I’ve said this before, but G.I. Joe was easily the biggest toyline from my childhood. I had my fair share of Transformers and MOTU. I treasured my comic-based figures and loved plenty of smaller lines too, but I had a ton of G.I. Joe toys. It was so different from today.
Looking over my shoulder at my collection, I guess I still have a lot of Joes. I bet my wife would say so. I guess my feeling more Joe-less of late is just because there’s so little product that I find worth buying. I know we’re in the middle of this weird Retaliation-slash-nothing period and that’s probably a large part of it, but it just seems that my Joe collection is being assembled exceptionally slowly right now, one Club or SDCC exclusive at a time.
I don’t want to sound like I’m only in this for the nostalgic figures. I’ve actually come to like the figures that have been modernized quite a bit and new characters like Shadow Tracker have been great too. But there is just something seemingly better about classic, spot-on updates like Lifeline, Footloose, Sci-Fi, Crazylegs, etc. While I’d be excited for Hasbro to wow me with a great new look or an all-new character, I still have to admit that I love these “classics”.
So, when Hasbro announced Jinx as the SDCC exclusive… I was annoyed. I really wanted Jinx, but I really had no expectation of getting her. In years past, I failed to get both Slaughter (still a hole in my collection) and Zarana (Vault just snagged me one at a con a few weeks ago, the price was okay). I was so sure Jinx was a lost, or expensive, cause that I just kinda let her go.
Luckily, I had a friend who offered to grab some exclusives for me from SDCC.*
*- I’m not sure if he would want me to ‘out’ him, so I’ll keep his name to myself for now, but he knows he is and I know he’s reading – so thank you. I have never enjoyed a convention I didn’t attend so much. You removed the biggest annoyance for a middle-of-the-country collector and I’m very grateful. Thank you.
I think out of all the SDCC exclusives this year, Jinx is my favorite. Obviously, the opener should let everybody know that these Classic Joes would be near and dear to me, but what really helps is when the execution is what I want it to be. I’ve got some love for figures like 25th Anniversary Mainframe or Doc, but those figures have some issues that I have to overlook.
Jinx doesn’t. Continue to Page 2…
Nice…That peg in foot ankles is the best thing I have seen in a while..the retaliation Joe trooper has it and it works so amazingly well.
Did you know your second paragraph is repeated after the first time? Just letting ya know.
Thanks for catching that! All fixed! (Reviewapalooza can get the best of ya sometimes!)
Cool man! Yeah putting up a ton of reviews at once can be tough…Joe fest in the pg days was a production so I know all about it. You guys are doing a wonderful job with palooza however
Thanks!
This is probably my favorite “25th and up” style GI Joe.
She’s definitely up there! I’m still jaded by Lifeline though. So glad to finally have him!
At first, I was wanting a more faithful “covered neck” version, but especially after seeing her in person, I have no problem with it.
Great figure!
Careful we can’t get too slavish to vintage designs… 😉 LOL
Well it’s not like I was demanding her feet be exposed or something. 😀
Actually this figure may be what keeps me from ever buying any more GI Joe figures in the future. One of my favorites from when I was a kid, and made into a SDCC exclusive and virtually impossible to get if you didn’t go to the Con. I’ve pretty much had it with Hasbro putting the Main and Variant versions of the figures as con exclusives.
EXACTLY!
It’s even worse if you live outside the USA, like the other 95% of the population of the planet.
I’m hoping they do a “fully covered” Jinx later on. I hates holes in my collections . . . almost as much as I hate location-specific exclusives.
It is annoying to make fan faves as exclusives, I’ll give you that.
But I wouldn’t consider ≈ $30 shipped on eBay “virtually impossible to get”.
And if you refuse to use eBay?
Especially since I’ve seen so many auctions that are restricted to American buyers only?
I can see that point of view, but I think I feel more lucky towards it. The retail line has been annoying coming & going from the movie stuff (even more annoying with Transformers) so I’m happy to have something consistent to chew on. Basically, at least there’s something.
