Toy Fair has long been advertised as the place to go to see new and upcoming toys for the year!  Well in a very odd and stunning move, Hasbro has revealed a huge chunk of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation toyline in low res thumbnail type images on their G.I. Joe toy website, 10 days prior to the annual event in New York City.

A head scratching move, to be sure, but it allows me some more analysis for these toys with some hypothesis about what Hasbro is doing and what we might expect to see or hear in New York.

So what does this run of figures, vehicles, and other items mean for us in 2012?  How does “Jinx as SDCC Exclusive” impact mainstream movie release?  Click the Read the Rest of this Entry link below to read on!

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And the bomb just dropped!

A week or so ago, The Commander over on the G.I. Joe Collectors Club forums revealed that the Convention location and time frame would be revealed by the end of the month, and he stayed true to his word.

The GIJCC sent out the email this evening, and we are confirmed, ladies and gentlemen…  The Official G.I. Joe Collectors Convention returns to New Orleans, Louisiana June 21st – 24th!  Featuring special guests, awesome panels, and a heavy helping of flat out fun with your fellow Joe fans, the Convention is the G.I. Joe place to be.  Dropping so close to the premier of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, one also has to wonder if a movie night might be in the wings.

The Collectors’ Club promises more information to come, so stick with GIJoeCon.com for the latest and greatest.  Yo Joe!

So, Rob, the GeneralsJoes man on the floor at New York ComicCon had sent me some compressed images before, just so we could get them posted up on the site, but now that I’ve had a chance to go through the raw images, I’ve got some more high res stuff here.  Same images as before, by and large, but much bigger and better quality.

He’s also hoping to report in from the Hasbro Seminar at 3:00pm, so stay tuned for any news that might come out of that!

Enjoy.

[View with PicLens]

So this is getting posted a little late as I sift through various sites of coverage, but figured better late than never.

First and foremost, serious props to GeneralsJoes follower Rob, who read that I was not going to be able to be in New York this week and graciously offered his services to take some pictures at the Con!  Below are his excellent images, exclusive to GeneralsJoes:

[View with PicLens]

Again, a huge thanks to Rob for the hook up.  I think these images to answer a lot of fan questions about accessories.  Lifeline, Sci-Fi, Airtight, and others clearly come with most of the previously revealed accessories, so I think fan fears that those would be heavily cut are unfounded.

In other news, rumors abound that “Topside” has been confirmed as one of the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club subscription figures, but no images are yet available.  Perhaps later on in the weekend.

I’m sure I’m not alone getting fired up about this image:

Hasbro registered for a trademark earlier this year, looking to produce a movie encompassing various different brands.  Don’t jump to the whole “oh man, MASK toys are coming back!!11!11!” bandwagon, but some exposure is better than none.  Cool poster.

Courtesy of the Twitter Page for ARealAmericanHero.com, we have a very cool video of the Hasbro display booth:

Last, but certainly not least…if you want good pictures of these items, just hit up Toy News International.  Fantastic galleries, really nice detail on all of the figures.  Excellent stuff.

I’m still not convinced we won’t see more throughout the weekend, so keep checking back!

So, officially NYCC breaks out tomorrow.  At this point we’re not entirely sure when new items are going to be shown, although thanks to the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club and Hasbro themselves, we do know that SOMEthing is going to be shown!

My initial plans were going to be to head down to NYC over the weekend to do some coverage for GeneralsJoes, but a few things have gotten in the way of that.  Primarily, we had our main database server self-destruct last week, which turned us on our heads for about 12 hours.  We have recovered, but a part will need to be installed, and will need to be installed after hours, which means this weekend.

So, my apologies, but until I can get an online gig that matches my IS Director pay, that job’s gotta come first.

Doesn’t mean you won’t see coverage here, though!  I will be combing the ‘net as I always do, pulling intel from my awesome comrades throughout the online community and make sure you get the details and analysis you’ve grown accostamed to.

We are also recording the latest episode of What’s on Joe Mind tonight, which is of course before anything is revealed at NYCC.  However, in order to properly digest and report whatever is going to be shown in the Big Apple, plans are to record a second special NYCC Edition of Whats on Joe Mind on Saturday night so we can give some “on the spot” input and feedback to the new 7-Packs, any potential GIJCC items, and perhaps even some G.I. Joe 2 toys?  Hey, we can hope, right.  ;)

Anyway.  Keep your eyes on the site throughout the weekend, as I endeavor to feed the reports back in digestable chunks.  GeneralsJoes has made some great strides over the past few years as I kind of get used to the blogging format, and I just want to thank everyone who has stuck through it.  I know I have a ton of work to do cleaning up old reviews, I have dio-stories to wrap up and many other things on my G.I. Joe-related plate, but it pleases me greatly to see how many of you are visiting and how many of you seem to enjoy what I put out.

