Worth pointing out now, that a lot of people on he-man.org are flat out refusing to believe most of what Scott "toyguru" tells them anymore about the handling of MOTUC(and honestly, who can blame them?). And from my own personal experience, companies do not 100% tell the truth, they tell whatever sounds good. I know they want to cut costs but without even knowing what each unit costs to make or what the total production run and costs are it's really hard to be sure how much of a cost we're talking. I just don't think paint for eyes is going to add up to much of a savings, and it'll risk toys looking like dollar store cheapo toys, which really is the worst thing that could be done when you want something to sell.

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That's because they are all up here in Canada. I propose the Jungle BAT gets a new name and is called the Tundra BAT, since Canada isn't really know for lush Jungles...

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Cobra will take care of that with their Weather Dominator!

Since I don't have the space to collect vehicles, I'm kinda glad that they decided to start their cost cut on the drivers.
While I do enjoy a great poseable figure, I don't think I really mind the lost of articulated ankles or double jointed knees on certain figures that don't really require them. Most of my troopers just stand around in either firing or "guarding" positions. The lost of swivel wrists would be a bummer.

I'm happy that they kept the ninjas hyper articulated which fits with the comic-like poses they should be able to take.

If they want to save on various costs, maybe they should run quarterly fan-polls to see what should or should not be produced. I'm pretty sure nobody would have voted for half naked desert fun Storm Shadow or that Cobra Commander in the jacket that keeps the Canadian pegs very warm this winter.

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I don't think a role play combat knife was a good idea at all.
Oh & those cycles!!!
They would have saved plenty then.

Full helmets like the ones they make for SW and Iron Man I can understand, but those plastic masks they've been releasing lately with all their lines are pretty lame. Do kids really like these?

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I would have. On both counts. Those two figures rock.

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Well, now that we've seen most of the stuff for the movie line, I'm even more eagerly awaiting early June. As with the PoC stuff, the movie figures have a cool Metal Gear-like design, and they'll make awesome custom fodder. Highlights (and a couple of lowlights for good measure):

-Joe Trooper: awesome. Love the nice, basic body sculpt, and he comes with some other cool stuff. If anybody wants a bunch of mohawked heads, come find me once these come out; I'll have plenty to get rid of.
-Both of the Snake-Eyes single-carded figures look nice. I love the lighter body armor that they went with on a lot of the figures.
-The Roadblock with all the knives in his vest will look nice with a non-The Rock head; anybody who wanted a ready-made LBC 86 Leatherneck custom, your ship has come in.
-The Joe Colton figure will make a nice basic body, too. Maybe I can sculpt a little hair onto that Bruce Willis head and make a John McClane or something.
-Despite having little interest in ninjas as they relate to the Joe line, I'm actually liking a lot of the ninja-based figures. I've got a big custom project in the works that they'll be perfect for. And, in a surprising development, I really like that Blind Master figure. No idea what I'll do with him, but it's a cool-looking toy.
-The Firefly figure looks promising, although it looks like he's sporting single-knee articulation in all of the photos I've seen.
-I prefer the color scheme for Zartan that the Toy Fair figure has, but it's an interesting figure either way.
-Both of the 3-packs shown thus far are interesting. I really like that Beachhead-looking fellow, and I definitely need the vest Snake-Eyes is wearing in the other pack.
-The lack of articulation on the vehicle drivers is a shame, but I'm not all that excited by any of the vehicles after getting a closer look at them, so it's not as much of a problem. That said, I'm glad they're trying to get more vehicles out there, because that's an often-overlooked aspect of the success of the ARAH line.
-I'm also sad that the Jinx figures are exclusives; not because I wanted either of them, but because now we get another six months of virulently anti-Hasbro rhetoric. Zarana, part deux.
-Overall, the reduction in some figures' articulation is a troubling development. The biggest problem is that a lot of the figures that have the reduced articulation are probably going to be big sellers: kids and collectors will probably buy Cobra Commander, and a lot of people seem to be excited about The Rock as Roadblock. That won't really help the argument against reduced articulation being an impediment to sales. But, there isn't much that can be done about that. We'll see how it turns out once the movie line is over.

