GI Joe: CLASSIFIED. A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

I've bought these things 3x now. 1st time, I was just trying them out. Had a few but not many. They were kinda neat. I was a time in my life where I wasn't doing much toy photography. What I did, either I was out of shape, lost the eye for it, didn't have the creativity then, or... I just couldn't figure out how to make them work. Which is odd because Sigma6, which had figures 2 inches taller, those were fun and easy! But these Classified, I found the quality to inconsistent and the figures hard to use. Snake Eyes, for example, has hands that I couldn't bend to put a sword or gun in. Stiff as hell. Yet, his torso piece was floppy. The rest of the joints were acceptable; leaning on the slightly loose side. 

By the 3x time I was buying these (again, but for the most part, different figures), I'm finding the hands are still a headache. And knee joints are often so stiff, they might as well be locked in place. Fans say to use hot water. But that will unlock the knees but won't keep them unlocked from what I can tell. Because I photograph outside, I can't pose them because the joints are too stiff. (It's not like I'm going to take a thermos of hot water out there)

The Classifieds, I had some odd plans for them. Then I thought harder about it and changed it all. 

For example, the VS project was going to be a diocomic using them. Changed my mind on that real quick after attempting to photograph the fight scenes for the 1st 2 stories. That doesn't mean I would stop buying them, just doing something different with them.

I did come to the conclusion that I would be mixing the scales for photography. I haven't done it yet, only thought about it. Whether I photoshop it or manipulate the perspective, basically, I don't need a Classified Cobra Commander when I have a small scale one I like (and prefer). Classified isn't a collection for me. It's a tool for my creativity. Maybe that's why I've been attracted to the more unusual characters; characters I didn't go near as a kid (nor had interest). As an adult, I got 'stuck' with some of them because they came in the theme year 2-packs. Mindbender comes to mind. I didn't purposely go to Target for Mindbender; it was more just getting a 2 pack that happened to have him in it. (I think it was Dart that came with him? JvC had Beach Head vs Mindbender?) With all that in mind, I've made a few errors in my Classified purchases. I probably should have shied away from the Alley Vipers and BATs. I guess I was kinda thinking the Joes needed someone to beat up on.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the large scale but I accept it. I really hate the varying price points found on Amazon. But these figures are rather neat. Most are well done.

Another revelation I had and I had unknowingly been trying to push this on Classified... I am so used to how Marauder Gun Runners does their MTF line. I'm used to creating my Joe characters. When it comes to Classified, I want to add holsters to the figures and equip them with pistols. Outfit them with different weapons (or better weapons). It's almost like, why doesn't a 3rd party hook us up??? Makes me kinda wish Marauders would do a 6in line. I say this because I know how they operate. Everything would be quality and there would be plenty of options. 

Anyway, back to writing the stories...

 GI Joe: VS: Story2: Beach Head vs Zandar. Thoughts

As I start to enter the hand-written story into the computer, a lot of old writing lessons filtered back into my head from decades ago. Stuff like, "write an outline", "write it all out and go back and fill in the details later", "it's just a rough/1st draft, make it fast. That's what revisions, edits, and rewrites are for," and a few other random things. When one starts to think in those terms, it really feels more like work than just a process or something fun to do. Frankly, that stinks. I think to when I was doing my diostories. I did most of it on the fly but at the same time, I spent a lot of time thinking of the scenes. I didn't go so far as to draw a storyboard or write a script. That's just too much. Don't tell me that once it's ingrained, it's just part of the process. Man, if I do something with that many steps, I better get paid for it!

When I got Classified Zandar, whom I didn't have as a kid but did get a smaller version at one point as an adult (Dreadnok 7-pack), I was totally checking him out. I knew who he was per cartoon and filecard, but I don't remember him having much of a role in the comic. The live-action movie version, he just stood around for the most part. His pink hair also got shaved (the theme of GI Joe Retaliation was about bald people, if you really think about it) and had no indication he was Zandar (cept for a casual name call by Zartan). 

Zandar, in my universe, though it was never quite written into the stories, had taken Zartan's spot. I played on the Devils Due Publishing aspect where Zartan was going crazy from all the personalities he had taken on over the decades. Zartan never played a big role in my stories (the Dreadnoks, in general, didn't) but they had some short scenarios made for 'em. Only Zarana and later, Zanya knew that Zandar had take Zartan's spot to run the 'empire'. That element never resolved storywise. When Zartan did show up, he acted more like Yoda on Dagobah. Living a solitary life; even the 'noks didn't know where he holed up. But he still had some of mental faculties, enough to deal with GI Joe. 

This was my chance to bring Zandar to life in the Zedd Universe way. I think his file card has him listed as an Assassin. I chose to make him a hunter. A predatorial-like hunter. The beginning of the first draft for Vs #2, it was going too much into him. There wasn't enough story, more of a wiki article about him. I wrote 1 page before starting over. 

