Navaan

But alright, something more fun. My customized Joes;

Snake-Eyes
Scarlett
Flint
Lady Jaye
Barrel Roll
Roadblock
Stalker
Doc II (Doc Purpleheart in my Joeverse)
Helix
Tunnel Rat
Spirit
Cover Girl
Beachhead
Dusty
Joe Canuck
Valkyrie (as an American son of a Canadian x American marriage, felt I needed to honor one side's homeland, you know?)
Firewall
Torpedo
Sparks
Snow Job
Wet Suit (this one kinda sucked, did what I could, went for later versions)
Shipwreck
Mayday
Blackbird (Raven from the old cartoon series, liked the turncoat female Native American Strato-Viper story)
Noble Steel (my Steel Brigade character)
Tripewire
Varona
Thunder (aka Thunderblast)
Salvo
Shooter
Duke (I liked the Spytroops era look, kept the short sleeves with the patches for added decal)
Bombstrike
Dialtone II

A lot of them are great, many not perfect. But I am happy with them.

Ignore the others in the back, personal characters from a book I am writing. These were taken from my progress room. Still working on Jinx and Kamakura, then done with the Joes, unless I want to deal with Dawn Moreno.

So, I will say this...

These figures caused me no end of headache.

I originally asked my LCS to order them, and they forgot. By the time I reminded them, turns out, it was after the order cut off.

Attempted to order them from TFAW and BBTS, but both gave me a limits warning, so I ordered one from the former, two from the latter. 

Whelp. Last Thursday, I get a notice that my 'overnight shipping' was being prepped by TFAW, and I was charged $40 for overnight shipping I *did not* order. I sent e-mails, asking to cancel as I never meant for $40 in shipping, but got no response until end of day Friday, effectively brushing me off as 'oh, you just ordered the overnight shipping,' when I did not. Queue Monday, when, no surprise, it still is not here. $40 for overnight shipping that takes five days. Okay. Sure. Yeah.

Meanwhile, my comic store DOES get them in Friday, day after TFAW overcharges me... but marks them up. Hard. Knowing they are now hard to find, they jot the price up. Whatever, I can at least go get them and cancel my order with BBTS. Go pick up two (at that time thinking, well, if I was going to be overcharged and I got TFAW's 3rd Friday), I might as well just say 'eff it' and deal with the $40 loss and keep the toys.

I open one of the packs, as was planned. Storm Shadow's arrows are bent, one at 60 degrees. Snake-Eyes' visor is chipped. Cobra Commander's helmet is bent, as is, badly, Snake Eyes' sword. I am decent enough making customs, so I fix all those issues, save the arrows. The worst, despite my boiling efforts, cannot fix it well enough, but as I was going to use old black arrows, anyhow, eh. Did not care, is fine.

Did care about the fact that there was a booger *inside* the packaging, though. But just tossed that away, no ultimate foul, I suppose.

My second LCS set, though, I planned to keep in package.. until my friend, staying over as he is having issues with his girlfriend, is staying over. He picks up the box, from the top, 'what are these,' and... based on how he handled the top, the packaging tears down the back. *Badly.* 

So hey. Opened those up, and now my 'non-customized' ones are on my GI Joe comic shelf.

But hey. I waited since 2005 for GI Joe Minimates. Frustrated as I am, *worth it.*

1 hour ago, MisterPL said:

I'm starting to feel like this opener will be keeping my GI Joe Minimates unopened until I can sort out what the difference is between the FCBD set and the upcoming two series. It's a little confusing to this non-Joe collector.

Pretty sure the FCBD set IS the first set, with Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow; the next set has Duke, Roadblock, Baroness and Destro. Two sets have been revealed, each with two heroes and two villains, each with one female per set.

Honestly?

Scarlett makes me think comics; pale blue arms ad purple arms where common in the comics. Plus, the nearly white smoke grenade on her left shoulder.

Storm Shadow looks like he walked off the cartoon with the coloring, but to be fair, his design is kinda basic so it could be any of them.

However, Cobra Commander appears to be later Devils Due comics with the look of the gold tassels. *Maybe* some old Marvels had that look, but I can recall later Devils Due that was that picture, off the page. I think some Valor Vs Venom Cobra Commanders had a similar look, tho, but a stylized helmet.

Snake-Eyes is V2 off the box, which was copied into the comics.

So, honestly, a hodge podge of looks and inspirations, which I am certainly fine with!

As a Joe fan, I'd have guessed a mix with the coloring on Scarlett and Cobra Commander's outfit.

20 hours ago, DSTZach said:

Ship date is a big question mark at this point, we're trying to get them here as quickly as possible. 

Appreciate the updates. I have over 50 custom minimates for my Joes I made since the announcement, so I am super thankful that these are inbound.

Omg they're perfect. Buying three sets;one in package, one out and on my bookshelf, and one to customize with my mininates.

Any update on shipping? BUT THEY'RE GLORIOUS.

6 hours ago, HellfireSamurai said:

They goofed Cobra Commander's file card. They reversed the Specialty & Codename on his card.

Sideshow did that on a toy they did, too.

4 hours ago, DSTZach said:

I hope to reveal in-package pics soon! Maybe even a yay shot.

Yay shot?

Hey Zach, friend. Any chance you have a shipping update or more pictures to perk our anticipation?

On 8/16/2021 at 10:38 PM, DSTZach said:

No in-hand sample yet, but Chuck may have one. I'll try to find out.

I would love to see more shots of the products! Would make my week- and the wait more unbearable, but I suppose we don't always get what we want. xD

Man, I'm desperate for news. I've made near thirty or so customs for my minimate Joeverse. The ones I couldn't make, Snake-Eyes, Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow, cannot get here fast enough.