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[ARROW]

On Storm Shadow; superlatives simply fail here.

I'd dare say that this figure beats the POC Wave 3 Snake-Eyes......and in some eyes it might, some it might not. In mine, it does.

But that's relative, too.
This figure is an example of taking something.........maybe just a hair too far. Just a bit too extreme.

You WILL hear complaints about this figure...........them being the numerous very, VERY small parts.
The throwing dart, with its sheathe, meant to fit to the small peg on the back of the black torso strap........is VERY small. You sneeze hard, drop it..........you'll lose this part. Take EXTRA care with these. There's other parts like it.

But me, I LOVE parts like this. This is Lowlight's bullet times..........like 4 or 5.
I love the detail, the intricacy, the tiny parts. I'm a detail fanatic. This figure has details in spades.
Great poseability, loads of accessories, LOTS of display possibilities, frankly I think it trumps every other Storm Shadow figure ever made in this scale.
Only complaint: the black sash is VERY tight at the indented waist--you might find it has trouble closing. The trick is to make sure the draped ends are placed  right in front of the crotch to have a hope of closing the tab.
The hands on this figure are going to see a LOT of fiddling with the various gear. So many choices........so many GOOD options. I've not even begun to explore the "definitive" look I want for this figure, it'll take days of fussing and fiddling with it to find the sweet looks I want.
But that's the fun of it, no?

Look.........they said it about Wave 3 Snake-Eyes........and its true here with Storm Shadow; this is the LAST one you'll likely ever need to buy.

Techno-Viper....
My step-son said it best........this figure looks like Darth Vader mated with a Cylon and gave the kid to COBRA to raise.
I can't look at this toy now without laughing at it. Its a good figure, and I like it a bunch, but what really sells it to me..........is the traffic cone.
Yep, gonna have to get me some more Techno-Vipers, kids..........................for the traffic cones. Something about that is so whacked out funny that.........its makes sense in a goofy kind of way, but it also so off-the-wall at the same time. The Techno-Viper as a character/figure never really fired my imagination much. It was an essential role in the COBRA army, but the tools never made a whole lot of sense. He's a nice update though.

[pdaat]

You're not the only one hooked on the traffic cones.  Looking forward to getting some for myself soon.

[NeoDragonKnight]

As plants vs zombies have proved to us, Traffic cones can double as helmets.  Thats what my zombie Vipers are going to be equipped with.

[ARROW]

That's funny, because the first thing i did with the traffic cone was put it on top of the Techno-Viper's head!

Word of Warning:

The throwing stars are, as expected incredibly easy to lose. While fitting mine in SS's hands I dropped one. My studio carpet is coloured close enough to the steel coloured plastic that.........well, its effectively camouflaged. I broke out the big flashlight to get some light under my desk and found it inside of a minute, but its incredibly easy to lose these small parts. Take extra care--trust me on this.

[Redmao]

That stormy is so cool, I don't understand why Hasbro isn't packing him 2 per case and repacking him in Wave 4.
They submerged us with desert fun SS and nobody cared about such a figure and now that they made the perfect Storm Shadow, he's gonna be hard to track?
Oi!

[ARROW]

That stormy is so cool, I don't understand why Hasbro isn't packing him 2 per case and repacking him in Wave 4.
They submerged us with desert fun SS and nobody cared about such a figure and now that they made the perfect Storm Shadow, he's gonna be hard to track?
Oi!

My guess: We'll see him again in a refresh assortment that fills the gap between the last POC wave and the first Retaliation waves. And don't forget that the 30th Anniversary promotion is still on-going.
There is no way in hades they are going to let all this new tooling on this figure sit idle.

[Madman]

My guess is a lot of the new tooling for these waves will be reused for the movie line. As arrow said Hasbro's not going to invest in the tooling to only use one time....they're going to milk these babies.

I have no idea why Hasbro went back to 1 set and carry over for the last two waves....makes them that much tougher to get...even more so for those who want multiples.

