gojira77

My Wal-Mart just got all of Wave 13 this week, but still no sign of Wave 12 or the rest of Wave 10. Wave 11 is pretty much everywhere-- Zartan is the Merriam Webster's Definition of Awesome, ski-doo and all, and my poor beloved Pilot Scarlett has already began to clog the pegs (if only I could give a good home to them all!). Of the two Fred Meyers in town, only one ever carried Wave 10, which never showed at Target at all. The troup builders from 10 were released in 11, so Target has had plenty of Bazooka Troopers and even Para-Vipers. But anybody wanting a Crock Master for less than Ebay prices is kinda out of luck. Apparently, Bellingham stores only stock odd-numbered waves. Before the re-issue wave, I could never find a Mass crystals CC or even a TF Flint, though wave 9 (minus the mythical Single Card BAT) arrived right on time. Some Mutts and even a couple TF Dukes have crept onto Walmart pegs, nothing else from Wave 10, and they came heavily mixed in with re-issue guys. Now I'm sorry that I passed on Crock Master when I first saw him. Following the local pattern, I should be seeing Wave 12 a few weeks after Wave 13, soooo... sometime in January, I guess. I really want those MASS elements, too. And the Single Card Tripwire that shoulda been Tiger Force. Oh well.

Yeah, saw this guy at Wal-Mart today with Resolute CC and pretty much all of wave 13 except for Blowtorch-- apparently Wal-Marts and Targets are only allowed to get odd numbered waves! @grumpy@ I gotta say that he looked better to me in pics than in person. I walked away liking my Tiger Force Duke even more. Resolute CC had a fairly big head, too, kinda like a throwback to the '80s, though he was cooler than the Duke.

I'm about Cobra Commandered-out, but this one does feature the new DVD Pack head, as does the Trooper-Viper. Resolute Duke looks almost dead-on like Classic Red 'N Tan 'cept for the elbow pads and better colors-- he's even got the flat-top and facial features! Does that mean I'd want to get him more if Hasbro actually made him, well, worse?!?

Found out about a contest to get people to donate here. Really, this is WIN-WIN for everybody-- sacrifice a little bit of your collecting budget to help inspire great childhood memories for somebody else, and clear-up the pegs and shelves for new product. I know for a fact in my town there are the "Haves", the "Have-nots", and "Have-Even-Lesses", and people always give less during an economic down-turn when both the poor and the economy need our dollars the most. Really guys, What Would Snake-Eyes Do?

Same here. I hate being treated as a criminal when I'm doing nothing wrong. Actually, I've been in situations similar to this, and have got pretty irritated... First, let me preface this by saying that I have very little respect for law enforcement in my area. When I was a teenager, I received two separate tickets for traffic violations, simply because I was a young kid driving around at night, and the officers involved pulled me over hoping to catch me doing something I wasn't doing, and gave me tickets because they didn't catch me drinking or with drugs on me, and needed to make the stop look good...even though what they ticketed me for was complete BS and were for nothing I was in violation of. I was also stopped once, and patted down, for walking on a sidewalk, by a school, late at night, on my way to go get cigarettes from a nearby gas station, and given the excuse "we had reports of a 'suspicious person' looking in windows." For the last five years, I've been the manager of a convenience store/gas station, and when it comes to calling the cops for theft, property damage, or whatever, most of the time, we're lucky to get them to come to the store on the day we call them. If I lived in a larger area, it would be understandable, but most of the cops in this area are more concerned over where they're gonna have their next lunch break together than out preventing real crime. I've also had my own vehicle hit in the parking lot at work...we had the license of the guy, and a video and everything, and the police never helped me resolve the case. Every time I called them on it, they would give me lines like, "Well, we're still looking into it...blah, blah, blah" so I eventually just gave up after a few months, and chalked it up as a loss. However, when it comes to running alcohol or tobacco stings on our store, which they get bonuses through the state for, they're all over it like stink on sh**. So, to my story... Two summers ago, I was fishing with my cousin, who is a cop himself (who has always been insecure and had low self-esteem, which led to him being a cop), and two of my friends. The lake we were fishing on is right by a road on the way up to the reservoir here in my area. We were all drinking beer, except for my cousin since he was our sober driver, and having a decent amount of fun. After an hour or so there, I see a forest service truck drive by, and think nothing of it, as there are usually a lot of forest service people in that area. About 15 minutes later, this same truck comes back and pulls in where we are. The officer gets out, and walks over to us, asking how we're doing and if we're catching any fish. After BS'ing with us for a few minutes, he points at me, and says, "Can you come over here for a second?" I follow him over to his truck where he instantly starts the interrogation... Officer: "So, when I drove by earlier I saw you smoking something. What was it?" Me: "If I was smoking something, it was probably a cigarette." Officer: "Probably? So you don't know?" At this point, I'm instantly irritated by the fact that what was supposed to be a fun day out with the boys, has turned into a forest service "marijuana shakedown." I look the forest service guy straight in the eyes, and pretty angrily say, "Ya know, I'm pretty offended you're even asking me this. If you think I was smoking a joint, you're wrong, cause I wasn't." Officer: "Well, you don't seem to know what you WERE smoking." At this point, I'm getting pissed. Officer: "If you have 'something' on you, just be straight with me." Me: "All I have is cigarettes." Officer: "Just tell me the truth, don't worry about your friends. If you have something, you're not in that much trouble." Now I'm beyond angry. Me: "I've told you a couple times now, I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ON ME." Officer: "Well, what were you smoking when I drove by?" Me: "I TOLD YOU, IT WAS A CIGARETTE...this is BULLSHIT!" I turn around and walk away from him, pretty f***ing pissed off. He follows me over to my group of friends where he tells us to have a good day. Well, at this point, our day out is pretty much ruined cause I'm in a sh*tty mood, so we decide to pack up and go home. To top it off, my cop cousin lectures me the entire way home about how he probably would've used his taser gun on someone if they had walked away from him the way I did the forest service officer. Seriously...WTF?!? What am I supposed to do? Stand there and continue to give the same answer to the same bullshit questions over and over again until I admit to something I wasn't doing? These are just a few of the reasons I have very little respect for law enforcement. Yeah, they had pretty low standards for Law enforcement in the the county where I grew up, and I'm still trying to shake bad associations in my head and not stereotype a whole profession. I'm just hoping that the scary racist kid at my high school with the trunk full of HATE literature didn't fulfill his dream of becoming a cop, but I'm not holding my breath. [sigh]

