I agree completely. There were duds but all in all the series was much better that the regular comic of the time - I know because I was collecting both back in the day. I was also disinclined to collect the regular series when it became Snake Eyes featuring GI Joe (Ninja Force), and the Eco Force was crappy because it was nothing but neon rereleases of the other equipment. Cobra-La (Ha,Ha) was a joke, Star Brigade was an insult and the Tiger Force/Sky Patrol weren't even close to the military equivalent.

I loved the GI Joe - A REAL American Hero. When things went out into X-Men weirdsville, I disconnected.

Let's see

tiger force

Cobra la

star brigade ( a few gem molds though)

Manimals

shadow ninjas (this was even worse than ninja force)

the 25th bodystyle

slaughters maurauders

battle force 2000

the new movie

neon color schemes and weapons

sound attack

t crotch figures

gimmics like sound backbacks, etc (we did get great figures with them though)

The worst concept to me was the Lunartrix empire.
Aliens? GI Joe is going to fight aliens with english names? Gah.

Hmm...lets see...

NEON COLORS!!!

Regardles of what sub-team or whatever a figure belongs to, neon colors will ruin him/her 100% sure.

I.e, as bad as concepts like Star Brigade or Ninja Force were, neon colors was the biggest issue for me, as it ruined sometimes a perfectly good mold (imagine how different, and perhaps cool, Dojo, T'jabang + others would have looked if not in neon-frigging-colors)

So NO more Neon...ever!

Know what I hated? The 3 vehicles in one (or two in one, etc), like the Mamba, the Mean Dog, the Maggot, the Condor. All cool Vehicles, but their parts were crappy. They should have just left them as one!

Th Raider was cool, but split it into 2 parts and your guns are stranded!?!? WTF? The only vehicle I think that did the 3-in-1 concept well was the ThunderClap. Yeah, the little cars on the end were crap, but it made sense. It was like they took an old WWI rail gun and, using small tractors made it more mobile!

I don't consider The Rolling thunder a 2 or 3 in one. The little Car on it was an extra. And the revolving missile carousel, stupid, but tolerable! The Whale had two cool detachable things, the minibike and the sled. The Night Raven's pod was ok and the Havoc's hovercraft was alright.

What about Destro's Dominator? If it's a tank it's heavily armored...then how can it fly? If it's a Helicopter, how can it have enough Armor to be a tank on the ground?

Battleforce 2000? Great Idea, crappy concept. I was soooo excited to get a new fortress, until I realized it was just parts you layed down. None of the Parts snapped together! I could have just taken the vehicles and circled them and had the same thing.

Know what I WOULD like to see......

Wait...I'll make a new thread for that!

Cobra-La is obviously out there. But that was a point where they "jumped the shark." Things steadily declined from there, though some good figures still appeared after that.

Eco-warriors was not even a slightly veiled concept lumping "not-so-eco-friendly" corporations from the early 90's with terrorists. That was a concept. A seed to plant in young minds that would hopefully grow into environmental consciousness/responsibility. I'm not passing judgment on the rightness or wrongness of that idea. But planting seeds in children's minds is far past any line I would draw. Lobbyists should not raise kids, parents should.

Back to the topic... Did anyone mention G.I.Joe: Extreme? Cryogenics and WWII must have been interesting in the 90's.

Hasbro's Crap
 

During Image's comics run of Transformers vs Gi Joe. there were no
vehicles like the hiss, ,stun, snake that could have transformed into a robot and supported a 3.75 fig. That would have been cool. What killed it was taking great original sculpts and making the second sculpt of that character look dumb. IE green 1992 Firefly. I think 1992 did it for me

When you really think about it, are either of those things ever not interesting? ;)

Blame cryogenics on us sci-fi guys! AND Michael Jackson!!!

battle force 2000 was the beginning of the end. In my memory, it was the first weird thing they did with Joe and then after that it was all neon and ninja force and on and on.