You remember the 1997-1998 figures? Those soft soapy plastic figures were Hasbro's first step back into making GI Joe after the product line was cancelled in 1994. At the time I remember we were glad to see GI Joes back on the shelves, which made their flaws easier to overlook. But now, looking back more than 10 years later, it seems all the more incredible to me that GI Joe survived such a difficult rebirth.

I was curious how other people view those figures. Are they displayed proudly with the rest of your collection?

At the time I scarfed up as many of the Viper/Trooper 3 packs as I could, but since then have sold most of them on eBay now that Vipers are a lot easier to come by. But the rest of my 1997-1998 figures are in my custom fodder pile.

The only one I use at all is Lady J, and that's just as a Night Force version. The Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow and everyone else from that year are just superfluous.

Oh, except for the Alley Vipers and Night Force Jinx. I mean Vypra....

You know what the best use I found for all of my 97s was? They made EXCELLENT trade fodder.

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I grabbed some of this stuff when it came out. Those figs and vehicles just take up space on my shelves like all my other figures. I have managed to collect 5 of those badass Ally Vipers though, and I FINALLY got the Vypra a few months back. I just wish I had grabbed up more of this stuff when it came out, particularly the Viper packs.

Oh, this is for 97 AND 98? I missed that.

I got a few of the OG and SEAL packs, and one Viper pack. I used them for customs or as new characters.

The 97 vehicles are great though. I forgot to mention that. The Rage is 2 tons of pure awesome coming out a fire hydrant on a street corner in the Bronx on a hot summer day. Rattler, A-10 and Slugger are all great too

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In retrospect, the '97/'98 figures were a harbringer of things to come during the "heyday" of 2002-2006. The quality was spotty, the molds weren't what we wanted and many colors weren't perfect. But, you still got some figures in the mix that stand above their peers and are among the best ever produced in the line.

The 97 Alley Viper and Stalker are the best renditions of that that character and that mold, respectively. The Snake Eyes figures were strong, but rendered irrelevant by all the later uses of the mold. Some of the other figures are decent and remain unique in the coloring and retain value to a collection for that reason alone.

The '98's are moreso. Sure, Vipers are everywhere now. But, no modern Viper save the Crimson and Fuschia from the conventions comes anywhere close to the Cobra Trooper and Officer from '98. The paint masks, coloring, accessories and figure quality simply blow away any competitors that were available at retail. The arctic figures remain the pinnacle of that design. Of course, the divers and Oktober Guard had their flaws. But, that's been Hasbro's problem since day 1: they can't consistently get it right.

For my money, I'd have taken continuations of what we got from '97 - '01 over what Joe became as the line died out in '05 and '06. These figures were much maligned for the time. But, they were only being compared to their vintage counterparts. Now that we've added another decade of Joe product on top of these guys, I think they've held up much better than the majority of product that was released subsequent to them.

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Yes, the vehicles from those years are great, with the exception of the paper stickers. The 1998 MOBAT is hands down my favorite version of that tank.

98 grey and white Snow Serpeant is one of my favorites of the entire line. I don't like all of them but there are certainly a bunch of really good figures form thsoe years worth tracking down if you haven't. The Stalker is one that has been on and off my radar for the last couple of years.

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I missed out on the '97s, and never acquired any on the secondary market. The '98s are good figures IMO and are the figures that got me back into collecting Joe. I passed on all the vehicles, but really liked the Arctic and OG sets. Today they are as proud a part of my vintage figure display as any other.

Hated the 1997 figures and initially passed on them at retail.

Loved everything in 1998 and glad I bought them all.

Just last year, with my original ARAH collection pretty much complete, I bought Hulk Hogan's '97 collection. But it was mostly to be a completionist.

What do I use them for - nothing much. I like polar troopers so those six become background fodder. I love Oktober Guard so those are primary members of the OG Team. The Viper 3-pack make decent troop fodder.

The rest I don't do much with.

-David

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They are in the regular rotation ( Army Builders too) I use allot of them and the ones not mentioned I either don't have or they were chopped up as LBC Fodder.

Ace (97) is my default Ace*
Gung Ho is AF Gaucho
Lady Jaye from the covert ops pack is my Mayday
Destro is Red Jackel from the Red Shadows.
Snow Job is my default Snow Job*
Torpedo serves as my version of Wet down
Brekhov is used as Red Star
Gorky was Head swaped to become my version of Ruslan (See DD WWIII)
Thunder wing is my default to the character*
I am still looking for Vypra (love the characterization but she seems more a dreadnok)

Steve

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I'll defend these figure a bit more then they deserve. The plastic was milky, the paint wasn't always well applied, but they did keep the ball rolling. Very slowly rolling, but rolling.

