Florida Everglades.  0325 hours.

Red Dog cursed under his breath as sniper fire rang out not too far away.

“Blast it”! He shouted as reinforcement.  ”Where was that comin’ from?”

“Don’t ask me, ‘Dog”, Bull replied in his thick Turkish accent.  He lifted his rifle.  ”Let us see if we can find out, eh?”

Normally operating as the Renegades, under the auspices of several layers of black ops protocols, their connections to the Slaughterhouse sometimes put them on operations in tandem with the Marauders, who were certainly a shade below gray themselves, but not quite as deep as the trio of Renegades.  While the Marauders were known for their quick strike ops against domestic and international targets, the Renegades were not.  In fact they were unknown completely.

Often times used in assassination plots and other unspeakable purposes, the unusually dressed Renegades chose to let their actions speak above their wardrobe.  Red Dog lifted his Desert Eagle pistol as he turned East in another flanking attempt, with Bull close behind.  They didn’t get far before the stench of motor oil mixed with sweat permeated the air.  But they could not see any vehicles…

The lacrosse stick club pounded Red Dog in the back of the head, though he had sensed it coming and was already shifting his momentum, so the blow was just a glancing one.  Bull spun rattling off gunfire from his silver machine gun.  Rounds drilled Thunder in the chest and tossed him back, but the funny looking lacrosse pads weren’t just for show.  They were reinforced with ballistic battle armor, and the Dreadnok motorhead rolled backwards into a low crouch, his teeth bared.

Bull was unfazed and started towards him, but was interrupted by a massive frame of a “man” slamming into him broadside.  Bull was no small person himself, and being the well trained acrobat that he was twisted effortlessly and landed on his feet, facing off against the mountainous Road Pig.

“Nice dodge, baldy,” snarled the monstrous white-haired Dreadnok.  Easily the strongest, most powerful, but least stable of the whole lot.  ”But lessee you dodge THIS!”

Road Pig charged forward, his cinder block hammer swinging in a low, ferocious arc.

Red Dog had recovered and turned to help his friend, but suddenly, Thunder was upon him, wrestling him to the ground.  Red Dog’s Desert Eagle barked loudly, but only hit air as he felt himself being drilled into the swampy muck.

Finish your own adventure on my 30th Anniversary Review Page or click the links directly below!

• BBTS Exclusive Slaughter Marauders Red Dog
• BBTS Exclusive Slaughter Marauders Bull
• BBTS Exclusive Dreadnoks Thunder
• BBTS Exclusive Dreadnoks Road Pig

Florida Everglades.  0310 Hours.

Already things were going South.  Desperately attempting a covert approach, the Marauders had been spotted and Burn Out had razed their team with his flamethrower.  As Barbecue separated to take on the aggressive Dreadnok, the team split apart, hoping to flank their disorganized enemy.

Only it turns out the enemy was not so disorganized.

Spirit wove seamlessly through the brush, almost becoming one with the jungle as he paced himself South, trying to find a way around the cackling Dreadnok.  His movements were smooth, slick, and silent, but even the quietest of hunter gives off heat amongst the cold leaves of the surrounding trees.

A quick shot rang out, which Spirit was a bit too slow to avoid, and took a bullet at his left hip as he dove to the ground.  Low Light, who had been following close behind, immediately dropped to a crouch and raised his rifle to his eye, quickly spotting the familiar curled hat of Australian poacher Dreadnok “Gnaw”.  The snarling ruffian let his rifle slope a little towards Spirit as he moved away.  The Native American Joe caught Gnaw’s scent now, and silently chided himself for not noticing it sooner.  He also quickly noticed amongst the thick brush, he had no immediate outlet, and could almost feel the heat of the infrared scope on his forehead.

Low Light squeezed off a shot, striking his target, the broad side of Gnaw’s rifle, shattering it.  The poacher shouted profanity and spun around, whipping a knife from a sheath in the small of his back.  Low Light jacked back the magazine, loading another round in the chamber, but another shot rang out to his right and struck him in the shoulder.  Grimacing, the sniper slammed to the thick jungle ground as the Dreadnok pirate Zanzibar was on him, casting aside his old school pistol for a blade of his own.  But Low Light was ready.

Ten yards away, Gnaw gracefully eased forward, his knife glinting in the moonlight, but suddenly his prey was upon him and Spirit descended like a jungle demon.

Finish your own adventure on my 30th Anniversary Review Page or click the links directly below!

• BBTS Exclusive Slaughter Marauders Low Light
• BBTS Exclusive Slaughter Marauders Spirit
• BBTS Exclusive Dreadnoks ”Gnaw”
• BBTS Exclusive Dreadnoks Zanzibar

The Florida Everglades.  0300 hours.

Team Marauder silently eased through the underbrush 46 miles deep into the Florida Everglades.  Covert Military Operations are deeply frowned upon on domestic soil, so Hawk had elected to send in the team that could most easily be written off, should anything go South.  Joined by the Renegades, Falcon led Barbecue, Low Light and Spirit deep into the swampy glades, on the hunt for the Dreadnoks.

