Cold Slither visits JoeCon 2010

Finally, (and unfortunately) I’m now home from JoeCon 2010. This was my first con and although I didn’t spring for the exclusive Red Shadows set or gain entrance to any panels, I have to say that I had an amazing time there. Just walking into a showroom where ALL of the vendors are selling ALL G.I. Joe, ALL the time was a sight to behold. I felt like the 10 year old kid in me had gone to that great Pit in the sky, just not the Rise of Cobra version. I didn’t know which way to go first. I tried to walk slowly to take everything in and not miss a detail or a bargain. After about my 3rd go around I finally was able to concentrate and “see” all that I was looking at. Night Boomers and Cobra Hydrofoil boxes. Terrordromes and VAMP steering wheels. Girls in skin-tight vinyl Baroness outfits. Everything. If you had a parts list to complete your WHALE (which I did) there were boxes filled with multiples of every part you needed. If you needed Skystriker blueprints, Heavy Metal’s microphone or a Viper Glider tail fin it was all there.

My trip started out with an 8 hour hell-drive from South Jersey to Providence thanks to New York traffic. Can we take the Health Care money and build a bridge over that city so it can be avoided completely? Thanks. We finally arrived at about 10pm with our “room to room trading” hopes pretty much dashed. We managed to run into a few late night stragglers but we did more conversating than dealing. As we were returning to the hotel after a bite to eat a guy who was sitting outside the hotel grabbed our attention when – like a hush voiced drug dealer – he asked us “Hey you guys are into three and three quarter Joes, right?” When we answered affirmatively he looked around and opened his coat as though it would be lined with hot Rolex watches, reached into his inside pocket and withdrew a small, bright yellow figure. “Have you seen Jail Jumpsuit Flint?” I cannot talk about what happened after or I may be incriminating myself, but I did pass him up for $20.

Saturday at the con was great fun and there was much buzz and happiness about the unveiled Pursuit of Cobra line. In my opinion, this is the best stuff Hasbro has put out since the heyday of ARAH Joes. The figures are loaded with pouches and spare clips, the sculpts are fresh and not based on any whiny actors, the weapons and accessories are for the most part awesome, there’s hardly a neon color or a spring loaded missile launcher to be found and the new cards and card art are a vast improvement over what we were subjected to with ROC. The fact that we are finally getting a Low-Light is reason alone for many of us to celebrate, but I think the figures we’ve seen show that Hasbro still cares about the G.I. Joe line and it’s core fans. Sure there are some clunkers (Cobra Commander) and a lack of decent vehicles or play-sets (I actually like the new HISS… sue me) but as far as figures go POC is a win! I can’t even complain about getting yet another Duke because he looks like a straight-up killer! Like he’d sneak up out of the mud, cut your Achilles tendons and leave you to die in the jungle. He reminds me of Solid Snake… enough said! Nobody is paying me to write this and you are free to disagree with me to your heart’s content. I may be a bit bleary-eyed with rose-tinted vision because of the great time I had this weekend, but damned if I’m not more excited about G.I. Joe than I have been since 1984.

Join in the discussion on The Official Fighting 1:18th JoeCon 2010 Thread!