Over the past week, various sightings of a chrome-plated HISS Tank on Asian message board ACToys.net has prompted Joe fans to wonder what the heck it was. Well, it would appear the mystery has been solved. In a thread on JoeCustoms.com, “THE Mike” put a post in the thread referencing a YouTube video. That video is embedded below:
Mystery solved! The chrome HISS Tank is a 2009 Canadian Joe Con Exclusive! Lots of folks have expressed interest in it…plan on being in Hamilton, Ontario on May 2nd to get your very own. An awesome looking piece…wish I could make it up there. For all of the details on the Canadian Joe Con, click here.
Anyone who has been around G.I. Joe customizing for any length of time should be well aware of the skills of Chad Smelcer, AKA chad_ghost, most notably of JoeCustoms.com. Along with posting some stuff on JoeCustoms, though, he also hosts his own page with a full gallery of all the fantastic customs he’s produced over his already long and illustreous “career”. He primary works with the o-ring format, but a customizer of his ability doesn’t have many shortcomings.
Chad is currently holding a raffle, hoping to earn some money for a trip back to Niger, and the prize for this raffle is a one-of-a-kind custom figure made just for the winner. The full details are here:
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“This June 1st – 14th, I am returning to Niger, West Africa.
To help support my trip, I am offering up the chance to win a customized 3 ¾” GI Joe figure.
Here are the rules to enter the raffle:
– Each raffle ticket is $10.
– The drawing will be held May 28th, 10 PM EST via webcam feed.
– You may buy as many tickets as you want.
– Three raffle tickets will be chosen.
– Buy more to increase your chances of winning.
There are a few limitations on the custom figure:
– The figure will not be a remake of any custom.
– Parts can be from any era of 3 ¾” figures.
– Winner will not be required to donate parts, though this may limit the custom.
– Only limited modifying/sculpting will be done.
Tickets can be purchased using Paypal at this address: chad(at)smelcer(dot)net
Each ticket will be confirmed via pm or email with your raffle ticket number. If you do not receive a confirmation, please contact me.
If you would like more information or questions about the raffle, please post here.
To give you just a small sample of Chad’s skills, here’s a gallery of only a sampling of his amazing custom work. Check out his site to see the full range of figures that he’s done over the years. Not only are you getting the chance to potentially receive an awesome custom figure, but you’re helping out a great cause as well.
As the Black Sheep Toy Store has been uploading new auctions, I’ve been grabbing the high quality images from those auctions, particularly the carded ones. Here I’ve collected all carded images so far, and I gotta say the pics are awesome. In case readers haven’t been able to tell, I’ve been drastically warming up to the movie toys and I’m really enjoying the design aspects of these figures. Granted, I’m a Sigma 6 fan, so…
This isn’t an endorsement of the movie at all, I’m still firmly on the fence about how I think that’s going to turn out, but from a pure toy standpoint, I think Hasbro is doing some awesome stuff with these figures and I think if fans can keep an open mind there will be something for everyone in the months to come. I can’t wait.
The ever vigilant cmderinchief from JoeBattleLines and the Coil Club has provided us with some new images of the Wave 1 Storm Shadow with some nice detail pics included. He also posted a little mini-review:
“I am not much of a SS fan, I admit it. He, along with Duke, CC, and especially SE have been rammed down our throats and like a bunch of lemmings, we keep buying them over-and-over-and-over again. BUT, our favorite Japanese…..er, I mean Korean character is different….in more ways than just his country of origin. I know there is some dislike for the movie figures, but I gotta tell you, this figure injects some hipness back to the character who has long been pretty darn boring. I mean, let’s face it, how can you reinvent a ninja. Most of what you see if not an over the top change, the changes are subtle and improve upon the original concept. Most, if not all, of the tooling on this figure is new. Some of the finer details include the clan’s symbol on the handles of the katanas. The katanas themselves have thicker handles so no more swords falling out the grip. The major downside of this figure is the backpack. It is NOT removable.
This one is all right. The movie toys are winning me over.”
The original post can be seen here, and check out the mirrored images below!
Entertainment News International took some time to talk with Matt Marsala from Electronic Arts about the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA video game coming this summer. There’s not a whole lot of new information, but a few tidbits are sprinkled in here and there in regards to vehicles appearing in the game, and some confirmation of things we heard in the latest Nintendo Power.
GeneralHawk59 over at HissTank.com has posted some images of the second version of Storm Shadow and Cover Girl from the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA action figure line. It is also revealed that Cover Girl shares some parts with the recently released Lady Jaye that came with the G.I. Joe 5-Pack.
To see the pictures and get the specifics, click here.
With a new film called Fighting on the horizon, Channing Tatum has been making the interview circuit, and the latest in line is IESB.net. The discussion is mostly about Fighting, and even about Mr. Tatum’s own production company, but they make some room to talk about the scale of the G.I. Joe film, especially compared to the smaller stuff that Tatum has worked with in the past:
Hasbro PR has sent along an official press release outlining their licensing deal with Shout! Factory. Click on the full story link below to read the whole thing soup-to-nuts.
