Here's a question.

Who here has been building up their favorite sub-teams...
(ie. Night Force, Tiger Force, Python Patrol, Slaughter's Mauraders)

...only to have bad results?

I'm collectiing figs for Star Brigade,
but as I lined up the figures together,
the group didn't look quite right.

Perhaps the colors? the figure molds? the presentation?

For me.... it was all of the above.


What's your rant?

I was a completionist collector up until 1988 when I missed that damn wind up scuba backpack! I still kept going until 1991, the tapered off. When I first started collecting, my friends and I made a pact that if they tried to take Joe into space, we were getting out. As soon as I saw Star Brigade I did just that. I got most of the sub teams, but mainly the ones from the early years were just "repaints". NightForce and TigerForce had almost NO new Characters (ok, theunderwing, or whatever the tiger rat's pilot's name was) but the rest were all just repaints of classics like Tunnel Rat, Recondo, Repeater, Shockwave, LifeLine, etc. The first "original" (meaning it had NEW characters) sub-team I got was BattleForce 2000. What a disappointment they were!

The next ones I got were "Sky Patrol" I hated their vehicles, though and only got the SkyRaven. The rest of the "Sub Teams" were after I quit collecting. The only one I really REGRET not buying was the D.E.F. BadGuys, the Headhunters and Headhunter StormTroopers.

As for Eco Squad, they can go play with Captain Planet! And the Dino Hunters! I would only get for the sake of having them, the concept WREAKS of Jurrassic Park. I liked the Mega Marines, but again, their enemies were delving too much into "Aliens " Niche! (love their APC, though!!Too bad they didn't make a DropShip!)

I got most of the "new" subteams because of the six packs (Desert Patrol, Anti Venom Force, Winter Ops) But I don't use them as "Sub Teams" I just use them when I need the Characters dressed for that climate. The Anti-Venom force I use as Steel Brigade "Greenshirts"!

I have a question, does anyone consider the 1985 "Special Missions Brazil" 5 pack a "sub-team" ?

Star Brigade never got it for me, probably because I know in reality, the government only choose Officers to go into space, like enlisted aren't worthy enough. (but it's the same way with Flying!) So to me, the Whole "Star Brigade" thing was whack! Like Sending Flash into space in issue #8!

I got out and parents sold it all off before the major flow of the sub teams. I like the idea of Tiger Force, but the bright yellow was too much for me. I bought the Tiger Force con stuff, but that is all I have of Tiger Force. I like a lot of the figure repaints and such. My favorite sub team; figure and vehicles all is python patrol. I am really upset I missed out on that. I would like to build an army, but the cost sadly would be too expensive. The I. G. is really cool; but more of a secondary cobra than sub team in my eyes.

I didn't care about sub-teams when Tiger Force came out. I did see it as an opportunity to nab a figure or two that 1) I didn't have 2) missed 3) broke or 4) didn't like before, but liked later on. Flint would fall into that category. I didn't like Flint at all and by the time I decided I wanted one, he was long gone. Good thing for Tiger Force.

Why I collected a bunch of Slaughter's Marauders, I have no idea. I had LowLight and Barbecue.

It wouldn't suprise me if the sub-teams don't always look right together. Battleforce2000, they didn't really have anything to make them look unified (colorwise), right? I doubt Hasbro even gave it thought on who was on which team. It was more like, "Ok, who haven't we repainted and where can they fit? Oh, so-and-so doesn't have a spot, we'll make a new team!"

Generally, what Frank said rings true for me too. Most of the sub teams have been poorly coloured rehashes of fairly recent characters (Tiger Force, Python Patrol, etc), or ridiculous (to me) fantasy rubbish like BF2000 and Star Brigade (Manimals, anyone?). The only sub teams worth anything at all to me were the Toys R Us Night Force (had some cool repaints - Shockwave, Lightfoot & Charbroil to name a few) and Sky Patrol, which consisted of new characters with awesome head sculpts. Virtually all the others, with a few individual exceptions, are custom fodder.

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"The future's uncertain and the end is always near." - The Doors "Roadhouse Blues".