Quickly becoming one of my favorite things to check up on, the G.I. Joe: Special Ops online game has added two more familiar faces to the roster today with Lady Jaye and the Cobra Viper.  Taking elements from various continuities, G.I. Joe: Special Ops seems like it’s trying to sample the best from everything.  Lady Jaye wears a tactical vest and is an established hard ass, yet she totes around javelins, and wears her hair long sort of like Adrianne Palicki.

The Cobra Viper looks a lot like the Viper we all know and love, but with a distinctly Sideshow Collectibles twist.  Thjey seem to be bringing a lot of very cool elements together. Now we just have to see how the game plays!  Check out the SyFy G.I. Joe: Special Ops website, and also check out the mirrored images below.

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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!

So for a while I was talking up this fantastic gathering of fellow geek bloggers who had all joined together to form The League of Extraordinary Bloggers, with big thanks to Cool and Collected for headlining the whole thing.  Unfortunately the past few weeks have kind of been a whirlwind, especially with the Retaliation figure reveals, so I’d missed out on submitting my tale with the rest of the League.  I was a bit bummed, but once I saw this week’s topic, I just knew I had to contribute.

The topic of this week’s League mission is the following:

“What media announcement had you throwing fist pumps and doing roundhouse kicks in the air? Did the final result live up to your dreams?”

Now, as usual, I’ve got a distinct G.I. Joe twist to this one.  Click the “Read the Rest of the Story” link below to check it out.

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My only regret about the following article is that Monte didn’t write it for me.  :D

In all seriousness, ever since G.I. Joe: Renegades appeared comparisons have been rampant (unfair as they might be) between Resolute and Renegades.  Which was better?  Really thinking about it, the comparisons are ridiculous, considering they were both designed for completely different purposes and entirely separate audiences…how can an episodic animated series written for 7 – 10 year olds be realistically compared to a high-octane 60 minute superficial feature designed to resonate with the violent tendencies of 30-something year old fanboys?  Seems like a ludicrous comparison to make, but many folks made it, just the same.

Think about it for a minute…would you expect the syndicated Robocop cartoon to match the visceral brutality of the R-rated film?  Of course not.  It’s for kids.  I think the same can be said of Renegades.

Still, the comparisons are out there, and they will be made endlessly, so I might as well put some focus on one of the better thought out ones I’ve read.  Monte Williams, big friend of GeneralsJoes has decided to have his say, and it’s a fantastic one.  Eloquent as always, well research and well written, you can check it out on Autobotic Asphyxiation.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that I agree with him.  Another nice one, Monte, thanks for sharing.

This show went so long it took Gary an extra day to edit!

In all seriousness, the latest episode of Whats on Joe Mind is now online, and trust me when I say, it’s a good one.  Running just over 2 hours, the guys sat down and chatted at length with IDW G.I. Joe artist extraordinaire Robert Atkins, who had all sorts of awesome insight about not only the comics, but the upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation film and even the G.I. Joe: Renegades animated series!

We also cover the latest news and intel and just shoot the breeze about all things G.I. Joe.  Hit up our Podbean page to listen or download, and also feel free to use the embedded player below.  Also, if you’re a fan of Robert Atkins, make sure you bookmark his awesome blog and hit it often.  There is generally quite a bit of great G.I. Joe content there, and even when there’s not, he’s got some awesome art that he posts every day.  Pretty incredible.

A huge thanks goes out to the awesome Mr. Atkins for taking some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us.  It was terrific, and an episode I will not forget.

A few days ago, thanks to Greg and notpicard, I shared some Rise of Cobra concept art via CG Hub…well, again, thanks to notpicard, who dug a little deeper, we’ve found some other G.I. Joe related artwork from various sources.

Stuff from the 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe: Resolute, and the Pursuit of Cobra.  Pretty neat stuff here.  The users are Wesley Burt and Jarreau Wimberly, and they have some very cool art posted apparently used for Hasbro product.

Keep in mind a lot of the art there is just fan art, but there are some things certainly done for Hasbro proper.  Check out the mirrored images below.

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So, anyone who has been following my Twitter feed, or listening to the Whats on Joe Mind Podcast knows that I am seriously marking out right now for the new Thundercats animated series and toyline from Bandai.

