Gotta love social media.  This whole G.I. Joe: Retaliation phenomenon exploded when both Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jon M. Chu began their Twitter campaigns during the film’s production.

Well, now that filming is mostly wrapped, we have the Cobra Special Forces Facebook page, designed as a social media recruitment tool of sorts, revealing some very cool images from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film.  To this point it’s been pictures of the Cobra Troopers…but today, we get Firefly!  An awesome image of the Cobra saboteur from what looks like a scene after he blows up the building with the Cobra motorcycle.  Check out the image below, and make sure you’re dialed into Cobra Special Forces on Facebook as well!

Maybe these went up yesterday along with the story by USA Today, but somehow I missed it?  Either that, or they just went live today and WOW!!  Spectactular.  If the concept art is any indication whatsoever of the kind of character design we’ll be getting, this game may already have knocked aside Avengers Alliance as my current addiction.

You can hit up the SyFy site and the Facebook Page to check out a wealth of concept art, and even sign up to play the Beta when it becomes available.  So cool!  Check out some mirrored images below from the SyFy gallery.

Guys.  TRUBBLE BUBBLES.  Low Light.  AGH!!

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This looks SO COOL.  If this is truly a tactics game along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics, or G.I. Joe: Renegades Tactics, then I will be so in love with this.  Very cool.

Good morning, G.I. Joe fans!  Well for folks who are eager to know what all the little details are for the upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation film, I have got a treat for you today.  Paramount did some footage screening for some very select individuals over the past week or two, and GeneralsJoes is lucky enough to have a few reports of that footage for you today!

A big friend of GeneralsJoes and the What’s on Joe Mind podcast Dave Tree from Roll Out Roll Call got to see this footage live and in person, and he did some fantastic work getting this intel dissected and reported to us.

Please keep in mind that some of the footage descriptions you read below could be considered spoilers!  If you are looking to go into the film clean and pure, you may want to avoid reading this post.  If you want to know as much as humanly possible, click the Read the Rest of the Story link below to read the full details!

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh shoot.  As if Avengers Alliance hasn’t been consuming enough of my life over the past month or so, it looks like there will be another social media game to add to my repertoire.

Big thanks as usual go out to GeneralsJoes friend and geek media expert Brian Truitt from USA Today who dives into the story of SyFy and Facebook teaming up for a new social media G.I. Joe game entitled G.I. Joe: Special Ops.  Man, does this sound like it has some serious potential.

You can read the full story over at USA Today, but let me cover some of the high points here:

• An arena based game in an enclosed battlefield where you pick a squad of Joes or Cobras to do battle with
• Character choices include Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness, Snake Eyes, Flint, Duke, and Firefly
• Designs for the characters will be pulled from all different era’s of G.I. Joe history, including a very Resolute themed Destro (ummm AWESOMMME).
• Release will be timed for the June 29th launch of G.I. Joe: Retaliation
• Lots of classic themes for the older fans, but some new twists for the younger set as well

What made me smile the most about this whole story was this quote involving some dialogue with Derryl DePriest:

“The first Joe member DePriest is enlisting on his Special Opsteam? Stalker.

“I haven’t made sure he’s there in the first set, but now that you mention it, I’ll walk over to the team and make sure he’s in there so I can play with him up front!” he says.”

So yeah, Stalker.  Holy crap, this sounds like it has some potential.  I can feel some real elements here from the very cool G.I. Joe: Renegades turn-based game that was launched on The Hub’s site so long ago, and this feels like elements from Final Fantasy Tactics as well, which is a game I absolutely loved.  This could be very cool, but very bad for my at-work productivity.

The guys behind Avengers Alliance better get those next 4 chapters finished and uploaded before June 29th, before my attention gets diverted!!  Huge props again to Brian Truitt at USA Today.  I’ve mirrored some concept art included in the article below, but definitely check out the article itself for the full details.

GEEK OUT.

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When he did his interview with What’s on Joe Mind, Frederic Doss teased that another character reveal was coming, and now here it is!  While Doss also mentioned that they were trying to steer clear with what Paramount was doing with their film franchise, obviously they couldn’t anticipate Firefly being a central character in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

This rendition of Firefly looks very cool!  Interesting that they chose to steer clear from the balaclava and go with a more armored mask look again.  I dig it.

Check out their Facebook Page to stay up to date on all the new developments, and if you have a few bucks kicking around, consider going to GIJoeInitiate.com and donating via PayPal.

Listeners to the What’s on Joe Mind podcast and readers of this site know that Robert Atkins, IDW artist extraordinaire, has been over in the UK as an official guest of Roll Out Roll Call 3, a G.I. Joe and Transformers Convention over the pond in Southampton.

