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

[ThunderDan19]

Wow! Those look great! How many did you order?

I also like how your pic shows that Zarana and Zartan definitely look like siblings. She looks great too!

 

[nacho]

Wow! Those look great! How many did you order?

I also like how your pic shows that Zarana and Zartan definitely look like siblings. She looks great too!

I initially ordered two from Pulse, but later I decided I was going to need more, so I ordered four more from Amazon and four from Deepdiscount. I initially figured I'd end up canceling one order (whoever was bringing up the rear), but eventually I just decided I needed ten. One to keep in the box, one to customize into a helmetless Fred, a couple more to flank whoever sits on the throne, and three for each of the twins to boss around.

Plus, with the blue-shirts and '86 Vipers on the side of Cobra Commander, I needed more troops on Serpentor's side of the Civil War. The Twins and CGs were team-Serpentor, so they along with the BATS and my valaverse-swarm-as-COIL troops should even things out a bit.

The other two orders have shipped too, so by the end of the week, I should be flush with Crimson troops.

Zarana really does look good. I didn't try the weird spare hair on her (I was never a fan of the portrait on the '86 figure), but I do want to see if she can wear Lady Jaye's hair... just so that'll give her another "disguise" option.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Right on! CGs and Vipers were always favorites. I've got one regular CG on the way and one Retro pre-ordered. The Retro will likely be the officer for me. Having all three blue shirts, I feel like I need to up my Viper game a little. I suppose if I saw the Viper pack for the right price I might bite, but I really have no use for the gray VO. Besides the different colors, does he have an arm band or anything like that? I'd prefer to slap one of those on the CI Viper to make him an officer over using the one with the odd colors.

I also have little use for Zarana's feathered hair. If that had been the only option, I might have passed on her. She looks great with the regular punk mullet and the improved rifle though.

 

[nacho]

The grey viper has gold cobra logos, paint apps on his sidearm, and a few little things like that to distinguish him, but no arm band. I just ordered a gridiron kit for him with some heavy firepower so he can be the muscle.

If you find the set on sale, I'll buy the grey one off you. Now that I have him repurposed, I need one for each little squad

 

[nacho]

 

[ThunderDan19]

The grey viper has gold cobra logos, paint apps on his sidearm, and a few little things like that to distinguish him, but no arm band. I just ordered a gridiron kit for him with some heavy firepower so he can be the muscle.

If you find the set on sale, I'll buy the grey one off you. Now that I have him repurposed, I need one for each little squad

Sounds like a plan! Hopefully they’ll hit saturation after the holidays and there’ll be deals to be had. I’ll have to watch for arm bands on the second hand market.

 

[nacho]

While I'm not crazy about the cost of many of the kits, gridiron is killing it. The latest offering for firefly is pretty badass.

GA0263 1:12 Saboteur Loadout great for G.I. Joe Classified, Cobra, Firefly, Snake Eyes, Custom Action figures, Trooper, Military Force, Gridmas, Warriors Spy (gridironprops.com)

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yeah, I definitely can’t justify the cost, but it sure is the best modernized yet true to OG loadout I’ve seen for FF!

 

[ThunderDan19]

Well, they sold me on something I would never have expected. Despite repeated claims that I had zero interest, last night I came home with a PP Viper. I suppose it was the nostalgia of having had one as a kid, the thrill of finding a shelf stocked with those, BATs and Outbacks in a real store and the surprisingly sharp paint work on the fig - but they got me. And I ain’t even sorry .

I didn’t even consider any of the 7 red (rusty maroon?) shirt BATs right there on the same shelf. They ugly. I won’t consider him stealthy or anything (never did), but this Viper will fill the role of a Viper Officer for me. Even though Amazon is selling the 3 packs for $76, unless I run across a deal I can’t pass up, I think I’m good on Vipers now. Reviews talking about their dulled down colors kind of dampened my interest in those anyway, at least for now.

