I like the idea too.

P.I.J? Paranormal Investigation Joes?
JPEG? Joes Pursuing Ethereal Ghosts?
Spirit Squad?.... wait...are they cheerleaders?
Ghost Recon? Taken.

Team Unseen?.... I hate it and like it at the same time.

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Nice idea!
How about:
- Twilight Team
- Dusk Force
- Haze Team
- Mist Force

I'd add Interrogator, Night Viper and Serpentor to the Cobra's Crystal Ball, Zandar and Pythona.
Low Light would support the Joes Psyche-Out and Spirit.

Tim 121RVC

Btw, this Lady Jaye (Commando Team) colour scheme would fit the idea perfectly!

http://www.yojoe.com/action/97/ladyjaye2.shtml

Tim 121RVC

agree. the white sprayed black suits looks the part. maybe add red details? or would that be too much night force?

Mist Force sound very G.I.Joe.

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G.I. Joe S.P.O.O.K.S.
(Supernatural, Paranormal, and Occult Operation Kombat Squad)

Naturally you'd probably need a few new characters, but among the ones currently on the team, I'd include

Low-Light: because nobody handles the night better
Dojo: Because a guy in a samurai helmet slicing up zombies is just cool
Ghostrider: They need a pilot and the name gaurantees him a spot
Psyche-Out: To make sure it's just not all in their heads, like another poster said
Lifeline: Just because you really need a medic when deadling with monsters, real or otherwise
Dodger: due to his near death experiences
Spirit: For his knowledge into the spiritual
Effects: because if anybody can tell the difference between a ghost and a hologram projector designed to look like a ghost, it's him

Now for Cobra's Side
Cobra Terror Troops
Their motto: Triumph Through Terror

Their methods are essentially to best utilitze fright into combat, whether this means the actual supernatural, genetic mutation, or cheap tricks.

To start with we need ...

Crystal Ball: the leader of the team. I'd slightly revamp him 9into a sort of Hannibal Lector as played by Vincent Price (minus the cannibalism). He's can easily get into a person's head, creeps people out just by being around, and nobody is ever sure exactly how much of his abilities are real and how much fake

Night Creeper Pharaoh: An idea taken from the DiC cartoon series, where Night Creeper belives he's the reincarnation of an Egyptian Pharoh. Essentiall, you have a ninja who's embraced Egyptian mythology and leads a group of mummy warriors

"Bugs": Just what others call them. Cobra Commander himself brought them into the organization and nobody other than him seems to know who or what they really are, but they don't quite seem human. (Actually they'd be Cobra-La Royal Gaurd, but in-continuity nobody would know that

Vlad Reborn: A nod to the Devil's Due series. Essentially the grown clone of Vlad the Impaler in a somewhat Serpentor inspired uniform

Hydro-Vipers: Hydro-Vipers given a more Creature from the Black lagoon paint scheme, mostly ugly browns and greens

Toxo-Zombies: 'nuff said

Slime Vipers: Modified Sludge Vipers

Somekind of mad scientist that's not Dr. Mindbender: Dr. Lucifer or Dr. Venom might work well with a few slight tweaks.

I LOVE the name SPOOKS. It is sooo stolen.

The Lady Jaye paint job is pretty close to what I had in my head as well.

Mutant Hydrovipers & Toxo Zombies? hmmmm I do see possibilities..

- SPOOKS come in. There has been a sighting of monster in Amazon river basin. Can you send a small unit to check it out?

- We're on it. Airborne Psych Out and myself will be there ASAP.

- I can't be sure that this is a monster but the villagers here believe what they have seen.

- Look over there. I since a presence.

- Me like Sloppy Joez!!!

Or something like that, anyhow I do see ALOT of potential in all these ideas.

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Gee, I'd call it Vanguard.

You know, 'cuz I've only been building such a team for 2 years now. Guess I need to bring 'em out more often.

