Of Cons and Tigers
Has it been a month already? Err, nope, just having more to review than in the past.
Only one thing on tap for tonight, though. Straight from the 2004 Official G.I. Joe Convention in Orlando, we have one of the convention exclusive vehicles: The G.I. Joe Tiger-Ray Hydrofoil.
The Tiger-Ray is perhaps better known to fans of the 3 3/4" line as the Cobra Moray. Released in 1985 originally, the Cobra Moray Hydrofoil was red with a light grey hull. It was one of the vehicles that I always wanted and leading up to the convention, I had hoped to score one in good condition.
However; when the convention started, the exclusive vehicles were announced and the repainted Moray was one of them, albeit in Joe Tiger Force colors. As with the previous convention exclusives, I figured it would be long gone by the time I got there Saturday morning, but after waiting for one of the club staff to get free from other customers, I found out that they still had some left.
So, wasting no time(as in, buying it before even entering the exhibit hall where the bulk of the con was held), I picked one up. Coming in at $65, it’s far more expensive than it would be if it had been a store release, but considering the fact that there is no guarantee that this will hit the stores in whatever form and also the fact that even used Morays are expensive, it was a price I’d pay.
Now for the review: First off, the Tiger-Ray is a big boat, coming in around 20 inches in length, around 10 inches wide, around 6 inches tall and with the foils extended down about 7 inches tall. The Tiger-Ray’s body is orange and it’s hull is black. It has plenty of room for figures, with spots for at least 9 of them. Two can sit forward of the cockpit, inside small compartments with black hatches over them. Two can fit in the driver’s compartment with a third sitting in the top mounted turret. Four more figures can stand around the engine box and man the aft machine guns.
The weaponry: The Tiger-Ray(as with the original Moray) features a veritable arsenal. Up front, under a pop-up hatch, ride 4 missiles. The hatch is activated by pushing down on a button disguised as a periscope looking device mounted in front of the starboard side cockpit window. The launcher in it’s open position. Also visible are the two main guns mounted port and starboard on the “winglets” next to the cockpit. Further back, nestled in-between the cockpit windows on the central spine of the roof, lies a small black gun. This is seen here where the top turret’s twin guns are visible and the side mounted missiles are located. In the aft open bay of the craft, sit four machine guns. Also visible in the picture are the two depth charge launchers(with the 1 and 2 stickers on them). They hold 2 depth charges each and are “deployed” by picked each rack up and the charges roll out.
Other details: The engine features a removable cowling to show it’s detail, as seen here(The depth charge rack is also shown in it’s open position). In addition to the removable cowling, along the deck on either side of the engine are two small equipment bays, hidden under a black grating(which has the foot pegs for the figures using the rear guns). This bay is also shown in the engine picture. By using a tab on the aft of the craft, you can deploy the foils, which enable the Tiger-Ray to ride above the water, thus allowing it to reach greater speeds. This shot shows the front foil.
This pretty much is typical of all the classic Joe vehicles of the “old days”. Not to say the newer stuff is bad, far from it, but a lot of the older toys had certain charms about them. The Tiger-Ray(Moray) had these. As a convention exclusive basically made at special request by the Collector’s Club, there aren’t many of these out there in this color scheme and the price is, as mentioned, high. But factoring in you won’t see this particular scheme on the Moray mold again, and finding and paying for a mint in box Moray, the Tiger-Ray is worth the price. That said, I really do hope Hasbro releases the Moray under it’s original name and affiliation in the near future and if they can’t or don’t want to use the old red/grey color, I’d love to see it in Cobra Trooper blue. As big as the Moray mold is and as much as it’s desired, it makes sense for Hasbro to re-release it as they have other classic Real American Hero vehicles and figures.
As for the convention itself: It was better than expected all around. We left just after 9am, since we were going into the Disney World complex and traffic usually backs up on I-4 as you get close to the exits to Disney. Aside from a little slow down, there wasn’t any traffic. Nor was there traffic getting into the gates to go to the Contemporary Resort parking.
They were using a side lot about a mile or so from the actual hotel, but it was free and they provided a free shuttle bus to the doors to the con. We got there shortly before the arrival of one of the buses, so the wait was non-existent.
