When it comes to the "original 13," I still don't really have them. In the above picture is the extent of my classic o-ring style GIJOE figures from 1982 and 1983. The two straight arm figures up there, Breaker and Short fuze, were more purchases where I wanted to bring the original Marvel GIJOE characters into my GIJOE collection.
And for the "original 13," those comic characters were, and are, so much more interesting to me than the figures themselves. I didn't get into the comic, especially back-issues, until 1992 or 1993. So, with that in mind, the really classic 1982-1983 green team wasn't really a part of my collection from the beginning at all.
It was about 1993 that a friend gave me that Zap, Flash, and Doc one day. While Doc was a nice unique addition to my force (helping Lifeline), Zap and Flash spent most of the time operating the APC I had; they just fit in that vehicle so much better than later '80's into the '90's figures.
And I traded more recently in the past few years for Cover Girl and Airborne, but as far as "action" goes on all these figures, they seen much.
And this non-use of figures kind of follows that pattern into 1984. Below, the only figure that is my original figure is Cutter. He came with my WHALE and shows the wear of a figure that has been around for awhile.
For the rest of the figures, I think I got them more within just the last few years. Thunder has been part field artilleryman, and Tollbooth was the engineer for my 1983 HQ.
Blowtorch has sort of melded into my environmental department, and hasn't seen much expanded use past that. Ripcord, looks pretty cool, and seems to have a big fan base, hasn't really gotten much use, either. And Recondo, who simply has not had a decent update that I like, is part of the Jungle squad, but really he hasn't seen a lot of use, either.
When it comes to the 1982-1983-1984 figures, right now anyway, they really seem to fit within their own time frame. And I say it in a good way, but these figures and the corresponding years vehicles really make a great stand-alone set in a lot of ways. Sure, 1985 fits in just as well, but the only difference is the neck joint. And that's about where the topic of swivel head figures begins, especially as you might know from previous posts that I am considering trimming my figure roster significantly.I've already trimmed "sub teams," for the most part, as well as my dedicated arctic/ cold weather operations team. I'm now considering trimming ALL swivel head figures, as well.
One might think, why? I really only have a few figures compared to ball-jointed neck figures that area swivel head, but really, when I have a figure like Flash in the mix with even figures from 1985, the guy seems antique. Don't get me wrong, the figure is still cool, but in the mix with figures from 1989, or 1990, the detail level is more interesting to me in the later years.
So, ultimately, should I keep all these old swivel head figures when I prefer the later ball-joint neck figures, or even when there are more detailed "updated" versions of these figures?
I can't forget to chat about Cobra, here, too.
When it comes to iconic, these Cobras are right on top for me. I'm a fan that is more interested in the individual bad guys. The Enemy, with a name. And this is where I think if I made a "rule" to trim out all swivel head figures, I might lose quite a few iconic characters.Cobra Commander and Major Bludd, I have newer versions of these guys that I like so much more, but from there, the rest are hard to find a nice newer version of.
My "default" Firefly is actually just a repaint of the 1984 figure (picture below). And Scrap Irons modern o-ring issues have left me wanting more, so I just used an original body with the modern head (the original was worn). So, would I "have" to get rid of these figures if I trimmed out all my swivel head figures?
As far as Copperhead and Wild Weasel go, I did buy the 25th versions of these guys, and the detail and articulation is really kind of nice.
And while I have the more modern comic pack o-ring figures and other re-issues sort of set aside as the "junior joes" toys that can be played with, without any fear from me as a 'collector,' would I have to discard these, too? I most likely wouldn't, but would I allow myself to put "my" swivel head figures into this area in a way to skirt around my own potential rule of no swivel heads? Perhaps I need to go through the "junior joes" collection as well, perhaps only allowing swivel heads of the modern years? Or perhaps only comic-pack styled figures?
And that's not a life-ending question at all, that of, what to trim out.
The ultimate goal for me would be to get nice sized GIJOE forces that make being a collector/ fan fun. It would all give me a way to interject my favorites, preferences, ... perhaps aesthetics, and essentially make my GIJOE a very used bunch of toys. I'm not a museum, as much as I would like to have it all, the reality is, I really should not have it all. Right now, anyway.
If the no swivel head rule is applied, and my collection weeded straight-through in this manner, I might lose all trace of some characters, and even later classic run figures would be discarded. Like Skystriker above, but I don't know if I trust him since he seems to have the same mission as Wild Weasel if one looks close enough at those maps...So, what do you think? In the modern-era with the 2011 Joes out on the shelf, are swivel heads simply antique? Should I chuck all the o-rings and just get a handful of modern era things to make it all really simple?
Am I simply over thinking it all?