Snake-Eyes as a ninja.

I've sold my 85 SE even now. SE is a COMMANDO. That's it. Thats all. Dude's got mad skills blowing stuff up and killing people with an uzi, but no chop-socky for my guy.

Also – Arashikage doesn't exist to me. Oh, and Storm Shadows sworn enemy? Spirit. You heard me, choke on it comics guys.

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I'm not a big fan of the following:

- the cartoon series
- the Brain Wave Scanner
- Dr Mindbender (any multi-purpose generic "scientist/inventor")
- anything even removely related to cyborgs

I do like Ninjas, though.

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the cartoon.

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Oh, this thread is tailor-made for me.

-Ninjas: same for me. I can live with Storm Shadow, although I never really gave a crap about him, either. But Snake-Eyes is a commando to me, and everybody else is just a figure I have around for nostalgia purposes. Martial arts really isn't my deal, either, so Quick-Kick gets lumped in there, too.

-Repaint Subgroups: Tiger Force, Python Patrol, etc. I don't like 'em. To me, they're just worse versions of figures that I already had. The only ones I bought as a kid were to replace figures that were lost or broken (Copperhead and Recondo, mainly), and even then I didn't really enjoy them. The only subgroup that I think was worth the plastic they were molded out of were Sky Patrol, because they had new heads and were obscure enough molds that it made them seem like completely different characters. Now that I think about it, some of the Night Force figures were pretty cool, though, so I guess I'm a hypocrite.

-Serpentor: not for me, thank you. I own one, but it's just a curiousity to me.

-Sgt. Slaughter: to understate it, I don't like pro wrestling. And, the fact that the cartoon made him practically invincible didn't help. Which reminds me...

-The Cartoon: while I have some fond memories of the first two miniseries, I'm just not into it. Lasers, parachutes, and poor aim are all I see when I watch it.

-While I don't hate the 25th figures (I like them well enough), I don't think they're really an improvement, either. It's nice to have new Joe stuff to buy and work with, but I'm a little mystified by the near-unanimous belief that they're so much better than the ARAH stuff. As a customizer, they're a nightmare, and the proportions aren't exactly stellar (unless you love anime or think Manute Bol is the Vitruvian man).

-Billy: he's already been covered, but he's a very cutesy concept that I've never cared for.

-The first Night Creeper figure: a purple ninja wearing Zubaz? I don't even know where to start on that one.

That's enough for now. But when the "which specific figures do you dislike" thread starts, that'll be fun.

Things I never really cared for (in no particular order):

Ninjas- except for Jinx because Asian chicks rock

The cartoon- except for a few episodes that were fun, it was crap and almost totally unwatchable today.

Too many specialty Vipers- they should have just stuck to specially accessorized blue-shirts/basic Vipers like in the early comics except for situations where different uniforms were required for survivability (Toxo-Vipers, Eels, Snow-Serpents, Astro-Vipers, etc.).

Snake Eyes as anything but a kick-ass commando.

The introduction of unneeded "celebrities" into the ranks of the Joe team.

Sub Team "repaints".

Duke- no need to elaborate, I'm sure most understand already

The Buzzboar- stupid, pointless little vehicle.

Spring-loaded oversized accessories

Neon colors.

The Star Brigade storyline was not developed further (I still do not have a Predacon ).

That's all I got right now, it's late and my brain is tired

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people's Hama worship. sorry, but some of the ideas in the old comic are dumb, and the constant reference-dropping of nicknames and whatnot comes across as forced & a bit weak.

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The Original 13--- Far better characters were made afterwards who were visually cooler and had more interesting personalities. Only three of the 13 became popular on their own merits, the rest to me are beneficiaries of being historically significant to the toyline.

The backstory of Cobra Commander in the comic--- brother goes crazy, kills himself, oh and its all connected to Snake Eyes. Bah. It was overly convoluted and dumb.

Billy--- The pages wasted on this punk getting trained by Storm Shadow. It is painful to read. I see every annoying kid that ever appeared in fiction in Billy. He existed only for Cobra Commander to kill, and it never even happened. The conflict is Cobra vs. GIJoe, not the bad soap opera of Cobra Commander's failed personal life.

Snake Eyes--- I see no appeal in a mute, unstoppable killing machine that is seemingly connected with every member of Cobra. Even GhostBear is out to get him! Ho hum ho hum. Snake Eyes has become a bad parody of himself. He is to GIJoe what HHH is to the WWE.

Storm Shadow as a Joe (as well as other Cobras reforming)--- LAME! This kind of junk leads to horrible plotdivices like Cobra Commander using the brainwave scanner on a bunch of people to get back his command. Create a good rogue's gallery, don't reform them. We're left with the B-teamers if so. Only Mercer should of ever defected from Cobra.

Tracker Kwinn--- A hypocrite who had a weird vendetta against Dr. Vemon, when as far as I can tell, it was the Baroness who caused him and Snake Eyes to get suck at the bottom of that river.

Larry Hama--- the comic was unreadable at some points because of silly plot twists, his hard-on for ninjas, the bad artwork, and his take on GIJoe is only one part that made it a success. The comic went downhill after the Civil War.

