Mark Weber is new G.I. Joe Brand Manager

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Fred Meyer

Meet Mark Weber, the new brand manager for G.I. Joe.

It’s a new year and Mark Weber is the new brand manager of G.I. Joe!

The latest G.I. Joe Collector’s Club newsletter is hitting mailboxes now and inside is a short one-page interview with the newest G.I. Joe brand manager. Eagle-eyed fans will recall the rumors in late 2013/early 2014 that the then-current Joe team at Hasbro had been reassigned to other projects, leaving the brand in a stage of limbo. Speculation was rampant as to what the future would hold for the brand that helped put Hasbro on the map as a leader in boys toys since 1964. Now, it seems that our favorite brand might be getting back on track.

Weber, head of the Transformers brand since February 2012, is no stranger to the toy industry with over seven years experience at Todd McFarlane Productions. However, for the past nearly three years he’s overseen the development of Construct-bots and Transformers Generations.

The newsletter should be arriving any day now to Collector’s Club members but this quote was reprinted over at HISSTank.com which first broke the story:

“For the most part, our biggest plans will be centered around future entertainment – the kind of stuff I can’t talk about just yet. We are finalizing our 2015 plans and expect to deliver a lineup constructively similar to 2014 – with popular characters and vehicles, as well as a few NEW Surprises. If things go as planned, we will have an update to reveal at JoeCon in Springfield.”

“We want to have stronger, more consistent dialogue with the collectors and fans. We want collectors to have NEW vehicles and playsets to energize the brand to a new generation of kids and a fantastic new feature film that is faithful to the soul of the brand (action, fun, weapons, vehicles). Two things I want to prioritize right away – I want to enable and simplify army building for Collectors, and I want the file cards to be brilliant for our characters.”

New vehicles? New playsets? Any form of playset? More importantly – FILE CARDS that are BRILLIANT?!! Sign me up! This just made the Springfield G.I. Joe Collector’s Convention that much more interesting!

Here at JBL we’d like to extend Mark a warm welcome to the G.I. Joe community and hope that his tenure on the brand brings with it a new era of a revitalized Joe!

G.I. Joe KreO Blowout at ToysRUs.com

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Fred Meyer

ToysRUs.com is having a BLOWOUT sale on G.I. Joe Kreo!

Maybe it’s the holidays or maybe it’s the infamous “Deth of teh line !1!!!” but right now the prices on G.I. Joe KreO items have been slashed to rock-bottom levels. If you were ever on the fence about Hasbro’s Lego knock-off line, now is the time!

Check out the these prices:

It doesn’t bode well for the future of the line but it’s certainly a nice last-minute boon for collectors. Get ’em while youcan because I have the feeling that once they’re gone they’re gone for good!

[Show as slideshow]

Sir Patrick Stewart takes G.I. Joe quiz on NPR

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Fred Meyer

Sir Patrick Stewart. G.I. Joe. Two entities that have never had much in the way of interaction… until now!

This past weekend Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, NPR’s weekly news panel game show, featured an interview with the celebrated actor and former captain of the USS Enterprise. There were the usual Star Trek and theater questions and then host Peter Sagal invited Sir Patrick to play a game entitled “G.I. Joe – Fighting Man from Head to Toe” in which he challenged the actor to answer three questions about our favorite 50 year old toy line.

How did he do? Check out the transcript below:

SAGAL: I think it would have been hilarious. Well, obviously we could talk to you all day, but we can’t because we must move on to play our game with you. Sir Patrick Stewart, we have invited you here to play a game we’re calling…

BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, Fighting Man from Head to Toe.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: That was the first jingle ever for G.I. Joe, first introduced by the Hasbro company 50 years ago this month. So in honor of that anniversary, we’re going to ask you three questions about the poseable action figure. Answer two correctly, you’ll win our prize for our listener, the poseable Carl Kasell on their voicemail. Bill, who is Sir Patrick Stewart playing for?

KURTIS: Dawn Schellenberg of Seattle, Washington.

SAGAL: All right. Are you ready, Sir Patrick?

STEWART: I am. I’m apprehensive but I’m ready.

SAGAL: Here we go. Now G.I. Joe – I’m sure you’ve been in the United States long enough to know what these are. These are these eight inch dolls that look like soldiers, G.I. Joes, yes?

STEWART: Yeah, yeah, I know what they are.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I’m sorry. I need to shrivel now for a bit.

STEWART: No I didn’t mean that to be patronizing.

