Sinister Allies/Zombie Patrol Review

Time for a look at the two troop builder two packs from Hasbro. Just a reminder, I've passed on the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow two pack. Great figures, but I really don't need them. If I happen to be out at a Toys R Us and spot the set, I'll probably grab it, but it isn't a high priority.

First up is the Zombie Viper two pack. These guys are basically just the same figure from a few years ago with just some minor paint app differences. The picture above is an original zombie on the left and the new zombie on the right. The easiest difference to spot is the right knee; the new version has a paint app that makes the zombie look like his knee is exposed.
This is a great two pack; great for the guys who missed out on the zombies when they were first released. I was lucky and was able to score quite a few before the prices jumped on the secondary market. I've got six of the originals and have now added four of the new zombies. Still awesome.

Next up is the Sinister Allies two pack with the Iron Grenadier and the Cobra Viper. Personally, I would have liked a two pack of the Viper.

The Iron Grenadier was a great figure when they first appeared as Destro's soldiers. I remember buying quite a few, but they're all gone now. I was initially excited by the prospect of a new modern version of the Iron Grenadiers but I' a little disappointed by the result. The body just doesn't work well enough for me to do some serious troop building. 

The Cobra Viper? Hasbro did a hell of a job. The initial 25th anniversary figure was pretty crappy, but the Pursuit of Cobra/30th Anniversary figure turned out great. I kinda went a little nuts about them and wound up with about sixteen of them. I got lucky and even snagged two of the blue gauntlet versions.
There's really no difference between the 30th and this year's version. Just one significant difference. Instead of a chrome faceplate, Hasbro chose to go with a clean silver paint job. This new paint job actually works quite well. I think I'll wind up switching out the lower arms with these two new Vipers with the blue gauntlet Vipers. I suppose that when I make that switch, they'll be my Viper officers.

Well, that's about it for Hasbro's GI Joe offerings for me for this year. I'm glad that GI Joe is still alive. Somewhat... 

Hopefully, Hasbro has some decent plans for the future of GI Joe. I don't know if it will involve their huge crossover event with Rom, MASK, the Micronauts, and the Visionaries, but it should be interesting. I hope it resonates with kids.

GI Joe Collectors Club: Pythona

Every year during the GI Joe Collector's Club existence, they've produced a "free" incentive figure for those who sign up for membership. The membership dues/fee gets you the Club newsletter and an exclusive figure, either 12" or 3 3/4" size. I have been a member of the Club for about five years and had been a member previously before a hiatus for a few years. 

This is the final year of the Club's run with the GI Joe license. Hasbro has not renewed their agreement with the crew at the Club and Hasbro will begin their own "Club" maybe later this year or next year. There's a huge cross-line marketing plan that Hasbro is getting ready to release called Revolution. There's supposed to be a combined universe including GI Joe, MASK, the Visionaries, ROM, and the Micronauts. I think there may be another line, but that's all that comes to mind right now. 

The Club has done some fine work over the years. I've never been one to go to one of their conventions, but I've supported the Club where I could. I've been a part of the FSS for three years, signing up for 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0. I did actually go to the convention in Atlanta back in 2007, but that was just for a day.

I've always been of the mindset that the Club pretty much has to work with what Hasbro has available to them. I've preached plenty of times about my feelings regarding the Club. Sure, I've been critical of some of their designs, but never vehemently angry at the choices that have been made in the design and construction of their various figures. Bitch, bitch, bitch... that seems to be some "collectors" lot in life. 

Anyway, enough of all that crap. Let's move on to this year's, the ultimate, incentive figure - Pythona! Another fan favorite that has been requested over and over again like Billy, the Club listened and made it happen.

For those less enlightened on just who Pythona is, she is one of the central villains from the GI Joe animated movie from 1987.

The intro sequence just kicks butt! Anyway, Pythona is an emissary from Cobra-La and gets CoCo and his crew involved in the whole world domination scheme of Golobulus. The movie is on Goggle in parts, if you haven't seen it. #shameful Check it out! 