I talked to a few people about the story. It's a hunting story; how do I make it so it doesn't feel like a Predator-knock off? (We're talking 1st Predator movie!) I never had a good answer. Change the details, setting, mission, etc? It's still Zandar hunting Beach Head. The Vs reasoning is already in place but not revealed until the very end why Zandar has a beef against Beach Head. The story itself is a bit like Predator. I had a friend at work walk me through some of the psychological stuff that occurs (he served but found out recently, not in a combat role). 

The random thoughts that popped up as I wrote the draft (story's not quite done; there's an end scene to wrap it up but I'll do it after the main chunk is taken care of):

-Zandar taunts Beach Head throughout the entire story. My mind referenced General Chang from Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country where he's spouting Shakespeare. That's very much how I saw Zandar.

*IMDB*

-Zandar has the same abilities as Zartan in that he can blend into the environment/cloak via nanos in his body. However, he's not a master of disguise. 

-Zandar has no formal military training. I purposely wrote it that he had alternative training that could have put him on par skillwise with Beach Head. In the end, as an assassin, his job isn't to beat someone to death. It's to kill in a quick fashion; particularly in 1 strike. Zandar doesn't quite follow that usual reasoning in this story because he wants to mess with Beach Head. There's a reason for that which is revealed at the very end of the story, in the epilogue. 

-The mission the Joes are on is very straight forward. Hardest part was what some of these people represented. If one looks at Predator and compares it to, let's say Aliens or other light-military shows and movies, just what are the specialties of Dutch's crew in Predator? Dutch, Dillion, Blaine, and Billy are pretty straight forward. Hawkins was 'the kid' which left Poncho which I'm not sure what he purpose he served. Grenade Launcher Dude doesn't tell me much. In my story, Andrea Gonzalez was the hardest to come up with a decent skill set but yet, easiest to write.

-Had a lot of fun with the analog technology. Well, sort of. 

-Supposed to have been a short story! Significantly longer and deeper than Vs #1: Storm Shadow Vs Helix!

-The VS project was supposed to be a visual story. But I ran into multiple issues when photographing. Namely, these Classified figures have stiff/locked joints. Hot water can only get me so far, at home. Outside, I'd have to carry a thermos and dip the body parts in to bend? Not gonna happen. Therefore, the fight scenes were clunky and I would have had to do a lot of creative editing. Both stories have fight scenes photographed but they feel lame.

-The visual version, I had a really hard time coming up with a story. Originally, it was Beach Head hunting Zandar; playing on BH's file card that he'll sit around for weeks on an ambush where an enemy might not even show up! My issue was, why would Zandar just be strolling around wherever he's at? I had nothing for Zandar's side. What? He's coming back from the grocery store? A whole new story was created.

This post is early in the writing process. Through the rewrites, who knows how it'll come out.

Raw image. Not quite forest-y?

 Subject Matter: Attempting to break the past

I mentioned in a previous post how I kind of wanted to break away from the licensed and history of toylines and create my own stories. I've noticed that just creating a light para-military team is a hard sell. People know GI Joe. Good luck getting people really interested in something else with other characters. Looking at Eagle Force, Valaverse, Operation: Recall, etc. Now, a friend up in Canada as well as one currently in Bangkok have asked for years, why not just do your own crew??? Now, I was writing stories based on GI Joe; particularly with the figures because I was doing diocomics. While I wasn't going to try to make money off it, I was happily doing what I wanted with the characters and to an extent, not destroying the rich and convoluted history/canon. (GI Joe has cartoons, movies, comic books, etc all feeding into it.)

Let's talk about Marauder Gun Runners. This was an independent company who started by making 1:18 scale weapons for 1:18 figures. At a certain point, they launched Marauder Task Force which were customizable military (collectible) military action figures. A lot of the early adopters were 'porting' over GI Joe characters into MTF format. I ended up doing that and at first, it wasn't received with open arms. It felt like people thought it was blasphemy. It took a few years for the toy community to chill on it.

The real point here is that I was making up MTF teams. For the most part, no relation to GI Joe or anything else. But there was references to GI Joe. Later, many GI Joe would join the Marauders Task Force (in my universe). This was a chance to do stories with all new characters! Yet, all I did was link them into the GI Joe universe. Well, sort of. The Desert Foxes were initially a GI Joe team that transferred over to Marauders. But the Desert Foxes were not a GI Joe property (even tho I used Hasbro heads for most of them). I had the Iron Fists (no relation to Warhammer 40k) which were my 1st (and they were built from the very 1st Kickstarter campaign that started this whole MTF thang!).

