That was Hasbro being lazy...

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Windmill.

Makes you think he was Dutch at some point.

Sorry, Austin Powers joke there. :

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would have been even better if his file name had been "Donald Kee Oatey"...

"Wet Down" doesn't work for me. Sounds like he needs to see a urologist.

It's the real names that get me: "Harry Nod," "Tom Winken," and then "Wild Weasel??" How 'bout the mention on the AVAC filecard of the Firebat being a "Pocket Rocket!"


Yikes!!

Actually, I always figures (pun) that Hasbro just used the Create-You-Owns as a means to come up with more codenames for future characters.

Kinda like, "Hey, 20% of the kids choose 'Bulldozer' as their codename. I guess we need to name the next guy 'Dozer', 'Digger', or 'Bulldozer'..."

Did anyone else think it was just a means of obtaining new codenames for figures and vehicles?

As for worst names, when I was younger I wondered if all the Gyro-Vipers were Greek. :meh:

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I hate the "generic" sounding names that a lot of the newer characters were given: Red Spot, Wide Scope, Hard Drive, Switch Gears, etc.

And I dislike the necessary and understandable use of file names and ranks with some of the older code names: Sgt. Stalker, Agent Scarlett, David "Salvo" Hasle, Dreadnok whoever, etc.

Tom Dick and Harry and Inken, Blinken and Nod, you mean for the Dreadnoks, I have often felt that was one of the best "in jokes" fo the entire line for those 3. Must be a matter of perspective.

I swear Ice Cream Soldier's name was picked by just pulling words out of a hat.

Sea Slug easily has the least intimidating code name around. "Stop! Or I'll...move...slowly...towards...you. Underwater."

And deviating slightly, the Septic Tank?! I'm one of very few people who actually like the look of the neon monstrosity, but really....

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To be fair, it does make the liquid shooting cannon that much more menacing. I rank being hosed with high pressure feces pretty low on my fun chart.

ITRW, if codenames are like nicknames.....they're given... Based on exhibited characteristics...

And yet, for the Joes, many of the codenames are based clearly on the position and not the person: Airtight betrays nothing of his PNG prankster nature, but speaks to the CBR instead. Backblast reminds folks not to stand behind him /in combat/, where the heat and flame from the Stinger missiles will char and cook them. (Now, if we'd ever learned he enjoys beans, that could have been a personality-driven label.) What do you name a "point man" other than Spearhead? Navy Seal diver? Wet Suit, which says nothing about Mr. Grumpy's nature. And so on.

Here's a question that may need a new thread: If each new Joe were introduced to the team without a pre-assigned code name, what would the team have given them? I'll give a for-instance with one of my homegrown Joes, the Navy Tomcat pilot, Kittycat.

"Now, don't go thinking that this guy will roll over and play nice for you. When Kittycat met the Joes, Ace noticed his Blacklions patch right away. The old Air Force-Navy rivalry kicked in as Ace stated, 'Oh look, a Kittycat.' And it stuck." -- Cloudburst

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I agree with that, and it's something that has always bothered me about GI Joe, even when I was a kid. Any group I was in, whether it was Cub Scouts, basketball, whatever, if someone earned a nickname, that was it, they earned it. It wasn't just because he was the current position-filler, it was because he had done something (usually boneheaded) or reminded people of someone.

Back on topic: A lot of the later Joes had kind of weak codenames, like they were having to stretch for them. The one name that gets brought up all the time, though, that I don't get the dislike for is Snow Job. I don't get the negative connotation, other than that it rhymes with something else, but that's not really a reason to not like the name. I mean, just off the top of my head, there's Duke = Puke, Scarlett = Harlot, Zap = Crap... A lot of the names rhyme with things that wouldn't be cool to be called, but the names themselves are okay. I always really liked Snow Job's name, actually. He seemed like the one figure who had earned his name, and it was just coincidence that he was a snow trooper. I mean, his file card had Rock 'n Roll (I think) saying, "You think we call him Snow Job because he skis? No, he's a con artist, plain and simple." That's a paraphrasing, but that has stuck with me for 25 years, whereas I don't think I could point out anything that specific about any other filecard, just from memory.

The name Ice Cream Soldier was originally used for a member of Sgt. Rocks Easy Company. So Hasbro just sort of borrowed it. Actually Easy Company had some good nicknames so they are a nice source of codenames for Joes.

Wildman, Little Sure Shot, Bulldozer, Long Round and Short Round, Hot Head, Worry Wart, Four Eyes, Canary, Jackie Johnson and of course the man himself, Sgt. Rock.

Admittedly a few of them are not great but not all that bad.


As to bad Codenames...Crystal Ball?
Many of the ninja character names.

SkidMark is the king of them all.

Maybe that should be a group project some day in the future...take garbage codenames and garbage characters and re-do them as badass figures, still with crappy codenames but no one would want to tell them for fear of getting beat down.

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"Target", "Bullet Magnet", "Dead Meat", "Dead Man Walking" would probably have a negative effect on morale...




He may be called "Wet Blanket"...

Hey, nothing wrong with the Dutch!
If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much.............

Tim 121RVC