The Con was held in a side part to the Contemporary Hotel and I was very impressed with how nice the convention area was(but then again, this is Disney and the Contemporary is like their major hotel, so you’d figure they’d want only the best). Getting into the Convention was easy, only having to stand on a very short line as they took people individually to get tickets. This sounds time consuming, but there weren’t many people waiting on line and it only took a moment to pay and get your ticket and door prize entry form. The General Admission price was very low, only $9 for adults(though, if you wanted early admission on Saturday, it was $50 and you only got one hour before General Admission could go in). As a side note, from seeing pictures from Friday, which was for those who got the club package, it didn’t even look like the same hallway, since it was completely packed with convention goers.
As I said above, I didn’t even wait to go inside the convention hall, opting to go to Master Collector’s Collector Club’s table they had set up out in front of the entry doors. This was where they had all the convention exclusive merchandise, including the “Dreadnok Rampage” figure set, which I wanted, but wasn’t going to pay the $250 for it(mostly because I’m not a huge Dreadnok fan, but while nice, they just were too expensive for my tastes).
So, once I had the Tiger-Ray and had joined the Collector’s Club which gives me discounts on exclusive club merchandise in the future, we went into the dealer/exhibit hall. Having experienced Mega-Con the past few years, the room used here was not as big as Mega-Con’s in the Orange County Convention Center, but it was still filled with dealers.
There were a lot of people there, but, thankfully, it was not overwhelming as there was just enough room for everybody to comfortably walk without knocking over other convention goers. The Collector’s Club table “continued” on the other side of the door(they made use of one of the hall’s doors to ferry product to the outside booth) where the door prize was being run. Continuing past their tables, you could see the #01 U.S. Army Chevy driven by Florida’s own Joe Nemechek in the NASCAR Nextel Cup. It was there because it was a special G.I. Joe paint scheme, Joe will be running this season.
Next to this was the diorama display area, with several tables of people’s work. I must say, these were outstanding. Both 3 3/4" and 12" scales were used, with a few intermediate scales for a couple of dioramas. Also, it wasn’t just limited to A Real American Hero. Instead it featured mostly WWII and modern real depicitions of soldiers in action or in some cases, soldiers/sailors off duty(like a ‘tiki’ bar one, or them all sitting in a mass of jeeps watching “movies”(which were actually filmed using the 12" figures)). One of the more impressive dioramas was a scene lifted from the movie “The Longest Day” where the paratroopers land near(and on) a church and are attacked by the German’s on the ground. This display was massive, with the church dominating it. Another dio reproduced a scene from “Where Eagles Dare” and had a scratch build ski lift car and 12" Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton figures sabotaging the top of it.
Next to the diorama displays began the dealer tables. They had a large assortment of wares, ranging from 12" classic Joes from the 60's and 70's, to the more modern G.I. Joe 3 3/4" lines(Including some product that hasn’t even officially hit the stores yet, or at least, not in this area). It wasn’t just limited to G.I. Joe product either, as people sold other products as well, like bbi, Dragon, Hot Toys, et al.
Taking up the front of the hall was Hasbro’s display, which feature a huge diorama of a Cobra factory being raided by the Joes. This feature much of the upcoming product “in action”. Against the wall was more of the upcoming product, some of which won’t be out(and reviewed here) until Spring of next year. There is a lot of cool stuff coming out and I certainly can’t wait to get all of it. Hasbro reps were there to answer questions on a variety of Joe related topics and one of the ones I was listening to was the namesake for Barrel Roll, one of the newer Joes(and he even looked similiar, so he probably was the character model as well). He talked about the new shoulder design they have coming for next year and even asked if we’d like to see certain changes made, such as making a small plug to cover up the leg screw.
After making the rounds a few times, I began my search for more to buy. I had a list of things I was looking for and had(more or less) gotten the Moray, so I would thus be looking for primarily either the Joe Killer WHALE or the Cobra Night Raven. Both of these, along with the Moray and others, were some of the vehicles I never had and had dreamed about getting since I first saw them. I did find some dealers that had them loose, and probably would have wound up getting one of them, had I not found an online store that I have dealt with was at the con.
So, I was looking through their 1/6th military gear when I noticed they had one of the new Hot Toys 75th Rangers in stock. So, despite the fact that it would clean me out of cash I was saving for one of the aforementioned vehicles, I purchased the figure.
