Not content with merely providing a crappy cell phone pic, Scott “madmac41” from JoeBattleLines has put his camera to use, grabbing a nice allotment of boxed images of the fresh from the retail womb Wal-Mart Battle Station sets! Retailing for a very appealing $14.96 (in the same ballpark as the Wal-Mart 2-Pack figures, only with a whole bunch of added Battle Station goodness… WTF?) these are some very cool sets that initially left me somewhat cold, but are now leaving me a lot less cold. Still a bit cool, though. I’m not wild about ’em…
Frustrating thing is, there are some very cool things about each set, but none of the sets really blow me away. I love the Heatseek Missile, but I really don’t care for that Scrap Iron, and I’ve got like 47 Neo-Vipers already. The COBRA Surveillance port is awesome, but I really don’t need another cruddy MARS Trooper, and that Tele-Viper don’t look right.
On the Joe side, I dig the Resolute Roadblock (he looks a lot better in these pictures, for sure), but Tripwire is just bizarre, and I’m not sold on the Outpost Defender itself. The Laser Artillary Weapon is a bit underwhelming, but that Hawk kicks all sorts of ass. I dunno…maybe I’ll think different if I see them at retail. There are some pretty awesome aspects to them, but not enough warranting sixty of my dollars, at least not at this point. I know other fans are riled up about ’em, though, so enjoy the mirrored pics.
The Terror Drome has dug up some nice packaged shots of the upcoming Wal-Mart Exclusive Battle Stations which come with familiar mini playsets and a pair of Rise of COBRA themed action figures. They should retail for $17.99 and be available at Wal-Mart. The sets include:
Heatseeker Missile Launcher w/ Scrap Iron and Neo-Viper
Laser Artillary Weapon w/ Hawk and Grand Slam
COBRA Surveillance Port w/ Tele-Viper and MARS Trooper
Outpost Defender w/ Roadblock and Tripwire
I’m sort of on the fence with these. I love the Surveillance Port, and really dig that RoC Tele-Viper, but I’m not wild about another MARS Trooper. The green camouflage Hawk kicks ass, but I don’t really need another Grand Slam, and I’m not crazy about the LAW either. I am a bit tempted on the Outpost Defender, simply for the Resolute styled Roadblock, but I’ve got a pre-production version, and I really don’t care for Tripwire. The Heatseek Missile is probably my favorite of the actual mini playsets, but I don’t really like either figure. It’ll help Scrap Iron if he’s got the newer construction from the unreleased Wave 15 version, but beyond that…I dunno. Nothing with these sets is knocking my socks off. Check out the images for yourself.
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten regular reviews posted, but that’s changing right now, with a HUGE thanks to the Big Bad Toy Store. BBTS has stepped up and agreed to directly sponsor new product reviews, and we’re starting now with Wave 6 of the Comic Packs from 2008. As we move on towards the movie line stuff, I figured it was a perfect time to look back and give some insight on the later releases of the Anniversary line that I hadn’t gotten a chance to cover yet.
So, check out these brand new reviews…sort of a “look back” so to speak:
If you guys appreciate the reviews, please take some time to hit a link over to Big Bad Toy Store, or find some other way to tell them you heard about ’em over here. It will only guarantee the reviews continue hard and heavy as the movie stuff hits!
Some HissTank forum members, General Hawk59 and Steel Brigade have posted some new reviews of upcoming product (or potentially items that will not end up seeing release). There are a ton of images and some nice detailed writing about each of these items.
The Night Raven review can be found here, and I’ve mirrored a couple of pictures below…a lot more are posted at the previous link. Red Star and Scrap Iron are posted here, also with a small sample of images below. Red Star and Scrap Iron were slated for future single pack release, but got canned before they hit…will these updated versions appear somewhere down the line? No one knows for sure… one thing I do know is that they both feature a very nice set of changes that make them unique from their previous counterparts, and very reminiscent of the vintage versions as well.
no images were found
General Hawk59 also a video review of the Night Raven as well:
