G.I. Joe “Basic Line”
Wave One Review (12 Pics!)

NoisyDvL5

While the onslaught of G.I. Joe Retaliation figures will soon be upon us, there are still some cool non-movie figures to be found – provided you have a good ‘dollar store’ nearby. This so-called “Basic Line” isn’t a dollar line, but I think you’ll agree they’re worth the price of admission.

Images of this “Basic Line” first hit the net about a month ago on JoeDeclassified.Com. While it wasn’t entirely clear what these were, the folks at GeneralsJoes.Com did a little digging and discovered this would be a sixth market line aimed at dollar stores. So far, these are only being found at Dollar General (at least here in the states), but that doesn’t mean these can’t show up at other dollar stores in the future.

This wave is a six-figure assortment that features a mix of 25th, ROC/POC, and Renegades parts to create some great repaints. Included is an update of 1991’s Snake Eyes v4, 1992’s Ninja Force Storm Shadow 2002’s Shipwreck v5, Duke in an original Joe uniform, and both Cobra Commander and a Cobra Trooper in black uniforms.

I hit up ten Dollar Generals on my search yesterday and found one case each at two of the stores. One store had been picked over with only Duke & Storm Shadow remaining, but I found them case fresh at the second store. It was an accident, I found the second set though, I was checking out a Legends Class Starscream and dropped it. When I reached down to pick him up, I saw the corner of the new packaging sticking out from underneath some other toys. I felt very lucky as I would’ve completely missed them otherwise!

I opted to leave the all-black Cobra Commander behind so he won’t be featured in this review. I left him for a variety of reasons – the hooded version of CC is my least favorite, I’m not really big on him wearing all-black, and I’ve never been terribly fond of Hasbro reusing the Crimson Guard body for CC figures.

If I recall, the figure is a black repaint of the one that originally came in the Tripwire 2pk minus the cape, but with new lower limbs. He does include the cool cobra-handled sword in silver, but this was still an easy pass for me.

I did end up picking up the all-black Cobra Trooper, however. If I’d seen two, I might have gotten both as an army builder, but the mark on his helmet does identify him as an officer. I know, I could still troop build officers, but it turns out I didn’t need a lot of push to save the $6. If these end up hanging around as long as the last time there were dollar store Joes however (there were still plenty of the 2008 sixth market Joes at the stores) , I could see myself ending up with some sort of black ops unit.

The all-black Cobra Trooper is a repaint of last year’s Cobra Trooper v15, but with officer’s webgear (and the officer’s rank on his helmet). I love the color scheme; the silver decos really make the figure pop on the shelf. The only thing that I didn’t like about this figure was the lack of accessories. He’s sporting Snake Eyes v54’s legs which give him a sheath for a knife and a holster for a pistol and silencer, but unlike the blue version this guy only totes around his favorite rifle.

Oh, and before I forgot all of the “Basic Line” figures shown here included the appropriate G.I. Joe or Cobra stand that we’ve gotten used to over the last few years, but the stands don’t feature names for the specific characters.

Duke was another one that I wasn’t quite sure I’d be buying. I’d already bought and sold a “classic” Duke, but seeing the head sculpt close-up got me thinking of him more as a random greenshirt. The figure is pretty much a straight update of that v27 Duke I sold some years ago, but he’s now completely using the same build Hasbro used for Zap v5 and a POC Dusty head.

Lucky for me, I didn’t buy that Dusty. I don’t mind when Hasbro re-uses masked heads, but it’s hard for me to overlook character-specific heads. The actual 25th Greenshirts drove me little nuts because they were known Joes with their hair dyed. This is technically the same situation, but since I missed out on Dusty, I’m not as bothered. Plus, this head just doesn’t say Duke to my either so he makes for a good random trooper.

Duke is sporting some borrowed webgear, but I couldn’t tell you from where as well as a rifle and a pistol for one of his holsters. This does leave him one pistol short, but unlike the specific gear that’s not included with the Cobra Trooper, I know I’ve got a gun that will fit in that holster around here somewhere.

