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G.I. Joe: Retaliation Dojo Battle Red Ninja & Storm Shadow FIRST LOOK

The hits just keep on coming this week, again thanks to Gyre Viper who has entrusted me to cover these items with my usual enthusiasm.

Nobody tell him that I’m taking a screwdriver to these things, too!  If you follow me on Twitter, you saw last night that I swapped out one of the lower legs on Roadblock with one from Night Adder in order to give him some more articulation, and the end result was a success!  The lower leg fits well and is the right height…obviously some color matching would have to be done.  One interesting thing, though, is that even with the double knee, the range of motion isn’t much increased.  You can see the TwitPic images below.

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Along with this little update, I’ve also started covering the second 3-Pack!  From the Dojo Battle set, you can hit up the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Review Page and see Red Ninja and Storm Shadow.  Click the links below to go there directly.

Another G.I. Joe: Retaliation review addendum…

So, just wanted to pass this word along.

Over at HissTank.com, the site owner and admin DESTRO is saying that he has “official word” from Hasbro that the 3-Pack Roadblock will not come with those permanently attached weapons keys, and this is very likely a pre-production mishap.

It’s something I figured was true, and I tried to emphasize that in my review as well, but if this eases a few more minds, it’s another post worth making.  Check out the thread on HissTank right here.

While the fans have a strong desire to see product early, these things come up when dealing with pre-production items…  so keep your mind open.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation Action Figures FIRST LOOK – Roadblock and Beachhead

Again with thanks to Gyre-Viper and his desire to provide discussion points and better detail for community analysis, we have the last two figures in the first G.I. Joe: Retaliation Ninja Showdown 3-Pack!

I will warn everyone up front…  brace yourselves for Roadblock.  Folks who are excited for the figure may went to temper their feelings a bit before checking out the review.  And also please keep in mind that these are early samples.  Things could very well change for final release.  I tried to cover both of those bases in my review, but also had to give the figure it’s analysis based on how I received it.

Now if that didn’t scare you too much…  check out my G.I. Joe: Retaliation Review Page or hit up the links below.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation Kamakura Review Addendum

So I posted the review for the upcoming Ninja Showdown 3-Pack Kamakura yesterday, and received a few questions from HissTank.com members.  Questions that I thought should be addressed here as well, because I had to tweak the review a bit and add some images.

There was some concern about the hood, and as I thought about it, I really couldn’t understand why the hood didn’t fit better.  Kamakura does have Resolute Storm Shadow’s head, after all.  Well, I experimented a bit last night, and it looks like the initial hood issue was probably temperature related.  For folks who aren’t aware, my review station is in my garage, which is unheated.  Trying to fit the hood on Kamakura was a fruitless endeavor, and the material was very stiff.

Well, I brought everything into the house, and once the hood softened up, it fit MUCH better, so I felt obligated to update some images in the review, and also post some more pictures here. Also, when considering homages to Kamakura, I focused a lot on the Devils’ Due look and his original uniform, but as Shin Densetsu pointed out…  Kamakura’s Valor Vs. Venom look is actually not too far removed from what we got.  So I tossed a comparison of that up there, too.

Check out the review for some added text and images, and I’ve also mirrored those new images below.  Sorry for any confusion!

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A first in hand look at G.I. Joe: Retaliation figures launches today with Kamakura!

Over the span of the next few days, GeneralsJoes will be bringing you an exclusive look at some upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation figures, courtesy of Gyre Viper.

Both Gyre Viper and I thought long and hard about showcasing these images, considering product isn’t due on store shelves for a little while yet, but ultimately a desire to inform the community won out.  The G.I. Joe online community has been extremely divisive in regards to Retaliation toys ever since information began leaking out.  Concerns about articulation, marketing strategy, and overall figure quality was brought to the forefront.

With an ultimate goal of informing the community and giving these toys closer scrutiny, Gyre Viper decided to bring these figures to light.

There is so much great information that can be gathered here…figure construction, figure quality, articulation enhancements (as well as subtractions) and it just seemed with so much community based indecision over the past month or so, this was a great time to do something for the community.  I strongly believe a closer look at these figures shows that even with the disagreement among the fandom, Hasbro has done some terrific things design-wise and execution-wise, and I think Gyre Viper’s decision to showcase these figures for the G.I. Joe community as a whole was a good one.  Shifting the discussion from missed articulation to a focus on fantastic new designs and sculpting is a good plan, and I’m hoping these images showcase that.  It’s not all peaches and cream, and there are some concerns to be voiced here, but the important thing is being educated and well informed, which is what we are hoping to accomplish here.

Once again, thanks to Gyre Viper for getting these out in the open and giving back to the community.  Hopefully these images spurn some good, healthy discussion and discourse and prepare us for more of what’s to come.

I’m starting off slow, with just Kamakura right now, but will ramp up over the next few days, bringing you guys all six figures in the two upcoming 3-Packs.  Of course this also means the launch of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Review Page.  Click there, or just click the link directly below to check out this exciting first look!

Episode 43 of What’s on Joe Mind online featuring Ryan Penagos

It’s been a crazy recording week this week for the What’s on Joe Mind crew…heck for most of them it’s been a crazy few weeks!  We spent some time this past week talking to various different folks at different levels of the geek stratosphere, but perhaps none with such a large following as Ryan Penagos, AKA Agent M on Twitter.  As Executive Editorial Director for Marvel.com he has his hands in many different pies, and is of course, a social media mastermind.

We interrogate him about Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Twitter, and even manage to sneak in some G.I. Joe related discussion.  Check it out on our Podbean page, or listen to the embedded player below.  Click the Read the Rest of the Story link below the player for the show notes.

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