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Misconceptions You Had As A Kid . . .


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Guest A-MAN

-There's one i've heard online. That Darklon's skin is green and scaly. It's a shirt, people! Probably chain-mail, too.

 

-Before I owned one, I assumed the Terrordrome had an elevator or some personnel access to the top part. NOPE!

 

-The whole Duke as leader thing wasn't so much a misconception, but lack of continuity between the toys, cartoon and comics. In Hasbro's marketing mind, Duke became leader (much better to promote a new figure than one entirely made of shared parts and available with the soon to be discontinued MMS). I suspect they brought Hawk back at fan request. Comic fans who say Hawk was leader all along are correct, but only as far the comic is concerned. (there's always been a very large bias in favor of the comic when it comes to online fandom) The toys are debatable. The cartoon, Duke was the Joe team member in charge until 1986 (give or take being captured every other episode). Though, you had Col. Sharp appear a few times, he seemed more like a Pentagon contact than team member.

 

-To this day, I have no idea where the driver position is on the HAVOC.

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As such, I thought Duke was the leader and characters like Flint and Roadblock made up the original team. I thought the 1986 v2 Hawk was the first Hawk figure made, just like I thought the 1985 Snake Eyes was the first version. I knew who Scarlett, Stalker, Rock N' Roll, and Grunt were, but 1997 with the Stars and Stripes collection was the first time I had ever heard of guys like Zap and Short Fuze.

I remember seeing that Stars and Stripes set and saying "Who are these people?" I only recognized Stalker, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes.

 

I still wish I would have bought that set. It was on clearance for like $8.

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-Spearhead (and Max) was created by a fan contest for GIJOE.

(I too have never found any proof however....)

 

It's got to be true if you heard that rumor too. It seems as if this was discussed on a message board at one point. I can't remember which one though.

 

-the biggest one, Overlord KILLED Serpentor.....

 

That's interesting. Overlord does look a bit like Serpentor too with that armor on. From what I have heard he was originally supposed to be a new-look Cobra Commander.

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As such, I thought Duke was the leader and characters like Flint and Roadblock made up the original team.  I thought the 1986 v2 Hawk was the first Hawk figure made, just like I thought the 1985 Snake Eyes was the first version.  I knew who Scarlett, Stalker, Rock N' Roll, and Grunt were, but 1997 with the Stars and Stripes collection was the first time I had ever heard of guys like Zap and Short Fuze.

I remember seeing that Stars and Stripes set and saying "Who are these people?" I only recognized Stalker, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes.

 

I still wish I would have bought that set. It was on clearance for like $8.

Yeah the first time I was introduced to Zap was the Super Sonic Fighter one until I saw that set too. Also the only Stalker I knew was the one in white.

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Guest A-MAN
-the biggest one, Overlord KILLED Serpentor.....

Huh? One old toy magazine article I read said that Overlord might actually be Serpentor, since the monocle was over the eye Serpentor was shot it. Of course, that's silly. The Hasbro team didn't pay that much attention to the comic, the filecard doesn't allude to it and according to some material I've never seen Overlord was at one stage going to be a new version of Cobra Commander.

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-the biggest one, Overlord KILLED Serpentor.....

Huh? One old toy magazine article I read said that Overlord might actually be Serpentor, since the monocle was over the eye Serpentor was shot it. Of course, that's silly. The Hasbro team didn't pay that much attention to the comic, the filecard doesn't allude to it and according to some material I've never seen Overlord was at one stage going to be a new version of Cobra Commander.

Interesting, but yup I thought Overlord killed Serpentor and took reign of Cobra.

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As such, I thought Duke was the leader and characters like Flint and Roadblock made up the original team.  I thought the 1986 v2 Hawk was the first Hawk figure made, just like I thought the 1985 Snake Eyes was the first version.  I knew who Scarlett, Stalker, Rock N' Roll, and Grunt were, but 1997 with the Stars and Stripes collection was the first time I had ever heard of guys like Zap and Short Fuze.

I remember seeing that Stars and Stripes set and saying "Who are these people?" I only recognized Stalker, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes.

 

I still wish I would have bought that set. It was on clearance for like $8.

I said that too but mainly cause guys like Rock 'n Roll had a new head that looked nothing like Rock n' Roll and were put on an '86 Roadblock body! He didn't even have a beard!

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Guest A-MAN

I assumed that Serpentor was out of the picture after DIC's Operation Dragonfire, anyway.

 

 

I remember seeing the 1990 product catalog before any of the figures were in stores (the Piranha and Locust came out first) and wondering if Metal-Head was a generic trooper. At that point they weren't making many new enemy characters on cards. That and Rock-Vipers had mustaches, so who knows maybe Destro had a bunch of guys with goatees running around!

