ARAH photo section
 

Is that particular section catering to all that is o-ring?

Or is it only for the figures made before 2002?

(Cuz in 2002, Hasbro re-launched the GI Joe brand with what fans of then called "The Bastard Era", "Nu Skulpt Era" and/or "The Theme Years". While retaining the o-rings (for the most part), a lot of the figures had new construction and sculpting. "bastard era" title came from the fact that GI Joe seemed to be in transition in terms of their builds.)

It was themed after Craig's Flickr group, which was for any o-rings.

Nobody except you calls them the "b*stard era"

I call it the " I spent way to much money on a lot of crappy figures Era".

Actually a lot of guys on the JBL used that term, especially in chat. And the original old guard here tended to call it that too. :P

I feel that way with 90% of the vehicles from that era. Talk about getting sucked into JUNK!

Bingo!

I've seen plenty of people on several boards refer to it as the "Bastard Era."



It seems like the good figures from that era were really good, but the bad ones just sucked out loud and dominated the line.
Same with the vehicles, there were a lot of really good ones, but some really craptacular ones as well.

The list of short-torso'd figures is really long. And the rash of pretty lame figures and even their personalities were poor too.

Samples of the good and bad.
Hi-Tech. Say what you want about him, but I actually like the guy. The figure is pretty lame but seeing how Mainframe (or Dataframe) wasn't made, I kinda had to use this. He got some fun airtime in Valor vs Venom and in Sigma6, he was pretty cool.

Sgt. Hacker. Part of the Spy Troops theme, he was a horrible figure and didn't do much for the case of new characters being cool. Card art has him wearing glasses but the toy didn't have 'em. His Spy Troops disguise, iirc, was supposed to be Firefly.

Crosshair. Replaced LowLight as the sniper. Great design and the figure, to some, was the bomb. I found the figure hard to use in that "what gun can he actually hold with those crappy hands?". The hairstyle killed it for me and if you took him apart, he had a really big head too. Still, he was a welcome addition to the mythos unlike this guy...

Dr. Link Talbot. Made for VvV, he was a veternarian. Yeah, he was a SEAL at one time but he still got beat by Scarlet. My experience, NOBODY liked this wingnut.

Alley Viper v2. These short-torso'd dudes were an attempt at... uh... Let's say Hasbro was experimenting with the construction of their figures having removable weapons on their upper body. In the AVs case, it was a knife. The figure seemed half done in that, he prolly should have had some sort of mask or visor. The pegs on the head indicate that.

Viper (reimagined). Also part of the VvV theme, these guys were... Personally I liked 'em tho the other 95% of the JBL community (and then some) hated them. I still wonder why there are 2 small holes on the side of their heads (again, prolly for some sort of visor).

Hard Drive. MAYBE the design on paper was ok, but the final execution was horrible. Soft edges, horrible paint apps (in both color and how it was applied most of the time), and an uninteresting character didn't garner any love for him.

Barrel Roll. I personally prefer the 1st sculpt but the brown/red is much better than the Cobra Blue (he was a Spy Troops and was supposed to fit in Cobra-wise). HIS DTC version was pretty bad even if they based his likeness on one of the sculptors. What made this guy popular was... Uh... I think the fact that his brother was the sniper bad guy (forgot his name).

Bombstrike. Finally, a new female to the Joe ranks and she came off pretty good. My only beef with her is the big GI Joe logo on her shirt. Besides being female, she was Barrel Roll and whatshisname's sister which made an interesting dynamic in the comic. NOT that she got much time, as far as I know.

That's enough characters there for ya.

As far as THIS sites goes. (see what I did there) He does have a point. Regardless of JBL or this mythical old guard That term really hasn't been used here except for your posts.

Just sayin.

You use caps better than anybody I know. There's this old guard in the bank next to my store and he says that nobody has ever called them that...and he's like 80 :D

Ah, thanks for that clarification, DT. Makes more sense now.

The 'mythical old guard' was constituted of General Hawk, Leo T Dragon, Luke Ellison (or whatever name he went by), ViolentFix, Hammerfel, and uh... Those are the few that come to mind. I come from the 2nd wave which included Outrider (he was prolly the 1st), Lord Raven, ToneGuns, CodeRedShockwave, Lehsreh, Ender098, Silencer, etc. For a long time, the group stayed pretty consistent and then BAM, we get this huge influx where the newcomers (no offense to the term) posted a LOT more than we were (w/ exception to, of course, Outrider who was a machine when posting pictures).

Luis, Nate or Frank might be able to conjure up more names from the elders who used to reside here before moving on.

The world needs more old guards. There is after all a lot of stuff worth guarding.

So we have "waves" of "guards" here on joedios? Just when I think we couldn't further alienate the little clicks we have here........

Just saying, the guys that we came after pretty much set up the rules and whatnot here. We followed how things were done. I was giving kudos to the members who came AFTER the Sigma6 days when tons of pictures were posted daily. (well, there were a lot of S6 pics posted but it was by the same people). The JD definitely has larger diversity now which is good. There'd be days where nothing new would be posted or it'd be the same 3-5 people.

