G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

[Ran]

Yeah, not too fond of the action feature Snake Eyes. Something odd about him.

I guess that means I just need to pick up Beachhead and Snow Job from this current wave, which is fine considering I'm planning on getting most of that first wave of Star Wars.

Might get Dusty and/or Recondo in October. Then Snake Eyes in January & Low Light in March. Still won't have Snake Eye's dog, but that isn't really a problem.

[anarky]

I need a few extra wolves for Kwinn's dogsled, but I'll check my count and see if I have one I can spare. Kwinn doesn't need a supercharged dogsled.

[anarky]

Here's something slightly amusing:

The Cobra Commander from Pursuit of Cobra was supposed to be a mail-away: a repaint of the Rise of Cobra figure who came with a pistol, a ceremonial flag (like the one in the new HISS, but painted), a handheld cannon thingy, and a miniature HISS drone, all on a special Cobra card. (Sort of like Boba Fett: "Free figure for a bunch of UPCs and $7.99 S&H!") A lot of Joe geeks wanted the miniature HISS; this isn't the HISS scout shown at Comic-Con, but more like a slightly larger mouse droid with guns. Hell, I wanted that thing.

This fell through for reasons I'm unsure of. They decided to put him out at retail, still on the Cobra card, but removing the mini-HISS from the equation to balance costs. (If you're wondering, they've hinted at the future release of the mini-HISS somehow, but no specifics.) However, to keep the card in the same scheme, they opted to make it a chase figure. Turns out we're not talking about Clear Wraith or even UGH silver card rare, but one per every case of the first wave. (Initial reports said it would not be in revision cases. Online retailers seem to say otherwise, but no one's clear whether he'll still be on the red card or not, if this isn't just a mistake.)

So the first wave includes Jungle Duke, Desert Snake Eyes, Desert Storm Shadow, Jungle Beach Head, Snow Job (who I'm guessing is lonely up north?), Firefly, Cobra Commander, and the Alley-Viper.

Most Joe collectors seem to hate the ROC Cobra Commander. I thought, aside from the silly movie design, it ranks among the best.

First place I saw any POC figures was a Target. Just one each of Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and Beach Head. (In other words, one case, mostly picked through.)

Second was Toys R Us. Same deal; this time just two Dukes and a Storm Shadow.

Third, Wal-Mart. Due to their insane pricing ($10 per Joe figure, including all the Rise of Cobra figures who were on clearance a month ago), there appeared to be about two or three full cases on the pegs. One Cobra Commander, one Alley-Viper.

Fourth, Target. Picked over case, but someone with some different tastes than expected. I got the one Cobra Commander and Alley-Viper and left the one Duke and Storm Shadow.

Fifth, another Wal-Mart. Same as the first, but no Alley-Vipers or Fireflies. One Cobra Commander.

Sixth, Wal-Mart again. One Alley-Viper, no Fireflies, and three Cobra Commanders.

So, tell me again which is the chase figure? Because if I didn't know better, I'd say Firefly or maybe the Alley-Viper.

[Ran]

I've only been to a TRU and 2 Targets and haven't seen the Alley Viper or Cobra Commander yet. I did see Firefly. His helmet looks like the Green Goblin's mask from the first Spider-man movie.

[Ran]

Went by the Walmart near my house for the first time since they reset. Yeah, even the old pegwarmer movie figures are $10...about 3 or 4 pegs worth. As for the new figures, I saw 4 red card Cobra Commanders, 4 Alley Vipers, 1 Firefly, and the rest were the other 5. The peg were still labeled $6.48 or something, but the price checker said $9.97.

[offtopicrant]This Walmart recently remodeled. They took out the self checkout lanes. I was only there to pick up a couple things for dinner. This place has 24 or 28 cashier stations. 8 were open. It was 7, but they opened a 2nd express lane right before I checked out because there were a 6-10 people in each of the other lines. Why have all those cash registers if they are only going to use a few?[/offtopicrant]

[anarky]

The WM by our house never has more than two lanes open. One of them is an express lane, but it's also the cigarette lane, and they never actually enforce the "ten items or less." This applies even at Christmas. They do this to encourage use of the automated checkout lanes.

Of course, there are only four of those. And people are usually too stupid to use them in an efficient manner. And there was a time, pretty recently, where we went in, actually wanted to get some stuff, and all four were out of order. But they still had a guy monitoring them. Mrs A asked the dude if all four were closed, and he sarcastically said yes, didn't offer to open one or anything. So she got pissed and sat all her shit down on the closest automated register, said, "Just wanted you to know what I'm not getting because of your lines," and walked out.

[Ran]

Got Snow Job and Beachhead today. Couple things that bug me about Beachhead. His gas mask canister is on the wrong side. If you are a right handed shot (as his hand configuration suggests), the canister should be on the left. Looks like he is missing a knife. He comes with quite the arsenal of weapons, but his hands are open too much to hold his guns. I discovered the binoculars on his vest are removable, but there was an ever so small drop of glue holding it on. Now they won't stay on his vest. Can't find a holster for his pistol, either.

The pictures of the GI Joe display at SDCC from Hisstank are better than Yojoe's. That Snake-eyes is even better than I thought.
http://www.hisstank.com/gi-joe-news/att ... ntid=11652

Also, they had better pictures of Dusty and Recondo. Dusty's uniform is goofier than I thought. Not as sure about getting Recondo.

