Thank you,it actually surprised me how much it bothered me not knowing the name of the Marine Sniper. yeah, cool, but who IS she?! Where is she from? What is her rank?!
And yeah that's definitely a cool aspect with Airborne standing out. I originally thought I just wanted all Night Force (or people who could pretend to be NF, like the mad marauders), but now I'm thinking that yeah, more varied colors will make them more appealing on the shelf. I also always liked Airborne because he's Native American, but wasn't like Spirit.
@leor Hmm hard to say! With how many flight figures we've gotten lately on the Airborne buck or other flight suits, maybe Skystriker? I wouldn't be mad if they left these alone and just started making more original characters like Wreckage or even made up Tiger Force repaints. Random, but I'd dig a Tiger Force Kamakura.
My goodness - My 1/18th Joe days were behind me by the time Tiger Force became a thing... but I have adored it since it started hitting in Classified and now I desperately want as many of these vehicle repaints as I can possibly get my hands on. Tiger Fish, Tiger Shark and Tiger Sting especially. I didn't even go in for the Haslab Dragon Fly... but man if they did a Tiger Fly repaint... I don't know if I'd be strong enough to resist. And the Snow Cat was one of my most favorite Joe vehicles I had when I was young... I didn't know it could get better painted bright yellow with black stripes and teeth!
@panthercult The TF Snow Cat was one of my absolute favorites as well. I still think it's the best marriage of a vehicle to a non-standard deco. Looks amazing.
Frankly, I've skipped all the HasLabs for the very adult reasons of not having proper space to display or enjoy them and not wanting to waste money on something I can't really enjoy. But I feel like I'd buy both of the last two HasLabs in TF deco. That might be the thing that would break my resolve.
It's kinda remarkable they've already got seven out of the original ten Tiger Force dudes in Classified. I'd be amazed if Lifeline wasn't in the pipeline since that's an easy one-two punch with Tiger Force then standard colors.
I loved the Tiger Cat, too. Of course as an adult I'm like: WHERE IS THIS APPLICABLE ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE? But who cares, my favorite part of GI Joe is it's hilariously unrealistic. The further the line ranges from real military vibes the more I like it. (Whither art thou, Sci-Fi, and thy neon green jumpsuit?)
@ru1977 Same with Airborne. I appreciate that he's just Navajo without leaning in on stereotypes (as much as I love Spirit, who's probably my second-fave Joe of all time, so that's not a knock).
Looking up both characters' tribes just made me realize that somewhere in my basement I have the book that collected all the Joes' bios from like 35 years ago. I gotta see if I can find it. Hama outdid himself with those bios.
WHERE IS THIS APPLICABLE ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE?
That's sooo on the backburner behind dudes trying to out nickname each other and show of the latest in tactical fashion. Plus Joe vehicle R&D department is obviously paid in mounds of cocain.
Ah man, didn't Cracked do an article on the 20 stupidest vehicles? A lot of features like running boards for guys to stand on RIGHT in front of missile launchers, and of course LOTS of glass. I'm sure the Havoc was on that list, even though that was one vehicle I always sent to the front lines as a kid.
(Whither art thou, Sci-Fi, and thy neon green jumpsuit?)
That brings up a question for me... you made me think of the second Sci-Fi, who was all grey and black, if memory serves. And a removable helmet. But the first one didn't have a removable helmet, so I buy that as the same person. Low Light, on the other hand, seemed like an entirely different person (blonde to black hair, and bearded etc). So, if they were to do the second Low Light, will the do the same face? Will it be the same face but now bearded and fresh from his Just For Men session? Just curious.
That also brings to mind the article I saw 20-something years ago where they showed the Joe characters next to the hasbro employee the likeness came from. It was a pretty cool thing to see. I dunno, Tomart of something?
@ru1977 Same with Airborne. I appreciate that he's just Navajo without leaning in on stereotypes (as much as I love Spirit, who's probably my second-fave Joe of all time, so that's not a knock).
Looking up both characters' tribes just made me realize that somewhere in my basement I have the book that collected all the Joes' bios from like 35 years ago. I gotta see if I can find it. Hama outdid himself with those bios.
You aren't whistling dixie there. I've recently dug out some old Joe comics to relive how great they are... and they're mostly still great. The dialogue CAN be silly, but I still enjoy it. And yes, those bios were seriously one of the best things. I appreciate when toys make me wanna save the packaging, especially as a child. But I clipped every file card I bought. I imagine they went in the trash when my parents split up, heh. But I just added a thing on my collecting excel sheet for the Joes I've ordered for their ranks because I loved knowing that stuff as a kid. Rank, birthplace, even real name. (Obviously, since Hector Delgado is burned into my memory even 40 years later. Also, Hector was from Chula Vista, just a little south of where I ended up going to high school!)
So yeah, the GI Joe comics (and I feel those file cards are an offshoot of that series) has sooooo much care and attention to detail.
The cornball dialect, to me, is a hallmark of the comic medium. When I read some modern comics and they don't have just the tiniest bit of "comic booky-ness" in it, I lost interest pretty quick. Back in the early 00's, some of those writer thought they where the next Tarintino with their dialog. Aged like Mayo in the sun in August. I think thats why when IDW was doing two separate "universes" for Joe with their own continuity and then the continuation of ARAH, theirs fizzled. Who knew an evil former used car salesman turned would be world dictator would reel in an audience?
