Thankfully all I had to do was submit my own list of 20 and then let Under Scoop Fire put the actual list together (and accept all the hate mail).  I’m free and clear!

Well, not totally free and clear.  One of my main jobs on the participation side of things was to submit thoughts under the G.I. Joe umbrella, and I think I represented that very well…with one glaring ommision.

But don’t take my word for it.  Hit up the UnderScoopFire Top 100 Toys of all Time list to check it out yourself.  First of all, a caveat.  The “Top 100″ toys currently only has 90 listed.  You’ll have to check in tomorrow to listen to the Under Scoop Fire Podcast, Episode 21 to hear the top 10, and then the final top 10 will be posted shortly thereafter.

Enjoy!

And remember…all hate mail is addressed to UnderScoopFire.  I’m innocent!

The Collectors’ Club has posted a great YouTube video featuring their 2012 exclusive incentive figure Footloose, and finally gives us a good look at all sides of this great looking figure, including the backpack.

Check it out embedded below.

If you think the figure is cool, hit up GIJoeClub.com to join the club before March 16th!

EDIT – The GIJCC has also sent along a nice close up image of the Club exclusive figure, too.  Looking GREAT.

Meanwhile, the Collectors’ Club has renewed their push for membership and has posted some reminders via Facebook and elsewhere that if you want the 2012 Membership figure, you have to make sure you either join or renew by March 16th!

Hopefully folks who have suffered from the great Dial Tone shortage of 2011 will have learned from the experience and they realize that the $42 annual membership is worth the figure as well as the newsletter.

Speaking of the newsletter…  maybe I’m alone, but I think it’s been on a pretty great upswing in recent months.  The Adventure Team bio’s have been very well written and have integrated extremely nicely into the Real American Hero universe with some very cool homages to characters like Doc and Snow Job.  The Adventure Team comic has also been a pretty impressive piece of story telling, with art by G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero legend Rod Whigham. How can you go wrong?

But to me, the best piece of the newsletter is the ongoing Real American Hero comic story.  I think Dave Lane, Jesse Wittenrich, and Dan Khanna are really doing something fun with the comics.  This past issue began a “Footloose” storyline that had some fantastic cameos by the Night Stalkers, Hotwire, the Black Dragon helicopter and the Steel Brigade!  For folks who are jonesin to see their Pursuit of Cobra era figures in comic book form, this is what you’re looking for!  It certainly doesn’t hurt that it looks like they may possibly be touching on the whole Zombie Viper storyline…something Hasbro really should have better explored.  It also picks up on some loose ends from past convention comics, specifically the 2010 Vacation in the Shadows one!  Good stuff.

I think folks who have been sitting on the fence should get off that fence and consider signing up.  If not just for Footloose (which is a good enough reason itself) but also for the improving newsletter as well. Not even to mention the upcoming Figure Subscription Service… I think you’ll find the $42 well worth the cost.  You can check GIJoeClub.com for sign up details.

[View with PicLens]

With the (albeit remote) possibility out there that G.I. Joe: Retaliation may re-invent the wheel yet again, I really got thinking…over the past 28 years, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero has undergone a number of format changes and face lifts.  Which were the best or most impactful?

Now for this list, I’m not counting the o-ring.  That was a standard from day one.  I’m specifically talking about enhancements.  A change or progression that moved the toyline along and continued to revolutionize the industry.  So, let’s get to it.

10. Ankle Joints

One of the more overlooked articulation points, up until the time when figures started coming with a swivel ankle, they had to balance precariously, usually with one foot tilted up in the air, which obviously isn’t the most realistic look.  Working with the swivel ankle, the up and down joints also help in maintaining a realistic pose and allowing for much more flexibility and poseability, even with such a minor change.

