I just wrote 2 long e-mails to the collector's club, and they wrote me saying they would mention my ideas for next year's or the year after that, convention set. Any ideas about who and what it should be?

This would be more interesting had you told us what you mailed off to the club as far as ideas.

I have a few:
Cobra-la and rawhides

Python Patrol vs Night force

Serpentor and his army of Coils with Mindbender

Lost characters comic set: Billy, Zanya, Dr Venom, Quinn, Scarface, Mistress Armada, Alexander Cullen, Wraith, the Jugglers, Red Shadows, etc
HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE?

Many of these have been mentioned before in previous threads.

I'm still hoping for an Arctic set! I really don't know who I would put in it or which vehicles I would include, but it's definitely my favorite theatre. As a kid, snow had the most play potential - gravel pits & stream beds are the only other things that came close. I'm sure that's my biggest influence, so it's generally the figures I like the most.

My second would be a B.A.T. set. I know we just had a 6-pack, an APC, & an internet 6-pack before that - but a con set of B.A.T.s (closely resembling v1) would be great too!

GIJOE Urban set using the D.E.F. molds to make Mutt and Shockwave, use Low-Light v5's mold for Low-Light(except with a new head), Barricade using his original mold, and two new recruits or something.

yeah, Joe and Cobra Urban Squads would be sweet.

i like the 'comic' characters idea more, though, but doubt they'd actually do it. It'd be hard to give all those characters one cohesive story for the con. A Red Shadow set might be a possibility.

more international characters would be great, too. i'm sorely missing Cobra de Aco, Red Laser, Black Vulture, Hunter, Blades, and TNT.

I think an urban themed con set would be cool too, so would a red shadows set. :)

You all have some great ideas. I personally would like to see the remaining comic characters, especially Billy, Zanya, Mistress Armada, General Rey, Shooter, General Flagg, General Austin, Dr Venom, Sparks, Candy, Prof Appel, etc, etc.....:D

I like the BAT idea. I think it would be neat to see that be a take-off of Serpentor's assault on the pit with the BATS that occurred in Marvel comics.

The Polar theme is sweet - also the easiest to display (you just need some cotton batting and you are in business) - They could do repaints of original snow serpents and ice vipers. Then, maybe we could see some Joes done up arctic style that have never gotten the treatment before.

Personally, I would like to see an underwater theme. Do an Eels re-paint, with a different head and different Scuba gear. You could do an original Eels mold, with different head that looks more like the Undertow head with the balaclava and a newly sculpted rebreather that connects to a mask just like the 1994 Shipwreck mask (that way you can have them raid inland without them having their regulators in their mouths and without them having their masks on). You could do 12 of these Eels, and 3 new Cobra underwater specialists (I think it would be great to see Firefly in some underwater commando gear). To go with this, they could do a pack of 4 GI Joes in amphibious gear, with the same camo pattern. I am thinking Torpedo, Tracker, Wetsuit, and Shipwreck (in gear usable on land and underwater, and with head sculpts exposing their faces, where you have to put masks on them before they go in the water). The special vehicle for he Joes could be a repaint of the original night landing craft, and the Cobras could get a huge submarine palyset (I imagine the mold is out there already on something that could be modified - I remember seeing a GI Joe submarine a few years back at Toys R Us - I bet that could be modified to a playset).

Here's a copy of the first e-mail I sent and their reply. In my second, I suggested a training theme with a 6 pack of some sort of Viper with Big Boa, and a 6 pack of "Greenshirt" Joes, with basic bodies with different heads, but better than the Toys R Us versions, and have The Fridge, Sgt. Slaughter, Beach Head, or some appropriate trainer as the Joe trainer, and have another figure as the 15th one. I also wanted new versions of Starduster, Hit & Run, Chuckles, and several others that have had only one version (in the US anyway), and made those suggestions. I think I wanted the 6 Joe Trainees to be Hardball, Recoil, Downtown, Scoop (yes, Scoop), and I can't remember who the other two I picked were, but I had a suggestion for the 2 and 3 figure sets, as well as the vehicles: Swampmasher, Paralyzer, and I think I suggested a repaint of the Desert Scorpion, but I can't remember the rest. Anyway, that's what I've got, and if they respond to my second e-mail, I'll post a copy of it too. Thinking about it again, I would also like to see a con Bugg, Maggot, Persueder, Patriot, and Mobile Battle Bunker. But, the swampmasher is still top of my list, as that was one of my favorites growing up.

Thanks Dave,

I will discuss this with the others that work on these projects. You
won't ever see that many individuals as it is too expensive and we would
have to raise the price of the set too high.

We can't really do a fan choice because the tools don't always exist even
when they tell us the tools are there...sometimes they are mis-named.

When Hasbro does it they cut new tools and make 30,000+ of them (not a
real number, just something for you to think about) so then it becomes
cost effective.

Doesn't work so well with 2,000 figures or less.

Thanks for your support.

