Are you kidding? Pursuit of Cobra was the best damn thing out of the modern era IMO, sure the 25th and 50th anniversaries are nothing to sneeze at, and the 30th was boss, but Pursuit of Cobra was a brilliant execution and Hasbro should have tried harder to keep the damn line at retail. Those figures were boss, the vehicles were superb and the idea of sub-teams of Joes all being used for their actual environmental specialities while combating Cobra was an excellent idea. About the only thing that might not have been great was the giant mechs, a little too much Metal Gear in that respects, but still some great figures and vehicles all around.
I do like that one too. Had a decent modern take on a classic design. A lot of the movie toys did, like the Vamp II (never did pick up that one). Edit: Realized that you were talking about the character Hawk and not the movieverse vehicle, Ghost Hawk. Looking at the Hiya Toys Aliens line, I realize that they were going more for the video game than the movie but still a shame that they only made Hicks and Hudson from the original Aliens movie. I don't care for all these other nobody characters that they made figures for (one even looks like she has hair buns like Chun-Li?). I imagine that getting the licenses for actor likeness as NECA did probably was out of reach for Hiya since the 1:18 Hicks and Hudson figures don't even look like their respective actors.
NECA made it a huge deal when they got their likeness rights so I think you're right, probably beyond Hiya's reach. In the meantime there are close approximations to 80's movies in POC, some intentional: Dessert assault Duke: Aliens Shadow Tracker: Predator Jungle Assault Spirit/Recondo, ROC 5 pack Repeater: Dutch's crew from Predator The body eventually used for Resolute Roadblock IIRC initially had a Arnold Shwarzenegger portrait and was planned as a Jurassic park tie in or something but was an homage to Dutch from Predator POC Quick Kick: Chong Li from Bloodsport
Wasn't the POC Duke Jungle Assault a direct homage to Dutch? Or am I thinking Rambo? I could have sworn he was meant to reference something.
The more I look at them the more I'm wondering why the Official Collector's Club never got the OK to use that unused Stegosaurus mold for a Convention exclusive Cobra's Creatures set with the unused kitbashed character intended for the Dino Showdown pack as a new character on either team to deal with the rampaging Dinosaur? I mean Hasbro went to all the trouble of making these Dino Joe scaled figure two-packs and then when Jurassic World came around they botched the toyline so bad Mattel took over. I don't know about you, but some 3 3/4inch Modern Joe style JW figures would look great on the shelf next to Gunner Gordon and Ash Skullstriker.
Looking at original G.I. Joe (1964 line) and the real American hero line (1983-1990), these toys are better than anything made today, and also are not dated. Looking at toys from the 80s (Masters of the Universe, Mask, Thundercats, even Transformers G1), those toys do not hold up compared to Joe (with G1 toys, most of us here will view this line with nostalgia), but look at the detail, accessories, possiblity, the sculpt of the Joe line compared to the other lines of the 1980s. The final point is why does Hasbro not produce a quality 3 3/4" line or a black series 6" line.
I would argue that o-ring construction makes them slightly dated, as the older figures did tend to break after a time due to rubber degradation, and my 90's era Joes broke their thumbs off far more often the more times you slotted weapons in and out. The modern era, to my experiences, does not suffer breakages of that nature. Though some of the newest figures, IE 50th Anniversary did have reports of gummy feeling cheap plastic from what I recall.
