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

nacho

"Big Guns"
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Gotta love those WM computers. Pretty sure they don't mean March of 2026. So not sure what the holdup is.

I kinda winced when you said you PO'd all the new stuff with WM. Sometimes they come through with ease, and sometimes your order goes into a black hole, never to return. And they definitely don't fill POs in order. I've had some that just languish, and when I place a new order around the time of release, that one gets fulfilled, while the original gets ignored or canceled without notice or reason. It's a baffling system for the nation's largest B&M retailer.

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I'll believe this one only when I have a tracking number:

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ThunderDan19

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Yeah, I do feel like going with WM is always rolling the dice. I would have liked to go with AMZ as they are generally more predictable and dependable, and have a little bit earlier published release dates. But they do not like non-AMZ gift cards, and they also didn't have retro CG available (which of course showed back up today... really? 😑).

I'm not going to cancel what I have to then try to see if AMZ will allow me to use my accepted-everywhere-else-with-no-problem card there (been down that road before), so we'll see if WM comes through. I don't recall ever having any of the issues others have had with them previously, but this is the largest PO I've done with them (or anyone else for that matter), so we'll see if they come through.

If WM does start having issues, there's always Pulse. They've never given me trouble the couple times I've PO'ed with AMEX cards, and it looks like everything is still in stock for PO there, for now.
 

ThunderDan19

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Pretty fun interview with Lenny and Tony with some fun backstory on some of the new stuff:
 

ThunderDan19

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New render drops:
POs for these 4/15.

I wouldn't say I'm overly excited by any of the renders, and don't plan to PO any of them, but will likely ultimately end up with BA CC and Monkeywrench, as they are essentials. Pet iguana for CC? Weird 3D glasses mask for MW? I don't get it...

Major Bludd looks best of all of them, but I already have the definitive version. And who needs another SE? Not this guy. I have what I'd consider my definitive version of him too.
 

ThunderDan19

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I've taken the extra few minutes to have a longer look at the renders and here are my impressions:

Battle Armored Cobra Commander - I had expected him to be a little bulkier and maybe a little more... jagged. I feel like the original version had more angles and fewer curves to the armor. This one looks more conformal, like how Iron Man became more shaped like Tony and less like an armored suit with each new version. He definitely doesn't look as formidable as I had hoped for. I might have to opt for the serpent contact lenses head just to give him a little more of an intimidation factor. Not sure what I'll do with the pet. Here's hoping the figure looks a bit more threatening than the render.

Monkeywrench - he looks just a little... plain. Again, I'm hoping maybe it's just the render having too "clean" of a presentation. He seems to have all the right accessories, particularly since he came with so few back in the day. I don't know what to make of the 3D glasses/Vader mask head. Was that something I missed from the comic? The cartoon? What is the black on his forehead that reaches right to the hairline? Seems like a weird render glitch. I wonder if the wrench-axes will somehow mount on his back. Otherwise, I don't see how to use them on display. It's hilarious that he has the equivalent of an ACOG to aim his trident gun, but it still looks pretty cool, even though it's pretty much as useless as it always was. Maybe there's supposed to be some kind of projectile weapon in the handle below(?).

Major Bludd - he looks great, but basically identical to the CI version. I see the red accents just as a means to make him different enough to not break the exclusivity of the Target version, though that one is most like the retro. I'm not sure this one won't peg warm in favor of people trying to pick up the CI one on the secondary market instead. I've already got my MB, so have not need for this one.

CLAW/pilot - ah, the CLAW. It's been out there forever now and is finally gonna drop. Meh. I don't feel even a slight need to have it. I realize that the CS has taken every opportunity to improve upon the originals wherever possible, but I don't really see the benefit of upsizing the CLAW. It was originally fully man-portable and was Cobra's answer to the JUMP pack. This one is larger and now you have to take off and land with the landing gear. I know the original had landing gear too, but you never saw it used that way in the cartoon. I might have considered it were it smaller and maybe packaged with a Strato-Viper or something like that and not another generic girl-Cobra. Pass.