Unobtainable toys--- A large problem in toy collecting. Makes me cynical.

Reusing molds--- I don't care how many times people spin this, but I hate it, hate it, hate it.

hmmm..

-O-rings: I hated these damn things when I was a kid and I hate them now. So glad Hasbro got rid of them. It only took them 20 odd years to do it. The things were cheap and broke easily. They didn't improve articulation in any real way, either. I just don't get the hard-on fans have for the things.

-RAH: This line is over 20 years old! It does not stand up to today's products AT ALL. Just give it a rest already. It isn't 1985 any more. RAH was good when it came out, but its time is LONG past.

-Dr. Mindbender: Okay, how the hell is this guy Cobra's top scientist? He's a DENTIST, not a scientist. Those are two very different professions. Now, I can see him as a torturer, but not as a scientist. How exactly does a guy in purple pants, a codpiece, suspenders, no shirt and a weird robe/cape thing even get that high a rank in the first place?

-Dreadnoks: ugh. Really lame concept that was just trying to cash in on Mad Max's style. If they wanted to do it right, they should have tried to emulate the look of the bad guys out of Fist of the North Star(which pulled that look off and improved on it if you ask me). Really though, why did Cobra have a bunch of inept bikers handling all of their special operations? Does that even make any sense?

-Serpentor: Okay, I like the concept of Serpentor, I just hate the execution of his design. He looks more like a luchador than a world conquering emperor. Devil's Due, if they pulled off one thing correctly, it was their redesign of Serpentor. The 25th figure did a decent job of giving the guy some dignity as well.

and while this is about what we hate and other liked, I'm gonna change it up a bit here and do this last one the other way around. I actually liked Cobra La. Its a stupid name, yes. But, the concept of them was cool. Sure, Cobra Commander being one of them could have been changed a bit or removed entirely, but that one bad element aside, they were kind of neat. But, maybe I just liked them because I like anime and that's the anime nerd in me that can appreciate a bunch of insectoid monsters living in the Himalayas or wherever the hell that was.

Great idea for a thread. I might make a few enemies with this post.

-The Original 13.
The only reason we even got many of these characters was that Hasbro had to maximize the molds by spreading their use around a little bit. Their figures are boring, scrawny, undetailed, have terrible headsculpts and have been replaced by better figures. Even in 1982 their heavy parts reuse was indicitative of Hasbro's lack of confidence in the launch.

Duke.
I don't like the character. He's a walking cliche. He's a backgrounder in my verse. Flint, Stalker, and Beachhead lead my team.

Serpentor.
I like the story of his creation far more than the actual character. The character is beyond lame and doesn't exist in my verse. I own one only because he came in a comic pack I wanted. I don't own either the vintage or 25th versions, and don't plan to.

Spirit.
This guy's continued popularity baffles me. I believe he's only popular because he came out pre-'87. He is literally a cliche, even moreso than Duke. Anything more I have to say would likely violate board rules, so I'll stop myself here. Needless to say he doesn't exist in my verse.

Tiger Force and Python Patrol.
I find both of these concepts ridiculous. Not a single one of them is an improvement over the base figure. Not one. Don't get me started on the vehicles.

Post '87 Hatred
Yes, Cobra-La was epic failure. But I also think a lot of collectors simply outgrew GI Joe at this time, and look back on it as the time "GI Joe got lame & stuff". There were plenty of good figures released each year from '88-'94.

'82-'86 Golden years
On the same note, not every figure released in the so-called "golden years" was a slam-dunk. As I mentioned, the original 13 don't impress me, and these were the same years which gave us Spirit, the HISS Driver, Wild Bill v1, Deep Six, Bazooka, Quick Kick, Zandar, Zarana and Serpentor.

Blind Hama Worship
I like the comic, I like Larry's work. But I don't live and die by the comic, and refuse to believe that Larry is the only person alive who can pen a good GI Joe story.

Haters.
Awful lot of haters in this hobby. People love to poop all over Devils Due, Hasbro, the Club, the 25th figures, the previous new sculpts, etc etc. While some criticism is valid it gets very tiring reading the same venom all the time. I don't like Serpentor, but I won't call someone's sanity or fanliness into question if they do like him.

Haha some cool stuff here. I like how Spectre mentions Buzz Boar. Does anyone actually like that vehicle, like the thread title suggests?

I'm probably just going to repeat stuff already mentioned:


Duke
A walking cliche, like so many others have mentioned. The 25th with flag made me laugh out loud. Thankfully he was not used a lot in the old comics. But the original figure, I have to admit, is a solid one, and has a well deserved place in my display. Leader of the Joes? That's Hawk.

Tiger Force (and other repaint series)
I hate Tiger Force with a passion. We were overwhelmed with these sometime horrbile repaints, while the normal versions were impossible to find. I have owned at least 6 TF Outbacks, but I have never even seen a normal one.
I hate Python Patrol with a passion, cause it marked the last comic to be released in Norway, and the final issue we got was so anti-climatic.