SAGAL: Too late.

STEWART: I do know what they are and I even know what G.I. stands for.

SAGAL: Oh, OK. Very good. G.I. Joe was developed and brought to market 50 years ago in reaction to an interesting discovery. Was that discovery? A, that watching kids play with war toys made adults more likely to support actual wars; B, that children all over America were snapping off their army man’s legs trying to bend them; or C, that little boys were playing with their sister’s Barbie dolls in secret?

STEWART: I think I would go with C because I think that’s the one that I would like it to be.

SAGAL: Well, your will has made it so. It is in fact true.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Barbie dolls had come out in the late ’50s, and what people found is that boys were playing with their sister’s Barbie dolls. So Hasbro said we’ll make them a doll the same size and they can play with that. All right. Second question – as the Vietnam War went on and became less popular with the American public, G.I. Joe needed to change. So Hasbro, the company that made G.I. Joe did what? A, gave him a beard just like those hippie peaceniks; B, introduced a new doll to the line, Conscientious Objector Joe; or C, introduced a line of Viet Cong dolls called, quote, “Joe’s noble but misguided enemy.”

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: I think I’m going to go for the beard one. It’s kind of weird sounding but I think I have a memory of seeing a doll like that with a beard. So I’ll go for A.

SAGAL: You are right, you did see a doll like that with the beard…

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: …Because G.I. Joe – they started making with a beard. Real soldiers don’t have beards, they’re not allowed to. G.I. Joe does get in trouble sometimes. Like when which of these happened? A, at a TSA checkpoint in 2011, agents confiscated one G.I. Joe doll’s tiny plastic rifle just in case; B, his patented Kung Fu grip caused protests by Chinese-Americans back in the ’70s who said that to be authentic, it should be called Wushu grip; or C, a packaging error resulted in G.I. Joes being shipped in packages for Ken dolls, leading many to believe that Barbie was stepping out.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: I think I will go with A with the first one.

SAGAL: You are correct again, Sir Patrick.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The TSA took the tiny rifle from the G.I. Joe because it was a, quote, “replica of an actual weapon.” A little, little replica. So Bill, how did Sir Patrick Stewart do on our show?

KURTIS: Congratulations Sir Patrick, you got them all right. You’re a winner.

SAGAL: Sir Patrick Stewart is the star of the new movie “Match” out in theaters January 14. Sir Patrick Stewart, what a pleasure to talk to you sir. What an honor. Thank you so much for joining us.

(APPLAUSE)

STEWART: Thank you very much.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

The full transcript of his interview may be found HERE. You can listen to Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! each weekend on your local NPR station.

Joe Con 2015 features a Tiger Force theme?

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Fred Meyer

The G.I. Joe Collector’s Club loves build up excitement to the official reveal of the each years Joe Con theme. This year’s tease was slated to appear in the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra #7” comic that shipped to retailers in December. (The issue itself is a mass-market release of the 2014 “Zombie Initiative” comic.)

Thanks to John Stottman from Facebook’s closed G.I. Joe Discussion group, some fans got an early look at that teaser image over the weekend. The ad features the Baroness with an automatic pistol standing in front of a semi-distinctive background– that just happens to contain what appear to be tiger stripes.

That’s right– it’s looking like the theme for Joe Con 2015 will feature the Tiger Force sub-team!

This isn’t without precedent from the Club– Tiger Force was featured back in 2004 as part of the Dreadnok Rampage convention set and the FSS has featured Tiger Force versions of Shipwreck and Airtight. There’s also the fact that Club recently produced an exclusive HAVOC Mk 2 based on a recolored Snowcat which was part of the theme back in 1988 as the Tiger Cat. Could this vehicle be making a con reappearance?

I’ll be honest– I’m pretty ambivalent on the theme. I’ve never been a Tiger Force fan so this one just doesn’t resonate the same way that Night Force did a few years ago in the Nocturnal Fire theme. However, there is one call out from the ad that has gone unnoticed in much of the discussion regarding the ad: both Hasbro and IDW are listed as attending. Hasbro was noticeably absent at the 2014 50th anniversary convention and IDW hasn’t been in attendance since Kansas City 2009 to the best of my recollection. Either way, keep your eyes turned to GIJoeCon.com for more information as the Club reveals it.

Take a look at the ad below and feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts. Love it? Hate it? Were you hoping for Sky Patrol?

