The 2007 convention set took a big chance by including a large contingent of Joe characters instead of being army builder focused. This seemed to be a minor hit at the time. But, shortly after release, all of the Joe characters from the main set were readily available for under their per figure cost if you had bought a complete set from the club. It remained that way for a while. But, slowly, the Joes started to dry up. And, certain characters began to climb the price charts. After the explosion that began in 2018 and had rocket fuel thrown upon it by the 2020 collectibles bubble, all the 2007 convention figures have gotten stupidly expensive.
That's made this Clutch out of reach for many collectors. That's kind of too bad as it's a great rendition of Clutch. But, this figure also has some deficiencies that would make me hesitant to spend $100 or more on him.
While it took me a while to track down some decent content on this guy, there is some cool stuff to see in the links below. You'll find some reviews written upon the figure's release as well as some photos just published this year.
2007 Clutch by gijoeamericanhero
2007 Convention set review at General's Joes Reborn
2007 Clutch by gijoeamericanhero
2007 Clutch at Action Force.dk
2007 Clutch by gen_liederkranz
2007 Clutch by gijoeamericanhero
Love the regular reviews. Thanks for keeping the flame alive! A pity Hasbro seems to have given up on the 3.75" scale. I can't understand how Lanard and other no names can put cheaply priced sets of vehicles and soldiers in Walmart, but Hasbro can't or won't put out reasonably priced O-rings to snag a new generation of collectors.
ReplyDeleteI think the demise of Toys R Us is a big reason for this. Without TRU, the other retailers have no incentive to try anything risky. They don't really have competition any more.
DeleteTRU also used to stock a full miltary aisle with all the PTE and various brands of those generic soldiers that had amazing vehicles. Amazon kept them alive for a while. But, even their selection is minimal these days. It's such a shame.
Well, Lanard's not the presence it once was. It's a recurring joke at Hiss Tank that the Lanard shill guy talks about their plans and new products, none of which seem to have materialized in 2 years. Even their US warehouse sell had its last one in 2023.
DeleteSeems like Hasbro had designs that GI JOE had to be a flag ship product. But they also made those 3 point articulated Dollar General garbage figures that were 5 inches or something.
I maintain that the Club was run by jackals, and did a lot of damage to this hobby. They were poisonous to collectors. To this day I don’t own a single convention figure and never will.
ReplyDeleteYet, to this day, there are guys who will defend the club as if they were part of it. It's pathetic.
DeleteWithout their interference, Joe would have been so much better in the 2000's. When your leadership actively HATES the scale that most of your members collect, there's no way to be successful. They were nothing short of disastrous for the brand.
It made collecting current product a richer person's past time. And that was a shame. Not everyone wants to go to a convention just to complete their collection. There was a general attitude of elitism about the club and even the con goers. The whole idea of elitism in something like toy collecting, still socially stigmatized hobby seems laughable. But I guess it's human nature.
DeleteKeanu Reeves lol
ReplyDeleteSo glad I'm not the only one who thought that :P
DeleteBack when I re-entered the o-ring collecting world coming back from my 2008-2016 modern era run the GI Joe convention exclusives really caught my eye and I wanted to get as many as I could afford. This was in 2017 so right before the Joeflation years. I had several of the 2007 convention exclusives and really liked having a version of some of the "OG-13" in my collection. I never had a childhood tie to Clutch and thought he was a decent figure but just didn't seem to fit well into my collection (I felt that way with all the "Tanks for the Memories" figures I acquired.
ReplyDeleteI give them credit for using the comic book pack heads but not the big bulky bodies of the comic book set figures. Once I saw how much they were going for I decided to get rid of all of them and use that money for ARAH era figures and vehicles. Eventually I got rid of all my comic book figures as the shrunken head proportions just kind of gave the figures a meh impression for me. The Clutch in my joeverse is the 1993 Mega Marine version.