09. Mid-Torso joint

A source of much debate amongst the G.I. Joe fandom, especially when the 25th Anniversary was first rearing it’s head.  Many fans complained about how the joint looked, and even in recent cases (such as Sgt. Slaughter) aesthetic appeal definitely took a hit for the sake of functionality.  However, I do think the mid torso joint at this point is a critical component of the figure’s poseability.  In looking at a real human being and they way they move, they don’t have a waist joint, they twist at the torso, as the figure does, so maintaining that realistic articulation has helped many fans get over the loss of the o-ring.  As the Pursuit of Cobra and 30th Anniversary figures have evolved, Hasbro has only made this joint more effective, seamlessly blending sculpted items on the chest over the joint to help conceal it. Lifeline is an especially good example of this with the row of pouches falling above that joint, which retains articulation but doesn’t sacrifice aesthetics.

08. Neck balls and head sockets

The move from removable heads (with neck balls attached) to the neck ball and head socket format is something that truly enhanced the customization ability and interchangability of the G .I. Joe brand.  Sure, heads were removable back then, too, but you needed to remove a back screw to do it, and not all neck balls were compatible with every torso.  Of course, that same issue is still present here, but the fact remains that Hasbro can now easily include swappable heads that only take seconds to switch.  In fact, that’s something they’ve done a lot with the recently released Storm Shadow, Renegades Cobra Commander as well as the Pursuit of Cobra Snake Eyes.  This flexibility provides a lot of enhancement possibilities to released figures, allowing for something like Storm Shadow, which can serve as a Renegades version as well as a true 30th Anniversary “realistic” homage.

07. Pistol Grips

As great as the generic “c grips” were for so many years, allowing for holding weapons as well as doing other functions, Hasbro has gotten exceedingly good at designing the pistol grip hands so they can realistically hold weapons with the fingers in the trigger guards.  Sure, this impacts the ability to do other things like punches, etc…  but the grips are designed well enough that they could function in either regard.

It’s been a great evolution, and a huge improvement over a lot of the 25th Anniversary figures, which were saddled with clunky, almost closed hands that prevented a lot of accurate weapon holding.

06. Swivel Wrists

This was one thing that the new sculpt era brought to the table that made a very big difference on the o-ring figures.  Figures like Barrel Roll and Recondo ended up working amazingly well with those swivel wrists while it was a glaring omission on figures like Blackout.  Now pretty much every figure comes with the swivel wrists (and still others come with the multi-jointed wrists) and it adds incredible flexibility to the figures as they stand.

05. Separately sculpted “Secondaries”

Even more important than the mid-torso joint in my opinion, are the various different sculpted “Secondaries” that go on top of them.  This is probably the single greatest thing that the 25th Anniversary brought to the table with the idea that basic figures could be more or less the same underneath, with different vests, webgear, etc…  applied on top in order to create entirely different figures.

While Hasbro experimented relatively successfully with the 25th Anniversary line, they’ve been able to really push forward in recent years with the Pursuit of Cobra and 30th Anniversary figures.  Taking figures like Snake Eyes and Shock Trooper and adding some key pieces to them have given us some great Cobra Trooper and Cobra Viper updates, not to mention the Steel Brigade and other tweaked figures along the way.  It really has redefined the way Hasbro produces their figures.

04. Improved hip sockets (1983)

While the whole “Diaper Crotch” phenomenon got collectors all riled up with the 25th Anniversary line, but what a lot of collectors might not realize is the first controversy over hip movements happened way back in 1983!  The initial release of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line not only had the straight-armed figures, but also had these wide and clunky “crotch” pieces that didn’t allow for great range of motion of the hips.  When the swivel arms were added to those figures, the “crotch” was also thinned down quite a bit, which helped mobility and also reduced the risk of breakage.  Didn’t eliminate it of course, but it did reduce it.  This was a huge improvement over the first year figure releases.

03. Ball jointed head

Before the head became a separate piece that joined the neckball, way back in 1985 figures started getting released with ball-joint necks, allowing them to look up and down as well as left-to-right.  Way back in the mid 80′s this was a revolutionary articulation adjustment, far above what other toylines were doing at the time.  This is just another example of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero setting action figure design trends in the 80′s.

Along with that improved neck motion, the figures also had a tendency to be sculpted a bit larger and more muscular, which really separated some of those later releases from previous versions.   Even with the larger stature, though, the obvious bonus was the better range of motion of the head, which made for some very cool new poses for your favorite army man.