Skip ahead nearly 10 years, I had moved out of the diostory arena and into good old fashioned writing. One of the projects (I call them projects because if I bail on them, no big deal), I wanted to tell a story of a military crew whose name gets used in the Warhamer 40k universe. The World Eaters. The story would follow a crew who get manipulated, become more violent, and ended up hunted by the world for their actions. They started as the Marauders' Devil Dogs, later to become the War Hounds, and in their last manifestation, the World Eaters. The Demon Hunters are another Marauder group, tasked with hunting them down. They are already a hunter group; the World Eaters, in this form, are not actual demons. Kind of metaphorical. 

As I was writing the 1st story, it was definitely stand-alone in terms of lack of GI Joe or any other toyline influence. Except, the World Eaters belong to the 40k entity so I am kinda treading in copyright territory. These guys don't become 40k World Eaters, they only end up with the name. The premise is, people are forgotten, it's the titles and names that transcend the ages. I had this fun idea that when the Emperor created the War Hounds/World Eaters, he would have been sitting on his throne, thinking like he does all day and night... "I have a new chapter. They need a name. I seem to remember, in the history of the world, there was a particularly nasty military group called the World Eaters... And so shall this chapter be named. THIS I COMMAND!!!"

I don't really consider the Devil Dogs stories a 40k thing. Story 2, a couple characters from the GI Joe side come into play. But that will also be setting up for the 4 Horsemen project which will come after the World Eaters series (4 Horsemen will most likely take place at the same time, not actually after time-wise). Basically, will I ever write a pseudo-military story that stands on its own? Probably not!

 Writing Evolution?

I started writing stories, I think back in 8th grade. Probably the same with comic books, which never got far. But I think it was just me with a lot of ideas and needed a creative outlet. The artist side in me. By college, there was a catalyst that got me really working on my own story. Started writing it on paper and then later entered into a computer. Or rather computers. Cuz while it was a on lil 3.5in disk, it migrated from one computer to another. And back then, computers burned out pretty quick and the concept of saving and having back-up, wasn't quite a thing for people who simply used computers but weren't overly knowledgeable about them. That said, the story, the 1st in a series, had a full 1st draft. I think it was around 75 pages. All the times I tried to rework it, it got longer. It also got more in-depth as I had started reading Robert Jordan (I came from a Tom Clancy/Stephen King background). I think the longest it got was 250 pages and it was complete. I've lost the story so many times and had to restart it, I kind of ended up changing details. The initial story was a fantasy/sci-fi story (we'll skip the hard definitions here) started in 1993.

Throughout college, I did lil dittys here and there of different subject matter. Nothing ever panning out (ie; completing). Great at starting, never finishing.

I started doing diostories/diocomics around 2005. GI Joe-based. That's where my storywriting went.

Fast forward to now (and let's say 2024-ish), I'm rewriting the GI Joe stories. And then, I started this Demon Hunters project. It was just for fun, doing something outside the GI Joe realm. Yet, the Zedd Universe already linked Marauder Task Force and GI Joe (amongst a bunch of other toylines). I was, for the most part, thinking it was neat to break away from GI Joe and all their history and canon. Yet... it's still kinda there. 

AND then there's the VS story which  brings me back to writing GI Joe stories! What I was trying to get away from. As I write Vs #2 and Demon Hunters #3, they feel worlds apart to me. GI Joe: VS has the familiar GI Joe vibe (well, my vibe, not the GI Joe vibe). Demon Hunters usually references GI Joe and has some elements. It's just fun for me to write it all and make it all connect. (There's more to these writing projects but I'm out of time)

Will I get back to my own story? Someday. It's in my writing bag w/ 3-4 other stories.

 Distractions and STFC

Star Trek Fleet Command. Just hit their 7th year back around Thanksgiving. That's a long time to play a mobile game. Lots of hours logged in; it's not a casual game and it's definitely not a passive game. It's the biggest time killer probably in the same way World of Warcraft and Everquest are/were. Cept, STFC started as a mobile game which means, if you had any sort of connection, you could play it anywhere at any time (well, barring the game being down for maintenance and updates). It it also the ultimate distraction because, for the most part, you can jump on for awhile and end your session w/o worry about save points or not finishing something.

What's this have to do with anything. Well, I'm pretty sure my writing could be a lot further these last couple of years (when I started writing more). I find myself thinking more with what to do with the stories; parts and chapters to be created, etc. That's something I never really did, where I thought I had to meditate on what to do next or how to tell a certain scene, etc. I try to tell myself, as long as I'm able to do something semi-creative a day, that's good enough. So if it's not VS: Story2: Beach Head vs Zandar, I might be working on landscape photos or toy photos. Or I might actually draw something. That last one is a stretch because I really don't pick up a sketch pad often.