 

[nacho]

That's basically what happened to me when I stumbled across them, but I thought up a custom or two for the ugly bats. I'm going to strip the pp lines off the vipers and paint the red parts green for a COIL viper.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I found just enough time to open and set up my latest figs and to customize Dusty. I think the LBE really suits him and looks almost as if it were made for him, as it pretty closely matches the straps on his helmet. It very much improves an otherwise very plain looking fig. I decided against giving him Stalker’s shemagh, as it made it all but impossible to properly seat his helmet.



And the CG looks epic and really brings meaning to the twins.



I found these bases on Amazon that work so much better than the Marvel Legends ones I have been using. Now I just need to find the opportunity to replace them on all my figs.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Looks like TF Recondo and Bazooka will be shipping on the 13th. I'm still a little torn on that version of Bazooka, knowing the original is on the way (not that he's that much less visible). But I imagine I'll just end up keeping him, Outback and Recondo in a little fire team so he won't stand out too badly from the regulars.

So far, Cover Girl is still slated for April. I'm kind of wondering when the next set of pre-orders will drop, and when the next batch of retros will ship. I would guess maybe after Chinese New Year?

 

[nacho]

Yeah, the retros won't show until after Feb when all the WM stores have done inventory and reset for the spring.

If it's like last year, everything will show up in the back half. We'll get these TF target figs and the one wave we know about (CG and friends), but there are 20-something figures in the '23 pipeline that haven't gone up for PO yet, so I suspect we'll be in for a lot of hurry-up-and-wait this year. Mad scramble for POs followed by six months of finger tapping.

 

[ThunderDan19]

My TF Recondo and Bazooka have supposedly been delivered to my office, but I won't be back there until later on tomorrow. I did celebrate by hitting up three Tarjays in the area after work to see if I could see them in person today. I only got to see Bazooka. He doesn't look any more or less ridiculous than the normal version, so I'm pretty sure I'll keep him. I'm a little stoked to have them to fill out a little TF fire team.

I was a little disappointed to not see a Recondo yet, but I'd say it makes sense that he's more in demand since people know Bazooka has an original version on the way eventually. Plus, Recondo is definitely the less goofy of the two. Speaking of goofy, there were a bunch of PP BATs still shelf warming at the largest store I hit. I think Target got the shaft when they agreed to that one, as there was no chance they were going to sell those ugly buggers in big numbers at full price when the original came out first. Oh well, they've earned it.

 

[nacho]

My TF Duke/RAM and Bazooka are out for delivery today, oddly no word on Recondo ordered at the same time... and no word on the spares I ordered from Pulse.

I really hate the TF decos, but they will make useful parts for making a non-neon Bazooka and other characters down the road. I'm thinking of using the white shirt with "normal" bazooka's lower half or maybe using RIT to make the shirt OD or something.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I was able to get back to the office on Friday evening with enough time to open up the figs and display them with Outback. They make a decent little mustachioed (+ bearded for OB) fire team, not as whacky as I was concerned they might be. I would like to get Bazooka a secondary weapon and maybe a bit more kit, but haven’t started looking for anything to use as of yet.

I did see TF Duke and Ram at Target, but had zero interest. I’m surprised you’d have any as well. I like the OD shirt idea for Bazooka!

 

[nacho]

I wanted the TF Duke for parts, figured there was some custom figure that needed burnt orange pants if I remove the stripes. And many customs can use that noggin, so I couldn't resist.

However, the bike already has a new home, never even removed it from the box. Somebody on TFW is collecting mutable bikes, so I made him a deal. That thing is so hideous, no way I was putting it in my collection, and I didn't even want to store it in a bin.

 

[ThunderDan19]

However, the bike already has a new home, never even removed it from the box. Somebody on TFW is collecting mutable bikes, so I made him a deal. That thing is so hideous, no way I was putting it in my collection, and I didn't even want to store it in a bin.

Lol, that's about how I expected you to feel about it. It hurts my eyes, and I've generally become more tolerant to the TF schemes with some of the figs. Glad it's getting to somebody who actually wants it and not just ending up in the spare parts bin.