While I had reservations about the figures on page, not so for the three figures featured on the next page. Those were the guys I went searching for on my toy hunt. Continue to Page 2…

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46 thoughts on “G.I. Joe “Basic Line”
Wave One Review (12 Pics!)”

  1. I’m going to have to keep an eye out for these. I hit the local DG looking for them today on my way to other business, but they didn’t have them (they did have the Starscream and Cap you mentioned). I was hoping to check another store, but car started acting funky and I turned around to hit home before I was walking. (already dropped 2k on it -2 months ago! SSDDFML)

    1. I was tempted on the little Transformers, but weren’t those Marvel figures just awful? It almost seemed like Hasbro was now in the business of making their own bootlegs!!

      Good luck with your car!

      1. I just glanced down the aisle and saw the 5poa Cap above some Power Rangers and SS a little further over, so i didn’t look at them close up.

        One thing I forgot to ask this morning is: are there seriously 54 versions of some character or were your fingers just slipping? a lot? 5-6 versions of SE, SS, and CC or his troops, I would believe, but double digits? wow.

        1. No slip-ups! The Joe collectors count the 3 3/4″ line as one long continuous series, so starting with the original 1982 Snake Eyes and counting up the reviewed her will be somewhere in the ballpark of 58-60, I’m not sure where it will fall with the Retaliation stuff. The funny thing is that there are only 10 versions in the first twenty years and the other 50 have all been in the last ten years! Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander, & Duke are in the 40s.

    2. snagged yesterday at WAMO DG!
      I forgot how much you said they were and the peg they were on said $3, questioned it when they rang up at $6, turns out the popped them on a SW peg?

      grabbed SS, SW, and Cobra officer. CC was almost all black and didn’t really appeal to me. maybe if/when the movie figs hit, I’ll decide which I like better?
      (and always thought that SE color scheme was a bit wonky! LOL)

  2. The head for the Duke figure makes a workable head for an un-masked Marvel Universe Captain America 🙂

  3. Do need that snake-eyes! Will be painting that sword neon. The storm Shadow looks like a decent alt to the v41 version. Hopefully this wave hits my area.

    1. Yay for the neon sword!! Hopefully, they’ll be as plentiful as the last dollar store figures. Hopefully, they’ll spread out to some other stores too.

  4. Nice review, and quick too! I have barely seen these figures being located in stores yet and you already got ’em covered. Good work!

    I especially like the late-line Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow homages. I may prefer the v2 Snake Eyes and v1 Storm Shadow looks, but I can still appreciate others. I’m honestly fine with the non-neon weapons though. It’s an easy repaint if you’re not happy with it.

    And yeah, I wholly agree on those Market Six Avengers figures. Repackaged vehicle drivers with no articulation = easy pass even for me as a fanatic.

    1. Sometimes if I don’t get them quick, they turn into really late reviews!

      I’m not unhappy with the black sword, it just would’ve been cool to homage the neon red. I’m sure I still have it around here somewhere to give to him. On that note, I think I forgot to mention he was also missing the blue running stripe on his pants.

      And, yeah, so glad that market six Joes aren’t as uninteresting as the Avengers figures.

  5. That’s funny, I’m a bigger fan of the hooded CC!

    G.I. Joe is one of the lines (along with Star Wars & Transformers) I swore I wouldn’t collect when I started buying toys again (of course, TF already sucked me back in), but I think it will be impossible to avoid this year. Lot’s of good stuff coming. A Bruce Willis action figure? Hell, yes!

    1. I shouldn’t admit it, buy my favorite Cobra Commander is the armored one! Then helmet. Then hood.

      Sometimes I wish I could be more of a TF/Joes collector instead of DC/MOTU because I really can’t afford them all… o.O

  6. Nice review! Ver. 4 Snake Eyes was my Snake Eyes as well. Wanting that update/homage is what made me hit all 6 Dollar Generals in my area in a span of two days. Only one had them, but thankfully it was a full set. Cobra Commander is probably the weakest of the six and in retrospect I could have done without him. I plan to keep my eye out for more so I can troop build the Cobra Trooper and Duke/Greenshirt. The funny thing is I haven’t collected Joes for years, but picking these guys up has given me the bug again. Well played, Hasbro.

