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The Cobra Special Forces are spreading…

So after the bombshell that was the G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer last week, viewers were directed to CobraSpecialForces.com where you could take tests to determine where you ranked with the Cobra Special Forces.  There was also an opportunity to visit the Cobra Special Forces Facebook page.

Well, no landmark events have happened yet in regards to that, but a few images have cropped up, looking to be screen shots from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation motion picture.  Check out the mirrored images below, and make sure you hit up Cobra Special Forces to find out where you rank!

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Amazon adds official images of upcoming G.I. Joe 4-Packs

Of course they had to wait until the Renegades set sold out, but hey, better late than never, right?  We now have official images of the upcoming G.I. Joe: Renegades and G.I. Joe: Retaliation 4-Packs, and man, that Renegades set is blowing me away.  That almost looks like all new tooling.

Craaaazy.  Take a look at the images below, and don’t forget to order!  Amazingly, the G.I. Joe: Renegades set is SOLD OUT currently.  This is awesome news and tells me that there is still a consumer audience out there for Renegades.  Fantastic.  Now that I see official images, I’m even more excited to get this set in hand.

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I’m actually surprising myself here, too, and I’m coming around to that G.I. Joe: Retaliation 4-Pack.  It’s the small things like the movie accurate file cards, the webgear for Snake Eyes, and the better colored machine gun as well.  Cobra Commander is looking sharp in black, too.  ARGH.  Links for ordering are below.  Keep checking back for the Renegades set, I love that it’s already sold out!

Amazon.com Sneak Preview and Renegades 4-Packs are IN STOCK.

Happy Monday!

As I sit here Monday morning preparing to do some catch up posts I see that Amazon.com now has the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Sneak Preview 4-Pack and the G.I. Joe: Renegades 4-Pack in stock and ready to ship.

I will admit, though, the $40 price tag took me by surprise.  I’d think a benefit to buying a 4 pack is that maybe it would be cheaper than buying the 4 figures individually…  but not so much. That being said, I am ALL OVER that Renegades pack.  Click the links below to order ’em up!

I’m hoping these sell well and convince Amazon to continue doing stuff like this in the future.

Adding insult to injury – the origins of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Swamp-Viper

As usual, notpicard has got a great eye for parts, unused or otherwise.  I posted images of the Fang Boat w/ Swamp-Viper last night, and today, notpicard left a comment referencing some old unused “Clutch” tooling.

It was a story that I posted some time ago, pointing back to the Facebook page of Matt Brouillard, who is apparently a freelance sculptor who did some work for Hasbro, including an incredibly awesome looking “Clutch” (a name Mr. Brouillard used).  This Clutch looked pretty futuristic, yet had a ton of amazing detail throughout…and guess what?

Yeah, that’s Swamp-Viper.  Only the figure looks considerably different once it’s tooled up with reduced detail and articulation.  There’s absolutely no doubt that the Clutch sculpt was the foundation of this figure, yet it’s downright depressing to see how much detail and design is lost through the articulation changes.  Ugh.  It’s not just missing joints, the entire figure just doesn’t look as sharp or as cool.  Check out the comparison image below:

Obviously the armor design and overall uniform design is the same, though there are some missing pouches around the waist, and with the t-crotch added, you loose the detail in the upper legs as well.  Some of the sculpting work on the gloves is not the same either, and overall, things just look a bit softer and less crisp.  It still looks like a very impressive design, but by reducing the articulation, the figure itself suffers in almost every way.

A real shame.  Again, big thanks and kudos to notpicard for picking up on this instantly.  He’s got a great eye.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation Pre-Orders are LIVE!

We all knew the day was coming… April 28th was the official explosion of G.I. Joe: Retaliation pre-orders for e-Tailers.  Turns out  many e-tailers did not waste any time!  Pre-Orders have gone live across the web.

Check out the various links below to pre-order now!

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