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

[nacho]

I like the idea of the alternate art... but the pose looks like they copied from Grunt's card art, and it's very scratchy-sketchy art, super far from the painted semi-realism of the original artist, Hector Garrido, or a classic artist like Earl Norem.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Hit & Run looks pretty cool.

NYCC 2025 Preview: Hasbro G.I. Joe Classified Series Brent ?Hit & Run? Scott Figure

Yo Joe! The road to New York Comic Con starts now! What better way to kick it off than with a render reveal? Here?s your first look at the previously name-on

toynewsi.com

 

[nacho]

Wife walked into my office at work this morning, looked at the new SNAKE armor on the shelf, and said, "Wow, did you print this? You're getting much better!"

I was like, "No... but, thanks for telling me I suck!"

EDIT: just got email from AMZ, MMS & Hawk inbound tomorrow!

 

[ThunderDan19]

I opened rTV and put him in his Trubble Bubble. He looks like he belongs there, which works out since he has a semi-gimpy foot. It wants to stay in a tip toe position, which works out since both his feet can stay kind of like that while riding the TB anyway.

I also opened rCG, got her a better sub-gun and put he next to her “cousin.” I gotta be honest, the movie Scarlett head is still a little prettier and looks much more realistic. It’s more obvious when they are next to each other that rCG‘s face is a bit exaggerated and a little cartoonish. She’s cute enough, but won’t be replacing my version.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I found myself across town at the better organized Ollie's today, and happened to catch them putting out 4 cases of 60th Halo and Marine, in addition to the 3 or 4 singles that were already on the shelf. So I'd say they have arrived in earnest now.

It was tempting, but I have two of each already so I passed. I was hoping for a sprinkle of the Soldier and Diver in the lot, as I'd be happy to pick up at least one of each of those at $12.99 a pop. No such luck. Must not be as much surplus of those because I've never seen anyone post that they've found them there.

 

[nacho]

I've gotta run that direction in the next day or two, might stop in and see if they've made it to Ollie's here.

I'm not sure I *need* another pilot, but doing a full custom into classic Ripcord is the most certain way to get them to release the official

 

[nacho]

 

[ThunderDan19]

Nice! I could see myself picking up a Col. Hawk at some point in the aftermarket if I find him for the right price. After all, he was my first Joe back in the day, so nostalgia will probably catch up to me in the end. You still planning to make some proper missiles for that launcher?

Speaking of nostalgia, I was taking another look at Steeler and Short-Fuse today too. They were also early favorites, but aren't nearly as well translated as Hawk. Odd color Steeler without a MOBAT seems a little weak, and the two tone uni is not doing SF any favors.

 

[nacho]

Oh definitely making new missiles... biggest question is, do I rob and modify them from that Big Lots missile truck or print them. And if I print them, what design do I go with, knowing full well someone will design something better specifically for the MMS within a few months. It's a matter of how patient I'm going to be.... not my strongest attribute

Steeler is definitely too dark, but at least he's a uniform color. I'm just hoping SF's pants match the torso of some other figure (Grunt? Hawk? RnR?) so that an easy swap would be possible.

 

[Cledus Hoss]

View attachment 17507I know people are hyped on Col. Hawk, and for good reason. As for myself, however, the only thing I want it is to use his helmet on one of my Duke figures

 

[nacho]

I found myself across town at the better organized Ollie's today, and happened to catch them putting out 4 cases of 60th Halo and Marine, in addition to the 3 or 4 singles that were already on the shelf. So I'd say they have arrived in earnest now.

It was tempting, but I have two of each already so I passed. I was hoping for a sprinkle of the Soldier and Diver in the lot, as I'd be happy to pick up at least one of each of those at $12.99 a pop. No such luck. Must not be as much surplus of those because I've never seen anyone post that they've found them there.

So I dropped by the Ollie's after a costco run, and mine was the same as yours... plenty of Legacy Pilots and Snipers, no Soldiers or Divers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[nacho]

I know people are hyped on Col. Hawk, and for good reason. As for myself, however, the only thing I want it is to use his helmet on one of my Duke figures

Oh, you're one of *those*... I'll try not to hold it against you!

In my world Hawk >>> Duke as a leader, and Flint >>> Duke in the field, but I get it if people grew up with the 'toon as their major Joe influence. Duke was clearly the focal hero character.

