GIJoeCon 2018: Final Twelve and other Club offerings

GIJoeCon 2018 is one for the history books.  The last official Joe Con is over with the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club conducting one last Club Roundtable panel on Sunday June 24, 2018.  However, the Club didn’t go out with a whimper but instead surprised fans not only with some retrospective slide shows and musings about what the past 22 years of conventions have meant to them and the community but also with a final slate of exclusive products set to drop in the coming weeks.

Note: we have no information on pricing, release date, or even overall availability.  However, if the sellout of the Dreadnok 4WD with Heartwrencher was any indication, it’s best to pre-order these as soon as possible after the orders go live.

Let’s start with the one item we knew was coming.

Cobra Night Stalkers 3-pack

GIJoeCon 2018 night stalkers 3-pack

The long-awaited updated to the 2007 Night Stalkers is coming soon! Based on the build of the the female Cobra Troopers released in 2017, this 3-pack of figures compliments the FSS 6 Night Stalker Commander.  Each three pack will include three different skin tone variations including the first African-American female Cobra trooper!  (I’m also really digging the back mounted knife sheath!)

Ninja Force Zartan and Doom Cycle

GIJoeCon 2018 ninja force zartan doom cycle

The mohawk is back!  The 1993 Zartan design lives in modern style construction and will come complete with a Dreadnok Doom Cycle! When the Club dropped the hint of “Ninja Force” for the FSS 8 13th figure, many fans immediately floated the notion that we’d see a Ninja Force Zartan.  However, I don’t know if anyone quite predicted this.  The build includes a compound bow in case any Cobra Emperors are still lurking around and makes an excellent reuse of the Retaliation G.I. Joe Trooper unmasked head.

The “Final Twelve” exclusive figure series

This one is interesting.  It’s not quite a Figure Subscription Service but it’s another roster of 12 figures– this time shipping in pairs.  (The Club is reusing the FSS boxes for one last hurrah.)

For this final offering, the Club will be accepting pre-orders for pairs of figures that will ship together.  The pair of Slaughter’s Marauders complete the roster of this year’s GIJoeCon 2018 set in terms of deco.  The four Tiger Force figures fill in the missing members of the European and International roster– much to the joy of “kitty patrol” fans everywhere.  The Sonic Fighters figures compliment a roster started with this year’s GIJoeCon 2018 souvenir figures.

And then there’s the “Black Spider Rendezvous” which adds another 1:18 Adventure Team member to figure shelves everywhere.  (YES!!!!) Plus, there’s the “Coils o’ Doom” character– a villain whose name is an homage to another classic Adventure Team set and who was the subject of a running joke on the Regular Joes podcast.  Coils, who appears to reuse the FSS Cesspool head is also purported to have an connection to the 2013 GIJoeCon exclusive Crimson Asp character!

And that’s it– the final slate of exclusive 1:18 scale product that will be offered by the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club.  It’s been a long road and while Joe Con is about more than just the figures, it’s nice to see the folks at Fun Publications offering fans one more set of figures to remember 22 amazing years by.

I’ll have final thoughts about this year’s convention posted later.

You can watch the first part of the panel below, courtesy of the excellent crew of YoJoe.com!