G.I. Joe thread - 09/13/2024: Pulsecon - Dreadnoks, Dogs and Cereal

[Dake]

Haslab Skystriker arrived today. All in all, it's a nice if subtle update. As probably expected (though not specifically stated anywhere that I recall), it is the exact same size as the 25th and original versions, though the plastic feel is far more like the original versus the newer one. There are some nice little added details here and there, but even that isn't much considering the original was already so detailed. I'd say they fixed the main annoyance of the originals in that you can actuate the gear and wings separately. The down side to that is the gear don't really lock into place so rolling on them causes them to collapse. And when they're retracted (you use the tailhook underneath) the nose gear seems to want to fall out just a little bit. Another mark in the "win" column though is the armament stay on their pylons much better. The 25th has shortened pylons and stuff literally falls off under it's own weight sometimes. The new 'Striker still has short pylons but everything fits a bit more snug.

Some comparo shots with the 25th version. The Haslab 'Striker comes with your choice of black or white vertical stabilizers, so I went with the white ones. Also (maybe because the mechanisms are separated now), the Haslab Striker's wings sweep forward just a hair more. I haven't done any stickers (it comes with a bunch), so everything you see is a tampo. I have to chuckle a bit that they made the stripe around the cockpit look like a slightly misapplied sticker (and by "chuckle" I mean roll my eyes).

One odd choice was going from the straight cut seam between the wing and the fuselage to the slight saw-tooth which actually made it kind of tough to get the wing to fully snap in. I feel like the straight line of the 25th version blends in better whereas the new joint is obviously a joint.

I'll be honest, I went for this as much out of pity as real desire - when it looked like it was going to get real close but not make it. All the extra stuff though is nice even if I won't use much of it. All the figures will just stay in a the box. The added ground support equipment can park on the deck of the Flagg though. In the end, unless you're an O-ring collector, I don't think there's much missing out if you didn't buy this. Considering the aftermarket pricing of boxed Skystrikers - even 25th Anni ones - it was probably a good deal though.

 

[Dake]

Oh, and you can cram ME figures into it!

 

[Haywire]

Nice pics of your Skystriker!



On the topic of what direction Joe should take, I guess I fall somewhere between the hard military and crazy sci-fi camps. The original 12" Joes started out as a pure military toyline, but the 'modern' 3-3/4 line was never pure military; the Joes had a laser trooper, laser cannon, and jetpack in the first year, and Cobra got even wilder after that. I think it's a mistake to lean too hard into the sci-fi side, though, because then the line doesn't really stand out from other action figures, so there's kind of a balancing act to maintain.



Watching my 4-year old son play with Joes, the thing I think ought to get pushed more for the 4" line is complimentary vehicles and playsets. When Cobra has jets and helicopters, so do the Joes. When the Joes have tanks, the Cobras bring out the HISS. His Cobras have a couple of 'robot' sharks to fight the Joes boats, etc. I also think Hasbro should look into a rescue-themed subset, but that's just me. The point is, he likes to play with things that interact naturally, and if the toyline doesn't support that, then it's not surprising his interest would move to other things.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Today was “GI joe Day”, I guess. In addition to the Skystriker unboxing, Hasbro revealed some production renders for some upcoming Classified products.
Tele viper with Flight Pod (aka, Trubble Bubble). Hasbro took a novel approach here by covering the character’s arms, leaving the ethnicity open and allowing for the THREE different headsculpts to all be viable. Also means an “authentic” vintage version is likely in the cards.

Scrap Iron with Rocket Drone- Like with Firefly, Hasbro took a few more steps with the character’s specialty and really built on it with a FANTASTIC drone accessory. A logical step up from the simple missile platform the original figure came with, and comes with a number of effects pieces. It also looks to be colored to tie in with the HasLab Hisstank.

Steel Corps Battle Pack- They lost Steel Brigade, so I guess Steel Corps is the new name. Though, I preferred the mobile game’s “Steel Battalion” a little better. While it only has two figures, the sheer amount of options is staggering, including multiple heads, effects pieces and each gets a JUMP rocket pack. The accessory compliment is clearly covering for only two figures.

