steer clear from the balaclava and go with a more armored mask look again.  I dig it.

Check out their Facebook Page to stay up to date on all the new developments, and if you have a few bucks kicking around, consider going to GIJoeInitiate.com and donating via PayPal.

G.I. Joe Collectors Club Renewal and Subscription Update – New Store Info!

Another email from the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club has gone out with more information about your membership and the new store!  I have copied it below.

“Hello and thanks for your patience.  We have come a long way since we turned off the stores approximately two weeks ago.

For those of you who are interested in the ongoing investigation, our original server has been taken offline and will be undergoing an investigation over the coming days.  The current server online is a clone of the original with all of the critical data removed.  If we find a reasonable cause for the security issue, we will let you know.

We have decided to change our store and forum software.  It has been many tedious hours converting the existing data to work with our new store.  All the membership data is loaded in the store.  The forum will be brought online at a later date.

With our new store software, we have figured out a way to extend the deadline a few days.  This means that everyone’s April magazine will run 7-10 days late.   Our new cutoff date and time is Wednesday March 21, 2012 at 5pm Central Time.

The store has been brought online before its completion to allow renewals and new memberships.  All of the features are not implemented at this time.   We apologize for the length of this email but there is a lot of new information that affects all members.

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THROUGH THIS THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU TAKE ANY ACTION.  Here are the parameters for the new store:

1.  Each membership must have its own UNIQUE email account.

2.  Your store log in is the email address that this message came to.  Your password is the same as the one you have been using at the former club store and forum.  If you have forgotten your password, you can use the “remember me” function.  It only sends your password to your email account; it does not send your login.

3.  If you have a change of address, until further notice, please call our office or send an email to admin2@funpubinc.com or admin@funpubinc.com.   We are running two systems in parallel until we are satisfied that the data is identical.  Please email Customer Service as much as possible as the more they are on the phone, the less time they have to respond to your needs. Customer Service is available from 9:30-4:30 Central Time weekdays.

4.  In order to bring this system online, we have not separated the Transformers and G.I. Joe Clubs into their individual online stores.  At this time, both TF and Joe Club members will use the same storefront to place your renewals or new memberships.

5.  Please look at the bottom of this email.  It has your renewal date.  If your date is prior to March 16, 2012, you will need to create a NEW account in the store, as we did not transfer your data.   If your date is after March 16, 2012, you don’t need to do anything at this time.

Please let only those who need a membership renewal or new membership use the store for now.  In a couple of weeks, we will have everyone start checking their account(s).  In addition, please note that we will be discontinuing the Trooper Level membership in the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club.

6.  Please note that if you had multiple memberships in your name; multiple memberships that all came to a single email address; or a membership in each club, we had to replace all but one of your email addresses with a dummy address.  The new store requires unique email addresses for each membership.  Your email and password will only work for one account.  You will need to contact Customer Service to look up your other logins (dummy emails).  This will enable you to change the login and modify your accounts if you want to have multiple accounts or accounts in both clubs.

7.  When you renew or signup for a new account, you need to select your free figure choice.  The selection choices are found on the signup page  (Transformers members please select the “none” option.   G.I. Joe members, please select 12” or 3 ¾”.

8.  Please note that this store is a commercial package that has hundreds of merchants working with the same store software.  It has features that will be new to us, but until we have some custom programming done, there are a few features that are missing from our old software.   This is a totally different service provider and data storage facility than we have used in the past.  One of the features this software has is to automatically renew your membership without you doing anything (provided you have a valid credit card on file).  If you don’t want your credit information on file (the CVV2 code is never saved after the transaction), you can log in under the  “My Account” feature and delete your card on file.  In order to make future purchases or renewals, you will have to come back to the store and enter your information.

9. The URL for the new store is https://toyarama.com/store.  At a future date, we will split the stores back into an individual store for both the Transformers and G.I. Joe Collectors’ Clubs.

10.  As an additional security measure, please change your password when you log into your membership account.  Do not use any password that you use with other stores or financial institutions.

We apologize for any inconvenience that the prior security issue has caused.   On a side note, we are anticipating that the event registration software will be back online around the end of the month.  If you have any questions, please use the email links at the bottom of all of our web pages and we will provide you with a prompt answer.

