Today while out Joe hunting I stopped in Big Lots just for the hell of it. If you guys don't have Big Lots up there, they're one of those "clearance" stores. The only Joes they had were a crapload of RoC Combat Heroes. But they did have something else.
That something else was Power Team Elite, which has been discussed on here before but I had never seen. They had quite a few PTE items...the Lookout Tower, Patrol Boat-River, Howitzer, Hummer, Rocket Chopper, IFV, Abrams tank, "Battlefield" (essentially a string of bombed-out buildings) and the "Combat Outpost" (which I may be crazy, but it looked like it contained a bunch of Marauder furniture). Prices ranged from $10 for the Lookout Tower to $30 for the "Combat Outpost" with most of the rest ranging from $15-20. I picked up the Lookout Tower and will probably pick up another. It's got a Mk19 40mm grenade launcher, it's pretty good-sized (much bigger than the original Joe Watch Tower) comes with some pretty neat accessories like fuel drums and a spotter's scope, and has a really neat "rope" ladder that can be hooked on just about any location. It also came with 2 figs that are, well, pretty crappy, but who cares? Your Joes can replace them!
These are some cheap, neat alternatives to official Hasbro stuff that I kinda dig. I'm definitely gonna pick up another Lookout Tower and the Combat Outpost, and probably the PBR and the Howitzer.
Oh yeah, and I also noticed that Wal-Mart here had "Rollbacked" all RoC figures to $6 each, which I think is the perfect price for them. Hopefully they'll now start to move. I also picked up TF2 on Blu-Ray for just $20. Can't beat that.