Cobra-La (great concept, stupid name) is an ancient civilization that functions through the use of organic technology. Have I written about Cobra-La before? Maybe I have and maybe I will again sometime soon.

So how did the Club do to bring this weird woman into her plastic form?

The Club did a damn fine job of translating the figure into plastic. Yeah, sure there are issues, but again, the Club is working with what they can use from HAsbro and get tooled up at their own expense.

The biggest "issue" that I have with Pythona is the sculpting of the body. Based on the animated look, her outfit/skin should be more textured and have an organic armor look to it. Again, the Club is working with what they can use, so that's not a huge issue.

Holy crap, look at that head sculpt! My understanding is that Boss Fight Studios did the work. If so, they kicked some serious ass! The paint apps are stellar as well.

Her ponytail/top knot or whatever is also removable so that her hood can get pulled up for some sneaking around.

The hands are newly sculpted as well. Excellent work. They capture essential parts of Pythona's character. Supposedly, her upper torso is newly sculpted as well. Yeah... I don't quite remember Pythona being quite so... gifted.

The paint apps on the body are well done; very crisp and clean. I think those are Jinx lower legs. They work well enough.

Quite a while back, I created a "sort of" Pythona. I used an Aurra Sing head on the Resolute Baroness body. Interesting, but not even close. Maybe this poor creature can be another Mindbender construct using Cobra-La genetic material.

"Poor girl... You shall become my daughter... Let us return to Cobra-La."

"Who are you, woman?! Why do you bewitch me so?"

"Peace, my liege, peace... All will be revealed!"

The Club wrapped up their incentive figures quite nicely.

Well done to all involved!

Another look at the 50th Anniversary of GI Joe

Perhaps the greatest action figure line in the history of toys turned 50 years old today. GI Joe turned 50 this year. The ancestor of the action figure reached the ripe age of 50 years old. That's pretty significant to me because I recently turned 50; actually I'll be 52 this year. Damn, where did the time go?

Just some opening clarification - this is all pretty much my interpretation and opinion - it ain't worth much. I'm not one to dig deep and find out facts and all that sort of stuff. I interpret what I read and form my own opinion. And in my humble, simple opinion, GI Joe saved Hasbro's corporate butt at least twice. Once with the original introduction of GI Joe as a 12" Man of Action and again in 1982 with the rebirth of GI Joe as a 3 3/4" Real American Hero. 

The original GI Joe put Hasbro on the toy manufacturer's map, turning them into a powerhouse throughout much of the 60's on into the early 70's. The Real American Hero line gave Hasbro the financial ability to expand into areas like My Little Pony and that odd little line of transforming robots.

One would think that Hasbro would be grateful to their extraordinary in-house brand and really roll out something amazing for the 50th Anniversary of the brand. Just to clarify - to me, it's the BRAND first, not 12" painted head vs. the 3 3/4' figures. Deal with it. 

GI Joe is more than a scale, it's an ideal, a virtue, a representation of all that is good in the American soldier, whether as a nameless 12" soldier or a set of characters fighting for freedom against a ruthless terrorist organization. Hell, all that is good with the United States of America.

And maybe that's not so much in vogue anymore. While we honor our soldiers around the world and the services that they provide for us - with exception to the crappy VA nightmare, there seems to be a bit of malaise toward the military, especially when it comes to toys. Please remember, I don't claim to be an expert on this sort of thing, this is all just my opinion. But it's mine and you are welcome to share and discuss with me - with a little civility at least.

I discussed Hasbro's offerings for the 50th Anniversary previously on this silly little dog-and-pony show and just wanted to elaborate a little further on the meager offerings from Hasbro.

There ain't much out there, boys and girls. Toys R Us and Big Bad Toy Store seem to be the only retail options available for the grandfather of the boys' action figure aisle - and that sucks. Not for TRU or BBTS, but just in general.

