This is how I categorize my figures:

Every character, beginning with 1982. Snake-Eyes '82, Snake-Eyes '82/'83, Snake Eyes, '85, etc. Then Hawk '82, etc. All the versions of a character are stored together (well, side by side in display cases).

I've always put all the versions of a character together. In other words, my original continuity Dukes are stored along side my Resolute Dukes and Sunbow-inspired Dukes, etc. But now, I'm considering labeling the newest Duke as "ROC Duke" or "Movie Duke"- as if it is really a completely separate Duke from the others.

The two characters that most push me in this direction are the new Breaker and Marlon Wayons' Ripcord (why isn't he Stalker?).

Just curious to see if anyone else with similar storage/display techniques is also wondering how to make it all fit...

Doesn't explain why he's Ripcord but does explain why he's not Stalker.

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I think that the figures like Duke and Scarlett and Hawk all work well as the same character, even if the faces have changed. The "look" isn't a big deal for me, because Duke has had brown and blonde hair, so his look varies anyway. The character themselves seems very close to the original. As far as the figure goes, ignoring the British accent from the movie, I think Heavy Duty is a great update to the character and will use him as such.

Ripcord is a new character. The original is Rip Cord. It makes total sense to me.

And Breaker? I never intend to own that awful and scrawny figure, so I haven't given it much though.

But as far as displaying them, I don't have the space to display my entire collection. I just have 25th stuff out for the most part, and the movie figures are on their own and will be coming back to my apartment with me once the fall semester begins.

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Yeah, I have been categorizing 25th style figs as separate from vintage Joes simply because they are not really compatible.

The movie figs seem to be better done (and I must say I am shocked!) than the 25th figs, except Resolute, of course.

As for Ripcord, I think I have solved that mystery. In some way shape or form, I think he IS supposed to be Stalker. But that word has much different connotations today than in 1982, and they don't want to put it in what is basically a $100 million commercial to sell toys to kids. Hence, Marlon is known as Ripcord instead of Stalker.

I am going to be using him as Cool Breeze.

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One issue i am having is differtnitating (sp?0 between true ROC figures (ripcord, duke, etc...) and 25th Figures that are being marketed in ROC packaging (i.e. SGT Thunderblast, rampage, etc...).

SGT Thunderblast is a good example, I don't think he is in the movie, and he is clearly the 25th version of Thunder, so is he truly a ROC, or just a 25th?

I am having a hard time reconciling these in my mind.

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I haven't even really thought about "adding" them. For me right now it one of those "they just are" type of things. I guess if I were to mix them in I'd put them as new characters and come up with new names. But for now they're just characters that's sitting there being their own thing. I guess you could say they're who they are suppose to be but from another dimension?

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This is even more true given that ROC figures seem to be scaled at least a little differently than 25th or Resolute. The lower legs on the new Duke figs are reduced in height considerably more than the other lines.

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I mentioned something similar in chat last week. We have year and versions and type. Then we had the branding name like GvC or VvV and now we have ROC. But we're getting a ton of ROC 2009 figures who are the same character. Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Storm shadow for instance require their tag lines Desert Ambush and Paris Pursuit respectively in order to differentiate them down the road. That is what I start wondering about. Not what do we call them now, but what do we call them 5-10 years from now.

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Why the hell do people keep saying that moron should be playing Stalker instead of Ripcord? The character he's portraying in this movie is NOTHING like the original Ripcord OR Stalker so it would be inappropriate either. And god forbid the "connection" between the actor and the character of Lonzo Wilkinson is coming solely from the mustache and ethnicity because that is just stupid reasoning. If they HAD to rewrite an airborne Joe to pretend the movie character was a special ops Army NCO who wanted to fly jets ( ) then they could have just picked Static Line (just change "Weems" to "Baducci" and it would have been okay!) or any of the other equally useless Sky Patrol guys.

Frankly putting a Wayans in this thing was wrong in the first place and that would be true whether he was playing Recoil, Law, Alpine, Wetsuit, Rumbler, Sub Zero, OR Ripcord.

I think it's because Stalker was always the "translator" for Snake-Eyes when Scarlett wasn't around. He was such an integral part of the back-story and top Sergeant of the team until Duke came along. (in the comics)

I'm a huge fan of Stalker (obviously) and a big fan of Marlon Wayans and it would have been cool to see that character, but I'm pretty sure they picked "Ripcord" because the name "Stalker" is creepy.

It's not that Wayans should be Stalker more than he should be Ripcord, it's that Stalker should be in the movie but isn't.

Incidentally, Wayans has done some very good straight acting. He could have pulled off Stalker and I bet that his Ripcord will be just fine. Delroy Lindo is the best choice to play Stalker though, even if he's 60.

There are several Joes we'd expect to see in a GI Joe movie: Duke, Scarlett, Stalker, and Snake-Eyes. All bets are off after those four. But there is no Stalker. The traits and attributes of this conspicuously missing character (Black character, major player, somewhat gruff, bad-ass) seem to have reappeared in Ripcord now. Ripcord, aside from being a badass, hasn't really been any of the other things.

When one corner stone is missing, but has been replaced by one that has a strikingly similar look/feel, I don't think it's wrong for the fans to see it as a substitution of the name more than anything else.

In 1982 the word "stalker" didn't really have the negative associations linking it to disturbing behavior and violent crime that it did just a few years later. The filecard even explains the word as liking Stalker to a wildcat hunting prey.

A while back I decided the easiest way to keep up with things is to store all versions together. All my RoC figs have gone into little baggies which will go into the gallon bags that store all their previous versions. They're boxed more or less according to their original year of release. Even if I don't really consider the old and new Breakers to be the same character (who does, really?), it's still gonna be easier for me to find him down the road if I just go to my box of first series characters. This way I don't have to recall precisely what year a reimagined character got made, as I often can't anyway!

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I display my 25th version of the original 13 together because it was a lot of work to track down all the figures, to customize the missing ones, and well they just look really cool all together like that.

Characters I tend to display together so I don't have any problem with say 25th, Resolute and my costume arctic Cobra Commander being displayed together. I guess I'll display the movie Ripcord figures with my 25th Stalker figures. Maybe I'm just weird but when I saw the pictures of Marlon Wayans as a GI Joe I couldn't help thinking he looked like a live action Stalker.

The squads of Cobra troop builders I've got together on a shelf. They just look good displayed as a squad and makes it easier to find them when I need them.

With so many environmental themed characters coming from the movie line I'm kind of tempted to change around the display so that I could show them off as desert themes, arctic themes and the other places the movie will take the Joes.

actually, the scuttlebutt is Wayans is playing Rip Corb... because he asked to. That was his favorite figure as a kid.

as for catagotizing. I have them as completely different characters alltogether. All the blue cammo soldiers are the crew of the new RHINO, and will be the command crew of the Headquarters along with the VvV hi-tech, harddrive, mainframe, etc.

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If it's true then that's actually pretty damn cool I mean what Joe fan wouldn't like the opportunity to play their favorite character in a movie.