25th Anniversary GI Joe

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

The card art is altered on all the figures, digitally painted over, photoshopped, or edited, in some ways badly. You can tell that they were trying to cover up some of the pencil lines but missed a lot of spots. Lighting was not take into account either on some pieces.

[Vermillion21]

@ Southpaw Samurai - You've got wave 5 already??? Whoa, must be nice. Did you get them at regular retail or pre-order them online somewhere??

Heck, I'm still searching for the single-carded box set figures from wave 4 - they are supposed to be out now ....

[emajnthis]

i've had the opportunity to purchase everyone of the waves so far, but only picked out the ones i like, I still gotta say that firefly and beach head are the best of the newer waves by far (i know they're virtually the same figure). If they release the new Commando Snake Eyes with trigger hands, i'll be sold on that too.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

From what I've seen the black commando Snake Eyes does have the trigger hands(at least the right one). The wave 4 singles are out but I haven't seen them or wave 5 in person. Also, hatless Lady Jaye will be released next year, Major Bludd and Wild Bill are confirmed by Hasbro, classic Serpentor is coming next fall, and Quick Kick is a go. The line is becoming more collector orientated, so if you guys want something in particular, your best bet is to voice your opinions now.

[baronv]

From what I've seen the black commando Snake Eyes does have the trigger hands(at least the right one). The wave 4 singles are out but I haven't seen them or wave 5 in person. Also, hatless Lady Jaye will be released next year, Major Bludd and Wild Bill are confirmed by Hasbro, classic Serpentor is coming next fall, and Quick Kick is a go. The line is becoming more collector orientated, so if you guys want something in particular, your best bet is to voice your opinions now.

Quick Kick is coming for later waves? Wahoo! SS vs. QK battles here we come.

[emajnthis]

From what I've seen the black commando Snake Eyes does have the trigger hands(at least the right one). The wave 4 singles are out but I haven't seen them or wave 5 in person. Also, hatless Lady Jaye will be released next year, Major Bludd and Wild Bill are confirmed by Hasbro, classic Serpentor is coming next fall, and Quick Kick is a go. The line is becoming more collector orientated, so if you guys want something in particular, your best bet is to voice your opinions now.

and yet still not Alley Viper

[Godzilla]

I got extra joes of all waves if anybody wants them (no flint though). I have been seeing Joes on the store shelves here and there especially after they restock them. I got their restocking days for Target and Walmart to fine art. My god, I have 8 Red ninjas and 4 cobra officers. Anyways, always willing to trade or sell them at cost. My collection is complete now thru Wave 3. I even got the variants.

I like the Ace figure though I rather have Ace in a real fighter flight suit instead of the SR-71 type flight suit. Would be really nice if he did get a good proportional F-14 Tomcat. I really hope they go thru all the figures from 1983 to 1987. Would be cool to see a Falcon fig. Are they gonna release any vehicles?

Edited December 21, 2007 by Godzilla

[Vermillion21]

Yeah, a Lt. Falcon figure would be cool ..... I read on Hisstank.com that they are indeed making a BATS trooper .. woohoo!

[emajnthis]

You'd figure that theyd' have vehicles by now, but maybe the fact that none of the figures can sit upright is preventing that or something. If nothing else, you could always pick up the Elite Force stuff, i have an Apache with a couple 25th Joe's in it, looks pretty snazzy; still on the lookout for the F18, and if i have extra cash, might pick up the black hawk as well

[chowyunskinny]

Quick Kick is coming for later waves? Wahoo! SS vs. QK battles here we come.

Quick Kick...

for the 25th Anniversary can the Government get this guy some Kung Fu shoes at least???

He's supposed to be Silent Weapons right? How silent can he be when he's screaming in pain everytime he steps on some shrapnel on the battlefield

[Vermillion21]

Good one mate ....

[Golden Arms]

I haven't been collecting these, but I'd like to see: Lt Falcon, Torpedo, Cover Girl, Dusty, Steeler

BTW what is a good site so see all of the figs that have been released so far?

Edited December 22, 2007 by Golden Arms

[Mog]

Are they gonna release any vehicles?

