That's not entirely accurate if you look at the history of the TF franchise. Depending on your definition of "new," new characters practically stopped anywhere between 1994 and 2006. An awful lot of "new" characters are G1 with slight tweaks or G1 with new trademark friendly names or Diaclone recolors plus a tech spec. That's not to say I would mind new characters, just that the comparison isn't as obvious as it sounds.
Since everyone's doing a wishlist... (I'm sure there are other characters I'd get if they were made... this just feels complete for me) GI Joe: Agent Helix Alpine Beachhead Bombstrike Breaker Captain Grid-Iron Cover Girl Deep Six Dee-Jay Dial Tone Doc Dodger Duke Dusty Falcon Flint Footloose Freefall General Hawk Heavy Duty Hi-Tech Jinx Kamakura Lady Jaye Lieutenant Stone Lifeline Low-Light Mercer Quick Kick Ripcord Roadblock Rock N Roll Scarlett Scoop Sergeant Slaughter Shipwreck Snake-Eyes Spirit Stalker Storm Shadow Sub-Zero Tunnel Rat Wet-Suit Wild Bill Cobra: Alley Viper Baroness Big Boa Blackout Burnout Buzzer Cesspool Cobra Commander Copperhead Croc Master Crystal Ball Darklon Desert Scorpion Destro Dice Doctor Mindbender Firefly Gnawgahyde Heartwrencher Major Bludd Metal-Head Monkey Wrench Nightcreeper Overkill Overlord Ripper Road Pig Scrap Iron Serpentor Shadow Tracker Slash Slice Snow Serpent Thrasher Torch Tomax Undertow Voltar Wraith Xamot Zandar Zanya Zarana Zartan I'd say at least up until Prime ended we were seeing new characters. Maybe not as frequently as previously but they were still there... since Prime ended though I definitely agree with you.
Thanks man! You got me on that that! Arghhh...I can’t believe I made such a mistake! I was thinking of potential Joe figures if the line really takes off when I was typing that...doh! Tbh I stopped reading the comics when Hasbro mentioned that DDP’s run is not canon or something along those lines... i just gave up! X) But on the other hand, I’m glad they did because I wasn’t happy with the decision to “off” Billy...
New characters are best for their own lines or the 4" scale, less risk and people are more receptive at that scale. With a 6" line I'd only consider brand new characters as fan-channel exclusives or something way down the line. Here's my wishlist: Storm Shadow V1 Storm Shadow V2 Ninja Force Storm Shadow Shadow Ninja Storm Shadow 2002 GVC Storm Shadow 2004 VVV Storm Shadow DDP Mike Zeck Storm Shadow Resolute Storm Shadow Sigma 6 Storm Shadow Renegades Storm Shadow Snake Eyes V1 Snake Eyes V2 Snake Eyes V3 Snake Eyes V4 Ninja Force Snake Eyes Resolute Snake Eyes Sigma 6 Snake Eyes GVC V2 Snake Eyes(Fall 2002) Nunchuck V1 Firefly V1 Zartan V1 Major Bludd Iron Grenadier Destro General Hawk V1 Slice Dice Flint Crimson Guard Crimson Guard Immortal Tomax/Xamot Serpentor TARGAT Alley Viper Night Viper Jungle Viper Jungle Assault Duke(POC) Metal Head Sigma 6 Kamakura DDP Kamakura Cobra Viper Snow Serpent Battle Corps Shipwreck DiC Night Creeper Leader(the toy version looks like a Yoga Master at a sauna with an assault rifle and katanas) Night Creeper V1 Red Ninja Ninja Viper All good man, I wasn't happy with how they did Billy in either, seemed like a cheap way to further Civil War and that story ended disappointingly. Storm Shadow VS Zartan never really got fully resolved(though it was cool in AE that Storm Shadow kind of made a judgement call since Zartan was terminal) and ultimately it seemed like DDP was in a rush to finish(off record, I know why, but hah, yea, lots of things changed and didn't pan out).