Thanks for your support,

Fun Publications Staff”

Great news for the Club and for us as well!  Looks like things are ironing themselves out and moving along.  Keep your eyes peeled here for all the information as it develops.

First look at G.I. Joe: Retaliation Cobra Commander figure in package at GIJoeClub

Along with the good news about the store software and membership deadline extension, the G.I. Joe Collectors Club also posted a nice little snippet on GIJoeClub.com!  While we did see some packaged mock ups at Toy Fair this year, this is the first time we’re seeing a packaged sample of Cobra Commander on the G.I. Joe: Retaliation card.

I’ve posted a small thumbnail below, but definitely hit up GIJoeClub.com for the full image!

G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club Security update and Membership Deadline extended

The G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club sent out the following email today to its members:

“Dear G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club Member,

We have been working diligently to get a replacement store online for you. This is still in progress. However, we are ANTICIPATING that a temporary solution will be available later today (Friday). This is a totallly new website, with totally new software, at a totallly new provider. This commercial software has hundreds of stores and is fully PCI and PCI DSS complient. Their facility has been described to me as a military grade security facility.

Do not go to the old store site. I will provide you with the new url for this system in a later email and we will change the links at that time.

In addition, we have figured out a way to extend this month’s deadline for a few days (because of the new software). We are extending the deadliine date to Wednesday, March 21st, at 5pm central time in order for all of the mail that is enroute to arrive.

However, this will effect EVERYONE’S monthly magazine. The April issues will be approximately 7-10 days late.

Also, we will not be able to reinburse anyone who spent money on expediting renewals to us.

We again apologize to everyone for all of the issues we have been having. We think that you will be very pleased with the new features this store will offer you.

Brian”

So, good news!  Sounds like the new store software is imminent and folks who are scrambling to get payment in for subscription updates have a few more days as well.  Here’s hoping this is the beginning of a nice upswing for the Collectors’ Club and Fun Publications.

Even over in the UK, Robert Atkins still bringing the G.I. Joe love

Listeners to the What’s on Joe Mind podcast and readers of this site know that Robert Atkins, IDW artist extraordinaire, has been over in the UK as an official guest of Roll Out Roll Call 3, a G.I. Joe and Transformers Convention over the pond in Southampton.

Well, just because he’s been busy with convention duties doesn’t mean he hasn’t had time to update the blog…in fact, he’s posted some great commission pieces featuring everyone’s favorite Cobra saboteur!  The blog posts are below, with gorgeous Firefly commissions intact, as well as some Red Shadows goodies.

Now I mention all of this keeping in mind that Robert it also in the midst of an exciting Kickstarter campaign for a project entitled Elders of the Runestone.  Any fans of his art will certainly appreciate this project!

Robert also sends along the following words:

“Im not taking commissions until the summer, but this is the loop hole. If people pledge for a commission as a reward they can sneak in on the list and get a full cover like commission of any character they choose. “

So, yes, he has closed commissions until summer, but if you pledge for a commission, you’re good to go.  Check the Kickstarter page right here, and let’s all do our part to support one not only the best IDW artists out there, but a big Joe fan and a hell of a nice guy to boot.  I’ve also linked the Kickstarter page below.

GeneralsJoes Reviews IDW’s G.I. Joe: Infestation 2 #1

I was pretty vocal last year about the first go-round with Infestation…I really wasn’t sure how IDW would make it work.  Sure, infusing Zombies from an alternate universe into their more supernatural tales could potentially work, but how would you do that with G.I. Joe?

Turns out they did it pretty darn well, and I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed the issue.  Now, by this point, Zombies are practically an embraced part of G.I. Joe lore, with the Zombie-Vipers being one of the more popular figures in recent 30th Anniversary assortments, so it would seem they could even tie in more easily than they did previously.  IDW continues to branch out in their Infestation stories, though, and this time around seems to go even further over the deep end, jumping head first into Lovecraft and Cthulu territory.

Now, they managed to integrate Zombies pretty well last year…but demons?  Supernatural entities out of fantasy movies and nightmares?  How is that even possible in the G.I. Joe world?

Click the Read the Rest of this Entry link below…you just might be surprised.

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