Don't get me wrong. Hasbro has done some amazing things with the brand at previous anniversaries. The 30th Anniversary was instrumental in bringing about the rebirth of the 12" Action Figure. Granted, those 30th figures were pretty brutal in terms of the original articulation of the original Joe, but those figures started something huge. Of course, we can't forget the exclusive Target Duke figure either.

The 40th Anniversary of the brand was an amazing work of art for the original 12" collector. Reproductions of much of the original line just flooded the stores - possibly to its detriment. Those beautiful, expensive sets sometimes just lingered and sat there, only to be gobbled up once the clearance markdowns arrived. From then on, Hasbro pushed pretty hard to reintroduce the 12" figure as a viable toy line, both with nostalgic repros and brand new modern military offerings. Personally, I loved the modern 12" Joes - they rocked. Yeah, that's my other GI Joe blog, and yeah, it pretty much sucks right now. One day...

The 25th Anniversary of the Real American Hero line was more of a specific anniversary related to a specific era in the life of the brand and that worked out pretty well. GI Joe was back, in a new body construction format, still at around 3 3/4" to 4" tall which led to several years of some pretty awesome figures rolling through two fairly decent GI Joe big screen adventures.

And now we have 2014 rolling around and GI Joe has turned 50. And what does Hasbro do? Hand out some toy designs from a couple years ago and slap a fancy 50th logo on it. 

Whoopee!!

I went through all of the offerings from Hasbro back here, so I really only wanted to look at specifically what I want from this series.

And this is it. One set of figures. That's all. Nothing else.

This set, "The Eagle's Edge," is of the most interest to me. 

There ain't much else that I'm interested in right now. Sure, the HEAT Viper looks pretty cool, but I really don't want another weak-ass Blowtorch figure. The Lady Jaye figure looked pretty cool until examples from China started showing up online. Holy crap, what a paint job. Snow Job and Arctic BAT? Who cares? The two variations of "Danger at the Docks"? Yeah, a nice Flint and some cool weapons and gear, but so what? I've got enough weaponry for all of my figures to wage WW3 and WW4. The rest of the stuff? I'm just not impressed.

This set really did it for me though. Everything that I have seen just looks amazing. The Hawk figure? Complete retread, but still a damn good figure, great custom fodder. The two biggest stars of the weak-ass 50th line are Destro and Leatherneck from this set. Destro seems to be a completely new sculpt figure and he just rocks. I'm looking forward to this figure. I haven't been satisfied with a Destro figure since the 25th Anniversary gold-helmet version. There's been some good ones, but just not quite there.

And then there's Leatherneck. I was never really a huge fan of the original. I thought he was decent enough and I liked the original, but he was never really a Top 10 character for me. But this figure is awesome! Sure, he's a reuse of the Retaliation Roadblock body with a new head, but so what? He looks amazing! And the Joe team needs another big dude!

Yeah, there are some kinda' new figures, but does it really say "50th Anniversary?" Not really. With all my bitching and moaning, one would think that GI Joe is near death. Maybe at Hasbro, GI Joe is on life support, but the online fan-base keeps GI Joe alive.

There are numerous Facebook pages and countless webpages dedicated to GI Joe. Should I list my favorites? I think this post has gone on long enough! If you really want to see some great GI Joe websites, check out My Fave Blog List on the right side of this silly blog. 

I do want to highlight one particular blog - Oreobuilder's Blog. I don't know the guys behind it; all I know is that they are connected to the amazing JoeCustoms website. The work that these guys are doing is just amazing. I'm sure that there are equally skilled customizers out there -  I know there are, but I just want to talk about these guys because of what they have done shows that there is still life in the brand.

