Graham, you're going to love this! I have come to realize that I now use new sculpt figures for more of my photos than old sculpt ones, of whom I have always been such a staunch defender. It's been a gradual conversion, but the awesomely awesome awsomeness (!) of Crosshair, Lowlight, Bludd, Blackout, etc has changed my mind forever. Don't get me wrong, I still have some issues (posability, and the proportions of some), but the really good new sculpt figures are the best figures of all. (Mind you, the bad ones are the worst ever, too!) It also doesn't mean I will ever abandon my faithful old sculpt figures either. This will probably re-ignite the new/old sculpt debate, but what the heck.

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

I go w/ the nu skulpts for other reasons, of course. But the way I see it, when the nu skulpts are right-on, they're better than anything the ARAH did. Yet, when you get the baddest of the baddest of the baddest, well... I like the nu skulpts simply because they are new takes on characters and usually have tighter sculpting involved. I look at the old arah & comic figures and they remind me of little sausages. They have no form, no muscle; everything's tubular. I mean, look at Barrage compared to the v1 Roadblock. Advances in technology, sure, but Barrage is a great example of what Hasbro did right. Crosshair and Bludd too. (I'd use Blackout but he has a weird arm.)

For those who love their ARAH sculpts, more power to them. Those are things that belong in the past for me. I have no desire to revisit the past and the biggest fear is that I'd probably go to BT's and buy everything MOC. Gotta catch 'em all!

While I'm a nu skulpt fan and I do what I can with them, the old era had far more iconic figures, designs, colors and let's face it, a lot of those old designs can't be touched. I have yet to see a decent Tunnel Rat and Falcon yet. I wouldn't say you are converted all the way. I'm willing to bet that if you need a Tunnel Rat or Hawk or Repeater or Falcon or Muskrat, there's only 1 way to go.

Eh, I find reissued RAH appeals to me most these days. Vintage figures seem old and brittle...because they are getting that way.

New sculpts were all over the place, some I like, some I dislike, they almost feel like 3 or 4 different lines. And rumor has it 25th anniversary stuff will go a new direction. Vintage RAH may be the only place to get all the classic character in any consistency for some time to come.

I'm a new sculpt guy, but I can't forget some f the wonderful work that they did with the Comic Pack figures. Some of them are kick asses!!!

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You're right of course G, many of the great characters have never been re-sculpted, so there's no choice but to use old sculpts. Just imagine how cool a new sculpt Muskrat would be!!

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

You're too funny. See, I've gotten pretty pessmistic about the new stuff that I don't entirely trust what Hasbro would do. Was it great that Falcon was considered and done, pre-production? Yes, but the choice of parts was horrible. So you say Muskrat or Repeater and I'd worry that H would find a way to screw it up. Ok, you didn't say Repeater. BUT I DID!!! lol

I like both sculpts. Some, like Ranger Viper and Saw Viper, I think are better as new sculpts, while others, like the Cobra Trooper, I prefer the old sculpt, so I won't be getting more of them. For the most part, I try to get new sculpts of characters that I had before, but there are a lot of characters that I like a lot, like Recoil and Falcon (who may or may not get a new sculpt), that don't have new sculpt, so I have to use the old ones.

I think they look fantastic on film. It's like you can be George Lucas or something.






















For those interested in the eternal sculpt war...

History and my vote:

Since I grew up with and collected ARAH JOE as a young lad in 1982-85, I will always appreciate the figures. I don't collect any other toy line. I got a bug for GIJOE in 2004 and my first impulse was Ebay for the vintage ones without any knowledge of the new stuff, or anything. After receiving a couple of ARAH figures I became aware of the other style and at first didn't like them, simply because they didn't conform to the ARAH style. If I was going to start accumulating a collection, I wanted my guys to look the same. Shortly after, I began to really get taken in by the realism of the physical features of the new sculpts. Of course I think they (new sculpts) aren't perfect by any means. I've always been somewhat of a hobbyist, "customizer", "artist" or whatever you want to call it. I find making customs and dio making amazing and really fun. I'm not a toy completist but have acquired a meager collection, don't care much about the figure value or anything, I just love GIJOE and want a selected cast of characters. I think they are represented best in this style.

If done properly, the new sculpt style figures can be similar to mini JOE Marvel Legends with super detail, minus the over-exaggerated proprtions. I also think it's mostly important not to deviate from the fundamental designs of using the O-ring, limbs and parts assembled with screws, etc. Yes, progress is great but don't think super articulation is a good idea. GIJOE yes, Microman nay. It's what makes the figure line unique from another.

Sorry I went off topic quite a bit to bore everyone about myself and political affiliation.

-B

I think the big wigs of the other sites have seen pics of the upcoming 25th Anniversary and I think it's pretty safe to say that it's gonna be pretty different. Rumor has it that it's nu skulpts w/ more articulation (than usual; most likely wrists, ankels, swivel thighs, whatever). Personally, if they keep the sculpting tight (hard edges, not soft edges), the paint apps make sense and the overall design isn't overly outlandish, it should be good. But hey, what do I know? It could be comic pack skulpts w/ added articulation.

We'll even be lucky if we get a glimpse of it at Toyfair in a month. Hasbro has acquired the Marvel stuff so they'll be pushing the movie toys (Ghost Rider, Spidey 3 and one other) as well as the TF movie. Fortunately, the JoeCon will be all about Joe so if we can wait 7 months, we'll know what's instore for the fans.

You made some good points there Buckwheat. The good new sculpts do look awesome in photos. The extra sculpting detail really looks great, especially in tight close ups. You also mentioned not being worried about the value of figures. I couldn't agree more. The first thing I do with any new figure I get is customise it, which instantly reduces it's resale value. But seeing as I will never sell them anyway, who cares? I've never seen the point of buying a figure (or vehicle) and keeping it MIP. What use is that?

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