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10-14-2014, 01:15 PM | #1 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,586
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For the collectors out there, if and when you stop collecting (and I know that is a huge IF), is that the end of your G.I.Joe fandom? Or do you expect to continue engaging with the franchise and the community through some other means? Like continuing to discuss the toys/comics you have accumulated, or getting into customizing or fan fiction or artwork or something?
I ask because I consider myself to be a G.I.Joe fan, but I haven't collected toys since the early '90s. I loyally collect and read the comics, but my main involvement is in developing my own Joeverse through my own channel of creativity- I don't financially directly support Hasbro, and I don't find myself invested in the cool or crappy figures they release. I feel like there is such an emphasis here on collecting the toys - and I wondered if, for you toy collectors, the collecting itself is synonymous with your experience of fandom. Putting it differently, if you are a longtime SW fan, and stop collecting SW toys, but you still have the movies around that you watch periodically and you find yourself thinking about, I think most people would still consider you a SW fan. Is there an equivalent for Joe fans? G.I.Joe is generally thought of as a toy, but it is also a cartoon, comic, and now a couple of motion pictures. Would the end of a toy line be the same as the end of G.I.Joe? Because I remember for me when the original ARAH comic ended back in whenever it was, that was sort of the end of G.I.Joe for me, until they restarted the comic. I'm not asking for a right or wrong definition of a G.I.Joe fan, I am asking what being a G.I.Joe fan means to people here. |
10-14-2014, 01:24 PM | #2 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: sitting in my tin can far above the world
Posts: 3,933
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For me GI Joe has always been collecting the toys followed closely by collecting the comic. The cartoon is novel and the movies don't do anything for me. The end of the toyline and comic have happened before and it didn't end Joe for me, because the toys and comics that already existed didn't go away anywhere, in the same way I didn't like the movie at all but it didn't "ruin" anything for me, if that makes any sense.
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Feedback: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...-feedback.html |
10-14-2014, 02:32 PM | #3 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Orlando
Posts: 2,545
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Only got through the 1st paragraph. It seems unnecessarily wordy to me.
A fan to me, is anyone who enjoys the brand. It doesnt matter how much you spend, or how many con exclusives you have. |
10-14-2014, 02:40 PM | #4 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Cobra Island & Massachusetts
Posts: 6,378
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To me being a fan isnt about collecting at all. Its just about the love and appreciation for the Characters and work that was done. I personally own hundreds of figures but I dont think that makes me a bigger fan than someone who hasn't bought a figure since their childhood. I have a friend Mikey B that doesnt collect figures or comics but is just a giant fanboy as I consider my self. He rocks comic and cartoon tees on a regular and can talk to you for hours about the greatness of Joe, TF and just about every comic character in the MU yet he has no interest in buying toys or books.
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Find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CLfj0G2A...d=pgwcw5tzs78m truejoefan's B/S/T Thread TJF's ARAH B-S-T http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...rah-b-s-t.html | truejoefan's Feedback Thread |
10-14-2014, 03:26 PM | #5 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,586
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Quote:
To me being a fan isnt about collecting at all. Its just about the love and appreciation for the Characters and work that was done. I personally own hundreds of figures but I dont think that makes me a bigger fan than someone who hasn't bought a figure since their childhood. I have a friend Mikey B that doesnt collect figures or comics but is just a giant fanboy as I consider my self. He rocks comic and cartoon tees on a regular and can talk to you for hours about the greatness of Joe, TF and just about every comic character in the MU yet he has no interest in buying toys or books.
That said, I don't think most Joe fans have followed every last storyline. I never watched the cartoons for instance, and I know lots of fans now don't collect the comic. So it's a pretty fragmented world of "G.I.Joe lore", and I think that's perhaps why so many of us end up coming up with our own "Joeverse". I'm not aware that fans of other franchises create their own versions of those fictional universes in quite the same way. |
10-14-2014, 04:32 PM | #6 |
twitter viper
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: SD
Posts: 4,909
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I don't think I can put why I am a fan of GIJOE into just a few words, it would be more like a few chapters.
