I have to say I'm finding it difficult to be enthusiastic about what we have seen so far. The same old characters that have been done a dozen times, with qestionable articulation (and some unnatural proportions too). When I get one in my hands, I'll decide if the rest are worth wasting my hard-earned on. Until then they are of only mild interest to me.
When the Joe line launched in '82/83, the characters were all new, and that's what I'd like to see now for the anniversary; some fresh faces to take us forward into the new millennium. If you follow a realistic timeline, Stalker, Snake Eyes, etc would all be into their late fifties by now. How many Snake Eyes figures does the line need? If it was a set of 25 new characters I'd be frantic with anticipation.

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

In 1982, the world was a lot less politically correct, and everybody was on board against terrorism - But Hasbro still would not have made "G.I.Joe - It's purpose, to kill a lot of evil dudes who took hostages in or near Iran..." Today, bad people mask their terrorism and blur lines that are not as clearly delineated. But if the governments of the world refuse to draw clear lines, I would highly doubt Hasbro would pull the trigger and give us villains of today. And frankly, I don't want things that "real" in my Joe-verse. I want a brief respite from the dark world we all live in. (Oops, got a little philosophical...)

But I do agree, fresh faces might help, as long as they try to keep the theme/genre nostalgic in some way. A small team of counter-terrorism against a cell of truly evil people. "G.I.Joe - A new strike force to counter a new threat!"

That might sell...?! Maybe. But I suppose we will take what we can get.

Barrel Roll was in the comic, and played a pretty major role...

I like getting new characters to keep the Joe-verse moving and developing -- and new characters can still be Joes or Cobras done in the spirit of the line (just look at the Plague, Barrel Roll, etc), new wouldn't have to mean real-world politics-style anti-terrorism.

But for a toy release to mark 25 years of RAH GI Joe, I think it makes perfect sense to focus on the characters that helped make it last that long. As much as we fervently hope for Joe toys to continue, by its very nature an anniversary is a time to reflect on something's history more than reinvigorating it for the future. That said, an all-new sculpting style is a pretty odd way to go!

Hear, hear!

I was about to post the same thing, Stormer, but you beat me to it. I love new characters. I use a lot of the new-sculpt new characters from 2002-2004 quite frequently. But for a 25th anniversary set, it's only natural that you would re-visit the most popular characters of the past (even if many of them have been done to death). In my opinion, and I say this as someone who's just as tired of Snake-Eyes after Snake-Eyes as the rest of you, I would've been disappointed if the 25th anniversary of this iteration of G.I. Joe [/i]wasn't[/i] celebrated by bringing us new versions of old classics.

But then, I love all of what we've seen so far (save Destro), so maybe I'm a bit biased.

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is on indefinite hiatus...

Stormer's right. The 25th Anniversary is basically a "Classics" line. You want new faces and ideas, that's what Joe Vs Cobra, Spy Troops and Valor vs Venom as well as Sigma6 did/tried.

But just for the fun of it, let's try this out.
List of new characters.

2002. JvC.
Dart. Showed up in the DD comic, had bad war experience, had nitemares, never seen again. Fact is, Hasbro lost the rights to a whole bunch of names. Roadblock and Spirit are the best known. Because of the loss of rights, Heavy Duty was used in the place of Roadblock and Dart was created for Spirit. Keep in mind that Scarlet became Agent Scarlet for JvC and Hawk became Gen. Tomahawk for a time. The change in titling the chars is a rights issue.

Cobra CLAWS. I think they showed up in the comic for a panel or two.

Cobra NeoViper. Showed up in the DD comic twice. First time, they were in formation. 2nd time, they got their butts handed to them by Destro. Probably Hasbro's attempt to create a new iconic generic trooper (like the Trooper and Viper) but the mix of gorilla arm and t-crotch most likely killed it's chance to be ultra-ultra cool. The rainbow of colors might have not helped too.

Cobra NeoViper Commander. All troops need leadership. lol. No support in comic or cartoon form.

2003 Spy Troops
Agent Faces. This was, iirc, the era where if a Joe dies in a comic, he's supposed to stay dead. That was ok'd by Hasbro. There was NEVER a list of who could be killed but it was more like, "can I kill so-and-so off" and Hasbro would say either, "yes" or "no". Agent Faces, in other words, was the replacement for Chuckles. I don't remember if he got comic time, but Spy Troops favored him as did Hasbro. *rolls eyes*

Crosshair. A tiny bit part in the DD comic. No time in the cartoons. IIRC, the LowLight name had been lost so Crosshair was created.

