Twelve months of intense excitement and motivation, and in one fell swoop, Paramount has stomped on both Hasbro and G.I. Joe fans with one broad stroke.  Citing a desire to convert the film to 3D, Paramount has officially announced that they are pushing back the release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation to March 29, 2013.  Yes, they apparently made this decision and made this statement just ONE MONTH before the film’s release.

Excitement online has been building, the geek community at large is fired up to see this movie, and I’m sure I speak for many of us when I say this news is crushing.

Already the reaction online is flooding social media, and the reaction is unanimous.  It seems as if every ounce of positive energy for this film has been totally snuffed out.  Immediate reaction is the film is terrible and they are scrambling to try and salvage something.  In my opinion, this move sends a terrible, terrible message.

I’m sure cast, crew, and Hasbro at large are probably all as upset as we are, but I guess that’s Hollywood.

More information on this news as it develops, you can believe that.

Multiple outlets are reporting on this, including Deadline.com and the Heat Vision Blog.

I am working to confirm this rumor and will post something as soon as humanly possible.  More information as this potentially huge story develops.

While I unfortunately missed the last recording, I listened to the interview and it was hilarious, I can imagine he’s going to be a terrific guest at the Convention as well.  Keep up to date with all of the latest and greatest G.I. Joe convention news and events at GIJoeCon.com!

The Collectors’ Club did reveal the full image of the set, and that image can be seen at GIJoeCon.com and also mirrored below, and it gives me an opportunity to talk about this set as a whole, instead of piecemeal.

Now, pretty much all of my responses have been positive throughout all the single figure reveals, so I can’t help but maintain that positive opinion when looking at the set in its entirety.  The portion of the set that really strikes me, though, is the Iron Grenadier side of the house.  Seeing the individual figure reveals kind of put a tight focus on the figures as stand outs themselves, and you don’t realize how cohesively they do all fit together.  Even with Voltar’s somewhat purple coloring on his armor, it ties in pretty nicely to some of the red components on the Iron Grenadier Troopers themselves.  While I’m still not 100% sold on the Iron Grenadier Troopers, I do love the Heavy Weapons guys and the Elites, and I think the red is the great unifying color that ties them all together nicely.  Various shades of gray are prevalent throughout, which only further ties the figures together.

For the Oktober Guard, I know there was some concern about Horror Show and his green uniform standing out among his teammates, but I don’t see that issue at all.  Beyond Horror Show, every member of the Oktober Guard here meshes together almost to perfection.  Iron Bear, Daina, and Schrage all work flawlessly, while Brekhov and Stormavik balance with each other as well.  Even the brown figures have those hints of dark green to match the webgear of the other two, and Horror Show’s jacket.  A definite unifying theme that works really well.

As a whole, I think this set is terrific.  I have voiced my concerns with the Iron Grenadier Troopers, and I maintain those…it’s probably the canceled Iron Grenadier Troopers that keep this set from being pretty much one of the best Convention Sets ever.  But that award still goes to the 2005 MARS Attacks set, and I doubt that will ever be surpassed.

That being said, this figure set is still extremely strong, very well done, and remarkably impressive for the operation that the Club is.  A ton of new tooling, a great array of unreleased characters and fan wishes, and unlike many folks out there, I welcome the infusion of “new blood” like Iron Bear.  Great stuff, and I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for New Orleans to come and more Con goodies to be revealed!

Very interesting how they’re really pushing this “Cobra as Elite Military Force” angle.  These images have all been very reminiscent of special ops, which is a neat twist.  Of course, with the Facebook page being a Cobra page, this positive reflection does make some sense.  Check out the Cobra Special Forces Facebook page, or hit up the mirrored image below.