 

I also thought Sub-Zero would be an eskimo.

 

I was wrong on both counts.

 

And back to Overlord, I saw that he had a monocle and I thought "Dr. Mindbender"? Nah, just reusing another villain cliche!

 

I was never sure if Voltar was supposed to have just one eye. I assume that his helmet just had a sighting thing on one side. But in a comic issue they call him a one-eyed mercenary.

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Ever notice the difference between the Overlord's claw on the box art and the ones he came with? He has the extended claw on the back of the packaging too.

 

 

 

I also thought Sub-Zero would be an eskimo.

 

I remember thinking he looked like one too.

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Ever notice the difference between the Overlord's claw on the box art and the ones he came with? He has the extended claw on the back of the packaging too.

 

 

 

I also thought Sub-Zero would be an eskimo.

 

I remember thinking he looked like one too.

Yup noticed that since day one and I was dissapointed when mine did not come with extended claws. Ohh well years later I got over it lol.

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Xamot was cooler than Tamox (I have no idea way).

 

Cause he had the scare - I always felt the same way.

 

 

 

I am amazed every one thought Destro was black as a kid. It was much later before I was able to tell black from white just by the voice. Even today, I can't usually tell if a telemarketer is black or white.

 

I also always thought his vice was deep because it echoed in the mask and he'd sound different without it.

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When I was a kid there were a lot of misconceptions about G.I. JOE that I now know were well . . wrong. . . .

 

7. Rock & Roll came with the HAL: I don't know if he was featured on the box art or what but this was supposedly the case according to us.

The HAL box artwork correctly depicted Grand Slam as the operator. However, Rock 'N Roll was chosen to use another 1982 vehicle. He was shown using the FLAK on the box artwork. For some reason, the Yo Joe web site still doesn't have a pic of the packaging available.

 

By the way, I don't mean to nitpick but you just brought up another common G.I. Joe misconception that continues to this day. Craig S. McConnel's code name has never been Rock & Roll. :D

 

OmegaHarbinger

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I always thought Raptor was a native american. I always thought Darklon was a Predator. They look kinda similar, and I had just seen the movie for the first time when I got it. I never really gave much thought to Zartans hood untill I got the Ninja Force figure. But at that time I was reading the comics, and he was "dead". SO it didnt matter that much. Freefall was actually Duke in a paratrooper uniform. Dont know how I came up with that. Uhmmm thats all I can remember now.

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By the way, I don't mean to nitpick but you just brought up another common G.I. Joe misconception that continues to this day. Craig S. McConnel's code name has never been Rock & Roll.

 

Yeah I know, I usually type it as "Rock 'n Roll' rather than "Rock & Roll". But yeah that is a common misconception.

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Great topic...

 

I don't know that I had very many misconceptions, other than the "Is Bludd's arm bionic?" debate. Hmm. The only thing I really remember doing was making a few things up as I went. For example, whenever Serpentor came along, in my "universe" he had been the head cheese all along, pulling Cobra Commander's strings from behind the scenes and only making a few brief appearances. And the CIA wasn't even sure he even existed he was so rarely seen! That was my take on him anyway...

 

Actually that was apparently Hasbro's original pitch for Serpentor. "He's been there all along, we just haven't seen it yet."

 

 

As per this interview with Sunbow editor Buzz Dixon from Ultimate GI JOE cartoon website

 

 

Funny G.I. Joe Anecdote #1:

 

We were constantly adding and dropping characters to the show as we went along (somewhere at either the end of season one or the middle of season two we did a count and found out we had a whopping EIGHTY-SIX characters who appeared in two or more episodes, a number not matched until The Simpsons much later), so when I was told to make room for a new character in the first scripts of season two, I said sure. Then they told me it was the new Cobra Emperor.

 

"Excuse me," I said. "Cobra Emperor?"

 

"Yeah. Cobra Commander's boss."

 

"Un-huh. And where has this character been for the last sixty-five episodes?"

 

"Oh, he's been there all the time, we've just never seen him before."

 

I turned a couple of shades of purple and explained that (1) we had repeatedly established Cobra Commander as the Big Kahuna of all things Cobra and (2) there had not been even the faintest hint of any Cobra organization level beyond what we had seen in the show. Oh, they said. Well, come up with a couple of ideas to explain where he came from.

 

So I hammered a few ideas around and came up with two: First, that Cobra Commander had screwed up so badly his underlings decided to *build* a better leader, or second, that Cobra Commander was the front man for a vast, far more secretive, far more sinister organization which had sent him out into the world to conquer it. I liked the first idea much better (particularly since it would still permit me to write "The Most Dangerous Man in the World") and put all my efforts into it.

