Joe Con 2016: Altitude & Night Vulture revealed

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When it comes to Joe Con 2016 the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club isn’t letting any grass grow under their feet!  Another day and two more image previews from the 1:18 Sky Patrol set have been revealed.  Tonight, feast your eyes on Altitude and the Night Vulture.

Altitude:

Joe Con 2016 Sky Patrol Altitude

SKY PATROL RECON SCOUT:
JOHN-EDWARD “ALTITUDE” JONES

– 25th Anniversary Modern Style/Fully Poseable Action Figure
– Highly Requested Character from 1990’s Sky Patrol Team
– Includes removable Helmet and Visor, Assault Rifle, Knife,
Parachute-style backpack, and G.I. Joe Logo Stand.

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Joe Con 2016: Meet Skydive and Sky Creeper

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The Joe Con 2016 previews have begun!!!

I’ll admit it– I’m behind on this.  Last week the Joe Con 2016 brochure was published online and revealed the theme for the 1:18 scale set– Sky Patrol!!!  The 1990’s Toys R Us exclusive aerial team is finally getting a Generation 3 update and will be available as part of this year’s Joe Con event.

Yesterday, the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club pulled back the curtain even further

Skydive:

Joe Con 2016 SkyDive

SKY PATROL SQUAD LEADER: SKYDIVE

– 25th Anniversary Modern Style/Fully Poseable Action Figure
– Highly Requested Character from 1990’s Sky Patrol Team
– Includes removable Helmet and Goggles, Assault Rifles x 2,
Glider backpack with moveable wings, G.I. Joe Logo Stand.

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G.I. Joe FSS 4 Law & Order and Nunchuk reviews

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G.I. Joe FSS 4 Law & Order and Nunchuk

G.I. Joe FSS 4 reviews have begun!

Subscribers to the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club Figure Subscription Service 4.0 had a nice surprise just over a week ago as the first shipments began to arrive!  After a long dry spell, Joe fans finally had some new troops to add to the ranks.

Once again, I’m joined by visiting professor of “Joe-ology” Chris Chung from JoeSightings.com as we break down the first two figures of G.I. Joe FSS 4: Law & Order and Nunchuk. It’s 1987 meets 1992 or Rawhides meets Ninja Force as these two figures go under the review lights!

Are these two worth adding to your collection?  Did they live up to the anticipation since signup for G.I. Joe FSS 4?  Does Deadpool make yet another cameo in a review?  (Seriously– do you even have to ask?)

To find out the answers to these questions, check out the reviews over at the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club Review Index!  Afterwards, feel free to drop  your own thoughts in the comments below.

G.I. Joe vs Transformers and more on sale at GIJoeClub.com

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Gi Joe Club Store

The G.I. Joe vs Transformers exclusive sets are now on sale at GIJoeClub.com!

I might have missed an email about this but a quick review of GIJoeClub.com’s store revealed some sale prices on a few recent G.I. Joe exclusives:

In addition to those pieces, several previous FSS figures have seen a price drop from $38.00 to $29.00 including: Continue reading →

What did we learn about G.I. Joe at Toy Fair 2016

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Toy Fair 2016

Toy Fair 2016 is now a distant memory.  The displays have been removed from the Javits Center, the vendors have gone home, and the internet press has left the Big Apple.  It was an exciting weekend filled with reveals, licensing announcements and more product debuts than a toy collector can shake an Episode 1 Jar-Jar Binks action figure at.  Yet the more time passes since the event has concluded, the more it would seem that people are debating a single topic:

What did we learn about G.I. Joe at Toy Fair 2016?

Normally this is a pretty straight forward question– one that is answered by Hasbro at their annual media blitz presentation.  However, this year, G.I. Joe wasn’t mentioned during any of the official announcements.  (Neither was the new semi-hyped “Hasbro Cinematic Universe” but more on that in a moment.)  In fact, if it weren’t for two individuals who were covering the event for entertainment sites that focus on a variety of toy lines, there might have been nary a peep mentioned about Joe anywhere.  However, thanks to JayC of ToyNewsI.com and Fran from ToyArk.com (aka Destro of HISSTank.com), we have two seemingly conflicting reports.   Or do we?  Fans have embraced one and questioned the other but do these two reports really conflict at all?  Pull up a chair and a frosty Yo Joe Cola and let’s take a look!

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Holy 50th Birthday Batman ’66!

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Batman 1966 Adam West Burt Ward

The Batman ’66 TV series premiered 50 years ago today!

BAM!  POW!  ZAP!!!

These words first appeared on television screens across the United States on January 12, 1966 as renowned comedian Frank Gorshin menaced Gotham City as “The Riddler“.  Advertised as “in color”, this campy take on the superhero genre was chock-full of pop culture references, celebrity cameos, and social commentary.  The result was a series that became an overnight pop culture sensation leading to the phrase that the top pop culture influences of the 1960’s were “the Beatles, Bond, and Batman.”

