Most longtime G.I. Joe fans suspected that the moment the Vamp vehicle joined the line, Hasbro would do as they did in the ’80s and make a few creative reuses. Most notably, the Cobra Night Attack Stinger adds gullwing doors and a roof and switches out the rear cannon for a multiple missile launcher.
As in the original toy, the driver is a gray repainted Cobra Officer, but as an extra bonus, Hasbro has thrown in the missile exhaust and hit effects that originally came packed with Scrap-Iron. Unlike the Vamp, it will not be exclusive to Hasbro Pulse — sales of that one must have done well enough to convince other retailers, so the Stinger goes up for preorder at fan-channel online stores and Amazon starting June 18th.
Going Slightly Mad
On that same day, at the same outlets, as revealed by a Hasbro livestream, a new deluxe Sgt. Slaughter also becomes available. Repainted to fit the Mad Marauders theme (formerly “Slaughter’s Marauders” in the vintage line), he includes new accessories like a ditty bag and boxing gloves as well as a repainted in-scale action figure, gun, whistle, hat, glasses, and staff. Go to Pulse that same day to bolster his ranks, with their exclusive Marauders-themed two-pack of Spirit Iron Knife (with a new pet eagle!) and Low-Light.
The retro-carded figures have moved from being Walmart exclusives to Pulse and fan-channel shared exclusives. On June 11th, the next wave will include Stalker (classic, brighter vintage camo), Cobra Trooper (brighter blue), and Cobra Commander. The Commander uses the sculpt designed for the HISS Haslab figure, but sports the animated series color scheme, features a vac-metallized face shield, and of course includes the corrected Cobra logo.
In the regular line, four new figures are available at fan-channel sites now: Alpine, Storm Shadow (G.I. Joe/good guy version), Iron Grenadier, and Iron Grenadier BAT. Future renders were shown of Dial-Tone and SAW Viper (removable helmet), with a mention of Footloose’s name — in case anyone forgot, he’s an infantry trooper with leaves on his helmet, frequently used as the AWE Striker driver by ’80s kids.
Get a load of all the images below, screen-capped from the livestream.
