the vynsane asylum

Skystriker mold with some new pieces to represent Jetfire's armor, albeit modified heavily from the original design so as not to look too much like the Robotech Valkyrie. Something about the original license for Jetfire stipulated they could not have him look like the Valkyrie in any media (why he's so different in the toon and comic), and they could never use that mold for further releases. They're reading too much into that, methinks.

That's also why the Deluxe Insecticons and Deluxe Autobots never appeared in the American comic or cartoon. Hasbro could only use their own designs or those licensed from Takara. Some other company made the original molds for those characters. Not sure why that doesn't cover the new comics or the old UK comics, though.

Huh. So they're suing because it's named Jetfire and it has a red/white paint job?
Switzerland, the Red Cross, Stingray, and the Arizona Cardinals (etc etc) should probably start getting worried. The Robotech guys "own" the red/white color scheme.

If the fucking thing doesn't turn into a robot, their lawsuit is tenuous, frivolous and ridiculous.

My Wave 4 shipped today. I don't normally go that route, but twelve new figures in a case, each one per case, including highly-anticipated figures and army builders, plus stores not being able to clear shitty old stuff if they paid people to take them? Yeah, fuck hunting for all that shit.

I also grabbed one of the Wolverine ninjas. Can't army build them with the hampered articulation, but the color scheme is nice and he's half the price as another Red Ninja.

I've got to admit it, and I never expected to say this: I fucking love the Dollar General Cobra Trooper Officer blue repaint. It's the crazy, almost garish, color scheme from the early comics, and it looks fucking sweet. Fucking fucking fucking (that's a triple fucking, y'all!) sweet.

BTW, pass on the Data Viper if you see him. He's gorgeous, and has a ton of accessories. There's just way too much going on with this figure. It's tough to get all the parts on and properly positioned and staying on, and for what? The guy has what looks like a VR suit to control a drone.

Then again, he does look fucking bitching once you get him assembled and staying together.

Combat Ninja, on the other hand, you're going to want to buy as many of him as you can manage.

I wasn't planning on getting the Data Viper. From the pictures, it looks like the Combat Ninja could take a few of the Snow Serpent accessories and be a decent update. That one is probably 4th or 5th on my list behind Kwinn, yellow movie Jinx, Blind Master, and Ultimate Stormshadow. Ultimate Duke is on that list, too, just because of all the accessories. I still think his mini drone and a someone else's laptop accessory could be the start of a modernized Sneak Peak. The original one was stupid because no one in their right mind is going to head into combat carrying a periscope.

KMart finally had the Tread Ripper on clearance. That thing is a piece of crap. I took Clutch's head and started putting it on other bodies. It looked ok on the last Hawk figure's body, but I left it on that Duke that came with the funky missile launcher backpack.

Wave 4 is showing up at Walgreens. The new figures, IIRC, are Blind Master, Jinx, and Night Viper.

Also, Hasbro made a new Cross Country head. And they fucking nailed it. Sure, he doesn't have the cap, but, holy shit, this may be the best new head sculpt for any G.I. Joe figure ever produced. I see pictures of it and almost expect it to yell "YEEEEHAAAAAAW!!!" from the cockpit of the little plane thing on the HAVOC, p-chew, p-chew!

Unfortunately, they made it in the 6" scale and gave it to Luke Skywalker.

http://www.yodasnews.net/6inchlukewave3loose.jpg

And, holy shit, that's a big pic! Is there a way to resize in phpbb?

His blaster is in the wrong hand....NERD..RAGE...BURYING NEEDLE..IN...RRRRREDDDD!!!!!

anarky wrote:Wave 4 is showing up at Walgreens. The new figures, IIRC, are Blind Master, Jinx, and Night Viper.

I've stopped by a couple Walgreens recently, but haven't seen anything new. Walgreens and Toys R Us seem to be the only places that carry GI Joe at this point. All TRU has are leftover wave 1 figures. One TRU here has a peg and a half of figures. All but one are Stormshadow. A few Walmarts around here have a couple leftover wave 1 figures on clearance for $7, but it is mostly Duke and the Rock.

Hasbrotoyshop had Kwinn the last time I checked. I should just order him from there. I'm giving up hope on getting Ultimate Stormshadow and Duke. Granted, I mostly wanted Duke for his accessories.

I've seen the Combat Ninja, Ultimate Flint, and Ultimate Roadblock... at Rite Aid. Even being willing to shell over a couple of extra bucks for HTF figures that I know will never hit normal retail, I can't bring myself to pay their prices for duplicate figures (as much as I'd love an army of Combat Ninjas).

What are you looking for from the wave, just Duke, Kwinn, and Storm Shadow?

Overall, I'm looking for Kwinn, Jinx, Hardmaster, and Stormshadow. Duke is a "maybe".

HTS has Kwinn right now. Stormshadow and Jinx are out of stock.

Duke is, surprisingly, a bitchin' army builder.

Literally 10 minutes after my last post, my wife said we needed to go to KMart. She had $15 in rewards points that expire today. I mentioned to her earlier that KMart has those 3 new Star Wars sets. We get there and I find the Ewok catapult and two Imperial scanning crews. Sure enough right next to them was the new wave of GI Joe. No duke or Combat Ninja, but I grabbed Stormshadow. She still let me get the three Star Wars sets, only because they were the last ones on the shelf.

Stormshadow comes with a bunch of tiny little accessories. I don't even know what some of them are, but I'll look them up later. From the front of the package, I thought the white thing was a small FANG back pack. I was sort of right. Instead of hooking on the bottom of it, he hooks to the front of it. When you push the action feature, it spins him around. Kind of stupid, but maybe I'm not using it correctly. The figure itself is awesome.

I found the K-Mart sets and picked up all three. The two Imperial sets left my possession two days later and are being appreciated by a man named Tricks. I'm so fucking sick of Imperials unless they do something truly kick-ass with them. Ewoks, on the other hand, I'm addicted to. Only Ewok I've ever passed on was that fucking ginormous Target set, only because it was way the fuck too big and way the fuck too expensive, and all but one figure were re-releases or resculpts. (Even that one Ewok was just a repaint of another.) But if it had made it to clearance, I would've caved and had one really expensive Ewok figure.

Storm Shadow is pretty bitching. I just think both he and Ultimate Snake Eyes were a little superfluous; the POC Commando Snake Eyes is better, and the Renegades Storm Shadow (particularly version 2, from the Amazon set, which adds thigh articulation) is as good. I'd love to see Scarlett or some other "just slightly underappreciated when compared to the big guys" get the Ultimate treatment. Unfortunately, it looks like the line's going on hiatus.

The scanning crew sets are probably the last Imperials I buy.

From the pictures at Hisstank, I figured out how Stormshadow's accessories work. The harness on the CLAW thing bends down 90°, which disables the spinning feature. My wife couldn't believe how some of his accessories were.

You're probably right about GI Joe going on hiatus.