G.I. Joe Classified Series (1:12)

[ThunderDan19]

I swung by an Ollie’s in W’burg again this weekend. It had exactly the same stuff as two weeks ago - movie figs at $5 per and LJs at $14 per. I feel like they may well have run their course. Not sure if they are actually intending to sell LJ for that or if they have a corporate level oops that has her priced at Sarge’s rate. No way they’ll sell many for that.

Strangely they had a bunch of the 4” HISS tanks showcased at the front for $40 per. They still had a few back in the normal aisle priced at the original $13 as well. Seems like they may have a few issues with their pricing of late.

I’ll probably hit a couple more in my journeys next weekend and then decide if it’s worth continuing to check in through the holidays or not.

 

[nacho]

That's a shame. There are like 2 people on the interwebs who actually found $5 CGs, otherwise it's been a big tease.

Spent the weekend dyeing parts, building accessories, and getting all the plague gear "just so" to help distinguish them all from one another. It's a lot of black. I'm getting the last three retro SE bodies I need in the mail today (fingers crossed). But by tonight, I should have 11 of 13 completely finished, shy of adding a few cobra logos to some of them.

The final two require heads that I'm not likely to get immediately. One coming from australia (guy is pretty quick, but he was on holiday last week), and one coming from a well-known caster I've ordered from many times but has suddenly gone silent on me. That's a bad sign. Ordered parts in mid-Sept, haven't heard a peep. I politely pinged him last week, haven't heard squat. Fortunately, I think I've seen that head from other sources, may have to pull the trigger on a backup. (EDIT: The other place I'd seen the head was with my australian guy... so I bought one from him and he's sending it with the other stuff this week. Small world...)

Gonna be epic when I'm done. The array of mostly finished ones already makes me smile.

FYI, the Pulse cyber sale is in effect through the 29th. 25% off for everyone (CYBER25), 35% off for pulse premium (CYBER35). They had some good Joes in there, Shippy, Torpedo, RnR, TF Dusty, and several others. I grabbed a couple for parts @ $16 each.

 

[nacho]

So my last three retro SE bodies arrived AND Ripper showed up from AMZ as well. Now if they'd get on the ball with Torch... I can't imagine the other two without him.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Too bad for me. Anything I’d want to buy from Pulse to get to $75 doesn’t qualify.

Apparently my Ripper is on the way, but I won’t be back in the office to get him until Monday. The others from that wave have been bouncing around too, but are currently due to ship by 12/1.

 

[nacho]

Yeah, I'm expecting Hawk on 12/1-ish, and Shockwave sometime a week or two later...??? you'd think figures in the same wave would ship together, but maybe Pulse is buying whole cases that are on different slow boats from china or something.

Didn't get a chance to open up Ripper last night, Manningcast was too entertaining. But tonight I'll bust him out, see if his glasses are any better than Buzzer's.

Plague is so close I can smell it. I have to make one more custom weapon and a crazy backpack, and after that, I'll just be waiting on two noggins from down under. And some waterslide cobra logos I'll probably apply this weekend. Custom 13-man evil squad is gonna be awesome!

I had an epiphany for an almost-LBC of the best-named Joe ever. Only requires a couple of accessories and some minor painting, not even a single body part swapped. The peripheral parts won't arrive until after thanksgiving, but I'm super excited about how easy and epic this guy is going to be. No hints...

 

[ThunderDan19]

Looking forward to seeing the finished Plague squad and the surprise custom as well!

 

[nacho]

Well, I can report that Ripper is a pretty darn cool figure. I like the buck he's on (Range viper?) better than Buzzer's. I've never been fond of the Destro legs that Buzzer has. His glasses fit better than Buzzer's too, revealing a teardrop tattoo and a pretty creepy facial expression. Despite that, I went ahead and glued his glasses in place as well, just because I'd never be happy with the figure if I ever lost them. His weapons are great, correct for the figure, except that his jaws of life must have batteries or gas-power, as they no longer require a hydraulic backpack.

My only real complaint is that the figure clearly has brown hair. Every Ripper ever made has black hair, and now this one is brown. My inner ARAH purist will have to correct that, and after all my work with the Plague, I'm rather skilled with black paint. Might even start with just a wash to see if I can get it dark enough.

