Straight Edge

At around $25 a figure, it cost about $400 after shipping fees are included. Maybe a little more, but my wife got me the first run as a Christmas gift and she paid it in one shot instead of installments, and it was around 415 or so. Yep. Anyone who joined after March 16th of this year is automatically set to receive next year's Membership figure, whatever it turns out to be.

He protects our freedoms with a rubber glove and a finger up your cat's butt. I... I think I'll take Fascism.

The club is still open to the possibility of doing vintage/O-ring repaints in the future, but admitted to having a very limited amount of tooling to do so with. The subscription will feature modern tooling only - no O-rings in the set of 13. It was stated explicitly. Also, while the Club has *lots* of ideas, they all need to be submitted to Hasbro for approval. My choices (not limited to 10 - just ideas of characters that are currently possible with existing tooling): Euro Mutt - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/euromutt.shtml Euro Spirit - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/eurospirit.shtml Cobra Mortal - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/arg-cobramortal.shtml TNT - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/argtnt.shtml Forca Tigre Marujo - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/br-marujo.shtml Force Tigre Ar Puro - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/br-arpuro.shtml Gaucho - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/gaucho.shtml Hunter - http://www.yojoe.com/action/int/hunter.shtml Night Force Falcon - Unproduced Wave 13, hopefully with fixed wrists Tiger Force Roadblock - Unproduced Wave 13, hopefully with Python Copperhead hands Iron Klaw - Cancelled Comic Pack Arctic Cobra Commander - Cancelled Comic Pack POC Alpine - Cancelled Mech Wave POC Desert Scorpion - Cancelled Mech Wave

The 30 for 30 concept is supposed to be 30 items, not just 30 figures. We're playing by Hasbro's rules.

I was kinda hoping they'd do a 1-per year thing, so that's how I'm doing it: 1982 - Marvel design Cobra Commander (Double Breasted Admiral-style jacket, big-aft Cap America boots and Awesome hood sculpt... no windsweeping) 1983 - Wolverine with Cover Girl 1984 - Storm Shadow - that figure's straight out my dreams 1985 - Airtight - only cuz there's nothing else from this year Hasbro hasn't already knocked out of the park 1986 - Thunder Machine w/Thrasher 1987 - BF2000 Dodger 1988 - Muskrat vs Voltar "Ultimate Enemies 2-pack" 1989 - HISS II - black repaint/retool 1990 - Metalhead 1991 - Heavy Duty 1992 - Slice and Dice 2-pack 1993 - Cobra Reborn 7-pack - Bio-Armor Cobra Commander, Ninja Force Storm Shadow (unmasked!), Battle Corps Dr. Mindbender, Baroness (2009 5-pack with red detailing), Destro (25th IG with silver mask and details), Ninja Force Zartan, and Cobra uniform Billy. 1994 - Original Action Team 7- pack - GIJoe Colton, Action Soldier, Action Sailor, Action Marine, Action Pilot, Bulletman and Mike "Atomic Man" Power 1995 - Sgt Savage and General Blitz 2-pack 1996 - Iron Klaw 1997 - Iceberg (Arctic 3-pack version) 1998 - Vypra 1999 - Wild Card Spot - 1983 desert Clutch, 1989 Rock'n Roll and ... Wild Card! 2000 - Law and Order 2001 - Fast Blast Viper - original colors, plus bonus HEAT Viper helmet. 2002 - Devil's Due 7-pack - Black Ops Duke (green collared shirt and tie), Night Watch Shipwreck, May Day, Kamakura, Zanya, Alex UnDestro, and Mistress Armada. 2003 - Spy Troops Barrel Roll vs Blackout 2004 - VvV Overkill (animated model) 2005 - DTC Medi-Viper 2006 - Sigma 6 Lt Stone 2007 - Sigma 6 Hi-Tech 2008 - Convention Hotwire 2009 - Wild Card #2 - Early Marvel 3-pack - Dr. Venom, Kwinn (tracker shorts) and Billy (Cobra Scouts uniform) 2010 - Wild Card #3 - Sunbow Originals 3-pack - Cadet Demming, Raven, and Sparks 2011 - 30th Anniversary Duke

Lotsa cranky fans on this board... really makes it hard to post. I'm as big a Joe fan as you can find. The show is awesome, and I'm loving how they're reintroducing everyone. Reboots are the nature of corporate Franchises. You simply have to accept that (or ignore everything that isn't 25 years old). And for this incarnation of GIJoe, yes a lot of inspiration comes from the A-Team concept... but it's done thru a decidedly Joe themed filter. I am digging all the cameos, I'm enjoying seeing this new universe unfold from the beginning. Far too many continuities have begun in media res and it's nice to get some origins for the bad guys. Major Bludd's eyepatch, Scrap-Iron's scars... I just hope Destro's mask isn't a movie-inspired thing. Lots of the Snakes-Eyes/Storm Shadow origin was straight from the comics, with a little more logic and the inclusion of Jinx... all of which work for me. Curmudgeonly nostalgic fans may not dig it, but I sure do!

I'm already bending over for the Scalpers, cuz I want 6 of the Twin Gun repaints and they represent the last of the "army building" Ill do with vehicles for the forseeable future. I admit I'm getting suckered, and if I were closer to the community I'd be all about the hook-up. But considering I've had half a dozen Stinger jeeps and 12 Stinger drivers (plus the 6 "Commanders" that came with the Stingers), and I've been dreaming of this set-up since the MMS repaint was released last year, I'm willing to get hosed just this once. Once!

Man, all this talk about price. The nature of the hobby is to overpay for meaningless plastic figures that remind us of our childhood. This is just a little more extreme, but the same principle. So for me, it's all good. Python Patrol holds a special place in my heart. Back in 1991, when I rediscovered my love for GIJoe, I found the full set at a discount store 3 miles from my house. At 12 years old, I put them on layaway and every week I walked those three miles and paid for another figure. Special Mission Brazil represents the road not traveled. In 1986, I remember going to Toys R Us with my parents and seeing whole end cap of those boxed sets. I wanted the set, I wondered endlessly about the cassette tape and the story of those characters... but I was there for a Birthday gift, and I chose something else... probably a Transformer at that point. All these years later, I can see them clearly on that endcap. Now, they will be mine. The International figures are just icing. I first learned about them in 1994, during the 30th Anniversary Convention on the Intrepid, and later through Lee's Action Figure News & Toy Review Convention special... I've been obsessed ever since. Having Cover Girl (through a sneaky backdoor Sparta "repaint"), De Aco, Claymore and possibly Relampago and Gatilho (Argentinian Python Patrol repaints of Airborne and Ripcord... seems like a no brainer)... just warms the cockles and loosens the pursestrings with ease. Now I just have the decide if I'm going to this thing, or getting the Hometown Heroes package, and hitting up "the boys" to do some on-site acquisition for me!

It's a statue "diorama", like Snake-Eyes vs Red Ninjas and the Flint vs Zartan swamp scene. The Cobra Commander is Marvel-accurate, not based on the Reloaded universe like the 12" figure.

It wasn't so much a jab at the convention the way you put it. The previous issue featured Snake-Eyes, already pissed from Scarlett being in a coma and his almost brother-in-law killed, passed the Consulate building in NY in an ambulance (carrying a badly stabbed Storm Shadow to the hospital). Snake-Eyes just snapped, busted into the Consulate, laid waste to the Commander's guards and a bunch of Night Creepers and put a knife to the Commander's throat. Stalker followed and related a message from Snake-Eyes... get out of town - NOW! The Commander's orders to "get rid of them" was meant to be confusing. He meant "let them go, I dont want the Joes gunning for me in a vendetta before I can get out of town." But the Twins heard it as "kill them", and left the SAW-Viper to do just that. He killed 4 Joes outright - Doc, Crank Case, Heavy Metal, and Thunder. Later, his squad blew up the Rage tank the Joes were on, killing Breaker, Quick Kick and Crazy Legs. Personally, I never felt the SAW-Viper was responsible for those 3... There were more SAW Vipers in later issues, notably in Issue #121 where 6 various Viper-types arrive in Trans-Carpathia to hold down the Castle while the Commander and his troops flew in by chopper. I also believe a SAW Viper was involved in the last assault on PIT 3 around #130.

... and I just noticed, I have a different nose in each of these pics! Now *that's* creepy!

I managed to snag a seat a this table for the Awards Dinner. Tom, Corey, and Rod (plus Jim Betel from HissTank) Scott and Craig... plus an older gentleman and a Green Beret, Willy I think. I didn't mingle much at the Con, but I was glad to end it in the company of awesome Joefans like these guys! I also bumped into this guy a lot: It's only been ten years, but time has certainly taken it's toll... on me! And this shot is from the last time I attended a Con... in Chicago, 1995, where I met Don Levine, the man who created G.I.Joe.

There were 20 different groups that went through the Hasbro tour. My group didn't get a reason why, but they did say a lot of the protos we were shown never evolved past the design/concept phase. My favorites were the new, Armored HISS Driver, which looked so damn cool. Lots of armor panels on his red bodysuit, and he was still recognizable as a HISS Driver. The new diver was amazing, too. Apparently there was a concentrated effort to make a real-world modern diver... the kind of true-to-life details that we haven't seen since the Classic Collection. Iron Klaw was another doozey. All the new bits for this guy have been tooled, there were a number of prototypes around the Modeling studio. I'm betting he'll be a Collector's Club figure if nothing else. The DTC Hard Master was very cool, but ultimately a non-essential, just like the 25th version. He had a much better head sculpt tho. Anyone else that went on the tour remember any other characters? It went so damn quick!

Tytus is being released next month, and ComicCon isn't till the end of July

The 2-pack with A-Team Commander and Dr. Venom is $45 for Officer-level members. The other two are $35.00 a piece. Considering I got my membership when I signed up for the Con, will get the convention set, me and my fiance will be taking the Hasbro Tour (according to a Club employee, anyway), I've gotten a price break on these packs and will have a good shot at the Convention exclusive extras (assuming any of them are 25th related), I think it was money well spent. Granted, I'm hoping to unload Big Lob and the Con Boxed set (I'm done with vintage figures), but the fact is, I'm getting the promised bonuses for signing up.