Best Year?

[General Jones]

I was just thinking about this last night and thought that I would pose the question to the group. Which year do you think produced the the best army builders, and Why? For me I think that it would have to be 86 with 85 as a close second. I have always liked the AVAC, Vipers, Strato Vipers, and BATS. All around I think that was the best year. What are your thoughts?

[Sonneilon]

I'd like to answer this, but I don't honestly know. Like, I like the stuff they are doing now! So whenever the Blueshirts and Vipers came out (2007?), those are the bomb to me. Or whatever year produced the NeoVipers (w/ o-ring).

[Prince Adam]

'85 is my favorite Joe year. Some of the most iconic Joes were released, not to mention the best version of Snake Eyes, great Cobra troops (CGs, Serpents, Eels), the Twins, the 3 main 'Noks, and of course who could forget the vehicles! :D

After '85 would definitely be '84. Similar to '85 there were some great Joes that year like Recondo and Roadblock and Ripcord to name a few. The Cobras that year were also top shelf stuff! As we saw Zartan, Stormy, and the Baroness. Not to mention we got both the Whale and the Water Mocassin.

Other than those as my big two I'm really fond if '86 and '83. There was a lot of killer stuff in particular around '86, like General Jones said. '87 to me was kind of a blah year but there were some good releases in it. Then there's '88 which in my opinion is one of the most underrated Joe years.

I guess to map it out I'd go with:

85
84
86
83
88
82
87
89
90

[Roland da Thompson Gunner]

1983, if only due to the fact that there is not a bad figure released. Cover Girl is the worst and even then she's a write-off due to the fact that between 1982 and now there's been one decent female figure mold.

85 has two really bad figures (Tollbooth and Quick Kick) and was marred by a design change (Tomax and Xamot, Flint, and the Tele Viper are big victims of the new neck joint) 86 is a dawning of a new era and 84 is better in theory than execution (IE: Recondo is nice figure to look at, except his torso's mad bulky and gun is terrible) and had a real stinker (Blowtorch)

[Outrider]

1985 to 1988 is the golden period for me, with 1989 almost getting in there too. For pure army building it's hard to beat 1985 - CG's, Tele Vipers and Snow Serpents are all super cool. Then there's 1983 - it's hard to beat swivel arm Cobra Officers and Troopers!

[Lava Boss]

From best to worst:

1985 was the most awesome year. Cobra could've stop right there and be fine, except lacking a basic generic pilot.

1986: For better or worse, redoes the basic ground forces. Adds two pilot classes, plus the so-so Motor Vipers.

1983: Swivel arm Troopers, officers, glider pilots and HISS drivers...I could almost be content with those alone.

1990: Solid bunch of enemy army builders, weakest being SAW-Viper, based on his appearance.

1989: new troops and repaints. Some of are limited use (TARGAT) though.

1987: Techno Viper, Royal Guard (strange but cool) and some nice drivers.

1991: Immortal and Desert Scorpions, plus some other decent troopers

1988: IG's stand out here. The rest are honestly disposable in the big picture, except maybe Toxo Viper.

1992: Flak Viper and Headhunter and Air Devil

1993: Some new molds that deserved better.

1994: Much the same.

1984: Wow...stinger driver.

[Death_at_Midnight]

2008/2009 the year Resolute Troopers came out.. b/c now I can afford to army build, whereas in the 80's I could only watch and wish.

[zedhatch]

For pure army building I have to go with 1989. Here is why.

Python Patrol: While many feel this subset was "Shoot me yellow" I used them as an eliete branch of serpantor (due to thier colors) so things like PP crimson Guard were actually his bodyguards. Also I love the look of the Officer, its hard to top it (I actually like it better than the original blue, the black just works for me). Viper was supdued enough to pass as well. Tele Viper and Troopers were also used as Serpantors personal guards and thus the whole subset really worked for me.

Alley Viper: Orange and blue shouldn't work, on paper its a match made in hell, but really with this figure it looks awesome, probably my all time fave army builder just due to the fact he has colors that shouldn't work.

Frag Viper: At first I though WTF then I started thinking about useing the Jia Jiali tosser for granades and honeslty I felt this is exaclty what cobra would try to do. Something off the wall but still you could see someone coming up with it.

Night Viper: Hey Cobra now has snipers.

HEAT Viper: While I wasn't a fan of the colors, the idea was pretty awesome to me. I went with it.

Anihilators: OK again some coloring issuesbut gyrocoper troopers were pretty darn original.

TARGAT: Just an off the wall consept that got my gears in motion, fun toy and exactly what a toy should be.

Track Viper, could have very easily had been a repaint of Hiss Driver but they bulked him up a bit and gave him a combat engeer status to go along with it.

You had the generic "Any man" troops and the specialists all in one year so how could you lose really. While I like 85 and 86, for pure army building 88, 89, and 90 had tons of new sepcialist vipers which to my mind cobra sorely needed at the time.

89 is also the year that brought me back to Joe after a 3 year hiatus, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for that year.

[troopsofdoom]

[QUOTE=Roland da Thompson Gunner]85 has two really bad figures (Tollbooth and Quick Kick) and was marred by a design change (Tomax and Xamot, Flint, and the Tele Viper are big victims of the new neck joint)[/QUOTE]
What could you have against the head ball joint? I thought that was a excellent upgrade. More poseability the better.

[HissCommander]

2008! Those 25th BATs are SWEET!!!

[neapolitan joe]

[COLOR=Red][SIZE=6]1985[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Rambo]

[QUOTE=zedhatch]For pure army building I have to go with 1989. [/QUOTE]

Agree with the Zed.