My first exposure to Oreobuilder came through their 50th Anniversary Project. I've discussed this is the past and it is amazing. If you haven't seen this project, go there very soon. (finish reading my post first!) The current project, GI Joe: Resurgence is just some damn fine work. Both of these projects illustrate what could have been done for the 50th and what could still be done in order to keep GI Joe alive. I certainly can't speak for Hasbro, but it just seems like GI Joe has been abandoned. And that's a damn shame.

Yeah, GI Joe 3 has been green-lit for 2016, but the state of the toy market in general doesn't bring me hope. Maybe... We'll see what the future holds.

As for me, I'm grateful to the GI Joe Collectors Club, Hasbro's meager offerings, the online fan community, and a sense of personal contentment over my own State of the Hobby.

After rereading this post, this is some serious rambling. Hopefully it still comes across as Reasonably Intelligent.

So what are your thoughts about the current state of affairs of GI Joe?

G.I. Joe: 50th Anniversary - My Thoughts

"Bittersweet (adj) - arousing pleasure tinged with sadness or pain."

My custom 12" Joes - loosely based on the ARAH characters.

Well, I'm not "aroused" but I do appreciate the term bittersweet in relation to the news of Hasbro's offerings for the 50th Anniversary of G.I. Joe. Word finally spread on Saturday, February 15th, as fans who were in attendance at the 2014 Toy Fair began to share the news from the Hasbro promotion during Toy Fair.

A group shot of my original 3 3/4" collection characters

There had been a few rumors circulating around the web that there would be no new product for G.I. Joe this year. Seriously? For the 50th Anniversary of such an iconic brand? Thankfully, new product was revealed and a great sigh of relief spread across the G.I. Joe community. But was it really relief? Maybe yes, maybe no.

I think I'll start by just sharing my thoughts in regards to the "new" product that will be Toys "R" Us exclusive product. Wait, no Walmart or Target support? What the hell? As I've grown older, I'm less inclined to pursue other action figures as something to collect and spend money on. Going through some serious debt issues a few years ago helps me to be a little less impulsive when it comes to spending money. So in the terms of any extra funds that would have been distributed between Toys"R"Us, Walmart, and Target in relation to G.I. Joe, Walmart and Target can just kiss my ass.

There seems to be three different types of items that will be available for G.I. Joe - 2-packs, 3-packs, and vehicle/figure sets. the following pictures are from the Hasbro press release and I'm just going to comment based on the way I uploaded them - nothing particular about the sequence of the pictures.

First up is an arctic based 2-pack featuring Snow-Job and an "arctic" BAT. Snow Job looks to be a straight re-release of the Pursuit of Cobra figure. Awesome figure, but I never bought him the first time and I don't really want him now. The BAT is a repaint of the original 25th (ARAH) anniversary BAT. Damn fine figure, holds up very well to the most recent G.I. Joe figures, but I have a couple dozen BATs that I picked up for cheap when they were on close-out at Family Dollar several years ago. No big loss if I don't pick up this set.

Next up is a COBRA Wolf w/ Ice Viper and an arctic Sky Hawk w/ Snake Eyes. Kind of on the fence with this one. I liked the Wolf originally, but it was never a huge favorite; good opponent for a Snow-Cat, though. The Sky Hawk is just a repaint and I think there's some new stuff about Snake Eyes. Oh swell, another Snake Eyes. This will probably be a pass.

This vehicle set looks pretty decent. It's a VAMP mk2 w/ Flint and the mythical Night Landing set w/ a COBRA Eel. Flint comes from Hasbro's concept case from a couple years ago and looks pretty decent. There's been a rumor going around that this may be a Comic Con exclusive. We'll see, maybe not though.

This is pretty much a repeat of the previous set with just new colors for everything. Sigh... Couldn't there have been just a little more variation to this? Depending on how Flint dresses determines which VAMP he'll be driving tonight?

Another 2-pack - Blowtorch and the HEAT Viper from the concept case. Sorry, but Blowtorch sucks. The HEAT Viper is from the previously mentioned Hasbro concept case. I've always liked the HEAT Viper and bought a bunch of the originals back in 1989. I don't see myself troop building the HEAT Viper because I sure as hell don't want to troop build Blowtorch.

