Action Force and Valaverse

vicious said:

I'm torn. I'd like to disagree, but the Corsair feels like an important piece of the puzzle, being the army builder of the set, and he does look a little too much like a standard Valaverse. And Vane is leaning that direction, too,

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Exactly my point. Of this new subline, Fully two-thirds of the offerings don't carry the concept in any meaningful way. If Vane and the Corsair were released as part of the regular Valaverse line, no one would be like 'hey, why are these pirate guys in my army line?' As I said, there's no unifying design to anything Bobby is doing. The entirety of Valaverse is just 'throw it at the wall and see what sticks' in terms of design. Which means that when you try to create a subline with its own identity it falls flat.
The only figure that actually seems to do the legit 'modern day interpretation of Golden Age pirates' thing is the main character himself. That's pretty weak for a new subline.

None of that is to even say any of them are bad figures or bad designs. It's more about the intent of -how- they fit in to the overall narrative he's created visually.

Damien said:

Exactly my point. Of this new subline, Fully two-thirds of the offerings don't carry the concept in any meaningful way. If Vane and the Corsair were released as part of the regular Valaverse line, no one would be like 'hey, why are these pirate guys in my army line?' As I said, there's no unifying design to anything Bobby is doing. The entirety of Valaverse is just 'throw it at the wall and see what sticks' in terms of design. Which means that when you try to create a subline with its own identity it falls flat.
The only figure that actually seems to do the legit 'modern day interpretation of Golden Age pirates' thing is the main character himself. That's pretty weak for a new subline.

None of that is to even say any of them are bad figures or bad designs. It's more about the intent of -how- they fit in to the overall narrative he's created visually.

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There's four characters. Blackbeard and "The Black" are different figures. The Black seems to be an outlier being fantastical, so YMMV. I think a nudge further towards the pirate theme for Vane and Corsair would have made this whole set really cool. I think it's Corsair's green vest that's mostly throwing me for a loop. IMO he played it a little too safe with that one.

vicious said:

There's four characters. Blackbeard and "The Black" are different figures. The Black seems to be an outlier being fantastical, so YMMV. I think a nudge further towards the pirate theme for Vane and Corsair would have made this whole set really cool. I think it's Corsair's green vest that's mostly throwing me for a loop. IMO he played it a little too safe with that one.

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I wasn't counting 'The Black' given it seems less like a part of Valaverse and more like an easy way to tie-in to Zolocon with something supernatural which, as far as I am aware, has not been part of Valaverse in any way until now, and probably won't be in the future until another con comes along where 'regular military guy' doesn't quite fit in.

I can actually think of a whole lot of ways Vala could have tied these figures more firmly to a pirate aesthetic/feel. But I'm not going to list them because I already did this stupid asshole's job for him once before and didn't even get a thank you card.

vicious said:

He's also using some oversized Valaverse rifle that I'm pretending is a vehicle buster, since he doesn't have his tank to do the job rn.

I'm really enjoying this pack since it doesn't fall out/off of his back. Shame it's the only strapped pack in the set. It also has a slot for an ammo belt on the bottom.

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Cross-post from the Joe thread, just to share these Valaverse accessories on Steeler.

Currently watching the WOJM stream on Youtube (What's On Joe Mind).

Mark Weber, former brand manager for GI Joe back during the tail end of the 25th/ME/POC run was a member of the podcast for a long time. Then he abruptly left the podcast less than a year ago because he took a job with Valaverse.

Well he is back on the podcast full time again and mentioned that his last day with Valaverse was Black Friday. He mentioned he made sure to leave on good terms, and that they were going in a different direction. You know the usual corporate speak to avoid burning bridges.

Considering the main host of WOJM came up in all the stuff around the recent Valaverse legal goings-on I admit I am intrigued to know why he left, or was let go, less than a year after being hired. Of course unless someone blabs we'll never know, but Valaverse having staff come and go in less than a year is interesting optics (though who would really know unless watching WOJM like my sorry ass).

@canprime I haven't seen the latest episode. That's kind of a surprise Weber left, but also maybe not really. Bobby is likely an insufferable jerk of a boss. Did Webber feel underutilized? What was his role, it sounded like he was doing a lot of order fulfilment, like packing and shipping. I have no idea if he was actually involved in Action Force, seems like a waste, if not. I forgot where he said it, but just recently, Bobby said he's putting the house up for sale to move to North Carolina. Bobby has that whole "California bad, NYC sucks" mentality. I doubt they're going to keep the warehouse and office in RI, so Mark might not want to make the move anyways.

canprime said:

Currently watching the WOJM stream on Youtube (What's On Joe Mind).