Depth Charge. Showed up in comic (iirc), no movies.

Kamakura. Liberal use in the comic and cartoon. DD's creation, Hasbro loves ninja, DD created a winner in Hasbro's eyes. The fans are so-so about the green power ranger.

Rampage. No time in comic or movies.

Red Spot. I don't remember if he showed up in the comic, but sure not in the movies. Replacement for both Flash and Sci-Fi. Nobody understands why Sci-Fi simply wasn't brought into the fold. Unless Red Spot falls under "new character".

Sgt. Hacker. I don't recall him in the comic and no use in the movies. Hacking must be all the rage. Nobody knows why he was made.

Switch Gears. I don't recall if he was in the comic and had no use in the movies. However, he is an excellent candidate to roll in the Patriot Grizzley for the traditionalist types that can't see Wild Bill in a tank. Like me.

Widescope. Short time in the comic, no movie time. Hasbro lost the rights to Shockwave.

Barrel Roll. Time in the comic, none in the movie. The real dynamic is that he has a sister on the team and a brother who has gone bad.

Blackout. Time in the comic, none in the movie. See above.

Burnout. No time in comic or movie. Hasbro says, "Let's create a new 'nok and make people mad for not doing Buzzer!!!"

Claws Commander. Shows up for a couple frames in the comic, no time in movie. Hasbro says, "We love gorilla arms!"

Coil. May have shown up in comic, no show in movies.

Heavy Water. May have shown up in comic, no show in movies. Someone at Hasbro was pregant. *shrug*

Overkill. Short appearance in comic, lotsa love in VvV. Was this an ARAH character?

Pit Viper. No appearance in comic or movie.

Sand Viper. No apperance in comic or movie.

Scalpel. Showed up in DD comic, no movies. Fans wanted a Cobra medic.

2004 Valor vs Venom

Link Talbot. NO time in comic, made for movie.

Hard Drive. No time in comic or movie.

Hi-Tech. No time in comic, loved in movie. Both HD and HT take place of Mainframe.

Ninja Trooper. No time in comic or movie. Hasbro had considered doing a ninja spinoff.

Coil Crusher. No time in comic, in movie. Made for the movie.

Electric Eel. See above.

Neuortoxin. Time in comic, no movie. Made for theme.

RazorClaw. No comic, time in movie. Made for theme.

Snow Wolf. No comic, time in movie. Made for Theme.

Swamp Rat. No comic or movie. Made for theme.

Ven Max. No comic, time in movie. Made for theme.

Rollbar. No comic or movie.

Ghost Bear. No comic or movie.

2005 VvV

Bombstrike. No time in comic or movie. See Barrel Roll.

Slash. No time in comic, time in movie.

Shadow Strike. No time in comic or movie. Made for ninja theme.

Tiger Claw. No time in comic or movie. Made for ninja theme.

2005 DTC

Major Barrage. No time in comic or movie.

Cannonball. No time in comic or movie.

Medi Viper. May have shown up in DD comic, no time in movie. Fans wanted Cobra medic.

So Lehsreh isn't getting jiggy w/ 'new' chars that don't have history and whatnot. Keep in mind, the toys were usually made first and Larry Hama was FORCED to use the toys in the comic. Hama had NO wish to create or use Serpentor but at that time, the comic was Hasbro's toy ad.

As for the cartoon, that became a popularity game. The only way to move forward with the line was to create new ideas and chars.

Can DD use these chars in their stories? Of course they can, but they choose not to because DD wants to do things THEIR way. They are telling THEIR stories just as all of us doing dios tell OUR stories. Difference is, you aren't PAYING for dios. DD is just as much as a popularity game and as the guys have said, everyone has to play nice in the sandbox.

Sure, some new chars sucked rocks but liking at the list, there's a lot of good ones too. Hasbro creates 'em, the filecards are usually considered canon and hey, most of us don't NEED the comic or cartoon to enjoy 'em.

Hear Hear, Sonne is totally right. It's TOYS yo, in the end of things, the comics and the cartoons are just icing on the cake. It's all about the Toys, and dang nab it, I love em, as I think we all do. We should be happy that hasbro even acknowledges Joes still, and we're getting some sweet revamps of our classic chars, and there have been some bitchin new figs lately. All hail the big H Machine.