Wish Lists? I'll join in too. Off the top of my mind and far from complete... JOES: -The entire original 1982 RAH wave (and include Timber with Snake Eyes) (I wouldn't mind having Patton-outfit General Hawk over 1982 Hawk) -Duke -Roadblock -Flint -Lady Jaye, either the original green/cap look, the Sunbow look, or better yet both over time -Shipwreck. (My favorite character) The original outfit is a must before the sweater/beanie outfit. Must include Polly -Low Light (my second personal favorite behind Shipwreck) -Cover Girl -Doc. Male, Female, or again, both -Lt. Falcon -Jinx (I would gladly trade weapons to make sure she has both a masked and unmasked head) -Joe Colton. Both the original 1960's version and the older General version -Bombstrike. I understand if she can't have the "Bombshell" name anymore, but at least let her keep the tight t-shirt with the "G.I. Joe" logo on it. Another personal favorite -Ace -Admiral Keel-Haul -General Flagg -Sgt. Slaughter *Do Not make the only version a con exclusive* -Both Mutt and Junkyard & Law and Order. The more service dogs, the better! COBRA: -The original 1982 RAH wave. Give the Cobra Officers more visual rank differences. Chrome and hooded heads for C.Commander is a must. One thing they can do is sprinkle Cobra Troopers through the line with subtle differences each time, like gender and skin color. If you need a Con-Exclusive, you can make one of the Troopers specially into "Scar". -Baroness -Destro, both original and later on, the Iron Grenadier version later in the line -Tomax and Xamot, both standard and business outfits -Zartan and Zaranna -B.A.T.S. -Doctor Mindbender. And it better be the shirtless original outfit. You're G.I.Joe, go nuts! -Serpentor. No Power Ranger "realistic" outfit version, full on snake scale Emperor version! And even if vehicles in general don't happen, his glider is a must. -Admiral Lattimer (ONLY because "Sink the Montana!" is my personal favorite RAH episode growing up, and Cobra could use more of a naval representation anyway) -Doctor Venom, because he's only the worst person in the world. -Doctor Biggles-Jones OTHER VILLAINS -Headman. The execution might have left some to be desired, but I always thought The Headhunters had potential. They can be changed from drug-dealers to a general criminal organization if we can't handle the topic anymore -The Iron Grenadiers. Including the Troopers, Voltar, and most importantly (to me), Metal-Head -Cobra-La. At least Golobulus and Pythona
Basically. If they do V1, cartoon or toy, I might be interested if the sculpt looks good, but my preferred Snake Eyes is the second version in both toy and cartoon form. The franchise as a whole could always expand, but if the 6in line if for adult collectors (which is what I'm sure they're aiming for), then they need to focus on the existing RAH characters, in their most familiar/iconic looks.
There’s some stuff I’d cheat for. Sgt. Slaughter. Serpentor. I might get talked into a Rocky Balboa custom. I really have fond memories of some of the 90s guys, v2 Storm Shadow. Sgt. Savage. But a part of me IS thinking maybe as unlikely as Slaughter is that I need a head sculpt of him on hand just in case I want to do a custom. I’m already fighting the urge to do a Masters of the WWE Universe 5.5” Slaughter custom to team up with He-Man. But no. No. I really can’t.
All good! I'll take V1-3 Snake-Eyes for sure, the rest depending. My wants are mainly Ninja Masked looking characters and Special Cobra Troops. And reiterating that I don't care much for rehashes of the same character with stupid looking colors just because. So basically: Snake-Eyes Storm Shadow Firefly Beachhead Shockwave Cobra Commander (Helmet, Mask and Armor) Destro Crimson Guard Eel Snow Serpent BATS Tele-Viper Viper Scrap Iron Iron Grenadiers Some others that are not in my main focus list: Cobra Trooper Cobra Officer Rock-N-Roll Scarlett Stalker Airborne Gung Ho Major Bludd Baroness Blowtorch Mutt Recondo Rip Cord Spirit Airtight Barbecue Dusty Zartan Drednocks Flint Lady Jaye Quick Kick Shipwreck Tomax/Xamot Dr. Mindbender Low-Light Wet-Suit Big Boa Croc Master Tunnel Rat Serpentor My single wish if we were to get a large vehicle would be a Rattler with Wild Weasel. There are a bunch of other figures I would want but only if they came with their smaller vehicles...Firebat would be a top one.