Snow Job- I was a little worried with how Torpedo turned out, but they doin’ good by my boy Snow Job. Ticks all the boxes PLUS the alternate head I was concerned he wouldn’t get. Also glad to see snow shoes in addition to the skis. The last batch of renders felt a little…off…but it seems things are back on track with Snow Job.

 

[Blot]

Snow Job- I was a little worried with how Torpedo turned out, but they doin’ good by my boy Snow Job. Ticks all the boxes PLUS the alternate head I was concerned he wouldn’t get.

?

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Though, I preferred the mobile game’s “Steel Battalion” a little better.

Capcom might not, though...

 

[Dake]

Hasbro lost the rights to Steel Brigade to the Valaverse Action Force line.

 

[Greebtron]

An interesting discovery. You may or may not remember Mike Vosburg's unproduced storyboards for the intro to season 2 of the original cartoon, the ones that cartoonpaperwork.com put out there ages ago. Well, turns out it was actually produced, as shots from it are used in an advert promoting the movie version of Arise, Serpentor, Arise.

Storyboards here: https://sunbowmarvelarchive.blogspot.com/p/gi-joe-misc-storyboards-viewing-gallery.html

 

[Confuzor]

?

Id buy him if he had that head. Now Im just hoping for more ReAction april meme releases.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

?

In the show and comics, Snow Job routinely was depicted without his hood/cap. Like how in the cartoon, Wetsuit was often seen without his scuba helmet.

Torpedo didn’t get a “non geared” head, so I concerned that would follow to Snow Job and possibly Wetsuit. The appearance of a “casual” head gives me hope for Wetsuit as well.


I don’t buy a lot these, dangit! So I want the few I do get to tick enough boxes!

 

[Platypus Prime]

Due to things not working so good, I did wind up selling off my only Classified figure (color change Zartan), but I'm keeping the four inch figures, as my nephew loves putting them in formations to 'march', and when a kid is actively playing with and enjoying something, it's not the time to remove it!

edit: While not Classifieds, at Ollie's I saw the Legends Black Widow with the stand and fire effects, if you're looking for a cheap way to get a great environment effect parts set for your Joes without paying Bandai prices, it might be worth a look.:

I think she's cosplaying a Stormtrooper...

Beaker Goes To Hell, giving a better view of the figure stand it came with (I added the ghosts and side-arms myself, they didn't come with it, obviously) :

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I just stumbled upon this. It's a vintage recording of Beast Wars Episode 1 on the Power Block from 1996, complete with commercial breaks, including a seemingly lost Beast Wars commercial at 26:00:

And there's another lost Beast Wars commercial at 25:42 in this vintage recording of Episode 2:

Saw these in Transformers Discussion, and they reminded me that GI Joe Extreme was around at the time of Beast Wars, too. And it got me to wondering...

Was it actually any good?

The "extreme" '90s cheese kind of turned me off from the word "go," but I sort of liked the intro, and after seeing some stuff re-emerge in IDW's comics... well, it clearly wasn't to Joe what BW was to TF, but is there still something worth checking out there?

 

[Lobjob]

I've liked what episodes I've seen a lot. I never enjoyed the toys because they felt like a step backward.

And while not a step backward, I'm glad Joe is thriving with Classified, its just bittersweet because i really wish they were 1/18 scale.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Most of the production/writing crew from Beast Wars contributed to GI Joe Extreme as well. I also generally liked the episodes I saw as well. Although, the live action segments haven’t aged very well.

As I’ve read and researched that era of Kenner/Hasbro…I’ve gained a mild appreciation for the brand. I LOVE the overall brand design, 90s outfits and all. I think what really hurt Extreme in the 90s were a few factors:
1. GI Joe was among the few toy brands to have a really significant collector base. And unlike Transformers, the existing Joe brand (under the resurgent 12” segment and still strong selling 3.75” segment) was still a fairly strong selling action figure brand in and of itself. There wasn’t an overt reason to just up and cancel everything Hasbro was doing to focus down on Extreme like there was with Beast Wars, which replaced a Transformers brand with little significance in the market.
2. Kenner’s ego in trying to “one up” Hasbro lead to the complete abandonment of any existing names or brand identifiers. Even the Beast Wars guys kept Optimus and Megatron. At nearly 15 years old, the ARAH names held a good bit of market value Kenner was neglecting out of ego.
3. Good god, the name. “Extreme” felt like pandering, even to little 10 year old Steevy. It was an embodiment of the “Hello my fellow young people” meme. I think the name alone caused a good bit of pushback in the market.

