I didn't get to spend a lot of time in the GI Joe area, it was smaller than some of the other areas and a little harder to get into.
I was mostly impressed with the Bruce Willis Joe Colton figure, Kim Arashikage, Blind Master, GI Joe Trooper and the SDCC Shockwave set. That SDCC set has so much win in it that I nearly wet myself.
The storyline behind it is kind of cool; Shockwave sets up a deal with Destro for Energon. He buys it (suitcase of money) and the BAT delivers it. He scans Destro's blueprints of the HISS Tank and takes on the shape. It's interesting to me and I'm putting it on my wish list along with Jinx Kim Arashikage. Oh, and the little Soudwave w/ the Shockwave set? Genius!
The new Ghost Hawk, which has stickers to customize the nose art, is kind of nice. The zip line attack runs through the whole line pretty much, and I'm okay with that, I'd like to think kids are going to be ziplining figures across their living rooms all summer.
I'm unimpressed with the Battle Kata stuff. The Alpha and Bravo vehicles mostly leave me cold, but I do like the upgrade to the VAMP (which I don't think was there live). The 10" Ninja Commando isn't my thing either but we'll see how kids react to it. The role play stuff, again, not my thing but I hope kids like it. There's some fun stuff there. I like the new Lady Jaye head sculpt but the re-use of the Renegades Scarlett body was maybe a little bit of a copout. It's a nice sculpt, but...eh.
I'm sure the Joe sites covered some of this other info but I'll throw it in here also:
- The Crimson Guard figure will come with stickers so you can customize his unit for army building.
- There will be some store exclusives this year but they weren't shown.
- The 50 figure count includes vehicle drivers which, as we now know, may not all be great.
- I missed exactly which vehicle they were talking about, but in the early photos both the the Ninja Combat Cruiser (VAMP) and Ninja Commando 4x4 (AWE Striker) were listed with Snake Eyes as the driver. One of the two is actually coming with Night Fox, not Snake Eyes. But I forget which. Too much ninja this and ninja that to keep it all straight.
- There's a Night Ops Battle Pack with Mouse, Snake Eyes and Sgt. Airborne
- Cobra Invasion Battle Pack with Firelfy, Storm Shadow and Invasion Trooper
I'm definitely worried about not getting Jinx Kim and Blind Master until wave 4. Based on RoC, and the late waves of Renegades and 30th anniversary, I just don't have faith in Hasbro's ability to deliver anything past the first 2 waves of a line that doesn't start with Star and end with Wars.
If you guys have any questions that weren't answered on the Joe sites, LMK, I may be able to answer them.
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