(Click the image to see it full size)

G.I. Joe Collector’s Club FSS and Con Registration News

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Fred Meyer

The G.I. Joe Collector’s Club sent out an email this morning to members regarding the status of FSS 3.0 orders as well as a tentative ETA on when to expect registration to open up for the 2015 G.I. Joe Collector’s Convention.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!

For all you comic collectors, the Diamond edition of the 2014 G.I. Joe vs Cobra Issue #7: “Zombie Initiative” is now in the store.

Our end of year and archive sale continues with quantities dwindling down to just a handful on many of the items. In order for your items to arrive by Christmas, please place your orders by Friday.

The FSS 3.0 is on the water headed this way. Because of the dock workers on the west coast issues and the seasonal delays, we don’t think we will get them until the first week in January. Because of the delay, our current plan is to ship the first figures during the week of January 5 and follow up with the second shipment at the end of January to get us sort of back on track. This puts the second billing for the installment plan buyers around the end of January/first of February and the final billing around the middle of March. As soon as they arrive, we will set the official billing dates. I’m also sending this info from the FSS email system so you may get 2 updates.

And finally, we anticipate the registration being available for GIJoeCon after the first of the year. Please note that the hotel is about 70% full and is attached to the convention center. You can make your reservation now by following the link at GIJoeCon.com.

Merry Christmas!
Brian

It looks like Spring 2015 is going to be a financially heavy time for some Joe fans with 2 FSS payments hitting before the 2015 Collector’s Convention. Again, no hard ETA on con registration other than “after the 1st” but hopefully registration will go more smoothly than it has in previous years.

Still, for fans who were watching their mailboxes expecting an early FSS Christmas present it just means the wait is going to be a little longer.

[Show as slideshow]

Steel Brigade Deltas Have Landed on Ebay

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Fred Meyer

The Steel Brigade Delta has apparently invaded Ebay! (Or at least one particular seller’s listings.)

Over the past few days, Ebay seller fzwlcmfyr has listed over 50 auctions for the Steel Brigade Delta v1. Originally included with the 2011 30th Anniversary VAMP Mk II, the Steel Brigade Delta proved to be a surprise hit with fans– to the point where the Collector’s Club released their own version as part of the 2014 Zombie Initiative convention set. However, for troop builders the figure has proven to be a bit more challenging to acquire.

Until now.

The auctions on Ebay appear to be for complete figures– and include the figure’s helmet, rifle, and two combat knives as well as a figure stand. (Also included is the VAMP Mk II’s ammo belt and firing projectile.) Most of these figures are currently listing under $11.00 which is a significant price drop from the prices they’ve been closing for in recent months.

So, if you wanted to stock up on this troop builder and still now blow your Holiday budget, now is your chance!

Check out the auctions while they’re still active and good luck!

G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Arctic Threat Review

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Fred Meyer

The G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Arctic Threat review is long overdue!

Of all of the two-packs released thus far, this one features a pairing of characters that makes the most sense. Snow Job is the G.I. Joe team’s premiere cold weather specialist and the Cobra Battle Android Troopers are immune to the frozen temperatures of the Arctic regions. One is a highly trained specialized and championship marksman while the other is a relentless killing machine. In almost any context, this is a recipe for excitement!

Is this two pack worth a purchase? Or, is it along the lines of the “Heated Battle” which is still lingering on the pegs in stores?

Check out Snow Job and the Arctic BAT as part of the Arctic Threat review! It’s posted in the 50th Anniversary Review Index!

Also, you can now get your 50th Anniversary fix at the Zone Comic Shop! Check out their website for your current G.I. Joe needs!

Bond 24 is revealed as SPECTRE!

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Fred Meyer

Disclaimer: This has absolutely nothing to do directly with G.I. Joe.

Today in London, Eon Productions made the official announcement for the 24th installment in the James Bond franchise. At a star-studded media event, audiences were introduced not only to the cast and the new car but also to the title for this landmark film.

SPECTRE

Just one word and it sends chills up and down the spine of long-time Bond fans everywhere. Not seen in any real capacity since 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, this shadowy organization bent on global domination is poised to make its debut in the 21st century!

For those of you who are unaware of SPECTRE, it’s the Special Executive for Crime, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. It’s the mother of all secret terror organizations– and quite possibly the basis for other fictional organizations like HYDRA or even Cobra. Led by the shadowy #1 (who was later revealed to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld), SPECTRE was revealed to be the organization behind most of the the Connery Bond’s cinematic foes. From Dr. No, to Rosa Klebb, to Emilio Largo, SPECTRE provided the resources and the manpower for all manner of plots destined to throw the world into chaos. It’s the stuff of classic spy thrillers and nobody did global secret organizations better than Bond.