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Take a load off and watch some GIJOE videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYF...fZnzjMATv1_JGg That's the way the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball bounces. |
10-15-2014, 11:21 AM | #7 |
Heroic Robot Engineer
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Greenville SC
Posts: 301
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I'm a fan of GIJoe for a couple reasons. As a fan of the Transformers the gijoe vehicles were heavily advertised and I found them neat. In the late 80s a friend of mine who basicly only had bins of joe toys had the Massive USS Defiant in his closet. Quite the sight To see a bunch of small colorful figures group around the closed defiant shuttle as if it was readying up for a Space Mission.
Only a few years ago I decided to get into the 25th Anniversary Gijoe line because they started putting Vehicles into it, and to me Vehicles were the things I remembered of gijoe along with the cartoon. Which had syndicated reruns to catch and promotional dvds packed in with dollar store joes. Also Watched Sigma Six And the Spytroops Movie. I've always been a toy collector and a Animation Fan. Its just my passion is first and foremost about Robots. Which fortunately as the 25th anniversary line quickly showed me. Bats! Battle Android Troopers. I don't know if I would have dug deeper into the line without them to grapple and fight with the joes. Later on I picked up some trade paperbacks of the comics and found a uniquely more covert operations take on gijoe. Somewhere between Get Smart Spy absurdity, Johnny Quests Globe Trotting weekly bad guys, and the Dirty Dozens war torn characterization. The live action movies. Well I found rise of cobra a bit unbearable at times but it has its moments, loved the toy line and all the variety of cool scifi machines it added around the nanotech powered cobra. I like Renegades and retaliation was a alright action movie, though the line really was less inspirational to me, I guess you could define my ideal gijoe as Looking for something more metal gear solid or Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS team. collected sealed samples of everything in the pursuit of cobra line. A little collector milestone to have everything sealed like that and enough left for loose samples. And now I have two shelves of my favorite Joe and Cobras, and two bins full of figures and vehicles, and a couple boxes of boxed figures and vehicles. I'll be collecting Acid Rain and any Hasbro mainline stuff going forward. I get that my joe fan Story is a bit different than most, with many fans here having collected the line from the beginning. Even collecting the rad original lines includeing the Adventure team with Kung Fu Grip. Being a fan of GIJOE is a expression of imagination and Pure Adventure for the fun of it. It should not matter if you stopped collecting joe and came back, or no longer purchase product. Or if your a new collector that started last week. The point is these sculpts, These Characters, and These Wheels, its something good and personal to enjoy and share.
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Last edited by Grimwing; 10-16-2014 at 08:16 AM.. |
10-15-2014, 01:13 PM | #8 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Mansfield, Texas
Posts: 3,863
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To each his own. A friend of mine doesn't buy any Joe product, but he remembers the cartoons from his youth, and considers himself a fan. I don't support the comic line, or the Kreo line. I didn't support the 12 inch line, or Sigma 6. I'm all about the ARAH/ME joe figures; and even then, I'm selective. Yet, I still consider myself a Joe fan. The toy line has disappeared, from time to time, and will probably do it again; but, that doesn't stop me from being a joe fan.
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10-15-2014, 01:53 PM | #9 |
Iron Grenadier
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Las Vegas
Posts: 876
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I think it has to do with fondness for the brand or media. I have not bought an X-Men comic since the mid 90's, yet I still consider myself a fan of X-Men comics.
You could debate levels of being a fan using words like "casual" or "hardcore," but it is reductive and pointless, and it only leads to exclusion and bitterness. Edit- just to be clear, I am totally siding with the other posters that fans with a single t shirt and a lot of fond memories are just as worthy of the name "fan" as someone with a complete MOC collection, and that trying to stratify things just hurts the fan community. Last edited by Naptime; 10-15-2014 at 01:57 PM.. |
10-15-2014, 02:38 PM | #10 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Southern California
Posts: 497
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Being a GI Joe fan to me means having love for the brand. Whether it be love for the toys, comics, shows, etc., as long as you have the love, you are a fan.
I have a lot of love for the original stuff from the 80's, the comics, toys, everything. I still love the stuff now as an adult, it's not quite the same but it's still fun. One litmus test for me is being able to sit down and discuss the brand with someone. If you can geek out with someone over the brand, then you are both fans.
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My B/S/T thread, always looking for trades http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...-25th-etc.html My feedback thread http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...ml#post3052920 |
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