And red & blue Snake Eyes - all I think of when I see him is the ever peg warming 12" HOF version they made of him back in the 90's. I suppose there was a small component of original Joe fans that had/liked this version as a 4" release with its oversized spring-loaded grapple gun and bright red weapons. That was not me. To me he represents the desperate time when a faltering Hasbro tried to reboot the popular original Joe characters in a gimmicky way that made them look like The Corps before that was a thing. Hard pass.
 

nacho

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BACC - I agree, I expected him to be more angular. And rather than the serpent-eyed head, I'd have MUCH preferred an unmasked Fred head. This is a missed opportunity... or yet another case of getting the intentionally worse version first so we have to double dip on the better version in the eventual retro.

Monkeywrench - I like him. He looks like he should. I have no notes. If I were making a custom, I'd be pleased as hell if it came out that good.

Major Bludd - I expected more of a change from the CI release. This offers zero incentive to rebuy. And after getting the S7 Ultimate version that looks like it stepped out of an animation cel, this classified design doesn't do anything for me anyway.

CLAW - I'll get one or two. Never my favorite vehicle, but it's classic, smallish, and can fit on a shelf, in a dio, or whatever photography shot pretty well. I agree it should have come with some kind of classic pilot that isn't a girl-cobra repaint. I get it, they think they need some female representation... but let's face it, how many people with XX chromosomes are buying Classified? I'm sure all 3-4 of them are pleased.

SE v4 - Not my favorite SE, but they have to have one in every other wave. I think it's part of the Joe Ten Commandments. On the plus side, my initial thought about this design is not the gimmicky launcher he came with, but rather one of the cool comic covers he graced. The stories from that era were questionable, but the covers were dynamic.

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nacho

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I'm pretty sure toy prices are going to skyrocket... which personally sucks but from a broad economy standpoint is 100% the right move, IMO. Kinda glad I went on a robot binge the last 6-7 months, as that would be a prohibitive prospect with a 34% surcharge. Joes are made in Vietnam, right? 46%... ouch.

Marvel Legends & McFarlane DC are made in China. Pretty sure most official Joes and TFs are made in Vietnam. Legos are made... everywhere... not sure how they'll handle those.

Hopefully this is not a permanent situation but rather a pathway to get those other countries to lower their tariffs and have actual free trade, not lopsided trade. Still not clear on how it affects small/personal stuff, as customs has no way to implement or collect from non-business entities on low-cost shipments (currently <$800).

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Obviously, this isn't the entire list, just the toy-relevant part... not sure if Hong Kong is considered part of CHI-na, but I don't see them separately on the list...

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ThunderDan19

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In case anybody needs extra girl fig parts for customs and such, WM has Shooter for $15 right now and one LJ left for $10.
 

ThunderDan19

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The CS seems to be trending toward a weird place with brick and mortar stores right now. I stopped by two of the larger WMs and two Targets in the area last night to see what was around. One WM that had been carrying Joe for quite a while had the Joe section entirely replaced with some kind of Mr Beast lab creatures something or another and the other had just three lowly retro Stalkers, which wouldn’t even scan on the app on my phone. As for the Targets, one had only ReAction+ figures and the other had no Joe at all, despite typically having some kind of inventory almost all the time in the past.

I wonder if the reduction of in store inventory is because they are experiencing/expecting a delay for some time this year, as was predicted by the Hasbro folks, or if GJCS is truly becoming predominately an online venture.
 

ThunderDan19

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Yeah, very poorly handled on their part. Whether they is WM or H’bro is probably a good question. You gotta wonder what kind of chaos abounds with the current tariff discussions ongoing as well. Crazy times.
 

nacho

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Ordered one CLAW, and 2x of SEv4, BACC, and Monkeywrench. Skipped newer/uglier Bludd. BACC looks weird withe the smooth armor (I compared it to a kid's halloween costume) but it's the only Fred we're likely to get anytime soon. I can't see them retooling the armor for a retro in the next 2-3 years.