Otherwise, I think he's definitely better executed than Buzzer, and makes the cobra ranks far more interesting. Bring on Torch!!!.... and Monkeywrench, Roadpig, Gnawgahyde, Thrasher, and even stupid Zandar.

 

[nacho]

Obviously not the Plague, but I put this one together while all that black paint is drying...

 

[ThunderDan19]

Nice! But now we know for sure they'll be making a Snow Cat in the not too distant future

 

[nacho]

So still waiting on a few things but made real progress over the holiday. It's funny, as I slowly progressed with the plague and their gear, I spent a lot of time in my Joe and ML parts bins as well as perusing mercari, and the more I looked for things, the more I ran across that would be useful for some other character. "Oh hey, that's not what I'm looking for, but it would be perfect for so-n-so... and if I find a cheap body of character x, I'll only need to do a boot swap and a little paint, and boom, new custom."

And this happened to me a lot. So I find myself working on these side figures as I'm waiting on the Plague parts... and sometimes they just kinda fall into place, like old Frostbite there when GridIron puts out a kit that makes a custom almost too easy. So, I have a handful of completely random figures that organically sprung from this process. I expect to wrap up another 3-4 of them over the next couple of days. A couple are really neat, and a couple are beyond goofy.

Plague report:
10x are now 100% finished, set aside, and no longer thinking about them.
1x figure is done but needs some heavy custom gear work
2x figures & gear mostly complete, still waiting on my aussie noggin supplier. They're in the wind but might not arrive for a couple of weeks.

So far I'm thrilled to death with how they came out. Each one is pretty distinct and seems to match well with their brief appearances in the DDP comics.

Nice! But now we know for sure they'll be making a Snow Cat in the not too distant future

Sad but true!

 

[ThunderDan19]

I was able to find some time at the end of my workday today to get ol' Ripper unboxed and set up. He's definitely pretty darn true to the original and helps Zartan and Zarana to look a little less like the only oddballs of my Cobra collection. Just need Buzzer to hurry up and get here to finish the quartet until Torch finally comes along. I might pick up Monkeywrench if he gets made (as he was in my collection back in the day), but I doubt I'd bother with any others unless they are just too cool to pass up somehow.

Minor gripes: I thought they had forgotten to pack his sunglasses for a minute, but they had just hung up in the tissue wrap bag. At least they fit pretty well and should stay in place for the pose. I couldn't imagine being a kid and trying to play with him and keep those on. They really did make these for us old guys to display and not for kids to play with this time around.

I also wish they would have given us a way to mount the (24V battery powered?) jaws on his back like they did for the rifle. Seems like it wouldn't have been too hard to provide a sling or some kind of peg mount like they did for the rifle. Otherwise, yeah. For an oddball, he's pretty cool, and I couldn't pass up on the original trio 'Noks. They were staples in my collection back in the day, even if they were OP and overused in the comics. They were easy punching bags and bullet sponges in battles. And apocalyptic punks (and ninjas) were all the rage back in the 80's!

 

[nacho]

Hawk arrived today, and he's solid. Can't say there are any major surprises, but everything about him is as you'd expect. Deco and gear are nice. If I had a nitpick, I'd have wanted a better rifle than the shotgun and grenade launcher he came with. I assume if he needed firepower, he'd have an M4 variant of some kind. But overall, he looks like a grizzled general who's aching to get back in the field to lead his men.

Of course, I got a spare to repaint blonde because I never heard of anyone going from blonde to brown in their 40s.

Comic Hawk > Toon Hawk.

 

[nacho]

Well, my Hawks came from AMZ, but apparently I had not canceled the pair I ordered from Pulse... so now I'm going to have a whole squad of Hawks. D'oh!

So you ask yourself, who else wears a leather jacket... Keel Haul & Heavy Metal? This is how my customs get started!

 

[ThunderDan19]

I found and ordered a classic looking 3D printed Eel spear gun on eBay. No sense waiting around for Hasbro to finally outfit him properly down the road if I can knock that down affordably now. He's not complete w/o a proper weapon and doesn't look nearly as cool with the Torpedo copy.

Hopefully it will be nearly as cool looking as the MP7 I got for Shockwave. That arrived while I was out and looks legit! Can't wait to get SW to put it to use!

