Blood for the Baron!

Love em. Was wavering a bit about buying these after seeing the Red Torches (and a £500 gas bill!) but these have changed my mind. Now I just need to figure out how to send the forms in without a fax machine!

Had a quick look through all the links the baron gave just to get an idea about the american opinion about this.

As usual some rant and put down without any idea of the history of the pieces.

In most american joe fans eyes the only option is the DDP version. In other words our way or the highway. Though as i look through it the approach varies from site to site

Cobra Island - childish our way only

Hiss Tank -surprisingly accepting (well 50:50 which based on what i saw before amounts to accepting) is this an older membership?
Though "cobrasusedcars" saying the head sculpt is the worst ever head sculpt again shows the need for some to show land outside of the USA

Joe Customs and Joedios really dig this set don't they

Unfortunately couldn't get the link to all the sites as some didn't exist but who cares really. In essence it is just me searching for validation of my love of the red shadows and to be honest that is here.

May want to get a few more sets but will be limited by lack of money.

Now the next quest is the newly released hasbro red shadow (if enough of these are bought it has to happen) and maybe just maybe after the ROC bombing in the UK a return of Action Force proper?

Adrian

Yeah, I;m genuinely surprised at the amount of Joe fans who know nothing about the Shads - I thought we'd made a bigger dent than that. Certainly enough of one for other fans to post "you need to check out BFTB for Red Shadow info."

Also a bit disappointed at some of the forums. A bunch of them moved my threads wihtout telling me, merging them into existing conversations. A couple have removed the threads entirely and several have been locked.

I've revised the links for the moved threads as best I can.

To be honest i feel some of the comments are a form of misplaced nationalism

GI Joe = USA = Great / Amazing etc

Would account for their armoured perconnel carrier being better that ours
Or the mobat being better than the battle tank
Or the command centre etc etc etc

Though they really don't seem to want to know a lot about our side of the story
The fact the collecters club is doing something linking in with us despite the fan base in the US hints that Hasbro are looking to new markets and maybe testing the waters with a possible action force resurgence or part of same

Adrian

TBH I barely care what the other forums are saying. WE HAVE THE SHADS BACK!!!! If they aren't liked by all, that's OK. I like em and as long as they are liked enough to sell well, then cool.

Again, well done Jim and Jamar. Adrian, why not approach it from the Action Man angle? That's AF's history and if any Joe collectors dig vintage action man, they might better get their heads around the whole concept. Or are there just too many closed minded types?

Chopper you're right!

Only wish we were getting more than 6 of the red shadows in each set.
Heres hoping our enthusiasm lets us get them back on shop shelves

Adrian

I don't know, it's easy to tar all Americans as fervent nationalists, but it's not the case when you meet people one to one. I think the issue here is more of a generational thing. Yojoe, Joedios, Joecustoms and the like are primarily 30-something old schoolers, while Hisstank and CobraIsland are geared more towards the 14 year old movie fans. If you can wade through all of puerile, pre-pubescent nerdage there are some decent, long-suffering mods in there.

I must praise the TerrorDrome though, for being one of the new wave of Joe sites who have wholeheartedly embraced the international angle, they've been strong supporters of the Colouring Project too. Good bunch of guys. Joecanuck as well have been particularly welcoming.

I didn't mention Yanks, Baron I'd say its more to do with the fact that when the other forum members were lads, GI Joe was the thing and not AF. By contrast, I appreciate the Argentinean stuff, but not enough to buy any. We are sort of lumping them with things they really aren't interested in. When I say them, I mean those that don't dig it.

You can please some of the people some of the time...... end of the day I think they will sell well. There is a huge driving force and a desire from abroad that should do the trick. I'd be interested to know how many SAF HAWK's wound up leaving the US.

As much as I like CobraIsland they certainly tore into the new Red Shadow with comments about the satchel he is carrying so don't seem to like this figure but they did like Black Major and the Red Torch.

The Baron wrote:I don't know, it's easy to tar all Americans as fervent nationalists, but it's not the case when you meet people one to one. I think the issue here is more of a generational thing. Yojoe, Joedios, Joecustoms and the like are primarily 30-something old schoolers, while Hisstank and CobraIsland are geared more towards the 14 year old movie fans. If you can wade through all of puerile, pre-pubescent nerdage there are some decent, long-suffering mods in there.

I must praise the TerrorDrome though, for being one of the new wave of Joe sites who have wholeheartedly embraced the international angle, they've been strong supporters of the Colouring Project too. Good bunch of guys. Joecanuck as well have been particularly welcoming.

I think i may have said things i didn't quite mean and have validated the US Joe fan position. They loved their own toys as kids and i loved mine. I have an emotional attachment to the toys i had as a kid and in my opinion no toys can equal or better them. While the red shadows exposes the US collector to our side of things it works both ways and allows me to see their side of things.

What i loved about action force was the realism, the accurate colourings for z-force and jungle or grass based warfare though in retrospect the original gi joe apc would work well in the desert setting. i guess i am just as biased in my opinion of what makes a good toy as any on the websites i mentioned. to be honest i have never liked o-rings toys but now i am seeing one i absolutely love.

If i can change maybe we all can

Adrian