You mention a large part of why i asked the question in the first place - self customs. While i don't play like i did as a child displaying my collection is a form of activity in a manner of speaking. For myself i cannot invest in a line as an adult without feeling personally vested in it via an avatar / self custom. I suppose that is why Transformers have never been my favorite toy on some level. My 2nd favorite custom figure right now is made of a very cheaply made 1:18th figure that i upgraded with joints i had previously no use for. I realize the reason i truly appreciate the figure is because it's the closest thing i've ever made to a Self Custom. It was not intentional yet it resonates with me a great deal. In fact it's initially what renewed my interest in Joe toys as opposed to simply the joe community and comics.



This is how i should have posed the question i.e. do collectors feel bound to the Joe mythos and characters .

I think you will find a wide range of answers as to that one. And I think much can be learned simply from the type of customs you see each member create. For example, I can't recall seeing a Joe character from Cap. And I'd venture less than 5% of the customs I've made are either of Joe characters or are meant to fit only within the Joe Mythos.

The one thing I find myself most loyal to is the Joe form, but much less so the Joe character. As toys, I find them largely superior, and as such they are the primary base figure for my customs. But even then, I am not rigid, and will use any scale figure or figure part that can, at the end of the day, fit in with my other figures.

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The problem with asking Joe fans if they feel beholden to the established continuity is in determining *which* one. So far as I'm concerned, the old 12" Joes had no real canon. They had a 'set-up' to establish who the character/s is, then you ran with that to have whatever adventures you wanted from that. Then, the RAH continuity was presented to us almost as a choice between 3 options, the canon presented on the file cards, that of the comic, then that of the toon.

I think it's a short limb to go out on to assert that, so far as Joe fans and their behavior indicates, there is *no* true Joe continuity. We've all been trained almost from day one to pick the things we like and toss the things we don't.

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Any custom characters that I come up with become part of my Joe-verse, definitely. I think some of my favorites are the ones that I've assembled from other parts, not modified too heavily, and look entirely as if they were something Hasbro came up with.

Case in point, here are three of my favorites. From left to right, Microwave, a Radiation Specialist; Stockpile, the Joe Team's Quartermaster; and Rollbar, an all-purpose Vehicle Driver.

I really like these two.

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I keep to the Marvel story along with throwing in my customs into the same verse..

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I like all three of your custom figures Microwave really catches my eye. He reminds me of just how much variety the ARAH line offers as far as colors and sculpts. They didn't all work out but that Microwave is an example of when orange works

Great question!

My custom figures are stored side-by-side with Hasbro's. I started cherry picking Hasbro's figures about two years ago instead of buying all of them. As others have said- I'm good on Duke figures and won't by another one until it's just amazing or comes in a well done dress uniform. Same for Storm Shadow, Snake-Eyes, and Cobra Commander.

Since becoming selective in my purchases, my new figures are now about 90% customs.

I can't claim to have an outright "Joeverse" like many of the guys here. But I tend to loosely think in terms of "what would I do if I got to write the comic book". That has lead me to include other toylines, chiefly Mask/Venon and Eagle Force/Riot.

Like many others, I don't have a "Joe-Verse". GI Joe and some of it's members are part of my larger Universe.
So customs are mixed right in with store bought product. I generally don't buy anything unless it fits within my Universe, and often times buy things I normally wouldn't, simply because I have an idea how it can fit in to my Universe. Such as the MOTUC Shadow Beast figure. I have no interest in He-Man at all, but as someone/thing for Hellboy and the BPRD to fight... Shadow Beast works.

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I add my customs to the joe/cobra, ect ranks and display them all together , so hasbros aren't better than my customs, they all deserve to be viewed together

I don't honestly have a lot of custom Joe characters in my verse now--with the ME figure design I've done more customs of established characters they haven't made then new characters.
I do really like "Woodsman" the character I created for the next generation group project, so I do like putting him in displays.

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Thank you! Microwave is probably my favorite of the three, mostly because of how well he came together. Desert Scorpion body with arms and legs from I want to say Scoop (it's been a while), and the colors were just a dead-on match. I had the parts and it was just something that begged to be done.

All three of them, I think, have some of the better code-names that I've come up with. They make sense to their respective functions, and certainly sound good alongside many of the other Joe Team code-names. And they all blend in well with a group of non-custom Joes, which is always an objective of mine.

double Post

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Haha wow I have the same recipe of Microwave as a custom (great minds and all that)

My Joe team itself has almost four hundred individuals (approximately 40 are totally custom characters) This team includes characters from Extreme, Sgt Savage, The Adventure Team, The Choose You Own Adventure Series, Comics from around the world (Digger and Expert from No expert GI Joe), Marvel, Hearts and Minds, Renegades, Sunbow, DIC, IDW, Devil's Due and establishing new characters for gender swapped folks.

I have done my best to flesh out all the in name olnly characters so allot of them feel like custom characters to me.

Custom Characters I am most proud of:( and yes I know they aren't the most inventive)
Guardian - CG rescue swimmer
W-2 - IRS liason and payroll specialist
EVAC - Rescue Chopper Pilot
Bell - Female Rescue Chopper Copilot
P.J. - Pararescue
Snowman and Fred - Supply Truck Driver and Search Dog
Trump - Human Resource Specialist
Backdraft and Flashover - Firefighter/Arson Investigator - Arson Dog
Long Trail and Surefoot, only loan from the National Park Service - Expert woodsman, survivalist, tracker and equestrian - Surefoot - quarter horse
Hash - Mess Cook

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Tell me that there is a Bandit to run block for Snowman against Cobra.

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