I'm indifferent to the O13. I had some of them in 1982 but as I was not exposed to the media until much, much later, they were just generic army men to me.

As characters, they were simply created to stretch Hasbro's tooling dollar, which is why so many of them faded into obscurity. As toys, as another poster said they're neat historical footnotes, but not much else. I wouldn't mind owning a set one day but they're nowhere near a priority at this point.

It is heresy! Burn the heretic!

I got into GI Joe with issue 1 of the Marvel run. I loved the Snake-Eyes, Flash and Scarlett figures I managed to get at the time, and I loved the characters in the comics, but most of the rest of the figures seemed a bit 'Meh!'

In my 'verse, all the original 13 are still alive, but a lot of the later Joes got vaped.

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I think the enduring fascination owes simply to the fact that if you follow continuity, they're the first team. So whenever I start playing, I start playing with them.

There's an element of simplicity that gives me a soft spot for the Original 13. The uniform look and the fact they all look at home riding in the VAMP or manning the FLAK makes them winners for me. I also liked how Larry Hama provided so my personality on relatively sparse notes in their filecards, when considering all the later ones he wrote. The comic enhanced all that even more. I never had all 13 figs when I was younger, but the ones I had got a lot of play-time. The other thing I really appreciate about the original team is they all have individualized specialties, but you also get the feeling that they interact well with each other in a team setting. And there's just something that tells me that someone like Shipwreck and Beach-Head don't exactly go out of their way to buddy-up on missions.

I'm glad the recent Con sets have provided updates for many of the OG13, so I can retire them and dedicate a small display just for them only

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Straight arm Grunt was my first Joe in the Spring-Summer of 82. I thought he was awesome. Much better than army men or Star Wars. They were generic, and honestly they were meant to be. I used the later joes much more often. But there was always this core of vets, with the same uniform to fall back on.

Can't say I have any affinity to the O13. I didn't have access to the comic until much later in life (a few years ago actually) and I finally could read about these characters that so many people on different Joe boards rave about - 'cept the O13 still didn't impress me. I think there were a lot more personalities between '83-'87 to more than make up for them, and yes I admit it - sometimes it's tough for me to distinguish between the steelers, breakers, and what have you. The only way I can tell these guys apart is from the equipment they used.

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I Love the characters! They are the base of my squad but I have them in charge of training. All except Snake Eyes, Scarlet (who just does Counter intel from a desk) and Hawk (whose a 3 star general) .

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Secret Confession: Since I originally started on GI Joe with the cartoons and didn't start reading the comics until around 1986 - I didn't know that the original 13 as anything more than greenshirts until I started collecting Joes again in 1997. It was a big surprise to me that its Grunt in the upper left hand corner of the comics and not a generic soldier.

That being said, now I look back and prefer the first year of the comics when it was just the original 13, I'd love to see more of those. And the 25th anniversary figures of the original 13 are all my favorites.

But hey dude, love what you love and leave the rest for me.

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You are a horrible, horrible person


I started buying Joes in '82 with straight-arms and everything, and I started collecting the comics at issue 12 - when the '83 Joes were still n00bs - so I have a fondness for the OG13, myself. The only ones I'm not attached to are Grand Slam & Steeler - since I never had those guys. But the other 11 were my first small-scale Joes, so they're still special to me. But in a totally hetero way

Didn't realize that you started "late" on your collection - thought you were an old guy like me

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I guess it's sort of easy to develop a greater fondness for the more colorful, more poseable characters that came later. Especially so if a fan is drawn in primarily by the cartoon, where the original team is largely a glossed over artifact in the form of greenshirts. But not for me. Hooked since the very beginning, I still consider those guys the main team, sort of Hawk's personal command squad.

I remember the breath of fresh air that they were in 1982. Today, one might have the tendency to compare them with what's on the shelves right now. But I compare them more to what came before them, namely Star Wars, with its five points of articulation, and Micronauts. While the latter was indeed much more poseable, it was also infinitely more fragile, and also evaporated from the shelves by that time. GI Joes had backpacks and helmets, which mostly we hadn't seen before in other lines. There was really no such thing as swivel arm in that scale yet, so none of us knew what we were missing.

I was actually offended by some of the 85 replacements at first, since that's when Hasbro started duplicating established specialties more overtly. But by the following year, most of that angst had disappeared as Hawk returned to prominence and I realized that just because a character was gone from the shelves didn't mean he didn't have a future. And I came to realize the duplicated specialties opened up possibilities for stories that weren't just about a small task force, but more expanded operations and large battles.

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As a kid I thought the original Joes were the guys from the cartoon, even up until 10th grade when Gi Joe was rebooted I thought Duke was an original member. It wasn't until Marvel started to rereleased the original run while I worked at the local comic shop did I know that there was an original 13 and Duke wasn't included. I was never a fan of the character to begin with and I thought Hawk was way cooler. I was reading the DD stuff at the same time, but the original Marvel stuff was more interesting to me, the original team became my favorite Joes. I like how simple they are and how uniform they look. They're my core team, anyone else is just added based on the mission. But I can understand why people dislike them, true they weren't fleshed out much and true that they're bland. But the same thing goes for dozens of Joes that are over shadowed and you can have fun recreating those guys.

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The OG13 will forever be my staple in my Joe collection. I was looking through my figs the other day, weeding the collection. The cohesiveness of the group clinches it for me.

IMO, the OG13 will never be replaced as my favorite Joes. Period.

Actually, the original Cobras are also three of my favorites as well.

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To be fair, you've got to break this into two categories: O13 figures and O13 characters.

For the figures, they're a product of their time. In 1982 the multiple points-of-articulation certainly upped the ante compared to Star Wars and Fisher Price figures. Sure, Hasbro used the same heads- but they're still doing that now in the 25A line (and strangely it doesn't upset people as much). By the time the line ended in '94, the '82 figures looked out of place by comparison.

Introducing new versions of the O13 figures was a good approach. Hawk, SE, Stalker, Scarlett, Rock 'n Roll, and Clutch all got updated figures (with improved sculpting, too) in the ARAH format. Likewise, I'd like to see the O13 figures get new designs in the 25A line instead of just rehashes. This is one reason I like the new tan Steeler figure so much.

As for the characters, these are still collectively the best lot of any year. SE is so overdone it makes my head hurt, but the other characters deserved more "screen time" than they got. Zap looks like a soldier, Bazooka looks like a drunk guy at a pre-game parking lot party. That doesn't make Bazooka a better character, just an easier one to write. One of Larry Hama's failures (yes, blasphemous, I know) was to toss the O13 characters to the side to be replaced with a rotating list of new characters. In some ways, it was a realistic approach, but it always felt a bit forced. I dunno... almost like he was trying to sell new action figures or something.

Very Good Point Pas-Nas,

As the original 13 figures, they do have an affinity for me....(Although they were kicked to the curb in 84 when Transformers came out) theyre look was ok,.. like a team,.. until the next run of figures were totally different, and character's individuality shined through...

That being said,...the Characters of the qriginal 13 are great. I love almost every incarnation of Snake Eyes, Stalker, and the rest. My original 13 consists of Trench Knife Snake Eyes, A custom Breaker using Battle Corps Dial Tone, 89-90 Grunt, New Sculpt desert Scarlett, New Sculpt Stalker, and the rest being the 07 Collector's club figures.

The Original figures command my original Headquarters, backed up by green shirts and 2 92 Headquarters attached to the sides.

its kinda the same with other brands... no matter how many Optimus Primes they put out, for a lot of us, the Original mac Truck version will always be our favorite.

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As with most people, I also grew up with the cartoon. And I didn't get into the comics until near the end (just before the TF crossover, although I had one or two issues from '87 or so).

So when I was younger, the O13 were really just Greenshirts for me. And I didn't even know their names until I was in highschool (around '93 or so). I couldn't even tell them apart until a few years ago!

Their original figures really don't do anything for me and most of the remaining figures I'm missing from my collection are part of the O13.

But the 25A O13 figures... now those are my favorties (with the addition of commando sweater Duke). As an adult, I love the O13 characters. They're more of a cohesive unit than any of the other characters could be. As stated several times above by the others, the O13 were never really fleshed out individually... but they work great as a unit, while all the later characters are just individuals.

- JM