@spongyblue And it's funny how many of the twists and such I really latched onto as a kid, and probably had as much influence on my creativity as Monty Python, David Lynch, or Thomas Perry. All the stuff with Storm Shadow and Zartan, I was eating all that up like crazy. Even the stuff later on with Firefly, I was ready for that. I loved Firefly and was excited when he came back, then Hama did that reveal with him that he'd apparently been sitting on for years... that's awesome.
I guess it says something that two of my favorite comic book runs growing up were Hama on Joe and Claremont on X-Men. Sure, both had flaws, but I really love when a writer gets to cook for a long period.
@spongyblue You know how sometimes people will be like "if you could go back in time and live in any era, what would it be?" Mine is ALWAYS "I want to go back in time and watch how deep the piles of cocaine were being snorted at Hasbro, Kenner, and Mattel in the 80s." GI Joe is ridiculous but I swear, stuff Like Masters of the Universe, Inhumanoids, Wheeled Warriors, if there wasn't some top shelf blow involved...
Of course my head canon is the Cobra engineers were ALLLLLL on "they'd do a VH1 special about you after you expired" level of drugs. the Pogo Battle Ball? the Buzz Boar? The Cobra Bugg? Those engineers weren't on Planet Earth when they were designing those...
@ru1977 Funny you bring up Low Light cos my "just for men haircolor" Joe is already in classified - Outback. Did he have a really bad couple of years and go gray? is that his dad? Was he dying his hair ginger for decades? (When I put them on the shelf they're father and son - the gray-haired one taught the red-haired one everything he knows, or something.)
Okay, I'm going to go climb over many, many boxes of comics and try to find that book of bios right now...
@spongyblue You know how sometimes people will be like "if you could go back in time and live in any era, what would it be?" Mine is ALWAYS "I want to go back in time and watch how deep the piles of cocaine were being snorted at Hasbro, Kenner, and Mattel in the 80s." GI Joe is ridiculous but I swear, stuff Like Masters of the Universe, Inhumanoids, Wheeled Warriors, if there wasn't some top shelf blow involved...
Ah Christ, Wheeled Warriors?! That was seriously nuts. I had no idea what the hell I was playing with, but I definitely had more than one of those! I even had the base, which ended up being something or the other. Probably a Cobra base or something since scale didn't matter to me as much then.
Of course my head canon is the Cobra engineers were ALLLLLL on "they'd do a VH1 special about you after you expired" level of drugs. the Pogo Battle Ball? the Buzz Boar? The Cobra Bugg? Those engineers weren't on Planet Earth when they were designing those...
Oh no kidding. Or they simply knew Cobra Commander was doing enough blow to buy any crazy design they came up with, so they were going to town with their imaginations.
@ru1977 Funny you bring up Low Light cos my "just for men haircolor" Joe is already in classified - Outback. Did he have a really bad couple of years and go gray? is that his dad? Was he dying his hair ginger for decades? (When I put them on the shelf they're father and son - the gray-haired one taught the red-haired one everything he knows, or something.)
Does he look like Jeff Bridges in The Old Man now? Because... I wouldn't mess with that guy. I wonder if they watched that show before designing the figure...
Okay, I'm going to go climb over many, many boxes of comics and try to find that book of bios right now...
it's funny because that stuff is probably readily available on the internet, but with some things, half the joy is holding it in your hand and literally flipping pages.
So, as a pre-teen I actually had a head-canon as a kid about Cobra's crazy vehicles and gear.
Cobra Commander is, obviously, cruel and stupid, but in a very specific way; he cannot accept fault for anything, so anything that goes wrong is the fault of everyone else. Therefore, if you get injured in the line of duty, it is YOUR fault. A Joe shot you in the leg? How could you let those stupid Joes make THE Cobra Commander look stupid like that?!
Cobra Troopers injured in battle, therefore, were essentially dishonored and bordered on being military criminals. Failures.
Thus, all (healed up) injured Cobra Troopers could be re-assigned as vehicle drivers or dangerous specialists. This allowed Cobra's engineers to design wacky, ridiculous, psychotic things for them. Which served two purposes. If you died working with these nonsense inventions, the Cobra Engineers could basically present themselves as your executioner and CC was perfectly fine with that because they rid him of bumbling idiots that got themselves injured in battle AND couldn't even use this great new technology properly.
If you survived using the new tech, the Engineers got praised for creating some great new thing to give Cobra an edge in battle, and you were 'redeemed' as a valued member of the group.
So there was no real downside to being a Cobra Engineer because no failure was YOUR failure. And there was little downside from the trooper perspective because your prospects after being injured were probably mostly death or dismemberment -anyway-.
Was I a weird kid? I don't think so. I spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the story bits on the Joe trading cards, and this kind of violent silliness feels pretty in line with stuff like burying dudes alive under a volcano.
OMG guys, I didn't just find the book of bios - I found a good FIFTY issues. They are in... loved condition, not worth anything I bet, but still readable and still glorious. I've got the silent issue, the fight between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow on the New York subway, the issue where Snake Eyes' face is revealed, Destro's heel turn in a gold mask , the first appearance of *GASP* Ninja Force, and the two issues we were talking about up thread where they did Doc dirty and then killed like 12 guys off screen. I know I can read them all online in PDF but there's something about a physical comic...
(I also found I still have the issue of City of Heroes I had a story published in and the issue of 21 Down a review I wrote was quoted in, so... man that was a weird delve in the basement. Let me know if you have any requests for the bios of the Joes or Cobra, I'll snap a pic!)
@docsilence Oh wow, sounds like such a successful treasure hunt!
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