Seriously, as a long time Bond fan, this news is incredible! It shows that the series is maintain ties to its past while putting a fresh new spin on a cinematic franchise that has endured for over a half century. November 6, 2015 cannot come soon enough!

You can watch an official video of the cast announcement below.

JoeBattlelines Turns 11 Years Old!

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Fred Meyer

Today is JoeBattlelines.com’s 11th anniversary of going online!

It was 11 years ago today that the domain “JoeBattlelines” was registered with Network Solutions and that Sgt.Savage.com officially changed hands. Who knew that a simple offer of help with a website would result in over a decade of being a website admin? In internet terms, eleven years makes both me and this site practically a fossil!

It was back in 2003 that I reached out to Brian “Savage” Peterson, owner of SgtSavage.com to ask if he could use any help with the website. The reply I got back wasn’t at all what I expected– he apparently was familiar with my work at the now-defunct RingofCollectors.com and told me that I had 24 hours to come up with a domain name because he was turning the keys of the site over to me. What followed was a hasty brainstorming session with my friend Thad and the result was “JoeBattlelines.com”. To this day I don’t remember who came up with the name or why– I just remember that this was the best option we had. (Back in the day you couldn’t use “G.I. Joe” or any Hasbro copyrighted term in your site name w/o express permission.)

It was a real learning curve experience for me. I’d only helped create content for websites before but any experience that I had in managing the “behind the scenes” technical aspects of a site was entirely self-taught. Heck, JBL’s oldest archived design was created by Brian Savage Peterson!

I won’t lie to you– the site isn’t nearly as prominent as it once was. Part of this is due to the shifting patterns of the fandom, first toward newer website and then to Facebook groups. There was also a period of burnout that hit this particular site admin starting around November of 2008 which lasted for a few years. In that time, the site languished as only a ship without a rudder can. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I decided to blow the cobwebs off and re-stoke the boilers to build up some steam around here.

If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with the site. Thanks for following the topics in the forums, the event coverage, and the rambling reviews of a guy who discovered G.I. Joe back in 1982 and who never lost that love of those Real American Heroes. Thanks for putting up with an update schedule that can only be described as “inconsistent” at best. JBL has never been the biggest site, nor has it been the most talked about, or the most promoted, but it’s been here for far longer than I’d ever envisioned and it’ll be around as long as I’m able to keep the lights on.

Veterans Day – Thank You For Your Service

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Fred Meyer

Today is Veterans Day. Scheduled to coincide with Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War 1, it is a day set aside to honor ALL members of the Armed Forces, both active and retired, for their sacrifice and their duty in the service of their country.

By the very nature of its subject matter, the G.I. Joe fandom attracts members of the Armed Forces. To all of you, I can only say “thank you”– for the hours/days/weeks spent away from family, for the risks that you endured, and for the sacrifices that you made in order to safe guard the freedoms that permit me to sit here right now and type a message such as this. Without your efforts and your examples, I might not live in a great nation such as ours.

To anyone else reading this that, for whatever reason, did not chose the path of service, please take a moment today and reflect upon the efforts of our Armed Services veterans. Think of what they have given so that we can life in a Land of Liberty and where our freedoms are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Take a moment today if you encounter someone who is either a past or current member of the Armed Forces and thank them for their service. It isn’t about the mission– today is about the brave men and women who put themselves between the civilian population and harm’s way and do everything in their power to ensure that the tide doesn’t turn against.

Veterans Day is more than just a “day off of school” or “some really good sales.” It is a day set aside, on the armistice of what was dubbed “The Great War”, to honor our nation’s TRUE Real American Heroes.

My words are inadequate to express my feelings of gratitude to you all. Thank you.

JoeBattleLines

G.I. Joe news, action figure reviews, and discussion

Category Archives: News

Mark Weber is new G.I. Joe Brand Manager

G.I. Joe KreO Blowout at ToysRUs.com

Sir Patrick Stewart takes G.I. Joe quiz on NPR

Joe Con 2015 features a Tiger Force theme?

G.I. Joe Collector’s Club FSS and Con Registration News

Steel Brigade Deltas Have Landed on Ebay

G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Arctic Threat Review

Bond 24 is revealed as SPECTRE!

JoeBattlelines Turns 11 Years Old!

Veterans Day – Thank You For Your Service

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: