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05-03-2024, 05:01 AM | #1 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: midwest
Posts: 3,261
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As time goes by, my opinions on the different formats/eras have changed a bit, sometimes surprising me. Here's where I am now:
*ARAH/ARAHC/Comic Pack ARAH: Bonus points for jumpstarting GI Joe in 1:18 scale. But I now find all of the rivets distracting from the sculpting. The overused shared heads in '82 should have been corrected as a running change. Odd that should still jump out at me, but it does. *Hall of Fame: Ruined by the stiff elbows and static wrists/ankles. Need them at that scale. *New Sculpt: The handful that work are among the best Joe figures. Sadly, the short torsos/monkey arms really detracted from the goodness. Nice to see old characters in new uniforms, too. Plus a slew of brand new characters, which were very much needed at the time. Still "toyetic" to borrow from joeaday.com. *1:6 early 2000's: A great improvement over the Hall of Fame figures, but the molded shirts didn't always work. *25A/Modern Era: I now like these LESS than NS. The transition from children's toy to grown man's collectible brought better sculpting and more complex articulation, but the slightly larger scale and new backpacks made them not-quite compatible with ARAH or NS. Couldn't hold their weapons ore even their poses, either. The pop-off heads were a great addition to the designs. *Microforce: Silly, but fun. *Combat Buddies (or whatever they were called): Silly, but not fun. *Classified Series: Amazing. Approaching perfect. Glad to see that Hasbro has listened to the collectors and really made an effort to zero in the designs on them. So glad I don't have space to collect them. *Super 7: These might be the most divisive of all. Generally love them or hate them. I want to love, but the lack of knees really detracts from what could have been. Where are you with these formats right now? One you like? One you detest? |
05-16-2024, 06:42 PM | #2 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2024
Location: Delaware
Posts: 115
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I can only compare ARAH line and Classified. ARAH were my favorite toys as a kid with Transformers a close second. Classified got me back into collecting any toy let alone GI Joe. Most of the Classified Joes are awesome.
I never minded the uniform look of the original 82 team. Hasbro had to start somewhere. If they all still looked unform my 86 then that might have been a problem. I doubt any of the 82 Classified will share a head sculpt. I have only seen Super 7 in the packaging. I originally thought about collecting them but the price was too much for the figure size and lack of articulation. I do like that they have some figures that our outside the norm and filled with nostalgia. |
05-16-2024, 07:22 PM | #3 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Florida
Posts: 4,143
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I'm in the minority but I still think the VvV years through DTC were some of the greatest, tons of product with new styled figures (C-shaped hands, no riveted parts) but still having o-rings in comic/multipacks.
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05-16-2024, 09:46 PM | #4 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2024
Location: Delaware
Posts: 115
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05-16-2024, 10:23 PM | #5 |
Cobra Elite Trooper
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Blackwater Prison
Posts: 1,393
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Roughly 2004-2007 for Valor vs Venom, with some of that style of figure being produced till about 2010 as part of convention and subscription service figures.
2000 and 2001 had the Real American Hero series that was fully Generation 1 Oring rereleases of original molds. 2002 introduced GI Joe Vs Cobra which was a mix of Gen 1 Oring rereleases, the new Gen 2 style Oring figures with more detail, and the horrible Tcrotch figures. 2003 was GI Joe Vs Cobra Spytroops which was almost entirely Gen 2 style Orings. The RAH Gen 1 style Orings went mostly to exclusives and DTC markets. 2004 -2005 was Valor Vs Venom which was almost all Gen 2 style Orings. Mixes of Gen 1 and 2 Orings were released as comic packs and exclusive sets this year with a couple tcrotch figures making it into the packs as well. 2006 was almost all exclusives, comic packs, and direct to consumer releases of figures designed during the 2004-5 years. Customization of these and the previous figures is fairly easy as most had back screws and leg screws like the original 80s figures. Its the last hoorah of Oring and easy Customs. 2007 was 25th anniversary and the introduction of the Gen 3 Oring less body style used until 2018 or so. Gen 3 had no back screws but maintained the leg screws and a redesigned durable metal t-bar crotch, hookless as there is no Oring to attach to. Body customization became more complicated as torsos now had to be cut or split open with force to change out arms, legs stayed almost as easy minus the addition of a little friction rubber pad that goes inside the hip being easily lost, and head swaps became more easy as almost all heads popped off their ball socket with very little force. 2020's retro is a mix of older Gen 3 mold rereleases and a new modified body that looks similar to Gen 3 body style but is an almost completely new construction style. On the new construction style bodies like Stalker all metal has been removed from the body, leg screws are gone, and the metal t-hook syle hip bar used since Generation 1 to connect legs to torsos has been replaced with a way less durable plastic piece. All the hinge pegs have also been changed to the modern hidden peg hinges a lot of companies use. Customization has become way harder as Torsos have to be split open like a Gen 3 body but now hips require boiling and popping off to remove from a figure safely, and knees are almost impossible to remove so swapping leg bits is almost impossible without damaging the parts. Last edited by sisco; 05-17-2024 at 01:37 AM.. |
05-17-2024, 03:19 PM | #6 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Iowa
Posts: 4,284
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*ARAH/ARAHC/Comic Pack ARAH:
Doesn't age well. The early 2000's stuff somehow aging the fastest/worst. I love them for nostalgia, but not made to last, but what is? *Hall of Fame: Yeah, not enough articulation. I suspect the vintage 12" fans agreed. *New Sculpt: A mess. Figures from the same era look out of place next to each other. *1:6 early 2000's: I was surprised how much they made even up to early 25th era. They don't do much for me. *Sigma Six: Not a fan of the style at all. I get reimagining a larger scale for kids, but the 2.5 inch series was pointless waste of resources when they should've just continued 3 3/4". *25A/Modern Era: Scale creep sucked. Scale purists SUCK, go back to scale modelling, please. When they were good they were good, but a lot of the figures look bad. This is where I learned that people were more into characters designs than scale. So this what paves the wave for everyone jumping to Classified. *Microforce: Lame. *Combat Buddies (or whatever they were called): Preskool military toys. Yay? *Classified Series: Some of the figures look cool, but having them in hand, I just don't care for 6 inch scale overall for anything. I get it's popular, but there's the same thing that went on with 25th/Modern "when they gonna make this vehicle in the new scale?" Whatever. *Super 7: I don't own any of the GI JOE ones. Overprice for what they are. Other few Reactions I have, the quality feels like I suspect, that they were not made to be opened and "played with". ULTIMATES, look neat, but heard too much negatives. Too pricey and again, not my scale. |
05-17-2024, 05:37 PM | #7 |
Balloon Bear
Join Date: Jul 2022
Location: Delaware Valley
Posts: 1,763
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Quote:
After catching up with everything that happened with the brand when I was doing other things, these are the only two lines I feel a little bad about missing. |
05-17-2024, 06:38 PM | #8 |
Cobra Elite Trooper
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Blackwater Prison
Posts: 1,393
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I actually wish I had picked up some of these when they hit deep clearance. They would have gone really well in a display with Shipwreck, Zartan, and the MacGuffin Device from the Sunbow episode "Once Upon a Joe". In that ep the MacGuffin device made chibi versions of the Joes that looked just like the Combat Heroes. Would have made an interesting display on the shelf if nothing else.
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