Moving on to the Devil’s Due booth(producers of the current G.I. Joe comic), I picked up three con exclusive comics(regular series #31, artist Tim Seeley’s sketchbook, and Master & Apprentice #1). In attendance was artist Tim Seeley himself along with current writer Brandon Jerwa and Devil’s Due founder and original DD writer, Josh Blaylock. So, I got them to autograph the books I had just bought, which was cool.
After this, it was time to go see the “game show”, the G.I. Joe trivia game called “G.I. Don’t Know”. This was held in one of the smaller rooms next to the dealer room. The basic premise is: Three contestants sit on a panel in the front of the room and are asked questions about the 3 3/4" and 12" lines. If a contestant got a wrong answer, the next in line got the same one for 20 points and if they got it wrong, it would be given to the next in line for 30. It would then be answered by the audience or the host if the third person got it wrong. If a contestant got 3 wrong answers, they were replaced on stage by another audience member. Some of the questions were easy, some hard, which was to be expected. But regardless, it was certainly fun to watch. The game took about 40 minutes to play, and there were lots of contestants(quite a few who go to the con each year, regardless on where it’s held).
Once this ended, as it was after 2, and we had been there since just after 10, we decided to head out, since I had already spent quite a bit of money. I would like to have stayed, but in reality, there wasn’t much more to do, since the seminar I wanted to see was still a ways away. Perhaps we could have waited, but the experience wasn’t really wasted anyway, as it was a fun time.
Getting out was just as easy as getting in as a shuttle bus was just loading as we reached it, so again, no wait. Traffic out of the complex was non-existent and since it was still early, we went over to the Florida Mall since it had been a bit since we were there last. After that, it was time to head back home, since the clouds were starting to build, though the rain never really hit while we were there. Heading west on I-4 we didn’t hit any of the usual park exit traffic, though eastbound was pretty heavy.
So, thus ended the first Joe con I had gone to(though, hopefully not the last). I will certainly wish to attend next year, provided it’s not too far away, like somewhere on the West Coast. But regardless, unless it’s somewhere within driving range, this will likely be my last for a few years.
Only one thing on tap for tonight, though. Straight from the 2004 Official G.I. Joe Convention in Orlando, we have one of the convention exclusive vehicles: The G.I. Joe Tiger-Ray Hydrofoil.
The Tiger-Ray is perhaps better known to fans of the 3 3/4" line as the Cobra Moray. Released in 1985 originally, the Cobra Moray Hydrofoil was red with a light grey hull. It was one of the vehicles that I always wanted and leading up to the convention, I had hoped to score one in good condition.
However; when the convention started, the exclusive vehicles were announced and the repainted Moray was one of them, albeit in Joe Tiger Force colors. As with the previous convention exclusives, I figured it would be long gone by the time I got there Saturday morning, but after waiting for one of the club staff to get free from other customers, I found out that they still had some left.
So, wasting no time(as in, buying it before even entering the exhibit hall where the bulk of the con was held), I picked one up. Coming in at $65, it’s far more expensive than it would be if it had been a store release, but considering the fact that there is no guarantee that this will hit the stores in whatever form and also the fact that even used Morays are expensive, it was a price I’d pay.
Now for the review: First off, the Tiger-Ray is a big boat, coming in around 20 inches in length, around 10 inches wide, around 6 inches tall and with the foils extended down about 7 inches tall. The Tiger-Ray’s body is orange and it’s hull is black. It has plenty of room for figures, with spots for at least 9 of them. Two can sit forward of the cockpit, inside small compartments with black hatches over them. Two can fit in the driver’s compartment with a third sitting in the top mounted turret. Four more figures can stand around the engine box and man the aft machine guns.
The weaponry: The Tiger-Ray(as with the original Moray) features a veritable arsenal. Up front, under a pop-up hatch, ride 4 missiles. The hatch is activated by pushing down on a button disguised as a periscope looking device mounted in front of the starboard side cockpit window. The launcher in it’s open position. Also visible are the two main guns mounted port and starboard on the “winglets” next to the cockpit. Further back, nestled in-between the cockpit windows on the central spine of the roof, lies a small black gun. This is seen here where the top turret’s twin guns are visible and the side mounted missiles are located. In the aft open bay of the craft, sit four machine guns. Also visible in the picture are the two depth charge launchers(with the 1 and 2 stickers on them). They hold 2 depth charges each and are “deployed” by picked each rack up and the charges roll out.
