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

[ThunderDan19]

I'm looking at maybe giving it a shot with a combo of this:

with the torso up of Movie SE:

​

which appears to have a more similarly sized neck joint.

If I can find my way back over to Ollie's and pick up an SE for $5, I'll likely start the journey and go chasing the legs and SW head. It's apparently not hard to disassemble the legs and crotch from the torso with a little heat and I'll need to remove the Arashikage symbol from the arm with acetate. I better be careful or next I'll be venturing into dremel and paint!

 

[nacho]

91% isopropyl from WM will take that symbol right off. While it can damage a figure if you use too much, I find it's more forgiving than acetate while working as good or better at tampo removal.

Are those Outback legs you're talking about using?

Legs are super easy to remove with a heat gun. Just warm them up for 10-15 seconds and they pop right off, almost comically so. And then same thing to put them back on.

What's weird is that Stalker pops apart at the ball joint at the waist, but Grunt and retro SE, using the exact same buck (from all visual appearances), do not, as they have a waist swivel but not a ball joint. I've almost broken a couple of them, expecting them to operate like Stalker (and Valaverse figures), but alas no, you just have to leave the waist with the torso like you've shown and remove the legs instead.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Cool! Thanks for the tips on the alcohol and the heat. I'll be using a hair dryer (I know, I'm a noob) for a little longer to get things to soften up, or, if that doesn't quite do it, there's the boiled water idea I saw posted on HT. I used the hair dryer with Cover Girl successfully a while back, so I think that'll probably do fine if I'm reasonably patient.

The legs are the green pants from green pants SE. Stalker's are another option, but I like the color contrast on these just a little better, despite not being camo. I feel like Shippy would be more of a maritime assault type vs. a jungle or woodland pounder, so the camo, while cool, is optional.

Now you are scaring me with the other figure variations you've come across already. Dang it, Hasbro!!!

 

[nacho]

It's pretty staggering how many different construction variations one line can have.

 

[nacho]

Here you go (not mine). Looks like commando/timber SE torso with Shippy pants.

 

[ThunderDan19]

That’s a nice version too. I wonder what they did for the watch cap.

 

[nacho]

If I had to guess, I'd say they may have scalped or made a mold of a Low Light to copy his toboggan. Although the cap could be athletic tape painted black, but that would be some fine work to get it that smooth.

Had to run to target for a prescription, and they had Vypra on the pegs... couldn't make myself care.

 

[nacho]

Opened Firefly 2.0... everything about this figure is an improvement over the original CI version. Classic deco, gear storage, really a near perfect figure. Except he has the absolute floppiest torso joints (ab crunch AND waist connection) of any JoeClass figure I own... by far. He's like a bobble-torso. It's pretty terrible. I'll have to address it with Future or some other kind of filler like rubber bands... and he may well have that Stalker waist connection I like, and if so, I might swap his crotch out with a spare stalker to see if that helps.

 

[ThunderDan19]

If you still need cheap fodder, get to Ollies pronto! It happened.


Looks like mine had Stalker, the twins, Dusty, CG and Zarana + the full movie lineup.

I decided to go with movies SE top and Stalker legs for Shippy. Can you believe they had Testors flat black model paint just hanging out by the check out register? Looks like I’m gonna be *gasp* painting Stalkers boots black to get the contrast I wanted for the lower half. What’s next? Dremel?

 

[nacho]

So jelly!!!!!

And so it begins! Welcome to the dark side.

You're either going to want to dremel the joints, primer the boots, and paint OR dye the boots with RIT synthetic. That's what I did with the boots and webgear.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Lol, oh. I just sprayed them with the Testors . I also need direction on the isopropyl. I swabbed the symbol and it seemed to do nothing but wet it. I’ve got the legs replaced and did a test run with Stalker’s head, so I just need to finish up with the boots and get to my kits and weapons at the office to be ready for the Shippy head.

Oh, and after a bit of searching I found my dremel in case I need it, though so far it seems unlikely.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Not completely dry yet, but here’s how it looks so far (I went ahead and painted over the symbol):

I’ll take him to work with me Monday and get him kitted out. Then it’s just waiting for a decent price on a Shipwreck head. My favorite source on Mercari says around Halloween or Thanksgiving until he gets some. I’ll be watching for other listings in the meantime to see what’s reasonable. Stay tuned!

