BBTS News: Sale, DCU 13, Gundam, Hasbro, Dvd’s, Imports & More!
Hi – Here is a quick update from http://www.bigbadtoystore.com about a
variety of new preorders, more new arrivals, and our latest sale!
GeneralsJoes Reviews Marauder IDS Battle Stands
A scant few years ago, Marauder “Gun Runners” redefined the accessory world for 1:18th scale action figures. Weapons, distribution of M & C diorama accessories, and reaching out to the fans for ideas are things that other companies just hadn’t grasped. I would even argue that Marauder’s excellent weapon alternatives has pushed Hasbro harder to reinvent their own concepts for accesorization and has made the toy world better as a whole.
Now, a few years later, Marauder has done it again, this time with Battle Stands. Hasbro obviously understands the appeal of these items, including them with nearly every single Anniversary figure and Rise of COBRA figure out there, but it took Marauder to do them right. With an absolutely amazingly simple, yet effective design scheme, and some real world collector sensibility behind it, the IDS Battle Stands were born.
Read the review right here!
The Five Reasons to buy the Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe (2nd Edition) – #4
#4 – Support the collector!
Yesterday I mentioned the exclusive GeneralsJoes contest that was running where you can win one of two copies of the Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe (2nd Edition) by Mark Bellomo. The full details are right here.
Well, I continue to talk about 5 reasons why every Joe fan needs to own this book…and #4 should resonate with all of us. Even though he’s turned it into a business, above and beyond all else, Mark Bellomo is a collector. This work has been a labor of love for him, and was born from his collector and fanboy nature. He’s proud to proclaim that he owns every single piece featured in his books, which is a mammoth accomplishment, to say the least. Mr. Bellomo doesn’t just write about this stuff…he LOVES it.
Any G.I. Joe fan needs to own this book. I’m sorry, it’s just essential. If you don’t want to wait for the contest to run its course, hit Amazon.com to pick up your copy. You will definitely not regret it.
Great images of Target Exclusive Serpent Armor
Terror Drome member RainbowViper has posted a really nice review with some great pictures of the very recently released Serpent Armor w/ Viper Commando Target Exclusive set. This set features a nice black and red repaint of the infamous SNAKE Armor, as well as an absolutely BAD ASS dark repaint of the Neo-Viper. Though, again, he’s being called a Viper Commando for some strange reason. No matter what his name is, though, the figure looks absolutely awesome in the dark black paint scheme with those crazy looking red eyes. Love it.
I’ve hosted some of the images below.
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* New Products and GI JOE 25th Anniversary sale! *
Hello, we’d like to let you know about some new product and special offerings
here at SMALLJOES!
GI JOE
======
We have a variety of new GI JOE: Rise of Cobra pre-order items available:
– Single-carded figure assormtent wave 3 featuring Nano-Viper, Red Fang,
Kamakura, Night Adder, and Charbroil.
– Single-carded figure assortment wave 4 featuring Storm Shadow (arctic threat),
Ripcord (desert fatigues), Desert-Viper, Duke (city strike), and Snake-Eyes
(city strike).
– Alpha vehicles wave 2 featuring Desert Mole Pod w/ Viper, Attack Craft w/
Aqua Viper, Sky Sweeper w/ Air Raid, and Motorcycle w/ Airborne & Beach Head.
– Alpha vehicles wave 3 featuring Polar Sharc Submarine w/ Icestorm, Desert
Rockslide ATAV w/ Dusty, Lava Pod with Volcano-Viper, and Tiger Claw ATV
w/ Leatherneck
– Bravo vehicles wave 2 featuring Dragonfly w/ Wildbill and Sky Sweeper w/
Aero-Viper
The Five reasons to buy the Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe (2nd Ed) – #5
#5 – It’s Free! :shifty:
When Mark Bellomo came out with the first edition of his Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe Book, there was much rejoicing about the G.I. Joe fandom. It had been the compendium that many a Joe fan had been waiting for and seemed to have everything anyone would want in the vintage style. Figures, vehicles, images, and details.
Now, a few years later, and Mark Bellomo actually went and made the thing better. Better pictures, more in depth detail, some error corrections. No longer is the Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe good enough…trust me, now you need the Second Edition.
Which brings us to the #5 reason to own Mark Bellomo’s new book. It’s free.
GeneralsJoes is giving away two copies of this great book to the GeneralsJoes faithful! All you need to do is email me and tell me what era of G.I. Joe is your favorite. No stone goes unturned. Vintage, 12″, Adventure Team, Sigma 6, Extreme, 25th Anniversary, Rise of COBRA? Which do you like the best and why.
