Spoiler Alert!!

Not really...

Since Blackout has been revealed to be the mystery 13th figure from the Club's FSS round 1, I thought I would post a quick picture of my custom Blackout figure.

I don't remember where my original thoughts for a Blackout custom came from. I sold off most of my SpyTroops figures a few years ago, so I didn't have one to chop up.

I think I had tried a few customs with some Spytroops or Venom vs Valor figures; cutting off the neck posts and drilling out a hole into the neck.

Once I had a few of the awesome POC Snake Eyes figures, I knew that body would be a great base for Blackout. It wasn't until Joelanta from two years ago that I was able to stumble across a loose Blackout figure. It wasn't too soon after I got him home that he underwent surgery.

Oh yeah, I really dig his backstory! Check out this earlier post about Blackout.


My first attempt at a Blackout custom involved using the POC Snake Eyes body, but I eventually switched to the Dollar General Cobra Trooper in the black uniform.

I think this works better for a custom. My opinion, yours may differ.

GI Joe Collectors Club - FSS-02

The GI Joe Collectors Club is wrapping up their first Figure Subscription Service with the mystery 13th figure now shipping with the last two figures.

Barely anyone reads this blog, so - SPOILER ALERT - the 13th figure is BlackOut. From the pictures that I have seen, the club did a decent job, but I'm not upset that I missed him. I made my own version well before this figure was revealed with a POC Snake Eyes body and BlackOut's head modded to fit on the neck peg. Works just fine for me.

Figure Subscription Service #2 is underway for sign-ups and time is rapidly running out. The deadline is two days away as I write this entry. If I'm going to get on board, I need to decide quickly.

I thought I would do a quick review of each of the proposed FSS02 figures and share my thoughts about them. (left to right, top row to bottom)

1. Dragonsky - the October Guard flame projection specialist. I don't have any other October Guard figures in my collection and I really don't see myself pursuing any other OG figures. Dragonsky would hit the secondary market pretty quickly.
2. Bombardier - based on an Action Force prototype that was an elusive figure to uncover. The story behind Bombardier is pretty cool. Possible keeper, not 100% sure.
3. Falcon - in his Night Force colors. Falcon has always been one of my favorite Joe characters. Yes, I even like him more than Snake Eyes! His transition to the new figure style started out horrifically, with redemption coming via the Slaughther's Marauders 7-pack from BBTS. The new color palette looks great! A definite keeper!
4. Ship-wreck - in Tiger Force colors, based on a South American design. I am so over Shipwreck and his silly sailor suit. Off to the secondary market.
5. Skull Buster - the unit commander of the Cobra Range Vipers, straight repaint, just like the original O-ring version. Not overly impressed. I like the mold, unsure if he would be a keeper.
6. Airtight - in Tiger Force colors, based on a South American design. The 30th upgrade to Airtight is nothing short of action figure excellence. No exceptions to this guy. The tiger stripes look pretty cool, too! Keeper!
7. Tollbooth - not only Yes, but Hell Yes! I sort of have an emotional attachment to Tollbooth. My wife bought me the Bridgelayer as a Christmas present the year before we were married, so I've always had a soft spot for Chuck X. Goren (X for nothing). Plus I really dig the character of a combat engineer. DEFINITE KEEPER!
8. Cesspool - the bad guy behind Cobra's daliance in eco-terrorism. he was always an interesting character and the club appears to be doing him justice. One can never have too many bad guys. Cesspool is a keeper!
9. Widescope - I'm really excited to see a new sculpt era figure in the FSS, but I'm not overly impressed. He's just a Cobra Shock trooper body with a reused sock-head. Nothing special about the gear. lamont looks like a straight remold of original. Maybe a keeper, maybe not.
10. Big Bear - another member of the October Guard. Don't have any others, as previously noted. Nice original o-ring version, but I would let him go to the secondary market.
11. Desert Scorpion - the original o-ring version kinda' sucked in my opinion, so I'm already biased by that suckiness. I'm not impressed. Somebody will want to troop build him. Off to the secondary market.
12. Admiral Keel Haul - another Hell Yes! Another sentimental favorite! I never had the Flagg and knew I would never really want the 7' long beast, so I resigned myself to possibly never having the figure. years and years and years ago, somehow I came across the information that Chuck E. Cheese had Admiral Keel Haul as a prize give-away. Well, off I went to the nearest Chuck E. Cheese and checked in and sure enough, they had him. Fortunately, I didn't have to play a million games of Skee-ball to earn tickets to get him. I think I paid less than $10.00 for him. Well worth it! Hasbro did a damn fine job with the original figure and it looks like the club did a great job as well. We'll never see another USS Flagg at retail, so this is a great way to add the Admiral to the collection. Another definite keeper!
13. unknown... Who knows? Wait and see...

Of the twelve known FSS02 figures, that puts the score at:

• Keepers - 5
• Maybes - 3
• Sell 'em - 4

My biggest concern is that these figures price out at $25.50 each prior to shipping costs. Damn, that's a lot of money! Yeah, I know, I'm a cheap-skate. Where else would I be able to get them? Hasbro apparently ok'd these guys for the Club, because they won't be doing them.

