Well guys it has been a little slow around here on the GI Joe front. There has been a lack of quality international items on the market lately. In addition, since I only need about 22 vehicles for a full run of the US release Joes they are also VHTF.
But I was able to pick up some very cool pieces! First up we have a MINT Funskool Clutch and mint Funskool Snow Job. The Clutch is the real prize as it is very tough to come by. I was also able to pick it up for a steal at $50! I have seen examples sell for more than $200! Second, we have the SDCC 2012 AND 2013 boxed sets! I hadn’t picked up the 2012 set yet and found it to be good timing to grab that along with the new 2013 SDCC GI Joe/Transformer exclusive. Third, I grabbed a GI Joe Funskool Stalker Jet! It is a largely unknown vehicle and kind of hard to find, though it doesn’t cost too much. It is basically the same as the Jet that was released as part of GI Joe Savage or Extreme (I forget because I try to block that time from my GI Joe memory). While here in the states the vehicle is not associated with ARAH, it IS in India.
I went and grabbed a new phone at Bestbuy during my lunch break yesterday and there also happened to be a Walmart next door. I hadn’t checked a Walmart for Joes in over a year and wasn’t expecting to find anything. But lo and behold I found a ton of the hard to find wave 2.5/3! I picked up 2 Alley Vipers, along with a Dark Ninja and two Cyber Ninjas.
I have had a VERY busy day on eBay! Today is the first official day of JoeCon and the people with the Golden Ticket are going through the Club Store now and more importantly putting pictures and the toys up for sale!
Here is the list:
The Night Force Specialists 2-pack consists of Freestyle, a new female pilot, and Chuckles. $60, secondary market $150+
The FLAK w/ Steeler $66, secondary market 120+
The Night Force Boomer con price of $145, secondary market 275+
The KREO Night Force 6 pack $33, secondary market $55+
Lady Jaye MOC $30, secondary market 200+
KREO paratrooper Hit & Run $14 (I think this goes on sale tomorrow, after the parachute drop)
The free bonus item is a night force ferret, secondary market $45+
Well this one is really late, especially since tomorrow I will be posting the preview pages for Special Missions #2. But it has been busy around here. Before I get into the comic, just wanted to let everyone know that while I haven’t been posting any buys lately, I have gotten some cool stuff in and will be posting pics soon.
Now to Special Missions #1. Overall it was a good read. Art was solid, though I didn’t personally like some of the inconsistency in one panel to the next. But it did not detract too much. It was a much slower pace, especially from GI Joe #1 which saw Windmill killed off. The issue is setting up the first arc and it looks promising.
Couple things to note, this is not the one off stories that the Marvel GI Joe Special Missions were, it is multi issue stories. This bothered some people, but not me. I was not looking for the nostalgia factor with this book. I get that with Hama and ARAH. Second, at one point in the story, the Baroness has a girl disguise herself as the Baroness and she narrowly avoids an assassination attempt. The girl ends up having pink hair which lead many, including myself to wonder if this was Zarana, and a potential set up to the use of Dreadnoks. Well, I got tired of the speculation so I went straight to the source and asked Dixon! Here is what he said: “No, it was not. There’s no Zarana in this continuity yet.” So boom, pipebomb, bitches, (thanks Chuck) my first interview with an IDW Joe writer. Yeah it was only one question, but it counts. I will be trying to get some interviews with writers and artists, but I won’t announce more than this unless it really happens.
I really liked the Baroness in this issue, she was being her badass/sexy self kidnapping some children and holding them for ransom. Another thing that is amazing with this book and #2 is the retail incentive covers! They look awesome! But I think they may be 1:25 so definitely a lot harder to come by. I definitely recommend checking Special Missions out, and if you are on the fence about it, commit to just the first story arc which is the first 5 or so issues. I think it will grab your attention.
There is a Yahoo.com spring movie poll going on right now asking people which spring movie they are excited for the most. Only 2 movies have more than 10% of the vote GI Joe Retaliation and Oz the Great and Powerful. GI Joe comes in at #2 with 23% of the vote (20,765 at the time I voted) and Oz is first at 29% (26,223). I think that is really good news for the Joe Movie. I went last night and saw Oz, I have to admit, it was pretty good.
So with the news that the JP figures were hitting retail in SoCal, I hit my local TRU on my lunch break and came away with a great haul! I picked up both JP figures, 5 Wave 2 figures, and a Skystriker! I really hope that the JP line includes the awe strikers as well as the other prototype figures that we have seen. I’m glad I waited on the prototypes.
Better late than never! Toy Fair occurred last weekend and while there was not a ton of new Joe stuff, the quality was amazing! We received confirmation of the remade Tomahawk (Eaglehawk – getting released in August) as well as some awesome figures!
We will be getting: Kwinn, Data Viper, Ultimate Storm Shadow, Ultimate Firefly, Ultimate Snake Eyes, Ultimate Cobra Commander, Ultimate Roadblock, Ultimate Duke, Ultimate Flint, and Budo! They also showed off the Crimson Guard and Cobra Combat Ninja (essentially just the movie trooper, but I guess everything has to be a ninja.)
I am really excited for these figures and the upcoming months in the hobby. These toys heightened my anticipation of the movie, due out March 29!
Just picked this set up, man the Firefly and Cobra Invasion Trooper are awesome! The Firefly is a spot on homage to the original ARAH Firefly. They really did well updating this figure. The Invasion Trooper is also really cool. Im always down for another paratrooper and I really like the vest/web gear with Cobra on the back. The storm shadow is disappointing. I did not buy the set for him at all. I wish it came with another Invasion Trooper to be honest.
It just came out that the reshooting of the movie was not to add more Duke/Channing Tatum to the movie. Its an interesting development, it sucked in the first movie, so I really hope that he is not in it much. Instead of killing Duke, I’d rather Retaliation would have just started completely anew, taking nothing from the first movie as if it never existed.
It also seems that Marlon Wayans/Ripcord is apparently happy that he was not included in Retaliation. To me it seems like sour grapes. Here is his quote from allhiphop.com “I’m not in it. Rip Cord steps on a landmine. They blew his black ass up… The last one they realized the black guy was the hero of the movie. So, they said ‘You know what? We’re going to do the sequel just so we can fix that. Let’s kill the black guy’.”
Grabbed some back issues, variant covers and filled in some holes. I also grabbed the Retaliation movie prequel comics to get me excited about the upcoming movie!
Leaky Suit Brigade 