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Best and Worst Original Characters after 1994


Duck Face

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So we all talk about how silly Crystal Ball or Raptor were and gush about the glory days from 84-87, but how about the originals since the demise of ARAH? Which characters were worth making and which ones shouldn't have seen the light of day?

 

Best- Any of the Stalls. All around cool figures who would have easily fit into the original line.

 

Worst-Coil Crusher with Chameleon running a close second. While I could site a lot of the venomized characters, CC stands out just for his sheer goofiness. As far as Chameleon goes, she always seemed to me like a cheap Baroness knock-off with a poorly conceived backstory. I highly doubt it would have taken Cobra Commander or Destro very long to figure out she was an imposter. I like to think of her rotting in a cobra dungeon somewhere. (Chameleon's filecard)

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I'm terrible at this stuff, just for the fact that "characters" is a hard one to judge the figures on. Are we making an evaluation on them upon their presence in the comic book or the cartoon, or upon just the action figure itself, the way it looked or according to the mini bio on them via the filecards?

 

Some toys never made it at all to the book or cartoon did they?

 

I only judge the toys by how the looked to me, everything else was subject to somebody elses imagination and what they wanted to do with the characters per scripted exploits in a movie or comic book.

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I like the first Big Brawler. The new sculpt with that Tiger Force looking shirt (was he supposed to be in Tiger Force?)was an abomination. I agree about Link Talbot.

 

How about Rampage? he was just a black version of Beachhead that looked like they forgot to finish painting the entire figure. Can't say I'm a fan of Shadow Strike either.

 

There is of course always Venomous Maximus.

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You all are mentioning them and for the most part I have to concentrate to remember who any of the new characters are.

 

The only ones that seem to stand out in my mind are the Stall's (who I like) and Big Brawler and Link (who I hate both of). And even though the aren't new characters, I don't like Action Man and Heavy Duty(and the various Roadblock knockoffs).

 

-BB v1 is a nice fig apart from the giraffe neck. I replaced his head with Dusty from the Rhino.

-Heavy Duty version 4 is one of those crappy non-oring figs. I put BB's head on him. Instant new Oktober Guard figure

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Any of the figures that were repainted, classic, iconic figures - like Chameleon for example - are lame. Wet Down, Double Blast & White Out (those are the ones off the top of my head) - any of those guys are pretty lame as "new characters". At least Big Brawler had a new head, but he still reminded me of Outback too much.

 

Rip It also bugs me, because he should have just been "HISS Commander" or something like that. Plus, it's a really stupid name - reminds me of a fart.

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For me, the worst offenders will always be Big Brawler and Sure Fire, as the representative Fanwank figures of the Steel Brigade fan club. Sure Fire loses because his filecard reads like Superman if he joined the army instead of donning a cape and flying. Big Bawler because he *looks* like a sad, balding fanboy head plopped onto the body of one of my favorite Joe characters ever. You just know the real Bawler had a gut rounder than his head... like any real fanboy does... not that mountain of iron Outback called his center of mass.

 

Chameleon was another idiotic excuse for a fanwank. The concept was novel, but so amateur. It attempted to use continuity as a reason, but seemed to ignore all sense and restraint... making an interesting retcon into a blasphemous impossibility.

 

Other notable forgettables are

Double Barrel (tho a nice nod to, I believe, the editor of Lee's AFN&TR), who was the original Roadblock clone.

Sideswipe (The medic with a completely nonsensical codename which was used only because Hasbro has the trademark for it's Trasformers line, was wasn't using it in the Beast Wars era).

Dart (who was, at one point, intended to be a new Spirit figure, but instead became a worthless Spirit clone).

Sgt Hacker (who was colored like Mainframe, but dressed like an air-force pilot kinda guy).

 

As far as the comics go, there are many stinkers. Among them are Alex UnDestro (the illegitimate son of Destro), General Rey (why, why, WHY? Why bring back Serpentor.. yet again? WHy Why WHY!?!?!), and Sei-Tin.

 

*************************************************

Figures I've loved over the years include:

Vypra - A dark, gothy female Cobra. A cajun girl with a love of loud vehicles. And yet most people want to make her a ninja because she was a Jinx repaint. SO much unrealized potential in this figure it's not even funny.

 

Crosshairs - A down and dirty Sniper. A no-beat-around-the-bush killer, with a boonie hat and camo-as-Hasbro-gets-these-days fatigues. Him, Falcon, and Repeater make up the awesome squad in my world ;)

 

Scalpel - Cobra finally gets a medic, and he spawns the Medi-Viper figure that's a dead-ringer (head mold) to a really minor character from the Marvel comics.

 

Overkill - the new version that's a cyborg, and the comic version where he's actually the remnants of the SAW-Viper from the Marvel Comic.

