JoeCon After Action Report: Day 1
By KansasBrawler
As you all know, Joe Con kicked off on Thursday. After a five hour drive from SD to Colorado, my brother and I touched down in Loveland. Joe Con was a belated birthday present for him and so far, it’s been a blast. We were in the first round of non-Golden Ticket pickups and thank the maker for that. As usual, the line for the opening night of the Club Store was pretty ridiculous. The two of us spent three hours in line for souvenirs, and while it was a wait, it was definitely worth it. We spent the time chatting with Joe fans (and met a Joe A Day reader in person who looked like he was traveling with his dad for Joe Con and told his dad he would show him Joe A Day, so more readers) and joking around while waiting.
Man, did the GIJCC bring the heat for exclusives, though I will say that I’m shocked that none of the vehicles were original Sky Patrol vehicles. The figure set is solid and the attendee exclusive this year was Air Raid. For souvenirs figure, there was a two pack of glider pilots, Skymate and Cloudburst and a three pack of Heli-Vipers (using the great Ultimate Cobra Commander copter pack for a change). On the vehicle front, Sky Patrol was bolstered with a Skystriker (and though I’m tired of seeing the Skystriker, the chromed box art looked pretty awesome, just not $160 awesome), a Sky Patrol Sky Sweeper and on the Cobra front, the A.D.D.E.R.S. take to the sky with the Cobra Hydra piloted by an Aero-Viper. They’re impressive though I’ll admit personally I’m a little bummed that we didn’t get a Sky Hawk, Sky SHARC, Sky Raven or Sky HAVOC (though my wallet is probably pretty happy it didn’t work out that way since those would have been hard to pass up). The paradrop figure was revealed early and for sale today and it’s one my favorites, Freefall. I’m glad I had the opportunity to buy him in advance so I don’t have to worry about trying to catch one at the paradrop. After all, that’s a great event for kids. I’ll be more than content to watch the Con kick off with that and not get in the thick of trying to grab toys. I will also say, man was the Club Store line an endurance test. It was like the Bataan Death March with toys at the end. I try and stay positive about how the GIJCC handles things, but that really tested my positivity. I’ll admit, the Hydra was probably a silly purchase since I’d passed on it before, but I’m glad I talked my brother into getting himself a Sky Sweeper. After all, YOJO (You Only JoeCon Once). Overall though, so far, so interesting…
”Way to go Sky Patrol SkyStriker-Yo Joe!”
Freefall? Dangit. Always frustrating when one of your childhood faves is a modern joecon extra.
Who’s heads are under the helmets of Airwave and Drop Zone?
Airwave has the PoC Dusty head (which I’m sure will elicit some eyerolls, but it does look a lot like the vintage version) and Drop Zone uses 30th Law which looks surprisingly close to the older-looking face the vintage Drop Zone figure had.
Another Skystriker repaint. But now that I’m thinking about it, I might be interested in it, since I am a fan of the Sky Patrol. The smaller plane also interests me. The figures, I honestly don’t care about them. Now, if those were repaints of the original o-ring classics, I would be going nuts right now thinking about how I was going to get them all. As a matter of fact, it would be beautiful if there could one day be Sky Patrol repaints of the classic o-ring figures of Airborne, Rip Cord, Crazylegs, Freefall, and why not Hit & Run. And how about all of the pilots also, like Ace, Slip-Stream, maybe even Windmill. And all of the other pilots that I don’t remember right now. I don’t know about Wild Bill. I’m not sure if he would be right for the Sky Patrol. I do find it very strange that Hasbro Inc. is using freely the name Hydra, and on top of that, for a Cobra plane, without getting sued by Marvel. These are strange times we are living in.
Is…..is that an update of my namesake?
Yes, it did…and to my eyes (since I haven’t unbagged him beyond checking to make sure everything was in there), he and Cloudburst both got new heads. And I know you can’t see this in the photo, but there is a kangaroo on his hat and he has a boomerang.
Its the symbol that was used during the North Africa campaign. Anzac troops would crudely apply it to captured M13 tanks [and other vehicles] to save them from being hit by friendly fire. They also wrote things on said vehicles which aren’t suitable to this blogs PG rating
I never had Sky Patrol as a kid, so I can’t compare the figures to the originals. But, they look great to me!