Mark Weber, former brand manager for GI Joe back during the tail end of the 25th/ME/POC run was a member of the podcast for a long time. Then he abruptly left the podcast less than a year ago because he took a job with Valaverse.

Well he is back on the podcast full time again and mentioned that his last day with Valaverse was Black Friday. He mentioned he made sure to leave on good terms, and that they were going in a different direction. You know the usual corporate speak to avoid burning bridges.

Considering the main host of WOJM came up in all the stuff around the recent Valaverse legal goings-on I admit I am intrigued to know why he left, or was let go, less than a year after being hired. Of course unless someone blabs we'll never know, but Valaverse having staff come and go in less than a year is interesting optics (though who would really know unless watching WOJM like my sorry ass).

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Looks like according to linked in he was there for 1 year and 11 months


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mrboshek said:

@canprime I haven't seen the latest episode. That's kind of a surprise Weber left, but also maybe not really. Bobby is likely an insufferable jerk of a boss. Did Webber feel underutilized? What was his role, it sounded like he was doing a lot of order fulfilment, like packing and shipping. I have no idea if he was actually involved in Action Force, seems like a waste, if not. I forgot where he said it, but just recently, Bobby said he's putting the house up for sale to move to North Carolina. Bobby has that whole "California bad, NYC sucks" mentality. I doubt they're going to keep the warehouse and office in RI, so Mark might not want to make the move anyways.

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Well moving to North Carolina explains it.


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mrboshek said:

@canprime I haven't seen the latest episode. That's kind of a surprise Weber left, but also maybe not really. Bobby is likely an insufferable jerk of a boss. Did Webber feel underutilized? What was his role, it sounded like he was doing a lot of order fulfilment, like packing and shipping. I have no idea if he was actually involved in Action Force, seems like a waste, if not. I forgot where he said it, but just recently, Bobby said he's putting the house up for sale to move to North Carolina. Bobby has that whole "California bad, NYC sucks" mentality. I doubt they're going to keep the warehouse and office in RI, so Mark might not want to make the move anyways.

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Yeah Mark did say he was done both with the toy industry and moving. He is going back to school for education and moved his family for seemingly the last time. He joked about how his career has been going from one dying industry to another and it was time to go into something more stable (plus he had his hand in teaching over the years).

thewyldman said:

Looks like according to linked in he was there for 1 year and 11 months


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I guess he was still on the show for some time after getting the Valaverse job.

canprime said:

I guess he was still on the show for some time after getting the Valaverse job.

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canprime said:

Yeah Mark did say he was done both with the toy industry and moving. He is going back to school for education and moved his family for seemingly the last time. He joked about how his career has been going from one dying industry to another and it was time to go into something more stable (plus he had his hand in teaching over the years).

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Yeah, he was doing a bit of subbing and coaching prior to the valaverse job as well, makes alot of sense from a career standpoint.

To be fair, anyone that works for Vala probably has to be a bit of a sub.

Hi all, long time reader, first time poster.

I like Action Force figures, and I find them to be a better value for money than G.I. Joe Classifieds. I do wish the owner of the company would not go out of his way to publicly insult and condescend people (including his own customers), but G.I. Joe stans who seem to think about him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week should probably touch a little grass as well. Both lines co-exist and are still putting out new product, so everyone wins.

CasualToyCollector said:

G.I. Joe stans who seem to think about him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week should probably touch a little grass as well.

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Respectfully, that sounds like something Vala would say. I don’t see any “stans” being remotely that interested in what Vala is doing.

. . . kinda sounds like folks screaming “TDS”, and I don’t like that vibe.

This thread certainly gets an outsized amount of Vala-crit in its content, and that is largely because this board is comprised of a lot of folks who don’t put up with jerkass behavior, and we call said behavior out A LOT. I doubt we’d talk much about Vala at all if he behaved differently. So it’s a Vala problem, not a “stans who think about him constantly” thing.

I submit to you that Vala is not remotely important nor impactful enough to think about constantly. It’s more a “oh yeah, that guy, fuck that jackass” attitude that comes up when he is mentioned,
And he’s mentioned in this thread a lot.

I mean... I don't know/think that 'Joe stan that thinks about Vala all the time' is a reference to me (I'm hardly a Joe stan if anyone actually knows anything about me). But for my part I can definitely say I basically never think about Vala at all until I click on a thread like this or one of the news sites mentions a new product or line or whatever.
But when I DO think about him, thanks to this thread or seeing him pop up somewhere else, it always reminds me of what a king-size dipshit he is.

I gotta go back to that video and watch a little more, speaking of. I forgot where I was, though.