 

[nacho]

Not bad... they didn't "classify" him up too badly. Not sure why his backpack went from grey to white, and his boots went from white to grey... it's like someone got confused. But those are minor nitpicks... or intentional screwups to give them somewhere to wiggle to when they do the retro. The oxygen mask and IV bag are nice touches.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yeah, the render isn't terrible, but I never cared much for him as a kid, nor do I now. He has always been way too red and white for a battlefield. His portrayal in the cartoon didn't help either. His entire job was medic/crew chief for the Tomahawk for me back in the day. I don't think I have a place for him in my collection without one of those.

 

[nacho]

I agree he was never my favorite, but mostly because of my '86 unified replacement theory... doc >>> lifeline. And because he was a wuss in the cartoon. But I'm in for basically any '82-'87 character that isn't Big Lob (now *heavily* rumored to be the 5th figure in this wave).

 

[ThunderDan19]

Ah yes, Big Lob. Another of the many, many reasons I hated the movie. Aside from the opening, I can't think of any part of it - the characters, the storyline, the retcon of CoCo, the extreme departure from (relatively) grounded military theming into the completely weird - that I actually liked. Just like "Once a man" CoCo, Nemesis or Golobulus, I have never wanted, nor will ever own a CS Big Lob.

I do have to give credit to the CS folks on how they have handled the weird though. They have created plenty of "out there" elements (Dark Energon, DIRE, Cobra-La) for those who care to have it, while still providing enough of the normal line (CS and retro for that matter) so that both factions can acquire sufficient offerings to keep them happy. From all appearances, they earned the ability to provide content for both by doing it well enough to remain popular, even while some of the other lines struggle to sell product.

And heck, while I'm ranting about the weird, I'm a little disappointed in the direction of the comics as well - that's not to say I haven't kept up with all of them since you got me addicted . I suppose I'm just an old codger who thinks elite military missions against a formidable, well-supplied, terrorist nation alone offer more than enough content to make for a very exciting comic line.

I do miss the old days when the weirdest stuff happening in the comics was an obsession with ninja lore - no zombies, transforming robots, warring alien civilizations or hidden (now with interstellar space travel!) bio-centric factions. But, much like the CS line, there is enough happening in that arena to keep my interest there as well. So I'll count my blessings and keep feeding the addiction as new stuff drops, at least until it builds a bridge too far.

 

[nacho]

I don't mind a *smattering* of the weird sci-fi, but it's definitely not my preferred part of the lore. I don't mind picking up a small group of CobraLa main cast, but I've got my own headcanon about how they fit... and CoCo is not "one of them". In my head, even my OnceAMan CoCo is just a dude mutated by CL bio-spore-pseudo-science-whatever, not an ancient snake-man. And I like how Skybound is trying to meld the various origins into something reasonably coherent.

But the newly dreamed-up sci-fi stuff is a big turn-off. DIRE, Ghost Viper, Mole-Rats v2, etc are all hard-no's for me. Pythona gets a pass... green wolf ghosts and zombies do not.

I haven't decided about Big Lob. I hate the character, but I wonder if I'll get FOMO about having a gap in the movie cast. Or I can go down the path I take with Sgt Slaughter... get a figure to join the Bullet Sponge Brigade. As I always say, somebody's gotta die first. Might as well be Sarge, Bazooka, Barbecue, and now Big Lob (to be joined by future Tollbooth, Airtight, Crankcase, Charbroil, Sneek-Peek, and Super Trooper). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(holy smoke there were a lot of crappy joes... )

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yeah, they couldn’t all be winners. It’s good to have some characters you wouldn’t miss if they didn’t make it.

In other CS news, I found myself in a different WM from my usuals and ran across this :




I really didn’t expect to see this at a WM today. I had thought they were barely onboard with the CS/retro line. It was actually 4 sided with these plus SW, WWE and a couple other (presumably Hasbro brand) toy lines represented on the other sides. I ended up buying my youngest daughter a 6” SW fig, that was actually reasonably close to CS size. I wonder if they are finally going away from being the mini-mes of 6” figs.

This took me back to the old days when toy and department stores (Hills comes to mind for me) used to have significant displays for Joe, Xfrmrs, SW, etc. I haven’t seen anything like this pop up in any of my feeds online, so I wonder if it’s new going into the Christmas season. Looks like the Joe section has hardly been populated yet though, or it’s so popular it’s been cleared out, though that seems premature.

