Rarely am I surprised walking through a toy aisle, what with every new figure previewed and revealed online months ahead of time with complaints following shortly thereafter. However today while walking through Walmart it was a completely different story.
The Corps! figures had some new faces on the pegs where it's normally the same dudes hanging out in different packaging. In fact, the new faces weren't dudes at all. These three packs featured what I believe are the first female members to join the ranks of The Corps! since the line started back in the early 80s. While the comic we (DDP) published back in 2008 or so had some female members, there were never had figures made of those characters. But it looks like the first offerings from Lanard by the way of lady troops was done with some real thought put into it.
While the two female figures share the same body, we're given two different headsculpt. The villain (member of The Curse) is done in dark red, brown and black and sports a bit of a pomp with a ponytail. The heroine is in gray and drab green with some camo on the pants and has one side of her head shaved. She looks a little more punk than the villain but that might just be Lanard breaking down good/bad stereotypes. Could have even been a decision made after the sculpts were done to give the eviler looking of the two to the good team and the nicer looking one to the villains.
The Corps! figures had some new faces on the pegs where it's normally the same dudes hanging out in different packaging. In fact, the new faces weren't dudes at all. These three packs featured what I believe are the first female members to join the ranks of The Corps! since the line started back in the early 80s. While the comic we (DDP) published back in 2008 or so had some female members, there were never had figures made of those characters. But it looks like the first offerings from Lanard by the way of lady troops was done with some real thought put into it.
While the two female figures share the same body, we're given two different headsculpt. The villain (member of The Curse) is done in dark red, brown and black and sports a bit of a pomp with a ponytail. The heroine is in gray and drab green with some camo on the pants and has one side of her head shaved. She looks a little more punk than the villain but that might just be Lanard breaking down good/bad stereotypes. Could have even been a decision made after the sculpts were done to give the eviler looking of the two to the good team and the nicer looking one to the villains.
The cards make mention of The Corps! member, Snake Bite (above on the left) but the card for the other three figures didn't have character names on the back and no mention of the characters' names anywhere else on the packaging. While we know the packages came with Rain, Snake Bite, Buckshot and Dozer from The Corps!, we have no way of knowing who the members of The Curse are. Which may be a way to add to the everyman/woman idea of evil, keeping names out and making it vague, but I think might be something that was overlooked when it came to the packaging.
Each package came with a mix of figures meaning which side of the battle they're on and what era they came from/articulation they have. The two female figures are done in a style similar to the modern era Joes, commonly seen on Hasbro figures since the 25th Anniversary line for G.I. Joe, Marvel Universe and Star Wars included. Then there's one figure in each package from about 2010 who were listed as "new recruits" at the time of their first release and found in single packs and double or triple packs like these. In these packs that's "Rain" and the bad guy with a skull on his clothing. The last two figures are both good guys and have little to no articulation and have been recently released with playset packs at stores like Family Dollar, Walgreens and Dollar General. This includes "Dozer" and "Buckshot".
So each pack came with two good guys and one villain, but where the articulation and body style fell within faction was random. There were other new three packs done in this manner with newly sculpted figures, but these were the only two with female figures and thus the only ones I picked up. Each pack is a Walmart exclusive and cost just under $7.
I don't doubt we'll see multiple repaints of these two characters as we do with all other figures from The Corps!. That is unless the cost of assembly does these figures in too. The cost of assembling figures in Chinese warehouses far exceeds the price of all the sculpting and producing of multiple molds for all the various parts. Which is most likely the reason the majority of figures from Larnard have such limited articulation. And definitely why we saw such decline in articulation in G.I. Joe figures released with vehicles from the movie toy lines to date.
Each package came with a mix of figures meaning which side of the battle they're on and what era they came from/articulation they have. The two female figures are done in a style similar to the modern era Joes, commonly seen on Hasbro figures since the 25th Anniversary line for G.I. Joe, Marvel Universe and Star Wars included. Then there's one figure in each package from about 2010 who were listed as "new recruits" at the time of their first release and found in single packs and double or triple packs like these. In these packs that's "Rain" and the bad guy with a skull on his clothing. The last two figures are both good guys and have little to no articulation and have been recently released with playset packs at stores like Family Dollar, Walgreens and Dollar General. This includes "Dozer" and "Buckshot".
So each pack came with two good guys and one villain, but where the articulation and body style fell within faction was random. There were other new three packs done in this manner with newly sculpted figures, but these were the only two with female figures and thus the only ones I picked up. Each pack is a Walmart exclusive and cost just under $7.
I don't doubt we'll see multiple repaints of these two characters as we do with all other figures from The Corps!. That is unless the cost of assembly does these figures in too. The cost of assembling figures in Chinese warehouses far exceeds the price of all the sculpting and producing of multiple molds for all the various parts. Which is most likely the reason the majority of figures from Larnard have such limited articulation. And definitely why we saw such decline in articulation in G.I. Joe figures released with vehicles from the movie toy lines to date.
"I see your schwartz is as big as mine!"
The articulation on these two is the focus here, they have ball jointed heads (and thus I see a lot of use for Joe customizers with these heads), two points at the elbow, one at the shoulders, mid-torso, knee and surprisingly; ball joints at the hip for both legs.
I'm guessing the characters are pretty equally matched since they come with the same accessories, but what's neat is that Larnard has been doing a good job at giving the figures exactly what they can carry. So the figures have notches on their backs for both knives, a holster for the gun with the silencer and a hole randomly in their lower back for the crossbows. Where one will probably have an advantage over the other is when it comes to whatever terrain they're racing their motorcycles on. One is more of a dirt bike and will do well off-road and in the desert, the other looks to be more for street racing and drifting in Tokyo.
I suggest picking these figures up and soon because customizers are going to be scooping them up as soon as they see them. While we will most likely see these repainted as I stated before, there's really no guarantee that will happen.
Liz - I HAVE TO FIND THEM ALL AND CUSTOMIZE THEM INTO DUDES!!! LADIES CAN'T BATTLE!!
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