Brian

>Hey, I know this has nothing to do with the announcements you made earlier,
>and you probably get these all the time, but I have a couple of suggestions
>for next year's (or the year after) con figures. How about either a hall of
>fame theme of some sort, honoring the soldiers who died in the comics, old
>and new, including the ones that never had figures, like Cool Breeze and
>Mangler, or more repros of the foreign figures, like Glenda and Quarrell (I
>know you've already done her in a past convention, but...). Other
>suggestions include exclusive comic packs with any of the above suggestions.
> Or how about Wraith?
>The great thing about the convention figures is that you have given us new
>versions of figures that have only gotten one or two figures in the past,
>such as Mortal, Major Storm, Hardtop, Ripper, Buzzer, etc. Keep this up. I
>appreciate you accomodating the army builder collectors, but how about a 15
>figure set more like the Dreadnok Rampage, where you throw in a bunch of
>individual characters like a drivers set with one-shot characters like Wild
>Card or Crankcase, or some lesser known figures like Big Boa, Rampart,
>Hardball, and my favorite, Hit & Run. These are just suggestions, and I
>hope you will at least consider some of these suggestions. If you keep tabs
>on yojoe.com's forums, you will see more suggestions for figures than you
>can shake a stick at.
>So, what do you think? Are these good ideas? Personally, I think you guys
>should be running the GI Joe division of Hasbro, because I've been more
>satisfied with pretty much all of your figures than some of the new figures
>Hasbro has come out with in the last several years! Anyway, I know there
>has been a fan's choice comic pack. How about a fan's choice exclusive GI
>Joe con figure?

Brian has said that Army Builder sets sell the best. I think the Florida one is tho only one that hasn't been an army builder, and it's actually my least favorite.

The training idea has merit, and I like it a lot. I can picture Big Boa training 6 Vipers and Beach Head training 6 greenshirts. The 15th figure could be Wraith. The backstory could be along the lines of both teams out training, then running across each other. Wraith could be the element involved causing things to backfire.

For this as an extra con set, do a 2 pack of Mangler and Cool Breeze. Joes who were killed during training/1st mission.

John

Brian has said that Army Builder sets sell the best. I think the Florida one is tho only one that hasn't been an army builder, and it's actually my least favorite.

The training idea has merit, and I like it a lot. I can picture Big Boa training 6 Vipers and Beach Head training 6 greenshirts. The 15th figure could be Wraith. The backstory could be along the lines of both teams out training, then running across each other. Wraith could be the element involved causing things to backfire.

For this as an extra con set, do a 2 pack of Mangler and Cool Breeze. Joes who were killed during training/1st mission.

John

Never bought a con set, never been interested, but this is an awesome idea! I would have to come up with some cash next summer if they went this route.

Never bought a con set, never been interested, but this is an awesome idea! I would have to come up with some cash next summer if they went this route.

Meh, except for Wraith and the 2-pack, we have all those guys. i think a ton of people expect new stuff if they're gonna spend a couple hundred dollars for a set.

However, never before "figurized" guys like Wraith and Mistress Armada would cause me to sell a kidney to get a new set.

Meh, except for Wraith and the 2-pack, we have all those guys. i think a ton of people expect new stuff if they're gonna spend a couple hundred dollars for a set.

However, never before "figurized" guys like Wraith and Mistress Armada would cause me to sell a kidney to get a new set.

True, and those 3 were the ones that got me excited, but a new Big Boa would be interesting along with some Devils Due inspired greenshirts (I thought the greenshirts we've seen so far have sucked).

I too would like to see never before released figures. I do not want any more green shirts. New characters yes, repeats no.

Have they done many new characters? Besides the Dreadheads, have there been many new ones each year? Its almost not worth discussing since we have no say, but I don't think the greenshirts have been done right yet, and they have potential (maybe using a Tripwire head and different skin tones/gender torsos). Maybe even have the 2 extra figures be Mayday & Mariner, 2 greenshirts who graduated to full-fledged Joes.

New convention characters,soldiers, and other guys never made avaiable here-

Crimson Vipers
Dredheads
General Mayhem
Iron Anvils
Swamp Vipers
Air Vipers
Black Dragon
Black Dragon Troops
Cobra Mortal
Bludd's Skull Squad Troops
Coil Troops
Steel Brigade Commander
Steel Brigade Paratroopers

New convention characters,soldiers, and other guys never made avaiable here-

Crimson Vipers
Dredheads
General Mayhem
Iron Anvils
Swamp Vipers
Air Vipers
Black Dragon
Black Dragon Troops
Cobra Mortal
Bludd's Skull Squad Troops
Coil Troops
Steel Brigade Commander
Steel Brigade Paratroopers

I stand corrected.

and I forgot the Jungle Viper

Well if we're getting technical here:
What about Crusher, Demolisher, and Dragonsky?
The Club is probably one of the only places that we're going to get new characters from. I think for the most part they do a real bang-up job.
Here Here!

Arrghhh!!! I KNEW there were a couple other guys I forgot. i can't believe I forgot Crusher and Demolisher- they're the main reason I bought that set.

As for Dragonsky, I didn't realize the con version was before the comic pack was announced, but, yeah, you're totally right.