02. Double-Jointed Knees

This was an amazing articulation adjustment and improved figure mobility 100%.  Far and away the most important enhancement to come out of the 25th Anniversary line, the double jointed knees allow for much more realistic crouching, walking, and even better standing balance from the figures themselves.  Over the years, Hasbro has perfected the design, able to combine mobility and sturdiness, giving us a nice solid knee joint that holds the figure upright yet still allows for awesome movement.  This was one heck of a great addition, and I think with double knees and swivel wrists, the o-ring figures could still be a very viable format for figure design.

01. Swivel Arm Battle Grip!

Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and Joe fans, this is definitely the greatest single articulation enhancement in G.I. Joe history.  The infamous “Swivel Arm Battle Grip”!  All of the other above articulation changes would be for naught if your 4″ army men couldn’t swivel their arms to hold their weapons properly.  The addition of a simple twist joint in the bicep of the figure made a remarkable change to the basic way that action figures could move.

Even with no other competition in the action figure market back in 1983, Hasbro still took it upon themselves to improve on an already nice design, and slimmed down the figures, increased the hip motion, and added the swivel arm battle grip, which completely re-invented action figure design in pretty much all formats.  That simple joint addition made huge changes to how well they could hold their weapons, or even just stand at attention, and I would argue that no matter what other articulation changes they make going forward, none will match what this one did.  To me swivel arm battle grip has always been synonymous with Destro, he’s the first figure I remember seeing it on, and it totally changed the landscape of my toy buying youth.  Once I had a swivel arm battle grip figure I simply couldn’t accept anything less.

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero has always been known for its well articulated and revolutionary design.  Even though enhanced articulation is much more the norm now than it was 30 years ago, G.I. Joe continues to lead the way and re-establish the baseline for action figure design.  The above design and articulation changes are only part of the reason why.

Click the “Read the Rest of this Story” link below for the full article.

Think for a minute about 2011.  Two years removed from the Rise of Cobra, and with an animated series that seemed destined for obscurity, the G.I. Joe property was in a sort of limbo.  Yet for being in such a strange place conceptually, there were a lot of great events in 2011, or even if not great, they were at least significant, not only for the G.I. Joe world this year, but potentially going forward into 2012 and beyond.

This was certainly a strange place for G.I. Joe, yet I think we came out of it with a very positive outlook for the brand and the future.

11. G.I. Joe: The Pursuit of Cobra is extended with two more “bonus” waves

It had long been assumed that Wave 4 would mark the end of G.I. Joe: The Pursuit of Cobra and we would suffer a several month wait until the G.I. Joe: Renegades line took over.  However, not only did we get treated to a terrific 30th Anniversary line in 2011, but the Pursuit of Cobra (one of the most popular Joe themes with collectors) got extended with two more waves of product.

Certainly, it was obvious these two waves were meant as bonuses, as they used all existing parts, but Hasbro designers really hit their creative stride with figures like Cobra Trooper, Cobra Viper, Steel Brigade, and one of the most unsung favorites of the entire Pursuit of Cobra line, Crazylegs.  Certainly some decisions were head scratchers (Croc Master or Blowtorch anyone?) and no one quite knows what happened to the superior repaints of those two figures, but by and large these extra two waves gave us some quite clever and welcome product.

1. Big Bad Toy Store goof reveals more 2011 Product
2. Next two bonus PoC wave assortments ironed out
3. G.I. Joe: Pursuit of Cobra Wave 6 hits mass retail
4. GeneralsJoes Pursuit of Cobra review page

10. IDW Re-invents their G.I. Joe comic universe with Cobra Civil War and Real American Hero title

True, the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Marvel continuation hit shelves in 2010, but in my mind it didn’t start hitting its stride until issue #161, which was released at the tail end of 2011, letting the title really pick up a full head of steam in 2011.  Many times folks have tried continuing the Marvel universe with mixed results, and in fact, IDW’s first handful of issues left the same sour taste in my mouth, but once they got SL Gallant on board and once Hama got through the ubiquitous “G.I. Joe as fugitives” story, things really got on a roll.

