The swivel wrists are great, but plenty of new sculpt o-ring figures had that as well, it's not unique to the 25th style of figures. The main reasons I dislike the 25th stuff are their fragility, their limited poseability, their mostly skinny and poorly proportioned bodies, and their larger scale. Plus I hate how Hasbro arrogantly expects that someone who already has all these characters as ARAH figures will buy them all again just because they have been "re-imagined". :( As a few others have said, the o-ring IS GI Joe.

i understand the latter part here. i really do feel for you guys, i mean there is nothing to hunt. me, as i said before i had not even saw many of these figures. its fun for me to hunt something i wanted 20+years ago. im even doing it with a few of the ARAH stuff. so while im happy with the 25th, i feel for those of you who had all of these already. thats why when i say i love the 25th and say i think there better, i hope no one takes it the wrong way and gets upset. im not trying to say, "your wrong about the 25th, there better and your dumb for wanting the old stuff". im just saying im cool with them, as i am with the old stuff.

the first part about limited possibility i dont agree with. its true that the waist movement of the old joes bent better then the chest of the 25th, the knees and ankles of the 25th allow for dozens of poses for me.

Amen!!

Not to mention most of them just look like crap!

I was just saying that the swivel wrists being standard for the 25A (well, for the most part...), I like the best. I don't see why Vader thinks the figures are ugly. Looking at Speir's latest shot of the Fred and then compare it to an ARAH, the head sculpting are worlds apart.

I don't find my figures to be fragile. They seem as sturdy as the basard era figures. At least I don't have thumbs and o-rings breaking on me. :p

I don't mind the direction that Hasbro went for the 25th Anniversary.

The movie stuff, that's what I worry about.

Its not unique but its standard.



I really have no idea what you are on about here - They are more sturdy then the ARAH figures - no broken Crotches, no broken Thumbs - and so far very few limp joints



They are more posable then the original figures ever was - if you can't pose these guys you are doing it wrong, plain and simple.



They are better proportioned then the original run - actually they are pretty near perfect scale - some varying head sizes is all, but even the original run had more of it then the 25th.



I am guessing you are no fan of the 12" as well then?



This I completely agree with you on - they should do both lines to appease the "veterans" as well as newcomers/collectors.



You are totally forgetting about the 12" line. O-ring is not GI Joe, it might have been the GI joe you grew up with, but its not the be all end all of GI Joe.

Just FYI I'm not trying to come off as "mean" - I just wanted to respond the way a 25th collector sees things. You had good examples on why most dislike the line so I picked your post to answer to - no hard feelings man :) - we have different points of view - And in this hobby of ours that's bound to happen when they alter the product to such a degree, I respect your view as you have been collecting these for a good long while - but please respect the new collectors that re-live their childhood now with figures that they deem better then what they remember (well some of us do), and not bash the 25th line every chance you get, its getting kind of old. - I thought we had a "bash the 25th line" post somewhere, but every place I turn these days on joedios I constantly find grumblings about the line, even on comments on pictures! or reviews!
My way of doing things is simple - if you don't have anything constructive to write (constructive criticism) or positive, then don't write at all, it just sets a bad mood, and no-one benefits from it.

I will say it again as I have said this before - the 25th line got me back into collecting the joes from my childhood. If they had just re-launched the original figures I probably would have just stopped with Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow and left it there.
The 25th are in my point of view a step forward - not close to perfect - but neither was the original run of figures. They are however God-send to us photographers with their posability and true to scale 1:18 (which means we can steal a whole lot of other accessories from other places and use with them for the dios).

oh man, i forgot about that. thats the biggest reason im for the 25th. i broke a thumb and crotch just taking pics in the winter. wasnt even touching the guys, just picked them up and they broke from then cold.

Its good to see everyone still passionate about this hobby. Not everyone has the same taste in figures. I don't care for the 25th stuff, there is alot of o-ring stuff I dispise too. For financial reasons I have had to thin out my collection recently, what do I keep - my "vintage" figures. In the original line there is alot of crap too, and I have been vocal about those. I don't care for the relaunched figures of the late 90s, early 00s either. I think their skin is way to pale, I didn't need new kit-bashed characters or repaints of figures I already own. The new sculpt o-ring line (I think this is what G calls the bastard line) is not for me either. I know I am going out on a limb here buy I hate Cross Hair - he can't hold his weapons either. When I do get to buy a figure for myself it is pre-1990 - that is what I love, it is a actual "collectors item" NONE of the post 1994 stuff are, except maybe the exclusives and 97, 98 figures, which I do own a few of.
Passion is good, dialogue & defense of your taste in figures is fun. I would rather you be collecting 25th than not collecting at all, but I will still poke fun of them. As far as comments on pictures, I love them - good or bad!!! If you don't like a figure I post, take a crack, IT IS FUN! The whole reason I come to this site is for fun, to releave stress and go back to a better time!

I am a fan of the 25th Anniversary, for whatever odd reasons I've got. I can understand why people would prefer the return of the o-rings. The Anniversary line has allowed me to get back into the hobby without totally going bankrupt; I can now build my coveted Cobra Army.
I really do like the o-ring Cobra Officer...if only because it's "me" in Troops of Doom. I got to kick Boba Fett in the nards!

I really don't think that's what Hasbro was going for. I have a very strong feeling they were trying to get NEW buyers interested, you know Hasbro's real $$$ maker, kids. A kid who has never seen G.I. Joes will be way more impressed by new stuff then by the RAH stuff. Sure some board member's kid may LOVE RAH but I have a feeling that comes from mommy or daddy playing with them. Think of it like this, a mom or dad who used to play with Joes walks down the action figure aisle with its various figures and sees the 25th stuff, bam memories come back they pick one or two up for little Billy or Susie and Hasbro gets a NEW cash cow that will live for several more decades, as opposed to us aging folks. Or it could be a kid who gets bright eyed at seeing Destro or SE and again BAM!!!

Hasbro is doing the right thing. Collectors are a very very small segment of Hasbro's revenue. To survive they can not cater to us they MUST get new buyers who will shop with them for years to come. Sure you may say, "If it was RAH style I'd buy them all." Well guess what Hasbro sells out of stock faster than a crack dealer in South Harlem.

As far as proportions go, as an artist I have to say the 25th stuff is far more realistically scaled then anything in RAH. Come on Baroness is the same size as Destro who is the same size as Gung-Ho and on and on.

Having well over 100 of the 25th figs I have to say Hasbro has made a few slip ups but they learn quick and in my opinion are making a product that will sell in today's market.

Thumbs up to Hasbro.