A few pages back someone (I'm almost certain it was Shin) posted a link of some upcoming vehicles they're gonna release. I believe Hasbro was planning to release the HISS Tank, the Sharc (or at least a vehicle with the same mold as the Sharc), and I think one other vehicle as store exclusives. The HISS was gonna come with a driver (who was just another repaint of the Cobra Trooper/Officer). And the Sharc was gonna come with Grand Slam.

I haven't been collecting these, but I'd like to see: Lt Falcon, Torpedo, Cover Girl, Dusty, Steeler

BTW what is a good site so see all of the figs that have been released so far?

Hisstank.com is the most solid source for updates of all the latest breaking news and info.

Yojoe.com is a cool archive/reference for all the old-school stuff and the released 25th Ani' Figures. They're sometimes hit and miss on the news front. But every now and then they'll be the first to post a pic of an upcoming figure.

Joe Battlelines has some interesting reviews of the 25th Ani' Figures released too.

Or failing all others, just wait for Shin to post here. (He's the David Hingtgen of all things GI Joe on the MW board!)

As for Torpedo, they're gonna release him in Wave 6 coming up next year. And he looks quite awesome!

Edited December 22, 2007 by Mog

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Hehe thanks for the comments guys. A report from cooltoyreview.com states the following:

As anyone who has had the pleasure of speaking to the creative teams at Hasbro can tell you, they have certainly learned how to listen to what people have to say and they know when they are on the right track. They’ll prove the point again in 2008 by continuing their G.I. Joe line where the 25th Anniversary Collection left off.

At the current time, we can expect no less than 24 single carded 3 ¾” action figures. In addition to the single carded assortments, we can expect to see the following:

3 ¾” Comic Book Two Packs

There are 18 two packs planned for 2008, each of them will include a brand new comic written by Larry Hama.

3 ¾” Battle Packs

This is planned to be a series of five four packs, each with a part of a five-issue self-contained comic book story. The sets will be broken up over three series. The first two waves will have towo sets each, and the third wave will have the final set in the series.

3 3/4” Vehicle Assortment

The first three waves of vehicles will be somewhat retooled updates of the classic vehicles from the original collection. In total we’ll see ten vehicles over the three waves.

12” Action Figures

A Real American Hero will once again be visiting the 1/6 scale action figure market with both a basic series and a deluxe assortment. Collectors can expect many of their favourite Joes and Cobras represented in this line.

Take it with a grain of salt. A lot of things may change, and a short time after cooltoyreview put out that report, Hasbro made a statement saying nothing is concrete until they themselves say something. The best bet for something definitive is toyfair. They will announce their stance on vehicles there. Considering that the cooltoyreview report is said to be general retail info, the target exclusive SHARC, Awe striker, and Hiss may not be included in the 10 vehicles rumored. So if anything that leaves us with 13 vehicles in total.

Cooltoyreview.com has a good archive of the figures released to date. Generalsjoes.com and joebattlelines.com both have great reviews as well as pictures of the anniversary figures.

[baronv]

Quick Kick...

for the 25th Anniversary can the Government get this guy some Kung Fu shoes at least???

He's supposed to be Silent Weapons right? How silent can he be when he's screaming in pain everytime he steps on some shrapnel on the battlefield

Quick Kick feels no pain from shrapnel or the elements....that's why he's the only shoeless and shirtless Joe...he's the original badass from Watts, CA!

http://www.myuselessknowledge.com/joe/quickkick.html

[Vermillion21]

Is there a variant for the Zartan figure? I found another today at retail, but this one has a sticker that says "color changing face", while the first one I bought doesn't have the sticker. Is one more rare than the other? And how does it color change, I put both in the sunlight - they both turned a slight green. Thoughts?

[Mog]

The Zartan I got didn't have the "color-changing face!" logo/sticker on it. I've heard there's a ton of variants with Zartan: fixed crotched with color-change sticker, old crotch with color-change sticker, fixed crotch without color-change sticker, etc.

As for your last question, I believe the trick to making ol' Zartan change color is sticking him in the freezer for a few seconds. He comes out of the deep freeze with a thick green hue on his face.

[Vermillion21]

Thanks Mog ... okay, I am gonna open one of these and try changing Zartan's face colour ...

[Southpaw Samurai]

Well, for the first time in all my peeking in the Target toy aisles over the past couple of months, I finally saw some single carded Joes. A shame I already had them, but at least now I have a Beachhead who doesn't sit like he just ate a giant holiday dinner!

