Amen.

Now that Hasbro's introduced removable webgear, alternate heads, and pop-off clothing pieces, it would be very easy to make both camps happy. Look at Bazooka. The red shirt? Can't stand it. However, if Bazooka were to come with a removable green poncho, I'd be very pleased. If you want Bazooka in a silly red shirt, you can. If not, put on the poncho and you're happy.

As for new characters, yes, we need more. This is a common rant for me, as I'm so sick of seeing Duke, CC, SE, and SS over and over and over. More new characters, please!!!

well, part of the issue is people's idea of "New Characters".

some people want 25th versions of older characters OTHER than duke, with updated or fixed molds of their original appearances (a perfect example of these are Snow Serpent, Bazooka, or Snake eyes V3)

others what Newer updated versions of original character (Devils Due Firefly, Storm Shadow, and the resolute figures are examples)

and then there are the New Characters that have never been made at all. (Hard Master)

also, some people are looking for brand new characters into the mythos, the way the New Sculpt did (such as Ghost Bear, Dr. Link Talbot, and the Medi Viper) or the Paraviper and Bazooka Viper in the 25th line.

lastly,.. the oddball wildcard of Matt Trakker.

It also is the argument of the collectors:

Some stay strictly in RAH,. and don't budge.

some have abandoned the older figs, and collect strictly 25th scale.

and some collectors collect everything, and intermix their collections.

as a result, requests are kinda all over the place.

so far, Hasbro has been able to keep pretty much everyone happy, especially recently with the las two waves, and the upcomming resolute, final O13, and Movie figs & Vehicles.

_________________

Ha ha, yea movie tribute figures might be a little too easy to make if the movie doesn't have some more exciting uniforms than they have shown so far.

Although the boarding team from IDW's GI Joe #0 might be really cool even though Duke, Beach Head, Torpedo, and Flint were all wearing pretty much the same thing.

I think the examples you used highlight, to me, what makes the recent attempts at new characters superior to the new characters of the 02-06 era.

I don't want new figures that don't fit within what I know as G.I.Joe. Ghost Bear, Link, and Medi Viper are all figures I enjoyed to some extent. Link and Ghost Bear? They are good toys, but they fail to have that Joe feel to them. But Medi-Viper stands out as being better because he was originally in the comic and I have wanted one for years. Now I have one.

Bazooka Trooper and Paraviper are not characters that existed anywhere beforehand. So why do I take to those so easily? Because the design aesthetic is there. I look at those figures and I can see that the designers are carrying on in the tradition of the old stuff while providing something fresh and new. It isn't hard at all to see the link between Bazooka Trooper and the 82-94 run. And Paraviper was designed to use the colors of the Mamba. To me, that is awesome because his accessories and appearance put him more similar in design to the late 80s figures with detail and many accessories. He is very well-grounded in the old line without ever having actually existed then.

I think I actually would like to see all of the old stuff brought into this line. But with Resolute and the new movie around the corner, I certainly wouldn't want to see charcters in "updated" uniforms that fail to capture the spirit of the character.

I think the designers are stuck. If they "update" a character too much, the risk losing what made the character special to begin with. Yet there is often a cry for more modern equipment. The designs for Resolute so far have managed to walk that line. I think that any updates to characters to use modern stuff should simply fall to the movie and Resolute. Otherwise, I would much rather see more figures that are designed just as they were originally (with a couple Devil's Due each year) or new characters that blend into the old style.

well.. I think updated characters can be done. yes they failed in a lot of attempts with the New sculpts. However, that might have been a sculpting issue rathar than a figure issue.

If you look at the original RAH, several updates kept the flavor of the character successfully, such as Urban Camo Storm Shadow, Low-Light v2, Sci-Fi v2, Battle Corps Cross Country and Zap V2. and also brought to modern standards, while keeping the flavor (Battle Corps Desert Storm Duke and Battle Corps Cobra Commander)

I mean ,.. There has been 8 completely different Optimus Primes,.. completely seperated from the Optimus Prime most of us grew up with (who has had 4 versions himself). Granted, Transformers is a different animal than G.i.Joe in terms of Playability.

Now that the 25th line does have a superior sculptor, who has effectively translated a lot of the original spirit into the newer designs (save perhaps the company's insistance of re-using parts), I think updates can be made without too much loss of spirit of the originals, Resolute Duke is an example of this.

I know that proabaly through Resolute and Movie styles, we'll end up getting exactly what I am illustrating here... newer characters and newer versions of older characters.

_________________

I don't even want to think about the movie style Joes in their Batsuits.

The IG figures someone showed a few days ago looked good. Doesn't Destro (as played by Dr. Who) wear a suit/casual clothes in this movie? That could be interesting for a figure.

Is Resolute out already?