I have a feeling Hasbro's going to use stormy's tooling for the red ninjas or ninja type figures in the movie line.

[ARROW]

Rather than start a new thread, I'm going to add on to this one:  Sci-Fi and Lifeline: First Impressions.

Sci-Fi is sort of a sentimental favourite of mine because he was technically the first 4" Joe I ever bought--and ostensibly to do a custom from. My intent was to do a Robocop custom from the figure, but that never happened. Sci-Fi became the first of my RAH collection, which grew to about 300 different figures over the follwing decade. So this update........well, it speaks directly to me.
And what does it say?

Sci-Fi equals BAD-ASS, kids.
Think neon green is for pansies? Pshaw, think beyond the green. The guy is essentially a walking battery, to power the laser rifle he carries. Oh, its not like the red/blue lasers of the cartoon show, nope.......my mental picture has always been that Sci-Fi fires a green laser beam.
Dunno why, can't speak to any logic behind it.......just long felt it. His laser weapon is more......."intelligent" in its application, to my mind anyways. He's a target designator--lasing enemy hardware for destruction by other GIJOE munitions. He anti-vehicle in that a held-bean can melt into an engine block........just takes maybe a minute longer and some steadiness. And if the bad guys rush him, he can set the gun to blind them*, or to set their clothing on fire. Just enough of a distraction to get away.
Tell me that's not bad-ass in and of itself? Yeah, I like Sci-Fi.
The figure is as detailed as I could ever wish for, holds his weapon just right ( he's a southpaw, apparently--if you take your cues from how the figure is packaged) and has the two helmets. After some swapping back and forth i like the look of the open faced helmet more. Just bad-ass.


Lifeline.
Y'know.........one of the distinctions I made for myself years ago about GIJOE was that the comics and the cartoons were horse-hooey. They are just junk, just dumb and try as I might I just could never get into them, or get past the silliness. I cherry pick what I like from them and I just forsake the rest.
My canon.......the only canon I really respect, comes from the toys themselves. Lifeline is a good example, because all the nonsense about him being a gun-phobic (whatever) pacifist is just a load of bunk to me.
The toy comes with a gun...........ergo the character packs a gun, in my opinion. Running onto a battle field waving just your ideals gets you shot, and is therefore stupid. The filecards have always been just non-specific and vague enough that there's loads of room for interpretation about any given character.
The cartoons and comics often throw that into the hash. Beachhead is a good example: hair-trigger temper in the cartoons, but claims he "doesn't get angry, he get's even" on the filecard. So which way is it, because it can't be both.
Lifeline is the same argument.
So he comes with a gun and a SWEET rifle it is--and he looks good wielding. The figure itself: incredible, but the highlight of the set is the medical gear and the litter.
Right away the set get's you involved with the rest of your collection because, darn it........you now need a "hapless Harry" to play the victim and to get strapped to the litter.  Hey, that is where I chose to ...ahem.....volunteer one of my Steel Brigade troopers to take a bullet for the team.
I swapped his balaclava head for a spare bald Serpentor head--because the "pained" express it wears is just appropriate.
I hooked up the IV, gave the poor sod some oxygen and tucked his SB helmet 'tween his legs.
Yeah, Lifeline now pretty much becomes a "two-figures-in-one" kinda deal for me.......because ol' hapless Harry is going wherever Lifeline goes now. I might have to conscript some other SB's to carry the litter now.

Like the previous figures mentioned in this thread, my opinions of them are that they are solid updates and upgrades from their original versions. If you liked the originals, you should probably find yourself liking these new versions.

[Jon S.]

I also find myself inexplicably drawn to Sci-Fi. I've always loved him as a kid. The 1991 Sci-Fi was even better. And SPACE Sci-Fi? He was the main character for many G.I. Joe adventures. Both the Starfighter version (dude was so bad-ass, he got his own space ship) and the chainmail wrist-mounted cannon version. (duuuude)

Regrettably the e-shop I was buying from didn't have him in stock when I did my big order, so I'll have to wait until later in the year (maybe CJC) to get one.