Ninja Strike As If A Force... Of Ninjas

The new Snake Eyes movie is coming out soon and with it new toys. The GI JOE Classified series has been running since last summer and has been a challenge for most to collect. Fortunately for me, I haven't been too concerned. Between the Dollar Tree figures and the Jada series my needs have been filled. Though I would like some new action figures and the movie tie in line is delivering exactly what I'd like.

When it comes to GI JOE, I like the more far out stuff. Included with that is the various ninjas. This new core Snake Eyes line pretty much a modern version of Ninja Force... and I couldn't be more happy. I say core line as it's not in the Classified series (don't worry, there's new stuff for that line as well), but more of a mainline set of action figures. 

Like Power Rangers and Star Wars toys I tend to prefer those (but I do get the occasional 'collectors series' figure). These are not 3 3/4, but 6" figures with what looks like a fair amount of articulation. Similar to core class Power Rangers toys by Hasbro. Which I've been loving. There's some fun stuff here. Of course Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are there, as well as Scarlett and The Baroness. There's also Red Ninjas and Night Creepers which fills me with pure joy. I hope more characters follow suit in this new core class series. This is more what I look for in GI JOE toys than Classified. Not to mention... I don't anticipate having as much of a hard time getting these as Classified fans have trying to get their figures. Yikes.

Bios: Predacon

Birthplace: The Badlands, Planet Trilenium

Primary Specialty: Alien Tracking

Secondary Specialty: Arm Wrestler

A vicious Lunartix alien, PREDACON makes his living by capturing criminals and selling them back to the Galactic Authorities. If the authorities reject the criminals, Predacon imprisons them in his private alien zoo. This four-armed monster is loyal only to his tribal clan on planet Trilenium, and he's proud to wear its ancestral medallion on his chest plate, along with Lunartix hieroglyphics that are etched into his arm guards.

GIJOE In Discount Missions

On my birthday last month, the Mrs. ended my quest for the new Dollar Tree GIJOE figures I had talked about before. Taped to each present was one of the much searched for figures (and some Tiny Turbo Changers, but we'll discuss those later) and I was overjoyed. Today seemed like a good day to talk about them. I hardly ever plan anything on this site ahead of time. It's complete anarchy. Just chaos.

These are mini figures of GIJOE characters sold at Dollar Tree and other similar stores for $1 each. They're small, about the size of a M.A.S.K figure without any articulation. The sculpts are pretty nice and so is the paint. Destro probably got the worst paint job, with his exposed skin being the same shade of grey as the trademark mask. It's not terrible though, just a little better paint detail would go a long way. 

I think my favorite is the Cobra Red Ninja followed closely by Snake Eyes. They just came out the best in my non- snaked eyes. I really like this type of mini figures sold at Dollar Tree and other similar stores. Basic inexpensive figurines of characters I like. They've got a particular charm about them and there's a thrill of buying a handful of them for $1 each. I hope to see more figures released. I'd love wacky colored repaints.

GI JOE Will Send Death On A Ski

Few vehicles can match the GI JOE Snow Cat in pure badassery. Essentially a half track truck, the Snow Cat is mostly used in snowy conditions as it's name would imply.

Make no mistake about it, the Snow Cat is being deployed to kill somebody in winter weather. It's a military vehicle so that's pretty much the assumption. With a missile launcher in the back and plenty of places a JOE could stand and shoot at some Cobra soldiers. The Snow Cat is perfect for some cold weather killing.

In order to kill you in the snow are ski based missiles. As in, in case the missile launcher wasn't enough, it has missiles on skis. Just rocket propelled missiles on skis flying across the snow. Right across some fresh powder and up some Cobra ass.

The Cobra Pogo And Suddenly Things Make Sense

There's times where you'll see the various weaponry Cobra hads and question just how GIJOE always wins. Then there's this commercial and things make sense. Here's Cobra Commander in his new Cobra Pogo. I'm trying to make sense of a hopping frog vehicle. The Pogo has two laser rifles on it's bottom and rockets. I'm assuming it would have to be hopping in the air to get aim with those guns. The rockets? They're pointed directly up. I'm assuming the Pogo would need to be on the ground to launch those... it'd be like playing Angry Birds to shoot those huh?

