Unlearn what you have learned...
 

So let's just say that you somehow had your memory wiped of ALL G.I. Joe character knowledge, i.e. File Cards, Comic Books, Cartoons, & Movies - heck, you wouldn't even remember what the card & box art looked like.

Then lets say some stranger dumps out a box of loose, bagged action figures - all the ARAH ones ever made onto a table in front of you (yeah, it would need to be a BIG table ;) ).

You have no idea who's a good guy, who's a bad guy, who was barely fleshed-out, who was arguably over-exposed. ALL you see are the figures themselves with no "baggage" or "sentimental favoritism". Similar to a young child discovering an object for the first time without any prior knowledge of it's purpose or backstory. Just a complete clean slate. He says you can take 5.

So, based purely on their appearance - head sculpt, body mold, uniform colors, accessories, weapons, any applicable "pets", who do you take?

I'm curious. :confused: Would Lobotomaxx crack the top 5? Would Snake Eyes be a shoe-in even if you knew nothing of his epic story? Would Cobra Commander sneak in without hearing Chris Latta's voice in your head when you looked at his figure?

Happy voting! :)

Fascinating, I suspect SE's popularity would plummet, after all the memory has been wiped. This reminds me of Peter Jackson saying he'd like to get hypnotized and have no memory of LOTR, then watch his movies and see what he thought of them. I'm sure we'd all be different with our collections this way, I probably wouldn't give a shit about Cobra with memory wipe, all that blue... lol. I would like to think I'd still be intrigued though.

BTW there is no poll, whats this about voting? I really can't make 5 choices without the memory wipe so I have to forgo that.

An interesting question! I guess I would pick Shipwreck v1, Ace v3, Serpentor, Snake Eyes v2 (the mask is very Medieval), and a Cobra Viper.

a long time ago in a thread far far away......
Someone was talking about his Hippy parents not letting him see StarWars (causa' the violence}, but giving him the Action Figures none the less......
He wrote up what his storylines were for everything and although I can't remember specifics... I remember they were really cool.
If I found a bag of guys (as a little guy) I'd treat 'em like army men, favor the cool accessory guys and have a boat load of Adventures!
You guys Know the complete line Betta' than me! Good Luck!

My choice:
 

I'd take Chuckles, Effects and Outback!
I love their A.R.A.H action figures!

P.S.: this is a great thread.

The nostalgia of the swivel necks wouldn't be there, so I'd probably pick all post 1984 figures because they'd seem better with that extra head movement.

Dusty V1
Big Ben
Falcon v1 (coolest army guys)
Low-Light v1 - i'd think he was a villain
BAT v1 - robots are cool

Snake-Eyes V2 is a possibility, or I might find him too odd.

Snow Serpent is a cool figure with cool gear. though I'd think the arctic guy is too limited.

This is TOUGH!
 

Yeah, I may have goofed there - I knew how to add "polls" on Facebook way back when, but not sure how to here....I guess we'll have to all just go on "the honor system" :D with maybe the yojoe archive figure photos for help :)

Thanks NJ!

GIJIWT - That sounds interesting!

SS80 - yeah, can't deny that visor!

Good points on the necks, Low-Light's allegiance, & Snow Serpent Lava!

Man, I just spent the last 15 minutes pouring over images from 82-94 and this is HARD!!
1.) SO many great figures
2.) It's difficult to keep self-wiping my memory - little tid-bits of info keep creeping in and I keep asking myself "Do you really like the FIGURE or are you fondly remembering a bit of characterization????"

The only no-brainer for me is 1983 Destro. That chrome head on an otherwise "normal" body!

Then, after him, I'd probably be that last indecisive kid at the table who kept mulling over a pile consisting of these ones:

1982 Stalker
1982 Cobra Commander
1983 Torpedo
1984 Baroness
1984 Blowtorch
1985 Dusty
1985 Eels
1985 Snow Serpent
1986 B.A.T.
1988 Shockwave
1988 Storm Shadow
1989 Night Viper
1989 Stalker

I'd probably settle on Destro, B.A.T., Baroness, Eel, and Night Viper because they'd have a symmetry as a team with the black outfits and silver/red highlights. Plus some of the coolest accessories came with all but Baroness.

Judging by appearances alone...
 

1) Cobra Commander - just appearance alone, I'd appoint him as the bad guy leader. Just by looking at the red logo on his chest that I could swear looks like a cobra.
2) Original Cobra Blueshirt (The Enemy) He just looks like a grunt meant for Mirror Face.
3) Snake Eyes. Simply by appearance, he is dressed in Black BDU's, he'd be my Infiltrator/Commando.
4) Shipwreck. Navy dungarees? Hells yeah! He is a tried and true 'Murican!
5) Breaker. ODs = American Soldier. His backpack and helmet w/mic = Communications/Radioman.

All original ARAHs. The other guys, I'll just separate the 'Murican soldiers first based purely on their uniforms. So brightly dressed guys ain't gonna make it in my team. So Blowtorch ain't gonna make the cut. Neither will Stormy. A ninja dressed in white? Bitch, please! Toss in the Reject pile.

Next, I will be noticing the Cobra logo on a few of the guys, I would put them all together. They will be my bad guys. Just looking at CoCo's uniform, he LOOKS like the leader. But Destro? He'd be in the Torchy pile, under WTF? Silver metallic head and dressed in what looks like a leisure suit with the top split wide open to show off his entire chest? Gay!!!

Honorable Mentions:
LowLight, I agree with Lava Boss, he looks like a villain but I would notice he does not have a logo on him, so I would make him a Sniper. He just looks it.

Scrap Iron. He will be up there in the bad guys' command structure. He just looks like a badass bad guy with a well designed suit.

Firefly. Just from the uniform and the accessories I know he is a Saboteur.

