FSS 02: Airtight & Shipwreck

The first two offerings from the official GI Joe Club's FSS 2 have arrived and I'm not too impressed. There is a decent mix of figures with this assortment, with some of the figures being definite keepers, some mixed opinion, and some to sold on the secondary market.

These first two figures didn't show up on my "keeper" list. The Club used the Tiger Force theme for these first two figures, Airtight and Shipwreck. Both figures look pretty cool, but I'm just not overly impressed.

Airtight is a straight repaint of the awesome 30th/Renegades update from a couple years ago. I was tempted to hang on to this new version, but he just didn't quite get me interested enough. I've got two of the original version, so I really didn't need another, despite the new uniform colors.

Shipwreck is one of those characters that I am nearly so very tired of seeing. A Tiger Force version just doesn't work for my collection. I'm not sure of where all the body parts came from to make this version, but he looks pretty good. I can't stand that goofy grin on his face.

It's been a while since I had an interest in buying every figure. I really don't need to have a complete collection. I never found the 30th Crazy Legs figure at retail (who did?). Retaliation figures are very difficult to find. I may totally miss out on the Blind Master, Jinx, and the Cobra Combat Ninja and I'm okay with that. The new versions of Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and Cobra Commander are of little interest to me. And I'm okay with that.

The FSS is offering up some pretty decent figures that I am very excited about and look forward to their arrival. For now, these first two will be finding a new home around the end of the month. The two Oktober Guard figures? They'll probably be headed out as well whenever they arrive.

I'm really hoping that Tollbooth and Keel Haul won't be numbers 11 and 12!

Troops of Doom is back!

Or should that be Troops of Doom are back? Whatever.


Troops of Doom, the most awesome-est web comic featuring the ongoing battle for galactic supremacy featuring the forces of GI Joe, Cobra, and the Empire from Star Wars is back!

Cobra Blackshirt Upgrade

The MARS troopers from the over-priced Rise of Cobra preview set were so laughable. Well, that's a bit harsh. Given the construction methods that Hasbro was using at the time, they really weren't that bad. When you compare them to more recent offerings, they do kind of suck.

The only real benefits that I have found from them is stealing their gear. I first stole the trooper web-gear and re-outfitted my POC/30th Cobra Blueshirts - because their web-gear sucked.

I was digging around through my various plastic storage containers and came across my MARS troopers. (Okay, the storage containers once held sandwich meat, alright? Deal with it!) 

Hmm... Black helmets... Cobra Blackshirts from Dollar General. I wonder? A quick test fit and the helmets fit nice and snug on the Cobra trooper heads. I like the touch of red to the overall look as well.

The MARS officer helmet is a little different with the sculpt and the silver paint. Officers? Sure, why not?

The only problem is that the helmets tend to move upward on the heads, obscuring their eyes. Not a huge deal.

So my 12 Blackshirts are now geared up with MARS helmets. Nine troopers with the red masks and three officers with the silver masks. Or is it 8 and 4? I'm not at home, so I don't remember.

Either way, the troops get equally divided up into small teams of an officer and either two or three troopers. Equally divided - that satisfies my bit of OCD weirdness.

Hellboy

Hellboy in 1/18th scale. Just because.

GI Joe: Retaliation Extended Cut

Finally!

I finally saw the extended "action cut" of Retaliation. I had bought the movie at Best Buy when it first came out, but have not had a chance to actually see the updates yet.


I had already read about the various extended scenes and was pretty much prepared for the changes. I'm not going into the specifics of all of the changes. I'm usually so late to the game, it's not like beating a dead horse, it's like kicking around the dead horse's skeleton.


In general, I liked the added material and I thought that it added some important bits of character elements. The most important part of Retaliation or Rise of Cobra is to remember that these ain't the characters you may have grown up with. These are brand new takes on familiar characters.

And of course, all of the outrageous plot holes were completely filled in, right? Not even close. But the movie was still pretty damn fun.

My favorite part of the film has to be basically the first half, up to and including the decimation of the Joe team. Plot holes really get crazy after that point.The N. Korea mission, barracks scene, Pakistan mission, and the attack on the team were the best moments. Yeah, the ninja battle was cool, but I liked the combat scenes much better.

Still two thumbs up for this movie. 

Here's hoping GI Joe 3 will kick butt even more, and most importantly, Hasbro will get behind their unique in-house brand that put them on the frikkin' map.