Lowlight and a Night Viper - two snipers. Nice concept, but I don't care too much. I've got this version of Lowlight and I'm not overly impressed with the Night Viper, especially in these colors.

Lady Jaye and the Baroness - pretty cool match up. Lady Jaye is from the concept case and Baroness is from the 2nd COBRA 5-pack. She was a bit tougher to find for some collectors. This version of the Baroness is probably the best version to date. Lady Jaye looks a little more combat ready and has at least buttoned up her shirt a little more.

Three-pack! Leatherneck, Destro, and General Hawk. Leatherneck makes use of the Retaliation battle-kata Roadblock body with excellent results. Destro looks to be a brand new figure featuring an angular sculpted helmet/mask/whatever. Hawk is just a re-release of the PoC Hawk - a damn fine figure, but nothing really new. I'm excited by this set, primarily for Leatherneck. The Hawk figure is a great base figure for customs as well.

Almost a troop builder set, but not quite. This version of Beach Head is another offering from the concept case and he's a great update to the character in his traditional uniform colors. Not much new to him, though - maybe a new head? So there's also a COBRA trooper and a Viper. You know, I really dig that COBRA trooper, but I've got a bunch of them. I have 18 of this color, 12 of the black uniforms, and 12 of the lighter blue uniforms from the basic assortment "Dollar General" figures. I have enough. As for Vipers, I've got 14 of them and I really don't need any more. What's up with the color choices for this Viper? Damn, he sucks.

And that's it... Just these few offerings to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of G.I. Joe. Well, there's some new Kre-O toys coming out, but Kre-O is a non-issue to me. Kre-O is Hasbro's answer to Lego and there's a line featuring G.I. Joe characters and vehicles. They look cool enough, but I'm just not going there; I'm just personally sticking with the action figures. But if G.I. Joe's success lies in the world of Kre-O - that would be excellent. As long as G.I. Joe is out there in some form, I'm happy.

Maybe there is more to come at Joecon this year. I'm hopeful, but doubtful.

So there are a few gems in this "exciting" line-up of product from Hasbro celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the G.I. Joe brand - the brand that may have saved their asses, not once, but twice. I get it, the original 12" G.I. Joe is probably gone and may never again be on toy shelves. That's fine (kind of), kids have changed, costs have risen, and boy's toys have changed drastically since the original G.I. Joe.

This 50th Anniversary series just seems to be an act of laziness on the part of Hasbro. All of this crap that I'm writing is largely my own opinion, maybe with a little bit of influence from other online sources. I've really tried to limit myself to other fan's thoughts until after I get my own thoughts down here in my blog of little consequence.

A couple months ago, I stumbled across Oreobuilder's Blog and was simply blown away. I don't know who the guy behind the name Oreobuilder is, I only know that he's a customizer from the Joecustoms website. I think... Anyway, he showcased his work for a salute to the 50th Anniversary of G.I. Joe that was just simply amazing. I actually had to go through every single post in his blog just to marvel at his quality work. I would encourage my faithful reader(s) to go through OB's blog and just enjoy. My point in discussing Oreobuilder's blog is that he did an extraordinary amount of work in creating a tribute to the original G.I. Joe that could have been duplicated by Hasbro had they really put some thought and planning into the anniversary of such an important piece of Hasbro's history.

Sure, Oreobuilder went huge and covered vast amounts of the history of the 12" G.I. Joe, but Hasbro could have easily done something much more simply by just recreating the original G.I. Joe head sculpt in the 4" figure scale. That's all that was needed. Based on Oreobuilder's work, there's enough body types and styles that could have easily been translated into maybe a modern update to the G.I. Joe 30th Anniversary sets from 1994. Just one five pack of figures that hearkened back to the original G.I. Joe. Was that too much to ask? Apparently so.