The price cards had the CS code words as the product name on some of them and only that one Trooper and the Stinger (for $75) currently in stock. The prices appeared to be the normal (non-tariff boosted), at least for now. I will need to watch my regular WM for something like this and find an excuse to swing back past this one if nothing pops up at mine. It was a fun little nostalgia rush and I want more…

Edit: Swung by the regular WM tonight. No cool new display there. It’s just as lame as it’s been since they finally sold off the last of the Joe figs they had a couple months back and completely removed the section.

 

[nacho]

MASS diver 2-pack is ready to ship from Target and is eligible for the $10 off $40 (or $20 off $75) promo.

G.I. Joe Classified Series #169, G.I. Joe Diver Vs. Cobra Diver Action Figure : Target

 

[ThunderDan19]

No real surprises, but looks pretty solid. Will definitely picki up this one and Hit & Run.
Looking a little closer, there's a definite reuse of the HISS Driver's legs. Kinda tarnishes it just a little, though it won't really be noticeable on display. And I don't have a HD anyway, so I shouldn't complain.

 

[nacho]

No real surprises, but looks pretty solid. Will definitely picki up this one and Hit & Run.View attachment 17518
Looking a little closer, there's a definite reuse of the HISS Driver's legs. Kinda tarnishes it just a little, though it won't really be noticeable on display. And I don't have a HD anyway, so I shouldn't complain.

Yeah, I can't say I'd have chosen the Hiss Driver as the mold to use for this guy, but I'm not as huge of a fan of NV as some, so I'm not inclined to worry about it much either way. He has a wild cult status among certain fans, and some of them will certainly hate that choice. I had one as a kid, but he didn't have a major purpose as a singleton. It's the kind of situation where I ask myself, "Why can't regular cobra troopers operate in the dark with NVGs?" I mean, it's not like Eels and Snow Serpents that have a lot of specialized training.

But like most of these other multitude of vipers, I'll probably get a small 3-man squad, at least make sure he's not operating solo. I think that just leaves HEAT Viper, Strato-Viper, Star Viper, and Astro-Viper as the only other good flavor of Vipers I remember getting much action in the great bedroom wars (hydro-viper and toxo-viper need not apply). Everything beyond that will get far more scrutiny.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I had a fast expiring coupon for Ollie’s that popped up on my account, so I swung by my normal train-wreck of a store and ended up with one more 60th Marine. They only had two of those, at least that I could find in the mess. I was kind of hoping for another HALO/pilot instead (assuming they hadn’t somehow magically found a few cases of soldiers and divers in the mix), but I couldn’t pass up getting that one for $11.

Now I have enough to make a fire team of the 3 variations with one of the named Joe ladies to lead the Gurl Powa Squad!!! Not sure what I’ll actually do with them, but it’s better to have them at that price and figure it out later. Each variation is actually a pretty decent figure, so I’ll eventually put them to use.

I’ll be up in Toledo this weekend and I remember there’s a convenient and better organized Ollie’s near my cousin’s restaurant. I have one more, lesser discount coupon I might use if I see a HALO up there. I remember that’s where I found the Sarge a while back.

 

[nacho]

Retro troopers on sale for Prime day. I couldn't pass up a couple more Vipers @ $17/ea. They're so much better than the first classified version. I think I have enough Snow Serpents, Eels, and blueshirts... but we'll see if my resolve holds throughout the day

 

[ThunderDan19]

Lol, Walmart got me as well this morning. The nostalgia of those retro packages along with the deep discounts (pardon the pun) was more than I could bear . I ordered a rViper and rScarlett. They know how to get us.

These two will join rBH and remain on their cards, as I have solid, modernized versions of both already in the display. I will likely end up with a couple more retros (ones with decent card art) as the discounts continue to grow near the holidays and the nostalgia keeps calling.

You'll probably roll your eyes at this one, but I also scored a Fortnite SE last night on Mercari. I actually think that it's a pretty slick version of him, sans some of the wonky weapons. I offered $20 + shipping and, to my surprise, the seller accepted. Not bad, since I'd never actually been able to find one at Ollie's. I'm a sucker for the "knight" visor, since that one was my SE back in the day.

He'll likely also remain in the package and will probably ultimately end up belonging to my youngest, as she plays FN and also likes my CS collection.

 

[nacho]

Nothing wrong with FN SE... I just passed b/c he didn't really do anything for me that the original few releases of that mold didn't do.

