Lately, I was wondering if I could make a good effective "13-man" team out of thinking about what specialties would be strongest suited for a small team. "Back in the day," when we all didn't have it all, I think we still had fun with what we had. We really made more out of less, at least I think so. Even more recently, like in about 2006, I was having fun with just my security team. But, could I just have 13 figures now and have fun with it?
I started with trying to focus on JUST the needed specialties.
Then that plan sort of fizzled into just looking at all my figures and thinking these are all cool.
Then I was contemplating just the collectors series figures ('97-'02), seeing if it would be better to try and make a team out of the figures with softer hands as opposed to getting the harder older Joes in the mix. I've thought of just having more modern "O-ring" figures on hand at times.
Then I started asking myself why some figures appeal to me, and I started to think about different character personalities that have been presented to us all over the years.
Well, essentially, here's one possible team that I came up with and will be evaluating on how much fun these would be if this was all I had:
Heavy DutyWild Bill
Roadblock
Dial Tone
Outback
Tracker
Stalker
Lowlight
Jinx
Snake eyes
Gung ho
Flint
I guess I'll explain some of these choices separately below, the same list, but with the reasons why these are chosen now:
Heavy Duty, Heavy Ordnance trooper, laser weapons systems, indirect fire. I thought, here is an anti-tank guy most obviously, and I've liked this Heavy Duty, while strongly disliking every other incarnation after.
Wild Bill, he's a helicopter and fixed wing pilot, my team would have to get places and the Tomahawk is most likely going to be a major player. There are plenty of other pilots that could do it, too, but Wild Bills air cavalry scout character add-on's are giving him the edge for ground adventure/ versatility. Plus, he has a removable hat.
Roadblock. I think there may be more cartoon exposure affecting me with this pick, even though, a heavy machine gunner is very important to have. Plus, the guy in Renegades is a different take, but, still, I'm digging it. And I really like the Battle Corps mold for him.
Dial Tone, well, I think this is the character I would pick, being 1986 was a bigger year for me, and Breaker hasn't really stood out to me. Plus, add in that I'm thinking of using the 1994 mold, where I think it is pretty neat, the only thing I don't like is the yellow pack, otherwise I would feel really good about this pick for my communications slot.
Outback is really mostly Big Brawler in body here, but I think it works. I was thinking a survival expert all around would be pretty handy. I think his Marvel Comic appearances really sit with me for personality. Being the one guy to get out of that gulag really made him feel like a guy that could go it alone if need be.
Tracker would be my Navy SEAL. The head and torso are the only things "Tracker" in the picture above, but, the way I read the file card, he seems like a guy that can go out there alone and keep pace with the likes of Snake eyes. On this team, as-is, I would have a land-based SEAL, and Tracker is really a fairly "open-ended" character that could be fun to build up in my head.
Stalker is simply the man. Really, I don't hate Duke, but Stalker is a natural leader in my books, and in some ways would very much be the sarge-in-charge Ranger.
Lowlight has been with me from back in the day. With Hawk and Sci-fi, those three were the real army men figures that did most of the battle for many years. He's kind of the team sniper, essentially. But, it's all night spotter, night survivalist, night fighter, dinosaur spotter. He's been around, and in some ways like his file impresses on me, he is the quiet guy. I may have to replace my original one, but it's a great mold. I guess if he were on the team, he could play his traditional role, but also I could see him becoming a door-kicking commando, too.
Jinx has been around for awhile, and in a red suit, not a real stealthy feel. The Vypra is in the picture, and I've not really gotten a 4WD driver sense out of that figure. It's Jinx, all around, right down to the accessories. So, while I don't like re-naming figures somewhat, I think this figure as Jinx is going to be very useful. Relative to Storm Shadow, and NOT Scarlett. This way we have no hooking up on the team. Plus, Jinx can better serve in the intelligence role, assassin role, and take care of the teams finances.
Snake eyes: Do I really have to say anything more than, commando?
Gung ho. The craziest, hairiest, scariest, of them all! Airborne, Recondo, Ordnance. Jungle Warfare training instructor. The thing is, he's a Marine, and I think the team would have the best advantage with a well-rounded group made up from as many branches as possible.
Gung-ho hasn't been one of my favorites by any means, but, consider that he has been around and been back again true to his original form form over and over. A consistently done character, despite multiple generations of designs and media?! Is it possible?!
Being that I did attend the GIJOE convention in 2005, that Gung-ho figure would represent that trivia fact of my GI-history.
Flint is a character that really sticks out to me from not only the old cartoon, but also the Marvel comics. He's even in Renegades. He's got hostile environment experience, Desert Paratrooper experience, Night Force experience, as well as Tiger Force, a vacation in the shadows, among others.
Plus, he's a helicopter pilot. This would be useful on my small team. I've often thought of him as a commando of sorts that parallels Snake eyes in some adventures. The hardest part is picking one figure out of all of his, without picking just the 1985 version.
Below are some of my older set-ups where I was playing more with creating "squads." These were small teams that were like teams in the whole team that operated separately.
Above: Each team had a it's spread of weapon specialists. And every team had one AWE. I guess I didn't plan on how everyone would be able to get a ride. But, this is late 2004, early 2005, I would say.Below: I think this was about later than the above picture, maybe in early 2006? But, really, the small team idea is something I've been kicking around then and now, as you can see. In the team below, it's a 13-man team. It's got a lot of the same figures as what I picked out in my recent picks way up top. Except, instead of Storm Shadow, I have Jinx. Instead of "chief Torpedo", I have Tracker. Duke was replaced with Stalker. Then Beachhead, Grunt, Tunnel Rat, were replaced by Dial Tone, Wild Bill. Downtown became Heavy Duty.
(And I'm just now figuring I have only 12 figures in my team at the top. HA!)
Something about the team below, where I think it is nice to have a matching team, a "uniform" team, the Night Force folks matching is something while I think it looks great, well....it just doesn't mix in what I want. In such a small team, it looks like a team within a team, or the non-N.F. guys look like they are too cool for the Night Force school?
Below: This is my original team, before "becoming a collector." I've posted about it before, but it's kind of interesting to me when I look at this.