Any figure with molded Caucasian flesh is a mess. The milky plastic ruins them from the start. Other figures, with either darker flesh tones or painted flesh tones, are pretty good. As already pointed out, the '97 Stalker is a great figure. It's still my personal favorite of any that use the particular ARAH mold. Torpedo, Firefly, Snow Serpent, Battle Armor CC (yes, I like that figure) are all great and in some ways improvements on the originals.

As far as using them, they do get display time. Some of the figures have been customized with the flesh tones repainted.

It sort of depends on the individual. I was no great fan of the 97's. There were some cool figures in 1998, however.

I regard Volga these days as an entirely separate character from Daina. She's sort of alongside Red Star and Big Bear as three Oktober Guard members on indefinite assignment to the G.I.Joe Team for the sake of good international relations, like Big Ben.

The arctic Firefly is just that, Firefly in arctic gear. The 98 Snow Serpent is a superb coloration for an arctic environment, as well.

The Cobra "Troopers" and "Officers" are special Viper divisions to me, generally assigned off in the boonies somewhere, there they don't need the more distinctive Viper uniforms.

Vypra is -- Vypra. A new character. What the heck, I came up with the name and the file card for Hasbro, and Lord knows the entire line isn't long on females anyway.

The rest are pretty much what you see is what you get -- recolorations of established characters/versions that within some context of an adventure were I to concoct one could be brought in there that coloration might have a certain greater advantage in the situation.

I dig the 98s. The Officer and Trooper figures are two of my personal favs. A lot of the other 98s are great. The 97 Alley Viper is sweet but the rest of 97 kinda sucks... hard. They're pretty terrible almost universally so I do jack with them. I get just about any 98 Troopers I can find. Not as many Officers as I don't need a glut of officer figures, but I still grab a few. The paint decos on those guys were great.

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Back then I had gotten a ton of them, and all but one Vypra are left that wasn't turned into a custom here or there. They made great fodder indeed. It was also nice to get Lady Jaye's accessories in black.

Volga's body provided an excellent set of fatigues for the Ninja Force Scarlett head that had an actual ball instead of swivel peg.

First thing my first Vypra got was a Batman lollipop cape and customized into Pythona in her entrance scene.

Though I do like the A10's pilot uniforms and the black helmets. Perfect for the Ghoststriker X-16 and especially the Storm Eagle.

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Well, I've only recently gotten some of the Stars & Stripes figures for my collection. I passed on them back in 97 cause I thought they were the suxxors, but that was before I realized I was a ARAH fanatic. I've been kicking myself for not picking up a set.

After seeing some cartoon screencaps of the og13 in different color uniforms, I did some thinking about a look for my og13 back-up squad (the other bios on the computer screens from Marvel #1). I've decided the og13 style figures in the 97 colors would be a starting place-so those figures aren't Zap, Grut, etc-they are, for lack of a better term, greenshirt reserves. Any with the Roadblock bodies are early Steel Brigade. Scarlet is a new character along the lines of Glenda or Quarrel.

Ace is not Ace, but a new pilot.

I like the idea of using Gung-Ho as Gaucho.

Thunderwing is a new character.

Arctic Firefly is Firefly in cold weather gear. Snow Serpent is an officer. Night Creeper is a mission specific Night Creeper.

Armored CC is used as a ceremonial trooper.

Chameleon is used either as Chameleon or as alternate Baroness outfit.

Destro is Destro.

Colonel Brekhov is a Russian Army officer-new character, possibly even a Borovian addition to the Guard.

Lt. Gorky is not Lt. Gorky, but either a KGB Border Guard or MVD Internal Security.

Volga is not Daina. She is a new Russian character that is part clerk/adjudant/medic.

Snake-Eyes is Snake-Eyes.

Stormie is Stormie.

Lady Jaye is Night Force Lady Jaye or something special missions.

Vypra is 'Vypra' aka Pythona and is not connected to the Vypra twins from the Cobra Ninjas set.

Heavy Duty is Heavy Duty.

Someplace I have a list of the Alley-Vipers and what each version is assigned to. If I remember right, the strawberry Alley-Vipers are asigned to the first Rage and the blueberry ones are assigned to the 97 version. Basically the straw and blue are different squads/divisions.

The Viper (Cobra Officer) is a senior enlisted officer.

Duke is a new character, possibly a new member of Action Force or some foreign services exhange trooper.

Shipwreck, Wet-Suit and Torpedo are different characters.

Let's see, what's left? Arctic JOEs? General Hawk?

I'll have to follow up with the ones I'm missing...

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