 

So of course, Hasbro selected *BOTH* ideas and said combine them. Well, that pretty much threw "Most Dangerous Man" right out the window. I made a couple of proposals as to what kind of organization could be behind Cobra, one of which as a blatant nod to James Hilton's "Lost Horizon" was set in the Himalayas and used Cobra-La as a placeholder name (i.e., the name of a character or thing until you can think of a better one, like Joe Hero and Big Bad Guy #1). Unfortunately, Hasbro fell in love with that concept and name and despite all my efforts stuck with Cobra-La. I apologize to Joe and Hilton fans everywhere; I really, really, REALLY was going to come up with a much better name than that.

 

Cobra Emperor was briefly named King Cobra until somebody discovered there was a malt liquor by the same name so eventually we arrived at Serpentor. "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" was added to season two as a five-part opening mini-series. Frankly, I think we went one part two long with it and would have probably been better served by trimming it to two hours, but all in all I think it worked rather well. It certainly gave the Cobra Commander/Serpentor relationship a depth that most animated shows of that time lacked.

That is very interesting A-MAN! I promise I'm not an ex-Hasbro insider. (lol) To me it just gave Cobra a whole other interesting level to think the buck didn't stop with Cobra Commander so to speak, that the roots of Cobra were alot more far-reaching and hidden than anyone imagined. I mean, yeah, the comic version of things where Serpentor is genetically engineered to take over Cobra definitely lent itself well to great conflict and dissention among the Cobra ranks; to me power-hungry would-be world conquerors would be just surrounded by those wanting to take over in a organization like Cobra. BUT...in my mind Cobra followers and leaders would be so brainwashed and so fanatical that everyone would be a blind loyal follower to the great cause of Cobra. Everyone would be selfless and sacrifice their individualism for the "great cause". In my mind that makes things much more interesting and frightening, to have this group of fanatics who have devoted their total being and energy to one cause, and that's world domination. That's alot more scary to me than squabbling leaders with factions split here and there in the Cobra ranks.

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Here are the last few misconceptions I can think of before i got to bed tonight . . . .

 

1. The Golobulus figure with the white tail that could stand up was actually produced.

 

2. The gun from the side of the Dragonfly was a flame thrower! Kids in my cul-de-sac had a couple of these guns and would set them up out in the "jungle". They were according to them motion activated so if you got too close your guy would be fried. Only when I got my own Dragonfly a few years back did I realize that these "flame throwers" were just guns from the side of the Dragonfly.

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Actually, it's Rock & Roll on the '89 filecard...well...in the header...not the text. Go Hasbro proofreaders!

 

And yeah, I also thought Destro could not detach his wrist rockets and used them to fly. Or did he actually do that in the cartoon? Wouldn't surprise me...

 

Track Viper always hooked up with Jinx. I don't know why, but I didn't question it.

 

Frag-Viper actually had a giant claw for gutting people.

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I don't know if it can be considered a misconception, but I always made the Hydro-Viper a real monster since he had that fearsome mask and that hand in that position.

 

I just reread the filecard on Yo Joe and they aren't really human anymore, so maybe that's where that monster idea came from.

 

I wonder whatever happened to my Hydro-Viper.

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most of mine have been named like thinking destro was black and zartan's hood was his hair.

 

i didn't know snake eyes was suppose to be a ninja.

 

major bludd's arm was blown off when he yelled "coooobraaaaa!!!" and raised his arm.

 

i thought BATS were half human

 

cobra commander was disfigured that's why he wore a mask

 

spirit could actually beat up storm shadow @lol@

 

i thought gung ho's tatt was just a big blob that didn't mean anything

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I didn't know Snake-Eyes was supposed to be some big deal either. He wasn't anymore imprtant to us than say Barbecue was. Just some guy in a mask that didn't have too big of a role on the cartoon. I don't recall thinking he was a ninja either. It wasn't until I finally discovered the comic in the '90s that I learned the truth.

 

I didn't think there was a difference in continuity between the toys/cartoon/comic either. I remember trying thinking maybe Cobra Commander had multiple eyes (like in the movie) underneath that red mask the 12" Hall of Fame figure wore under his normal mask.

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I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina (spanish-speaking country), so you can imagine there was a lot of room for misconceptions! I'll speak of those first:

 

A) Blowtorch (codenamed "Flame-thrower" in spanish) was the coolest guy in the universe. For those of you aware of the argentinian joe variations, you probably know that he came in 2 different paint schemes apart from the carded red n' yellow one. I guess I thought he was the coolest man in the joe lineup because we never really got any of the cooler joes like 85 Snake Eyes or Flint. We knew them from the cartoon but they wouldn't issue them as toys, the bastards! Hell, Flame-Thrower didn't even come with his own flame thrower! He came with Torch's!

