“The best laid plans of mice and men”… it seems to be a mantra around JBL lately.
I had been planning on getting reviews posted of G.I. Joe Retaliation wave 3.5 shortly after Coil Con IV as I was able to procure a good supply from Kokomo Toys. However, WordPress issues and work wackiness seemed to be facets of a multi-pronged attack by Cobra to prevent any new content from going live on the site.
Thankfully– the site seems to be functioning normally now and things at the office have died down a bit. (What? This ISN’T my day job?!) So, it’s back to shooting images and getting the reviews ready. So far wave 3.5 seems to be limited to online stores with limited sighting at retail. In my area (Central Illinois) the line has been dropped by both Target and Kmart (yes, we still have a few) while Walmart has scaled it back to just a pair of pegs reserved for the figures. Toys R Us has yet to restock and hopefully won’t just jump to wave 4.
It’s an interesting time to be a Joe collector as the movie’s delay until March seems to have thrown off Hasbro’s entire time frame for product. The three new figures in wave 4 are going to prove particularly elusive as they’re packed in a case with figures that have been out for months now. The sole troop builder the Cobra Night Viper is starting to command premium prices on Ebay and many online stores are already sold out.
However, all is not bleak on the western toy front– the GIJCC’s FSS 2 should be shipping before too long giving fans SOMETHING new to add to their collection and Hasbro’s Derryl DePriest promised that Toy Fair 2014 will hold a few surprises for fans. It gives us all a chance to catch our breath after the onslaught that was G.I. Joe Retaliation– a line that was produced in far more conservative numbers than it’s cinematic predecessor.
So, reviews will continue here in the coming weeks. I’ve got some back-end work to do on the review page templates to make them “less archaic” but there’s a ton of product sitting in my “to do” pile that is just begging for some attention. (Plus now that I have Kwinn in hand I really want to review the Club’s Dr. Venom figure! “The bear is angry with the weasel!”)
So, stay tuned to JBL. More new content IS indeed coming!