New 2015 G.I. Joe Sets Announced at G.I. Joe Con
Taking a break from our Celebration coverage today to post some announcements coming out of the G.I. Joe Convention which is taking place this weekend in Springfield, IL. Hasbro held their panel today and announced several new figure packs and two new vehicle releases along with their San Diego Comic-Con exclusives.
The retail presence for G.I. Joe, as it was in 2014, will be at Toys-R-Us. There are five new 2-packs, four 3-packs and two vehicle sets.
2-Packs (MSRP $14.99)
- Classic Clash: Storm Shadow and Spirit
- Hunt for Cobra Commander: Cobra Commander and Shipwreck
- Marine Devastation: Cobra Shadow Guard and Gung Ho
- Swamp Steam: Croc Master and Blowtorch
- Trooper Build-Up: Iron Grenadier and Steel Brigade
3-Packs (MSRP $19.99)
- Chase for the M.A.S.S. Device: Cobra Commander, Cobra C.L.A.W.S. Trooper and Conrad “Duke” Hauser
- Rock Rampage: Cobra Shock Trooper, Rock Viper and Alpine
- Sneak Attack: Specialist Dusty, Firefly and Bazooka
- Vanishing Act: Torpedo, Hit & Run and Zartan
Vehicles
- Desert Duel: Cobra Basilisk w/ Cobra Elite Horseman vs G.I. Joe F.O.E. Striker w/ Philip “Chuckles” Provost (MSRP $49.99)
- Silent Strike: Cobra H.I.S.S. Tank w/ H.I.S.S. Driver & Gunner vs G.I. Joe Stealth Skystriker w/ Brad “Ace” Armbruster & Sightline (MSRP $59.99)
Sightline is a new character and Hasbro has named the character after Garry “Goggles” Head, a long-time G.I. Joe collector and fan who passed away recently. Garry was very active in the G.I. Joe community writing for websites, running a Facebook group and attending G.I. Joe events.
San Diego Comic-Con
The SDCC exclusives will be variants of the two regular release vehicle sets. The vehicles in one set will swap teams, and paint decoration, and the figure mix will be different while the Desert Duel will include additional figures from the retail set.
Crimson Strike
Crimson Strike will feature the Skystriker in Cobra colors and renamed as the Cobra Scythe. It will be piloted by A.V.A.C. and backed up by an Alley Viper Officer. The H.I.S.S. is repainted green and named the Chimera. The Joe team will consist of Grunt and Steeler. (MSRP $99.99)
Desert Duel
The vehicle teams and decoration will remain the same but Chuckles will be joined by Night Fox and the Elite Horseman will have a Cobra Air Trooper riding shotgun. (MSRP $59.99)
The box art for the two SDCC sets can be matched up to create a larger panorama scene.
Impressions
We’re happy to see that Alpine will be coming out in his classic deco. He was previously released in the M.A.S.S. Device DVD sets but was very hard to find, leading to a huge secondary market price. While the 3-pack he comes in also includes Cobra Commander and a Cobra Trooper from that DVD pack, the final piece of the M.A.S.S. Device build-a-figure set isn’t, still leaving many collectors with an incomplete build.
Several of the other figures that will be released are either previously announced, but unreleased figures, like Blowtorch and Croc Master, or come from the Hasbro “concept case” which showed off proposed figures at Joe Con several years ago.
The Troop Build-Up 2-pack with the Iron Grenadier and Steel Brigade figures is also a welcomed addition as the Steel Brigade was very popular and the IG figure was one of the harder to find figures during its first retail release.
The two vehicle sets have stepped it up a notch from last year’s 50th Anniversary releases and seeing the Skystriker again, in black stealth mode, is sure to make a lot of people happy. Even the AWE Striker, now called the F.O.E. Striker, has enough updates that it should sell well packaged with the Cobra version of the Snow Cat, now called the Basilisk.
Although Duke and Cobra Commander make appearances, as does Storm Shadow, it’s actually refreshing to see that Hasbro has decided again to skip selling us another Snake Eyes figure. We can hope that the quality of the figures is a little better than the 50th Anniversary releases but even if they’re on par, the 2015 lineup looks pretty solid and we’re anxious to find them at retail.