Edit:
Found more pictures of Dusty. He's not as bad as I thought. The one head with the hood/mask plus the cape/scarf makes him look odd, but there is a basic head and helmet that doesn't look bad. The funky uniform thing is actually a flack vest over his uniform that was sort of hidden by the scarf.
http://www.hisstank.com/gi-joe-news/att ... ntid=11610
http://www.hisstank.com/gi-joe-news/att ... ntid=11608

[anarky]

God. DAMN. It.

I found Firefly and two more Alley Vipers today in my travels. I got Firefly, since that "Green Goblin" helmet is definitely distinctive enough to use him as a non-Firefly character.

Fuck.

The Snake Eyes is tied with Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes for the best Snake Eyes yet. (And the upcoming one looks even better.)

The Storm Shadow, though he definitely doesn't say "Storm Shadow" to me (instead, he says, "Awesome anonymous Cobra ninja with some fucking cool gear"), is the best figure to bear that name.

Firefly is downright goddamn motherfucking amazing. Even though he's going to be some yet-unnamed class of Viper that deals in heavy ordnance, and not the insane French-Vietnamese ninja with a hard-on for blowing shit up.

Cobra Commander is pretty super fucking sweet. The card is awesome. The figure is awesomer. (Though, again, he's not CC to me, but a "Cobra Elite Guard.")

Spirit might be a kitbash with a new head that was thrown together to make a cheap exclusive, but he's cool enough that it almost makes me sad to think that I bought him just so he could sacrifice that new head for my Kwinn.

The improved HISS Driver is light years beyond the 25th Anniversary one, which was fucking sweet.

Storm Rider is a new Dreadnok who's an incredibly sweet figure, but has a chopper that's a million times sweeter.

Tomahawk and Whiteout are kitbashes of earlier figures to be new pilots, but they're both well-done kitbashes and good enough for me to keep them. (Whiteout's apparently a character who was made up for a 2001 multipack, and I think Tomahawk is completely new, unless he's an old character under a new name.)

Aside from the Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes with action features, all the upcoming figures look goddamned awesome, even if they don't look like who their cards say they are. Especially that Cobra Shock Trooper.

And the Alley Viper. Shit. If I could make passionate, gorilla-style love to an action figure, it would be the Alley Viper.

Mother fuck it. I'm going to have to buy the entire fucking line of these figures, aren't I?

[Ran]

Check this out:

HissTank.com has received a press release from Hasbro PR regarding the demand for the SDCC Sgt. Slaughter figures. In short there is very good news for Joe collectors that missed out on these toys as Hasbro is looking at making the Sgt. Slaughter figures available again at retail, albeit in different packaging and likely not as single-carded basic figures. While details are not final they are making progress for late Spring ’11 and will have news in a couple months. Click the discuss button for the full press release and to share your thoughts on this.

So maybe I can get one after all. They also have carded pictures of the new Snake Eyes, Stormshadow, Duke, and Cobra Shock Trooper. Stormshadow is the only one that has the action feature.
http://www.hisstank.com/gi-joe-news/gi- ... ages-9781/

I opened my WWF Sgt Slaughter. Megan saw it. She knows nothing of Sgt Slaughter, but she immediately decided that he was "the boss" of the rest of the GI Joes. Smart girl. I also found that my kids have pretty good accuracy with GI Joe or Star Wars rocket launchers.

[Ran]

Saw the next wave today at Target. I won't be getting any of them. Destro is probably the best of the bunch. I really don't understand Zartan or what he is supposed to be.

I was thinking...if you use the body of Desert Ambush Duke from the movie line and swap heads with the Dusty, it might be a decent Dusty figure. There are still a few Desert Dukes on the pegs here and there around town, but I don't think its worth the money or effort.

[anarky]

Haven't seen Wave 2. I'll probably get Destro, just because he looks badass, and Jungle Viper, because, hey, it's a Viper. Maybe Dusty and Recondo, but not sure what I'd do with them. Snake Eyes is definitely a no, and Zartan is very unlikely.

They sure make it easy to save money sometimes, don't they?

[Ran]

No kidding. That new Snake Eyes is even more craptacular in person.

Oh, I went into a TJ Max. They had Wild Bill/Scrap Iron. I didn't get it, but I will later. They also had Hard Master w/ Snake Eyes. Is Hard Master the guy who trained him?

[anarky]

Yeah. The figure is totally inaccurate to how he appeared in the comic, but it's a pretty cool figure anyway. The comic is pretty cool as well. And they come with a shitload of ninja weapons. I actually got a second one when they hit TJMaxx, mostly for the weapons. I'll repaint the second Snake Eyes to be some sort of ninja; maybe I'll mix it with parts from some female figure to make Jinx.

[Ran]

Stopped at a TJ Maxx today. I went there because they had Wild Bill & Scrap Iron last time I was there. Looks like they restocked some 25th Anniv. stuff. Found a regular Cobra trooper. I skipped Wild Bill & Scrap Iron and got Gung-Ho/Cobra Commander. They also had Mutt & Airborne, but I already have them. Might have to try checking out some other stores this weekend.

[Ran]

And I went to Walmart and saw 2 Shockblast vs. Night Creeper packs for $7. Is it worth it? Don't really care about Night Creeper, but Shockblast looks kind of cool.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NR869U/ref ... B002NR869U