My limited understanding is that the G.I. Joe design team at Hasbro is practically wiped out. That's too bad and it's a damn shame. I know the world has changed since the huge green G.I. Joe valley in the Sears toy departments from the 1960's and the massive wall of G.I. Joe product at Toys"R"Us in the mid 1980's. Those days are gone and G.I. Joe may never again rise to such prominence, and that's okay, I guess. 

But G.I. Joe needs to be somewhere. G.I. Joe represents so much that is good and noble about courage and honor and the service and sacrifice of those serving in the military. Maybe there's just a larger cultural issue at play here in which children are being dumbed down in regards to courage and honor. In an entitlement society, courage and honor have no place.

I really don't know where I'm going with this whole post. I guess I'm just rambling about - hence the blog's name? I'm just disappointed in Hasbro for this half-assed (my opinion) attempt at G.I. Joe's 50th Anniversary. Sure, collectors are the key driving force behind G.I. Joe's success right now, but I just wonder how many more G.I. Joe fans could have been brought on board through a series of figures that connected back to the original G.I. Joe?

So what's your spin on this whole G.I. Joe 50th anniversary deal? Well thought out, pro or con comments are encouraged, bullshit nonsense comments will be ridiculed.

Three of the Best by Hasbro

Without a doubt, Hasbro has done some excellent work with G.I. Joe figures recently. There have been a few misses, but there have been a great many hits.

These three figures stand out to me as easily being in the top 5 GI Joe figures sold this year.

The Cobra Viper gets an incredible redesign into the 30th Anniversary line. A great update for one of my all time favorite Cobra troop builders. These guys were the shit for me back in 1986. I had around 25-26 of the originals. I have one left, the rest got sold on eBay and helped us out of a rough financial patch.

Hasbro's update of the Viper primarily uses pieces from previous figures. I don't know if anything is new for this guy. I think the head is a correction for the "Hall of Fame" exclusive Viper over that 25th Anniversary nightmare (except for the vest). Everything else comes from Pursuit of Cobra figures and everything works great together.

I am up to 9 Vipers right now. I really think I should just stop there. Seriously, how many more do I really need? (25 - 9 = ? No, don't do the math...)

I really had no use for the original version of these guys. Premiering in 1982 along with the original GI Joe figures, the Cobra Troopers were the nameless, faceless soldiers of Cobra Commander. And like many of the early figures, not really the best sculpted figures. True, they were some of the first and sculpting did improve, but the basic Cobra Trooper was never really revisited in the o-ring years.

Along comes the 25th Anniversary line and the troopers get a new sculpt makeover. In my mind, not much better than their original o-ring counterparts. Awkward limbs, bald heads... Ugh.

This was a learning curve for Hasbro and they responded soon after with a vengeance. Again, here is a figure almost completely made of parts from other figures. Maybe all reused parts - I'm not that clever.

And the Trooper kicks serious ass. A little short in the accessory department, but I can come up with extra weapons. These Troopers are awesome!

I'm up to 12 now. STOP THE MADNESS!!

And of course Snake Eyes. It took Hasbro 54 tries to make the perfect Snake Eyes and they finally got it right.

The level of detail on this figure is exceptional. There is a temple Guardian version and the Renegades version out there after this guy. Who cares? This is THE Snake Eyes figure. Even non GI Joe collectors can appreciate just how bad-ass this figure is.

And with two head sculpts, you get your choice of which version of Snake Eyes that you would like. Me? I like the commando goggles over the ninja visor. I prefer Snake Eyes as a Commando w/ Ninja training as opposed to a Ninja w/ some commando training.

100% perfect? Figure - yes. Gear - almost. The swords don't quite fit in his hands. The explosive pack, while a cool nod to version 1, is almost useless. There is still plenty of extra gear out there that can make up for any perceived deficiencies in weapons.

Hasbro has done an incredible job with these 3 figures and with several others. Stay tuned! I'll check out some more soon.