I'm pretty much set now until the next batch of pre-orders, just waiting on the retro CG to drop. Since I've acquired the best hybrid SE I could get/put together, retro SE is destined to be returned. I'd probably trade him for another silver faced CG if I ever see one on the pegs, but I have my doubts that I ever will. Those seem reserved for LJ and the Baroness.

 

[nacho]

I'm not overly thrilled with either main SE we have at the moment. I'm definitely waiting for the retro one. I prefer the goggles to the medieval visor, and I'm definitely excited about boots w/o (crooked) shin guards, and the old-school harness is icing on the cake. I think I have four of them ordered... an opener, a MOC one, and two for parts, as they'll be really handy for some O13 customs.

The retro CG... I have a couple ordered, but I'm irritated that they dramatically brightened the red. I'll keep one MOC, but the other will have to be used away from all my other CGs. He seems destined to be a Fred or CC's personal body guard or something. He won't look right in a squad of normal CGs.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I've put together a hybrid from Alpha Commando SE (goggled of course) with the original single SE's sword and, I think, his backpack. He's got the UMP45 looking submachine gun from AC SE, which is perfect for me since that's very similar to what my v.2 SE ran with (Heavy Duty's submachine gun) back in the day, after his UZI inevitably disappeared. I really like the combo, and don't think I'm going to be any happier with another version than this one.

That's a bummer about the coloration of the retro CG. I suppose I will need to try to get at least two so they can be the "regulars" with the darker one being the "officer." You gotta wonder who makes some of the decisions on paint colors and such. I get that uniform colors fade with use, but you'd think it'd be so much simpler if all the CGs and Vipers (besides officers I suppose) would match in their base colors at least.

 

[nacho]

Yeah, I understand not wanting straight rehashes, but when they know most people are going to stand them together, why make the colors glaringly different? C'mon, man!

 

[nacho]

Ugly SE Movie Baroness is only $4.56 on amazon if anyone needs some fodder.

Amazon.com: G.I. Joe Classified Series Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins Baroness Collectible Figure 19, Premium 6-Inch-Scale Toy with Custom Package Art : Toys & Games

 

[nacho]

If you thought the PP Officer was ugly...

 

[ThunderDan19]

Anything more appealing pop up with this abomination?

 

[nacho]

I stopped by a Target today and they had a whole peg of TF Recondo. Let me preface this by saying I usually roll my eyes when people bitch about Hasbro paint. But these were beyond the pale. The mustache on all six of them was REALLY poor. I mean, all of them were lopsided with a very bushy stache on one side and a thin one on the other side. And it is supposed to curl upwards on the ends (like he's Mindbender or Snidely Whiplash?) and they would just drag the brush halfway up his face. It looked like a bad KO of a hasbro figure.

I ended up picking out the two that were the least awful, but it's so bad that I gave up on the idea that any of them will be acceptable off the shelf. I just got the least of the bad knowing I'll have to just fix it myself.

Otherwise the figure looks nice. I still want to part one out to make an improved Flint, but I hear the wrist joints aren't 100% compatible, so maybe not.

 

[ThunderDan19]

That's a shame about the shoddy paint work. I lucked out and got a pretty good version of both Recondo and Bazooka. I did have to pick through a number of not great versions of the PP Viper to get a pretty good one.

 

[nacho]

Really, you got a good Recondo? By the hot mess I saw, I was convinced there was no way a good one existed. I've got my original one being shipped by target this morning, so if it's better, I might take one of the duds back.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Really, you got a good Recondo? By the hot mess I saw, I was convinced there was no way a good one existed. I've got my original one being shipped by target this morning, so if it's better, I might take one of the duds back.

Yep, he's got a tiny dot of flesh colored paint on his collar (that I could probably exacto off if I really wanted to), but that's it. His mustache and other paint are pretty good. Mine is the only one I've seen in person, so I can't really judge against others, but maybe I finally won the lottery on that one.

 

[nacho]

My bazooka had a sloppily painted mustache too, but wasn't in the realm of these recondo monstrosities. I'll just have to fix them myself. It's not a big deal, just irritating.