But that wasn’t even the most significant comic event of 2011 as IDW turned the G.I. Joe universe on its ear with the death of Cobra Commander and their comic universe being thrust into the middle of the Cobra Civil War.  This event didn’t sneak up on us, it exploded onto the scene with the literal force of an atomic bomb, resulting in the death of not only Cobra Commander himself, but the very popular hero of the Cobra mini-series’, Chuckles.  The ensuing roller coaster ride only barely reached its climax with Cobra agent Krake claiming the role of Cobra Commander and prepping the terrorist organization for a rocky and bloody 2012.

1. IDW Rocks the comic world with the Cobra Civil War
2. GeneralsJoes reviews G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #162
3. The new Cobra Commander is revealed by USA Today

9. 2011 G.I. Joe Convention modern era set sells out

As much as I’ve loved JoeCon sets in the past, none of them had quite the fever and furor that the 2011 set did.  The Mission: Brazil theme with the Python Patrol worked in seemed to go over like gangbusters with the fandom, selling out briskly at the show itself, and still going for very inflated prices across the online spectrum almost a year later.

Items like Claymore, Sparta, Cobra De Aco and the Python Patrol Stinger still go for a premium and really seemed to hit the fans where they lived.  But the biggest shocker of the weekend was the carded Dial Tone which not only showed that MOC collectors are still a force to be reckoned with, but just might have set the baseline price for future carded 25th homage items like the upcoming subscription figures.

More on the subscription later…

1. Full list of 2011 Subscription Items and Production Numbers
2. Exclusive 2011 Freebie item revealed
3. JoeCon 2011 Full Recap and countdown
4. GeneralsJoes reviews the 2011 Convention Set

8. G.I. Joe: Renegades toyline gets real and catapults 30th Anniversary onto retail shelves

Does everyone remember that Hasbro Q & A where they said the Renegades figures would be more animated and wouldn’t fit seamlessly into the current realistic design?  That was awesome.

Yeah, not really.  Well, not for most fans, who threw conniption fits when they heard the news that the ever-popular Pursuit of Cobra line was going to be overshadowed by animated styled figures to run alongside the Renegades cartoon.  It didn’t take Hasbro long to backtrack and in 2011, they revealed the new Renegades line to mixed response, taking a lot of existing parts and pretty nicely blending the series designs into a realistic uniform.

The real news of the 2011 toys was that G.I. Joe: Renegades would sort of fuse together with the Pursuit of Cobra and evolve into a short-lived but excellent 30th Anniversary line.  This run of figures provided exceptional releases such as Airtight, Storm Shadow, Scarlett, Firefly, Sci-Fi, Lifeline, Zombie-Viper, and many, many more.  For a toy run happening between media events, everything about 2011 came up roses.  We even received the long awaited Skystriker re-issue, something that made many long time fans very happy.

1. Toy Fair 2011
2. Hasbro Roundtable at JoeCon
3. SDCC Preview Night
4. 30th Anniversary Figures hit US retail
5. GeneralsJoes first thoughts on G.I. Joe: Renegades action figures

7. Clement Sauve, primary artist for G.I. Joe: Renegades dies of cancer

I still remember reading this in January, and immediately feeling like I’d been punched in the gut.  I don’t think anyone out in the public world really knew that Clem was that ill, and it hit many of us Renegades fans quite hard.

He had a very unique and gifted artistic style that many would argue may not have been perfectly suited to the G.I. Joe aesthetic, but I think once the cartoon got rolling, most folks were able to get over the design issues as the story built and the universe took over.

There are still folks hypothosizing that Clem’s passing may have played a role in the demise of G.I. Joe: Renegades, but I don’t believe that for a second.  It doesn’t change the fact that the world lost a great artist that day, and hopefully these events reminded some fans online that there are actual living, breathing people behind the pictures, and they suffer from the same maladies as the rest of us.

Rest in Peace, Clem.

