Shockblast looks exactly like Shockwave. And putting his name in google search or wikipedia tells me that there's a license issue with the name "shockwave". Looks like they had to change his name. I remember the figure, but only the stupid "Drug Enforcement Whatever" team they did that had some neat SWAT team style Joes.

I love that they're making Shockwaveblast, Tunnel Rat and Storm Budo, but are these Resolute comics they're based on actually set in the Resolute universe? Will Shockwaveblast or Tunnel Rat actually appear in the cartoon? Somehow I doubt it.

And I'm not sure why they think an unrecognizable Storm Shadow would sell better than a new figure of a more or less classic character. Maybe they really had to make the second figure a bad guy? Or they didn't want to come up with a new, copyrightable name for Budo? How about Budoblast?

Kinda digging the shockwave/blast figure. He was always one of my favorites, since he was one of the first figures I can think of that came with a giant friggin' Rambo knife.

@Zach: Since you're the toy guru, do you know why they aren't announcing the most-popular figures that are already confirmed to appear in the cartoon and that we've already seen a clip of? Like Duke, Roadblock, and Snake Eyes? Or did I just miss them?

Also--they couldn't think of something better to go with "Shock" than "Blast"? Why not "Aftershock" or "Shocktober" or "Shockittome"? What a waste. They also retained the nonsensical 'Yellow 90's Design Widget' thing on his uniform. Sigh.

I think Destro looks like a Hiss Tank driver, which never looked good in the first place, and Tunnel Rat doesn't look to be updated in any significant way whatsoever.

When the hell are we going to get a 25th Anniversary Low Light? Who do I write to?

Sweet Baby Jeebus. I just watched the bootleg animation/clip on youtube for this. I...I...something just ruptured in my body, it was that awesome. Don't know what it was, but there was definite rupturage. Much higher hopes for this not raping my childhood than a certain live action movie.

why does storm shadow have what looks to be some sort of viking axe...good god, how can you mess up a ninja.

Gah, they got the rights back to use Shockwave as the name of the Transformers character, why are they sticking with the asinine Shockblast placeholder for this guy?

Just saw the clip too (thanks to Skeletor for the tip).

Duke trapped in a bunker with a bunch of Cobra Soldiers outside shooting up the place. Cool.

Snake Eyes showing up and systematically slaughtering Cobra Soldiers like Rambo. Priceless

Isn't Shockblast a decepticon?

They are obviously running out of names.

I'd bet using the name Shockblast is actually a little joke tribute.

It's probably not a tribute. Shockblast was the name they used for Transformers when they couldn't use Shockwave; this Joe used to be called Shockwave, as well, so they used the same name here, because, well, why not. I didn't know they had gotten the Shockwave name back for Transformers, but I really don't know how any of this name copyrighting stuff works.

I've always assumed it had to do with whether a name was copyrightable in the first place, like Jazz or Scarlett, which were fine in the 1980s, but apparently now they want to copyright them, so they have to make them Autobot Jazz and Agent Scarlett. Shockwave was a word before it was a G.I. Joe or a Transformer, so the switch to Shockblast made sense. I really don't know.