While planning on doing a few Adventure Team LBC's using the heads of Clutch, R&R and Breaker, I ordered some RAH figures and parts online. Among them was a complete Ripcord and Recondo.

So I put a Clutch's head on Ripcord's body to make a simple AT Commander Halo infiltration figure.
As I geared up the figure, I could picture Joe jumping from a plane to join Recondo who had just cleared up the LZ.

While the recent figures are very cool, these are the toys that sent me on so many great adventures.

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I couldn't agree more. I'll always have a soft spot for ARAH. My Favorite was the Croc-Master/Road Pig figure I made. That guy was the proverbial World's Strongest Man, and the villain in a lot of my adventures. Also, don't get me started on how many hover board adventures I had between Stretcher's sled and Snow Serpent v2's board.

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Welcome back.

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My favorite RAH figures are in a glass cabinet and some of my LBCs are on a shelf which might explain why I haven't really messed around with some classic O-ring figures in a while.

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Pictures please! ARAH rules.

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I've been thinking a lot about this actually. I prefer the ME figures. I love everything about them.

But when I need to do a quick custom or photoshoot, 9 times out of 10 it is RAH. I know the parts better and have tons of fodder. I don't have to re-work as much to make a playable figure. Something no one really talks about is that those vintage RAH figures of the same race mostly all had matching skin tones. There was some minor differences and the occasional light skin over dark plastic but for the most part, figure A's head worked with figure B's arms. Ok, 200X orange skin and Sonic Fighter Road Pig are exceptions. With the modern figures you hardly ever get that.

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Truer words were never spoken. I really like that about the ARAH figures: while it doesn't allow for as much diversity of skin tones (not that the modern figures really use that to its full potential, either), it does make customizing about a zillion times easier. I've started doing most of my parts selection during the day when it comes to heads and other pieces with bare skin for the simple reason that the minute differences between skin tones on the modern figures require such close examination to match. There are a few heads that I haven't used because I've yet to find a matching set of hands or arms. That never happened with the ARAH figures: 90-95% of the parts matched color-wise without a second thought. Another less common example is the frequency of figures who had parts molded in identical colors. For instance, the 87 Law's legs are a perfect color match to several other figures throughout the history of the line. That's much less common in the modern era, and it adds another degree of difficulty to customizing.

I got v1 Flash in a lot and decided I wanted all the O13 and O3, and thru a trade with Little Dragon, managed to squire them all. This in combination with Bellemo's guide, I decided to get all the figures and vehicles from 82-86 and most of 87. These were the best years and I absolutely love all these figures and vehicles. Some of the 87 vehicles I'm skipping though.
Here's some pics I took of the O13 and their vehicles.
http://www.joecustoms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35410

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Last night I browsed the yard sale thread. I noticed yo-yo had a few American Defense figures . I got excited simply based upon the picture.

I didn't collect American Defense as a child nor was I overly fond of them but I found it interesting that I had this reaction to those figures and some of the ARAH in the picture but not the modern figures I see every day of the week online.

I don't own any modern joes or ARAH at the moment but it's my emotional reaction to an 80' Joe knock off that keeps me flirting with the idea of jumping back into true 3 3/4" - ARAH
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dbl post

There's nothing really wrong with the modern-era Joes. They're impressively detailed, well-articulated, and generally well-painted action figures (a few glitches here and there notwithstanding but you can say that about any line). Certainly I regard them as superior to a number of other products presently on the shelves, and I'm certainly pleased that G.I. Joe still has some presence in the stores. I am also appreciative of the Club's efforts through Convention Sets and the FSS series in bringing us characters that otherwise wouldn't likely happen.

That said, I will always first and foremost be a RAH fan, and as others have said, Redmao, welcome back. The original Real American Hero set so many high standards for quality, creativity, and longevity that it has deservedly become a legend in pop culture. Its scope is global, its stories are epic, and with the possible exception of Transformers, I don't believe that its overall quantity of product has ever been matched.

When I think of Duke, or Baroness, or Storm Shadow, I think first of all of their 1984 figures. When I think of Horror-Show, I think of his 2004 figure.

I'm glad for the modern line. I'm glad for interesting figures like the Nano-BAT, the Jungle BAT, the Hazard-Viper, the Para-Viper, Zanya, and others. I'm glad for interesting modern takes on classic characters, like the Lamprey, Quarrel, and others. But the Real American Hero started with the Real American Hero line.

As nice as some of the modern era figures are, they can never fully replace the RAH crowd. I will always have a soft spot for RAH.

There's a magic that the early ARAH stuff has that can't be matched. The '82-'84 waves were amazing. The myth was still being sculpted from fresh material. It was fairly realistic at that point, with just a dusting of science fiction and ninjas. No monsters or aliens or resurrected historical leaders yet. The color scheme was mostly green and/or tan for the good guys, with blue or black for the bad guys.

Sure, the figure's thumbs broke off, but at least they could hold their weapons until then.

I wonder if kids introduced to the 25A/Modern Era figures today would find them superior if later introduced to ARAH figures. For most of us in our late 30's/early 40's, we'll never be able to see the newer figures the same way we saw the ARAH stuff because we're not kids now. Even when some of the 25A stuff is fantastic, it just doesn't hit me the same way looking at new ARAH stuff did 30 years ago.

Having said that, I believe that the magic really started to fade before the end of the ARAH line. The '85-'87 waves were almost as good the earlier waves, but not as much originality. And from '88 on, with a few notable figure/vehicle exceptions, the waves were so-so. The increasingly loud colors and themes didn't help.

I've accepted this but what bothers me is i feel that way about almost every toyline My Jada Toys custom fully pose able HALO Spartan figure with swivel biceps makes me smile when i fiddle with it on odd occasion as well as my WWE Micro Aggression figures but nothing else. I WANT to be excited about GI Joe figures though. I truly do. But..i'm just not. I still read the comics but for some reason there is a disconnect with regard to the toys.

...i wish i knew why.

Yeah, it sucks. But I find it liberating to know that in 6 billion years the sun is going to expand and destroy the earth and planets like an angry sow devouring her piglets. So anything that we accomplish will be undone in 6 billion years.

Honestly, I don't know if pigs ever freak out and eat their pig babies. Seems likely, though. They say that pigs are smarter than dogs, but that's not much of an accomplishment. Mostly dogs have good senses of smell and like to hang out with humans. Pigs become bacon. It's unfair, but so is the sun melting any and every surviving GI Joe figure 6 billion years from now.

I totally get what you're saying. I also find it difficult to get excited about new toys as I did, but this is part of growing older and tiptoeing towards old age and death. When we were 9 we didn't have to worry about house payments, employment, car payments, insurance, health. Maybe life gets more enjoyable again after retirement?

I'd bet most of us will still have some ARAH stuff around the house when we retire, so we'll find out.