 

[nacho]

I've seen those on ebay and etsy, both the spear gun and the classic backpack. They do look good. I just couldn't justify the expense of outfitting a whole squad with both, as they'd cost more than the figures originally. But if I had just one or two, I'd be all over that.

I spent a small fortune on etsy today on guns and heads. Several of my favorite sellers were doing 30% off for BF, and I couldn't pass up that discount.

I did snag a couple of SMGs w/ harpoon attachment for Torpedo and Shippy. They needed an upgrade.

 

[Videoviper]

Does Maurders do 6” weapons?

 

[ThunderDan19]

I did snag a couple of SMGs w/ harpoon attachment for Torpedo and Shippy. They needed an upgrade.
View attachment 16485

Those are sweet! You gonna paint and weather them?

 

[nacho]

Does Maurders do 6” weapons?

A few but not many. Definitely not a priority for them.

Those are sweet! You gonna paint and weather them?

Of course, can't leave them in light grey. Those above were pretty cheap (<$5) 3D printed weapons from etsy.

Gridiron has a sublime SMG/harpoon mashup weapon, but they get $13/ea, and I just couldn't justify it. It's definitely the class of the field though if you're feeling spendy.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Me? Spendy?

I'm a single income household with 4 kids (2 college aged) and an elderly mom living with us. Spendy for me is the regular Joe CS fig, the occasional meal out and the (very) occasional boom stick and ammo. Once in a great while I'll splurge if I get some extra travel money, but even that usually just goes to the latest house or vehicle related bills. They say wealthy people stay wealthy because they live like they're poor and vice versa. I grew up poor so that's an easy one I took to heart.

I actually jumped on the Eel spear gun I got because it came in at $6 shipped, instead of the better detailed $12 one. I'm stalling on a Shippy head for the same reason. Mercari has given me a couple -$5 coupons recently that have come and gone, so now I'm holding out for another one so I don't have to pay over half the complete fig cost for just the head shipped.

Speaking of Shippy, would you happen to know if one of those Vala radio (non-helmet) headsets fits over his hatless hair? I'm thinking of going that route since it looks like a watch capped head may be unobtanium for a while. It'd be a shame to fully remove his glorious scruffy doo if I can make that work.

 

[nacho]

I can check, but I'm guessing it won't fit over the hair.

I might end up with a spare Shippy head, so before you buy one, hit me up. If I can get some ML Logan cowboy-boot-feet to fit on Shippy's legs, I've just found a good base for some good 'ol boys who never mean no harm...

So today, I drop off the kids, but I had an hour and a half to kill before a doctor's appointment. So I hit up every WM and Target that was remotely in my path. To my surprise, I actually found stuff in the wild. It was glorious! Found an entire wave of nascar diecasts I'd been hunting, and more importantly, one target had fully stocked pegs including both dreadnoks, Hawk, and Shockwave! I think this is the very first time I've ever found a classified figure in the wild that I didn't already own. The disbelief nearly floored me.

Dan Larson would be ashamed, but I did not leave one for the next collector. I bought both, even though both boxes were pseudo-crushed. I'm a little lukewarm on the buck, as I had hoped they'd have retired the Beachhead tooling by now, but overall, it looks like a cool figure. I had the original back in the day, but it was definitely toward the end of my Joe collecting days as a kid. I just remember the original sculpt had a huge noggin!

And they also had the new PP Officer (the naming of these PP figures is all over the place)... and while I hate PP, only the webgear/accessories on this figure is neon, and that can be easily cured with paint or dye. The entire body is black/grey with a red face scarf, so it screams some kind of Shadow Guard or something. I had to grab a couple to see what I could do.

 

[nacho]

Also, I got a piece of old mail that came in today (it had my old office address on it, so I know it's been in forwarding purgatory for weeks). It was a flier for Super7 and their holiday deals. What caught my eye was a Snake Armor module they were selling. It's not part of ReAction or Ultimates, but more in-line with the 11" BAT they did long ago.

So this thing is 11" tall and has 5 PoA. You can open up the chest and legs to reveal half of a cobra soldier that they call a cyborg because he has no legs. I'm guessing the soldier is a bit larger than the Ultimates figure about to drop, but not so much that anyone would care. Heck, just don't open the second inner layer and have an 11" SNAKE robot or whatever.

