Leading right up to SDCC, G.I. Joe aficianado Gyre-Viper is at it again!

This time around we get an awesome gallery of the upcoming Crimson HISS Tank, slated for release in Wave 2 of the Bravo line…but more importantly along with the Crimson HISS, we get Cobra’s Crimson Horseman.  For some reason I am unreasonably in love with this figure.  We’ve been inundated with Crimson clones over the years, but this guy just kicks my ass.  Even with that Snake Eyes vest.  Good stuff.

Checkout JoeDeclassified.com for the details, and I’ve also mirrored some images below.

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Along with the Crimson HISS and Horseman, he’s also posted some images of the SDCC Starscream Skystriker along with a few more pics of the regular release Skystriker.  Hot damn Starscream looks sexy.  Kinda weird that he’s the same color gray as the regular plane, but I love the Transformers twist.  The stickers, the oversized rubsign…awesome stuff.

That thread on JoeDeclassified can be found here, with some images also mirrored below.

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First of all, a caveat.  Yes, this is a G.I. Joe site, and G.I. Joe is far and away my passion above all other toy lines, including Transformers.  By and large I’ve been a fringe Transformers fan, with various iterations barely capturing my interest over the past twenty-five plus years.  Most recently Transformers: Animated really enthralled me, mostly because I was so totally in love with how well they engineered the animated designs to be fully functional.

But besides Transformers: Animated, there has only been one version of Transformers that captured my attention so completely and utterly that I bought every single toy, I’ve watched every single episode, and I feel compelled to dive deeply into the mythology.  That version of Transformers was Beast Wars.  The writers and designers so perfectly married a unique visual style with an amazing knack for quality story telling that I’m not sure has been matched over the past ten to twelve years since.  Such a perfect blend of action, adventure, mythology, and character…it was a remarkable series and deserves a spot in the DVD collection of any fan, whether you like the more traditional Transformers or not.

RHINO released several sets a number of years ago, collecting the various seasons, but those are somewhat hard to get, and are somewhat lacking in production values.  However, I have good news.  Shout! Factory is releasing a plethora of Beast Wars DVD’s coming up in just a couple very short weeks!

On June 7th you can pre-order either just the Season One set to kick off your Beast Wars love, or you can pre-order the complete series!  A whopping EIGHT DVD’s and tons of bonus material.  Keep in mind that the complete series is available exclusively on Shout! Factory’s online store, ShoutFactoryStore.com.

For the full details and the press release click the “Read the Rest of this Entry” link below!  MAXIMIZE!

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You know, something has kind of gotten lost in the shuffle, at least on my end, regarding the animated goodness that is to come later on this evening.  I’ve already gone over how much I’m looking forward to G.I. Joe: Renegades, and of course, I’ve talked about Avengers, and even Young Justice.

But what about this whole Transformers: Prime thing?

Since the days of Beast Wars, I’ve been loving the animated universes of the Transformers (well…  besides the whole Armada/Energon/Whatever fiasco) and you would think this next generation of Transformers animated coolness would have me excited.  But it’s kind of gotten lost in the shuffle.  I think part of me has kind of been looking forward to it, but with all of the Renegades furor, I hadn’t really thought about it a whole lot.

Well, the guys over at Seibertron have thought about it, and even received early screeners for it, and posted a review.

Okay, I’m officially excited.

Certainly the discerning folks at Seibertron.com are more well versed in Transformers lore than I am, and probably are harsher judges of how a new animated universe fits into the whole mythology, but they seem pretty enamored with it already.  They claim it takes the best parts of Beast Wars and the best parts of the live action films and blends them all together into a very serious, “aggressive” story…and I really like the sounds of that.

So yes, most of my giddy impatience tomorrow will be waiting for 5:00pm and the debut of G.I. Joe: Renegades, but I will be honest and say a healthy portion of the excitement is also now reserved for Transformers: Prime.  Two cool looking reinventions of the 80′s corner stones of after school animated greatness.  Could we be on the verge of another golden age of boys action animation?  Certainly seems possible.  Even as the father of two girls, I’m all for it.

While we STILL have no official confirmed word about G.I. Joe: Renegades, The Hub has announced the debut event for Transformers: Prime via a Press Release.  According to official word from The Hub, Transformers: Prime will debut with a 5-part mini-series 11/29/2010 – 12/03/2010.

What does this mean for G.I. Joe: Renegades?  Unfortunately, nobody really knows at this point…but considering Transformers: Prime was initially listed alongside Renegades on November 26th, and that launch date is apparently incorrect, we can only assume that perhaps G.I. Joe: Renegades might not be airing that date either.

I really wish we could get some final word from The Hub, as frustration is starting to set in.  I know we cannot blame The Hub for any of this, as it is all our assumption based on un-official television listings, but it would be nice to get an announcement for Renegades sometime soon.

It is cool to finally get some intel on Transformers: Prime, and I can only assume G.I. Joe: Renegades is close behind.  Check out the full press release after the jump.

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So, I bit the bullet and pre-ordered this bad boy.  I don’t buy many video games.  At all.  I think the last  game I bought was Halo 3.  But yes, I have pre-ordered this one (and will pre-order Halo Reach eventually as well).

To say I’m impressed by the level of detail, immersion, and gameplay evident in all the videos I’ve seen would be a massive understatement, and the latest producer’s video only cements that fact.  There may be some minor spoilers in here.