 

[nacho]

This is the video where I learned the best way to remove paint and tampos from figures. The gist of it is multiple light applications of acetone using lots of clean q-tips. But even so, it only takes a few seconds. (this contradicts my comment from friday, as I was clearly swapping iso and acetone in my head, my bad). That Onyx stuff in the video for $3 at WM is the bomb.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Ok, cool. I think my wife has some version of that. I’ll check back here next time I delve this deep into customizing.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Ok, here it is all put together, with Grunt’s Steel Brigade head as a placeholder until I get ahold of Shippy’s:

I’ll be honest. If Steel Corps figs looked more like this, I’d be a lot more interested.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I swang by Ollie’s this evening with hopes of finding Fortnight SE and Sgt. Slaughter (which I saw in a video were supposed to have been found at some Ollies’) in the wild. I probably would have picked up the Sarge for the reported $13 price tag and would have had to decide if FN SE had anything redeeming to warrant picking him up. I didn’t have to decide because I saw neither of them.

What I did find were that all but a pair of T’s and X’s had been scooped up from the non-movie figures they had had. There were still at least a couple of each movie fig left, and, I had forgotten to mention from my last visit, a half dozen or so 4” retro HISS tanks. There were also dozens of Marvel Legends, tons of Eternals and Wakanda Forever and SW figs of all sizes.

I did see another four or five unopened GI Joe cases (marked E8346 - I could only see the ends of the boxes) on palettes, waiting to be put out. I’m guessing more movie figs or perhaps a reload of the ones we saw Saturday. Nonetheless, I’ll likely swing by again tomorrow if curiosity gets the best of me. If not tomorrow, then Thursday. Probably next week too, as the audio promo that runs in the store says they get toy shipments weekly, and I’m a sucker for a bargain.

 

[nacho]

I got some more retro 4" WM Cobra Officers (from like 2 years ago), as they put them on sale for $5.

 

[nacho]

Among a few other lesser markdowns on Prime Day, $49 viper 3-pack:

Amazon.com: G.I. Joe Classified Series Cobra Viper Officer & Vipers Figures 47 Collectible Toys, Multiple Accessories 6-Inch-Scale, Custom Package Art,Multicolored : Toys & Games

 

[ThunderDan19]

Odd. I still see them at $59. I do see Kamakura and the Blue Ninjas at prime exclusive discounts. Sorry, Amz. That's not gonna get me to sign on.

I've scratched my Viper (and CG for that matter) itch pretty well so I'm already a happy panda on that.

But there's still no telling what I would do when it comes to $5 closeouts...

 

[nacho]

You inspired me to make a lunch run to ollies... colossal bust. Remnant of the movie figures now mixed with all the eternals and dr strange legends, but zero hint they'd ever gotten non-movie joes. Bummer.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I'm starting to think my Saturday trip was particularly fortunate, as it was much different yesterday. I'll give it a run today to see what was in those cases (if there is any left of it), but won't likely be doing more than a weekly drive by after that, unless something remarkable happens. Is there anything I can be on the lookout for that you are hoping to find there?

 

[nacho]

I'm starting to think my Saturday trip was particularly fortunate, as it was much different yesterday. I'll give it a run today to see what was in those cases (if there is any left of it), but won't likely be doing more than a weekly drive by after that, unless something remarkable happens. Is there anything I can be on the lookout for that you are hoping to find there?

Nah, I'd just be gathering up cheap fodder. While I'd probably buy more if I saw them, truth is, I probably have enough stalkers and dustys.

But if I saw a $5 falcon, I'd definitely grab a couple more.

I think that $49 Viper price was Prime members only (that's what it said when I looked at the listing page, and it still shows $49 now).

 

[ThunderDan19]

So I swang by Ollie’s after work and found the same cases in the same spot on the palette near the back of the store. I did see a fella who had the last Tomax and Xamot, so that was the last of the non-movie figs on the shelves from that batch.

I hovered around for a minute and made my way back to the area where the palette was and found a rather pleasant employee there who I asked about checking out the contents. He was cool and pulled them out and popped the seals. Turns out it was two more cases of movie figs and two wave 5s, each with with two Flints, two Lady Jayes and two Cobra Commanders. Some of those might last until I drop in again next week. They sure did at WM, but we’re talking a quarter the cost, so maybe not.

I thanked my new employee friend and headed back toward the front to let the other fella know what I had seen, but he said he also already had all of those, so I think they‘ll remain in the open cases near the palette until someone prices them and puts them out on the shelf.

I guess the lesson is that there is a lot of potential variation, as this stock was most or all of what Walmart had planned to stock before the supply chain issues and lingering movie figs left them marooned while newer stock passed by.

I’ll be checking in at least weekly until I don’t see anything besides the movie figs for a couple weeks. And I gotta say that it’s been a while since I had this much fun on a physical hunt for Joes! And those crazy prices too!

 

[ThunderDan19]

I happened to find myself near a different Ollie's today, and so naturally had to go check it out. I found quite a supply of the movie figures, like at least a half dozen cases. I also found two+ cases with just T & Xs and two Zaranas. Oh, and a bunch of the 4" HISS tanks (at least ten of them). No trace of Sgt S. or Fortnight SE, so nothing I haven't already seen.

