What was the last good year for ARAH to you?

[GPM in ICT]

I was looking something up over at YOJOE and got to thinking about what year I thought Joe kinda lost it's way to me. I was there in the beginning in 82 (at 8 years old) and kept up with it until around 88 and 89. I was also lucky enough to have brothers that were four and five years younger than me and they sorta were still playing with Joes until 92, so I still saw figures and vehicles until that time. Anyway, looking through the years it seems to me that I quit around the time that Joe started going down hill. The mini rigs and strange vehicles that came after just, for the most part, hold my interest or imagination like a lot of the previous years did. Anyone else have any thoughts?

[Devilbat]

1988 was probably the last great year for me personally. The following year saw some good figures, but G.I. Joe was beginning to lose steam by then to me. There were some great figures that came out that year that I wish I had gotten, like the Night Force two-packs, but that was the year I mothballed my original Joe collection. The following year I remember wandering around the toy aisles in the then-new Walmart store in my town, seeing the latest wave of Joes that included Capt. Grid Iron and Bullhorn, and I'll admit I was very tempted to restart collecting, but ultimately I decided against it and passed. Of course, looking back I regret it, but in the end the 1988 stuff was probably the last best wave of Joe toys to me from back in the day.

[GPM in ICT]

It seems like 89 was an off year and then in 90 they sort of got it back together a bit, at least most of the stuff looks better and then in 91 it started it gradual decline until the end.

[jedimaster-c]

1987 had some great vehicles as with 1988.I got the Roller Thunder back then for my B-day and it became my favorite Joe vehicle. I had the Terrordrome form 1986 and that was cool too.Here are my picks (the vehicles and playsets I had from 1986-1990:

 

Devil Fish

Terrordrome

Mamba

Phantom x-19

Rolling Thunder

 

The only 1990 vehicle I had was the Hammerhead and the Hurricane.

[TommyGoth]

It seems like 89 was an off year and then in 90 they sort of got it back together a bit, at least most of the stuff looks better and then in 91 it started it gradual decline until the end.

 

I feel the same way about the line picking up slightly in 90 then dropping off.

 

1982 will always be iconic for the introduction of 3 3/4 Joes. To me GI Joe's golden years were 83-86. 1987 was still a good year then 88-89 was off, and then picked up again slightly in 1990 before the slow Neon Death started in 1991.

 

I appreciate every era of GI Joe in certain ways but the 83-87 period really stands out. The comics sort of ran in the same pattern. From 88-90 I was like "who are these guys they're constantly introducing?" The comic series dropped off about the same time as the toys.

[Draven79]

87 was the last great year imo. 88, 89 and 90 were good. Started to go down hillfor me after that.

Draven

[CLAM]

I know that alot of the RAH purists feel that the line started to degrade after 86.. and I can see that school of thought. The 83-86 figures are clearly different than the rest of the era. With 87, and each year after, things started shifting towards stranger, weirder, and more colorful toys.

 

But to me, I still loved that stuff. 87 and 88 were GREAT years to me. 89 was good too, there are some great figures mixed in with some less popular ones. I feel the same way about 1990.. there are some figures in there that I LOVE, but none of them get very much recognition. 1990 also has some GREAT vehicles, some of my favorite of the entire line.

 

And even 1991 has some figures that I really like, but not as much as previous years. The vehicles in 1991 could have been decent, but the colors were so terrible.

 

Then the drop-off to 92 is quite severe. I picked up a few of them here and there, but they started relying on neon and action gimmicks instead of quality toys.

 

so if you ask me, 1990 was good. and 1991 is the last "kinda" good year.. but not great.

[jedimaster-c]

Yeah, I think the last vehicle I got was the Hammerhead. I would go to Walmart back then to see what was out and then I just lost interest.

[Flint]

I stopped buying GI Joe as a kid back in '87. What brought me back was seeing the 2002 figures at the toy aisles. Went to Big Lots and found some older vehicles and bought some of those and the figures as well. I don't buy the newer stuff, due to lack of room and lack of interest in the newer design. But I did buy the black ninja AWE Striker with Snake Eyes (wow he has no articulation), and Sky Striker when they went on sale at Target.