Of course, Cobra doesn't exist in mine--the enemy actually IS the paranormal (demons, monsters, etc.) and there are only a handful of original Joes in it (Lifeline, Hawk, Falcon and Sci-Fi at present). Though in the original concept idea Cobra was behind the rise of the supernatural, I've decided to do away with it for my own sake.

Sci-Fi is, to me, a must for any such team. His wealth of knowledge about all things science fiction makes a nice gateway into knowledge of the real stories behind horror/paranormal legends. Spirit also (though I don't use him.) Psyche-Out is another, as it's easy to imagine him involved in psychic intelligence operations as part of his duty.


Switching over to the Cobra side, Destro for starters--his family, I think, might have in the past made use of certain evil spirits or made certain pacts and that would give him a strong insight into various rituals and black magic.

Cobra Commander because he is...forever. There's no telling who or WHAT he is under that mask, human or demon...

Dr. Mindbender--no brainer there, the dude IS the evil scientist.

Interrogator: For much the same reasons as CC, you have no idea who or what lays behind that mask, or what chill minions he may have at his disposal.

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There is some pretty compelling reasoning out there

Dodger leads a team of Joes who have a link to the supernatural, the team which already perceives itself as cursed or haunted because of their team leader pushes the envelope and blurs the lines of science3 and spirituality

Dodger: Near Death experience, tech expert - Ops command level joe w/o a team
Effects: Technology expert, uses special effect knowledge to dispel rumors
Jinx: Bad luck and especially train (many believe she has supernatural powers)
Flash: He is the Fox Molder of the team, a true believer, but a trained scientific mind
Spirit: He is in tune with nature, and a psychologist (so psych out can stay with main team)
Ghost Rider: Pun, A pilot without a current mission because most forget he is there, plus he flew spy planes and has a knowledge of high tech cameras and such ( No one talks to him... but the dead!)

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I have to admit I love this idea, especially anticipating the potential customs you guys will make for this! But it also has some strong parallels with something else I love.....

Are you guys aware that Larry Hama and DDP has a comic called SPOOKS that was first released in February 2008? It currently has five issues out counting the preview issue. The premise - a secret military organization (ala GI Joe) secretly fights the supernatural - werewolf on the loose in your town - they'll send an agent after him. In the first four issue arc it's the Vampires and Werewolfs rising up together against all humanity - and a women using black magic has raised a battalion of zombies to attack the humans in the US. They are led by a General named Jack from New Orleans. He's a headless horseman. (Jack from New Orleans? )

The SPOOKS use all kinds of traditional heavy machinery (ma-duce) and sci-fi weaponry to kill zombies, but they do a great job using a HUMVEE to kill 'em as well.

I highly recomend you check it out.

-CJack
BTW: The first victim in the whole series is named "Carol", Larry's wife's name: "Carol". Damn that's harsh.

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What about the ancient mummy Night Creepers from the other DIC episode (which also had a ghost in it)? Just give one of those a unique personality and bingo.

ooooh! I have to pick this book up, thanks for the recommendation!

I never read the books but I did hear about it before. I wasn't thinking of this at all when I chose the name though. I was just trying for a decent acronym. I couldn't get anything to work with GHOSTS, HAUNTS, just sounded too silly and EXORCISTS was too long and clumsy of a word.

Honestly, I was thinking more along the lines of a team that was part Men in Black, part Ghostbusters, and part X-files, while maybe a bit of Howling Commandos (the monster version) thrown in for good measure.

CabanaJack - I did not know about those comics, good find. Ill have to check out that story line for sure. Maybe get some inspiration for new characters from it.

DocRob - I do remember you doing Vanguard. I think others have done similar work as well. I know its not an original idea. I think many of us have kicked it around in our heads but never went forward with it. Your work has always been an inspiration to me cause you do many of those customs that I only THINK about doing (Shannara series would be another that I drool over)

Some of the ideas mentioned are great. Though with the ninja types I always figured Ninja Force would deal with the Ninja problems.. However the Night Creepers may just be an exception. With them demonstrating vast curiosity and exploration of occult/mythic type stuff They might be just Non-ninja enough to be a SPOOKS priority.