The rest of you can go pound sand.  :shifty:

For the first time ever, Hasbro will be bringing a major booth presence to the New York Comic Con!  Very interesting that this exact question was brought up by myself (and others) at the most recent Q & A, but the answers didn’t go into much detail.  Toy News International specifically brought this subject up, and Hasbro was evasive about which brands would be present.  They did mention specifically that they will NOT have a G.I. Joe related exclusive.

Well, looks like some of our hunches were right on the money.  A press release comes my way from Hasbro’s excellent relations team over at Hunter PR including “current and upcoming products from its TRANSFORMERS, G.I. JOE, JEM and THE HOLOGRAMS, and KRE-O brands and BEYBLADE, MARVEL and STAR WARS lines”.

Oh.  G.I. Joe?  Do I smell “7-Packs”?  New York Comic Con is coming quick!  It’ll be here October 13th – 16th and it sounds like we’ll need to be paying attention.  Check out the full Press Release after the jump.

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It’s a San Diego ComicCon wrap up!  I reviewed the standard release Zarana a couple of weeks ago, but had to wait a little while before I could the reviews wrapped up on these other two items.  As always, a big thanks goes out to longtime GeneralsJoes friend Gyre Viper for doing me yet another favor and getting me a line on the Cold Slither Zarana while old pal Mysterious Stranger is always there with the hook up for the SDCC Starstriker.

You can check out the review in the 30th Anniversary Section, or just hit the links directly below:

• Zarana Cold Slither (SDCC Exclusive)
• Starscream Skytriker w/ Cobra Commander (SDCC Exclusive)

SDCC is almost a faint memory, but the rage about the Zarana exclusive and Hasbro Toy Shop lives on!

I have as of yet been unable to get myself the Cold Slither variant of Zarana, but I decided to not let this stop me from posting a review for the regular release.  I’ve got this posted right now in the 25th Anniversary and 30th Anniversary sections, as well as linked to Exclusives.

Yeesh.  Anyway, if you don’t want to dig through all three of those other pages, just hit up the link below:

• SDCC Exclusive Zarana (Regular Release)

So I’m still digging through Mysterious Stranger’s awesome reports straight from San Diego, and one his final reports involved a great conversation with the guys at Sideshow Collectibles that I will recap some of right here.  Actually, forget recapping, I’ll just relay exactly what Chris sent along to me:

“I had the opportunity to speak with Matt Bischof who is part of the Sideshow Collectibles 1/6 scale design team.  He provided some great insight and information regarding the G.I. Joe line and I’ve got the highlights for you right here.

First, the line is doing very well.  Some figures have sold better than others but Sideshow is very happy with how it has been doing thus far and are working to continue that success.

One of the big questions I had was regarding female figures.  This is something that Sideshow has been mentioning in their Q&A sessions but not much info has been revealed.  I didn’t get many details but I did get an update.  They are fine tuning their female body and working to get the proportions just right.  The issue that was brought up was the way the body looks with and without armor.  I’m taking that to be in reference to a Baroness figure because I can’t think of any other Joe female that wears body armor.  They are making progress and as soon as the body is ready we can expect to hear some more news on female characters being introduced to the line.

Also in regards to the female figures I asked about how hair would be done, rooted or sculpted.  They are going with sculpted hair because it gives them more options for styles and the ability to swap out hairpieces for different looks (i.e. windswept, ponytails, etc).  Personally I think this is the smart way to go.  Rooted hair on female figures seems to be an industry standard in the 12″ scale but I find it to be too doll-like and the very few figures I have with rooted hair never look as good as the promotional photos.  With sculpted hair it allows for more detail and texture to be applied.  I’m glad they are going this way and I think its the right decision.

The other big piece of news I got was that they still have Destro in development.  As with the female figures they are working to get the body right.  They are developing a new muscular body for Destro similar to the Hot Toys large muscle body and once that is ready they’ll get to work one putting him together.

Something that was brought up in our conversation that I hadn’t even considered was the possibility of small vehicles.  The example discussed was the Trouble Bubble and the fact that they are even thinking about vehicles blew my mind.  I brought up the RAM Cycle and while there wasn’t any confirmation they would consider it, it is about the size they are thinking.  But 12″ scale Trouble Bubble!!! Wow!

In speaking about the dioramas, I confirmed that the Condition Red: Urban Threat diorama featured in their display case is indeed coming out in Q1 2012 and should be up for preorder soon if it isn’t already.  Unfortunately that will most likely be the last diorama for the near future.  They are giving them (and collectors wallets) a bit of a rest for now to concentrate on the figures.

