Between the press meeting in the morning and the G.I. Joe panel in the evening, there was quite a bit of new Hasbro product shown off this Thursday. It was one of the busier Thursdays I’ve experienced at Comic-Con for sure. While the Rattler was amazing to finally see revealed I think Road Pig ended up being my favorite thing I saw from Hasbro today.
Hasbro hosts an annual press event at SDCC where they show off a smattering of new and recently revealed figures while plying the press with a free breakfast. For Star Wars, the new item was the Battle Droid and STAP that will be released at the upcoming Pulse Con for $49.99. Seeing a carded STAP again did take me back to one of the first Episode I preview figures, though I wish the burst was green for the full effect. They also had Joruus C’Boath set onsite which is kind of ironic since my pre-ordered set was arriving at home while I was at the con. I’m really liking the portrait on Joruus. Looks like an evil Alan Moore!
The Legends team had the 80th Anniversary figures, the Blackheart wave, and Giant-Man on hand and revealed a Kang with three interchangeable faceplates and a throne as well as some X-Men Arcade Game style Sentinels. While I think the pink on the Sentinels was a bit on the pepto side, this two-pack still took me back to those hours spent in the arcade fighting them with my friends on that old giant multi-player cabinet. The Sentinels and Kang will be at Pulse Con and will run you $54.99 and $59.99 respectively. I’m not sure I need a floating throne for my Kang that badly, neat as it is.
Finally, the Joe Team showed off Starduster, a Pulse Con exclusive that will run you $34.99. He strikes me as on of the least deluxe deluxe figures in the line since Kamakura, but that might be because he is so much re-use. When we heard rumors of this figure I was kind of hoping for a jump jet platform, but that was not to be. I think my favorite bit was seeing the interior cockpit lights actually working on the Dragonfly because they got those diffused beautifully.
The panel kicked off with a fun visit from Sgt. Slaughter who revealed another crossover with Transformers, this time his Triple T tank becomes Kup from the Transformers. From there it was straight into the Rattler Haslab intro video which was narrated by Cobra Commander. He has to list off so many features on this amazing thing that I started worrying for the voice actor’s vocal chords the video was so long. Suffice it to say the features and sculpting look fantastic. My only reservation is that the first tier is some patches which feels very “cardboard backdrop and bag of bones” as a tier to me. I love the newly tooled pilot Baroness though the gunner is a little less exciting due to his similarity to Wild Weasel. I kinda wish they went with a female gunner. Still, these are small quibbles.
After that we went straight into preorders with the 60th anniversary Sniper and Halo Jumper. These two look pretty fantastic and I especially like that the Sniper has such personality in the portraits and a variety of posing options including a boonie hat and a cap/glasses combo. The bandana with face paint is amazing and the Ghillie suit looks pretty neat too. The Halo Jumper has a great look too, though they did warn that you wouldn’t want to try and throw this guy off your roof with that parachute, it’s for looks, not function. These two will be up for pre-order 7/26/24 at 5PM Eastern for 34.99 a piece.
Next up was Pulse Con Starduster who will retail for 34.99 as well. It is kind of funny that you can put together a little cereal box from his packaging insert since he was originally a mail-in premium from a cereal.
After that they showed us the figure I was most curious to see, Road Pig, and he did not disappoint. If the Dreadnoks were inspired by the original Mad Max films, I feel like this guy takes that and really runs with it the way Fury Road amped up the production design of the Mad Max series. He’s got skulls, tattoos, spikes, metal, and a weird scary gas mask along with a unique build that you don’t often see in the more idealized bodies of action figure land. Road Pig is a bruiser, a power-lifter, but clearly enjoys more than his share of Grape Soda and Chocolate Donuts. I also love that he comes with an alternate expression that shows off his multiple personalities. The pit bull is also a pretty clever re-used of Junkyard’s body. This figure and pet set will also be up for pre-order 7/26/24 at 5PM ET for $44.99
I love the more oddball fantastical side of G.I. Joe, so I was so happy to see the next figure was Raptor. He’s another deluxe retailing for 34.99 and going up for pre-order 7/26/24 at 5PM ET. I feel like the larger wings justify the higher pricepoint somewhat, though I’m a little surprised he only gets one bird that’s hooded and no bird in flight mode. I absolutely love the design them implemented here, however, with the body markings lending this mort a bit of a cool factor I don’t think he had before. I think the sleeker bird headdress helps him out a bit here as well.
Finally for pre-orders there is an army-builder face off pack between a gold helmet Steel Corps figure and a Cobra Twilight Guard. These two are pretty heavily kit-bashed and I’m not sure how I feel about the at this point. My first impression is that we might be pushing the re-use a bit hard with these guys and I’m not sure how I vibe with the Officer with a CG helmet look of the Twilight Guard. This pack will be 54.99 and will be up for pre-order, you guessed it 7/26/24 at 5PM ET.
From there they moved into render reveals with Zandar, Leatherneck, and the Cobra CLAW, all of which were looking good. Zandar was one of my childhood faves, so I’m glad that I like the redesign that pays homage to the original while switching things up a bit. Lenny did mention that underneath the chest armor he will have the lightning bolts from the original figure and Falcon’s chest holster will work with him. The action scene render showing the CLAW in action was especially impressive too. I do enjoy those box art action scenes.
The name only reveals include Heavy Duty, Retro Rock N Roll, Retro Dr. Mindbender, Retro Viper, and Law and Order, all of which sounds pretty great to me, especially retro Rocky.
Even in the harsh lights of the booth, I was so impressed that I was more than ready to sign up for the Rattler. It’s truly beautiful. The size and features are impressive enough to me to justify the $324.99. Do I wish it were less and the first tier was a bit more impressive? Yes, but I’m still in.
Overall, I’d say this was an extremely impressive showing for the Joe team.
Source: The Fwoosh
