Am I the only one out there that enjoys having Joe team 'army builders'? I enjoy the following:

Action Soldier
Action Marine
Action Pilot
Action Sailor
Action Astronaut
Action MP
Action Desert Storm Soldier
Marine Blues Gung Ho
Battle Corps Duke
2001 Sure Fire (SWAT)

Anyone else do this?

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yep!!!

The Muticultural green shirts are my favorite (as hasbro learded in Frisco,lol)

those action pilots rule! I have them piloting all my extra planes and copters.

I also use PTE marines, Deltas, and swat as army builders and manning the extra gun and pilot spots in vehicles (like the cannon positions on the rolling thunder)

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I don't army build them, but I do keep two each of the following on hand just as "extras" to represent normal military in dio scenes:

ROC Grunt (TRU exclusive)
ROC Desert Ambush Duke
ROC Jungle Assault Ripcord
25th Torpedo (TRU exclusive)

I also have five of the Greenshirts from the TRU exclusive vs. Firefly pack.

Any Joes with helmets or masks (removable or not) works for me.
Ice Cream Soldier is great. Even Beach-Head works

Don't forget the Steel Brigade!

And as John posted, Marine dress Gung-Ho and Sure Fire would work with simple head swaps as does Shipwreck v1. I see his body is popular for putting on the USS Flagg

I like the Spytroops Beachhead figures as generic special forces.
I like the PTE figures for regular soldiers.

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I use PTE etc as my regular, non-Joe military guys or Special Operations guys.
Green Shirts are awesome as support rolls or recruits.
Rollbar from the Night Ops and Jungle Strike Humvees have a great sculpt and one of the most realistic.
Ace v2, Ace v6 and Slipstream v3 are awesome for a generic pilots
Action pilot is ok, but his uniform is more 1960s
I've got four Gung Ho in Dress Blues I plan to use.
General Flagg has a good sort of Army dress uniform, T and X with the same sculp are good for a sort of Air Force uniform.

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I've got the Action Soldier and company as Hasbro produced them, and yeah, they would make great army builders if I had more of them.

Alas, I never got the recolored "keychain" versions, so I don't have the Action MP or Desert Soldier... Wish I did have them.

As far as I'm concerned, the "Greenshirts" Infantry Team that Hasbro produced a number of years ago was an embarrassment, especially compared to the previous Cobra Infantry Squad. I mean, they used parts of the HISS Driver for some of these!? And the paint on the hair was so sloppy it looked like someone had spat it on their heads through a straw.

To me, the ultimate army builders for the G.I. Joe Team are unquestionably the Steel Brigade Commandos that the Convention turned out in 2005. Alas, they're hard to find, and not inexpensive when one does. I have four of them, and wish I had more.

I didn't officially start getting extra G.I.Joe guys until the Pit Commando and Zartan (generic MP) came along. Beyond that I wanted some figures that was good troop material. I just never found what I wanted. Those mentioned are good options, but I guess I just never got into them enough.

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I managed to snag about 15-20 of the keychain sets from a KB store in an outlet mall about 10 years ago for about $2.50 each. I'm finding all sorts of uses for them.

I also have had some luck with Red Star, Monkeywrench, Taurus, Buzzer, Ripper, Funskool Buzzer, Funskool Ripper, and a few ohers.

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I think the ROC Reactive Armor figures are great for army building, with simple head swaps and/or masks. And there are 3 different body types to add some diversity (among the full armored options), and more if you start with the Kamakura or Shipwreck figures.

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Adding on the new desert set with the desert ambush Duke, I do have a decent 3 man desert team which I will be building up.

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I army build nearly all Arctic and Aquatic Joes because those are my favorite Cobra teams and I want equal forces:


Snow Job v1
Blizzard v1
Stalker v2
Iceberg v1, 2
25th Snow Job
etc.


Shipwreck
Cutter
Wet Suit
Torpedo
Topside
etc.


I really like LBC customs of all of these. Beachhead and Low Light make great arctic head swaps. Cutter's body is great for several post-head swaps.


I recently took a look at my other (non-Aquatic/Arctic) Cobra legions and noticed that my next largest group is Flamethrowers and Anti-Armor: Incinerator, HEAT, Flak, Fast Blast, etc. As such, I've started to Army Build Blowtorch and I'd appreciate recommendations on other Joes that square-off well against aforementioned Cobras.

I also army build Infatry-looking Joes: (camo and/or earth tones)

Footloose
Leatherneck
Beachhead
Flint
Falcon
Outback
etc.

I really like to make LBCs with these parts and parts from esoteric (functionally) other Joes: Hardball, Taurus, etc.

Action soldier/pilot/marine/sailor are my RAH chosen.
Haven't come up with a fav female RAH.
Pit Commando all the way for the 25th/ROC style, all that equipment!
Cover girl and Scarlett are my Roc army type girls.
Helix and Scuba Baroness types are good sub-team girls...

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