G.I. Joe Classified Series

Law and Order is my number one because I'm always a sucker for the animal companion figures. Flint at number 2 because he was always my favorite non-mute Joe and I've been looking forward to a classic version of him since the line launched. Cover Girl 3 just cos any time they can break up the Joe Bros with a female figure it's nice to change things up.
Probably Blowtorch after that because I dig how they retained his color pattern but gave it a muted modern vibe.
 
With the scaling back I'm doing - I think armoured CC and V4 SE are the only upcoming figures I'm actually planning to buy. Most of what I -really- want hasn't been announced yet or, perhaps, will never be made. Or so it would seem.
 
With the scaling back I'm doing - I think armoured CC and V4 SE are the only upcoming figures I'm actually planning to buy. Most of what I -really- want hasn't been announced yet or, perhaps, will never be made. Or so it would seem.
What characters or kind of things are you most wanting Damien?
 
I actively disliked Road Pig as a kid but I'm a sucker for the animal companion figures so I got him in Classified anyway and man, he's a FIGURE. Like, just so much effort went into making him cool. It's very clear Lenny loves the 'noks. Every one of them so far has rocked.
That's the thing about bad guys I think, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want, rule of cool is #1, no inhibitions.
 
What characters or kind of things are you most wanting Damien?
Oh, I have a list. Like I said, it's just a list of 'hasn't been announced' and 'maybe never?'

For instance, I still have an ARAH-accurate v3 Storm Shadow in my 'maybe never' list. The original figure is really bad, but it's been a long time and not even a rumour that they're considering remaking it properly. Then they come out with kind of a shitty take on v2 Storm Shadow and it just makes me think for some of these characters they think they can do better than the ARAH-accurate looks. And the Retro-card lines don't get enough figures per year for me to expect something like v3 SS to show up there.
That trend also continues with the awful update they've done to Slice, that neuters him of the cool deco that even made him interesting as a toy to begin with. So again, clearly they think they can do better and that puts the real ARAH version on the backburner into 'maybe never' territory.

Although I'd say most of my wishlist is just stuff that hasn't been announced yet versus stuff I'm convinced might never happen. Stuff that I was buying at the height of my Joe collecting -- yellow/black Alley Viper, v2 EELs, Iron Grenadier Destro with the sword and gold mask, Desert Scorpion, Night Creeper Leader in his orange glory, TJbang, and so on.
And then, of course, I still end up with a little bit of anxiety that some of these designs are RIPE for the Joe team's usual 'but we can do it better' attitude that will just ruin what was originally a really great figure. Some of their updates are cool, but I'm definitely at the point in my collecting where I'm far more interested in faithful updates than redesigns based on what one or two guys on the team think would be cooler than the designs we grew up loving.

Also also - some stuff I'd like to see is just later variants of older characters. And every time they make or remake a more 'iconic' version I wonder how much that pushes off the possibility of a different version, like v2 Low-Light, or the talking backpack versions of Hawk and Stalker. My favorite version of Sci-Fi is the v2 black and silver, but what are the odds we get that instead of v1? And when we get v1 - how far back does that push a v2, if ever?

Not to be a grump. Classified is doing great stuff. Just a lot of it definitely isn't targeted at me. And that's okay.
 
Everything you mentioned there Damien, I'd be really happy to have. I hope the Joe team gets to stuff like that. I definitely enjoyed the later years of the ARAH line just as much as the early. Probably more. Series 6 - Series 12 is probably my favorite times of the ARAH line. From about 1987-1993

It was nice to see you mention Night Creeper Leader. He was always a favorite of mine. I loved his colors and his accessories.
 
Hey, it's been a minute, I, too, want to jump on the bandwagon to say that the v3 Storm Shadow we got absolutely SUCKS! He's probably in my top 5 retro Joes I owned as a kid, and I have a ton of nostalgia for him. But in Classified, he's hoodless, in the back of my display, gathering dust. Just a shame. Releasing him in "sun damaged white-yellow" is also a kick in the crotch. Is it supposed to be like a reference to how all our original toys got sun-damaged? Because I don't want a new sun-damaged Storm Shadow. I want a new, perfect one so I can keep him nice and remedy my childhood!

Btw, can you believe it's been five years since this line began? Happy five year anniversary fellas! Thought I'd personally celebrate by griping about a five-year old figure. Oh, and also, that Wave One Duke was and still is a great figure and nothing will change my mind.
 
Yeah, it was really disappointing how much they botched that Storm Shadow. I remember being so excited to see them tackling my favorite version of him so soon after the line started, but then feeling disappointed when I saw it in person and looked at pictures. That hood never sat right, the belt was huge and cumbersome, and the white was so yellow. I never opened up the copy I got and ended up selling him a few years later. I’m happy with how his later versions came out, including the most recent 2nd version, but we could definitely use a complete do-over on the 3rd version.
 
“Arctic” Storm Shadow was so early in the line, I accepted him as the kind of weak-but-serviceable rework/repaint that Hasbro did a lot in the “modern” 3 3/4 line, even with this very version of Storm Shadow. It wasn’t “good”, but it met my basic expectations for the line at the time. My expectations have risen SIGNIFICANTLY since then.
 
I always liked that Storm Shadow, BUT I didn't grow up with GI Joe really, so I'm not offput by discrepancies from the original figure the way someone who had him as a kid might be
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