Top 12 GI Joes fans would use in real life.

Outback, Beachhead and Lowlight storm the beach

Presenting the top 12 GI Joes that fans would use in real life. 

This is actually the results of a poll posted by Ed in the GI Joe Rec Room Facebook page. He asked "If you had a 3 man team to infiltrate Cobra Island who would you pick?" 

It was a good question because it fell down to the bare minimum in terms of military fire-teams. Which three would you indeed assemble and send - quite possibly - to their deaths (Someone actually suggested the Fire-team of Windmill, Skidmark and Sneek Peek because he did not expect to see them come back alive - to be fair, we think Skidmark would make it). 

Anyway we decided to tally the data and here are the results - the top 12 GI Joes that fans would pick if they had to send a three-man fire-team to infiltrate Cobra island

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

5 Heroes who died and stayed dead

Marvel's Book of the Dead

Presenting 5 heroes who died and stayed dead. Today is November 1 or Día de los Inocentes ("Day of the Innocents"); Tomorrow is November 2 AKA Día de los Muertos the "Day of the Dead"

So it only seemed right to do a review of dead comic-book super-heroes.

Unfortunately while the list of dead throughout the comic book world seems to be quite a long list, most of the really good dead people keep coming back to life (And DC keeps rebooting its universe so eveyrone keeps coming back to life). We wanted to include Jean Grey for example - given that she's been dead since 2004, but we know that Marvel will bring her back one day - hell they've written a future where she returned.

So we really had to dig deep to find some really good dead bodies for this article.

Please do take the time to remember friends, family and other loved ones in your life who have gone ahead. And do remember to value the friends, family and loved ones who are with you today.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Snake Eyes - Dollar General Exclusive

Presenting Snake Eyes from the Dollar General Exclusive toy-line.

I don't actually remember in what specific issue of the Marvel series GI Joe Comic that Snake Eyes switched to this power-ranger version of his uniform (I was poor and couldn't afford to keep buying comic books). But it was a short lived version.

It's not that I don't think it's a nice or practical uniform, it's just that I think commandos should stick to matte black uniforms with absolutely nothing gleaming off of them - they're supposed to be invisible after all. So this baby blue and light-gray variant kinda goes against everything that Snake Eyes should be - in my opinion at least.

My ideal Snake Eyes is still - and probably always will be - the Spetsnaz looking POC Wave 1 Snake Eyes, and; (with less gear) the POC Wave 3 Snake Eyes.

G.I. Joe Retaliation Ninja Showdown Set

Storm Shadow and his Red Ninja anxiously awaited the arrival of Snake Eyes

Presenting the Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and the Red Ninja from the GI Joe Retaliation Ninja Showdown Set.

I actually had the opportunity to purchase the individual G.I. Joe Retaliation Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and Red Ninja when I chanced upon this three pack. I noted that the three pack looked like the better deal because both the individual Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were just painted in their base black and white colors respectively. They were kinda...plain and typical. At the very least the two in the Retaliation Ninja Showdown Set gave me more... color... variety if you will.

Another advantage of the G.I. Joe Retaliation Ninja Showdown set over the individual Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow figures was that the set was chock full of accessories. I  would not be stuck with just a pair of "Sky Commander" Zipline rip-offs (Though I have to say that the Zipline comes with 7 feet of string and THAT is impressive for an action-figure), but weapons and accessories that I could use for other purposes and figures.

So I picked up the set instead - and the Red Ninja - but only because people were scalping them.

G.I. Joe Renegades: Snake Eyes

Presenting Snake Eyes from the spanking brand new GI Joe Renegades line. Sadly I haven't seen the new G.I. Joe Renegades cartoons and I have to say that I am not a big fan of "anime" type action figures with their wiry bodies - which is why there is a plethora of Star Wars action figures over the past few years that I haven't bothered with.

I'm also not so sure about Renegade Snake Eyes' "X-Force: colors. I'm sure someone out there will be taking him and customizing him soon.

Anyway, I picked this particular Renegade Snake Eyes off the black-market (Victoyoyoys) as part of a set of four that includes Duke, Cobra Commander and Firefly for PhP 2,400 - or PhP 600 each (Which matches the Amazon price of US$ 12.99 to 14.99 plus shipping).

Over the next few days I'll present each of the four and Renegade Snake Eyes here will kick things off.

G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra: Snake Eyes (Wave 6) Temple Guardian

Presenting G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra Snake Eyes Temple Guardian from the yet to be released G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra Wave 6 line. When I first spied this particular figure on a toy convention coverage by ToyNewsInc. I thought this was a variation of Storm Shadow. But apparently it's not. It's Snake Eyes Temple Guardian. But he is a re-paint of the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary Storm Shadow (from the Resolute series) that came with Wave 8 Comic Book pack along with Tunnel Rat - that I have somewhere in storage. Snake Eyes Temple Guardian is slated for international release on April 30. I chanced upon this particular figure on the black-market (Probably smuggled) as a set and Snake Eyes Temple Guardian cost me PhP 700 and will be available on April 30 on Amazon for US$ 11.95. 

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra Wave 3: Ninja Commando

Presenting Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe The Pursuit of Cobra Wave 3. AKA Snake Eyes Ninja Commando.

This is probably one of the more reviewed figures in the market, so I'll keep this review short and simple:  Yes, Snake Eyes comes with everything you see here in this picture. Yes, it's sheer over-kill - and that's not even everything that he has yet. This particular Snake Eyes feels like someone at Hasbro got so sick and tired of all the criticisms and reviews that previous Snake Eyes have received over the years - "Oh he should have this... Oh he should have that... Oh Snake Eyes won't leave home without this...." that the toymakers decided to throw in everything into one toy and let the fans sort it out. The bad news is.... after opening the package.... I had to ask "Where's Timber?" (In the distance I heard a gun go off as a toymaker offed himself cursing my name).

G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra: Snake Eyes (Wave 1)

Presenting: the G.I. Joe Pusuit of Cobra Snake Eyes (Wave 1) Aka, the 1st Snake Eyes whose eyes can be viewed while not dressed as a Ninja (Can you name the other Snake Eyes figurine where you can see his eyes? Clue: It's in the 25th Anniversary series). He looks like a freakin Spetsnaz Commando about to storm a Communist hideout. I'm particularly fond of this figure because it's one of the first times that Snakes Eyes is portrayed in a modern commando outfit with ninja trimmings - not the other way around. Commandos are real people, they get shot, they get hit by shrapnel, they don't jump around and appear spic-and-span clean at the end of the battlefield. This particular version of Snake Eyes is both realistic and cool at the same time.  He comes with everything you see in the picture to the right: stand, rail gun rifle, katana, katana scabbard, Timber the wolf, armored vest, visor and two MAC-11's (Instead of his traditional UZI) that are not depicted here.