What's the JOE'S new weapon? The SLAM. What's the SLAM you may ask? A cannon on wheels. What's a cannon? A big gun. They just drive up and shoot either the rockets (pointed forward) or the big ass four barrel cannon. So Cobra has the Pogo, which just hops around and shoots it's guns with debatable accuracy. While the GIJOE's drives up and shoot a million shots at the bouncing thing until they hit it. It's even in the commercial.

If I had a Force, it'd be a Tiger one

With all the news around the upcoming Snake Eyes movie and new GIJOE toys on the way, it's been pretty hard for me to not get excited. GIJOE is another one of those things I grew up with that I've always loved. Sadly in more recent times the line has struggled to keep a presence in retail. I'm hoping this attempt is successful, because duh.

One of my favorite GIJOE teams is Tiger Force. A series of repaints using prior molds, Tiger Force made for some good looking toys. The above commercial states the premise of the new team and even outright admits that they're repainting older stuff. Though it makes sense (Tiger Force needs new gear!), the "use the enemies tech" ideology is a tried and true formula.

I really, really appreciate the original animation used in this commercial. It just looks amazing. Not to mention, like I said, Tiger Force just looks great. I don't expect for the new GIJOE stuff to revisit the old stuff much. Though if they did... I'd be pretty happy for some new Tiger Force toys.

Korean GIJOE childrens sneakers

It sure has been a while since I delved into the world of Korean licensed children's shoe commercials. I don't know why either, each time I do it's completely amazing. Here in America, licensed characters on shoes hardly get a spot in a stores sales papers, let alone a TV commercial. These productions alone are worth the view and man this one is some kind of wonderful.

Our host is on an adventure for some sweet new kicks. Fortunately he's in the exact jungle that has a pair of velcro GIJOE sneaks that feature Falcon about to shoot a fool just lying around. I assume it's Falcon, could be Flint... soldier man in beret YO JOE! What's really notable is that dope hard plastic carrying case the shoes come in. It seems as if the shoes come with a sticker and the host implies we can put other stickers on the case... that just blew my mind. Though, what am I to wear while carrying my shoes in that carrying case?

G.I. JOE Crusader

A few years after the Defiant play set was released, the space shuttle from it were released separately as the Crusader. Not a bad trade off for us who didn't get a Defiant for Christmas (that's another story for a few months away) those few years earlier. The Crusader was technically a vehicle, but was practically a play set all on it's own. With the mini-shuttle 'The Avenger' ready to fly from it's cargo bay and a cool space walk, you could have all sorts of fun. Probably one of my favorite GI JOE vehicles ever. Though in hind sight, I have no clue how Tunnel Rat stayed alive up there in space.

Sgt. Slaughter is a Real American Hero

It's the 4th of July! I can't wait for the cook out and shooting fireworks!

Snowcats chase Snowmen's scarfs

With July the 4th just around the corner (actually tomorrow, but I couldn't figure out a clever way to start this post), I can't help but to think about GI JOE. It just goes with the holiday, ya know? There's been a number of Transformers and GI JOE crossovers over the years and with just due. The two series are forever linked, not just fictionally, but Transformers essentially came from GI JOE. One of my favorite crossover figures (more of a homage I guess) was from Energon. Snow Cat was a Decepticon that turned into the Snow Cat.

The Snow Cat was and is by far my favorite GI JOE vehicle. Just a cool all terrain truck thing decked out in missiles for those missions where the JOE's needed to go somewhere deep in the snow and kill the hell outta it. When I first saw Energon Snow Cat, I was absolutely ecstatic. At the time such a thing was unheard of, dreamed of maybe, but not heard of. If you dared spoke of it, you'd be told how ridiculous and stupid of an idea it was by somebody allergic to air conditioning. That same person later said it was the exact thing they've always wanted and Hasbro should have already made before having some sort of problem when ordering from Subway. I hate that guy.