I’m sorry, but this game looks amazing.  This is the exact right way to do our 80′s properties proud.  Pay some great homage to the vintage style, but reinvent and reinvigorate the brand in a new way for a new audience as well.

I think all we can hope for is that the Rise of Cobra sequel is powerful enough to warrant a game of this type for G.I. Joe, I think that would be a very cool thing.  But until then, I’ll live vicariously through the Transfans.

G1 fans should absolutely love this.

I have loved pretty much everything I’ve seen from Transformers: War for Cybertron so far.  Everything from the updated designs (which still retain a lot of the great classic elements) to the mid-game transformations, to the cinematics.  I even got to see some gameplay at Toy Fair and loved that, too.

But this goes well beyond the level of coolness that even War for Cybertron has achieved so far.  Some enterprising YouTuber, Grimbot the 3rd has actually taken the footage from the initial trailer for War from Cybertron and mashed it with sound effects, dialog and music from the Generation 1 cartoon.  Yes, it is much, much, MUCH cooler than it sounds.  This just rocks!

Someone hurry up and make a G.I. Joe video game worth playing so we can do this with the Sunbow stuff!  Check it out embedded below.

Dammit.  Yes, dammit.  I’ve got enough stuff to spend my money on these days, and now Hasbro has to go and reinvent  Transformers again, and once again make them bad ass.

I’m kind of a backwards Transfan…sure, I was fascinated with Generation 1 like any other kid of the 80′s, but my addiction to the toys began with Beast Wars, mostly due to the fantastic animated series that was running at the time.  I managed a pretty close to complete domestic release collection of the Beast Wars line, and it remains one of the prides of my collection.

So, when Beast Wars morphed back into the more familiar vehicles and robots, while most Transfans cheered, I shrugged and moved on.  The new stuff just didn’t seem to have the same magic to me.  It started losing it during Beast Machines, and by the time the next run came out, I was surprisingly uninterested.  Armada, Cybertron, Energon…all looked pretty neat, and I always stopped and looked at them in the stores, but ultimately passed.

Then, of course…came Transformers Classics.  And once again, the hook was in me.  I got an entire domestic run of the Classics figures (yes even the Botcon Seekers that enraged so many at the time)…and then came the movie.  That damned movie.  Actually, I liked the movie, but the movie designs did absolutely nothing for me, so I quickly let my Transformers fandom fade to the background yet again.

THEN… then came Transformers: Animated.  Now, believe it or not, even though I loved Classics, I never got into Universe.  For some reason, they just didn’t “wow” me.  The Transformers: Animated stuff, though, that really captured my attention, and yes…I now have pretty near a full run of the uniquely tooled Transformers: Animated figures.  No, I didn’t go for all the repaints and off-scale stuff, but I have one of every unique character from the show.  Then Revenge of the Fallen arrived, and Animated slipped away (with the exception of Arcee, who is the last “hole” I consider in my collection).  So, once again, my Transformers interest is satisfied without any cash leaving my wallet.

Now I’m sure everyone knows what comes next…  yeah.  The War for Cybertron.  Dammit, Hasbro, why must you do this to me?

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I mean look at those!  Well, don’t focus on Megatron too much, he’s kinda crappy, but Prime and Bumblebee are both fantastic.  They take some great elements from the classic looks, yet manage to soup ‘em up and change them up to fit a more modern space-age aesthetic.  THIS, my friends, is how you reimagine.  Mike Bay… take some notes. 

If you’ve been in a cave and haven’t seen the trailer for the War for Cybertron video game, feast your eyes:

Like it or not, enjoy the film or not, this is indisputable proof that a successful film franchise for our favorite toy brand is a GOOD thing.  Behold the wonder of the Transformers: War for Cybertron video game trailer:

Like the G.I. Joe film, there are many Transformers purists who absolutely detest what Michael Bay has done to their characters and their toy brand, and many of them are totally validated in those opinions.  But I can assure 110% that without that multi billion dollar success of the Transformers brand, a video game like the one above would have NEVER been even considered.  I know we all have our issues with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (yes, even ME), but in the end, all I want is for the brand to be successful to the world at large, because great things can happen.

Can you imagine if a game like the one above was being considered for G.I. Joe?  Sure, the Rise of Cobra game was pretty bad by next gen standards, but so was the first Transformers movie game.  I understand that G.I. Joe will never reach the wide audience and acclaim of the Transformers brand, but here’s hoping there’s enough gas in the tank that we can get some decent film follow ups, and some cool tie in media and merchandise.

Long time visitors to GeneralsJoes know that my site used to revolve around Joe-related “dio-stories”…unfortunately, mostly due to my own time constraints, that has changed a little bit.  However, I still absolutely love dio-stories and I’ve been hosting Self-Modifier’s G.I. Joe Meets The Transformers Dio-Story for a long time now.

Well, I’m thrilled to report that he has sent me a new installment!  Volume 4 of G.I. Joe Meets the Transformers has now been uploaded to the appropriate section (which can also be located in the dio-stories drop down menu above).

Check it out!  Good stuff.

I know folks come here for G.I. Joe news and perspective, but as regular visitors know, I delve into other things from time to time.  Considering that last night I devoted 5 hours of my life to drive down to the nearest IMax theater and spend 2.5 hours with Michael Bay’s most recent Transformers film, I figured maybe it was worth a few more minutes of time to talk about it, since I’m sure many of my regular readers have an interest in this property as well.

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