As usual, notpicard has got a great eye for parts, unused or otherwise. I posted images of the Fang Boat w/ Swamp-Viper last night, and today, notpicard left a comment referencing some old unused “Clutch” tooling.
It was a story that I posted some time ago, pointing back to the Facebook page of Matt Brouillard, who is apparently a freelance sculptor who did some work for Hasbro, including an incredibly awesome looking “Clutch” (a name Mr. Brouillard used). This Clutch looked pretty futuristic, yet had a ton of amazing detail throughout…and guess what?
Yeah, that’s Swamp-Viper. Only the figure looks considerably different once it’s tooled up with reduced detail and articulation. There’s absolutely no doubt that the Clutch sculpt was the foundation of this figure, yet it’s downright depressing to see how much detail and design is lost through the articulation changes. Ugh. It’s not just missing joints, the entire figure just doesn’t look as sharp or as cool. Check out the comparison image below:
Obviously the armor design and overall uniform design is the same, though there are some missing pouches around the waist, and with the t-crotch added, you loose the detail in the upper legs as well. Some of the sculpting work on the gloves is not the same either, and overall, things just look a bit softer and less crisp. It still looks like a very impressive design, but by reducing the articulation, the figure itself suffers in almost every way.
A real shame. Again, big thanks and kudos to notpicard for picking up on this instantly. He’s got a great eye.
Kudos to gijoefrank from The Terror Drome, who has posted some very cool pictures of the upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation vehicles, the Fangboat w/ Swamp-Viper and the Ninja Commando 4 x 4 w/ Snake Eyes.
This is our first look at the overall design for the Swamp-Viper figure, and the lack of articulation becomes an even bigger, more crushing disappointment as the figure design is very nice. I love the helmet, I love the uniform design…it looks really, really cool, and would be a selling point for this vehicle alone if he had normal articulation.
As it is, I’ll probably skip the Fang Boat entirely as I don’t especially need yet another Water Moccasin, and I have no need for this figure as it stands. We’ll see.
You can check out the Fang Boat thread right here, and the Ninja Commando thread here. I’ve mirrored a handful of images below, but you should check out the threads for even more images.
Big thanks to The Terror Drome for digging up a nice wealth of press images and the character posters without that distracting text from Stark Industries! I’ve gone ahead and mirrored them all below, and I’m loving them. The character posters are especially cool without the text on the top of them.
Check out the gallery below, and again thanks to The Terror Drome for locating these.
We’ve seen most of the character-themed posters for the United States at this point, but with Lee Byung-Hun such a popular actor over in Korea, it only made sense for him to get a poster that focused on him for that region.
This actually brings up a really good point, in my opinion, with the casting of G.I. Joe: Retaliation. You’ve got Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to appeal to the young movie goers… you’ve got Bruce Willis drawing in the older action movie fans. And you’ve got Lee Byung-Hun who continues his rampage of popularity in Korea. That’s a lot of big audiences that this cast is capturing. Pretty smart moves from a marketing stand point.
Good old stand by Stark Industries came up with the image, you can check it out below.
This poster goes along with a previously released poster, too, originally revealed right here on GeneralsJoes:
I should have known the news wouldn’t stop just because I was finishing a seminar in Kansas City and flying back home… got some catch up posts to do tonight, so expect a mini barrage of catch up.
In celebration of the trailer’s launch Machinima sat down and spoke with the cast (and director) of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and interjected plenty of humorous outtakes as well.
Jon Chu does explain why there is no video game planned, and we learn all about DJ Cotrona’s hot crotch. If that’s not a “must watch” I don’t know what is.