Other details: The engine features a removable cowling to show it’s detail, as seen here(The depth charge rack is also shown in it’s open position). In addition to the removable cowling, along the deck on either side of the engine are two small equipment bays, hidden under a black grating(which has the foot pegs for the figures using the rear guns). This bay is also shown in the engine picture. By using a tab on the aft of the craft, you can deploy the foils, which enable the Tiger-Ray to ride above the water, thus allowing it to reach greater speeds. This shot shows the front foil.
This pretty much is typical of all the classic Joe vehicles of the “old days”. Not to say the newer stuff is bad, far from it, but a lot of the older toys had certain charms about them. The Tiger-Ray(Moray) had these. As a convention exclusive basically made at special request by the Collector’s Club, there aren’t many of these out there in this color scheme and the price is, as mentioned, high. But factoring in you won’t see this particular scheme on the Moray mold again, and finding and paying for a mint in box Moray, the Tiger-Ray is worth the price. That said, I really do hope Hasbro releases the Moray under it’s original name and affiliation in the near future and if they can’t or don’t want to use the old red/grey color, I’d love to see it in Cobra Trooper blue. As big as the Moray mold is and as much as it’s desired, it makes sense for Hasbro to re-release it as they have other classic Real American Hero vehicles and figures.
As for the convention itself: It was better than expected all around. We left just after 9am, since we were going into the Disney World complex and traffic usually backs up on I-4 as you get close to the exits to Disney. Aside from a little slow down, there wasn’t any traffic. Nor was there traffic getting into the gates to go to the Contemporary Resort parking.
They were using a side lot about a mile or so from the actual hotel, but it was free and they provided a free shuttle bus to the doors to the con. We got there shortly before the arrival of one of the buses, so the wait was non-existent.
The Con was held in a side part to the Contemporary Hotel and I was very impressed with how nice the convention area was(but then again, this is Disney and the Contemporary is like their major hotel, so you’d figure they’d want only the best). Getting into the Convention was easy, only having to stand on a very short line as they took people individually to get tickets. This sounds time consuming, but there weren’t many people waiting on line and it only took a moment to pay and get your ticket and door prize entry form. The General Admission price was very low, only $9 for adults(though, if you wanted early admission on Saturday, it was $50 and you only got one hour before General Admission could go in). As a side note, from seeing pictures from Friday, which was for those who got the club package, it didn’t even look like the same hallway, since it was completely packed with convention goers.
As I said above, I didn’t even wait to go inside the convention hall, opting to go to Master Collector’s Collector Club’s table they had set up out in front of the entry doors. This was where they had all the convention exclusive merchandise, including the “Dreadnok Rampage” figure set, which I wanted, but wasn’t going to pay the $250 for it(mostly because I’m not a huge Dreadnok fan, but while nice, they just were too expensive for my tastes).
So, once I had the Tiger-Ray and had joined the Collector’s Club which gives me discounts on exclusive club merchandise in the future, we went into the dealer/exhibit hall. Having experienced Mega-Con the past few years, the room used here was not as big as Mega-Con’s in the Orange County Convention Center, but it was still filled with dealers.
There were a lot of people there, but, thankfully, it was not overwhelming as there was just enough room for everybody to comfortably walk without knocking over other convention goers. The Collector’s Club table “continued” on the other side of the door(they made use of one of the hall’s doors to ferry product to the outside booth) where the door prize was being run. Continuing past their tables, you could see the #01 U.S. Army Chevy driven by Florida’s own Joe Nemechek in the NASCAR Nextel Cup. It was there because it was a special G.I. Joe paint scheme, Joe will be running this season.