    1. Thanks! I found the first two figures at my sixth Dollar General and, by that point, I was reserved to the fact that I wasn’t going to find them yesterday! It made it all that much sweeter.

      The Duke and Cobra Trooper could definitely be addictive figures in the long run…

      1. yeah it is I checked earlier..after thinking it was family dollar all this time..that was a waste of a ton of driving this weekend!

        1. I’d imagine that they’ll still show up at other stores like Family Dollar or Big Lots. I took Dollar General out of the review title for that very reason.

          Who knows you might be the first guy to find them at Family Dollar! (Though Family Dollar always fails me, never found that lightning deco MU Thor, but I didn’t really need it either…)

          1. ooh well that would be good news!
            Great review by the way…I love Hooded CC tho so I certainly wont be skipping that one 😉

  8. I’m just hoping Hasbro makes good use of this platform, because it could be a real winner for them. The limited paint apps thing makes it tricky, but I do hope they use this as an avenue for releasing needed repaints (Law and Order with true ’87 colors) and re-releases (Alpine, Best of 80s Cobra Commander and Paratrooper). Also hoping that these aren’t limited to Dollar General, because at least in Northern California, there are few to none of those.

    1. If market six Joes become a new avenue for cheaper repaints, I’m down for it. They could even expand it on beyond Joes…

      1. Yeah, some alt costume Marvel Universe figures (repaints of the good figs) would be pretty cool.

  10. I REALLY want the Cobra Commander and trooper/officer. The Storm Shadow does look like a cool novelty figure too, but I already have the Renegades one (Woot!)

    1. Renegades SS is awesome! I’m kinda hoping for it in some other repaints, so this was an easy grab for me!

      Y’know what might be cool in black? Tomax & Xamot. I think we’ve seen all the others in a cool black/dark version of the costume.

  11. I think that Shipwreck is probably my favorite.

    The “Vs. Cobra” figures were pretty sad things (mostly due to awful proportions) but I always liked that redesign on Shippy.

      1. I bought some of ’em and tried my best to customize ’em into something palatable (my earliest foray into customizing actually!) but I was not the happiest camper, LOL.

        But I was burned enough by those years of mediocre-to-crappy Joe product that it took me that much longer to warm up to S6 and even the 25th stuff.

  13. I REALLY wish the Trooper didn’t have the officer emblem on his helmet. I totally would have troop built him. As is, I may just get one.

  14. I stumbled across these at a Dollar General while visiting family for Mothers’ Day. They had the whole wave but Snake Eyes was the only one I really wanted, for the same reasons you described–it was my first Snake Eyes, and I LOVED the dual neon red swords.

    And because of a mix-up with price tags, I could have got all six figures for THREE DOLLARS EACH, but I didn’t want to press my good luck.

  16. I’m right there with you on these as being the actual “new” stuff to look for this year instead of the eventual Retaliation glut which will clog the pegs within months. I’m not interested in much of the movie figures aside from Bruce Willis and any ancillary classic ones like the Night-Viper and CG. There are no Dollar Stores in my area so I’ll be checking Big Lots if I find one near. There was one within walking distance of my house but it went belly up a couple of years back.

  17. Just to let everyone know, word is thtere is 2 diffrent Duke figures one brown and one green..hope that not old news ha ha

  18. When I was little i was only able to get the Joes that my uncle (only 3 years older than me) didn’t have. so i was never able to own my own Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow until these 2 versions. So these two versions are ones that i am trying in a big way to get my hands on. It was those 2 plus road pig, wet suit, big boa, slice, and dice that were big on my play list.

  20. these figures are the only bright spot in joeland nowadays with news that “gijoe retaliation” has been delayed till march of 2013.

  21. I went to 3 different DG’s here in Denver (Did not know this store even existed) and none of them had them. They had all the other toys you mentioned. Man those Marvel U toys are CRAP…why are those even sold? They had the older Joes with NO accessories as well which weren’t too bad seeing as I have buckets of Joe stuff. …sigh…now I am left trying to eBay these and not pay $6 a piece like I wanted 🙁

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