I would only roll my eyes at Butterscotch SE

Edit: DD having another coupon code "TREAT" for in-stock. Noteworthy is MMS with Hawk is in stock, and 15% off saves $11.25.

 

[ThunderDan19]

And... Big Lob.

I've got zero interest, but he could have been worse. At least they didn't decide to give him gym shorts or something...
I like the SBR/carbine. Might have to get ahold of one or more of those in the aftermarket.

 

[nacho]

I know he's wearing a basketball jersey, but wth is wrong with hasbro? Not counting real-world Fridge, there are two figures that wear sports jerseys out of hundreds of soldiers, and they're both red and both #14. Bazooka should sue.

----------

Also, interesting new offering from Gridiron... looks like they took the body of their not-AWE-Striker, added some skis and a fan and made a pseudo water moccasin.

GA0669 1:12 GRIDIRON GATOR Combat Air - Boat (RETRO) Military vehicle great for G.I. Joe Classified, Copperhead, Monster Force, custom moccasin



I can't say I'd pay $269 for it, but I give them an "A" for effort and creativity. That's a neat mod of the existing AWE body.

I might pull the trigger on one of their actual AWEs at some point, but I just got the FansHobby version and the Hasbro version is inbound. Not sure I need a 3rd AWE variant, but theirs is by far the meanest looking of the three. If it weren't for Crankcase, I'd have been tempted to skip the hasbro version completely. And the fact that gridiron makes their own, they're unlikely to offer upgrade parts to make the hasbro version better. But I'll wait to get the hasbro version in-hand before I officially declare it a dud.

So far to me, the fanshobby version feels like the clear winner, as it's pretty badass. Working suspension, working steering, working lights, tons of motor detail, possibly a working motor (haven't put batteries in it yet, but it appears to have running gears)... it looks and feels more like an RC car than a toy. It's got too many fragile little bits and parts to jump over a dirt mound, but it "looks" like it could. Side mirror, tail pipes, and lights would probably break off and get lost, but the rest of it feels like it was meant for rugged terrain. It also has rubber/silicone tires. I wish they were a bit wider, but that's a minor nitpick. It definitely has more ARAH AWE vibes than anything else.

 

[ThunderDan19]

*Adjusts my nerd glasses* Well... technically Hardball has a baseball jersey as well, but they didn't even bother to give him a number. But yeah, mix it up, Hasbro. Geez...

I can't say I'm overly excited for the Gridiron re-use and re-purposing of their vehicles into wildly "different" applications. Buggies into snow vehicles and air boats. Flight pods into mechs. VAMPs into trucks and half tracks. Creative? Absolutely. But it looks and feels a little forced.

I think the only one I am very much onboard with is the Phalanx AFV. What they did with adding the turret is very similar with what the Army is doing with the Stryker Dragoon, and I love it. It's big, bold and doesn't have even a whiff of corner cutting or forced application. With that upgrade, I think it stands above just about every other 1:12 scale vehicle out there.

Would I ever spend the $600 I'd need to own it? Probably not. Ah, but if I were rich and had unlimited shelf space... Green... definitely the green one...

 

[nacho]

I agree about the truck mods and some of the stranger add-on accessories (hard pass on the weird mech stuff). But I actually like the ice-vehicle application of the AWE body, but mostly because it marginally looks like an actual ARAH vehicle. Arctic Blast... paint the gridiron tube frame green, and Bob's your uncle. It was the very final Joe vehicle I bought as a kid, the only vehicle from the '89 lineup I bought. So I have a little soft spot for it.

 

[Videoviper]

So I got curious, & wondered in Big Lob was originally going to be based on a real sports character.

Officially no he isn’t.

That said he & Hardball are suspiciously out of place. Both with suspiciously similar back stories.

However there are a few clues…
There were a few crossovers with Sargent Slaughter being the main one. Later Fridge Perry.

Rambo almost happened & we only know about that because they forgot to tell Marvel in time that the contract got pulled & they published the dossier.

I wondered if Big Lob given his non released action figure (Likely pulled from the lineup) Maybe he was some Michael Jordon type character. The AF we did eventually get was a repaint of Mercer, who himself was going to be Dolph Lundgren (Rocky crossover) & the reason Big Boa got a new head.

Obviously at this point we won’t find out who they would have signed with but I do wonder what could have been. Yes I hated all these crossovers so I don’t feel we lost anything.