On the cartoon, Snow Cat was a reformatted Cyclonus for some reason. In robot mode Snow Cat has fold down ski's and can hold his missiles as ski poles... he can ski and he did so in space and it was just majestic. Outside of the silliness of the ski gimmick, he was a pleasantly chunky robot with solid proportions and articulation. The back mounted missile rack could fold over his shoulders for an attack mode. In white with grey and burgundy highlights, Snow Cat was a good looking toy. One of my favorite touches was his windshield wipers could move and even had molded in frost that was cleared away by the wipers, like in the original GI JOE toy.

A little later in Universe, Snow Cat got a repaint in a really nice black and orange deco that looked great! Though personally I has hoped for Tiger Force version (and considering Fun Publications involvement in things, it's weird that it never happened), but I suppose one could argue that this is the Night Force version... though that one never happened... aside from this I suppose. Regardless of versions and which ones, the deco looks really good on the toy. I almost wish it was a different character as in these colors, Snow Cat looks less like a polar expedition vehicle and more like a cool sci fi military thing. I could see Monarch or the Science Team rolling around in this.

Snow Cat was an imaginative toy in a time when Transformers brought more original ideas to the table in each line. While I don't have any complaints about modern Transformers, things like Snow Cat are the kind of thing I'd love to see more of. Just something that was neat, fun, and homaged Transformers older brother in a unique way.

Tiny Figures

Making the rounds earlier today (Wednesday to you probably) was news of new figures from the extremely cool 'World's Smallest' line of tiny replica classic toys. Coming seemingly out of left field are new Transformers, GIJOE, and Power Rangers figures. You read the site, you know me, you're not surprised that I'm all in for this.

I've already got the prior World's Smallest version of the classic 12" GIJOE and have been tempted by their really neat blind boxed toys. Little cool things like this are really fun and hard not to like, especially if you're a fan of little figures like me. I really like the tiny packaging inside the actual packaging. That's super cool I do wish the Transformers packaging was a little more G1 inspired since they're obviously aiming for the nostalgia crowd, but it's not too big of a deal.

My initial impressions (outside of pure joy) was that these would make excellent Diaclone Drivers for Transformers that fit pilots. However on a sharper inspection, I can see the legs are not articulated. Oh well, they'd still make for some neat humans to hang around bases that'd be in relative scale. They should be hitting stores in late summer, so just the perfect thing to stuff stockings with come Christmas.

Battle Armor Cobra Commander

Cobra Commander is a unique character. By all appearances he's a coward who's nothing without his underlings. Though, once he donned his Battle Armor all bets were off and his badassness started showing through. Prior seasons he was evil and ruthless, sure, but once anything got serious he was sniveling. Once Serpentor came around, he was reduced to lackey and kinda in a non-sensible way. The underlings felt like he was no longer worthy to lead Cobra, so they made Serpentor to be the ultimate leader. Ok, I'm down (even though you had Destro right there), but they kept him around and still called him Cobra Commander. Shouldn't his title have changed? Though after the events of the movie and his return to glory, Cobra Commander got hardcore. I'd like to think his new costume at that point was part of his 'New Year, New Me' regime. I know I've always liked it better than his other outfits. Just looks awesome, you know?

GI JOE Street Fighter 2 commercial

It's been over 20 years since this happened and I'm still excited.

GI JOE Mega Marines vs Mega Monsters commercial

So, I understand why the Joes would need bio armor to fight the Mega Monsters, but the APC seems a little overkill to me... You know, it is kinda rad to just roll up and shoot a monster with a giant cannon though. Carry on.

Golobulus bio

 

Descended from the serpent kings of pre-history; Golobulus rules over Cobra-La, a hidden, secret valley in the Himalayas where the high priests of the Bio-Mechanical cult have created a technology based solely on living organisms. The buildings of Cobra-La are really crustaceans, and the clothes of inhabitants are as alive as the people who wear them. Golobulus has achieved immortality through symbiosis... at the cost of his humanity.

"The plates of Golobulus' body armor are living mutations of lobsters and crabs, each genetically altered to perform a specific function and bred for the tensile strength of their chitinous shells. Over the centuries, so much of Golobulus' body parts have been replaced or bio-mechanically altered that very little of the original is left except for his brain and his central nervous system."