Friday 18 November 2011

JAC's Armies: G.I.JOE (Green Army Men)

VEHICLES


After writing my latest new 'feature' Behind the times, I decided that I should start photographing all my figures together and display them here. although it took a long time, I have to say I really enjoyed taking the figures out of their storage boxes and setting them up. They look great together specially with the vehicles, I usually purchase a new figure or figures, I open them, display them for a week or so and then I store them with all the others. I have a lot of figures but it's not often that I get to see them all together, using the figures is part of the reason why I came up with the game in the first place.

Greenshirts
Now I got rid of all my old Joes a while ago and although I regret it from time to time, I must say I am happy with the new figures. A couple of things to get out of the way before I begin:

-I mix the different Joe lines together, for example I have Resolute, ROC, POC and 25th all together existing in the same universe.
-I mix different figure lines, particularly the POWER TEAM ELITE vehicles.
-I am not a completest
 -I do not adhere to any real Joe Canon, growing up I had the cartoon and my imagination. To this day I prefer the latter

G.I.JOE

The figures in the pictures represent my G.I.JOE army you will see all three elements: Land, Sea and Air.
Steel Brigade
To start off the Green army men.
 -Officers
-Greenshirts
-Steel Brigade (next level up after Green-shirts)
-Joes
-Medics
-The A team










Hope you enjoy seeing my collection.

LAND

Officers and bodyguards
Medics: Doc, Stat and Panacea
Famous Joes (The Elite)
The A Team
Officers: Col. Strong (my own creation), LT. Steel (my own creation), Col. Courage, LT. Peck (Faceman), Col. Smith (Hannibal), GEN. Hawk, GEN. Thaddeus, Thunderbolt, Ross                      






VEHICLES
Buggy and modified Rockslide ATV

Lower level: Recondo and 'Sandman' AKA 'Sandy'. Upper level: Duke, Bulldog and Dusty

SEA




AIR


So thanks for looking guys, hope you liked the pictures, if you want comment, email me at: g.i.jac0001@gmail.com or check me out at Google+

Thursday 17 November 2011

Behind the Times: IDW Cobra Civil War: G.I.JOE

 Hello all,

Don't actually 'click', got this from Amazon.
From time to time I will put up reviews, relating to products I have purchased including comics, action figures, games and movies even. Cause, well why not? I will call this section 'Behind the times' because, well I'm usually just that, I buy games when they're on special, I get all my figures from the U.S.A so that by the time they arrive here they have been reviewed to death all over the net. So here I will express my opinion relating to these items, as always I appreciate comments through my e-mail g.i.jac0001@gmail.com, at Google+ or post below.

Cobra Civil War: G.I.Joe:Volume 1

Just got and then read IDW's Cobra Civil War: G.I.Joe Volume 1 and unlike with the last set of comics I got from Amazon, which included the whole set of G.I.Joe: Cobra Volumes 1 to 4 and  G.I.Joe Volumes 1 to 5. I am a bit frustrated that I can't read on. You can read a bit more about them here.

I don't really like reading comics an issue at a time, I always wait and buy them when they are collected in volumes. So that I can read the whole story arc all at once. Again I know that I am behind the times here but hey where else am I gonna express my views on a comic book?

R.I.P-C.C.
Anyway, I didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed G.I.Joe: Cobra. However, there are some elements I enjoyed and there are some other elements that I didn't enjoy so much. I will list them all below, I don't know if I should write spoiler alert as, like I said before, most of you have read the comics already.

Likes:
-Blacklight's ambush of Stalker's Squad and his getaway in a trouble bubble
-Zartan's Raid of the PIT (Question: is Zartan African American now?)
-Zartan using Leatherneck's Defence Mech or what looks like one.
-Brainstorm's heroic sacrifice
-Mainframe's crush on Scarlett
-The panel on page 13 where the Crimson Guard are carrying the fallen Cobra Commander
-The fact that Storm Shadow works for a Japanese representative of Cobra and not the Commander (RIP) directly
-The way the crimson guard are used, not so much in this comic but more so in G.I.Joe: Cobra. Never really liked the identical accountant/lawyer deal.

Dislikes:
Don't like this guy
-Why is it called 'Cobra Civil War'? It should be more like 'The great Cobra Competition' or something! When I think civil war I expect IG's vs CG's
-The whole Duke got himself infected side story, well maybe we'll see airtight soon.
-Krake, not liking Krake or the way he massacred the Joe squad, oh and I'm no fan of BBQ so don't think it's that.
-The fact that Storm-Shadow and Jinx didn't have a showdown as depicted in the cover art

Anyways, I'm hoping that Cobra Civil War: Cobra Volume 1 and Cobra Civil War: Snake Eyes Volume 1 are better. Don't get me wrong it was very interesting and it was cool to see the Pit taken down as well as Zartan and Blacklight in action but I would actually like to see some Cobra infighting, not 80's cartoon squabbling but some real intrigue and outright  battles.

A lot of people are very negative about these comics, but I must say that I am enjoying them, I give this Volume 3/5 Behind the times. That's the best I could come up with, so for now that's the unit of measure.

Thursday 10 November 2011

Custom Colonel Courage



Hello all,

How often do you get such great alliteration in a title? Below you'll find some WIP pictures and the finished product. My interpretation of the character is that he is very pedantic and  a bit of a nerd. But a brave warrior when in a fight. The fact he is smaller than the other Joes helps put this point across, I think too many joe figures fit in the 'big black guy' cliche. I like that Courage is the brainy sort, a tactician and a fighter.

I used the Star Wars head everyone has been using for this custom but I avoided the 25th Duke body. The parts I chose give him a WW2 American officer feel to him. The top half of the figure is Indiana Jones with a tie, the lower half is the Indiana Jones German soldier figure. The Webbing and the helmet are from the 25th anniversary line but I don't remember from who exactly. The guns are from Marauder gun runners and the colonel decal is from Cobra stickers.

Let me know what you think and check out the game while you're here it's free to download.
Contact me at: g.i.jac0001@gmail.com


WIP Courage
WIP Courage with Equipment

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Spindoctor's Customs II



Riot Gear
CHiPs
Last month I posted photos of the AGP and custom Nullifier I purchased from Spindoctor from Joecustoms. I mentioned that I had purchased another two figures from him as well in that post and they arrived last week. The figures are Highway, a police officer based on the old C.O.P.S toyline and Gnawgahyde a Dreadnok. Like the Nullifier, I love the work he put into these two figuresI really like this version of Gnawgahde more than the pictures I've seen of the upcoming BBTS version. I'm still buying the set though!

Not only are they great customs but it's like I purchased two POC figure, they each came wit a lot of accessories. Gnawgahyde came with a bow, quiver, machete, pistol and removable hat, necklace and custom painted vest. Highway came with a removable vest, helmet, glasses, pistol and coolest of all a bike.

The Highway custom is great and I think it fits right in with the custom police squad I made for Mr E, I have added a few photos of Highway with the other police officers (above and below). If you want to see some more pictures of the police officers in action check out the battle report.  The cool thing about the two figures are the paint application and the fact that they look as though I purchased them from a local store, they even came with a custom base. I have made only a slight modification to Highway, I added 'Police' Decals so he could fit in with the other officers. Just one final note about the figures: Although some of the parts that Spindoctor used are instantly recognizable, I love that he has modified them enough so that they look like brand new characters and figures. Spindoctor usually sells his figures through ebay and I suggest you have a look, just don't outbid me at the next auction!

Below you'll find more pictures of the figures.