Does make me wonder what the origins of some of the weirder characters started off as. Looking at you Raptor, Croc Master, etc

 

[nacho]

So I got curious, & wondered in Big Lob was originally going to be based on a real sports character.

Officially no he isn’t.

That said he & Hardball are suspiciously out of place. Both with suspiciously similar back stories.

However there are a few clues…
There were a few crossovers with Sargent Slaughter being the main one. Later Fridge Perry.

Rambo almost happened & we only know about that because they forgot to tell Marvel in time that the contract got pulled & they published the dossier.

I wondered if Big Lob given his non released action figure (Likely pulled from the lineup) Maybe he was some Michael Jordon type character. The AF we did eventually get was a repaint of Mercer, who himself was going to be Dolph Lundgren (Rocky crossover) & the reason Big Boa got a new head.

Obviously at this point we won’t find out who they would have signed with but I do wonder what could have been. Yes I hated all these crossovers so I don’t feel we lost anything.

Does make me wonder what the origins of some of the weirder characters started off as. Looking at you Raptor, Croc Master, etc

There was a Big Lob figure in ARAH?! Never heard of that before... and Mercer-based... interesting.

But like you, I disliked the crossover stuff, so I'm not sad we didn't get Jordan or Dr J as a freakin' Joe.

By '87, they were clearly looking for inspiration far and wide. '86 was the great replacement year, and '87 was the year of the wacky stuff. Rocky, Stephen King, Fridge, raptor, crock... vehicles like pogo and buzz-boar... all pretty insane when compared to the early years.

 

[ThunderDan19]

By then, Hasbro had apparently decided to go all-in on the flashy, and ultimately the weird. As you mentioned, they were obviously chasing every trendy fad of that era - Chuckles = Miami Vice, Outback = Chuck Norris, Dress Blues Gung-Ho = Top Gun dress whites, Jinx - ever present 80's ninjas, etc. I'd have to assume they were looking to find ways to expand the fanbase, and incorporating athletes and wrestlers was the tamer, and more widely accepted side of it.

Though a little distracting, Sarge was at least military themed already. Fridge was just a phenomenon they tried to bank on with a single cheap mail order fig. He almost made sense the way they marketed him, but at least they didn't really try to make him the face of the line, like they did with Slaughter. Those two were as far as I was willing to go.

Their collaboration with Stephen King netted two of the biggest peg warmers I can recall in Crystal Ball and Sneak Peek. And whatever did or didn't work out with Rocky got us another peg warming dud in Big Boa.

I think Crock Master and Raptor were responses to the popularity of figures with "pets." That gimmick with a dash of fetish got us those two. I think Cobra-La was an attempt to compete with the other weird/fantasy lines of the time - MOTU, Thundercats, Inhumanoids, etc.

Taken together with many of us "growing out of playing with toys," all that started the rapid decline of the line, after which Hasbro just desperately leaned further into the gimmicks. Neon, Eco/Toxo, cyborg, etc. And we all know how that ended.

You have to wonder if Hasbro had simply stayed closer to the near future military theming, without all the gimmicks, would it have still suffered the same fate, or would the next batch of kids have gravitated to it like we did? I guess it's actually a fairly fine line between being stuck in a rut with the OG "everything's green" and the "we went way too far" neon of the doomed later waves.

 

[nacho]

I also got two vipers, two snow serpents, and a clearance Flight Pod from the Prime sale this week.

Oh, and I pulled the trigger on Vala's blind box sale on a Vanguard with all the add-on kits for $99. In theory you don't know what variant you're getting, but I was 99% sure it would be the gray version, as that seemed to be the least popular amongst the fandom. And I was correct. But being prepared for that, I was ok with it, as it fits nicely with the Ramen black vans, the Stinger, or whatever non-descript military vehicle I want to make of it. $99 for that massive vehicle, all the armor, turret, and missile launcher kits, plus a driver figure is a steal at $99, no matter what color.

 

[Videoviper]

With the general 2-3 year development timeline I can see how some things were influenced by Star Wars, Flash Gordon & Heman.

Funny you mention Inhumanoids as not only was that a Hasbro line, the characters were actually Gi Joes. It probably was a mistake to make the humans in a different scale. Cool concept basically as in house Godzilla brand, but terrible cheap looking toys.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I think Hasbro had the Visionaries as well as another short-lived attempt at dabbling in the fantasy realm. They jumped on the hologram bandwagon with those at a slightly larger scale too. There were a few different lines that came and went as Joe, MOTU, TCs, TMNT and Xfrmrs were winding down. Nothing else really stuck as I recall, as I believe the video games were starting to take over instead. Those early to mid-80’s successes were lightning in a bottle for toy lines, not really seen since, at least not that many as popular at one time.

