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?).
Flint – front artFlint – side artLady Jaye – front artLady Jaye – side art
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.
Lady Jaye – card artLady Jaye – figure
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.
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.
New Deco Scarlett and Roablock
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.
New Deco Scarlett
At least the figures do look great! So there’s that.
New Deco Roadblock
That’s it for this update. I’ll be checking on my bank account a lot these days until the next paycheck comes in…
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.
Firefly
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
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
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.
My pre-orders of the Classified and Retro line are on hiatus. It’s been a while since I received something new, and to be honest, my wallet is glad it’s been calm the last few weeks.
The only new additions I got for my collection are some of the new Funko POP figures.
First up we have the Beachhead figure, (un-)lucky #13? At first, I had a hard time finding this one as it’s a Funko 2020 Fall Convention Limited Edition. But as always, perseverance overcomes anything and I was able to find one for a reasonable price through eBay. If you want to read the whole story of his travels, see this post.
Beachhead
Next up is Cobra’s evil genius Dr. Mindbender. He was fairly easy to get. I actually found him om Amazon. The German site that is. I pre-ordered him, but after a while I got an email that they couldn’t deliver it. I had to look around again to find him. The solution was again Amazon, the US site this time. A bit more expensive (due to the shipping costs), but still affordable. Not long after I pre-ordered them there, I found them on the Dutch Amazon site as well for nearly the same price. So, I canceled the US order myself – would this be good for the ecological footprint of the pops? – and placed the order in The Netherlands. A few days after the official release, the Pop landed on my doorstep.
Dr. Mindbender
Together with Dr. Mindbender, I also pre-ordered the Leatherneck figure. It was the same story as above, several pre-orders and cancellations later, it too arrived. Again, Leatherneck? Yes, again. After the 2 mini Retro Pops, this time a full scale Funko Pop one. But the question remains. Why Leatherneck? He isn’t that popular I’d say. My guess is that they had a similar mold and just went looking who fit the mold…
Leatherneck
Around the same time, I also was able to find the missing mini Retro Pop, Cobra Commander. This one was more difficult to find than the other ones. As you know (and we all know what knowing is…), these mini Retro Pops are sold in blind boxes, so it’s a surprise which one you get. Not so much for me, as I only bought them opened, but you get the idea. Shipwreck and the regular Leatherneck have a ratio of 1/6, Snake-Eyes is more limited to 1/24. The tan version of Leatherneck is a Target exclusive, but he too has a ratio of 1/6 (but only in Target). Cobra Commander has a ratio of 1/36, so there are lot less of him going around, making him more expensive and harder to find.
Cobra Commander – Funko Mini Retro Pop
There are a number of new Pops coming our way later this year. They will feature Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Scarlett and The Baroness. These will be tied to the new Snake-Eyes movie. I’ve pre-ordered the regular ones, I’m still looking for the Funko Pop Exclusive Snake-Eyes & Timber.
More Pops will be released later this year…
I have one more order already on it’s way and it’s the Gamestop Exclusive Duke and Cobra Commander with the tin lunchbox. I found this set on eBay and really wanted it as a part of my collection, not just for the Pops, but also for the lunchbox. The package is in transit, so keep following my Socials (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) and this page to see the update when they arrive. They also come with four buttons (see bottom right of the image below), a Cobra keychain (center of the image) and a G.I. Joe logo sticker (bottom left). Can’t wait to get them in hand. The product image below only shows the Transformers side of the lunchbox. The seller provided me with an image of the G.I. Joe side (see below).
I’ve been enjoying the video/podcast from G.I.Joburg on the Benelux catalog with ultimately the best G.I. Joe photography in the world. The art and photos have been discussed by Paul Panfalone on Plastic Battles (part 1 & 2). I highly recommend to watch/listen to both shows.
Anyways, I was inspired by them and the incredible photography and did some searching. I rediscovered the 1989 G.I. Joe Dossier we got over here in the Benelux. They released 3 of these Dossiers which contain nice pictures of the Action Figures and vehicles on one side and on the back side there was a description similar to the filecards in both Dutch and French. I knew there were 2 sets, but recently I found a 3rd set being offered on a local site. I made a deal with the seller and I’m now the proud owner of the full set of 3 Dossiers.
Get ready for a huge set of photos.
Now that was a whole lot of awesomeness! What’s your favorite image? Let me know in the comments or over the Socials (Twitter, Instagram or Facebook).
See you again soon! Happy Collecting and YoJoe!
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