Things get interesting when the retail shelves are bare, especially at Christmas time. It seems almost criminal to have a holiday season with nary a single G.I. Joe item to be found on shelves…but such is the unfortunate dichotomy that comes with a Hollywood marriage. The brand can live or die with the fate of the film, and for 2012 at least, G.I. Joe is a non-factor.

Hopefully with 2013 and the coming of G.I. Joe: Retaliation that will change. In fact, online stores are already offering pre-orders for the first two waves of G.I. Joe: Retaliation product, currently slated to hit in February. But with all of this G.I. Joe “down time” I got to thinking.

Over the past few years we’ve seen a LOT of great G.I. Joe toys come and go, and sometimes they either went too quickly, or they were somewhat difficult to get a hand on due to exclusivity.

Purely for the sake of discussion, and for the sake of gathering information, I took further advantage of the Survey Monkey tool and created a quick survey. Looking back through the Pursuit of Cobra, 30th Anniversary, and the 7-Packs, which figures were the best figures that you had the hardest time finding? What figures did you love the looks of, but were disappointed that you couldn't get your hands on?

The best example I can think of from my own perspective is a figure like Shadow Tracker, who I think is very cool, and was also very hard to find. The same could be said of Renegades Storm Shadow. However, figures like Zombie-Viper or Jungle-Viper were good figures, but not as hard to find. Of course your mileage may vary…that’s kinda the point of the survey.

Essentially what I’m asking is if you could get access to some recently released figures again in single card form, which figures would you prefer? Check out the Survey Monkey survey below and share your thoughts!

I'm confused by the survey.

Why is the opinion on the figure directly related to its availability? Croc Master and Crazylegs were very hard to find (their wave never hit retail in my area) but the figures are, IMO, nothing to write home about.

Will this make any impact on Hasbro rereleasing any of them? No.

And Lastly...

If Hasbro or the Club were to go and Reproduced some of these figures...What would we as collectors be giving up? I'd rather have a Quinn figure than ANY figure that's already been produced.

I did have that same thought. The 7 pack Hit n Run figure for example, I'd much rather see the version from the vault then to see them re-release the 7 pack figure.

Where is the option for "Blast from the past" ARAH figures?

While I kid, I bet if you priced them at $5 a pop and used the vintage style packaging, you could get some parents thinking "Hey, I loved these when I was a kid!" and buy them as stocking stuffers.

Where is the option for "Blast from the past" ARAH figures?

While I kid, I bet if you priced them at $5 a pop and used the vintage style packaging, you could get some parents thinking "Hey, I loved these when I was a kid!" and buy them as stocking stuffers.

The proposed BFTP figures shown in the MC newsletter were the worst kind of o-ring figure repaints, and everybody the world over is better off with them never having been released. And I am one who WANTS o-ring figures. They were that bad.

....pics?