Couldn’t quite get them all finished up last week, but I managed to wrap up the last three reviews among packing and moving this weekend, and you can check them all out on my G.I. Joe: Retaliation Review Page.
Of course you could also just click the various links below:
And, of course, do not forget that awesome review sponsor Big Bad Toy Store is loaded up with pre-orders for these figures and future ones as well! Wave 2 looks especially awesome with movie accurate Roadblock, Snake Eyes, Flint, and Firefly! Check out the links below.
There has been a slight flurry of interviews over the past few weeks in regards to G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but I think this one has been one of my favorites. DJ Cotrona and Adrianne Palicki talk to Collider about the tone of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, what they used for inspiration and what homages we can expect. Cotrona talks about some of his parkour training and they break down the realistic tone of the film, while still trying to maintain a sense of fun and excitement.
Check out the embedded video below, or check out Collider itself.
Social media continues to infect G.I. Joe: Retaliation, this time with the Cobra Special Forces on Facebook. They’ve been slowly releasing images of various Cobra Troopers and even Firefly, but this image might just top them all!
Here we see the immortal Cobra Commander standing menacingly in front of a Cobra symbol on the wall of his lair. A very malicious, very cool image. Check it out at Cobra Special Forces, or mirrored below.
Well, look at that! Along with a figure reveal of Voltar today, we also get our first peek at the official 2012 Convention brochure! The brochure, as usual, breaks down the entirety of the 15 figure convention set, and we have a surprise!
While it lists Horror Show along with his Oktober Guard comrades, it doesn’t mention anything about Dragonsky, instead making reference to “General Iron Bear”. Verrrry interesting…
Check out the full brochure right here, and I’ll be back later tonight to break it down even further. Big thanks to Scott “MadMac41″ McAllister for the information!
So now it gets good again… I think most of us sort of knew what to expect from the last two days once the first Iron Grenadier: Elite Trooper was revealed. It was evident that the Club was using that canceled 5-Pack as inspiration and we were likely to see most of those troopers within the confines of the Convention set.
Well, all three troopers have been revealed, and with the Club publicly stating that they would not include Destro with this set, the floodgates are wide open again! What will they reveal today? Dragonsky? Horror Show? An Iron Grenadier character figure?! My mind was running wild… and like clockwork, at 3:20pm Eastern Time, we got our answer!
VOLTAR!
Wow! What a terrific looking figure! The combination of Accelerator Suit parts, Pursuit of Cobra Beachhead parts… he retains the general look of his color scheme, yet is darkened just a bit. A new head sculpt and awesome removable helmet! In spite of the slight dip of the grey uniformed Iron Grenadier, this Convention Set is shaping up to be one of the best of all time. Truly an amazing looking addition to the set with this figure and I am giddy with anticipation to see what we might get at the show itself. As always, keep your eyes peeled to GIJoeCon.com for the latest information as it appears.
Bring on the brochure and bring on registration! Let’s do this thing!!
As promised, we have also begun the huge task of listing our vintage toy inventory. This will take some time, but new updated sections are now live for many Palitoy Action Force era products:
This is going to be an ongoing project as we continue to list all Palitoy and Hasbro lines, so if there is anything you are looking for that you don’t see there, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line and we will do our best to help.
For G.I. Joe fans who have been following the property for only a few short years, this may come as a surprise, but believe it or not, there was a time, not very long ago, where Roadblock wasn’t a household name. In fact, he wasn’t even on Hasbro’s radar. A victim of lost trademarks, it seemed inevitable that Roadblock would simply fade from the consciousness of the G.I. Joe faithful and no longer be a major part of ongoing canon.
Sure didn’t turn out that way, huh?
I must give credit to long time Joe buddy Todd of Magnum 6 Delta for prompting me to put this post together, and considering the G.I. Joe: Retaliation motion picture on the horizon, and the potential for redefining the core characters of the Real American Hero brand, the timing couldn’t be better. Click the “Read the Rest of this Story” link below to check out the full article.
Well, he refers to it, though he admits up front that there is no real clear indication as to exactly how the character survived. At Soompi.com, several quotes from the Korean actor reveal that Storm Shadow does indeed apparently return from the dead in the sequel, though Lee Byung-Hun admits the way he does it isn’t necessarily clearly explained.
“In the film there is no separate explanation. However, there is a hint as to how ‘Storm Shadow’ resurrects.” The star added, “I really like the role of Storm Shadow. In order to act him out, I studied his character history and he was the most charming character of G.I. Joe. In the film there is a division between the Cobra army and Joes, however Storm Shadow does not really belong to either group. I liked the fact that the character was a lonely fighter.”
So, according to the actor himself, there is no real “separate explanation” but a hint as to how the character resurrects. Something tells me the hint lies within the clear, water-filled tubes, but I guess we will find out June 29th!
And the flood begins! My comments, emails and text messages have been flying this evening as more folks are reporting sightings of the new discount G.I. Joe figures at Dollar Generals across the country.
UPDATE – Some questions about price… reports are retail of $6.00 per figure.
Everywhere from Tennessee to Oklahoma and St. Louis, but the one common denominator is they’re being found in Dollar General stores specifically. Big thanks to both Mike from Whats on Joe Mind and GeneralsJoes visitor Dustin for forwarding some images along as proof. Mike even included his trademark bananas. Check out the images below, and just as a reminder of what you can expect, make sure you read up on the Dollar Store figures with my exclusive reveal right here.
