G.I. Joe Classified Series (1:12)

[nacho]

Sooooo, Tiger Paw w/ Wreckage anyone?



I knew of Wreckage only from adult collecting when I learned of the Special Missions Brazil set from '88. But a lot of people are saying it looks more like Sabre Tooth... whom I had never heard of until about a month ago. Apparently he was part of an unproduced final wave of Tiger Force. His pic made it into a catalog but the figure never got made... until an almost identical looking guy named Wreckage hit the SM:Brazil set. Some think they're supposed to be the same character, while others insist that they're different. In my mind, Sabre Tooth doesn't exist... because the figure never got made, nor did he appear in any fiction. But S7 is making a ReAction figure of ST... sooooo he's "about" to exist. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



The head on this classified figure looks like Wreckage, but neither has a black suit... but the camo color looks more beige than yellow or light green. I guess this is an alternate deco? I guess I shouldn't over-think it.

I'll probably get one for the new figure. I hate the TF vehicle deco, but I can see myself giving it a tan repaint over the yellow, make it a desert ATV.

Supposed to be on sale today at 10am.

 

[nacho]

Apparently it was 9am for premium members, and it sold out while I was checking out. But I think it's a Target excl product so they'll probably have plenty.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yeah, that kind of came out of nowhere...

I have no interest in the Ferret repaint. The more I look at it, the less I like the Ferret design in general. Are those street tires? The original at least looked offroad worthy.

The fig... I mean he looks kind of cool for a glaringly obvious FF repaint, with only a SC helmet to add. I'm not sure I would try to add him even at a huge discount as, like you mentioned, he isn't really a character in the Joeverse, at least to me.

There's really nothing new here. I feel like TG is getting the short end of the stick yet again with TF repaints. I expect this'll end up as a clearanced item, just like the Ram/Duke repaint before it.

 

[nacho]

The fig... I mean he looks kind of cool for a glaringly obvious FF repaint, with only a SC helmet to add.

To be fair, the original figure was nothing more than an OG Firefly repaint, so that doesn't feel wrong or lazy to me.

I like the figure, and I don't consider him a TF guy simply because he had that deco first in a non-TF context. I won't cry if he becomes unobtainium, but he's a unique enough part of the lore that I wouldn't mind owning one. I'd certainly wipe off the weird mask tattoo (seriously hasbro, enough with the tattoos!), but somebody has to hang in the jungle with Recondo occasionally.

 

[nacho]

It's live at Target now...

G.I. Joe Classified Series Tiger Force Wreckage Action Figure and Tiger Paw ATV (Target Exclusive)

Read reviews and buy G.I. Joe Classified Series Tiger Force Wreckage Action Figure and Tiger Paw ATV (Target Exclusive) at Target. Choose from contactless Same Day Delivery, Drive Up and more.

www.target.com

 

[ThunderDan19]

Whaaaaaaaat? That’s pretty darn cool. I love the creativity and skill of these private fabricators.

Mercari: Your Marketplace

Mercari is your marketplace. It's the perfect place to declutter and discover items that are uniquely you. Say 'goodbye' to your old go-tos and 'hello' to one-of-a-kind treasures.

item.mercari.com

Mercari: Your Marketplace

Mercari is your marketplace. It's the perfect place to declutter and discover items that are uniquely you. Say 'goodbye' to your old go-tos and 'hello' to one-of-a-kind treasures.

item.mercari.com

 

[nacho]

Whaaaaaaaat? That’s pretty darn cool. I love the creativity and skill of these private fabricators.

I've seen a ton of ARAH vehicles 3d printed at classified scale, and they are impressive. But damn, the prices of this stuff. $500... might as well be $50,000. I'm just as likely to bite.

I just unboxed my Anycubic resin printer yesterday, still haven't printed anything yet. I'm definitely planning on working on a couple of the little playsets, kinda like the bivouac set offered by GridIron. If I get good, I'll put you on the prototype list... how big is your display space?

 

[ThunderDan19]

Likewise on the unlikelihood of my ever actually buying one of these, cool as they are. You can bet they all will be produced by Hasbro if the line continues to thrive anyway, and for a bit less. Not that I’ll be getting any vehicles anyway.

Lol, my current display space is a single shelf in my cube at work. I added those three tier display stands, but they are filling up quickly. Thus the unlikelihood of my ever getting 12 scale vehicles. I literally don’t know where I’d put even the smallest ones.

I‘ve started contemplating bringing the collection home once I truly run out of space at work as the figs continue to add up. If/when I do, I’ll have something like 6’x1’ way on the top of my desk shelf. It‘s currently occupied by Elite Force armored vehicles and McFarlane military figs, which will need a new home if they get bumped by the CS figs.

The reality is that my home office is also filled with various scale plastic and die cast planes, helos and armor. They cover all my shelf space (not otherwise taken up by books and souvenirs from my travels) and ceiling. So the future of all that is yet to be determined.