Long story short, they sent me a 20% off coupon, and it pushed me over the edge. I can't believe I'd never even heard of this beast being made before today. He's going to look good with the Ultimates and all their toony glory.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Congrats on the successful hunt! Funny you mentioned SW's big head. I always pretended he had a thick kevlar balaclava that was bulletproof like his vest (this is well before I had any real inkling of what bulletproof meant besides what I saw on shows like Knight Rider, Blue Thunder and the A-Team). Why else would it be so big?

Meh, it's a dog-eat-dog world. I'm pretty sure that next collector wasn't going to leave you anything! You gotta get it when you see it or miss out. Law of the jungle! In the last couple days, I swung by a Ross (having seen a Ross price tag on a Viper set listed on Mercari) and my local Ollie's. I'm pretty well convinced that Ollie's has fully blown their load, as random as it was, even though I've seen advertisements with non-movie figs within the past week or two. It's possible they might still have something other than movie figs and $13 LJs at their most remote locations, but everyone I've been at in the last month has been cleaned out of anything worth getting. I'm officially not going out of my way to check Ollie's unless something new presents itself.

I didn't realize you hadn't seen that SNAKE armor. I saw it a while back and simply wrote it of as inevitably too expensive for me to consider. As cool looking as it is, I had pretty well forgotten about it. They really do a great job of capturing the look and feel of the cartoon. And with the recent sales, an interested collector who was looking to get into S7 could have the whole first wave plus the BAT for the price of JoeClass figs. Had they started out at that price, it would have been a little harder to decide which way to go.

Oh, and thanks for the lead on the Shippy head. I'll check with you before I jump on anything (unless that coupon comes in and shatters my discipline! ).

 

[nacho]

Finally finished some of my lazier customs. Thought they came out pretty good.

The last one is the best. Skidmark!!!!!

 

[ThunderDan19]

Lol, worst codename ever! But the customs look great! Is that a modernized Mainframe in the middle?

 

[nacho]

Lol, worst codename ever! But the customs look great! Is that a modernized Mainframe in the middle?

Yeah, it's mostly a gridiron kit for Mainframe. I could do without the visor/glasses, and when I get a more distinct head, I might cut them out. But right now, I'm just using a stock Duke head, so I'm ok with him being less visible.

Skidmark is just a straight-up TF Dusty with orange gear. Once it hit me how simple it was without any part swapping other than getting the hat and vest, I HAD to make him. I'm rather pleased with how he turned out!

IceViper was pretty easy too once I got the head from my Aussie supplier. Everything else was just putting some different colors on the boots and fir of the Snow Serpent body... which I picked up on the cheap without a head or gear on mercari. Didn't want to waste more money on useless wolf pelts!

 

[ThunderDan19]

Still (today) getting these from Ollie’s. I never saw this version of SS there and haven’t seen anything there besides movie figs and $13 LJs for nigh a month now. C’mon, man!

 

[nacho]

Yeah, definitely feels bait and switchy. Of course, the intern who makes the ad probably doesn't know one joe from the next, so in her mind, they're all the same.

On the day of my fruitful target hunt, I passed through the neighborhood of my more remote Ollie's, and I couldn't bring myself to take the 1/4-mile detour. I should have, given my mojo that day, but I was too disillusioned.

 

[nacho]

New pics...





That's the Scarlett and Duke we should have gotten from the start... and I like that Scarlett looks like she has some meat on her bones. Valaverse taught us that you can have good looking female bucks that aren't scrawny waif models.

The Action Sailor/Diver looks awesome, and Airborne not only looks good but may well have some extra custom potential. Big Boa I'll get, only because I need more named characters for the various factions of the coming cobra civil war. And somebody has to kill Sarge routinely, might as well be his spiked-helmet counterpart.

 

[Videoviper]

Wow what you guys are going though is what happened to me in 2009 - & 25th Joes.

My wife thought I was crazy with a cart full of $5 Joes.

 

[ThunderDan19]

New pics...

View attachment 16498

View attachment 16499

That's the Scarlett and Duke we should have gotten from the start... and I like that Scarlett looks like she has some meat on her bones. Valaverse taught us that you can have good looking female bucks that aren't scrawny waif models.