 

B) "Joe Admiral": That was Keel-Haul's name in my mind. You see, the story goes as follow.. in 88 or 89, my mom went abroad. When she asked what did I want her to bring me from her trip, I basically said "the gijoe base". I can't start to explain what it was for me to find out what she got me after all. I didn't even know there was a FLAGG! I must have been one of the 5 kids to ever own a FLAGG down here. SO anyways, to the point: I was asking my mom what the pilot's name was. He had become my instant favorite figure, because, well, nobody else could have him :D She must have read "G.I.Joe Admiral" somewhere, so she told me he was "Joe Admiral". As a kid who couldn't speak one english word yet, I thought that was his complete name. Joe was the first name and Admiral was his last name!

 

C) Storm Shadow was the weakest of the ninjas. While we never got the coolest joe figures down here, we did get some amazing variations... and that's the case of the Storm Shadow repaints. We thought the Red and Black ninjas were the deal. A white ninja seemed like an old concept in fact! My personal favorite was the red ninja but my friend liked the black one. Either way, Storm Shadow was just the weakest of the bunch. Sounds odd when you think that we did see the cartoon and the red or black ninjas were nowhere to be seen.

 

D) Sgt. Slaughter originated from G.I.Joe. Even if he would show up in the WF, he got started with the Joes.

 

E) Snake Eyes was evil. OK, let's try to explain this one. The first Snake Eyes "commando" figure was a cobra here. He was named "Cobra Invasor" (Cobra Invader). It was the same figure except for one detail, he had a silver Cobra emblem in his chest. So, you could say that while we did know who Snake Eyes was (from watching the cartoon), we just didn't think the Cobra Invasor figure was originally meant to be him. In fact, the only look we could get at the 85 Snake Eyes figure was the back of the FLAGG box. Imagine that! We would stare at the back of the huge massive FLAGG box to take a look at some of the figures we would never own (well, i did set it as a life goal to get them myself and that's what i did :P).

 

F) The Skystriker & his pilot. Here, the jet would come with 82 Flash. But we knew, somehow, from pictures i'm guessing, that there was this astronaut-like dude who was the real pilot. Same (or similar) applies to the Mamba: You see the pilot picture in the box but the vehicle didn't come with no figure!!! The bastards!!! The Rattler didn't come with Wild Weasel either. Still, you folks up there never got a carded Sgt. Slaughter and we did :P

 

G) Glenda? GLENDA?! (For those of you who are aware of argentinian variations :P)

 

Now, for more "generic" misconceptions:

 

A) Duke is the leader: Yeah, me too. Even if Hawk would show up in the cartoon or the movie, I just didn't think he was a G.I.Joe. Now, while I didn't own the Duke figure, I had seen it at an "imports" toy store and, boy, did it not suck. I was asking myself how come the joe leader was so... well, feeble. And he was smiling?! By that time I already owned a few other american joes and some had these big muscles, you know? A friend even had Big Boa, so I considered the Joes' leader to be an abortion.

 

B) Cobra Commander sucks. Serpentor and Destro rule the universe. Well, as much as I still love Destro (I like the more solemn, gentleman-ish evil-doers), I now have a lot of more appreciation for the commander. You see, as a kid you get this image of him as an incompetent ****, but when I grew up and found out about the comic continuity, I realized there was a lot more to it. I abandoned the belief that he was always a snake-man from the Himalayas and embraced the concept that he was once a car salesman and that he, all by himself, was able to build the Cobra nation from scratch! As crazy as he may seem, he was a great mastermind nevertheless.

 

C) The H.I.S.S. "as a M.A.S.K. vehicle" thing. As much as I didn't buy the idea, we would always divide the vehicle in 2.

 

D) Zartan's hair. Yeah, me too.

 

 

 

 

BONUS: "Law" was the coolest guy ever as well. That's because it's one of the only "original" figs I owned as a kid and also because he is the only one Beachead doesn't get pissed at when he's got the new recruits lined up :D

 

 

I'm sure there's more, but you folks pretty much mentioned all there could have been. Excellent topic!

 

Long live the 80s.

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Excellent post Gentleman!! And I don't think I have encountered you here on the boards before, so welcome!

 

It's very fascinating to get the perspective of someone from another country; it's interesting to read about how different your experiences were growing up. (And I never had a U.S.S. Flagg!! I'm jealous... *sniff*)

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Great post, Gentleman.

 

You're lucky with that Flagg. My parents balked at the price tag for that and the Defiant, but they'd buy an NES that was twice the price of either of those. @rolleye@

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C) The H.I.S.S. "as a M.A.S.K. vehicle" thing. As much as I didn't buy the idea, we would always divide the vehicle in 2.

 

It's funny to hear that others took their H.I.S.S. tank apart too. I always just figured that it was only that kid in my cul-de-sac who did that.

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