$55 for a CLAW with a crappy female pilot is pretty steep and kept me from getting more than one. I had thought I'd get three, but for a vehicle that is less size, mass, complexity than a RAM, $55 is a breathtaking ask, especially with the included figure being a real dud. :unsure:
 

ThunderDan19

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I wasn't planning to PO anything from this latest drop until I got enough gift card credit to cover them, but then I got spooked when MW went out of stock at AMZ yesterday afternoon. I don't want to risk missing out (like I did with Low-Light and Dial-Tone) or having the price hike up before I lock them in, so I went ahead and got BACC and MW PO'ed from AMZ this morning when I saw MW back available. Their lowest price guarantee will make sure that, even if they suddenly get nervous about potential tariffs and raise the price, at least I'm locked in at normal retail or below. And I've got like 6 months to build up the gift card credit to cover them with not my money.

I do think BACC looks a little better as the actual fig than he did in the render, and MW looks about as good as he could and is pretty well kitted for what he is, regardless of the weird 3D glasses gasmask(?). I also have no interest in red accents MB (original is better) nor yet-another-version SE. And as mentioned before, while it was a fav as a kid that got plenty of use, something about the new CLAW doesn't do it for me. I think it's the larger size and extra landing gear, and like you said, a lame fig. Once it went from winged jet pack to ultralight aircraft, it lost me. I might have been lured with a more compact version with no fig for the price of a fig, but alas, no bueno. So with that I think I've got all I want from the new batches PO'ed through most of the year, unless they drop something epic over the summer.

I'm still on the hunt for a discounted Road Pig. Stupid Target keeps knocking the price down to where I'd happily snatch one, but it's never in stock, so :rolleyes:. I just have to be patient until he drops price at another outlet. And I'm still on the lookout for Dial-Tone to come back into stock at retail or below pretty much anywhere. I wasn't originally planning to get either of them, but I've picked up a couple other second tier figs (Barbeque, Copperhead) below retail recently so I'm feeling a little more completist for some that I had originally skipped. I think the scarcity is also feeding my desire to add them, kind of like it went with Low-Light. Weird how that will drive it sometimes.
 

nacho

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Pulse still has not gotten their original stock of Dial-Tone. My order from the initial minutes of the Pulse Premium PO window has not been fulfilled. If not for Amazon, I wouldn't have one at all. It's weird for one figure to be MIA from the rest of the wave, especially for this long. I got my lone DT in Jan, and three months later, Pulse still hasn't gotten any stock. WTF, Mattel.
 

ThunderDan19

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Wow, that is weird. I wonder if, tying that in with the other "delays this year" talk, he could have been a casualty of moving production. I know there has been talk of H'bro manufacturing GJCS outside of China (yes, please!), and I wonder if they picked up and moved this past year, anticipating some of the coming complications and/or tariffs. Maybe it happened to have been during the big push for DT. I seem to also remember something about people finding him being crated/shipped individually, versus with other figs in the wave. It's all hearsay, but might explain why he became the unobtainium of that wave.
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
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I get a figure being scarce or short-packed or whatever, but it's a completely different thing when the manufacturer's own premiere paid-membership outlet can't get *initial* stock.

I wasn't late to the party, I didn't pick up a scrap figure after it sold out and someone randomly canceled a single PO, I was in the first minutes of the initial PO. If they got any at all, I should have been in that fulfillment group.

But you're right, maybe they switched mid-run to a factory in Vietnam or something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I checked a few MIB Joes I don't have in storage, and it's a mixed bag between Chiner and 'Nam, so clearly they're made in both. I haven't inventoried my MIB collection to see if there is a point at which the release's manufacturing favors one place or the other.
 
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nacho

"Big Guns"
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Anticipated Hasbro price hikes starting tomorrow:

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$30 Joes?!
$22 4" SW?!

I mean, I get it. Tariffs and inflation affect everything. I'm still in full support of shaking up the economic world order even if it costs me a lot more to be a collector, but I do wonder how many people will just tap out of collecting toys if things get any more crazy.