Next to this was the diorama display area, with several tables of people’s work. I must say, these were outstanding. Both 3 3/4" and 12" scales were used, with a few intermediate scales for a couple of dioramas. Also, it wasn’t just limited to A Real American Hero. Instead it featured mostly WWII and modern real depicitions of soldiers in action or in some cases, soldiers/sailors off duty(like a ‘tiki’ bar one, or them all sitting in a mass of jeeps watching “movies”(which were actually filmed using the 12" figures)). One of the more impressive dioramas was a scene lifted from the movie “The Longest Day” where the paratroopers land near(and on) a church and are attacked by the German’s on the ground. This display was massive, with the church dominating it. Another dio reproduced a scene from “Where Eagles Dare” and had a scratch build ski lift car and 12" Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton figures sabotaging the top of it.
Next to the diorama displays began the dealer tables. They had a large assortment of wares, ranging from 12" classic Joes from the 60's and 70's, to the more modern G.I. Joe 3 3/4" lines(Including some product that hasn’t even officially hit the stores yet, or at least, not in this area). It wasn’t just limited to G.I. Joe product either, as people sold other products as well, like bbi, Dragon, Hot Toys, et al.
Taking up the front of the hall was Hasbro’s display, which feature a huge diorama of a Cobra factory being raided by the Joes. This feature much of the upcoming product “in action”. Against the wall was more of the upcoming product, some of which won’t be out(and reviewed here) until Spring of next year. There is a lot of cool stuff coming out and I certainly can’t wait to get all of it. Hasbro reps were there to answer questions on a variety of Joe related topics and one of the ones I was listening to was the namesake for Barrel Roll, one of the newer Joes(and he even looked similiar, so he probably was the character model as well). He talked about the new shoulder design they have coming for next year and even asked if we’d like to see certain changes made, such as making a small plug to cover up the leg screw.
After making the rounds a few times, I began my search for more to buy. I had a list of things I was looking for and had(more or less) gotten the Moray, so I would thus be looking for primarily either the Joe Killer WHALE or the Cobra Night Raven. Both of these, along with the Moray and others, were some of the vehicles I never had and had dreamed about getting since I first saw them. I did find some dealers that had them loose, and probably would have wound up getting one of them, had I not found an online store that I have dealt with was at the con.
So, I was looking through their 1/6th military gear when I noticed they had one of the new Hot Toys 75th Rangers in stock. So, despite the fact that it would clean me out of cash I was saving for one of the aforementioned vehicles, I purchased the figure.
Moving on to the Devil’s Due booth(producers of the current G.I. Joe comic), I picked up three con exclusive comics(regular series #31, artist Tim Seeley’s sketchbook, and Master & Apprentice #1). In attendance was artist Tim Seeley himself along with current writer Brandon Jerwa and Devil’s Due founder and original DD writer, Josh Blaylock. So, I got them to autograph the books I had just bought, which was cool.
After this, it was time to go see the “game show”, the G.I. Joe trivia game called “G.I. Don’t Know”. This was held in one of the smaller rooms next to the dealer room. The basic premise is: Three contestants sit on a panel in the front of the room and are asked questions about the 3 3/4" and 12" lines. If a contestant got a wrong answer, the next in line got the same one for 20 points and if they got it wrong, it would be given to the next in line for 30. It would then be answered by the audience or the host if the third person got it wrong. If a contestant got 3 wrong answers, they were replaced on stage by another audience member. Some of the questions were easy, some hard, which was to be expected. But regardless, it was certainly fun to watch. The game took about 40 minutes to play, and there were lots of contestants(quite a few who go to the con each year, regardless on where it’s held).
Once this ended, as it was after 2, and we had been there since just after 10, we decided to head out, since I had already spent quite a bit of money. I would like to have stayed, but in reality, there wasn’t much more to do, since the seminar I wanted to see was still a ways away. Perhaps we could have waited, but the experience wasn’t really wasted anyway, as it was a fun time.
Getting out was just as easy as getting in as a shuttle bus was just loading as we reached it, so again, no wait. Traffic out of the complex was non-existent and since it was still early, we went over to the Florida Mall since it had been a bit since we were there last. After that, it was time to head back home, since the clouds were starting to build, though the rain never really hit while we were there. Heading west on I-4 we didn’t hit any of the usual park exit traffic, though eastbound was pretty heavy.
So, thus ended the first Joe con I had gone to(though, hopefully not the last). I will certainly wish to attend next year, provided it’s not too far away, like somewhere on the West Coast. But regardless, unless it’s somewhere within driving range, this will likely be my last for a few years.