1. Clement Sauve succumbs to Cancer

6. For the first time in almost 30 years, a Kwinn figure in jungle fatigues!

I tried to avoid a focus on singular figures in this list, just because there were so many great ones, they would have dominated the list and pushed aside other worthy events of the past year.  But I just couldn’t help put at least some major attention on the infamous Eskimo mercenary Kwinn.  Such a popular character to Marvel devotees for so long, I think many of us had almost given up ever getting our hands on a well done Kwinn in his jungle fatigues.

But JoeCon hit in 2011 and the cheer went up from us Marvel purists…Kwinn was HERE.

…and we’re still waiting.

However, we’ve been promised several times through different means that Kwinn is definitely being released, they just need to find a time and place, and I think just the fact that the figure was revealed is worthy of a spot in this list of significance.

1. Intel from JoeCon 2011 Hasbro Roundtable
2. SDCC Update – Kwinn is still on tap

5. G.I. Joe Collectors Club Subscription Service is announced and figures are revealed

Folks who have been sitting back and watching Mattel have their own share of luck (as well as issues) with their subscription service were probably wondering “what about us?”

Well, the Collectors’ Club answered that question with the reveal of their own FSS (Figure Subscription Service) which has been met with mixed reactions online.  Without the financial resource of a large scale company like Mattel has (no the subscription is not being financed by Hasbro, it is JUST the Club) the GIJCC has relied on a lot of existing tooling with some new head sculpts and some out of the box character choices.

As of this point, 12 out of the 13 figures have been revealed with shots of card art and many close ups, and things are looking pretty cool.  The figures themselves won’t get in our grubby collector hands until 2012, but the announcement of the sub is a big deal and could provide collectors with a great resource for obscure or previously unreleased items.  Here’s hoping it’s successful!

1. My take on the G.I. Joe Collectors Club Subscription Service
2. G.I. Joe Collectors Club reveals subscription details on Facebook
3. News archive for G.I. Joe Collectors Club with FSS images and card art

4. Jon Chu announced as the director for G.I. Joe: Retaliation

In the interest of total transparency, I will admit, my reaction to the announcement of Jon Chu as the director for G.I. Joe: Retaliation was somewhat mixed…well, not it was not mixed.  I wasn’t a fan of the choice.

But I was willing to give him a shot, and so far I have not been disappointed.  Certainly the film is still six months away, but his investment in the property, his apparent joy to be working alongside the stars and production teams, and his enthusiastic Twitter fascination have all combined to give us a really fun roller coaster ride through the early production process of the G.I. Joe Hollywood sequel.  Obviously his final grade won’t be given until June 29th, 2012, but obviously the announcement of him as director of the film is significant to say the least.

1. Three directors on Paramount’s “short list” for G.I. Joe 2
2. Jon M Chu in line to direct sequel to G.I. Joe
3. Jon Chu talks about a “Down and Dirty” G.I. Joe sequel

3. G.I. Joe: Renegades is canceled

No, this list isn’t all a happy one.  Just as G.I. Joe’s best animated series since the 80′s was gaining steam about halfway through Season One, word came down that there was a “hiatus” looming, and the wind literally flew out of our sails.  For many of us, Friday and Saturday nights had become an awesome ritual of soaking in the latest episode, desperately hunting for a promo for next week’s episode, and investing in conversation throughout the entire weekend with comments about the latest guest star, where we thought the universe was going, and how this new take of G.I. Joe was treating us.

It was a blast.  And unfortunately short lived.

I am absolutely ecstatic that a film is coming, but a film is pretty “one and done”.  The movie comes out, fans go nuts, the movie goes away.  Sure, there is all the lead in and the follow up, but there isn’t the same sense of constant, vested interest and conversation like there is with a weekly show that provided 26 separate valid discussion points over a period of several months.  Some good, some bad, but all fun.  G.I. Joe: Renegades got a bum rap, and it’s something that will take me a long time to get over, because I don’t think the G.I. Joe universe gets treated that well in mass media very often.  We lost something great.