All things considered, I'm impressed by what we've seen so far. I can honestly say that I've never been more excited about toys from a movie that I've been less excited about, if that made any sense.

Huh, I hadn't noticed that. If he has no double-knees, chances are he has no ankles either. Big pass for me, then.


It is Beachhead!


At least unlike Zarana, she will get a regular retail redeco in black and yellow.


Well at least there's that second version with the full range of articulation. I'll value that over any possible Leatherneck customs.

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Here's my problem with the lack of "girls" in a boys' toy line:

I think my 9 year old daughter may be a bigger GI Joe fan than my son (he's more a clone junkie). Although she has a ton of Monster High dolls, they mostly stay on her shelf for display. When she and her brother play together, she grabs her lady Joes and SW figures. Last night, out of nowhere, she pulled out the first GI Joe movie to watch. And, that's not an unusual occurrence.

So, now, she's excited for the movie. The toys start coming out for around her birthday. And, if I'm lucky....I get to buy her a yellow Jinx and Lady Jaye.

Now, I understand she's a rarity. Still, I can't see how the old fart collectors and the few girls (not to mention boys who actually want girls in their ranks) can't justify a couple more figures in a toy line that big. As for them ending up on the clearance rack, no worse than the SEs, Storm Shadows, and Roadblocks that will be keeping them company.

Getting off my soap box, I'm actually happy overall with what I'm seeing. Not totally overwhelmed that I have to have every figure, but a few nice ones I'll be happy to get. Now, just have to hope there are actually some sales going on once the figures hit the stores.

Oh yeah, and how soon until someone does the Bruce Willis custom with bloody feet?

Painting eyes is a much bigger task than just painting 2 dots. They make a mask out of metal, sometimes multiple masks that fit over the head as a template, then paint the eye, then paint the next layer, etc, etc. It's not just some 12 year old chinese kid that paints two dots and moves on to the next figure.

That being said, if they were going to go that route, just use heads that already have masks/molds, problem solved.

Again, it doesn't bother me, as I think the vehicles are geared more towards the kids and they wanted to make sure they had a figure to drive/fly their vehicle. Didn't you used to hate it when you were little and you got a vehicle that didn't come with a driver, and didn't get another toy that would fit?

I know as fans/completist/etc. we're upset, but the bottom line, they're not made for us, they're made for the kids.

Is Firefly gonna be a Battle Luge Guy homage?

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Why do I like that repaint of ROC Storm Shadow so much?
I know I'm a sucker for anything Storm Shadow to begin with (so long as the toy has full articulation) but I'm shocked that a simple repaint with a new hood and removable webgear looks so awesome.

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The funny thing is, there've been a lot of comments, here and other places, that instead of cutting articulation, they should've just reused existing molds and that some great figures could be made by mixing/matching existing parts. However, had they done that, then the complaints would all be, "Geez... Not the $Figure mold again. That thing needs to be retired. How many times are we going to see that? Come on, Hasbro. If you're wanting to cut costs, how about getting rid of the double knee or ankle articulation. Not every figure needs it, and the knee is poorly done, anyway." Apparently, the varying articulation for different figures/purposes is paying off for Hasbro in their movie lines, or at least enough for them to continue doing it.
As far as cutting cost by cutting paint apps: As Steampunk Michael said, it's not just the cost of the paint that you have to look at. It's also the cost of the paint mask, the worker to apply the paint app, etc. Sure, it's just "two dots" if you do a simplified paint app for the eyes, but you take that times however many figures they're expected to run in a shift and it quickly adds up.
I'm seeing what I've always seen, with respect to the figures and vehicles coming out: Some stuff I really want, some I don't, some that impresses me, and some that's a bit underwhelming. I'm just tickled that 30+ years after I got my first GI Joe, I'm still able to go buy new product in the store. To me, that's pretty amazing.