I did determine that I have no clue how to interpret the codes on the figure cases, as they had just cut them open diagonally at that Ollie's to display them. I don't have a grasp on which codes refer to which waves, at least from which case boxes I saw and what they had on hand. Not sure what was from what they had left and what may have been left over from what had already been sold that I didn't get a look at. From what I can tell, there had never been any JoeCS stuff at that store that I hadn't seen at mine.

I also had to stop at WM on the way back home for some puppy food, and... this happened:

They had exactly one of these, right in front of all the peg warmers I'd been seeing there for months now. It has near perfect paint and, yeah, I do love my CGs. Always have, always will. He's my new officer. It's like he was there just for me today. Yes, I paid full price. At least I've been making out like a bandit on the Ollie's stuff when I find it... gross rationalization, I know.

 

[nacho]

Congratz, never seen any of the final four retros in the wild.

He'll be a brighter red than your other CGs, but if you're making him a special purpose guy, it won't really matter that he doesn't perfectly match.

Tomorrow is the walmart collector con, NF Tunnel Rat, Parth Varma, and Shadow Tracker. I want a NF TR just because if you have both versions and do a pants swap, they'll both match their ARAH counterparts better. And I might get a Parth just for fodder, as he looks like he'd be a good base figure for any number of NF customs. Shadow tracker... I cannot come up with a scenario where I would want to own that figure. I've tried, but so far, nothing has hit me.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Lol, I've seen exactly one!

I will wait and see if this round and the previous one of WM exclusives ultimately makes their way to my new favorite Joe store before I decide if I have use for any of them. I'd imagine it won't be for a while, but with other figs clogging up pegs, who knows? In the mean time, I really don't have a place for any of them, besides the Crimson AV, which is due early next month.

I really do still enjoy the physical hunt! As nice as it is to have some of the absolutely necessary figs pre-ordered well ahead, there's still something about finding that fig you haven't seen before. I'm finding it's similar with running across figs you already have, or didn't care to buy at full price, but are now showing up for a fraction of the cost. I still look all of them over to see if I've missed any useful parts. Those prices beat anything (large or small) that has shipping costs tied to it!

 

[nacho]

Yeah, $5 for a figure of that caliber... if it's remotely useful... is a steal. That's why I'd probably buy another pile of Dustys and Stalkers if I stumbled on them, despite having plenty. And if it's a figure you don't have or were on the fence about, even better at that price.

So far, I'm going to have to live off my $12 grunts for a while, as my Ollie's luck just hasn't materialized yet. But I don't mind paying full price for figures I really want. It's all the extras I want for customs that hurt at MSRP.

 

[Videoviper]

For those discovering Ollie’s sign up for Ollie’s army & you will get additional coupons.

I wouldn’t worry about box codes, as Ollie’s only deals with overstock from elsewhere & I wouldn’t bet on restocking. So it’s all usually the same stuff.

 

[nacho]

Went out to dinner for our anniversary tonight (22yrs btw!), ran by Ollie's just before they closed... bupkus. I'm not sure a single figure had moved since I was there at noon on monday. I'm starting to think it's just not happening here.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Congrats on the anny! Sorry Ollie’s didn’t give you any surprise presents. If they have a huge supply of the movie figs, it may be holding up anything else from using that shelf space, since it seems nearly impossible to tell the cases apart from each other.

You see the new comic? I saw a preview of it. Looks like it picks up exactly where the last one ended.

Oh, and I just saw where apparently Alpine has been announced for Joe CS. Looking forward to seeing renders. He likely to be a deluxe fig though.

 

[nacho]

I did see the preview of #301, and the artwork looks incredible. I prefer that level of detail over the previous artist. He was ok, but didn't really blow my skirt up. I hope this new guy can stay on the title for a while, but the problem with a title like Joe is that if they get a really stellar artist, he'll get poached by Marvel for some Avengers miniseries and then eventually an ongoing, and Joe will never see him again. Still, I'm loving the look for now.

Indeed the Alpine announcement was a surprise. I'll be anxious to see it in 12-18 months. I'm very happy with my Alpine custom, but that won't stop me from picking up an official. At this point, if the line keeps up this momentum, they'll get to practically everyone of note, and doing customs is almost pointless. I may have to stick to obscure characters, alternate decos, and rando opposing forces rather than anyone from '82-87 just to keep from having my effort obsoleted so quickly.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I swung by a different WM from my usual one. This one has had no regular JoeCS figures since movie figs clogged the pegs months ago. To my surprise they had five retro CGs as well as usual retro peg warmers Gung Ho and LJ. They also had a half dozen green pants SEs. Still no regulars though.

While in toward town I also stopped by my regular Ollie’s and found it almost exactly as I did last week. The cases the nice fellow opened for me still sat on that same palette toward the back of the store, though it looked like two figs had been taken from the Flint/LJ case and all the 4” HISSes were gone.