Here's my list: Everything 82' - 90' something, Resolute, Renegades, POC, 50th Ann, Spytroops, VvsV, Sigma 6, Adventure Team complete with flocked hair and kung-fu grip, Sunbow toon, and Marvel Comics. If I missed anything then shame on me. The only thing I don't want is ROC or really anything live action unless this new Snake Eyes movie is totally awesome. Honestly, now that I think about it, I wouldn't say no to a Magic Mike Duke, In Living Color Ripcord, a movie Scarlett, Doc Holiday Hawk, movie accurate Snakes and Stormy, hot chick Baroness, an Irish Destro pre-mask, and a stupid movie accurate CCommander. I guess now everyone knows how I feel about the movies so my secret is out.
For everyone out there, what are your plans for your 25th-50th figs, assuming these new figs turn out well? I don't generally like to have doubles of characters, even in different scales. Assuming the best possible outcome and we get a good lineup of characters in this new scale, and--more importantly--good quality toys, I may offload my smaller-scale figs.
I think I heard a mic drop. That's cool if you like the movie designs. Didn't mind Eccleston as Destro aside from that mask(WTF?), Cobra Commander...thank god they fixed him for Retaliation. Lee Byung-hun was underused as Storm Shadow but his ROC costume...I don't get it. The Retaliation redesign was a little better. Some say the DDP Reloaded trench coat and shades Storm Shadow is a good modernization but I don't buy it. In Living Color lol...that whole role was miscast. It was originally for Stalker(but Ripcord in the movie had nothing in common personality-wise), then the girl who played Scarlett suggested Ripcord and that's how he got to be Ripcord. Should've just been given an all new code name with no connotation to any of the originals since the only thing shared were the names. ROC was a low point for Hasbro so I don't think we will see 6" figures from it for a while. I think eventually we will, but I wouldn't expect them anytime soon. I'd be surprised if they make the whole cast. I think these ones have a shot: Retaliation Snake Eyes Retaliation Storm Shadow Jinx Retaliation Cobra Commander The Rock Firefly It actually won't make a difference for me; I use them for different purposes, my 25th-50th and vintage Joes are used for a more wide ranging line with vehicle interaction. I had also made the decision last year to start cutting it down, mainly because I went into collecting them deeper than I wanted and I realized, I didn't want it all. So I started selling some last year.
Yeah, I did the same thing, but a few years back. With small figs, it's easy to get sucked in with a Pokemon catch-'em-all mentality. Larger-scaled figs are self-limiting. After a while, you just start running out of room.
Exactly man. It was fun for a while but sobering once I took a step back and realized how much I no longer wanted. I have most of the Joes I want at this point, so to avoid the regret I had previously, I'm cherry picking the 6" line.
Scap Iron please. One of the few GI Joe figures I bought when i was a kid. Not sure how but I ended up with a 2nd one. So i had this internal backstory of him being his twin named Crap Steel. So while I realize he's a nothing character but I'd live to get a 6" version of him. Of course another for Crap Steel.
I always thought his helmet looked too big for him. The 25th one cool since it had the damaged scar and blank eye underneath
^I dislike ROC so much that I don't even have them on a shelf. The 50 or so figures and a handful of vehicles that I own are in a box somewhere. And for me anyway, that violates one of my collection rules, if you can't or don't want to display it then sell it.
He's cool. I remember he had a few good parts in the Sunbow series, especially when he acted as Cobra Commander's one loyal agent (until he turned on him of course)
One thing I LOVE about Marvel Cobra Commander is that he was loyal to no one and sarcastic with everyone. Like the time Firefly and some other guy were in some shit and Cobra Commander said he rested assured of his own safety since they could blow something up. I think he was ahead of his time too, the early 90's figure with the red battle visor had a combat drone before the real military started using drones! That is an overlooked design too.
