Back in 2015, we shared word of the latest pre-order in Gentle Giant‘s jumbo A Real American Hero line, the G.I.Joe Bazooka Trooper, Zap. Fast forward to 2017, namely yesterday, when HissTank.com forum member Kane429 gave us the heads up that his pre-order for Zap was cancelled. Oddly enough, not only was the order cancelled (through GG), but any mention of G.I.Joe is also gone from their site.
However, with that said, online retailers such as BigBadToyStore still show the item in stock, but that’s not to say that any order placed won’t be cancelled somewhere in the future. We’ll try to dig a bit deeper and find out of this cancellation is across the board.
What’s your take on this and the Jumbo ARAH line as a whole? Are you bummed to hear about the cancellation, or could you care less? Share your thoughts with us after the break!
G.I. Joe ARAH Jumbo Zap Figure From Gentle Giant
G.I. Joe ARAH Jumbo Zap Figure From Gentle Giant - HissTank.com
Retro kid in me loves this; I just don't like the price personally, if I get these I may have to cherry pick. Pictures are great and make it tempting though.
No swivel arm battle grip?
I think Gentle Giant completely missed the mark and just torpedoed this line from the outset.
There is a line about 99 characters deep before I would go with ZAP. I understand that they start from the beginning, but compared to 1983-1985 the beginning is boring as all heck.
No one knows who Zap is, yet alone Stalker. They need characters that were both on tv regularly and had action figures. The line is going to go under before they even get to any of the more popular characters. I am sorry but we all know that GI JOE isn't Star Wars and doesn't get that pull of fandom. The 130 odd people who know who Zap is and want to buy a 12 inch version of something they may already own in a different scale wont this line.
I'd go,
Duke
Cobra Commander
Snake Eyes
Cobra Trooper
Lady Jaye
Zartan
Stalker
Destro
Flint
Cobra Viper or Officer
Gentle Giant seems to be G.I. Joe illiterate. They started their Secret Wars line exactly right, with black costume Spider-Man and Hobgoblin, pretty much anyone's two favorite figures from that line or close to it. Hobgoblin was a late release in the line too, so they can't just claim on G.I. Joe that they're starting at the beginning as a rule. Then they went into Wolverine and Magneto, another good pair of Secret Wars figures.
They're doing pretty much the same kind of selection on Batman Animated and Super Powers, except they're skipping Bats and Supes for some reason. But they went to the next biggest characters...Joker, Robin, Flash and Wonder Woman.
On G.I. Joe it simply seems like somebody got assigned to start the line who'd never seen it before. He's randomly picking characters from the first year and he doesn't realize that collectors don't value the straight-arm grip. Everyone or close to it would prefer to have these figures as swivel-arm. They are definitely squandering their investment with a dumb-ass release strategy. There's no way the line lasts long enough to get to all the characters that could've easily made it a success. Like Cobras which they've totally ignored...SS, CC, Destro, Bludd, Baroness, Zartan, Cobra Trooper, Viper, Firefly, CG, Eel, the Twins. It takes real ignorance to think straight-arm Zap is worth doing before those.
What I'm really wondering about is the packaging. That would have to be done right for me to consider these at all (i.e. No half-assed 25th style paintings). Of course the price is a huge factor as well... I guess they chose the straight arms in order to save money on tooling, but I have to agree that Duke, SE V2, Storm Shadow, etc. would be a lot more tempting....
I can't wait for the first reports of people snapping off those beefy thumbs of his LOL
They should have included the swivel-arm battle grip, but they didn't. Now they cannot make any of the characters any of you are asking for without it.
What's funny is that as a kid, Zap was the ONLY 1982 figure I bothered to replace because his thumbs were broken off and I hated that he couldn't hold his bazooka properly.
This is a perfect representation of what it is supposed to be.
A nostalgia piece.
it is not intended to be played with in a sandbox or build a dio with. It is like the Sideshow stuff. A collectible.
If they had swivel arms it would not be what it is supposed to be. My only gripe with Zap is that I did not have this version of his bazooka. Hopefully there will be a variant.
These are for us collectors who started in 1982 and remember these fondly.
I doubt this line is even intended to go too much past 85.
Not every line has to rehash everything from 82-94 and beyond.
My Grunt will go in a display case or hang on the wall.
I would not want it in swivel arm. I never had a swivel arm Zap.
When I bought all of the 82 wave there was no reason to buy a Zap with swivel arm.
I already had a Zap, why would I want another one?
No this figure is perfect as is. Except for the wrong bazooka...for me anyway.
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