I know that’s not as easily true for folks like Beedo (& maybe you) that live outside of the country, but for me it’s better than no update figures at all.
Hope to find her next month at the toy show. Last year I saw the Zarana cards and that was it.
I had all but given up on Zarana until Vault found her last month! I don’t know that she’s worth what I paid for her (and now I feel even more like I need to get that 7pk of Dreadnoks), but I’m glad he saw her snagged her for me.
One of my regulars when I was younger, and another casualty of the “lost in storage” incident”. 🙁 I think I had all the classic female Joes, except Lady Jaye (only saw her once) and Cover Girl (couldn’t afford the tank), so it wasn’t a total plastic sausage fest.
I am annoyed that this version is another exclusive I’ll never see, like Zarana(s), but holding out hope that we do see her in the re-relaunch of the movie line, which I have noticed has already hit clearance, here. :/
One thing I would like to see in reviews like this, when you have an “update” of a classic figure, is a comparison shot of the original, even if it’s pulled from YoJoe.com or wherever (like I said in the DCIE Starman review the other day, a comparison shot with the DCD Starman), so we can see how the figure has (hopefully) improved since it was first made, whether just in general standards or what have you.
Genreals Joes’ review shows a side-by-side of the two Jinx figures:
http://generalsjoes.com/reviews/2012/exclusives/sdcc_jinx_red.html
“Comparison Time” is that Pixel guy’s thing. 😉
I would’ve taken the pic if I still had Jinx, but I’m pretty sure she was a flood-lost Joe. I can look into providing a link to a comparison shot like Xenos did, but I wouldn’t want to take their content outright.
I was talking about putting up a comparison shot (with full accreditation if possible) so we can compare how much has changed since the original first hit shelves “X years” ago. Better sculpting, and hopefully articulation, obviously, among other things.
cool, thanks. but how many variants are there? did the other guy swap the white unmasked head onto the red body? and what will the y/blk version look like? aaaarrrggghhh!!! LOL
The primary version was red, the variant version was the white movie one. Hasbro never said anything about what ratio.
The red version is just everything pictured here.
The white version had the unmasked head (the red Jinx would have short spiky hair) and different accessories.
Another stellar review, Noisy! Just one quick question though: Are you guys gonna finish reviewing the ML wave 2 figures soon, especially the BAF Zola?
Thanks! Yes, I do want to get back around to Arnim Zola. It took me awhile to finish him up and in the meantime I’ve built up a lot of “current” stuff, but Reviewapalooza is helping clear that out. I’ve talked to Vault about a “Zola Week” in the near future to get to the last five (Fantomex, Thunderball, Piledriver, Daken, & Zola himself).
I can’t sign up for the subscription… I only want Big Boa, and I can’t spend another $300 on figures I otherwise have no need for… meaning I have to live with a big boa sized hole
there are worse things, I guess
I am very lucky a friend was able to get her for me too…
Big Bad Toy Store has each of the subscription figures up individually:
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/menu.aspx?menu=2340&company=0&category=6855
They’re worth checking up on every so often, especially as the “Sold Out” ones keep popping back into availability as other collectors re-evaluate their priorities and cancel their pre-orders.
AACK! She has become the bane of my collecting. My wife got laid off when she was offered so I had no shot at all, damnit.
Maybe someday
But I firmly beleive she should have been at regular retail.
Seconded!
Jinx is definitely one of those long awaited figures. I had the original one back in the 80s, and I’m glad to have this updated version. I was seriously tempted to buy the more rare Kim in white so I could head swap the two, but $50+ for essentially a head is a bit much. That’s 3rd party Transformer pricing. Hopefully Retaliation Jinx will have a good head I can put on SDCC Jinx.
The GI JOE Fan sub Jinx is pretty kool too, but I’m not sure I want to spend that kind of money on Joes.
Yeah, I’m thinking the same. Wait for a cheap movie Jinx to have an unmasked version of this one. 🙂
What standard stand are you using? I used the Jinx stand included that seems to be standard and she fits on it fine. Has been posed for over a month without moving at all.