The Action Sailor/Diver looks awesome, and Airborne not only looks good but may well have some extra custom potential. Big Boa I'll get, only because I need more named characters for the various factions of the coming cobra civil war. And somebody has to kill Sarge routinely, might as well be his spiked-helmet counterpart.

Agreed that they should have gone retro 6” Joes first, instead of the 4” ones (again). Those were just redundant, especially at the prices they were asking. Then they could have introduced the modernized as they started to gain momentum. You can always count on H’bro to do things backwards.

I’ll likely not replace my customized modern Duke, but will give Scarlett a glance, since the Joe CS version of her is hardly perfect. Definitely picking up Airborne, and likely the 60th soldier and diver (or at least a fair amount of their gear on Mercari) to upgrade other named figs. BB has no place in my Joeverse and I already passed on the IG guy.

I believe the newest PO drop is supposed to happen on the 7th.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I got a chance to open up and display Buzzer, Shockwave and Hawk tonight.

Buzzer - wow, he’s as rubbery a fig as I’ve seen so far, and his accessories even more. He really comes off as a cheap version. I did have to super glue his glasses, unlike Ripper’s. Overall, I’m not very impressed. If he were not so iconic and nostalgic for me, I don’t think I’d bother keeping him around.


Shockwave - much better than Buzzer, though I wish they would have made his shield reversible. For now, he’ll need to be a lefty. I gave him the MP7 I had gotten for him, which looks cool, but as usual, real 1:12 scale weapons are a little dwarfed by the Joe figs. If a better weapon comes down the pike that is better sized for him, I’ll swap it out and find another home for the MP7.


On the bright side, I think I have a pretty darn good modern suppressed sub-gun for Mutt now:


Hawk - Pretty good, but I don’t care for the thumper or shotgun that came with him. Considering he’s the general in charge, the pistols are sufficient, with a generic M-16 on the back for “just in case.” I don’t like that they gave him gloved hands this time, so replaced them with bare fists for his General Patton pose. Strangely, I had to cut back the pins to get them to seat in the wrists. It feels like H’bro is cutting corners lately.

He’s also not very tall, though it didn’t help that he was sandwiched between Sgt. Slaughter and Gung-Ho. I swapped GH with Stalker, which helps a little, but Slaugher is simply hulk sized, so I may have to figure something out to relocate him as some point. Overall, Hawk is pretty good, but I may look to make some minor tweaks if I see some potential improvements. (Edit: I noticed and fixed that shoulder holster that had ridden up over his collar when I slipped the M-16 in behind it. Can't have the commanding general looking wonky! ).


While I had the accessories bag out, I tried a radio headset on the spare Snow Job head. Yeah, it’s way too small for him, so I seriously doubt it’ll fit over Shippy’s scruffy do. I’ll have to try going back to my Plan A tactical helmet over Shippy’s unhaired head. It looks like it has more coverage than I remembered, so maybe the missing hairpiece won’t be too obvious. Not a great option, but it seems the most doable for now.

 

[nacho]

Your assessment of that wave is pretty close to where I landed. I do wish SW's shield could go in either hand. I might remove that plate glued into the back and either reverse it for one copy or reattach it with magnets so it can be swapped at will. But I assume that since he's got a sub on both sides so he can pull on you either way, SW must be amphibious.

I'm going to take Shippy's sailor cap w/ hair piece and trim back the sailor hat and then mold/sculpt or transplant a knit-cap/toboggan onto it for my "tactical" shipwreck. I have a cast head for lowlight I bought long before the figure was announced that might donate, and I might even have a spare official LL head willing to be scalped. Either way, I'd like it to still be removable, so I'll be shaving everything closely.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Nice! I can't wait to see your version of tactical Shipwreck!

Shockwave is most definitely amphibious!

For now at least, mine will remain a lefty, at least for display. I'm mulling a back to back pose with him and Beachhead (two of my favorites), so keeping him shooting left will offer at least marginal protection from the shield for BH too.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Hasbro G.I. Joe: Classified Series Crimson Alley Viper And More Only $11.97 on Walmart

Hasbro G.I. Joe: Classified Series Crimson Alley Viper And More Only $11.97 on Walmart

toynewsi.com

Looks like the CAVs have sold out. As of the post, they still have CVs for $12 , LJs for $5, Baronesses for $8. Destros for $15 and Green Pants SEs (good for customs?) for $22.

 

[nacho]

I saw that. I might have picked up a couple of CAVs just for the mostly black buck underneath the big red vest. But they were gone and the rest don't offer any parts I need. I'm sure I'll think of something when they go back to normal price.

 

[nacho]

So what do we expect from today's event? I assume we're getting some bragging about the HISS being shipped, as well as some pipeline color renders, and a couple of POs.

Someone posted what appears to be leaked color renders of Airborne, Quick-Kick, Techno-Viper, Big Boa, and Retro Recondo... along with the Retro Duke and Scarlett we'd already seen. Not sure who or how many of those are actually going up for PO today though. Could be that we might see the T-V repaint with crimson MMS, now that the HISS is hitting doorsteps?

Maybe some of the deluxe 60th figures up for PO? I don't know that I'm ordering any of those except the diver, just because Torpedo needs some friends. The others... as nice as they look, I don't know what I'd do with generic soldier-man unless I think of a custom that needs those pieces.

 

[nacho]

UPDATE:

Pipeline reveals:
- Starduster - almost started a custom of him, so this saves me the trouble, even though I already shelled out for the gridiron kit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Nemesis Immortal (not sure why he's not "Enforcer", but 25th did the same thing. Trademark?)
- Zandar (needed to fill out the crew)
- Leatherneck (meh, ok I guess)

Nine (9) Preorders going up today at 1pm EST:
'24 W1
- Big Boa
- Techno Viper
- Quick-Kick
- Airborne

'24 Retro W1
- Recondo
- Scarlett
- Duke

60th Anniversary (deluxe)
- Action Soldier
- Action Sailor/Diver

I'll be getting all the POs today except the 60th soldier...

 

[ThunderDan19]

The only one I am definitely POing is Airborne. Scarlett looks fantastic as the definitive retro version, but I'm not sure if I like her enough to unseat the one I have currently. Neither is as modern/practical as the Resolute version was, or even as well outfitted as some of those Vala girls are. So I'm ambivalent about her right now.

I also like the Action Soldier, but it will be a game time call as to whether I am willing to pay retail or wait for a sale down the road. Similar, but not as strongly with the Sailor. A lot will be determined by what is exclusive to where, as to whether I wait to see if they get discounted down the road or not. I have a Duke and a Recondo that I like well enough not to replace.

As for the pipeline, I'll definitely pick up Leatherneck, unless he's somehow a complete train wreck. Like you said, Zandar is necessary, if just to complete the Zartan family. I have no need for a Starduster, unless he is somehow epic. I also have no place for anything Cobra-La, which I consider the defining place where Joe jumped the shark. Let's hope history does not repeat.

 

[nacho]

The only one I am definitely POing is Airborne. Scarlett looks fantastic as the definitive retro version, but I'm not sure if I like her enough to unseat the one I have currently. Neither is as modern/practical as the Resolute version was, or even as well outfitted as some of those Vala girls are. So I'm ambivalent about her right now.

I also like the Action Soldier, but it will be a game time call as to whether I am willing to pay retail or wait for a sale down the road. Similar, but not as strongly with the Sailor. A lot will be determined by what is exclusive to where, as to whether I wait to see if they get discounted down the road or not. I have a Duke and a Recondo that I like well enough not to replace.

As for the pipeline, I'll definitely pick up Leatherneck, unless he's somehow a complete train wreck. Like you said, Zandar is necessary, if just to complete the Zartan family. I have no need for a Starduster, unless he is somehow epic. I also have no place for anything Cobra-La, which I consider the defining place where Joe jumped the shark. Let's hope history does not repeat.

BBTS has the Action Soldier & Action Sailer the same price as all the others, so it might be worth jumping on a PO just in case the price holds...

EDIT: It did not. They "fixed the glitch". I wonder if the ones I ordered will be honored...

 

[ThunderDan19]

Entertainment Earth has the same. It almost got me to buy them both plus Scarlett and Airborne to get the free shipping. But I told myself they will update the price before the delivery date or cancel the order. No way they'll take a $10 hit on each one of those.

Still waiting for Amazon to post their POs...