I wonder how this will affect demand. I also wonder if this means we'll see more stock on shelves because it won't be moving so fast, i.e. stuff might be easier to find in the wild. Or it will mean more losers turn to scalping, repacking, and other scummy practices because things are tighter? I guess we're about to find out.
 

ThunderDan19

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I’m glad I’ve got all the figs from this year locked in as POs. They should have trade deals made before next year’s releases. The real question is whether H’bro will drop the prices back down when that happens or just keep raising them like they always have. If they don’t, I see a ton of more figs from multiple lines ending up at Ollie’s or simply “clearanced” down to what the market can support, assuming the base hikes don’t chase collectors entirely.
 
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ThunderDan19

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From what I am seeing, it looks like only EE has raised prices on anything currently up for PO, and only on the last batch. I think that’s more likely to burn them than to help offset costs. Who would pay the premium with them when the other major retailers are holding steady, at least for this year? Amazon seems only to be pricing up or down based on demand, just like usual. Walmart is similar if a bit more haphazard.

I gotta wonder if there is some posturing happening by Hasbro because they already took a major bath on tons of unwanted plastic toys these past few years and are trying to recoup wherever they can going forward, and this is just the latest excuse.
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
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I think their Joe delay is helping them tremendously... by not having anything ready to ship right now, they can play the wait-and-see game with all the product that comes out this fall. While I don't think that's the reason for the delay directly, the timing is stellar having a product gap right when things are temporarily very uncertain.

I still think the joe delay is likely due to moving some manufacturing out of china, so in that regard, if true, the political situation isn't completely divorced from the toy timing, but I doubt anyone had the level of forethought late last year when the delays were announced to anticipate the current upheaval.

While there is some stuff coming out, I don't think ML, SW, and TF have a ton of new product ready for immediate shipping/release either. There is no new media to cause a figure flood, so it's just rando waves of this and that, stuff they can accelerate and delay to an extent without major penalty. So I can't see an immediate necessity for Big-H to crank up prices at a time when demand isn't exactly booming. They'd better tread carefully.

Take it with the appropriate grain of salt, but even Valaverse Bobby says any hasbro price hikes are likely just opportunistic, as he's not raising his prices. He had a lot of thoughts about the $50 ML "maximum" spiderman and how they're gouging an extra $10-15 just because they can, not because the product offering requires it.

While I hope the trade situation gets resolved sooner than later for the sake of all the small businesses and retailers that can't pivot or take the loss on tariffs very easily, I have great hope that this very temporary blip produces the shift in the world economic order that we need to help resuscitate the working middle class in this country. If the end result is good, this short term pain will be quickly forgotten.
 
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nacho

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Retro RnR is in the wind from AMZ, and I know some places are shipping retro Viper (deepdiscount had him "in stock" earlier in the week, but I didn't feel like shifting my orders).

And AMZ has shifted up the Blowtorch/Footloose/Darklon/FragViper wave to a 7/22 release date... so while it's not exactly a flood of product, it feels like the endless dry spell is slowly ending.
 
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nacho

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Retro RnR arrived 2x... AMZ shipped them in an envelope :cautious: . One has a dog-eared card, one has a crushed bubble. Hopefully the one I ordered from Pulse isn't pre-destroyed by a forklift or something.

Also, the card art is weird. It's printed exceptionally dark. The intern doing the package design got too rambunctious with the photoshop darken/burn tool or something. RnR's uniform looks nearly black. It makes the packaging look like someone printed the card at home with their HP inkjet.

While I'm mostly an opener and don't care about boxes, I do buy a spare of the retros just to have one carded, which will look pretty neat on a wall display if they ever reach a critical mass number of retro figures. Fingers crossed I get a good one eventually.
 

ThunderDan19

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Yeah, the QC on the retro card art is really bad. I mean especially when you consider they are trying to mimic the classic art.

*cough* fatheadflint *cough*

I also just recently noticed they are now starting to introduce the "digital" explosions to the retro cards. Too late for Beach Head, who originally had a digital card. :rolleyes: It makes it seem like the retro line is getting rushed or designed by the B team or something. I know these are getting pushed out with a lot less time and effort than it took back in the 80's, but just a little bit of forethought would go a long way...
 