Then we have this guy...



My absolute favorite figure. He comes with cool accessories, too. But he looks like he could be related to Mirror Face but no logo. So I would make him my Independent Contractor. A Bad Guy with Heart. Conflicted. I wish they would have made a ME upgrade of this guy before Hasbro dissolved the GI Joe division.

The original vehicles would be a no-brainer, but the bad guys will only get the HISS, Stinger and the ATV. The BUGG, POGO, and SNAKE armor, WTF pile.

These are all based on appearances without any knowledge of their backgrounds. I will judge them based purely from my military experience. So a LOT of the other characters will not make the cut simply because of their bright colors. I would even surmise that they probably belonged to another line.

Just sayin'

'Mmmuuurrriiicccaaahhh!!!!!!
:D :D :D

The funny thing is, I didn't know any of the characters (practically) when I played with Joes as a kid, since most of the figures were my brother's, so I had some pretty weird favorites and stories for them. But if I lost my memories as an adult, I'd probably be attracted to more muted, realistic looking figures. So probably:

V1 Falcon
V1 Low Light
V1 Mainframe
V1 Snowserpent
V1 Frostbite

I'd prolly go for two arctic guys since I've always been fascinated by cold weather stuff, indiscriminately. It's hard to really say though.

Results so far....
 

Interesting feedback! Thanks everybody - it seems that Falcon, Low-Light, & Snow-Serpent seem to be in the lead so far. Hopefully some more folks will weigh in too with their thoughts - best part is, there is no wrong answer - it's been fun seeing everyone's reasoning for their choices too.




^ Whaaaaaaa? ;) No love for "Ninja-Blanco"? :p

Is it me or does Franco Nero look a bit like Otto? A secret past mayhaps :confused:

Susan George is HOT! :D
FN does resemble him a little bit. :)
I think Hama was the only one who saw this movie. :)

My Vote
 

If I could pick 5 guys soley on appearance, they would pretty much be the same 5 guys that i have always gravitated too my whole life.

Stalker 82-83
Snow Serpent 85
Falcon 87
Hit & Run 88
Big Ben 1991


I have always tended to go towards the more realistic figures, characters aside. These 5 (minus Stalker in piece count) had awesome accessories too, which added to their cause.

5 Figures I always enjoyed because of their mystique if you will has been:
1. Destro 1983
2. Big Boa 1987
3. Royal Guard 1987
4. Rapid Fire 1990
5. Cloudburst 1991

Exactly why I can't give you a list. ALL of us have our little biases when it comes to this. Without actually wiping memory I can only give you a biased list.

HA! I was gonna say.... you make Franco Nero a mute & have him and Sho Kosugi switch their black & white outfits - then throw in those red ninjas as extras and you've basically got the whole Arashikage aspect of ARAH :D

Heck, maybe even Scarlett being from Atlanta Georgia is a nod to Susan GEORGE.... ;)

Thanks for weighing in Hit & Run!

Looks Like Falcon & probably Snow Serpent will be 2 of the final 5.

What does everyone say if we leave the "voting" open through the end of June and then I can tally the preferences and on the 4th Of July, I'll post the results of the top 5 "appearance only" vote getters. Heck, I'll list EVERY figure who gets a vote & put it in descending order, and the top 5 can have bragging rights :)

That's okay Snakeling - you're absolutely right - it's far from a perfect science by a long shot and unfortunately with this sort of "what if" question, our biases ARE gonna seep in..... :o I completely get what you're saying & I respect the choice to refrain from listing on this one, but if you decide to do a 'biased list' just for kicks, that's cool too :)

That's the tough part, because it's sentimentality that gives GIJoe so much value to me. But this was a fun challenge, and here are my choices and "thoughts":

• BAT (robots are cool; great swappable accessories & hologram!)

• Beach Head v1 (masked badass; looks cooler than Snake Eyes)

• Alley Viper v5 (great camo, needs a better gun though, maybe Low-Light's)

• Alpine v1 (great gear; fun figure)

• Low-Light (great gear; how does the Uzi fit on his leg?)

Honorable Mention:
Night Viper v1 (great figure; jungle ops? needs a better gun)
Storm Shadow v1 (why does this knock-off have such awesome weapons?)

Falcon v1
Firefly v1
Footloose v1
Alpine v1
Dusty v1

I'd like to think Recondo v1, Cobra Officer v1.5 (swivel arm), Destro v1 and Major Bludd v1 would be strong considerations as well.

Having no idea about their characters or backstory, I would probably pick the jungle camo joes that would look like a team if all 5 were next to each other...
87 Falcon
88 Hit & Run
85 Footloose
87 Tunnel Rat
89 Backblast

If I was looking for villains, I'd probably go...
88 Destro (leader)
84 Baroness
89 Night Viper
85 Snake Eyes (c'mon, if you didn't know his back story you would think he's a villain)
84 Firefly

Nice idea to add the pictures in Marty! :)

Well, as of right now, here's the leaders:

Falcon = 5 votes
Low-Light = 3 votes
B.A.T. = 3 votes

2 votes each for:
Shipwreck
Snake Eyes V2
Dusty
Big Ben
Baroness
Night Viper
Snow Serpent
Hit & Run
Alpine
Firefly
Footloose

1 vote each for:
Ace V3
Serpentor
Viper
Chuckles
Effects
Outback
Destro
Eel
Cobra Commander
Cobra
Snake Eyes
Breaker
Mainframe
Frostbite
Stalker
Beach Head
Alley Viper V5
Tunnel Rat
Backblast
Destro V2

It seems that about 1/2 - 2/3 of the "familiar faces" around the site of late have weighed in already. If you're reading this thread in "guest mode", now's a perfect time for you to select an avatar, decide on a call-sign, and give your 2 cents on this ;)