I will go through every entry and decide which one I like the best, and which one argues their point the most effectively (and no, not necessarily which one I agree with). That article will be featured on GeneralsJoes.com and the writer will get a copy of the book shipped to him at no cost.
The second copy will be given to someone picked randomly from the list of entrants, just to keep it fair. So, even if you don’t feel like writing and just want to send an email saying “Sgt. Savage Rocks” you will still have a chance to get a free copy of the book. The contest will go for two weeks, from September 13th through September26th, and anyone who sends an email stating their case has a chance to win.
Keep watching the site this week as I unveil the four other reasons why every Joe fan MUST own this book and good luck with the contest!
Wave 4 Night Adder…with BLACK Tattoos??
Chrysophylax over at JoeCustoms manages to get his hands on a lot of toys early over in the Philippines, and this is no exception. To the best of my knowledge, no one has seen anything about a Wave 4 Night Adder with tattoos in black instead of blue. At least I know every picture I’ve seen so far had blue tats, but maybe I’m behind the curve on this one.
Anyway, has posted a nice round up of all the tattoos and an exhaustive gallery, and I’ve hosted the images below.
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G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA mini dio-story by yours truly
Warning – This is gonna get long. If you just want to check out the latest project, click here.
Without a shadow of a doubt the most asked question I get is “when are you going to do more dio-stories?”. And well, at least, for the moment, I’ve got an answer, though it might be one that ticks off some folks.
Ever since I began my Dio-Story adventures way back in 2002, it was because I was inspired. The new Real American Hero Collection figures did it for me back then, sparking me into my massive review archive and monstrous dio-story universe that has spanned 7 years, hundreds of characters, and lots of obnoxious special effects (not to mention many an oversized blade of grass representing mysterious “jungles” in different parts of the world… :shifty: ). But, as the years roll on and real life takes its place amongst my hobbies, time grew shorter, and for me to tell the types of stories I wanted to tell, well…it was going to take a lot more time and a LOT more effort than I was putting in.
But I stand before you, still determined to finish what I started. However, this little project is NOT a continuation of what I started. Confused yet? Check out the “Read the Full Story” link to…well…read the full story.
Some neat Rise of COBRA Tidbits on DeviantArt
So I’ve been poking around DeviantArt a bit, but I’m a bit disappointed to say that it hasn’t been the treasure trove of cool information for The Rise of COBRA that it was for G.I. Joe: Resolute. Not sure why, but the official behind-the-scenes stuff has been few and far between. However, I did uncover a couple of neat little things.
Drew Johnson – Rise of COBRA Style Guide Pages
Drew is a comic artist and also apparently did some work for the Rise of COBRA style guide. Some head turn arounds and basic character art. He uploaded a few of those images to his DeviantArt page, and I’ve mirrored them below.
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FlintLockPrivateer – Rise of COBRA Costume Design/Sculptor
This one is pretty neat. Only three images, but it shows some nice behind the scenes sculpting and modeling that’s done for the costume design of The Rise of COBRA. We get some neat peeks at an early look of COBRA Commander’s “iron lung” (as it’s described) as well as the Reactive Armor. I like this stuff a lot.
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So, no, definitely not the scores of cool sketches, storyboards, and character art that we got with G.I. Joe: Resolute, but some neat stuff to be seen, still.
COBRA Surveillance Port images online
Rulz over at HissTank.com is making quite the name for himself with all of his pre-production scores, and he’s come up with another one, this time the COBRA Surveillance Port with MARS Trooper and Tele-Viper.
I’m torn on this a bit… I’m actually not a huge fan of these mini-playsets, and I’m one of those grumbling guys who is ready to move on from the vintage homage stuff, but the Surveillance Port fits in nicely to the new universe. I actually like it an awful lot in this blue paint scheme…more than I thought I would. The figures, though? Eh, not so much. I wasn’t a big fan of the MARS Trooper initially, and he’s not doing anything more for me now. The Tele-Viper is all right, but that black and red paint scheme just doesn’t mesh real well. I do really like how Hasbro is integrating the vintage stuff with the more modern style, but that Tele-Viper just doesn’t have any real “flow”. It feels like a vintage head slapped on a new body, and not like a real cohesive new trooper. There’s some neat gear here (like the COBRA style laptop) and the Surveillance Port itself appeals, just not sure I’m sold on the whole package.
We’ll see.
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