Just because you have a degree doesn't mean you automatically get selected for OCS....the person needs to apply and kinda has to want to be an Officer. The pay is way more......but there are guys that are enlisted that want nothing to do with being an officer. Its entirely up to that individual if they want to go Officer or not. G.I.Joe seems to have the best educated enlisted guys, anyways. Airborne went to Law School, Duke was fluent in three languages before joining the Army, and Flint (who wasn't even a full-fledged WO until Eco-Warriors) was a Rhode's scholar. I guess not everybody is motivated by better pay and "career advancement". Certain Joes are specialists and they enjoy just doing their thing.

Is the head molded in flesh this time? I might get one and just pop his head on the reg one and then pop his arms off and drill some holes in the original too, even though I'll be money Hasbro will give us a fixed one in some way shape or form anyway in a multipack, lol EDIT: nevermind.. I thought I read somewhere that it was, but just read your lil' "review" S'Okay! The Wave 4 CP Duke has an unpainted flesh-tone head which is really nice and looks similar, and you can get those loose for cheap on Ebay (that one also has the best M-16 in the line, complete w/ painted "bluing"). The head is painted to match the lower arms, which my guess is that they share their mold with the cuffs and elbows. Screaming DVD Duke (who looks a lot better in the photos of the 'Tank review, very Mace Windu/ Leonidas-like) is painted in a similar way.

Two Kinds of Patriotism...

You guys won't believe this but my Walmart just got Wave 10 this week-- in the form of nothing but Mutts, Mutts, and more Mutts. Oh, and more reissue guys-- WTF! Is this a weird Wal-mart distribution thing?! Is Mutt like the canary that they send into the mine shaft to make sure it's safe for all the Para-Vipers?

Yeah, they were already out on the endcap at my Target two days ago. Steeler looks good in tan, and Destro and Short Fuse look great. All the vehicals look pretty cool, too, especially the MOBAT. I think this Battle Pack is really intended as the ultimate Christmas gift for a five year old to discover under the tree, kinda like the playsets were for us back in the day. I'd rather have three DVD packs for the price, though...

