Awesome. I'm still here. 😉 

Thank you! I love this line.

Classified is a great line of figures.  

Just got another batch in:

General Hawk

Ripper

Buzzer

Shockwave

Low-Light

New name reveals today!

Nemesis Enforcer

Starduster

Zandar

And the latest that went up for preorder:

Quick Kick

Airborne

Big Boa

Techno-Viper

Duke (retro)

Scarlett (retro)

Recondo (retro)

60th Action Infantry

60th Action Sailor

Okay... I know I talked a lot of crap about Super 7 and their G.I. Joe Ultimates in the past. Now, I'm ready to eat a heaping, helping of crow...

I went ahead and opened up my G.I. Joe Ultimates! wave one (because they've been sitting in their shipping boxes since I got them), and I am BLOWN. AWAY.

I think that these are some of the best figures that Super 7 has ever made... they even eclipse the TMNT Ultimates, IMHO.

After I opened up Duke, Snake Eyes, and Cobra Commander, I fell head-over-heels and immediately ordered Wave 2. Sadly, Flint and Lady Jaye do not have painted skin tomes like wave one... however, Destro is flippin' phenomenal! (I didn't open Baroness because I'm going to gift her to a friend and get the black-suit version later this month.)

Now, I'm patiently awaiting my Wave 3 to show up! This wave DOES have full paint apps and they look incredible. Scarlett isn't even in my hands yet, but I'm confident that she will become one of my favorite figures in my whole collection - and a very likely contender for figure-of-the-year.

I don't know... maybe it's the rush of nostalgia from all those years watching G.I. Joe after school, reading the comics, and spending many a night at sleepovers watching G.I. Joe the Movie... these Ultimates! have won me over - big time!!

Don't get me wrong, I still have the Classified Retro wave on pre-order and still plan on collecting the Hasbro stuff... but G.I. Joe Ultimates! have won a deserving place in my display as well as my heart!

Finally my most wanted Jinx is available for pre-order. I've been eagerly awaiting her, hoping she'll be done right and perfect and everything looks great except...

SINCE WHEN DOES JINX HAVE HUGE FUGLY TATTOOS ALL OVER HER ARM?!!!!!!????!!!!????

if it was the Arashikage emblem I wouldn't say anything. Even the dragon emblem from her outfit I'd probably let slide, but I don't even know what this -again F-ING UGLY- pattern in supposed to be!

Yeah I still pre-ordered 2, but I'm hoping I can somehow remove that when she gets here. (Paint thinner? Nail polish remover?)

@lordofdestruction Tattoos are incredibly common now. It seems that 80% of the population under a certain age has at least one, so I'm not at all surprised that modern action figures would reflect that reality. The vintage Joes were way ahead of their time when it came to that - several figures had tattoos way back in the 80's, a time when it was extremely uncommon to see them among the general population.

@durendal I can’t wait to see these idiots with their face and neck tattoos when they’re in their 70’s and 80’s

@brasco everyone looks like shit at that age anyway, so might as well go out in style!

Regarding the newest reveals:

Storm Shadow v.2 - He looks decent, but didn't nail the vintage look. He's got some weird skirt thing going on, and the hood looks off. Bit of a letdown.

Alpine - Awesome, vintage accurate rendition. Getting very close now to completing the peak 1985 lineup. The winner of this wave by far.

Iron Grenadier - Looks great, but a bit more formal looking than expected with the trench coat. Probably needs a more vintage accurate retro card release.

Iron Grenadier BAT - Also looks good, but I'm uninterested in yet another BAT repaint. They've done so many now, including a bunch that never existed before. Easy pass - those 25 bucks can easily be allocated to dozens of more deserving figures...

Dial-Tone - Render reveal only, but he looks fantastic. Very accurate to the vintage, with some subtle improvements.

Saw Viper - Render reveal only, but this one is actually a significant miss. I'm actually a bit shocked by how bad he looks considering how the Classified team has otherwise been nailing the designs for a long time now. Overly bulky armour, the legs look all wrong, but the helmet in particular looks terrible. The design is way too off from the vintage. Hasn't even been released yet but already desperately needs a major re-do as a retro card release. Big disappointment, especially for a badass character as depicted in the ARAH comic run...

Retro card Stalker - Finally a Stalker in the brighter, vintage accurate colours. The previous Classified release of him was solid, but THIS is the true Stalker as we know him. Easy purchase.

