If you’re not following along with John Royle on Instagram (or at JohnRoyleArt.com) you’re missing out. He’s been posting some spectacular images from upcoming covers for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero by IDW and he has been KILLING it.
The upcoming gatefold COBRA themed cover looks exceptionally awesome, and any time Spirit graces a cover it’s a good thing, too. Check out some of the snippets below and keep watching his Instagram for the latest updates. Good stuff.
For a couple of weeks we’ve been under the impression that the Missile Command Center re-issue with COBRA Commander, COBRA Trooper, and COBRA Officer would be what we’d expect to see G.I. Joe related at ComicCon this year.
Not so fast, my friends.
Hasbro has stunned the fandom today by announcing a ComicCon exclusive boxed set diving headfirst into the IDW Revolutions storyline, unifying several of their properties across one action-packed crossover event.
It’s… pretty close to perfect. The overall format looks strongly influenced by recent Transformers/G.I. Joe Boxed Sets, which makes total sense, and makes it feel like those other sets were all building to this one blockbuster. A blockbuster featuring not just G.I. Joe and Transformers, but MASK, Action Man, Micronauts, Rom, and… FREAKING VISIONARIES.
VISIONARIES. In 1:18 scale. Well, Leoric, anyway.
As if that’s not cool enough, for the first time ever, Hasbro is taking this opportunity to give us the G.I. Joe: Renegades version of Roadblock, which officially completes the main core of the Renegades team from the animated series several years back.
Using a nice compliment of new tooling with their library of existing parts, they’ve put together a very nice looking set that has some great resemblance to the classic properties their emulating. This is really impressive looking stuff. The set includes the following:
Jetfire
Renegades Roadblock (!!!!)
Matt Trakker fresh from IDW’s comic
Action Man
ROM
Dire Wraith
Leoric from Visionaries (!!!!)
Assorted miniature Micronauts
Oh, yeah… and RENEGADES ROADBLOCK in case anyone missed that.
Check out Entertainment Weekly for the full details and the images are mirrored below. Now excuse me while I go towel off.
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.
Last weekend, former Fun Publications employee Pete Sinclair held his first ever Transformers convention, Pete’s Robot Con. As a part of the show, he revealed a slideshow featuring some pretty cool Transformers exclusives that unfortunately did not make it through the release process before Hasbro neglected to renew their license.
Other items revealed at the show include customs of three proposed additions to the G.I. Joe/Transformers figure line, pulled from the Only Human cartoon episodes. These figures were set to include Springer and Ultra Magnus in human form (using some pretty cool G.I. Joe recipes, especially Ultra Magnus) as well as Victor Drath.
Check out some of the mirrored images below and thanks to HISSTank for the info.
It’s been a busy week for G.I. Joe news, so I guess I picked a fine time to try and get GeneralsJoes back current again.
Previously we’d heard that there were VIP tickets for fans on sale for HasCon for the somewhat scary cost of $600 and Derryl’s recent presentation at the 2017 JoeCon revealed that they were certainly working on some other initiatives to make the fan experience at JoeCon worthwhile. Included with that is apparent assistance from G.I. Joe fan community member Dan Klingensmith as well as a special dinner with G.I. Joe legends.
Further details have also been revealed about additional incentives for G.I. Joe fans. In addition to the San Diego ComicCon Missile Command Center being repurposed for HasCon, there will also be four additional figures (two additional COBRA Officers and COBRA Troopers), an exclusive lithograph and animation cells. If you do invest the $600 in the VIP package, you apparently get access to all of the different events, so if you’re a fan of other Hasbro properties as well, it may be more worthwhile.
I still find the package details and pricing to be a little confusing, so you may want to check the HasCon Website for the full details.
A few days ago, a few auctions from notorious overseas test shot specialist viperkingdom revealed some before unseen test shot figures of what might have been for unreleased figure/vehicle sets from the 50th Anniversary line last year.
This is all rumor at the moment, but some of these designs match up with some revealed unused artwork that certainly match the 50th Anniversary style.
Thanks to HISSTank for the intel, and check out the auctions here and the images mirrored below.
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.
The content keeps coming from JoeCon 2017 and we have another pair of great looks at the convention exclusives. Once again, Chris from The Full Force has come through with great pictures and even better video reviews of the parachute Backstop and the B.A.T. Rocket Pack Two Pack!