Most of you won’t know who this is so let me tell you about him. He debuts in G.I.JOE the Movie in a scene where the Joes’ resident hard case, Beach Head, tests out each member’s skills only to be annoyed by their personality quirks. In Big Lob’s case, he treats the obstacle course like a sporting event complete while giving his own third-person commentary of his actions. This irks the hell out of Beach Head, which makes him sound like a grouchy comics-only G.I.JOE fan who lives within the cartoon itself. He didn’t appear in later episodes of the cartoon probably because production of the show went to another company after the movie was made. He never got an action figure or appeared in the comic book. He just disappeared. No Colorforms, Shrinky Dinks, Underoos or vinyl pencil case art. Dude just disappeared.

I knew dozens of G.I.JOE fans while I was growing up and none of them had a problem with Big Lob. Most of us wondered why Hasbro never gave him his own figure. That was until I got online and saw how he seems to be one of those characters that some people like to complain about. A few will even try to tell you that nobody likes the character. Whatever, man. Look, Big Lob is a strange character and is probably crazy but who wasn’t on that cartoon? That’s what made it a fun show to watch for kids who hadn’t become morose, uptight sad sacks yet. So while he may not be a mainstay like Duke and Snake-Eyes or one of those figures like Hit ‘n Run or Repeater that hardcore Joe fans (including me) are crazy about, let there be no doubt that Big Lob has a posse. Now he has a piece of fan art to back that up.

Hitting Toys R Us pays off with with two Cobras (a.k.a. Cobra Troopers) and my 2nd Red Ninja. I feel lucky here because I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about people trying to collect the new G.I.JOE 25th Anniversary line. Most involve people not being able to find them or finding out that some chumpcakes buy them all up to sell on eBay. It feels good to be rewarded for not running to the online stores where these things are selling with an insane price mark-up.

• For my family and my friends for still betting on the most worthless horse on the track!
• For the relief from the artistic constipation I caught back in 2002. With any luck, I’ll catch some creative diarrhea in time for 2008.
• For those who fought for what was right especially when no one was looking.
• For the people that check out my sites Illmosis and ScrollBoss. No one looks at this blog, though. Seeing as how this place is filled with stupid posts like this, I’m thankful for that no one else is actually reading this.
• For these beautiful things: 25th Anniversary G.I.JOE figures and the box sets that play the theme song, Taito Legends 2 for being full of old-school gaming goodnes, Dr. Thirteen, Gumby, the new Booster Gold series, the Sinestro Corps. Crossover, the All-New Atom by Gail Simone, the Rey Mysterio: the Biggest Little Man 3 disc set, whoever was behind Steven Richards and Little Guido Nunzio getting more screen time in ECW, whoever lets Santino Marella get on the mic on RAW, female wrestlers (like Victoria, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, Jackie Moore, Ms. Brooks and ODB), everybody that worked on the Shaw Studios/Dragon Dynasty DVDs and whatever mad genius at Lego came up with the skeleton horse.

One thing that I want to say is that I’ve seen sellers charging over $50 for the 5-packs but I bought mine from Toys ‘R Us (actual, not website) for $30. In fact, I’ve heard that some people have found them for cheaper than that. Do some price hunting if you really need to net-buy ‘em. I’ve heard that the distribution on these are going to be good, so don’t get price-gouged out there.

G.I.JOE: 25th Anniversary Collection – It’s as if Hasbro saw all the cool customs being done with Takara’s Microman and Microlady figures and said, “Hey… why don’t WE do that?” So they’re going to do it to it this year with 25 insanely articulated figures. If you want to see what the mock-ups/prototypes look like, I think it’s only appropriate that you check out the pics that a guy nicknamed “General Hawk” took and posted on this page.

Lego Batman: contrary to what many people on the internet will have you believe, not every fan can shell out over $70 for a set just for the minifigs that are exclusive to it. No, I don’t have the Batcave or Arkham sets or the delicious figures that come with it. As far as paying over $10 for figures from a Bricklink store? No. Luckily, Lego’s going to kick out some smaller sets that have the Riddler, the Scarecrow and the brand new Bane figure as well as a Batman with a dark blue/light grey color scheme! Booyah! Peep the gallery page on the ASM Zine site. Waiting until August will be tough, though. At least I should have the 25th Anniversary G.I.JOEs by then, so my pockets won’t be completely empty.