Retro card Cobra Trooper - I guess the colours are a bit more cartoon accurate, but it's not a particularly interesting release. There's at least a dozen other characters they should have done before this one.

Retro card Cobra Commander - YES!!! Finally a stunning rendition of the classic vintage figure with some subtle cartoon elements added in. This is the TRUE CC, and absolutely blows away that lame first version from a few years back that was based on a failed video game. Redemption!

I feel like I'm the only one on this board who cares about GI Joe lol...

"Once a Man" Cobra Commander based on the 1987 movie has been revealed.

@durendal I collected them and transformers but stopped last year since things got so expensive

Posted by: @durendal

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I feel like I'm the only one on this board who cares about GI Joe lol...

"Once a Man" Cobra Commander based on the 1987 movie has been revealed.

Oh I'm collecting Classified well enough. i just couldn't think of much to add to the conversation.

I definitely agree with your assessment that SAW Viper just doesn't look right. 

I did pre-order the Iron Grenadier BAT though because with that new alternate head he makes a not-quite-accurate-but-close-enough stand in for Overkill. I doubt they'll get to Overkill at all and even if they do I bet it will be the later human faced cybernetic version instead of the original pure robot one that I prefer.

Got my Jinx and fixed her arm. Looks so much better now.

Aside from my personal aversion to the fugly tattoos, it occurs to me it's a bad idea on Hasbro's part to mess with the designs. When the line started many collectors complained about the altered looks to the characters we were getting. Hasbro seemed to take this feedback to heart and started making designs much closer to the classic RAH looks and the line took off then. Now however it seems they're going back to a strategy of using the line to input new designs into the characters then using the Retro collection to re-release more classic accurate designs. (This is not me speculating BTW they flat out said they were doing this) 

Problem is who knows which characters will get Retro carded figures and when. They're just now releasing Retro Cobra Commander! I don't want to pass on a character I want in hopes of getting a more accurate design somewhere down the line, but I don't want to get a close enough figure in fear of not having them at all only to have to rebuy the character when the better version comes out.

Also they need to start including stands with everyone. They come with the Retro carded figures but not the standard. I had to find some third party stands to keep everyone from constantly falling. Especially for guys with heavy equipment. I lost count of how many times Metal Head toppled over before I got stands.

@lordofdestruction That's Hasbro's insidious plot: release figures that are quite close to the vintage originals, yet with just enough unecessary tinkering to be irksome, only to offer a "fixed" version later as part of the retro card line - maybe. They masterfully keep things ambiguous enough to ensure our FOMO gets triggered so that we buy every character twice, just in case an accurate version never appears. It's a cruel yet ingenius approach. Sigh...it's that little dance between the creator and the buyers - they have us perpetually bent over and we take it every time (possibly even enjoy it). We all know it and whine about it, but ultimately we keep buying to support our plastic crack addiction...

Posted by: @durendal

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 That's Hasbro's insidious plot: release figures that are quite close to the vintage originals, yet with just enough unecessary tinkering to be irksome, only to offer a "fixed" version later as part of the retro card line - maybe. They masterfully keep things ambiguous enough to ensure our FOMO gets triggered so that we buy every character twice, just in case an accurate version never appears. It's a cruel yet ingenius approach. Sigh...it's that little dance between the creator and the buyers - they have us perpetually bent over and we take it every time (possibly even enjoy it). We all know it and whine about it, but ultimately we keep buying to support our plastic crack addiction...

Oh yeah the whole retro carded reissue thing is annoying. I went and paid extra on the secondary market for the original Baroness release when it came out (didn't even include the bike just her) only to later have her retro carded version to end up a peg warmer at my Wal-Mart.  Likewise I jumped on getting deluxe Dr. Mindbender off Hasbro Pulse and now he's apparently getting a retro release likely without all the extra accessories I didn't need yet had to pay extra for. 

I agree with @lordofdestruction Jinx looks WAY better without those stupid tattoos. How did you remove them?

@nogard nail polish remover. Make sure it's the 100% acetone kind though. Also don't just slap it on. Use q-tips. Dip one in then gently rub the swab on the paint you want to remove in a rotating motion. Paint comes right off easily. Good idea to wipe the surface you just cleared with a paper towel right after so you don't leave any acetone residue. May need to use a couple q-tips but won't take long at all.