That said…it WAS the best Kenner-est line Kenner ever made. Frank Miller’s comic book cover for the first issue under Dark Horse (who, themselves, dropped the Extreme moniker) may be among the most iconic images created for the brand. And some of the Extreme DNA (via the Kenner designers that would migrate to the reintegrated Hasbro Boys Team) clearly bled into GI Joe, especially with the 2002 relaunch.

I’ve, at times, wondered how GI Joe might have fared had the disparate arms of Hasbro worked together. Imagine a revamped 1996 GI Joe unified brand, built on the Extreme style branding (the old school logo, military accents and comic book stylings) where you had ARAH as the brand’s low cost entry point, Extreme (under a better name) as the “media-backed” segment, and the 12” line cultivated collectors.
As is, many of the main team of Extreme (Stone, Freight, Savage, Mayday, Black Dragon, Harpoon, Metalhead, Quickstryke) largely correlate to Duke, Roadblock/Heavy Duty, Gung Ho, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, Shipwreck, Breaker/Dialtone, and Mercer. While I dig the new villain angle, SKAR isn’t far from Cobra with Iron Klaw, Rampage, Wreckage, Inferno and Steel Raven being analogous to Cobra Commander, Destro, Overkill, Firefly/Major Bludd, and Baroness.

 

[Dake]

I don't know if it was quite that rosy. They threw everything at the wall in 93-94 and sales had fallen off the cliff. It may have been cheesy, but they knew they needed to do something different.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I don't know if it was quite that rosy. They threw everything at the wall in 93-94 and sales had fallen off the cliff. It may have been cheesy, but they knew they needed to do something different.

Are you saying the situation called for... extreme measures?

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Are you saying the situation called for... extreme measures?

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Bad news, the GI Joe Fanstream and preorders were pushed back to March 8.

But I finally got around to watching the “Extended Action Cut” of the film, now on Amazon Prime. It was good! I mean, it’s still GI Joe Retaliation, but they added something like 12 minutes. But it wasn’t just some extra footage, but they actively retooled scenes and sequences. The end result is a FAR more “fleshed out” iteration of the film. The action sequences flow FAR better (and there are a couple extra), and even the meager amount of new footage actually managed to deliver some actual character arcs for Flint, Lady Jaye, and especially Jinx.
If you liked Retaliation, this is basically the best version of that film. It’s still not an amazing film, but it is definitely a FAR stronger film with the changes made in the Extended Cut.

For context as to why I’m so excited to see it:
The original release for the Extended Action Cut was as a Best Buy exclusive when the film came out 10 years ago. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been released outside of that venue, and the disc is long out of print. It has never been released to digital either, so for this to be available on Prime is fairly notable.

 

[Dake]

Oh cool, I didn't realize that. I bought the extended cut for that reason way back when.

 

[Powered Convoy]

Bad news, the GI Joe Fanstream and preorders were pushed back to March 8.

But I finally got around to watching the “Extended Action Cut” of the film, now on Amazon Prime. It was good! I mean, it’s still GI Joe Retaliation, but they added something like 12 minutes. But it wasn’t just some extra footage, but they actively retooled scenes and sequences. The end result is a FAR more “fleshed out” iteration of the film. The action sequences flow FAR better (and there are a couple extra), and even the meager amount of new footage actually managed to deliver some actual character arcs for Flint, Lady Jaye, and especially Jinx.
If you liked Retaliation, this is basically the best version of that film. It’s still not an amazing film, but it is definitely a FAR stronger film with the changes made in the Extended Cut.

For context as to why I’m so excited to see it:
The original release for the Extended Action Cut was as a Best Buy exclusive when the film came out 10 years ago. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been released outside of that venue, and the disc is long out of print. It has never been released to digital either, so for this to be available on Prime is fairly notable.

I think I remember seeing this version, my brother bought it, and thinking the same thing about Jinx's story.