But, with the way my life is, it's hard to sit down and concentrate on something, like my writing or drawing because it's very possible to get pulled away a moment's notice. I'm sure there's some adulting getting involved here too. Makes me wonder how people work their regular 9-5 job and then have any time to do anything. It very much feels like, come home, make dinner, eat, and then we move into nightly chores. By the time I'm done, it's the night routine which means, I'm heading to bed in short order. And I swear, getting older, I'm going to sleep earlier?!? (yet, I can't sleep thru the nite; up and down...)

Back to the writing hobby. I tell myself, also, if I can even put down a few sentences, that's better than none. The thing will never get written unless I actually do something about it. I only got about a paragraph written yesterday; wanted to do more but had distractions give or take me looking up information (for this particular story).

Aaaaaaaand, gotta get ready for work...

 The 7 Orochi

The 7 Orochi project is part of the MTF: Demon Hunters project. It is an evolution of the project, this actually being Volume 3. When my mind isn't occupied with other things, it goes to this group and idea. Probably doesn't help that I have the figures on the dresser as photo'd. My struggle with the team, and I've mentioned this before, is that member #7 is a mystery to me. I'm not sure who to use. Aleph on the far right, is a, I think, a comic book character. He is a Night Creeper character; the toy even comes with a different head. Why he's #7 is because I'm not sold on him. Or rather, I'm not sold on the figure. The character, I think I'm ok with using (haven't thought real hard on it).

The 7 Orochi, like the 4 Horsemen that precede this group, each character has a purpose. The concept of Death, Famine, Pestilence, and War, I'm going a bit beyond that. When I start writing it, it'll make more sense. The 4 Horsemen has sneakily made their appearance in the 2nd Devil Dogs story. So back to the 7 Orochi... My issues with the Night Creeper are the colors and the figure itself. If you look at the characters involved, most are customs. Red 5 and Skull Buster were made from a culmination of parts from the GI Joe Classified HISS Strike Team. Mindbender's body is Dracula's from Operation: Monster Force. Lady Obitus is simply a movie Baroness that has been renamed (she's different enough from the original Baroness that she feels like someone else. Plus, the Walmart Classified Baroness is more than I'd prefer to pay these days. I wanted Baroness to be in the 4 Horsemen, but market prices changed that!) At the moment, that leaves Major Bludd as the only non-customized figure! His figure is so bad ass in the first place, there's nothing I would change. To make him special, I stole an idea from another creator and it's al about his primary weapon. (because the weapon and accessories can often make a character/figure unique)

Crystal Ball is waiting on a new body; the figure I'm after hasn't been released yet!!! Supposed to be sometime 1st quarter of 2026!!! It's for this reason, I have yet to photograph him.

Other character options for the 7 Orochi, as I've mentioned before is Firefly, Scrap Iron, and Storm Shadow. I thought today, "what about Zandar?". For me, his look is too different. Looking at the photo, there is a visual vibe which just kinda happened. Night Creeper doesn't fit. Even more random thoughts would be a BAT that has become self-aware. Not sold on that because I'd need to find a different BAT to fulfill that role.

I might just do an entirely new character in the end.

On a slightly different note, when the 4 Horsemen evolved into the 7 Orochi, the Horsemen titles might get lost. I might not even call them by the titles. Storywise, might be more of an analogy when the characters are being talked about. It's really weird to think about it; how closely related Pestilence and Famine are. Pestilence can be looked as the sickness of the mind and body. Famine can be starvation of the mind and body. That latter will start to come into play in the Devil Dogs stories.

 VS: Story2: Beach Head vs Zandar

As I was working on it today, man, I wasn't joking that the way the story goes is rather organic. I just do stuff and it goes its own way. At the moment, the Joes have found their target. At the moment, I have to think and decide just what the target really is. Not to give too much away, but the Joes are at a Cobra underground bunker/outpost. It's not meant to be some big, elaborate maze of a thing nor is it a gnarly high-tech place either. I am asking myself, is a concrete bunker or something more like a mine and its got dirt walls and floors? But another question I'm asking, just how deep do I want to go into the ZEDD UNIVERSE on this one. The original plan for VS were quick stories. I hadn't really considered using VS as a way to flesh things out. I guess I was with Story1 when I referenced the VSS. The visual version of it had a bit more explanation and details. The VSS is not my creation, it is someone else's. For me to cross over to Andre Bynoe's 'baby', I'm trying to be very respectful and not go too deep on it. It's his story to tell and his physical model to show.

Eventually, I have to get to the guts of the story. At the moment, it's very much all prequel-ish. Kinda like in Predator where you meet the posse then they go and blow up the camp. Then the story starts after, right? Yeah, same idea here. Want to see if I can get the reader (not that anyone will ever read it) to think it's just a straight forward mission/story. I also want to throw in a little Star Trek VI in there too. Might have some fun with Zandar once he shows up. 

"Can you see me? Oh, now be honest, Beach Head, warrior to warrior. You do prefer it this way, don't you, as it was meant to be? No peace in our time. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends."

Here's a raw teaser image