Tiger Force Duke: I said from the beginning that I would wait on the Wave 10 figures until I saw them in the brick 'n mortar stores, where I'd have my choice of QC and the option of easy return or exchange, and I'm so glad that I waited. Despite the horror stories I've read in various early reviews from folks who just had to get theirs first and then couldn't wait to nitpick afterwards, I have found NOTHING wrong with these arms. Like many figs, you've got to fiddle with the arms and rotate the lower arms a little right out of the package, but then you get a great looking figure with more than adequate articulation. Having a Jet Pack Duke at home, I could tell at the store that Hasbro does indeed listen to us and did actually retool the upper arms as well at the bicep. It still can't quite make a right angle but 95 degrees ain't bad in a line that contines to struggle with articulating Joes who have billowing shirt and jacket sleeves (including Hawk, and Airborne from what I've read). And, yes, he can hold his weapon with BOTH hands without pulling his lower arms out of their sockets. Folks getting the later wave Docs and upcoming Ninja Vipers are going to love these arms; I can only hope that the rumored upcoming single card Falcon gets a couple of these, too. Tf Duke doesn't have the drastic retooling to his crotch area that was shown at the Summer cons, but he still has the improved hip articulation of the Jet Pack version, which is on par with many later 25th Anniversary figures, though not at the very top of the class. His colors perform the double duty of providing an homage to a 'classic' RAH figure while also surpassing it in every possible way. Far from a "boy scout" uniform, the colors take the simple inversed Duke outfit of the late 80s (he pretty much went from tan top green bottom to green top tan bottom) to much darker, less satuarated tones of brown and sienna. The pants have more of a 'clay' color, and most of his gear is now that deep olive. I could easily picture him in a Southeast Asian jungle trudging along through the mud and foliage. The red highlights (which go back to the 'toon BTW) and lighter boots are here to keep the guy from looking boring and too much like an ordinary soldier. And I love the dark gun-metal gray they used for his guns, and very much prefer it over simpler black molded plastic. He actually has a little too much gear for me, so the binoculars and helmet go to another Duke. Unlike too many backbacks, this one's just the right size and he's keeping it. The paint on the face is a little thick this time, which is neccessary because the base color is darker now, but the artistry and craftsmanship on this guy's face is just good enough for me to forgive that. I could easily switch out this Duke's head for a Wave 4 Comic Pack one, like I did to replace the poorly painted head on the battle pack Duke, but I honestly don't want to. This time they got the painted face right! Just look at the pic of the two Dukes with painted heads, and how different they look-- like two separate people or at least one person at two different times in his life. This is the veteran Master Sergeant that I've wanted for about two years, though not in a color scheme that I would've expected. The best Duke yet.

Yes, they are owned by Kroger now, and I do believe that you're on to something there. Fred Meyer started out, I think, as a local company of the Pacific Northwest. But the idea of a grocery dept. store isn't exclusive to Washington State.

You might very well have the equivalent-- a grocery store that is also a department store with a decent toy department (Fred Meyer started One-Stop-Shopping long before there were any Super Wal-marts are Targets). I've read good things on this forum about grocery stores with Joes...

Pics, at last! Yeah, definitely a BOY dog! Whatdya think, Doc? Should we amputate it? DeathWish!

Mutt: Really, the best thing for me about this guy is the dog. The thing about the thighs isn't new, but here it just makes his pants look a little puffy. He has some unique elbow joints unlike any I've seen on another Joe, where the elbow flap and upper arm to the shoulder or all one piece, and the swivel is all in the lower arm. The left arm works, but the right one comes off weaker. It appears to be sculpted to favor a hand-on-hip or going-for-the-holster pose which isn't really how an arm looks at rest. Mutt does have a cool Charles Bronson-like face, and his colors and accessories are dead on. Junkyard has to take the prize for Miniature Rottweiler of the Year, though. Despite looking a little odd, Mutt has no real articulation problems and seems fun to play with-- worth busting out of the package and deserves a passing grade. I think I'd have gotten him even if he didn't have such a cool characterization on his filecard and in "The Revenge of Cobra". BTW I wanted to share some pics, but Photobucket is acting really crappy for me-- can anyone suggest another site to host my pics?

I just picked up Tiger Force Duke and Mutt from my local Fred Meyer, and I left a Crock Master on the pegs. Fred Meyers are a great place to find Joes, I think in part because like Kohl's they're not the first place your average collector would look. There is still plenty of Waves 7, 8 & 9 on the pegs, so my guess is that Wave 10 will remain more of a trickle until heavier holiday shopping makes some more room. Really guys, I think we should just buy up those peg warmers and stuff them in the Toys for Tots bins-- they're still good toys for kids that don't already have them (or much else). Just a heads up. I've already read reviews on these two, and I'll give my own impressions after I've had a chance to play with them a bit and take some pics. One thing's for sure-- throw away all your other Dukes, Tiger Force is sooooo much better! There is nothing wrong with these new arms, so long as you wait for a figure with good QC.