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nacho

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I wanted to like retro RnR a lot, given that the first version required a lot of painting and de-tattooing to make him look acceptable. But alas, Hasbro has managed to f#$% him up to the point that I'll have to make a hybrid of the two figures to get something better.

On the plus side, the coloring of the retro's darker greyish-green fatigues works. His straps and pouches are dark green (instead of brown on the first classified release), and the boots are a browner brown rather than reddish brown, also better. It's classic colors, and they fit my image of the character. And that's about where the plusses stop.

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The head is a mixed bag. First of all, it took a long time to realize that it wasn't the same head sculpt. The beard is different... bushier... and while it might be closer to the head of the '82 figure, I don't think it looks better. While they gave him brown eyebrows in a nod to the '82 figure, they made them incredibly dark, nearly black, so that he looks truly unnatural. It is exacerbated by the skin tone being much more red-pink than the first release. The face printing in general is very dark and almost makes him look like he's wearing makeup.

And then you get to the real issue, and that's the neck. Rather than just use what worked on the first figure, they swapped the neck barbell to the shortest possible option, making him look like he basically has no neck. He's worse than Alpine. I kept looking at both RnR's side-by-side, and it finally hit me that the retro version was significantly shorter, and that's why. He's neckless. (it also looks like the torso is a bit shorter, although I can't tell if it's my camera angle or if something is truly different)

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So fans are left with the option of hoping they have a spare Ollie's Dusty to donate a neck barbell... or swapping the head/neck entirely with the other version, but then the head/neck skin won't match the arms. So do you then swap the arms too and hope you can paint-match the sleeves with the fatigues? Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot.

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Do the designers not have functional eyeballs? I normally give them a pass for small things. I know they have budgets, schedules, and foreign factories to deal with... and I understand that not everything works out according to plan. But for the love of pete, the stumpy neck is unforgivable, especially when they already got it right once.

Necks in general are my #1 gripe about the line, even more than floppy weapons and backpacks that won't stay on. Why are they unable to make a figure that doesn't look like a giraffe or a fire hydrant? It's mind-boggling. But hasbro's gonna hasbro. I'm sure we'll get a "maximum" version three years down the line that corrects all of these things and then royally screws up something new. This is the way.
 

ThunderDan19

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I don’t get their breaking the “if it ain’t broke” rule with any figure that has already been made once. Kinda the same thing with the artwork. How do you make the choice to (poorly) recreate retro art that you own the rights to? I mean, even if you had to pay royalties to the surviving family for the originals, how is that not cheaper and better than what they ended up with? It all makes me just :rolleyes:.
 

ThunderDan19

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PO or full price? Nah, but he does look cooler than I would have expected. I'd pick him up at Ollie's or after market for less than the regular fig $25 price. I'd go modern kit heavy though (the olde timey armor, extra swords, head and helmet are fully expendable), and I'd have to give him a better carbine.

Admittedly, I just picked up an incomplete Kamakura for $10 on Mercari. He has all his gear that I would have used anyway and with a very minor finger repair, he's good to go, in a non-prominent place in the grand display.

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I also recently picked up a Gnawgahyde (pretty sure I didn't, since I just had to literally look up how to spell him) - sans the animals - also for well below retail. Still on the hunt for a discounted Road Pig, with or without his puppy and extra gear. I'm slowly filling lower tier gaps in the dry season, as discount opportunities arise, but am not becoming completist enough to pay extra for animals that the original fig never had anyway.
 

nacho

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I assume Budo will not be a $25 figure. I assume with all that gear, he's going to be at the $35 Snowjob/Tripwire price point.... if we're lucky and he's not at the $50 Maximum Spider-Man price. But I have no use for him. He's a soldier in a ... period costume. Is he undercover in a play? Are there other joes in historical halloween costumes? Imagine seeing that on the battlefield. WTF Mattel.
 