 

[nacho]

Everyone's been quiet this week... feels like the "nose to the grindstone" part of the year. Spring is upon us, summer feels days away, no holidays in sight... just working for the weekend.

When I started collecting Classified, I usually bought two of everything, one to open, one to keep in the box, and if the figure didn't match my mind's eye of the character, I'd often pick up a third to customize. But these days, the figures are coming out so good that they rarely need much customization aside from a better weapon or something. So I got to thinking... I've got a lot of "3rd" figures and far too many of the main army-builders... what if I keep a set at the office/studio to keep from disturbing the ones I have on display at home?

So I've been divvying up my collection into what amounts to two sets... of course , I didn't have a spare of everything, leading me to hunt down a few characters. I still don't have extras of the expensive ones like Serpentor, Mindbender, Haslabs etc (I didn't even buy extras to keep MIB, just bought a single of each due to the cost), and certain non-ARAH figures that are cool but don't fit a classic display (like Artic BATs, Molerats, Shooter,etc) will all just go to the studio. But I'm feeling good about the studio set being "complete enough", at least until some cheap reissues come along.

And along those lines, I've been buying up cheap S7 Ultimates to use as custom fodder in the event that the line doesn't have much left in the tank after W6 got canceled. W5 comes out in July, and after that, there isn't anything Joe even on the calendar. I can't find the pics, but I saw someone who had done a handful of customs with these figs, and they looked great! Duke, CC, and Flint are pretty easy to find on the cheap, but I'm waiting on Stalker to come down, as his mold is perfect for half of the O13.

Gonna dye all kinds of classified figs and gear this weekend. Every bit of PP stuff I picked up on clearance, anything that isn't grey or black is about to be... same with the tan gear from the Valk set. And I want to dye a $5 zarana's outfit black for a heartwrencher custom - although there have been rumblings about an official... I have to make the custom for it to happen ... and I got some improved cast heads/helmets for a couple of my Plague troops to finally put them into the finished category, and those need a dyejob too.

Gotta entertain yourself somehow in these doldrum parts of the year... it's a long way to Memorial Day!

 

[ThunderDan19]

It has been a very quiet week. My regular YouTube source hasn’t uploaded his usual update for long enough now that I don’t even recall when the next supposed reveal is supposed to be. I’ve been pretty much laying low on any kind of searches, other than the usual daily scan of AMZ and Mercari for any unexpected deals on characters I’m not willing to go full price for. But no recent hunts or purchases.

I have noticed some downward trending on Mercari. Not sure if it’s saturation, the seller fee moving to the buyer, or a little of both. I’ve had a couple Viper packs tempt me a little, before my senses return (I really have no need, but I love me some faceless Vipers ). Other than that, I’ve decided the currently available CSs and retros are easy enough to pass on, at least until I see them in person.

It also doesn’t help that the IRS has sat on my return for 2-1/2 months now . Without the padding of a healthy refund, I’m even more “frugal” (read: miserly) than usual. I still want to pick up at least one Valkyrie to upgrade a bit, but I generally balk when the seller wants $30 + shipping for one or $75 + for both. Maybe after the IRS finally does its job…

 

[nacho]

It has been a very quiet week. My regular YouTube source hasn’t uploaded his usual update for long enough now that I don’t even recall when the next supposed reveal is supposed to be. I’ve been pretty much laying low on any kind of searches, other than the usual daily scan of AMZ and Mercari for any unexpected deals on characters I’m not willing to go full price for. But no recent hunts or purchases.

I have noticed some downward trending on Mercari. Not sure if it’s saturation, the seller fee moving to the buyer, or a little of both. I’ve had a couple Viper packs tempt me a little, before my senses return (I really have no need, but I love me some faceless Vipers ). Other than that, I’ve decided the currently available CSs and retros are easy enough to pass on, at least until I see them in person.

It also doesn’t help that the IRS has sat on my return for 2-1/2 months now . Without the padding of a healthy refund, I’m even more “frugal” (read: miserly) than usual. I still want to pick up at least one Valkyrie to upgrade a bit, but I generally balk when the seller wants $30 + shipping for one or $75 + for both. Maybe after the IRS finally does its job…

Did you file electronically? It only took them about two weeks to get my refund back to me.

You are right, the amount of Classified heads and accessories available on Mercari has fallen noticeably. I bought a couple of cheap Ultimates after the new fees only because they gave me a $10 coupon. The fees are redonkulous. They really are like 13% fees, plus tax, plus shipping. If you're buying a $5 head, you likely won't blink. But if you see something that's priced $29 plus shipping, and when you're about to hit go, you realize you're paying over $50 for it..... aw, hell no. I see stuff priced exactly the same as on ebay, thus making the ebay item a substantial bargain.