I suppose the question would be if I can resell the ones I don't want for enough extra to lower the overall cost of the ones I want to keep. I haven't done any research on the secondary market of the first FSS figures, but I think I wouldn't have any problems reselling them for at least what I paid for them. I hope...

Do I pull the trigger or not? The clock is ticking...

It's been a while...

I guess it isn't as bad as I thought. It has only been just over a month since I've posted last. For my handful of followers, I haven't given up on GI Joe, I've just been busy as hell.

A number of 1:1 scale events have impacted my life that has put the hobby on hiatus for a while. I've been working on my Education Specialist degree, so that's been a load of extra work.

As hinted in an earlier post, there was the possiblity of a move and a new location for my stuff. Well that only took about four months for the sale to go through and the move to occur. we still have our other house and are working quickly to get it on the market.

The new place is great and I've got a decent "play" area with some good potential for some cool display space. But not yet. There's a ton of other stuff to do. New paint, repairs, unpacking, repacking, sorting, and getting rid of some stuff. The "honey-do" list is pretty big! But I'm hoping to get some me-time in there once in a while. I really need to get a mini photo studio set up to get some new pictures taken. I've got some cool ideas in regards to the new Retaliation figures that are out now that the movie was finally released.

Oh yeah... GI Joe: Retaliation... my thoughts?

I haven't seen it yet... I've been a die-hard GI Joe fan for so long and I still haven't seen it. We were moving right at the time the movie came out and it really didn't seem like a wise health conscious move to take a break from packing and moving to go see a movie.

I think the DVD release is just a couple months away. I can be patient enough for that. It might show up when the next wave of kick-ass figures come out. Sounds good to me!

Joelanta 2013

Well another Joelanta has come and gone. I don't recall how many shows I have been to, possibly at least five to six, maybe more. I think I went to a show or two before the national Joecon was here in 2006 (I think).

Maybe I've been going to Joelanta for eight years?

I wanted to primarily post pictures of the day, without too many comments. I hope you enjoy!

• Joelanta 2013 - Area 51
• Joelanta 2013 - Customs
• Joelanta 2013 - The Sales Floor

I was also fortunate to be able to talk to FlagPoints that evening and talk about my day at Joelanta.

You can check out the FlagPoints podcast right here! 

GI Joe: Retaliation Ninja Combat Cruiser

Party rockin'! It's not just a Ninja Combat Cruiser!

It's a Ninja Party Cruiser!

When I first saw pictures of the new toy-related toys from the movie, I knew I wanted one of these vehicles.

Based off of the Pursuit of Cobra VAMP, the NCC looked like a great upgrade.

Once I got one in my hands, did it measure up to my expectations? Yes and no...

The VAMP appears to have a chassis that can be easily customized with different parts to give it different features.

In this case, the existing rollbar was removed, allowing for a two-part roof structure to be put in place. With predetermined slots, there was room to add four doors to the new frame.

An addition to the new roof was a large hole designed to use the missle rack from the upgraded POC Snowcat (Wolfhound?).

It works well enough and isn't too over-sized. The missle launching feature of the rack is a great play feature for the toy.

In a side-by-side comparison, the differences stand out. The thumb-wheel for the front end winch is gone. There are other features from the VAMP that didn't make it over to the NCC.

Many of those features are sorely missed. Especially considering the price that I paid for this vehicle. I am actually convinced that this vehicle was deliberately over-priced at this one particular Target store that I bought it from. This particular store is located in a "higher income" area on the southside of Atlanta and I have noticed previously that items at this store are often more expensive than the prices for the same item at another store just a county away.

Enough griping about stuff that really doesn't impact me too much. Just pisses me off a little. Since I'm long gone from the retail environment workplace, I don't really give a shit.

The key pieces that I noticed that were missing and could have improved the NCC were the side mounted smoke cannisters and the rear spare tire.

The smoke cannisters can easily be fit into the existing tooling of the NCC if only Hasbro had included them.

The rear tire is another matter. The rear bumper of the NCC is a different unit than the bumper for the VAMP and does not have space to allow the tire to be mounted in the post of the body of the NCC/VAMP. Too bad, that would have been cool to have on the NCC. No room for spare fuel cans, either.

Hasbro saved some coin with the shitty driver figure. I guess the savings went to the roof structure. Tooling exists for the older bumper, tire and fuel cans. Surely it wouldn't have been too difficult to add a few more pieces.

Overall, I am pleased with the NCC, or VAMP Mk2 as far as I'm concerned. The plastic of the roof framework seems very light weight. The blue coloring of the body is just a bit wierd to me. I would prefer the more traditional green military color pallette for this new VAMP.

And thankfully, the ninja logo seen on the hood in the early pictures is a sticker! No thank you to big ninja stickers on the hood of my vehicle!

I think I might like at least one more, maybe two. We'll see.