There aren’t any previously announced upcoming releases that weren’t on display.  However the Desert Cobra Officer and Sniper production figures were shown in the same display with Dusty and both should be available by the end of the year.  There is also another Cobra trooper that is coming out later this year that they are very excited about.  They want to focus on and play up the sci-fi aspect of G.I. Joe as well as keep that military aspect and we’ll be seeing more Cobras coming out down the line.  The intention is to make figures that are unique and not just have this be another line of military figures.  Along those same lines, they also want to focus more on environment specific Joes that have unique looks so instead of an alpine unit of soldiers there would be just the one alpine specialist.  (I know I shouldn’t read anything into the use of the example being “alpine” but I’d like to think the Joe mountaineer should be on the short list).  This is something that I think will really help this line grow in the long run.  While the original 3 3/4″ G.I. Joe figures were essentially super-articulated green army men the line developed into a team of the best specialists from all across the military.  Reflecting that in the 1/6 line is a great way to keep this as G.I. Joe and not “Sideshows military line”.

The design team has been learning a lot from working on this line and applying what they’ve learned to future releases.  Some examples of this are the use of thinner fabrics to allow for more realistic folds and seams in the clothing as well as applying a stone washing technique to soften up some of the camo coloring and make it look more worn.  The first figure to use this new stone washing technique is Hawk and it has been applied to his pants.  Having seen the figure on display at the show I can say the technique works really well.  An example of the newer fabrics in use are the Cobra ninjas.  When you look at Storm Shadow and then the Red Ninja and Ninja Viper you can see more elaborate folds in the clothing as well as more wraps and straps with better seams and stitching.  They are planning to put out another Storm Shadow at some point using the new fabric but there was no timeline given or any indication what version of the character might be released.

Speaking of characters being redone, Snake-eyes is another figure that is on the list to be issued again.  This time they’ll be going with a sculpted portrait rather than the cloth mask.  The intention is to be able to include the commando head in addition to the visor head and possibly release him as a deluxe figure that way collectors can use the commando head on the first figure and display them both.  Personally I’m all for the sculpted mask.  Seeing how well the Firefly and Storm Shadows head sculpts came out makes Snake-eyes look dated in comparison.  I’m  very glad to hear they are planning on something to remedy this.

When the subject turned to the upcoming Viper the exclusive alternate portrait came up.  The reasoning for including the alternate head is to answer the question about why the Viper has goggles on his helmet.  The goggles are made to work with that alternate portrait and finally give a logical explanation for why a full face helmet has goggles on it.  The intention is that the Viper would keep the goggles on his helmet and pull them off for use when he has his helmet off.  You can see how this looks in the photos of the figure on Sideshow’s site.  I think this explanation is perfectly logical and I can’t figure out why I hadn’t heard this theory before.  Regardless it works and shows the kind of thought and attention to detail going into this line.

With the DC license being awarded to Sideshow and the intent to put out 1/6 scale DC figures we might be seeing a decrease in the number of G.I. Joe figures released to possibly 1 every quarter.  With Star Wars, G.I. Joe and now DC entering the 1/6 world they want collectors that want to buy from all three lines to be able to afford to do so without having to choose between one or the other.  They recognize that these are expensive figures and want to do what they can to help collectors get everything they want.  As someone who has seen 3 G.I. Joe figures (Stalker, Dusty and Ninja Viper) as well as 2 Star Wars releases come out in the last 4-6 weeks I can completely understand this logic.  While I’d like to see them release as many G.I. Joe figures as possible I also understand that some restraint is necessary to keep the line healthy and continue to perform well and perform well it has.

Overall the Sideshow G.I. Joe 1/6 scale figure line is in great hands and I’m very excited about what is coming down the line.”

As I was getting ready to travel back North yesterday, I received a few messages from the guys at Fighting 118th, who have posted some more information related to SDCC.  The first bit of intel comes from their Hasbro Booth Update and includes some contradictory information from what was being passed around earlier.  Contrary to earlier reports that the Data-Viper might make a later assortment, according to Hasbro reps at SDCC, he is definitely “cancelled, no ifs, ands, or buts”.

Also going against previous reports, apparently the Spring, 2012 date on the placard may in fact be the truth.  At least according to Fighting 118th.

One of the issues you run into with so many reps at the Con is that you sometimes get some contradictory information.  Guess we’ll have to hold tight to find out which one was right.

Last, but not least, they also passed along a report about Hasbro Toy Shop, the timeline for getting things posted, and how “rare” these SDCC exclusives truly are.  You can read that enlightening report right here as you prepare for your morning post-SDCC ritual of F5′s while you wait for Zarana and Starscream at HasbroToyShop.

Thanks again to Paul from Fighting 118th for the heads up.