On the plus side, they also had the first wave of comic packs. Despite 5 out of the 6 characters already being in my possession in generally better paint jobs, I wound up splurging just to get a head start on getting Doc. Some observations:

Despite that they are still bright, the neon Duke and neon Cobra Commander pack isn't really that ugly (they just stand out against the more neutral regular figures). Aside from his yellow bandoleer, Duke's bright paints aren't that bad and CC isn't so garish that I can't bring him into work as my new monitor topping. That'll probably Duke's destination as well... two figures I won't mind if people break or loosen in playing with them.

Silent Interlude SE & SS are a nice way to get them together if you have someone who loved these characters but either doesn't want the five packs or to hunt them down individually.... particularly someone who was more into Snake-eyes in the cartoon than the original toy. I don't mind the color on SE at all... could've been a little darker, but he's not that bright of a blue... almost a perfect night-op blue in fact. Worst thing about this paint job is the big silver googles, which isn't accurate to the comic anyway. Stormshadow doesn't look as good with the blue instead of black parts, but it's not a killer. He's much more pale and his sandals aren't painted, which may appease people who disliked that as an inclusion on the new mold.

Dreadstar's Willow and Hawk.... I mean Scarlett and Hawk are the pack I most wanted, mainly for Hawk who was my first Joe (yeah, my brother wound up with a Vamp and I wound up with the MMS... fortunately I was old enough to ask what 'grade' meant and found out that my sad, ordinary blond guy was a colonel and my brother's cooler looking bearded guy was a just a corporal. ). I've always been torn between Scarlett's purple and yellow vs. grey and yellow/beige. The latter's is a BIT more realistic (at least as far as military leotards go ), but the former works well as a color scheme. She's got a bit more obvious lip color than the 5-pack version, but I sorta dug Scarlett as a tomboy, so that doesn't matter much. If there more Joes that I could easily enough kitbash into Skeevo, Syzygy, and Oedi, I'd seriously put her aside as Willow from Starlin's Dreadstar comics... she and Scarlett went shopping at the same store in the early 80's.

Hawk is mainly a dark green Snake-eyes repaint, body-wise (his head looking like Duke's gaunt, grumpy uncle). Neither bother me as the original Hawk shared the generic 'Grunt-style' body that Snake-eyes did and Hawk was never a stand-out 'look at me, I'm the leader!' type in those early, pre-Patton bomber jacket days and Duke and Hawk were always similar looking until Hasbro decided Hawk needed to be darker haired and a lot older for whatever reason (I personally always saw Duke and Hawk about the same age, the one grinding his way up through the non-comms and the latter coming out of West Point as an Lt. and through skill and connections quickly climbing the officer rungs). The figure itself isn't special in any way, but I have a personal nostalgic love for it. Surprisingly, while it seems most of the cards have been direct copies of the original 80's cards with just certain things like name changes, Hawk isn't his original... probably because his original gives practically no indication that he's the team's head honcho... aside from his grade and the quote mentioning he has great leadership traits, he's hiding out behind his boring-sounding 'Missile Commander' role. Hawk's new card is similar to his later ones in verbage and while others are retaining (or in the case of 'Sgt.Flash' have been demoted back to their '82 ranks), Hawk keeps his most current rank of Major General, which is two steps over his original colonel (Mommy and Daddy Abernathy probably pulled strings to avoid their little Clay from losing his stars).

Sorry to ramble. My last quick observation... which anyone who's bought a comic pack or recent comic reprint of earlier 80's comics.... does anyone miss the old newspaper paper? All three of these issues (#1, #21, and #24) just don't look right on glossy paper. I think the old paper and printing process just added some 'noise' to the rather simple coloring, so it's more like the gloss making the limitations of the original work more obvious. Silent Interlude is really the one to suffer as it's way too bright now for the style and story. But it's great to have a copy of #1 and #21 so readily available to show people and #24, while not being anything special, was a fun and cool issue. Just don't get me started on the redone covers. They're fine enough stylistic homages, but I think they would've looked better if the comics came in a digest-size. As they are now they look like quickly done draft versions and I would've preferred someone doing their own take on the general idea of each over instead of just having a stylistic (looking sloppy) paint over of the originals.....