The series even spawned a 1966 feature film that pitted the Caped Crusaders against FOUR of their greatest foes!  (Sadly, Julie Newmar was unavailable due to filming commitments and so Lee Meriwether took over the role of Catwoman.)

The series also put forth some of the most memorable super villain performances in genre history.  From the aforementioned Frank Gorshin as the Riddler to Burgess Meredith as the DEFINITIVE Penguin to Caesar Romero’s laughing “Crown Prince of Crime” version of the Joker the series had no shortage of “criminal charisma.”

While many fans today might decry the show as “goofy” or “cheesy” there is an artistic brilliance to the series that cannot be denied.  From its vibrant use of color (in 1968 only 25% of US households owned a color TV), it’s pop culture sensibilities, and the calibre of the celebrity guest villains, Batman was unlike anything that had hit the screens before and it made overnight sensations out of its leading duo Adam West and Burt Ward. Airing two nights a week with each story divided by a cliffhanger, audiences were powerless to resist the power of the Dynamic Duo. Continue reading →

G.I. Joe Collector’s Club January Newsletter to Update Status

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GIJCC update

It looks like the January issue of the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club newsletter may potentially offer more information about the recent changes in Collector’s Club memberships that were revealed before the holidays.

Amidst a great deal of speculation over the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club forums, the “FubPubAdmin” account posted this bit of text:

 All the information we have has been released. No further details are available at this time. We continue to take renewals so that members that expire between now and March 16th can still get the 2016 FREE figures, as these are two of the best figures we have ever produced!

 

In addition, as a continuing active member, you will still be eligible to purchase FSS 5.0 should you desire to participate.

So…. FSS 5?!  That’s either a typo or Fun Publications’ relationship with the G.I. Joe brand may have a bit more life in it for 2016, aside from delivering FSS 4.0 and running the Colorado GIJoeCon in June.

A bit further down the thread, one last bit of information regarding the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club was posted: Continue reading →

Merry Christmas from JBL!

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from JoeBattlelines.com!

I’d like to thank everyone who still visits this site for stopping by throughout the year and hope that you all have a wonderful day with family and friends. May the Grinch be kept at bay, may Shipwreck not hit the egg nog too hard, and may you have a blessed holiday.

JBL christmas 2015

Changes to G.I. Joe Collector’s Club Memberships in 2016?

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G.I. Joe Collector's Club

Are changes coming to G.I. Joe Collector’s Club Memberships beyond 2016?

It was reported earlier today over at Allspark.com that there are changes coming to Transformers Collector’s Club memberships in 2016.  To be more specific, regardless of when a member enrolls, all memberships will expire on December 31, 2016.  This has also led to speculation on their forums about the future of the annual BotCon convention which is currently managed by Fun Publications.

Given the interconnected nature of the Fun Publications organizations, it didn’t take long for speculation to begin about the nature of the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club memberships as well.  Sure enough, a quick check of a membership page uncovered this new piece of verbiage at the bottom of the membership description:

Please note that at this time we are only accepting memberships and renewals for the 2016 calendar year.  All memberships will end with the December 2016 issue.  For example:  if your  membership renewal has a February start date, you will receive the FREE membership figure in the late spring along with 11 monthly issues.   If your membership renewal has a March start date, you will receive the FREE membership figure in the late spring and 10 monthly issues.

Really?  So, no matter when someone enrolls in 2016, their membership ends in December.  Which means that the cost of a membership is the same, regardless of the number of issues of the newsletter received.

So, what does this actually mean?  Is the Club transitioning their memberships to a calendar year model?  Or, does this mean that Fun Publications will no longer be the entity behind the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club going forward?  Or, is it merely verbiage that was ported over from the Transformers side of the organization by accident.  We’ve reached out to Fun Publications and we’ll let you know what we find out going forward.

Right now there’s no OFFICIAL word as to what the future will hold for the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club and the annual memberships.  We can only wait and see what information, if any, the Club chooses to disseminate in the coming weeks.

EDIT: We reached out to directly to Brian Savage at the GIJCC who was good enough to send us back a prompt response.

All I can tell you is exactly what you read online.  There is no additional information at this time.


So for now, this is all we know but I’m sure the coming weeks and months will reveal more information.

Can a Hasbro Cinematic Universe work?

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Hasbro Cinematic Universe

A Hasbro Cinematic Universe is on the way, but can it actually work?

Earlier this week, the Hollywood Reporter dropped an exclusive bombshell on the G.I. Joe fan community– the announcement that Hasbro’s Allspark Studios and Paramount pictures were creating a “Hasbro Cinematic Universe” centered around five 1980’s brands.  This endeavor would blend the universes of G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., the Micronauts, Visionaries, and ROM: the Spaceknight into one cohesive entity similar to what Marvel Studios has been doing for the past several years.

There’s only one small detail about this new shared universe— most of these properties have very little relation to each other.  Even worse, aside from G.I. Joe, most of these have been absent from toy shelves and popular culture since at least 1990.  Outside of some die-hard fan circles, the general public is generally now completely unfamiliar with most of these brands, as evidenced by this installment of Nerdist News hosted by Jessica Chobot:

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