BradMan

I'm "All-In" for this Kickstarter! The figures look so great that they have inspired an interest in the Wild West that I never really had before. The figures are also compatible with the Marauder Task Force figures, so there will definitely be some head swaps between the two in my collection to add some more variety! Anyone who is a collector of 3.75" scale figures should get on board with this Kickstarter campaign - even if it's just one figure to help boost the funding. Chicken Fried Toys, Boss Fight, Marauder - they know what we want and are going out there and making it happen even as Hasbro and other companies are hit and miss with their new offerings. Kick(start) some Chicken! Bah-GAWK!

I am "All-In" for the Dime Novel Legends Kickstarter! I never would have thought I would be interested in Wild West era action figures, but these figures look so great that they have inspired an interest in the Old West. PLUS - they are designed by Boss Fight and build on the same structure as the Marauder Task Force figures. That means more heads for customization between the lines!

I know our hopes have been crushed before with the Indiana Jones line, and while I don't know any more than anyone else here on the board, I see reason for hope. A commemorative type release of these figures would make a lot of sense. We know Hasbro already had tools made for Toht and Dietrich, and odds are that the motorcycle is the same as the one that came with the German solider from "Last Crusade" with some slight modifications and the sidecar added - the original release did have attachment points on the right side for a sidecar. Hasbro and Lucas have a long history of these sort of commemorative figure releases corresponding with movie, video game, and DVD releases. Just in the last year or two we've seen figure sets for The Clone Wars, The Force Unleashed, and for the DVD release of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I don't know anything about this reported new Indiana Jones game, but from the look of it all of the figures are from Raiders. The German motorcycle did appear in Raiders during the cargo truck chase - it just wasn't featured as memorably as it was in Last Crusade. I'm really surprised by what appears to be the giant sherpa since we never saw anything about him... I wonder if they'd throw in an Indy with him since it's also surprising that we haven't seen a different Indy packed with every other figure. As far as these figures looking like customs... they probably are. Customs made by Hasbro. All of the toy companies do that for these sort of conventions in order to gauge interest on a product before they actually put in any more time and money to actually get it ready for production. And since Hasbro owns both the Star Wars and GI Joe figure lines, and since they are all 3 3/4" scale along with Indy, it would make sense that they would use bits from Star Wars and GI Joe figures to cobble together rough prototypes for this sort of display. Now if we could just see additional two packs of the German Mechanic and Indy in German uniform and white dress Marion with white suit Belloq then the world would be an awesome place.

Can anyone tell from the pictures we've seen, or has anyone been close enough to get a better look, what head is on the new Roadblock figure? From what I can see it doesn't look like the more animated looking head that we've seen on the Resolute prototype figures from China. But it also can't be the regular Roadblock head from the other 25th anniversary Roadblock figures because that head was too small to begin with and the new Roadblock sculpt is even bigger (according to reviews from people who snagged the prototypes) than the 25th Roadblock. Anybody know?

When I think of GI Joe I still think of the opening narration from the cartoon show: G.I. Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly trained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against COBRA, an evil organization determined to rule the world. My very first G.I Joe was a birthday present from my aunt in July of 1985. It was the Bridge Layer and Tollbooth, and to this day my parents tongue-in-cheek blame her for starting my collection. From that point on my brothers and I would amass a huge army of Joes and Cobras. My parents moved to a smaller house after my brothers and I had gone off to college and weren't ever going to be living at home again full time, and so I salvaged the surviving bits and pieces of the collection during the last great toy purge as my parents got ready to sell the old house. My level of dedication to G.I Joe has waxed and waned over the years. From 1985 - 1991 was the "golden age" for me as a child of the 80s when G.I. Joe was at the forefront of my toy buying. Other lines came and went during that time, and I experienced a brief resurgence in my interest for G.I. Joe with the Battle Corps figures in 1993 and 1994 since they were cool new versions of some of my favorite characters like Shipwreck, Duke, and others. When the Toys R Us 15th Anniversary figures came out I was tempted by them, but didn't end up buying any of them. I regretted that decision for a while, but since I now have a full line up of original 1982 figures courtesy of eBay I realize that had I bought the Toys R Us sets they would probably just be sitting in the repaints and extras box at this point. I know it sounds odd, but September 11 really brought G.I. Joe back into focus for me. I still remember picking up issue #1 of the Devil's Due run on Wednesday, September 12 and feeling a strange sense of reassurance. I remembered playing with G.I. Joes as my dad watched the live CNN coverage of the Gulf War in 1991, and so watching the aftermath of 9/11 on television I felt a need for the familiar comfort of G.I. Joe. I was a Junior in college at that point, and all of my G.I. Joes were back at my parents' house, so I went out and bought a few of the Real American Hero two-packs that were out at the time so I could have a few Joes to set up on my desk. At that point I started rebuilding my RAH collection from eBay and other online retailers as I also continued to collect the new figures through G.I. Joe vs Cobra, Spy Troops, and everything else up to the present. These days my collection is focused on the 25th Anniversary figures. I've pretty much got all of the vintage stuff I want, and the 25th Anniversary line is a way to recapture the childhood excitement that those characters represent in a way that doesn't have me worried about breaking thumbs and crotches off in the process. And so, 24 years after that original Bridge Layer it's still G.I Joe against Cobra the Enemy, fighting to save the day. They never give up, they're always there, fighting for freedom over land and air. A Real American Hero - G.I. Joe is there.

Hey everyone - i know that we've all struggled in finding the Temple of Doom figures, and so I wanted to help my fellow collector out with a website that I found after weeks of searching. Go to http://www.canyonwall.com/indianajones.html and you'll see all of the Temple of Doom figures as well as a few others from the line. Unfortunately the Temple Guard is sold out. I bought my set and then went back after they arrived (I wasn't going to believe the website actually had them in stock to make another order until I had them in my hands) to order more Temple Guards and they were out of stock. I hope that helps a few people out!

I think Nemesis is rated just about where it belongs in the film series - some fans really hate it, some really like it, and most just kind of let it be. It just has way too many problems to really be given too much praise. The biggest problem is that the director didn't know anything about Star Trek. Sure they got some fancy screenwriter with some fancy credits to his name that claimed to be a fan, but in the end I think it did more harm than good. He was such a fan that he just recreated bits and pieces of other Star Trek movies and TV episodes and cobbled them together rather than approaching the project as one big new story. The entire movie feels like it's just another run through of the routine rather than something special for the big screen. Sure, Riker and Troi's wedding was a big event, but even for those of us who watched the TNG characters for 15 years it felt a bit like "Eh, might as well..." There's almost no point to the Romulans being in the movie. Shinzon and the Remans could have been any other race and it would have worked just as well without any real changes. Plus, the whole "Shinzon's a clone of Picard that everyone forgot about" was so contrived and manufactured an idea that it didn't really hold any dramatic weight to it. And then there's B4.... a terrible idea that doesn't fit in with anything that had previously been established about Dr. Soong and the development of his androids.... After First Contact the idea of Picard running around with a phaser rifle to solve all his problems was more than a little ridiculous. It's like everyone was sitting around at a pitch meeting talking about how great First Contact was, and somehow they settled upon the idea that it was all because of the phaser rifle so all future TNG movies should use them. The entire climax of the film was just a shallow copy of the climaxes from Wrath of Kahn and Undiscovered Country. A ship that can fire while cloaked and the Enterprise has to figure out how to outmaneuver it? Done earlier and done better in Undiscovered Country. The ship is disabled but there's a doomsday device that the logical minded character has to sacrifice himself in order to stop? Been there, done that. I really wanted to like Nemesis, and I've tried watching it again and again and with the deleted scenes hoping it would get better, but in the end it's just kinda there.

I've gotten flamed for this before, but I think there is a mentality that you're not allowed to make a patriotic US war movie at any point in history after World War II. Everything set in the eras from Vietnam to the present is about incompetent and corrupt military leaders and politicians, and the only "heroes" are those who spend the whole movie philosophizing about pacifism, free will and the "real" meaning of freedom and liberty.

I don't think anything can save this movie at this point. I know there's a lot of nay-sayers and doom and gloomers on the boards about it, and a lot of others who are saying to give it a chance and not to judge before we've seen it....... and while everyone can form their own opinion I think us nay-sayers have a lot to back up our fears. I think the accelerator suits are the coup de grâce that puts the movie over the top beyond the point of redemption for many of us. Why pay homage to Sigma Six (if that's even the case) that was a part of the GI Joe mythos for about 3 years and completely ignore the military realism that was the hallmark of GI Joe in the 1960's before the Adventure Team and was again the driving force behind the first few years of A Real American Hero in the 1980's? Nothing about the accelerator suits makes sense to me. In the X-Men movies they went for the all black leather costumes because they didn't think they could make the comic costumes look good on the screen. That argument clearly doesn't fit here - what's hard about BDUs and fatigues that already exist in the real world? The accelerator suits are far more complicated than anything the characters have ever worn in the comics, cartoons, or any of their toy iterations except for Star Brigade. From a marketing perspective, having characters in identical costumes is always more difficult than when each character has a unique look. That's why in the new Star Trek Chris Pine's Kirk is in all black for most of the movie - so he stands apart from Pike, Chekov, Sulu, and the rest of the bridge crew that might be wearing yellow. The accelerator suits may be based on ideas the US military has on eventually creating some sort of exo-strength and speed enhancing armor for soldiers, but it's hardly the foremost "next step" in military technology. And for GI Joe the suits essentially rob the characters of any of their unique specialties and talents. It takes GI Joe from an "elite, highly trained, special mission force" to "anybody can wear one of these suits and be a super soldier". Of course the biggest thing that bugs me about all of the changes that were made for the movie is what I suspect is the biggest reason behind them all - the all important international box office numbers. Most major blockbusters today are counting on a significant portion of international sales for their profits. The producers are afraid that the audiences in France, Russia, Japan, India, and wherever wouldn't pay to see US military characters, but they loved Batman and Iron Man so let's throw something that looks kinda like those at them. The entire movie seems like they put the cart before the horse. They had all their ideas and all their visions, and just tried to slap some familiar character names on to what they had made after the fact. I'll go see it when it comes out, but I have the absolute lowest expectations for it.

The costume department had designed all new uniforms for the TNG crew, but then the producers/directors (someone) decided it would be too much change and decided not to go forward on those new uniforms. But, Playmates Toys went into production of their Generations figures before the studio decided not to change things, so that's where the odd looking Generations figures come from. That's what the new uniforms were supposed to look like. The DS9 jumpsuits make perfect sense from a TV production/marketing standpoint in that they wanted the DS9 crew to look different from the TNG crew when they were both on the air at the same time. And the DS9 uniforms make sense for the DS9 crew as more "work" uniforms for putting a run down old Cardassian station back together. But the DS9 jumpsuits never made sense for Voyager. When Voyager left the Alpha quadrant, everyone in Starfleet was still pretty much wearing the TNG uniforms. Sisko was wearing one when he was back on Earth in season 4's "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost". All the other Starfleet officers in those episodes were wearing the TNG uniforms. Every other Starfleet officer who came to DS9 was wearing a TNG uniform. So to automatically start the crew of Voyager in DS9 jumpsuits doesn't make any sense on a Starfleet level. And if the point of the DS9 uniforms was to make the crew look different while TNG was still on the air, it doesn't make sense to put Voyager's cast in DS9 uniforms when DS9 is still wearing them too. DS9 didn't switch over to the grey and black "First Contact" style uniforms until midway through the 5th season, which would have been close to the end of the 2nd season on Voyager. Of course there's the whole fact that I never really liked Voyager........

I may be wrong or misremembering where I saw it, but I thought that at some point it was described that Qui Gon's views on "the living force" were a bit different from the Jedi mainstream. It could stand to reason that within the Star Wars universe there are a variety of dogmatic interpretations of the force just as there are different denominations or sects within the major religions on Earth. Just think about it... all Christians have the same basic beliefs, but the specific denominations of Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, etc. all have their own individual dogmas and teachings that differ from each other. Same with Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, etc. So, one particular branch of the Jedi Order could really support the idea of Midichlorians while another branch could reject those notions.

Where is the belt and holster combination from? I need some of those!

Yup... pulled the Snake Eyes knife sheath off, cut the Duke leg's useless holster off, dremmeled 'em both down and glued the sheath in place.

I've seen a few people with a fairly consistent combination of parts to create a Resolute Flint figure, and while I was inspired by those I also wanted to do something a bit different. One big thing is that I didn't want to use the actual Flint figure head because the beret just seemed out of place. When I saw the TRU Greenshirts battle pack I knew that the comic pack Hawk head was exactly what I was looking for in order to get the proper look for how I envisioned a modern realistic looking covert Flint. I also didn't want to use the Resolute Duke elbow pads the way I had seen others do this custom. As much as we all hate the rolled up sleeve Duke arms, they were the exact look I was going for. A quick hand swap got rid of the awkward looking joint at the wrist, and I am quite pleased with how they look.

Like many others I realized after having it in hand just how cool the Resolute Duke figure was. That being said, the lack of a functional holster is one of those little things that kept this figure from being perfect. So, I picked up another one to "fix". The holster, HK pistol, and leg pouch were stolen from a knock-off SWAT figure I had lying around.

I know I stole this design from at least a few other customizers out there, but it's such a gimmee.... I had an extra Snow Job that I got from an auction with some other loose figures, and so Snow Job's goggles around Flint's neck are the only real difference that sets this custom apart from any others with the same idea. Copied or not, I think it's a sweet looking figure.

Does anyone know if the Marauder "Sawed-Off" Double Barrel Shotgun fits in the holster on the left leg of the 25th Anniversary Crimson Guards? I know the original figures had a shotgun that looked just like Marauder's molded on the leg, and it would be a vast improvement over the revolver that the 2th CGs came with... Thanks!

I know that Dusty and Bazooka were my two favorite characters and figures as a kid. My brother and I each had our own Flint figures, so he was a pretty consistent mainstay. I know I was super excited when Duke v3 came out because I had never had the original Duke figure. Plus, that Duke was desert themed (kind of) and so he fit in with Dusty well. In terms of Cobras I know my hooded Cobra Commander, Zartan, Serpentor, and IG Destro saw a lot of face time.

Let me add my two cents... possible spoilers below (but only based on my guesses from watching the trailer). In the original series, Pike didn't get transfered to be the captain of a freighter. He was promoted to "Fleet Captain", and while none of us is quite sure what that means, my guess is it is more of an administrative position that is above the regular captaincy of a ship, but not quite at the level of the admiralty. As fleet captain he was aboard an old J-Type freighter that was being used as a training vessel, and that's when the accident happened. So, what does this mean for the way things are handled in the new movie? In "The Menagerie" Kirk mentioned that he only met Pike once, briefly before he was promoted to Fleet Captain. If the writers are smart, this entire movie could be considered that one meeting. From what I gather, Kirk is not supposed to be on the Enterprise but finds a way there anyway, so years later if someone asked about his relationship to Pike, he would just pass the whole adventure off as a brief meeting. That sounds like the James T. Kirk I know. And even if the writers decide to throw that one line of dialog out the window and establish a larger relationship between Pike and Kirk, I won't be too upset. It looks like Spock is serving as Pike's first officer at the point we find them in the movie, and that Kirk is on board the Enterprise without an official assignment. We have to remember that 1) the movie will jump around to a few different points in time, and 2) the order of scenes in the trailer is not necessarily the order in which they appear in the movie.

I cant remember when the first time I saw TMP was, but I know I didn't really appreciate this scene until I was about 14. By that time I had seen all of TNG and DS9 was kicking into high gear with its 4th season, so sufficed to say I was well versed in Star Trek and numerous Starfleet ships. But watching it when I was finally old enough to begin understanding the subtleties of character, metaphor, symbolism, and other literary devices I was finally able to appreciate what had been "boring" movies or parts of movies when I was a kid. And so watching this scene again, it has become one of my favorite in all of "Star Trek". From a few short lines of dialog you can see how much the Enterprise means to both Kirk and Scotty, and how that mutual love for the Enterprise helps to define their relationship. Without any words, you can see Kirk recognize that Scotty is purposefully making him wait by taking the long way around, and you can see Scotty grin as he makes course adjustments. Watching Kirk strain his head to try and get a look around the dry dock, it's easy to see how long and hard he's fought for this moment. The music is beautiful, and so the whole scene comes together perfectly.

I don't know... I'm looking and I just can't really find a justification to buy these quarter scale figures. I've seen Kirk for sale at around $65, which is about the same as Sideshow's 12" figures. But looking at the figures, they're really nothing we haven't seen before. The clothing still doesn't look that far ahead of what Playmates did with their 12" figures, and the fact that Spock comes with a phaser and communicator but no tricorder is a big check in the negative column. Sure, the sound chips are a snazzy new feature, but overall I'm not blown away enough by these to want to start a collection of yet another scale of Star Trek figures.

I really like the new uniforms. It's got all the proper elements of the original (color, rank stripe on sleeve, division insignia) but with a more modern look. I like the look of the cast as well. Certain pictures of Chris Pine have the look of Kirk down perfectly, others aren't quite as good, so I hope that overall it will work out. Kirk was supposed to be 34 when he took command, and right now in Hollywood everyone in their 30s does look like they're in their 20s, so the fact that Pine is 27 doesn't bother me too much. I saw a photoshopped picture of Pine in a gold uniform and it looked pretty good. As far as the bridge goes, I like it overall but I'm still a little nervous. The all white bridge in The Motion Picture looked very sleek, but also very sterile and plain. I like the life and energy that the blue lights and steel add to the images of the bridge thus far. The captain's chair looks good, so I'll just have to wait and see the whole bridge before I can decide for sure. Overall I'm still a bit nervous about the movie, but getting more excited with everything I see.

Oh boy... here we go. Star Trek the Motion Picture - 3.5 - I like it more every time I watch it, but watching it can sometimes be a chore. The movie really captured the essence of Star Trek, though. It isn't all space battles and action, but it's a voyage of discovery both of what's "out there" and what's inside each of us on the human adventure. The scene where Scotty is taking Kirk around to the Enterprise and purposefully takes the long way to build up Kirk's anticipation is one of my all time favorite Trek scenes. The score is beautiful, and Scotty and Kirk's body language and expressions do more to let you know how much the Enterprise means to each of them more than any dialogue ever could. In the end they save the day and the Earth using their heads rather than ramming a photon torpedo down someone's throats. Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan - 5 - This movie is a complete 180 from the Motion Picture, and it works in every way. The metaphors comparing Starfleet to the Navy are even stronger than ever, and it makes everything that much more believable. Watching Kirk outwit the superior intellect of Khan proves why Kirk is such a great leader and Khan is such a great villain, and the character development of Kirk reflecting on mortality with his birthday and the death of Spock is more insight into the human condition. The death of Spock, even knowing he'll be back in Star Trek III is still one of the most powerful sequences of any movie, Star Trek or not. Star Trek III The Search for Spock - 4 - It's great, but still can't quite measure up to Wrath of Khan. The stealing of the Enterprise is a great sequence that allows all the characters to shine, and the heavy price paid by Kirk at the cost of his ship and his son shows how close the crew is to each other. Star Trek IV The Voyage Home - 5 - Brilliant on every level. It really goes back to the roots of Star Trek by using science fiction to address a contemporary problem in a way that audiences enjoy but are also left thinking about. The scale of the threat is appropriate to a movie, and the solution again is one of intellect rather than mindless aggression. In many ways, the perfect Star Trek movie. Star Trek V The Final Frontier - 4 - I'm sorry, but I love this movie. If nothing else, it is worth it for all the scenes of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Sure the story gets a little weird with Sybock and Sha Ka Re, but the story really is about going where no man has gone before. Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country - 5 - The entire future of the Federation and Klingon Empires rests on the shoulders of Captain Kirk - that's not an epic enough scale?!?!? After losing his son at the hands of the Klingons, Kirk has to put everything on the line for his duty to Starfleet and the Federation. The Shakespeare adds some depth and gravity to the story, and once again the metaphorical parallels to what was going on in the real world with the collapse of the Soviet Union are exactly what Star Trek should be about. This was the perfect send off for the original crew. Star Trek VII Generations - 2.5 - Every time I watch this movie I find less and less reason to like it. I grew up on TNG from the beginning, so in many ways that was "my" cast more than the original series, but the whole part of this movie set with the TNG cast was awful. It read like a filler episode script, not a movie. Who cares about Veridian III? Picard was all whiny and emo about the family that we only saw once and he barely ever mentioned on the series, Data's emotion chip got far more focus than it should have, and there was no reason for Picard to sacrifice Kirk in order to stop Soran. The destruction of the Enterprise D was a cheap shot, and all in all we would have been far better off to have just skipped right to First Contact. Star Trek VIII First Contact - 5- This is what a TNG movie was supposed to be. The Captain Ahab like obsession of Picard over the Borg made for a great conflict. Picard and Data were front and center, but at least the rest of the cast got to do things that allowed for their specialties to be utilized. Picard had a reason to get emotional with the Borg involved rather than the contrived emotions he had in Generations. They got everything right for this one, and then forgot how. Star Trek IX Insurrection - 3.5 - Once again, it felt like a long episode rather than a movie. The Baku and the Sona did not constitute an epic threat to the future of humanity like V'Ger, Khan, the Probe, or the Borg. It tried to be funny but it felt forced, and tried to be action packed but without a whole lot of good reason. Star Trek X - Nemesis - 1- This movie was so random, cliche, and disjointed that I still don't quite know what the point of it was. The whole idea of the TNG crew being a family that was going its separate ways was so forced and unnatural that I had a hard time caring. Most of the crew only got one or two scenes, and the rest was all Picard and Data once again. The only point of Geordi being in this movie is to give Data someone to talk to on screen when he's not talking to Picard or himself (B4). The villain was a pale imitation of an idea of what a great villain should be, and most of the whole movie was just copied bits and pieces of other movies. The way the Romulans were used was a disgrace, and all of the story decisions proved that the writer and director had no idea what they were doing. TNG deserved to bow out with much more grace and dignity than they were afforded here. If you're just looking for space battles, go watch the last 6 episodes of Deep Space Nine - you'll be much happier.

I won't lie, I'm very excited about these new toys from Playmates. I have just about everything Art Asylum and DST have put out, and I have boxes full of Playmates stuff, and every now and then I get real nostalgic for the Playmates stuff. Sure, it wasn't always accurate and the articulation was a little weird, but I love 'em all the same. The possibility of 3 3/4" figures just makes them that much better. I love that scale for GI Joe, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, so the plans for smaller figures with a bridge and transporter playset is just awesome. I love TOS because I grew up with the reruns as a kid, so I was very hesitant about a bunch of young punks coming in and trying to fill the roles of the original cast. So far JJ Abrams has been a genius with getting me hyped about the new version of things, because as a huge TOS fan I'm now really excited about the new movie. Supposedly the major marketing campaign is going to start in November, so I guess we'll all see if it's been worth the wait then....

I don't think the audience, whether they are simply average movie goers looking for entertainment, or "hardcore" Joe fans, should have to settle for mindless entertainment and "4 or 5 huge action scenes". Part of what made many of us GI Joe fans in the first place, beyond thinking the toys were cool, is the complexity and maturity of the characters and the plots there were developed under Larry Hama's scripting of the comics. Granted, things got worse over the years with all focus on ninjas and science fiction, but within the GI Joe mythos and history is a wealth of possibility for well crafted and developed story telling. Nostalgia does cloud our judgement more than a little bit for how great our won personal visions of GI Joe were. I grew up on the cartoon more than the comic, but 20 years later watching those episodes I cringe a bit because some of them were so cheesy and clearly geared towards their young audience. But it was only a few years ago when the short-lived Marvel trade paperback collections were released that I had a chance to read the earliest stories that Hama wrote. I think the issues that provided some of the best examples of what GI Joe could be are issues 7 and 8 where the GI Joe team is in Afghanistan racing against the Oktober Guard to recover a lost satellite. At the end, after running into Cobra and forced to make a hasty alliance with the Oktober Guard against Cobra, Hawk reveals to the team that what they recovered was just scrap metal and that the real satellite had already been recovered. The GI Joe team was sent on a dummy mission by the Pentagon because they had to make the recovery attempt look believable. It's not just a simple matter of ninja fights and high speed chases to catch Cobra Commander, there are themes of duty, honor, deceit, and intrigue woven throughout the story to give it depth. The GI Joe team has always been based a little in fantasy and science fiction - but not to the point that the movie is shaping up to portray. I'm not saying everyone needs to run around in matching green turtlenecks, but a power armor suit that allows people to run 50 MPH is just ridiculous. When you introduce extreme science fiction and super hero type elements into the GI Joe mythos, it completely removes the essence of what GI Joe should be. It's just like when James Bond movies focused too much on new gadgets - suddenly anyone who has these little devices can do it and all of the training and expertise the character has is cheapened. The drama that should exist with an elite military team like GI Joe should come from the characters drawing upon their training, experience, and personal will to complete their mission - not some magic bit of technology that does all the work for them. Personally, and the rest of this post is purely from my beliefs and opinions, I don't think anyone in Hollywood is brave enough to make a GI Joe movie that portrays what the GI Joe team might really be like in the 21st century. Just look back to the intro for the GI Joe team in the cartoons: "GI Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly trained, special mission force. It's mission: To protect human freedoms against Cobra - a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world." To translate that to a real life interpretation on the screen is a little too realistic for movie studios trying to appeal to the summer blockbuster crowd. The war on terror is far too sensitive a subject to risk a huge marketing campaign on. You put US soldiers on screen fighting terrorists and you invite both sides of the political debate to critique everything about your movie. So, you go the easy route instead - quasi-science fiction semi-superheroes versus over the top super villain types. End of rant.