 

And the new comic has made me a fan of lots of new characters, like:

- Kamakura (again taking a Marvel era character and making him something more)

- Firewall (especially now that she's replaced Mainframe fittingly)

- Barel Roll (after a thoroughly unimpresive first figure)

- Zanya (who, like Vypra, have oodles of potential)

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Oh yeah, and I hate Hi-Tech, too. His figures are terrible and it bugs me that I seem to see him everywhere... He's in Sigma Six, and he seems to be poised to be one of the main characters in the movie, if it happens. Why not just use Mainframe if you need a techie?

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I loved Venomous Maximous, the Stall siblings, Major Barrage is a nice addition. Also Scalpel. All of those get my votes for nice new additions to the Joe Universe.

 

I agree Rip It was stupid, Shoulda Just been Hiss III Driver.

 

 

I actually dont mind the RAHC repaints with different names. It allows me to beef up my displays without technically duplicating any characters. Especially since most of them were specialty figures like Snow or Water.

 

Chameleon is just Baroness to me. I read that codename/filecard and said Um, Whatever.

 

 

BTW- Why hate on Venomous Maximous so much? He is actually an AWESOME figure. I just wish he had made an appearance in the comic book with a backstory or creation story that didnt trump out General Hawk.

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I really don't care about most of the new character figures since '94.

 

As for the worst, in my opinion:

Venomous Maximous

Hi-Tech

Coil Crusher

Black Out

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Ever feel like your just the most out of sync Joe fan? That you like every figure that everyone else hates and hate every figure or new thing everyone else likes. Hmmmm

 

:huh:

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Agent Faces and Hacker I have always hated with a passion. So add those two to Big Brawler and Surefire for me.

 

I personally love Dart, Boobs, Barrel Roll, and Blackout the most. Those are the only 4 I think that should be carried forward if the 25 ani stuff expands beyond classic characters.

Draven

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I forgot to add what I thought were the best...

 

Any of the Sgt. Savage guys were cool - just wish they had been smaller action figures. As far as modern Joes go, I liked Bombstrike and Major Barrage the best, probably because 1) they looked cool and 2) it was nice to have another solid female figure and another good officer, because GI Joe doesn't have many of either.

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My main issue with V. Max is that Serpentor should've been tied into his story somehow, or Serpentor should've come back in VvV. My version of that is that Cobra did kidnap Hawk, copied his memories got some DNA, but the Joes rescued Hawk before anything else happened. Mindbender then mixed Hawk's DNA and memories with whatever was left of Serpentor plus some other venom stuff to make Venomous Maximus.

 

I was pretty fond of Ghost Bear & Cross Hair. The Stall family was also fun..

 

The ones that didn't do much for me were the 'clones' like Chameleon, Double Blast, & Sure Fire.

 

+-MWG-+

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I'm terrible at this stuff, just for the fact that "characters" is a hard one to judge the figures on. Are we making an evaluation on them upon their presence in the comic book or the cartoon, or upon just the action figure itself, the way it looked or according to the mini bio on them via the filecards?

 

Some toys never made it at all to the book or cartoon did they?

 

I only judge the toys by how the looked to me, everything else was subject to somebody elses imagination and what they wanted to do with the characters per scripted exploits in a movie or comic book.

 

 

Combination of things I think.

 

Some characters were "fleshed out" by their appearances in the comics and/or cartoon. Which "version" of Falcon do you use? The jackass from the movie? The druggie from the series? The actual Green Beret from the comic? Your own interpretation? But that's just the "character".

 

There is also the figure itself. The mold used for "Chief" Torpedo worked better for Low-Light for example. Or the rather limited Venomous Maximus mold with that big old arm that was really useless. Or the rubbered skirts that restricted articulation.

 

Or the gear. While not as good as RAH, for the most part, some had some interesting stuff (like the Medi-Viper).

 

I think the Stall family gets such high praise because Bombstrike is a...well done female figure and the backstory for the three is quite developed.

 

 

Do you take all the versions of, say, Frostbite and say "these are ALL Frostbite". Or do you pic one as the "best" representation?

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Worst: all of them.

 

Sorry, but I just don't like any of the newer characters at all. There were some that had potential, but were ruined by bad figure design.

lol I knew someone was going to say that @loll@ . That's okay though. As much of a new sculpt advocate I used to be I can now admit some of those things were just terrible.

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Barrel Roll and Kamakura tie for the top of the Goods. Both were really fleshed out in the comic and just were awesome additions to the line. The rest of the Good included all the stalls, Barrage, Gullotine,

 

Close but no cigars: Dart was a cool figure, and diferent enough for spirit for me, but the head was warped and ddp gave him shell shock so we will never see him again. Hi-tech was a cool character, but the figure was pure poop. Hacker is only intersting because of the trader aspect a lot of us fans invented for him when we noticed he was shooting switch gears on the mcc rerelease box pic.

 

Worst: Link, just never could get past his speciality

The Bad: Chamelon, Double blast, rip it, the rest of the repaint characters, all the "leader" characters, Hard drive (way too many computer guys at this point) V-Max

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