The whole clique thing is amusing. If you want to call the crew that talks on MSN a clique, so be it. Anyone can jump on there if they want. It just happens that a bunch of us wanted to actually chat and get to know each other and MSN was the easiest way (over yahoo or whatever). Is the old guard a clique? I suppose so just as the geriatric guard before us could've been considered one. I could classify the Flickr users as their own clique but perhaps I'd be part of it IF I actually used it. Which I don't. (I already have photobucket so I could care less about another photo hosting site)

I just chill people with those I'm comfortable with. Sometimes I seek 'em out, other times, we seek each other out. Just happens. Not really a big thing.

It's Simple Yo!
 

Okay bak to topic if it has an O'ring ( a rubber piece of plastic) then it's O'ring. RAH (do i have to type it out?) Then "I" would say it's anything that looks feels and smells like the oys we all played with as kids in the 80's ERA.

Arah
 

That era had some cool stuff when I collected O- Ringed Joes. The October Guard finally came out. There were the Blueshirts, who for some reason were quite pricey. Ninja Battles, 3packs, Cobra Night Force, Urban Strike Team. There were alot of diamonds to be had out of the stuff that came out.I found it to be better than when the ARAH line hit the 90's. In 2002, I was excited again and looked forward to all the new releases. The vehicles were alright; but I loved what Devil's Due did with the comic and with crossovers. Then I saw the 25th and was blown away by the quality. I know alot of people don't like the 25th and I respect that. The ARAH days were alot of fun though. Props to those who collect them and photograph them. They'll always be in my heart!!

I'm not sure if the Plague feels like the toys I played with in the 80s. lol And, I got the sense it's really reserved for o-rings before 2002's Joe vs Cobra theme and beyond. So I posted them in the regular photos section.

Sure they have the Goofy Gorilla arms and bulky feel but they is what they is O'ring inners so they are O's to "me" anyways. Like I said RAH lookk like the RIVETED hard plastic from the 80's BUT THAT"S ME.................... :o

Sonnelion, I was never a part of this group you keep referencing. I'm the founding member of the "JoeDios Guard", and all who post here, or used to and left on good terms, are a part of the "JoeDios guard".

Please stop using terms like "Old Guard" and "B*stard figures" here, as they are divisive.

Since the introduction of the ARAH section, the quality of the images across ALL sections of the site has improved dramatically, partially by veterans returning and raising the bar, and partially through inspiration.

In fact, I'm about to post a watercraft shot that was inspired by a Prince Adam ARAH shot he entered into the HISS Tank contest.

You guys don't get it. Nate, you were here at the beginning. Those veterans ARE the old guard (or as I often joke, the geriatric guard). And they're all gone now, right? The real point, there's a point where the old folks aren't respected or paid attention to. And that's what some of us feel like, those of us that have been here for years. I also understand that new blood comes in and the old is often swept away. Nothing wrong with that.

The Bastard Era of GI Joe figures is directed toward the 2002-2005 figures, usually up to Sigma6. It's actually a common term among the community. Just as what came after the 25th Anniversary is commonly referred to as Modern Era or Modern Age figures. Then ROC and POC and and and...

Old guard is your label for the first people to join, and again, it's divisive. Worse yet, it doesn't matter. No one is getting "swept away". You attitude of "us vs them", old guard vs new blood is divisive and I'm tired of it. We're JoeDios, regardless of when we joined.

!!!!SIC DETH likes this!!!!

About the original question of this thread, the ARAH section is indeed confusing. The original post that introduced it, says this : "this section if for ARAH and O-ring figures only". This would include New Sculpt era figures too (GIJoe vs Cobra, Valor vs Venom, Direct To Consumer...).

However, the same post also says : "We have a large part of our community who prefer the classic style" and further talks only about ARAH. "Classic style" clearly excludes New Sculpt figures (but includes the ARAH-styled figures released in the same period, such as the blueshirts and the comic packs). And of course, the section is titled "ARAH", not "ARAH and other O-ring styles" or something like that.

So, either define the section as being for ARAH-style figures (aka "Classic Sculpt") or rename the section to include "O-ring" in its title.

Personally, I feel the first option is the more logical one. If the purpose of the ARAH section indeed was to cater to the nostalgics among us, then there's no point in including New Sculpt figures.

Cant we all just get along? :D

word

I just post all my shots in "Photos" just because I use both types of figures.

Is there really a need for a topic like this?

I'm not taking sides here I think we can start to act a little clever and forgive some mistakes or misplaced pictures here and there.

Hey people! We are talking about T-O-Y-S, TOYS!

Now that I come to think about it, there's of course a third option: get rid of that section altogether. Then it's impossible to post in the wrong section and there won't be any divisions or doubts or arguments or threads like this one and we would all be one big happy family !

I don't think it was ever meant for ARAH alone. The section was designed by Nate after Craig and Xander's site on flickr, which Nate is a member of, which was for any o-ring figure. I don't think the section is divisive at all, its just meant to be convenient for o-ringers to post and look. Craig and Xander had a great tag line, "No o-ring, no screws, no service!" :D

I asked Sonneilon in a PM to stop trying to chop up JD into groups of "us vs. them" and he asked to be banned. I granted his request. I guess he'd rather be a member of "the Old guard" than a JoeDios member. Closing this thread.

This is exactly right, but it doesn't fit into a snappy 4-word catch phrase like "A Real American Hero" does, so the title of the gallery stays as-is. :)