Makes me wonder what may be trapped in the stock room with all the current movie stock on the shelves. Like I said before, it’ll be a weekly check in for me, at least until whatever is left of those cases get shelved and I get a look at what may be behind them in line.

 

[Videoviper]

Ollie’s doesn’t have stock rooms it’s all on the shelves, pallets or on it’s way to the store.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I stopped by my Ollie's over lunch today and saw nothing new on the JoeClass front. My Ollie's actually does have a pretty substantial stock room so:
...there's a chance.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I got my (deluxe ) Snow Serpent on Tuesday and finally got a moment to open the package yesterday. Honestly, not a bad figure. His head is not as tiny looking in person, particularly with the extra goggles atop his helmet(?). I'm completely not using the wolf gear or the snowboard or his original rifle or his generic Cobra trooper rifle, so that's not great.

I gave him Alley Viper's AKS-74ish carbine because that's a lot closer to the original AK from back in the day. I'm standing him the Snow Job's repainted snow shoes with Bazooka's repainted backpack, rockets and rocket launcher he came with, hanging off his backpack. It looks cool enough and I've got him far enough away from the others that it's not obvious he's using the same gear repainted.

Again, not a bad figure, but I'm not crazy about the fact that we had to pay extra for a bunch of all but unusable (story driven ) add-ons I'll never use and mostly repaints of other figures' gear. I would have been more satisfied with fewer pieces of plastic had they been better versions of the gear the original figure had back in the 80's, or even new original gear that allowed him to carry the snowboard and rocket launcher and stow the extra knife.

I'll still be on the lookout for the retro whenever that comes around and will have to decide if it's worth having both for the cool yet compatible differences or if I will just scavenge from it to make one best version the way I did for Baroness and LJ.

He was a favorite of mine back in the day. I can't really say that about this one, at least not yet, but maybe the best is yet to come...

 

[nacho]

That's pretty close the the assessment I came to on the SS. Good but not great, wish I didn't have to pay extra for gear I won't use. I learned that you can stow the rocket launcher by clipping it on the bottom of the backpack.

I have four SS opened, but I canceled the rest of my squad until I get a look at the retro. It's just a matter of which becomes the "regular" version and which is the customized into various one-offs version. I have a cast head for an Ice Viper that needs a body, and I need a SS head for a Plaugue trooper. If the retro is more grey than white, I can see myself making that the normal version and customizing the deluxe "white" guys into officers, Ice Viper, etc.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yep, I got the rocket launcher hung in the right spot, which works because Bazooka is firing his, to it's not completely obvious they are the same. And I suppose who says both Joe and Cobra couldn't be using a Gustaf as their man portable rocket launcher. He's still a well outfitted fig (and should be for the price) and I think he might be growing on me.

I'm also with you on the coloring of the SS. This version's snow suit seems just a little bleached out compared to the original, so seems fully appropriate for use on the Ice Viper. I'm also hoping the retro is a little darker, but not too much. It'd be just like H'bro to now overdo it on that one.

My guess is that we'll likely get the retro with the same mold, same snowshoes, and probably the same rocket launcher and pack, but in white/gray. They'll likely swap out the rifle for a gray Cobra Officer AK, make minor tweaks to the figure coloring, leave out the wolf crap and snowboard and charge the usual $25 for retro. And I'm generally ok with that. It'll be a matter of how well they do it (and if there are any pleasant surprises) whether I pick one up or not.

 

[nacho]

Tripwire arrived today, and Chuckles charged this morning, so maybe he'll show up in a week. While they're not O13 classics, I love these oddball characters.

I'm not keen on the pet rat, but it's not crazy in the EOD world to have some bizarre detection animal helpers. I do like that they gave Tripwire some gear options that can make him modern or classic styled in an attempt to satisfy both camps, but that extra gear made him a deluxe that costs more. Can't win them all, but I do appreciate the effort. His head sculpt is superb, IMO, especially for a guy that didn't have an exposed head on the OG figure.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I’m glad to hear he is a solid figure in person. It definitely is an odd choice to make the effort to give him such a good head sculpt. He looks good in all the aftermarket pics I’ve seen, and reminds me a little of cartoon (porkchop sandwiches!) Blowtorch.

As I’ve said before, I think they should take that classic and updated approach to all the figures they produce. That said, I also wouldn’t care to pay extra to have both in one package. I’m pretty happy they are planning to do the retro line again, so hopefully they can make the best of both for each at the price of a standard fig.

Even though people don’t really know it, apparently training rats to detect land mines is fairly common. They are light enough to rarely ever set them off, even if they end up on top, and all but disposable if they do. If I recall, they use bananas to train them.

 

[nacho]

Yeah, I've heard rats, crows, ferrets... but I still find that to be a creepy sidekick for a cartoon/comic army man.