And everything is returnable for any reason, but the buyer pays return shipping AND doesn't get a refund on all the fees. It makes it so that you're out half the total price if you send something back. Not that I return anything, but that's their big selling point of the new structure. Mostly they thought eliminating selling fees would increase traffic, but that dictates they lower their initial prices, which they do not. Thus everything is now much more expensive, leading to less traffic, leading to less listings.... it's snowballing downward. I think they miscalculated badly and shot themselves in the dick. Not sure how they recover, as another quick rejiggering of the fee structure would make them seem rudderless and unstable.

All my classified POs from Amazon are now scheduled for 7/16, so not much new on the horizon. I did get a notice that the SMS and black Techno-viper is shipping soon... but it's only going to make me want the Joe version even more.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yep, filed electronically as early as possible. We get everything back though, due to a tax credit from our solar installation a couple years ago. I think they are either boggled by it or pissed by it, not sure which. Two (nearly impossible to get a human being and have it not disconnected) phone calls to them provided zero info, just new later target dates. They were a little late last year, but nothing like this.

 

[nacho]

No excuse for that shit.

 

[nacho]

While he's definitely not a favorite character of mine in Joe lore (I don't recall him being fleshed out in any meaningful way ever), the Big Boa classified figure is undoubtedly badass. I just got my "office" copy, and I am reminded how menacing he is. The helmet, the spikey harness... in person, he looks less like an escapee from a dominatrix basement and more like someone that would prefer to snap your neck over talking to you. He almost has a Bane vibe. I think he and Croc Master are going to be good buddies.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Lol, yeah. Those two always kind of looked like a WWF (not E back in the day) tag team! I never had BB so Crocky (crikey!) mainly ran with the Dreadnoks in my Joeverse.

So, over the weekend, my daughter sorted what 25th/ROC/POC/etc. figs I had left and sold them along with a bunch of old 12" figures I had left to a guy locally for $500. That's the end of an era for me on anything 12". Crazy that I got them all 20-25 years (half my life) ago! She just has some MIB/MOC 4" movie/Resolute figs left and a bunch of vehicles to sort/reassemble and then sell and that will be it for the 25th era as well.

She kept a couple dozen favorites for her to display but rest had to go. Slightly sad to see them go, but they've all just been taking up space in the attic since we moved in '17, and had only ever gotten moderate play since I turned them over to the kids prior to that. Those were some crazy good times though! Even crazier that in 3 years, it'll be 20 years since the 25th kicked off.

Having converted over to CS, it struck me just how tiny all those 4" figures are. I don't know how I ever successfully outfitted them with my big ol' ham hands.

 

[nacho]

Nice on the sale! I don't think I can ever divest myself of 4" Joe, even if it is no longer my preferred scale. I have probably 4k figures between vintage o-ring, new-sculpt o-ring, and 25th/ROC/POC/etc. And a whole storage unit full of vehicles. It pains me to think how much work that would take.

I haven't sold anything in a decade, but I got to looking at prices on stuff... and damn. I've got a ton of unopened MOTUC, and every one of those except for a few shelf-warmers is going for $100 or more. Castle Grayskull still MISB is over $1600! Holy Smokes! And I felt really guilty spending $295.27 on that thing at the time... My math says that's greater than an 18% annual return. Screw the stock market, I'm just going to invest in low-run toys.

We've really got to vote in some folks that will repeal the $600 rule for online sales. I'm not paying taxes (again) on Battle Cat and Jungle-Viper. Screw that.

 

[Videoviper]

Tax wise I was told - you paid more than you made- until they tell the accountants get formal guidance from the powers that be.

 

[nacho]

It all comes down to the burden of proof. I don't know how anyone is supposed to know what they paid for a collectible 15-20 years ago. Made money, lost money, how would I know, how would the IRS know? But if I have to prove it to keep from getting hit with a big stab, I'm not sure how that works. As I understand it, with the IRS, they're assumed right until you prove otherwise.

 

[Videoviper]

Without 20 year old receipts it really is a guess
Cost that may include
- ebay fees
- shipping fees
IRS isn’t clear on that or at least eBay isn’t since some people are paying tax on product & shipping costs.

Unless you are over a threshold that labels you a store. (Enough that it’s changing your income/tax bracket) It’s better to have the paperwork say you sold it at a loss.

The rules aren’t very clear, that will likely change after the next election to get rid or solidify the rules.

 

[nacho]

I'm hoping that the rules will go back to the way they were... 200 sales transactions or $20k, whichever comes first. If you're not doing that much, you're not operating a business. You're a garage sale... at best.

I blew through the limits in 2014 and had to scour paypal records, emails, and online store order histories from the previous decade to show what I paid. Since a lot of it was expensive comic art and MOC Joes that I had a lot invested in, I wasn't about to pay tax on the entire revenue. I managed to find purchase data on almost everything, except items simply bought at a brick-n-mortar store... in which case I used MSRP + tax as my cost. But the entire exercise was exhausting and seemed unnecessary given I was merely cutting back on some collectibles.

The current $600 limit... I could blow through that with a single toy or piece of artwork. I sell Castle Grayskull on ebay and the IRS wants to turn me into a business? Screw that.