Was Sigma 6 a short-term fix gimmick or did it serve a greater purprose

[Elite Force Cobra]

I think is was as good of line as any other joe line, great collecting fun

[GrimlockAutobot]

The purpose it served was to be THE MOST AWESOME Joe line EVER.

I like the 3 3/4 but, if you compare the 3 3/4 inch version of any given character to it's S6 counterpart it's no contest.

The only thing the 3 3/4 inch line has going for it is nostalgia. I have collected 25th Joes and I honestly look at them and say to myself: "I played with THIS as a kid? How lame!!"

Imagine the things we could've done with S6 as kids!!

[Lt. Faceless]

I had alot of fun with the line.I think the line started selling better after it lost the Sigma 6 tag.Hasbro had alot of great figs. coming......Just when the line was starting to come into its own,it was gone.

[RockinHard]

I saw the line and the cartoon and could only wish and hope that the original figures and line would make a comeback, but I thought it would never happen. Thank goodness it did, and now I collect the 25th figures--the first figures I've collected since I was a kid.

[Shin-Gouki]

For me personally it turned me off of Joes. I hated the hard angles of the figures that made them look like a first generation Playstation 1 3-D Fighting game character. Combine that with the larger scale and I was done. I was impressed by some of the later 2.5 scale Vehicles but the 2.5 figures sucked beyond belief.

All in all my biggest love for the Joe line has been the blend of Great Characters and Great Vehicles. The Larger Sigma line Lacked the Vehicles and personally I hated the design ascetic, and the smaller line had great Vehicles but the figures just sucked.

[Dr. Henry E. Miller]

Gotta agree with Shin here, Sigma Six sucked, the figures sucked, no vehicles and the large size makes it a very impersonal toyline that lacks what made Joe great in the first place.

And the overall nerdgasam for what was basically GI Joe Extreme all over again was frustrating.

[Lifeline 71]

I thought Sigma Six was an interesting concept in many ways. It kept to the small core of "popular" characters that was definitely en vogue at the time. The figures had a tremendous amount of articulation and some really neat accesories. I even liked how they came up with some different uniforms for Snake Eyes (Arctic, jungle, etc) that were plausible and yet retained his look. However, I was put off by the decidely non-military looks of some figures, such as Duke. What I saw of the cartoon's first season looked dumb. I didn't see much of seaon 2, but it seemed as if they were trying to make it more sophisticated. And the price was a major turn off as well. I did pick up 3 figures-Snake Eyes v1, Spirit v1, and Inferno.In a way, it seemed like an expeiment-partly to try out some new articulation and accessory concepts, and to sort of say "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it" to disgruntled fans.

[KrymsynGardImmoral]

Sigma Six was a fantastic line, with some of the best designs for tored old characters ever offered in any Joe line. I do think it was a last ditch effort to keep hope alive that GI joe is a KID'S TOY, before just giving in and giving collectors what they wanted with the 25th line. I have yet to see a kid buy a single 25th anniversay figure. they're normally getting stomped by collectors before they can reach them.

[green firefly]

I love the 8 inch Joes. I liked the cartoon. I was hoping it would be the next big GI Joe thing. I too will always be disappointed that we didn't see the female characters. I've read 25 reasons why they didn't make the girls, but I truly believe it was a mistake not to make them. They would have been every collector's favorites.

I doubt we will see them again because of the success of the 25th Joes. It has got to cost a fraction of the price to make a 25th figure. The difference in cost of production and quality between Sigma 6 and the 25th is huge. The Sigma 6 soldier figures cost $8 something at Walmart and the 25th scale figures now costs about $6.

Would I ever love to see 8 inch scale movie toys, but it just ain't gonna happen. It would be a bad business decision.

[Steevy Maximus]

Originally Posted by KrymsynGardImmoral

Sigma Six was a fantastic line, with some of the best designs for tored old characters ever offered in any Joe line. I do think it was a last ditch effort to keep hope alive that GI joe is a KID'S TOY, before just giving in and giving collectors what they wanted with the 25th line. I have yet to see a kid buy a single 25th anniversay figure. they're normally getting stomped by collectors before they can reach them.

I agree, and I still feel that the early year of Sigma Six saw more originality and pure passion for toy design than just about any of the 25th onward figures have shown.

Sigma Six was the last big attempt to reinvent the line for a modern kids audience. Sadly, I think two things happened to hurt it:
1. the 2.5 line was bungled from the start. From the beginning, the entire subline lacked focus: was it about the vehicles (ala, the MASK or Dino-Riders kind of line) or was it about the little figurines (like the Star Wars Unleashed line)? There were mini-statues, gimmick figures, and a few actual figures all mixed supposedly compatible with some very nicely designed vehicles. There was no focus and it sold weakly enough that I think the flop of 2.5 did a LOT to hurt the brand name of Sigma Six.

2. It was several years too late. By the time Sigma Six was launched, not only had the anime craze long passed, but the market in general was already moving back to smaller toys.

Sigma Six could have completely revitalized and jumpstarted the brand just as Armada had done with Transformers....had it come out in 2002.