G.I. Joe – Page 14 – European Joe's

Something completely different

Occasionally, I come across something special related to G.I. Joe. It could be a vinyl record (see here and here), the Larry Hama 3.75″ figure (see here) or the Knockaround sunglasses (see here and here). This time around though, I found a collectible figure of Scarlett, more like a statue than an actual action figure.

The box itself doesn’t quite give away how the figure looks like, but you can see that it will be different from the action figures we all know and love. Let’s open the box and see just how she looks!

Dressed in her iconic yellow and grey, the figure does immediately pop out for other reasons. The big eyes and head, the muscular thighs and the very small feet. This really does look like an anime figure from Japan more than a Real American Hero. The figure is fixed on a black base (the small feet wouldn’t support her otherwise) depicting the classic G.I. Joe logo.

The figure is nicely detailed with her throwing stars on her left sleeve, a knife in a side pouch, zippers on the suit, pockets on her other leg and a slingshot on her buttocks. I had to take a close-up of that.

Another nice detail is in her right hand, the classic Scarlett crossbow. As accurate as ever with her shots, though she is playing Cupid in this instance…

That’s it for now. I hope to be back soon with more exciting additions to the collection.

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

The very next day

As I was writing the previous post (the next day), the bell rang again and the mailman delivered the Classified Major Bludd figure. I honestly didn’t think I could have gotten that one easily, but here goes to show that you shouldn’t lose faith and never stop hoping.

Once again, the art on this box is awesome. Check out some close-ups below. During last Friday’s YoJoe June Fan Friday event, they told us who the artist behind these pieces of art are. Karl Kopinski. Check out his website for more of his awesome art.

While we’re on the topic of the YoJoe June Fan Friday event, I really enjoyed it. Sure, we’re getting another Snake-Eyes, but he comes with Timber this time around! And yes, there is the 4th (yes, the FOURTH) edition of Roadblock in the Classified series, but he does look the coolest of them all. They announced Breaker and the R.A.M. Definitely not a deal-breaker. I already have put in my pre-order for the Heavy Artillery Roadblock figure over on Amazon. I’m hopeful that I will be able to get the other figures as well. I really think the issues we have seen have been a wake-up call for Hasbro and I personally hope that we will be seeing higher production numbers and sales figures.

That’s it for now. Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

The mailman rang just once

I was quick to open the door, knowing what he was bringing for me. I was expecting my Classified Flint and Lady Jaye pre-orders and Duke, Cobra Commander and Lady Jaye from the Retro Line.

Let’s start with the Classified figures of Flint and Lady Jaye. I really like how Lady Jaye turned out. You’ve probably seen enough pictures of the figure by now, so I’m just going to post some shots of the artwork (did I mention how amazing the art from the Classified Series is?).

Moving on to the retro line figures, I’ll start with Lady Jaye. I’m not a huge fan of the art, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something is off there. The head sculpt though is looking really good.

Moving on to Cobra Commander. Not much to say here, he’s donned in his old school battle helmet and Cobra Blue uniform. Always has been a very good look and it is done really well here again.

One honorable mention should go to the Commander’s gun. It really does look like his original gun. Nice touch!

And then finally, we have the Joes’ Top Sergeant, Duke. The card art is cool, the figure is something nightmares are made off.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back very soon with another update. Stay tuned.

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

Costly new deco’s

The new deco variants of Scarlett and Roadblock showed up on the InDemandToys website a week ago. I had held off on buying them for a while from other shops, but when I noticed them there, I decided to snatch them up.

They are the first figures that have arrived from the UK where the taxes weren’t paid in the UK but should be paid upon delivery. And boy, did I have to pay. The value of the 2 figures was listed as 35 GBP (around €40). The import duties and VAT add up to €15. Which is reasonable I guess (until you look at the calculations), but the ‘administrative costs’ our local postage service charges of €24 is anything but that.

Like I mentioned before we should look at the calculations. They calculate the VAT not only on the product value and the shipping costs. Oh no, they also add in the import duties and the ridiculously high ‘administrative costs’. So you have a total value of €40 (products and shipping), then they add the import duties (around €2) and the €24 gives a total amount of €66 where you get charged the 21% VAT on (€13.86). So, the total of Import Duties and Taxes add up to €15.86. Add this up with the costs they charge, and you get almost €40 extra. Crazy, right? Forgive me if I sound bitter (I am) but when I hear people over in the US complain about having to drive to a few stores to buy these figures for less than €20, I can’t sympathize with your ‘struggles’. Yeesh, people, you don’t know how lucky you are. Just shut up.

At least the figures do look great! So there’s that.

That’s it for this update. I’ll be checking on my bank account a lot these days until the next paycheck comes in…

Happy Collecting and YoJoe!

An explosive delivery

It has been a while, but I finally got a new Classified figure in. Thanks to the people over at In Demand Toys, I received Firefly this week.

The figure itself closely resembles the original 3.75” figure with a 50 shades of grey color scheme. He has a backpack, goggles, a drone, a nice looking gun, a tablet to control the drone and some TNT or other explosive device.

The art on the side of the box is like any other figure of the Classified line of very high quality. This time around (they use a different artist for each figure I read somewhere), the art is by Jeremy Wilson. Check out his website for more gorgeous looking art by him. It shows Firefly doing what he does best, and if you ask me, he is grinning from ear to ear beneath his balaclava.

The other side, depicts the symbols we’ve seen on the other figures and the number 21. I’m still looking for a complete overview of what all the symbols mean, but let’s give it a shot. The top icon means he’s a deadly contract killer for Cobra, the 2nd symbol shows that there is no known data on his identity, the 3rd symbol is showing TNT explosives – straightforward what this means – and the last symbol is showing he has technical skills (to operate the drones). Feel free to correct me in the comments below.

That’s it for this update. A nice addition to the collection if you ask me. Can’t wait to get more figures in.

Until next time! Happy Collecting and YoJoe!