That’s a nice score, Nacho! You need to print some giant tube worms and make a sweet dio for all those divers!

 

[nacho]

I think Hasbro had the Visionaries as well as another short-lived attempt at dabbling in the fantasy realm. They jumped on the hologram bandwagon with those at a slightly larger scale too. There were a few different lines that came and went as Joe, MOTU, TCs, TMNT and Xfrmrs were winding down. Nothing else really stuck as I recall, as I believe the video games were starting to take over instead. Those early to mid-80’s successes were lightning in a bottle for toy lines, not really seen since, at least not that many as popular at one time.

That’s a nice score, Nacho! You need to print some giant tube worms and make a sweet dio for all those divers!

Not sure I can find a tube worm model, but there's always some vacuum cleaner hoses and googly-eyes

 

[nacho]

I ordered a single pythona just because, as I already have Nemesis Enforcer (I refuse to call him "Immortal"). But hasbro's pricing is insane now. I know it's a con exclusive, but with tax, she's over $50. Technically, she's a deluxe, but her few little baubles don't equate to SnowJob's gear or a pet or even the guys that came with small vehicles like the flight pod, RAM, or Coil Cycle. But she's priced higher than all of those.

Feels like BigH is using tariff fears as an excuse to have fans pay for their factory move to Vietnam and their HQ move to Boston. I'm glad we're getting to the end of the prime era of ARAH in classified form. Unless they start ramping up more retros or start producing sunbow-faithful decos (to fill the void left by S7 ultimates), I'm only going to get more and more selective. Ghost Vipers? Glow-y wolves? Parth Varma? Mole Rats with giant crystals growing out of their heads? Trench (Latrine) Vipers? Desert Scorpion with giant mutant (robot?) scorpion for over $50? I feel like Joe fans are suckers with bottomless pockets (or at least hasbro thinks so)... and that's a lot coming from a guy that grossly overspends on toys, especially classified.

Going forward, I'll be a sucker for more accurate decos and better head sculpts when they re-release certain characters, but if they think I'm going hard into the neon 90's with them, it's going to be a rude awakening.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yep. I've said it before, this line has already gone way farther than I expected, and has done a very solid job of hitting the absolute essentials. I never expected them to be able to continue the CS at full production as well as Haslabs, retro and sub-teams. But they have, and now the deterioration of remaining (practical) essential content has driven them toward the wild and weird. And eventually, with that, as in the past, that shark gets jumped. Hasbro raising their prices only brings the shark that much closer.

When they clear the shark and hit the wall, and they will, I will thank them for a job pretty well done, and my wallet will thank them for finally ending the periodic floggings!

 

[nacho]

100% true. No notes.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Summary of info from NYCC:

2025 NYCC Hasbro G.I. Joe Classified Recap

Here is a complete rundown of everything new revealed by Hasbro this weekend at the 2025 New York Comic Con for G.I. Joe Classified. You can check out an exte

toynewsi.com

There's quite a lot of new reveals, but I'm really only seriously interested in Night-Viper, Hit & Run, maybe Crazy Legs (assuming the red is not too obnoxious) and the female CG. Like with SF and Steeler, I might pick up Zap for the right price, but I'm not interested at $28. Same is true of the other singles in the wave. Higher price = less interest.

Much like when I was a kid, the Royal Guard almost works for me as a big/bad shock trooper type. I think his non-winged form looks pretty cool, but I doubt I'll ever own him because he doesn't really jive with the rest of my figs anyway. I might have bit on a regular fig, without the wings, extra heads and gear, at a regular fig price. No way I'm paying the deluxe price for stuff I wouldn't want and will never use. No need to relearn the lesson from the CS Snow Serpent.

I think I kind of like the made-to-pre-order idea for vehicles, if it's executed well. I have no interest in an Arctic HISS, but maybe more vehicles will follow. I might be in for a Dragonfly (not TF though) if the package is right for the price. Maybe a NF version with just a NF Wild Bill? Only time will tell on that I think.

What's the word on the collar thing? Maybe a harness for a giant Cobra-La snake critter or something like that?