Sometimes, they do come with gear. Those do at Fred Meyer-- a West Coast Grocery and Retail chain which also carries a range of items that you might find at drug stores like Walgreen's. The Dollar store versions have no gear, but that is a variation.

Destro and "Shockblast" come together-- Stormshadow apparently has a vendetta against some Ninja Turtles!

As crazy as it sounds, I might just get the Joe set, and split the figures with a friend of mine in California. I'd really like a decent Ship Wreck, and that one seems the best so far. I'm sure the Flint and the SE are like a spit in the eye to some people, but I don't mind. I think I still prefer SEv3 and Tiger Force Flint. Hawk's... different, at least. But I just bought a Wave 9 Hawk the other day, so the new one would probably get shipped off. But between these two sets, is it really Hasbro's marketing decision to keep people from getting the DVD packs?! Why the hell would anybody buy a purple Snake Eyes over a black one?! Maybe I could just buy the DVD and the Mass Device part loose... They could keep the cross-eyed Quick Kick.

As crazy as it sounds, I might just get this, and split the figures with a friend of mine in California. I'd really like a decent Ship Wreck, and that one seems the best so far. I'm sure the Flint and the SE are like a spit in the eye to some people, but I don't mind. I think I still prefer SEv3 and Tiger Force Flint. Hawk's... different, at least. But I just bought a Wave 9 Hawk the other day, so the new one would probably get shipped off.

Wow! Looking again, it seems that GH was joined by Wild Bill, Spirit, Stalker, Hardtop and apparently somebody in Sonic Fighter Law's uniform-- Bullet Proof, maybe? I had no idea that the Joe team was so talented! And, yeah, I was also disappointed about Low-Light...

So you're saying that would it would be a step up then? Your use of musical simile confuses me, because Queen rocks pretty hard, even compared to the Village People. With all due respect to the genius of Freddie Mercury, he still dressed pretty funny. It's often commented that GH was not just the first burly Marine of the Joe team, but also it's resident YMCA afficianado. He's also become quite the Captain Action as Hasbro continues to reuse his head for at least two totally different characters. If only he could switch that hat for a monocle... vs. &

I just hope he's not a store exclusive that's forced to re-use Gung Ho's head yet again-- that would be like going from Village Person to a member of Queen! @loll@

In this month's Toyfare Magazine, a Hasbro rep said that they're still working on how to fit Mindbender into the line before next year's movie. I read the following Q&A on AFI's website: Q3. Is there a good chance we’ll see singles like Alpine, Low-Light, Dr. Mindbender, and Quick Kick? A3. While you will see Alpine, Quick Kick, and Dr. Mindbender in the line, you will not get them single carded. Unless they work him into another unannounced "bonus wave", it looks like Old Purple-pants is going to be sold in some kind of multi-pack, which probably is the best course of action with somebody with his 'third banana' or mid-card status. What do you think? Since I think most people would agree that the best slot for him was the Serpentor DVD pack, and there's no mention of him in the upcoming Cobra Five-pack on BBTS. That pretty much leaves an undisclosed store exclusive or comic pack, I think.

Eeeeh, I see what you're getting at but to compare this to Romitta's art is almost an insult. JRJ is one of my favorite artists by far, this doesn't even come close. Now, what I meant by not even preserving the look of the character is this; because Shipwreck has a beard doesn't mean someone can just draw any old guy in a turtleneck with a beard and say its Shipwreck. From Marvel to Image to Devils Due, when you saw Duke you knew it was Duke even despite minor differences between artists. From Adams to Sale to Lee, Batman is Batman because they always maintain certain aspects of his physical characteristics. This guy's art looks like he drew some random people, stuffed them in some uniforms that loosely resemble what [insert character here] wears and called it a day. No, really I'm just sticking up a fellow artist-- most people can't draw anything and yet they're quick to criticize others. @hmmm@ I'm impressed that you know your stuff, though-- and educated opinion is a very rare thing thses days. I'd like to just point out, though, that while you can always tell who Batman is, the Bruce Waynes of those particular artists (all master pencilers IMO) look nothing like each other! I remember reading Long Halloween for the first time and thinking "This is Wayne?! WTF" It's always harder to make non-costumed characters look distinctive and it usually takes the skill of a master cartoonist to make 10 to 50 guys in Army pants look different enough to tell them apart. BTW Romita's one of my favorites, too. Broke my heart when he left Amazing Spider-man, but atleast back then the book was still readable!