Oh, and to answer your question, Vermillion21, I've been getting most of mine via BBTS... nice guys, reasonably priced on most things, and because I'm practically across the state border from their warehouse, I can have things shipped cheap via slower than slow mail and still get it next day. Up until today, had I been relying on hunting locally I wouldn't have had any single carded guys yet... and I'm getting too old/self-important to spend time visiting so many stores toy hunting. With limited shelf space, no big toy stores anymore in my area, and scalpers, it's just not productive or even fun anymore.

[baronv]

Has anyone seen the single carded Wave 5 figures pop up yet?

[Golden Arms]

I finally caved and bought a few Joes (Beach Head, Stalker, and Cobra Soldier). My local target restocked and had Lady Jaye, cobra Commander, Beach Head, Stalker, Zartan, Shipwreck, Storm Shadow, Buzzer, Cobra Soldier, and Red Ninja cobra Soldier. They even had the joe gift set, and Cobra enemy sets as well. These were all listed as clearance, but they didn't ring up that way.

Ididn't see any of the Wave 5's.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I finally caved and bought a few Joes (Beach Head, Stalker, and Cobra Soldier). My local target restocked and had Lady Jaye, cobra Commander, Beach Head, Stalker, Zartan, Shipwreck, Storm Shadow, Buzzer, Cobra Soldier, and Red Ninja cobra Soldier. They even had the joe gift set, and Cobra enemy sets as well. These were all listed as clearance, but they didn't ring up that way.

Ididn't see any of the Wave 5's.

Clearance for the 5 packs is $17.94, if your target has any left. The one I usually go to had none left, and another one I go to only had 3. The joe pack is dissapointing compared to the Cobra sets. Despite the Cobra legions set having a Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow, their repaints are actually done well, and are striking, just don't expect them to be full fledged replacements to their 2004 versions(which they are influenced by). Key thing to remember, is that they are great figures in their own right, just not great replacements for the 2004 versions. Still wondering why the hell they gave Storm Shadow blue eyes though. Cobra legions is a great set, you have one trooper that you can turn into an air trooper, 2 other army builders, and nice repaints of Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow, as well as the Cobra logo sound display. The set features all new artwork for some of the figures and the background as well as box display is nice. I still hate how the figures are so hard to get out of the packaging, as well as having elastic ties binding their weapons to hands in box. This causes warpage and contributes to difficulty in holding weapons.

For those of you who want a quick fix to holding weapons. Take a hair dryer, aim it at your figure's hands for about a minute, or until the hands become soft. Squeeze into the shape/grip you want, and then immediately rinse under cold water. This will resolidify the hand. Or do what I do, and afterwards throw the figure in the freezer for 5 minutes.

If you want the core Cobra group, the first cobra 5 pack is a must have. If you want a multipurpose bunch, get the Legions. I have both, and like both of them a lot.

Has anyone seen the single carded Wave 5 figures pop up yet?

I haven't. Although I do have a feeling that a month from now, once the xmas rush is over, and the post xmas clearance rush is over, the joes won't be hard to find.

[Golden Arms]

Shin are the carded figs supposed to be on clearance as well at Target? The reason I ask is because the one by me had them all on pegs marked clearance, but they rang up as the normal $ 5.99 price.

Do all of the Zartan figs change color? I may go back and pick him and Storm Shadow up.

[Mog]

^^If I remember correctly, it's just the 5-packs that are on clearance, not the regular single carded figures.

As for Zartan, I think most of them are color-changing. If the face has a slight green hue to it, the figure is more than likely a color changing one.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Shin are the carded figs supposed to be on clearance as well at Target? The reason I ask is because the one by me had them all on pegs marked clearance, but they rang up as the normal $ 5.99 price.

Do all of the Zartan figs change color? I may go back and pick him and Storm Shadow up.

So far just the 5 packs. The anniversary figures and BBI Elite force figures are right next to each other, and often figures from either line are found on either peg. The BBI figures are all on clearance, so its likely the stocker put the joes on the BBI peg by mistake.

I believe there is a Zartan that does not change color.

[emajnthis]

Wal-Mart has their 5 packs marked down to $17/piece also; i picked up an extra cobra legions (since i got one as a secret santa this year), and it looks like all of my local Targets restocked 'cause i picked up an extra firefly, and they had a bunch of figs from each wave (except wave 1) on the pegs.

