Hasbro has provided us with final press photos of the soon-to-be-released SDCC exclusive version of Sgt. Slaughter!  Like the Gold Headed Destro and Cobra Commander, there will be two different versions of the exclusive.  The Primary Release, which is the one decoed like the mailaway (with the USA on his shirt) and a Variant Release, which is the one decoed like the TTT driver with the camouflage pants.

These are expected to also be available via HasbroToyShop as previous SDCC exclusives have been.  Check out the press images in some nice high-res glory below.  I know this figure has sparked a lot of frustrations throughout the fandom, and I can see their perspective.  Everyone is used to the cartoon-infused mega muscular Sgt. Slaughter, while in real life he was never built like that.  From my own perspective, I think a more natural physique was a great choice.  Sure, he looks more human, but he also looks more like the character who sparked the kids of the 80’s to jump into the G.I. Joe universe.  Sculpting someone all musclebound and ripped up takes a certain skill, sure, but in my mind it almost takes more skill to make a fairly normal person, but still maintain a certain level of detail and quality.  I think they definitely did that here.  I’m really looking forward to adding this figure to my collection.  In fact, it’s really sparked a renewed interest in my head with the Anniversary line, and made me really hope that Hasbro dips back into that well in 2010 and 2011 to fill in some of those holes, especially in 1986.

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Out of all of the Toy Fair news, the thing that caught many long time Joefan’s eye was the news of a Sgt. Slaughter SDCC exclusive.  While Hasbro did tell us he would have all new tooling, we didn’t have anything else to go on…until now!

GeekWeek has posted some very nice images of the upcoming SDCC Sgt. Slaughter, and he’s looking pretty sharp.  Included are both versions, the standard release (with the Mail Away deco) and the variant release, with the TTT driver deco.  The main release will come with a championship belt!  The more military variant release will come with a machine gun and pistol.

Very cool looking figure and an awesome tribute to ole Sarge.  Check out the mirrored images below.

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SDCC has pretty much wrapped for 2009, but there are still some cool stragglers, image-wise.  Nomad over at JoeBattleLines has been in the trenches all weekend getting us some fantastic shots, which JBL has posted as a full gallery here.  Some of the more interesting images, though, I’m mirroring below.

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Over at The Terror Drome, someone also snagged a loose pic of Bench-Press as well, which I’ve hosted below.

Following up on last night’s promise, madmac41 at GeneralsJoes sister site JoeBattleLines has posted images of the upcoming Toys “R” Us Exclusive single packed Bench-Press figure.  We have carded images as well as a picture of his filecard.  The character appears to use Rock n Roll’s filename with a brand new character attached to it.  For months, Brendan Fraser has mentioned that his character in the Joe film is a descendent of his character in the Mummy…could this be him and not Sgt. Stone?

We’ll all find out in a couple of short weeks.

Over at GeneralsJoes “sister site” JoeBattleLines, it’s being reported that another single packed Toys “R” Us exclusive has been placed in the case at SDCC, but no images are available yet.  Alongside Snow Serpent is supposedly a new G.I. Joe trainer named “Bench Press”.  According to Nomad who is in San Diego, Bench Press “is a ground pounder and the team’s physical trainer. He’s a big built guy (possible Heavy Duty parts).”

We’ll wait on pins and needles for pictures, and a huge thanks to Nomad and LeonardoTDragon from JBL for the info!

NSA, the admin of Fighting118th.com took another trip by the Hasbro booth today at San Diego ComicCon, and noticed a new addition…an apparent Toys “R” Us Exclusive single-card Snow Serpent in unique Rise of COBRA colors!  Awesome!

I’ve mirrored a couple of pictures below, but there are more fantastic images at the source…these guys really know how to use their camera, definitely check their site out for some of the best pictures of SDCC I’ve seen on the ‘net.

Toy reviewer extraordinaire Michael Crawford evidently made the trip out to San Diego and took his awesome camera.  Sure, the images are a bit later than most other sites out there, but the quality is out of this world.  Check out his images on his site here, or peek at the ones I mirrored below.

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Alas, should have known it was too good to be true. 

Earlier images taken a day or two ago showed a mysterious Stalker in the Pit control room on the SDCC display, and the casting of the shadow really made it look like he had some extra sculpting at the back of his head…but HissTank member evopete got some nice close ups, and unfortunately this is not the case.  Check out the image below for the sad realization.

Thanks to evopete for the pic…  I think… 

You can tell the pace is slowing down just a bit coming out of San Diego, because more folks seem to be taking the time to get some real quality pictures instead of the “dash and crash” click and shoot mentality of the first few days.  As a result, we’ve got some very nice images starting to come out.

First and foremost, JoeBattleLines got their gallery posted, and by and large, it’s excellent.  Check it out here.

Secondly, The Terror Drome also has another run of great images, too.  You can check out their SDCC Galleries here, and see some of the images mirrored below.

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Lastly, HissTank has also posted some updated images, which have taken a huge leap in quality.  Some very clear, very nice looking pictures here.  Also some below.

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Man, that is some serious mileage out of reused tooling.  Kamakura, Red Fang Ninja, Nano-Viper, and Night Adder are all made from existing tooling (if you can call Resolute Roadblock “existing”).  Sure, some parts are mixed up and there’s new webgear scattered about, but wow.  I hope this isn’t a trend.  We’ve gotten some surprisingly unique figures in the first 3 waves of Rise of COBRA figures, I’m really hoping things don’t end up as creative repaints in the single packs for the rest of the year…considering what we’ve seen for the other parts of Wave 4 I’m starting to wonder.  Every fourth wave has been notoriously repaint-heavy, though, that might just be it.  If that is the case, I applaud them for at least giving us some new blood.

JoeCon is coming up quicker than folks realize…I think we’ll see some really exciting stuff then.

The IDW Panel at San Diego Comiccon is going on right now, but Phil from JoeReloaded.com has all of the scoops.   Some exciting information about future plans for the title, new additions to the writing staff, and G.I. Joe: COBRA II!

Press releases and other information can be found by clicking the “read the rest of the story” link below.  A HUGE thanks to Phil from JoeReloaded for jumping on this so early.

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