Over the past several months, the Dreadnoks had ramped up operations, turning to domestic terrorist groups for weapons transport and grunt work.  They were obviously planning something big.  The Marauders were there to stop it.

Just as Low Light’s infrared goggles flared to life, orange flame roared through the trees ahead, halting them in their tracks.  Burn Out roared a bellowing laugh as he trained the flamethrower on the infiltration team.  Barbecue surged forward.

The adventure awaits on my 30th Anniversary Review Page or click the links directly below!

• BBTS Exclusive Slaughter Marauders Barbecue
• BBTS Exclusive Dreadnoks Burn Out

Well kudos to the folks over at Toy News International for getting the advanced scoop on the upcoming Big Bad Toy Store exclusive Dreadnoks and Slaughter Marauder’s 7-Packs!  Jay has posted a whopping 200 pictures in a series of massive galleries showcasing the best and worst of these two sets.

The volume of images is impressive and credit goes to them for getting their hands on these prior to release.

Thanks to Jay and the guys at TNI for getting these images out there and letting us know.  I’ve mirrored just a sampling of images below, but you can see a library of great pictures right here.

[View with PicLens]

To pre-order these great looking sets, hit up Big Bad Toy Store!

Pre-Orders are coming down the pipe for upcoming 30th Anniversary Wave 3 G.I. Joe items.  A short while ago I hypothosized that the list we saw in Diamond Previews was not a true Wave 3 case pack out, and it looks like that assumption was at least partly correct.  The figure rundown looks to be similar, but Hasbro is double-packing the key new figures, and has a lot more army builders packed in the case.

Right now you can hit up SmallJoes.com to pre-order the case or select individual figures:

• SmallJoes.com Case of Wave 3
• SmallJoes.com – Ripcord
• SmallJoes.com – Scarlett
• SmallJoes.com – Tunnel Rat
• SmallJoes.com – Storm Shadow

They’re up!  And they’re up with some updated (though pretty tiny) images of the figures, showing some additional accessories.

Click the links below to buy ‘em while they’re hot!

• Dreadnoks 7-Pack
• Marauders 7-Pack
• Set of 2 7-Packs
• Set of 2 7-Packs and 2 G.I. Joe: Resolute 7-Packs (a GREAT deal!!)

[View with PicLens]

Hi – Here is a quick update from http://www.bigbadtoystore.com about a
variety of new arrivals and more cool new preorders:

————–
INVENTORY SALE
————–

Our clearance sale continues and all the menus were cleaned up yesterday -
there are still thousands of items remaining, many of them in small
quantities.  Check out the entire menu here:
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/content.aspx?content=18

————-
NEW PREORDERS
————-

Read the rest of this entry »

I think many of us had a good idea that the first wave of 30th Anniversary stuff would be re-issue heavy, but just in case we weren’t fully aware, BigBadToyStore has posted pre-orders for upcoming product, which also breaks down the list of items per wave.

Wave 1 sadly only has two new figures, Sgt. Stalker and Hazard Viper mixed in with repacks of Steel Brigade, Cobra Viper, Cobra Trooper, and Iron Grenadier.  Of course, the good news is, these figures are all pretty desirable army builders, so it may not be quite so painful.

Wave 2 will consist of Renegades Firefly, Renegades Duke, Renegades Snake Eyes, and Renegades Cobra Commander.

The first mid sized vehicle assortment has the Crimson HISS and Black Dragon VTOL.  I’ve posted all of the pre-order links below:

• Wave 1 2012 – Set of 6 (Arrives August, 2011)
• Wave 2 2012 – Set of 4 (Arrives September, 2011)
• Wave 2 2012 – Case of 12 (Arrives September, 2011)
• Wave 1 Bravo Vehicles – Set of 2 (Arrives September, 2011)

BBTS does have “September, 2012″ listed as a release date for the Wave 2 stuff, but I suspect that is just a typo.  No images have been posted as of yet.

Hi – Here is a quick update from http://www.bigbadtoystore.com about some
more new arrivals, cool new preorders, and our latest sale.

————–
4000 ITEM SALE
————–

We’ve just cut pricing on hundreds more items and updated the sales menus.
There are now over 4000 items priced between 20% and 90% off our list
price!   Check for many new additions in the lower discount brackets and
check for great deals on previous sale items in the higher discount
brackets.   View the link below for all the sale items:
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/content.aspx?content=18

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi – Here is a quick update from http://www.bigbadtoystore.com about a
variety of new arrivals, more new preorders and an inventory clearance
sale:

————–
CLEARANCE SALE
————–

We’ve just reduced pricing on hundreds of older and overstocked items -
there are now over 3800 total items listed at 20% to 90% off our list
price with 900 of them at 50% off or more!  The lists are long, but a lot
of cool stuff is included – take a look here:
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/content.aspx?content=18

Read the rest of this entry »