Well, just because he’s been busy with convention duties doesn’t mean he hasn’t had time to update the blog…in fact, he’s posted some great commission pieces featuring everyone’s favorite Cobra saboteur!  The blog posts are below, with gorgeous Firefly commissions intact, as well as some Red Shadows goodies.

• Those Brits do love their Firefly…
• Still Across the pond…
• Robert Atkins Art…the UK Edition
• Red Shadows

Now I mention all of this keeping in mind that Robert it also in the midst of an exciting Kickstarter campaign for a project entitled Elders of the Runestone.  Any fans of his art will certainly appreciate this project!

Robert also sends along the following words:

“Im not taking commissions until the summer, but this is the loop hole. If people pledge for a commission as a reward they can sneak in on the list and get a full cover like commission of any character they choose. “

So, yes, he has closed commissions until summer, but if you pledge for a commission, you’re good to go.  Check the Kickstarter page right here, and let’s all do our part to support one not only the best IDW artists out there, but a big Joe fan and a hell of a nice guy to boot.  I’ve also linked the Kickstarter page below.

• Kickstarter – Elders of the Runestone

One thing that IDW artist Robert Atkins does that I love is showcase some of his commission work on his blog.  Because of this, we get some awesome detail into the thought process behind work that we might not normally even know existed.

Today he provided some terrific inks for a commissioned Flint and Ace piece, with links to each step in the process.

Previously he also supplied an update to a terrfic Zartan, and a very nice classic Firefly piece that he had done as well.  All of these items are awesome and deserve some Joe fan attention.  Check out the various links below:

• Ace and Flint (with 25th Anniversary Ace as the apparent inspiration!)
• Zartan (For friend of GeneralsJoes and Twitter toy afficianado Caped Crusader)
• Firefly

Excellent work, and don’t forget, Robert Atkins is scheduled to make an appearance on the What’s on Joe Mind podcast this week, too, and I’m already fighting myself not to just geek out for 2 hours straight.

With my enthusiasm over Robert Atkins artwork throughout his run on G.I. Joe, and now on Snake Eyes, I’ve been checking out his blog on a pretty regular basis, and also love to pass along the good stuff when it comes.  But let’s face it, it’s  all good stuff.

Today he updates with a commission piece he did for someone of Cobra Saboteur, Firefly!

Rocking his classic BDU’s and rattling off a pistol shot, this really is Firefly at his best.  Robert Atkins, kicking ass as usual.  Check out the commission piece right here.

Gotta love the movie years!

It’s ironic as we were just discussing during our What’s on Joe Mind recording last night that it was quite possible that since Wave 4 was now shipping we were going to see a pretty big gap in product between now and the G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie line.  We actually surmised on the show that Preview packs were possible, but we weren’t sure when we might hear more information.

Turns out that “when” just might be “now”!

Now I feel compelled to remind folks that this should remain in the rumor column until we get official verification, but apparently an Amazon.com employee has posted on Full Metal Hero that there is a G.I. Joe: Retaliation 4-Pack being solicited as a preview pack containing Roadblock, Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.  No images are yet available, but the timing and the pack contents make a lot of sense, so I’m leaning towards this being the real deal.

Take it how you will.  Hit up Full Metal Hero to check out the post.  Timeframe for release is April or May of 2012, with an SRP of $39.99.

Awesome news!

So a couple of weeks ago it was the now famous Mike Thompson.  Yesterday, over on Twitter, Airborne4584 let me know about a supposedly unreleased G.I. Joe figure that a contract sculptor had posted on their Facebook page.

Well, that sculptor’s name is Matt Brouillard, and he has a wealth of awesome sculpted figures visible in his photo album.  Some crazy stuff in there.  Apparently he’s the master mind behind the G.I. Joe: Resolute Duke and Destro, but he also sculpted some Rise of Cobra items, including an absolutely gorgeous unreleased figure.

The sculptor says it’s a driver from a canceled 4 x 4, but did not reveal additional details.  According to some folks, this was going to be Clutch (the head is just a place holder).  Regardless of who it was, it is an absolutely awesome looking figure that clearly deserves a place in the G.I. Joe line somewhere.

Without knowing if Hasbro actually tooled anything up, there is no evidence that this figure will ever see the light day (the sculpt is just a wax sample) but it is still awesome to look at.  Truly impressive.  Check out the mirrored images below, and look at the second-to-last image for a slightly different Rise of Cobra Firefly helmet, and the last picture is the incredibly cool looking vehicle driver.  Great stuff.

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