A Very Basic Outline

If you've followed this ridiculous blog, first off... Thank you! 

 You may have an idea about my ideas and thoughts concerning my fictional "Toy-verse". If you know me from Facebook, you probably have an understanding of my political views as well.

So let's see if I can set up a basic outline of my toy-verse.

1. The 80's era of GI Joe is largely disavowed, or reduced in importance. The brand and concepts needed to be brought into the 21st century.
2. Most of my GI Joe era starts in the very late 90's and rolls on through to current day. GI Joe is made up of Persian Gulf conflict veterans and active duty personnel.
3. I'm generally conservative politically. No, I'm not automatically a racist/bigot/homophobe/whatever. You may not like my views, but I still have my First Amendment freedoms. I think.
4. While the comics and cartoons influence me, the largest influence on my world view is GI Joe Renegades, primarily due to the idea of Cobra being a dominant force in American, as well as global, culture.
5. I think Obama was one of the worst Presidents in modern history. Bush was no angel either. Trump? I'm still trying to figure out how he fits in my world view. he's nuts, but he's a Washington outsider and that's important in a Cobra corrupted government.
6. The current unrest in this country is largely exacerbated and exaggerated by a Cobra complicit media. Not really too hard to not believe.
7. What is the difference between the GI Joe team and the MTF team? GI Joe is officially a part of the US military, while MTF is a privately owned entity.
8. GI Joe was reduced in its operations during the Obama administration. Sorry, it kind of applies to the actual toy line.
9. Some former GI Joe team members work for MTF.
10. Odd alien 1/18th figures may pop up from time to time. Blame Dr Mindbender!
11. The 6" Classified figures are cool, but overrated.
12. Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself.

That's a real quick general outline of my "world". like it or not, this is the way my mind is working right now.

Pre Order Figures

Towards the end of last year, Marauder had an opportunity for customers to pre-order various figures. Some were contract ops bodies and some were agency ops bodies. I think...

I procrastinated for a bit and finally decided on five contract ops bodies. Due to this whole COVID19 shenanigans, the pre-orders were delayed, and then delayed again. We've finally received some good news that the pre=orders will finally ship sometime in mid to late July.

So here's the bodies that I ordered. I've got a few heads ready for them and some gear, but I think I'm going to have to reevaluate the equipment that I've got on hand and figure out what else that I'll need to order.

The blue shirts could potentially be Cobra agents? Maybe? I suppose I'll have to write up a general outline of the "world" in which my tales are set. Soon...

Marauder Characters #4

More characters created from Marauder goodness! Well... mostly...

Marauder Characters #3

Here's a few more characters that I've come up with using Marauder goodness.

Marauder Characters #2

Here's a few more of my Marauder team. I'm pretty sure "Marauder Task Force" is a licensed name, with Bill Nedrow being allowed to use it in his book. So I've got to come up with my own name of private military contractors. For now, I may just use MTF as a placeholder, knowing full well that it is the IP of Marauder Inc, I'm not doing this for profit, just for fun!

Marauder Characters #1

Bill Nedrow is an author that many GI Joe fans will recognize. A few years ago, Amazon published some fan created stories featuring GI Joe characters. Bill's creation, Stiletto, was immortalized in plastic as an actual GI Joe figure.

He's been fairly prolific in his writing related to GI Joe and also Marauder figures. He created an entire world using characters that he created out of various Marauder offerings. Bill wrote a book, Marauder Task Force: Wrath, that is still available on the Marauder website. It's a cool book and thoroughly enjoyable!

I've always thought about/considered writing stories from this weird mind of mine. If you've traveled through my blog, you've seen some pretty weird stuff.

I'm not promising much at this point, but I thought that I would at least give it a try. I'm not sure of what the format will be; I've got a few ideas.

So I thought that I'd toss out a few of my characters that I've created using MTF items. I have no idea who these people are at this time. I'm always welcome to suggestions from my loyal reader(s). So here's just a few so far.

The different head sculpts that Marauder created, primarily for the WW2 series, has been amazing for creating new, different characters.

Marauder Glamour Shots

These Agency & Contract Ops figures are so amazing! Just a few random pictures that I've taken over the past few months/years. If you've followed me on the Facebook or the Instagram, you've probably seen these before. I don't do much on Twitter because it sucks.

Marauder operatives have a candid discussion with some members of the GI Joe team to see if they can get Mercer involved in some dirty work.

A mix of Agency and Contract Ops team members.

The Boss talks to his people about a potential contract.

The table is designed and printed by me!

The Agency Ops figures work great as MIB agents! And Star Wars aliens work just fine as MIB guests!

Marauder Inc Updates

This is absolutely zero news to anyone collecting action figures. I'm really not sure when this happened, but Marauder has created some amazing new 1/18th scaled figures over the past couple of years. 

Just so I don't seem like a totally out of touch moron, I thought I would just offer a couple reminders. (Gee, thanks, Capt Obvious!)

Yes, I'm getting this stupid blog rolling again...

Marauder made suited figures that they dubbed "Agency Ops". Male and female figures in suits. Honestly, they aren't very posable due to the constraints of the jacket, but who cares? They make for some awesome CIA, FBI, MIB, or other agency figures. Marauder even made an exclusive "Theodore" figure (3rd from left) inspired by John Wick. Works fine for me!

Next up are the Contract Ops figures. Basically, they are just guys in t-shirts and pants. No specific uniforms. But once you gear them up, they become a highly skilled team of operators that will take care of your dirty deeds. But for a price!

Then there's the Vals (or Valkyries). With the t-shirt torso and generally military pants, they can also easily become a part of the Contract Ops teams. When Marauder first introduced female action figures, i wonder if they had any idea of the awesomeness that they had created.

There are other sub groups of MTF figures that have been created, but these are the main ones, with addition of the standard soldiers, that I'm interested in.

Marauder has also created an amazing subgroup of MTF figures that are inspired by World War 2. They've done some incredible work and the soldiers look amazing. US< German, Japanese, and British are the biggest categories of WW2 figures. They look amazing, but I'm not really interested in spending boatloads of money on them.

And then there's the dogs. And the Exo-Suit gear. Damn, they do awesome work!

Wow... It's Been Almost Two Years...

Unbelievable... I used to really enjoy running this silly ass blog. I've had previous moments of laziness, but I don't think that it's been this long between posts.

Ultimately, the blame lies with me. Various social media outlets just make it too easy to post quick thoughts and ideas. iPhone cameras have become amazing in their quality and make picture taking easy and quick.

So...no promises, but I'm going to do my best to get this blog rolling again. There's been some amazing things happening over the past two years, at least as far as action figures go. The rest of the world is going full batshit crazy and I'm not going to address that... too much.

The main thing that has been a part of my toy collecting hobby has been the amazing product that has come from Marauder. Those new figures have been a driving force behind my imaginary world of toy soldiers.

But more on those later. For now, I'm back! Hopefully... (you'll need more posts as proof!)