The review frenzy this week continues as I cover three more single pack G.I. Joe: Retaliation figures today.

On the docket this time around are:

• G.I. Joe: Retaliation Snake Eyes
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation Cobra Commander
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation Cobra Trooper

Don’t forget these figures can all be found on my G.I. Joe: Retaliation Review Page, and pre-orders are going strong over at Big Bad Toy Store!

• G.I. Joe: Retaliation Pre-Orders
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation Wave 2 Battle Kata Roadblock
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation Wave 2 Ninja Duel Snake Eyes
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation Wave 2 Sneak Attack Storm Shadow
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation FULL SET of 5 figures
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation FULL SET of 9 figures

And the flood begins!  My comments, emails and text messages have been flying this evening as more folks are reporting sightings of the new discount G.I. Joe figures at Dollar Generals across the country.

UPDATE – Some questions about price… reports are retail of $6.00 per figure.

Everywhere from Tennessee to Oklahoma and St. Louis, but the one common denominator is they’re being found in Dollar General stores specifically.  Big thanks to both Mike from Whats on Joe Mind and GeneralsJoes visitor Dustin for forwarding some images along as proof.  Mike even included his trademark bananas.  Check out the images below, and just as a reminder of what you can expect, make sure you read up on the Dollar Store figures with my exclusive reveal right here.

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Well, put this firmly in the “what the what–?” column.  Apparently that formerly mysterious black Cobra Commander variant that was most recently seen as an Amazon.com exclusive has now started shipping in single pack form from ToysrUs.com.

Toys R Us had opened some G.I. Joe: Retaliation pre-orders a little while ago, and over on HissTank.com solid.wii reports that he received a black single pack Cobra Commander, and another member Rodimus88 confirms the fact.  There are also images of the packaged figure and the receipt, which I’ve mirrored below.

Does this mean this Cobra Commander will be found at brick & mortar?  It seems quite possible, but I guess time will tell.  Thanks to noted author James Kavanaugh from the RAHC Guide for linking this info.

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Thanks to ComingSoon.net we have a look at the last G.I. Joe: Retaliation theatrical poster.  The poster takes some imagery from the previous character posters and combines it all into one pretty cool looking theatrical poster for the film.

Loving how this looks.  Another poster to add to my growing “want list”!  Check out the original post on ComingSoon.net, and also mirrored below.  Thanks to the Twitter account for the General Geekery Podcast for the heads up!

UPDATE – It looks like there are also posters for Brazil and the UK as well, which I’ve included in the gallery below.  The Brazil one is the split one that actually has Firefly in it.  The other one with Lee Byung-Hun subtly included is for the UK.

So, poor Flint is 0 for 3 on Retaliation posters.  What did he ever do to you, Paramount?!?  Thanks to toycollector962 for the updated info.

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Big thanks to The Terror Drome for digging up a nice wealth of press images and the character posters without that distracting text from Stark Industries!  I’ve gone ahead and mirrored them all below, and I’m loving them.  The character posters are especially cool without the text on the top of them.

Check out the gallery below, and again thanks to The Terror Drome for locating these.

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One of my most popular posts directly after the posting of the original G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer were my 10 questions or answers revealed from the trailer. It seemed to be a very well-trafficed post and I got some great feedback on it, so I figured I would revisit the idea now that we not only have a new theatrical trailer, but we also have some awesome, spoilery details revealed from some early footage screenings.

I will endeavor to write this post keeping spoilers to a minimum, but folks trying to keep 100% pure from potential revelations may want to avoid it. Really, though, I’m just using my own perspective, not much inside knowledge. So, upon these new details and trailers, what do we know now and what is still to find out?

Click the Read the Rest of the Story link below to read my thoughts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Even though I feel very honored to have a couple GeneralsJoes fans who took the time and energy to write up reports for the site based on what they’ve seen from new footage, I also wanted to look elsewhere as well, just to get an idea about the feedback that other sites were providing as well.

You can check out the GeneralsJoes reports by Dave Tree and Russ Sheath, and also hit up the What’s on Joe Mind Special Edition, but then hit up a few of the links below.

• Five Kick Ass Scenes from the new Trailer – MTV.com
• Is the new trailer even more kick ass than the first trailer? – E Online
• Video Blog reaction to early footage screening – Slashfilm
• Russ Sheath reports on early G.I. Joe: Retaliation footage – Aint It Cool News

Obviously there are a ton of other links out there, but I figured this would at least get folks started.  The short answer is there seems to be a LOT of love for this film even outside the hardcore Joe fans or hardcore geek circles.  Hopefully the positive buzz keeps roaring all the way through the end of June!

Oh boy.  Gyre-Viper took the world by storm last week when he broke the news about the Dollar Store exclusive figures with a great vintage aesthetic.  Well, he’s about the blow the doors off again on JoeDeclassified.com.

Apparently these Dollar Store exclusive figures won’t just be appearing in one paint scheme…  check out this amazing new gallery below of fully repainted variant figures for the exclusive line!  We’ve got what almost looks like a T’Ginzu repaint Storm Shadow, a dark gray Duke, black Cobra Commander, comic deco Cobra Troopers, a green Shipwreck, and a pseudo Heavy Artillery Snake Eyes (from an old school Toys “R” Us Exclusive set).

Mind.  Blown.

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And hey…look at those last few pictures.  Looks like ole Gyre-Viper has something else in the wings for us.  And if it’s in that stage of completion, I’d say release is almost guaranteed.

Ohhhhh yeeeeeeaah.

It’s official.  This is the week of G.I. Joe.

Well look at that!  Over on HissTank.com Snakefox is reporting that he was able to score a case of the much sought after “Dollar Store” G.I. Joe figures at a local retailer in the  Philippines.

This is great news for Joe fans, as many of us have been drooling over these figures since they were first revealed just a week ago.  Snakefox reports that they are “3-4 dollars cheaper” than regular retail G.I. Joe figures.  Check out the discovery thread right here and look at the mirrored images below.

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To a resounding…  ”bleh”.  Yeah, unfortunately very much unlike the G.I. Joe: Renegades 4-Pack, I find myself very unimpressed with the Retaliation one.  Destro from HissTank.com also posted that image, and it just looks like essentially the same figures that are in wave 1, with the addition of the variant “Black” Cobra Commander which many folks hypothesized would be in this set.  Pretty boring.  I don’t even see many differences deco-wise.

Check out the mirrored image below.