Well, believe me, I’m trying very hard not to turn GeneralsJoes into a Thundercats fanpage, posting every single video clip and news tidbit that comes out.  But you know, this is a G.I. Joe page, after all.  But, you know, when MTV Geek interviewed Dan Norton about his work on Thundercats, and debuted his awesome looking updated Jackalman, I figured I could at least tie it in somehow.

After all, Dan Norton was also one of the many masterminds behind the design work for G.I. Joe: Resolute, which was definitely the highlight of that entire production.  Which just begs the question…if you’re reinventing an 80′s property, why the hell would you NOT hire Dan Norton?  Check out the gallery I’ve posted with Mr. Norton’s Resolute designs, and check out his great interview on MTV Geek.

Also, if you love Thundercats and want me to talk about it a little bit more, let me know in the comments.  A couple positive comments might just persuade me.

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It’s been about a week since the slides for the Hasbro Archives round table were revealed, and the scar tissue over the gaping hole torn in my heart had started to form.  Well, then it was discovered that the GIJoeCon.com website uploaded its own gallery of images from this event, and I’ll be damned if that scar didn’t rip right open again.

You see, there are a few slides we hadn’t seen.

Like artwork for a G.I. Joe: Resolute HyperJet with…  Airborne and Ripcord.  WAH.

Yes, the slide says “Ripcord and Wild Bill” but the artwork shows otherwise.  Ripcord and Airborne are two of the Resolute characters I’m most bummed we didn’t get in action figure form, the fact that both of them crossed Hasbro’s mind long enough to do some concept art kills me.

Of course, pictures of the canceled G.I. Joe Howler with Payload are there, too, and equally heartbreaking.  Why the hell do I do this to myself?  I’m not going to mirror the images, just because I think everyone should check out GIJoeCon.com.  One hop and you’ll be there.  Awesome stuff.

When I saw some of those Tweets from JoeBattleLines and The Terror Drome on Sunday coming out of the Hasbro Archives round table, I immediately wished I was sitting there.  What they were describing sounded too good to be true.

A Resolute style USS Flagg playset?  No way.  Transformers crossovers with Ravage and Omega Supreme?  I’ll believe it when I see it.  And of course, I’ve spent the better part of the last 18 hours trying to find pictures of this event.

Nada.  I’m not really sure why Joe news sites didn’t have folks with cameras in attendance…I would think Joe fans would not just like to see what’s coming, but also what “could have been”.

Well, thankfully, someone out there brought a camera and took some images of the slides shown.  I’m not entirely sure who to give credit to, all I have to go on was a link to this Photobucket Account from Jay over at JoeCustoms.com.  If these are your images, please let me know so I can credit you.

For now, though…just take a look at the wonder below.  And weep out loud at your desk at the concepts that never made it past the planning stages.  Yes, I know most of us really didn’t love The Pit…but if it had sold well, there were two Cobra concepts using the Pit base vehicle that just look INSANE.  A HISS Transport and a Mobile Missile Base that make my mouth hang open.  Mauler re-issues (a Joe version and a Cobra “Shredder”), a Sigma freaking 6 OVERKILL.  Sigh.

I suppose I should thank GeneralJoes commenter Crosshair for the info…even if it did make me teary eyed on a Monday morning.  Check out the glorious images below.

EDIT – Images come courtesy of “NightViper” on AllSpark.com!  Huge props to him for grabbing these.  Some incredible discussion items here!  Thanks!

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You know, looking back at 2010, it was a pretty paltry year for G.I. Joe, quantity wise.  When you think back 12 months to the end of 2009, we had been absolutely inundated with toys, essentially from July straight through to December, non stop.  It was crazy.  Then 2010 hit, and there was a sudden lapse in the beginning of the year…a miniature flood of product in the middle of the year, then another short lapse, and we’re now in another mini flood.  It seemed to come in bursts.

However, unlike 2009 where we got absolutely drowned in product, yet much of it was the same sort of stuff regurgitated ad nauseum, 2010 gave us much smaller quantity, but a far better quality of toys.  The Pursuit of Cobra hit and hit hard, and made a LOT of Joe fans forget all about their misery over the end of the 25th Anniversary line a year ago.

So, wading through this list of toys, I decided to take some time to pick my ten favorites, which are very likely NOT your ten favorites, but hey, that’s what gets discussions started, right?

Click the “Read the Rest of this Entry” link below to check out the full list.

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