Last weekend was ToyFair 2009 in New York. It was a busy weekend and we were deluged with announcements of upcoming merchandise. Fellow Poweteer and avid Joe fan, Tigerpaw32, sent in a full write up of GI Joe news:

Yo Joe! It’s that time of year again. Time for toy companies to show off their upcoming products and for me to do a write up of the G.I. Joe offerings. This year, the G.I. Joe line’s main focus will be on toys to support the upcoming feature film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Figures will be released in 12 and 3 ¾” formats as well as a brand new format: The Sigma Six-esque Action Battlers. The cute miniature Combat Heroes line will be continuing under the movie banner. Brand new role play, Mr. Potato Head, and todder toys will also be available. Add to this a few more non-Movie 3 ¾” items coming out before the Movie as well as a ton of other movie-branded merchandise and one huge Duke figure and you have a year filled with G.I. Joe action.

Our first order of business is to wrap up the rest of the 3 ¾” releases that will be hitting before the Movie toys come out. The remaining releases prior to the movie can be divided up into two sections: The Hall of Heroes and Online Exclusive packs.

Thanks to Rich for all the good news!
Really looking forward to that Cobra 7-pack and the Night Raven.
More after the jump.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

An annual tradition in the United States is being held tonight. You see, all the big marketing geniuses make commercials for their new products, and in between those commercials there is an American football game.
Movie studios are now pulling out the big guns, and a lot of their teasers are already online.

UPDATE: Many of these ads have been pulled from youtube, but you can see them all on Hulu.com/superbowl as they air in the game, or using the viewer below!

Apologies to international readers, Hulu only works in the States. Transformersmovie.com has TF2, and Coming soon has GI JOE.

What Do Lonzo Wilkinson and Laird James McCullen XXIV have in common? They’re both trapped inside the giant plastic prison that is the GI Joe Ultimate Battle Pack. I literally chop open the box to show you whats inside.

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura spoke with IESB about what fans can expect from Transformers 2 and it sounds pretty good of course. When asked about characters, he wouldn’t say any specific names, but did says “3 times as many characters” and that a lot of fan favorites would be in there, including everything we wanted from the first one. Not confirmation of Devestator and the Constructicons, but he was too optimistic to think otherwise. He did downplay the inclusion of Cybertron, so don’t get your hopes up that the Autobots are going home this time.
He also said GIJOE is in the cutting room and they hope to have a trailer for the holidays. Less optimistic is a tipster from AICN saying specifically “action is very stylized, character development is terrible” but it had a car chase that knocked over the Eiffel Tower, so maybe it’ll turn out to be a fun popcorn flick. Just like Transformers before it, I’m setting the bar low for characters in GIJOE since I know they’ll never get to the lever the comic books or even the animated series did. But some cool effects shots are always welcome.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who will be playing Cobra Commander in the film, told MTV he will not wear the traditional blue hood or the silver mask, but something different altogether. And although he wouldn’t be doing the exact voice from the old cartoon, he’s been heartily inspired by it.
Back to Transformers, Walmart of all places is hosting weekly videos from the set, and the first 2 are up. The first has the Audi R8 and the motorcycles, the second is Shia and Megan Fox goofing around on set. Watch them here after entering the code “AllSpark62609”

The post title pretty much sums it up. I came across this video on BamKapow.com. I was pretty much mesmerized. No dialogue either. Have a watch!

DR Smoov, the greatest living mock voice actor and video artist strikes again. His previous work ofTransformer films is a great indication of the quality of his GI Joe work.

Paramount sent a photo to JoBlo of actress Rachel Nichols all dolled up as the heroic Master Sergeant Shana M. O’Hara, better known as Scarlett.

Click to Enlarge
Looks dead-on, right down to the cross bow. Not unlike Wolverine in X-Men, she gave up the yellow on her suit to a more realistic all black. Combine this with our first glance at Snake Eyes, and I’m a pretty excited fan. No telling how good the acting, action, and writing will be until we see the movie (or at least a trailer), but if Michael Bay could make Transformers, maybe Stephen Sommers can make GIJOE.

SuperHeroHype has the amazing first images of GIJOE’s masked ninja Snake Eyes in the forthcoming motion picture.

I tell ya, people bitched about Wolverine being tall and not having the yellow suit, people bitched about flames on Optimus Prime, but no one is going to bitch about this.
Ray Park is the man behind the mask, and just like his role as Toad, the Headless Horseman, and Darth Maul; expect him to do some wild shit in this costume.
GIJOE, directed by Stephen Sommers, is currently filming and will be released Summer 2009.
Here is another shot in case the one above isn’t good enough.