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G.I. Joe Convention 2012 – G.I. Joe Collectors Club Roundtable – Iceberg!

Good morning!  I apologize about the delay in coverage for this as the Convention quickly turned into a whirlwind yesterday afternoon and evening.  The Collectors’ Club roundtable kicked off yesterday afternoon and much was discussed.

Brian apologized for what happened with the credit card system and revealed some details about how the third party software vendor and service provider could have done some things better.  There were programming errors in the web form they provided and no security package installed within the application as there should have been.  He did took full responsibility for what occurred, and informed us that he used a famous security analyst to uncover the issue and ensure that the new software package had all of the required security.

They discussed quite a bit about the package design for the carded Footloose and the Convention exclusive items, breaking down the numerous paint applications required for each figure.  Also discussed was the upcoming Membership Incentive figures.  For 2013, they are as follows:

  • 12″ Comrade of Action – an undercover Adventure Team agent in Russia
  • 4″ Iceberg!  Borrowing elements from the classic version, but attempting a more modern twist.  No figure picture was shown, but details were revealed.

Speaking a bit on the Figure Subscription Service as well, and showing off those figures at the front of the hall.  They are still testing the software platform for the store, and are hoping to get it online and rolled out shortly.  Still aren’t revealing 100% concrete pricing structure yet, as costs have changed in the manufacturing process over the past 8 months.  The figures for the FSS are essentially a “pre-order” where they will solicit the subscription, and then produce figures based on the demand from the orders.

They also announced…  FIGURE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE WAVE 2!

Hoping to get that launched, again, based on demand, after Wave 1 has settled somewhat, and even have three figures lined up for it:

  • Dragonsky
  • Big Bear
  • Night Force Lt. Falcon

A mock up picture was shown of Dragonsky, but not for the other two.  Big Bear will come with his trusty hat and a new head sculpt, while Lt. Falcon will be similar to the canceled 25th Anniversary Night Force version only with the new sculpted head from the Marauders 7-pack.

Again, I know this posting is late, but keep in mind I do a lot of Live Tweeting and up-to-the-minute news updates from my Twitter Feed.  Check out the images from the presentation below.

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JoeDeclassified Spec Ops Podcast tackles Iron Klaw, Nano BAT and others

Gyre Viper and his excellent crew of cast mates have finished and posted the latest episode of the JoeDeclassified Spec Ops (JDSO) Podcast!  In this episode, they bite deep into the canceled Nano BAT, Iron Klaw, and even touch on the canceled Crimson Guard figure that was slated to come in the same comic pack as Iron Klaw.

Perhaps the coolest thing about this episode are the accompanied images, which have all been posted over at JoeDeclassified.com.  These images show some incredibly awesome detail from the unreleased Iron Klaw, Nano BAT, and Crimson Guard.

Keep in mind, these are not the FSS figures, these samples were canceled figures initially slated to appear in the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary line (Iron Klaw vs. Crimson Guard Trooper Comic Pack) and the Rise of Cobra line (Nano BAT).  The insight in this episode is awesome.

Check it out at JDSO’s Podbean page, and please also check out the accompanying images on JoeDeclassified.com.  Some really awesome stuff here.  Kudos to these guys for such a great show.  Hopefully I’ll be joining them on it soon!

Unreleased Comic Pack test shots continue to emerge

Mere days after the unreleased Training Snake Eyes was shown on JoeIntel, test shot maestro Gyre-Viper at HissTank.com has shown some pictures of the unreleased “Iron Klaw Trooper” that was initially slated to come with another wave of Comic Packs before the line shifted to a movie theme.  Check out the mirrored images below.

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This…  is awesome.  From what I’ve seen there hasn’t been much unreleased stuff that has really made me sad that it won’t make it to retail.  Resolute stuff aside of course (which looks to be coming in a boxed set in 2010).  But this Iron Klaw Trooper?  Damn, man.  I love it.   I was a big fan of the Extreme universe, but the figures were horrible, it’s freaking great to see those characters worked into the Anniversary line, even with just a new head, beret, weapon, and webgear.  The base figure looks to be an Iron Grenadier Destro.  Regardless of all this, the figure is very cool, and I hope Hasbro finds some way to work this tooling into the Pursuit of COBRA line.  I really love the face sculpt and skull-themed webgear.  Very cool figure.

He also showcased some images from the upcoming Pursuit of COBRA Arctic Destro, which is another pretty neat one.  Those ice-cased accessories are pretty cool and the sculpt is great.  Check out those images below.

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G.I. Joe Extreme – Terrible toys, but not all bad

150px-gij_extremeI think it’s fairly well publicized that I’m a G.I. Joe fan who has found elements to like about pretty much every iteration of the brand since 1982.  I love A Real American Hero, I loved the collectors reissues since 1998, I enjoyed the new sculpt era, Sigma 6 rocked my world, and I’ve been pretty happy with the Anniversary stuff as well.  Where my interest wanes is in those middle years, with Sgt. Savage and G.I. Joe Extreme.  Those were such departures from the articulation and design style that we’d gotten used to over the years, I just couldn’t overcome the differences and pretty much wrote them out of my mind.  Sgt. Savage has remained out of my mind, and from a toy perspective, G.I. Joe Extreme has been the worst that Hasbro has produced for the brand since it first arrived.  However, the G.I. Joe Extreme universe itself has plenty of merits, and if you spend enough time on YouTube, you’ll find some nice hidden gems in the episodes and you’ll find a story that’s actually decent, especially for a toy-based cartoon.

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