I am very sold on Crystal Ball as a Leader in the Cobra army of darkness. Kinda a Dr Strange Meets Cobra feel.

Cobra La and Serpentor might also be a good match but I think there would have to be a lot of rewriting to their story line since in the Movie they were more like bio engineers. Pythona though just looks like an evil witch.. But over all I think this is more of a job for the Monster Hunters (Dino Hunters) or Mega Marines.

Now what about new characters to fill in the gaps? What do you guys think would be needed to flesh out these teams? Any codename ideas or function Ideas?

I think Crystal Ball needs a team and troops. But Im unsure what to do here. Undead Vipers might be okay but the team would need a Necromancer or Voodoo dude to pull that off. (be kind of kool to bring back some dead favs as zombies. Al La - Undead Raptor? )

I think the Joe team needs a Euro type Pagan and maybe a catholic priest (Like my old Padre custom from way back when)

And what about gear? What I have in my head thus far is......
EMF detector
Thermal Temp Gage
EVP equipment
Thermal cam
White Noise filter
Ultra Low frequency night vision equipment
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Then on the supernatural side for gear
Pendulums
Shaman Staff
Enchanted Sword
Soul Crystals (To capture spirits and demons)
Silver Bullets
Vampire Stake launcher (Spirits gun looks like a winner)

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If you cut the handheld thingie off of Bombstrike's belt, you have a fairly convincing EMF detector or digital recorder.

For more arcane items, canvas what I do:

MageKnight figures....the more clear and crystal colored, the better,

DreamBlade miniatures. This is the best avenue, as the entire line is the stuff that dreams, and nightmares, are made of.

I made my ALIENS motion detectors from cutting up the 1993 Crimson Guard Commanders' funky gun. The one with the boxy front and small peg? Cut it at the box junction, and you can make a convincing FLIR camera if you attach a hose from the small protruding peg, to one of the smaller BBI EliteForce laptops.

Unusual accessories are my speciality.

Don't forget to also canvas the McFarlane most bizarre for applicable oddities and accessories. The SleepyHollow line alone is a venerable grab-bag of arcane goodness.

The Chap-Mei adventure sets too. That amber necklace that the female explorer wears I am using for both 1:18 and 1:24 stories.

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There's at least two others that I know of, though the names escape me now. And it's certainly not new, heck, I got the bulk of my idea from the one season of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and the anti-paranormal military unit!

As for those Shannara figures--more coming, just need to find all the right parts.

>Then on the supernatural side for gear

>Pendulums

Head off of one of the Dreadnok weapons for starters (can't recall which one carried it--had a pendulum blade, on a chain, with a handle.). If you're going to a polearm type look for it, remove the head from the chain/handle, drill a very small hole down into the head, then glue a short length of wire or thin paperclip into place; add glue to that, and slide a tube from a compressed air or WD-40 can over that to create the shaft. Best of all if you wanted to use this same idea in a dio as a swinging pendulum, you'd just modify the opposite end to hang it.

>Shaman Staff

POTC Cannibal King staff, if you can find out, is ideal--it's even got human skulls molded right onto the end. Tends to be kind of long, though.

>Enchanted Sword

Best bet here--hit an AC Moore, if you have one, and look at the Papo 3 3/4" medieval figures (they do a lot of knights, wizards, etc.) The figures are solid and the weapons glued in, but they have some VERY wicked looking swords, and removing them is a simple matter of boiling the figure and sliding the weapon out. If you're handy at engraving/painting you can add runic scrollwork along the blade. Best of all the swords tend to be of a good, stiffer plastic, not as flimsy as say, POTC; the figures can be a bit pricey though, around $5.99 each.

Another option is the wicked skull-sword that came with the Plague Troopers vs. Steel Brigade set--ideal in the hands of an evil Cobra leader.

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