4 inch figures
The old Joes are 3.75. Why are they suddenly making them 4 inches?! How hard is it to make the exact same figure only a tiny bit smaller, so they match my old figures? Or is it the contemporary toy companies' need to seperate themselves from the superior "competion" in vintage figures?

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Interesting thread...and not much I'll add is anything more than a rehash...

Sunbow cartoon: No I love it and my 'verse is based largely on it, but I echo Jedsoon's thoughts some about the plots. I prefer the more "epic" 5 parters and 2 parters. I'm kind of ambivalent toward season 2 with the whole Serpentor/Dr. Mindbender thing, and hate the second half with the introduction of some new characters and dropping of old favorites. And what was with all the goofy monster stuff? That drove me nuts.

Serpentor/Dr. Mindbender: I don't like either of them. The only redeeming thing I can see about Serpentor was that he was a threat to Cobra Commander, and I always hoped CC would get rid of him.

Snake Eyes as a ninja: He's a commando. I never read the comics, but I know enough of the 'verse to say that I can't help rolling my eyes about the whole CC-Storm Shadow-Snake Eyes-Billy plot line. I do like Storm Shadow to a point...but in the Sunbow verse he was never prominent and that was ok with me.

Sgt. Slaughter: It bugs me that Sunbow's season 2 revolved too much around him. I hated the character.

Cobra La: I'm not even sure I have much to say about it. I'm into fantasy and all that, but that was just over the top.

As far as toys go...

Weird versions of figures with weird colors and proportions.

A bunch of different sublines that are basically rehashes of existing figures...like Tiger Force and Python Patrol. I just thought they were silly.

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Sgt SlaughterBig wrestler who kept on yelling all the time.
Heavy Duty Cheap Roadblock knock off.
Tiger force and Python patrol. Seriously, what's the point? Let's make sub teams with matching uniforms...
Ninja force I'm a big ninja fan, but I hate figures with a gimmick.and the that there were too many ninjas at some point.
Scrap Iron never knew why, but I always hated that figures.

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wow i got replies.

cartoon/comics.
i actually never really paid attention to either,me and my friends took the figure and the
name and just made it all up ourselves.

neon colors.
ughhh i lost all interest in joe for years because of the colors that started showing up
in the late 80s through about the mid 90s.


duke.
hahah good to see so many others think hes lame.

ninjas.
because i didnt read the comic or watch the cartoon, i did consider snake eyes a ninja
and storm shadow his mortal enemy.and i loved when quick kick came out because it gave
me a non ninja martial arts guy,and when jinx came out i thought she was cool.
but thats it,after that no ninjas.

serpentor.
ohmygod he seriously had alot to do with my losing interest in joe.

billy.
i have no idea whatsoever who this is?
but from what im reading here it reminds me of the richie character
i despised on highlander the series.

cobra la.
again i hear people make fun of it alot in here but i have no idea what cobra la is?
and i guess thats a good thing.

o rings.
have to mention them again after what some others have said.
i never liked them,and i dont know how many figues i basically lost in my youth
because i had no idea how to fix a broken band.
the fact that the old accessorie packs didnt come with about 5 replacement o rings in them
i find sort of insulting.

broken thumbs.
AAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

real celebrities.
never cared for slaughter or anyone else.


not to argue with anyone or disagree with anyone elses opinion but i personally
loved the original 13.
the fact that they all looked kind of similar and actually sort of soldier
like is what i liked about them.
part of my later loss of interest in joes is because they started getting to unsoldier looking.

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You know reading some of you guys replys to this thread makes me wonder why you even like G.I. Joe at all. I mean if theres that much to hate why not move on to something like star wars, transformers, or just grow up and forget that you were ever lame enough to play with joes at all?

As for me, I love ninjas, Love the original 13, Billy dosent bother me, Snake eyes is even more of a bad ass commando because he had ninjitsu training, Loved the comic, loved the cartoons, loved the figures (although the neon colors did bug me) but nothing like the dripping venom I'm reading from some of you guys. Love RAH, Liked new sculpt well enough, and Love 25th figures.

I just dont get why if there is so much hate for something why even bother associating yourself with it at all.

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I'm sure there are fans of them but I really never liked a new uniform for even the most slightly specialized trooper. Some specialized uniforms were needed for figthing in the artic regions of the world, for below the waves, or handling hazardous materials, but by geeky do you really need a specialized uniform because you carry a machine gun or the radio. Far too many of the specialized troopers could have been covered by the standard Viper uniform with a different helmet and back pack. Had to be a field day for Low Light being able to pick out all the specialist from 2 miles away.

Not enough of the mad genious types on the other hand though. I always hated that Mindbender had to be an expert on every single thing on Earth because Cobra couldn't hire a few more mad men or mad women to cover the super science.

Cared for Tiger Force and Python Patrol about as much as ninja-mania and neon colors.

Not too crazy about most of my old vehicles will not fit the 25th figures and new vehicles don't look too likely until the live action movie. Maybe the HISS will get some ground clearance at last and maybe moveable tracks.