Here’s hoping the next film is wildly popular enough to give us another high quality animated series, but considering we’ve only gotten one over the past 25 years, I’m not exactly holding my breath.

1. G.I. Joe: Renegades hiatus confirmed after a single season
2. JoeCon 2011 G.I. Joe: Renegades Recap
3. Final days of G.I. Joe: Renegades
4. G.I. Joe: Renegades Episode 26 and reflections on the series
5. GeneralsJoes G.I. Joe: Renegades SuperSite

2. G.I. Joe: Retaliation casting announcements, in particular Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis

Significant?  Do ya think?  Yes, we had heard shortly after the first G.I. Joe film that a sequel was already greenlit, but based on the lukewarm critical response and the healthy, but not dramatic, box office returns, there was some lingering doubt, I think.  Not everyone was convinced it was happening.

But we got the announcement.  We got the director.  We got some snippets from Brian Goldner and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, and it was all well and good.

Then came The Rock.  The game was changed.  It almost seemed like the minute Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was announced as the lead in the film, things just kept on getting better.  Enthusiastic Twitter updates, a big name star, some great images from the set of the movie…suddenly the vibe was, dare I say, optimistic?  Each name announced revealed a new reaction, from Blind Master confusion to curiosity about Cobra Commander.  Significant event after significant event came down the pipe and they all centered around the sequel film.

When filming wrapped in New Orleans a month or so ago, the updates sort of slowed to a crawl, but you can’t argue that for nearly the entire last seven months, G.I. Joe: Retaliation has owned the community and in a good way.

1. Cobra will Rise Again August, 2012
2. Cast changes in the works for G.I. Joe sequel
3. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to star in G.I. Joe sequel?
4. Does G.I. Joe 2 have it’s Flint and Blind Master?
5. G.I. Joe sequel adds Cobra Saboteur Firefly to the roster
6. Yippe Kay Yay, Mother Flocker!  Bruce Willis is Joe Colton in G.I. Joe: Retaliation

1. G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trailer

Three words that pretty much exemplified the last month of 2011.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer.

I’m sure there are folks there who will say this is just the most recent thing in my mind, which is why it earns the #1 spot on the list, but I beg to differ.  My website traffic begs to differ.  With three minutes of neatly cut footage and an awesome remix, Jon Chu and the G.I. Joe: Retaliation editing and production team have put G.I. Joe back on the map.  Not just for us fanboys, but for everyone.

Earning nearly 7 million views on YouTube and catapulting to the #1 watched video on the massive video hosting site, the G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer earned rave reviews all across the board.  Nerds of all shapes and sizes are now suddenly enthusiastic and impressed with the G.I. Joe brand as a whole, and that’s not something that would have even been considered possible two years ago.

With that short snippet of film and the weeks that surrounded it, I gained a new found respect and love for the online Joe community through the various forums across the net and on Twitter, and the trailer has not only made a mainstream impact, it has totally changed the way many Joe fans are communicating online, at least in my opinion.  As great as the 30th Anniversary line was, as thrilling as the IDW comic was, and as much as I’m looking forward to the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club subscription service, I cannot think of anything that came close to the sheer impact of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer.  Yo Joe indeed.

1. G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer already getting rave reviews
2. Ten reasons to be optimistic about G.I. Joe: Retaliation
3. The G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer is HERE.
4. G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer, quick thoughts and screen caps
5. Better, high resolution screen caps from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer
6. G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer – 10 Questions and/or answers revealed
7. Three minutes of video made G.I. Joe cool again

Yes, 2011 was supposed to be a “down year”…funny how these things work, huh?

Regardless, I continue to be impressed with how Hasbro has responded to the Rise of Cobra aftermath, and even with a lukewarm retail presence, G.I. Joe seems poised to launch with a renewed fervor in 2012.  I’m thrilled to be a part of the process, and continue to be humbled and appreciative of all the folks who read the site and take time out of their busy lives to comment, Tweet, or email.

2011 was a fantastic year to be a G.I. Joe fan, and something tells me 2012 will rock our worlds as well.  I greatly look forward to sharing it with all of you!