ThunderDan19

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Yeah, he’ll surely be a deluxe fig, but I’ll not be paying extra for the period costume. The modern option was a pleasant surprise for me, and the bulk of what interests me at all. I have no interest in the full period garb, but a modern warrior that has a bit of a fetish for his ancient warrior ancestors’ look is not all that different from Spirit. A little out there, but not as weird as the full samurai costume and no modern weapons.
 

nacho

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Yeah, the Spirit comparison is somewhat apt...

...but what if Spirit had been a $35 deluxe with a giant warbonnet headdress, a tomahawk, and fully adorned buckskin tunic? We would have all reacted... "WTH is this nonsense!"

That's pretty much where I am. It's too much money, and it's too far away from practical, even for Joe. It's definitely not battlefield-ready. And if they did this for any other ethnicity or culture, wouldn't it certainly get called a racist stereotype or some other "ist" term? I personally have no problem with it from that perspective, but I'm simply not paying $35 for a character I have no attachment to and a bunch of horribly impractical accessories that will live in the bin.
 
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ThunderDan19

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It's funny but yes, I had the slightest weird feeling when Spirit arrived and I added him to my (much smaller at the time) display, which then was still located at my (not home) office. I made sure he was in the back and somewhat obscured from casual view. We live in a weird time, where some caucasian woman might be offended by him.

I also would not pay $35+ to get all the "deluxe" costume gear for Budo. I would pay $25 or less for basically everything left of center in that render. I think that gear is modern enough to fit in with the rest of my Joes' deco, with just enough samurai to distinguish him as Budo. Truly, in that kit version, he's less cliché than pretty much any of the ninjas, save for "ultimate" SE, and less weird than pretty much anyone from the Zartan family/Dreadnoks.

Heck, if someone was really into samurai, they could buy the complete figure and an aftermarket generic trooper to fully outfit with the gear to the right. As a standalone, that might actually be pretty cool.
 

nacho

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Got the rest of the latest retro wave in today from Pulse. More RnR's for fodder, Vipers, and Mindbender.

The good doctor looks exactly like the Con version (supposedly has the cobra logo on the cape, but I haven't opened him yet). But I only had one of the originals, so I needed one for the office collection. Now if they'll just reissue Serpentor...

I didn't replace all my vipers, just got one new sleeveless Viper for my home team and one for my office group. I haven't decided if I'm making him the squad leader or the heavy gunner. Either would kinda fit, but no chance I was replacing all of them with the only difference being covered/uncovered forearms.

The extra RnRs are to make improved O13 Breaker toy deco figures... while the upcoming MASS version is far more sunbow-esque. The first Classified Breaker is on the outdated buck that looks sad next to the newer ones (and has the wrong sleeves, wrong shade of green, etc), so I'll be glad to replace him with either improved version.
 

ThunderDan19

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I have a feeling that, at some point, when the price is right, I’ll also end up with a retro Viper. He’ll likely stay on the card, just like retro Beach Head. Neither (IMO) is better enough to replace the versions I already have in the display. While it can’t be said of all the retros (fatheadflint), they both look terrific on their cards and belong there, at least for me.

I’ve also been mildly tempted by the recent sub $20 pricing on the Duke, Recondo, Scarlett wave, but I’ve been able to fight it off, so far. If they continue to fall, it’ll be harder to resist. They’d remain MOC like the others, for the same reason. They all look retro-fabulous on their cards, but will not displace the versions I have.
 
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They are really leaning into the Cold Slither... mania(?), I guess mainly to sell those SDCC exclusive sets. I dunno, maybe I'm the oddball, but I have less than zero interest in the whole thing. I don't want the set, or the CD or anything.

I'm not complaining. We have a lot of product already on the way for this year (probably even more after tomorrow) and the line seems to be doing better than ever, but I can't help but feel like there might be better, more... military ways to spend the resources.

Maybe I'm still paranoid that we'll never get some iconic characters (though by this point I can't pull any big names that are still missing). Maybe this is exactly the right kind of exclusives to have for Comic Con. Well, this and Cobra La...
 
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ThunderDan19

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50
VA
And... cue the leaked images: