Coming off the reviews of Waves 4 & 5, I made a little road trip a short while ago and scooped up the two latest exclusives from Target and Toys “R” Us. I’m still working on the Target Rescue Mission review, but I’ve posted the one for the Toys “R” Us Attack on the Pit on my Rise of Cobra Review Page! There are a TON of pictures in this review…more than you’ll see anywhere else.
Enjoy.
I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’ve been a monstrous fan of G.I. Joe in pretty much any characterization or scale out there… except for the one that started it all. For whatever reason, I just find it hard to get into the whole 12″ figure scene, but that’s not because I don’t like it or have a certain appreciation for it. Usually it comes down to price or what you get for your buck, and it’s very rare that the 12″ scene gives me a good “go between” there. The figures are either simplistic, non-detailed, and dull, or they are overly exagerrated, insanely detailed, yet priced way out of my affordable range. There doesn’t seem to be anything in between. Some of the Spy Troops and Valor Vs. Venom stuff gave us the best of both worlds, in my opinion…a reasonable price range, yet still enough bang for the buck, but recent releases have just been dull and uninspired, especially for the recently elevated price tags, even on basic retail shelves.
The Sideshow Collectibles stuff is out of this world, of course. It’s simply fantastic. However, the $100 – $120 price tag per figure doesn’t fit my somewhat limited Joe budget. So, it always amazes me when I run across 12″ enthusiasts who actually accumulate enough fodder to do some crazy customs. And I’ll tell you, the customs don’t get much crazier than a member of the One Sixth Warrior forum, gaiagear. I’ve seen my fair share of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero themed 12″ customs, but gaiagear tackles something near and dear to my heart, G.I. Joe: Resolute. There aren’t really enough words I can type in this post that express just how insane these customs are. They are truly works of art and things of beauty. In fact, pretty much every custom that gaiagear has done affiliated with the G.I. Joe universe really blows me away…but it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Check out a small sampling of gaiagear’s incredible work below, all found on the One Sixth Warrior Forums. The gallery below features incredible versions of the following characters:
no images were found
Crazy stuff. But the craziest thing is this is just the beginning. There are a wealth of insanely talented 12″ customizers on the One Sixth Warrior forums, and there is some equally insane Real American Hero styled customs over there. Check out this thread for some of them. While I don’t have the budget or the real incentive to dive headlong into the 12″ scale, I can certainly appreciate the work that goes into these customs. Some awesome stuff here, I think fans of any scale will really dig ’em.
By and large I’ve been fairly cold on the exclusives for the Rise of Cobra, not really being crazy about the Wal-Mart 2-Packs, the Battle Stations, or even those Target mini-vehicles, but I’ll tell you, that really changes with the Toys “R” Us Attack on The Pit, and with this Target exclusive Rescue Mission has really warmed up to me as well. When we saw early eBay pics for the City Strike Snake Eyes in black with a Paris Pursuit head, I had absolutely no desire to own it. The gray, black, and silver version looks so kick ass, why the heck would I want one with less paint apps and a head sculpt that isn’t as cool? Well, because it’s still an incredible looking figure, and the Paris Pursuit head sculpt gives it much more of a classic “Snake Eyes” feel. Seriously, this is one freaking awesome looking Snake Eyes.
Add that to the casual outfit Duke (to go along with the same looking Ripcord in the Toys “R” Us set), and you’ve already got two great figures that have a solid place in the movie universe. Now, the Neo-Vipers? Well…I don’t have a lot of love for the countless repaints we’re getting of these guys, but the naval paint scheme is really nice, I have to say. And I guess I can’t complain about the fact that I’ve bought only a small handful of Neo-Vipers in single pack form, and I’m going to end up with a pretty decent arsenal here.
For figures that are pretty basic repaints, this four-pack has some really cool stuff for the Rise of Cobra enthusiast, and the folks at The Terror Drome seem to share that sentiment. Check out the mirrored images below.
no images were found
As usual, Gyre-Viper over at HissTank.com comes through with some more sweet pictures of some equally sweet upcoming Pursuit of Cobra figures that are pretty much blowing my head clean off. I really am not normally a big fan of arctic figures normally, but holy crap if these two guys don’t look incredible.
The Pursuit of Cobra stuff below is the Duke (Arctic Threat) and Snow Job (Arctic Threat) from early assortments of The Pursuit of Cobra slated to arrive in 2010, though common thought is that figures should start hitting retail around the holiday season this year.
These figures just look…amazing. The bulky insulated arctic uniforms, the totally rocking accessories! I love both of those backpacks…Snow Job’s sniper rifle is inSANE. I also really love those snap-out wings on Duke’s snowboard. Such cool looking stuff…initially I wasn’t going to dive headfirst into all of the Pursuit of Cobra figures, especially with the Arctic figures, but damn…I HAVE to own these. They are incredible.
Along with the Pursuit of Cobra figures, there are also images of a Silver Mirage and Chuckles that would have likely been released in the 25th Anniversary line. The colors on the test shot are indicative of early samples of Chuckles with the dark gray shirt, so I would imagine they were probably slated to be sold together in some sort of battle pack. As such, I wouldn’t expect to see that to arrive in that incarnation in the Pursuit of Cobra. Still very cool to see the images online! Check ’em out below, and big thanks again to Gyre-Viper for sharing these pictures.
no images were found
The latest G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club newsletter is hitting mailboxes, and reports are coming in that the first assortment of Pursuit of COBRA figures is shown in full color glory inside! Due to copyright reasons the GIJCC images will not be mirrored here, however I’ve linked the figures below to pictures gathered from JoeCon 2009:
ARCTIC THREAT
DESERT BATTLE
JUNGLE ASSAULT
VEHICLES
It’s not exactly clear what assortments are what, or when these will be released, though I’d imagine we’ll see them before years end, which rocks my world! Of course, don’t forget to hit up the Pursuit of COBRA SuperPage for the lowdown on everything…