[cschell]

Was at target today, and they had a lot of single carded figures and comic packs. Finally picked up a Zartan.

The best thing I noticed though was that they had some Stalkers with a truly fixed crotch. Not the minor mod like on Beach Head that IMHO doesn't make that much of a difference, but rather one that looks like the old style figures with a really thin crotch area. The figure can actually bring it's legs to about 85 degrees from vertical while keeping both legs parallel. Finally one that should be able to sit properly in a vehicle.

Hopefully they'll fix the other figures like this going forward.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Was at target today, and they had a lot of single carded figures and comic packs. Finally picked up a Zartan.

The best thing I noticed though was that they had some Stalkers with a truly fixed crotch. Not the minor mod like on Beach Head that IMHO doesn't make that much of a difference, but rather one that looks like the old style figures with a really thin crotch area. The figure can actually bring it's legs to about 85 degrees from vertical while keeping both legs parallel. Finally one that should be able to sit properly in a vehicle.

Hopefully they'll fix the other figures like this going forward.

Wave 5 has the fix, as well as comic packs from wave 1 that are carrying over into wave 2. Everything from this point on will more than likely have the fix.

[Roy Focker]

I haven't seen new joes since wave 3.

[cschell]

Wave 5 has the fix, as well as comic packs from wave 1 that are carrying over into wave 2. Everything from this point on will more than likely have the fix.

So which comic packs would those be? The one I picked up with Scarlet and Hawk still has the original (worst case) for both Scarlet and Hawk. And Hawk uses the same body as Stalker.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

So which comic packs would those be? The one I picked up with Scarlet and Hawk still has the original (worst case) for both Scarlet and Hawk. And Hawk uses the same body as Stalker.

The Hawk pack, SE/SS pack, and Duke/CC. The noticeable differences in the wave 2 versions, are that SE/Hawk will have the same fixed crotch as the fixed crotch(narrow crotch) Stalker that is now shipping in wave 3. Breaker uses a retooled Duke mold with fixed crotch, and this fixed crotch should be on Duke in the wave 2 comic packs.

[Vermillion21]

Found some of the comic packs today at Wal-Mart, saw:

> Cobra Commander vs. Duke

> Destro vs. Breaker

> Snake Eyes vs. Storm Shadow

> Scarlett & Hawk

> Torch & Ripper

I picked up the last 3 pairs. Very cool overall.

Glad I completed the Dreadnok trio, and since I didn't get any of the box sets Scarlett, Snake Eyes, & Storm Shadow are sweet. And surprisingly, I really like Hawk's sculpt, even if he does have a plain design.

Breaker looked lame (despite the fact that has a similar sculpt to Hawk, he had no appeal - plus he had few weapons), so I passed on him, while Destro, Cobra Commander, & Duke were way too neon for my tastes.

I am halfway to getting the mail-in Doc figure!!

Edited January 2, 2008 by Vermillion21

[baronv]

G.I. Joe 25th Anniv. 6-pack of the Wave 1 Joes for $12.48 at Mission Viejo Target as well as the Cobra Legions set selling for the same price. Also spotted there were the new comic 2-packs as well as at the Aliso Viejo Target (though it did not have any of the 5-packs).

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Just want to chime in here with an excerpt from my ad

I am looking for a MOSC 25th Anniversary GI Joe Flint. I will trade one of these MOSC figures for it:

25th Anniversary color changing Zartan

25th Anniversary Firefly

25th Anniversary Shipwreck w/anchor tatoo

Transformers Movie Concept Camaro Bumblebee

I ran into a collectibles shop selling one, but they wanted $25 for him

[Hikaru's VF-1S]

G.I. Joe 25th Anniv. 6-pack of the Wave 1 Joes for $12.48 at Mission Viejo Target as well as the Cobra Legions set selling for the same price. Also spotted there were the new comic 2-packs as well as at the Aliso Viejo Target (though it did not have any of the 5-packs).

did they have a lot of 6-packs there? btw what street is it located on? seems like theres two in mission viejo. i live close by and wondering if they still have any left if u know. =D

Edited January 8, 2008 by Hikaru's VF-1S