He-Man, Transformers Armada, GI Joe. Which new 80's 2002 line looks the best?

[The Clown Prince]

By now most us have seen what Mattel and Hasbro have in store for us with our favorite 80's icons in their new 2002 revamp versions. So which new line did the best job in revamping their 80's counterparts?

Now, I am a huge He-Man fan, but I honestly have to say without prejudice that when looking at all of the new figures, Mattel's 4 Horsemen did the best job on He-Man. It helped that they are big fans of the original series which is why we see these things look like their 80's counterparts with the exception of a few upgrades. Despite the fan controversy over He-Man's new look and the complete redesign of the power sword, (which over time I have come to like) and the horrible looking new Castle Grayskull, this line HAS ALOT of promise and potential. If the 4 Horsemen keep designing the figures, this line will succeed. Go to www.he-man.org to see pics.

Transformers Armada.... Optimus and Megatron look good, but so far the rest of the line does not look too great. I was worried about having to spend a lot of money on two new lines (He-Man and Armada) but I'm glad to say so far it's only one. Besides, TF figures are always expensive anyway. Hasbro I'm sure used an in house sculpting crew for this one. Hasbro did good by returning to the G1 format, but the designs have something to be desired. Pat Lee's new comic I'll be looking forward to more than the new line. The new cartoon will be good I'm sure, but I just want to know what they're gonna do about the Megatron/Galvatron issue. Megatron was formatted into Galvatron in the movie. We see Galvatron through out season 3. Now, we have a new story which takes place 5 years after the events of season 3 and here we have Megatron back. If the story addresses the continuity issue, they'll most likely just have Galvatron be reformatted back to Megatron which once again he is a tank. He was a tank in the Generation 2 line. Boooooo I say! For obvious but retarded reasons, we'll never see gun Megatron ever again. Sprocket posted this link in another post, but here is the link again to view Armada pics. http://www.bwtf.com/armada/

And of course the new GI Joe figures. It's quite obvious with this line that Hasbro used an in house crew on this one too. I have not gotten any of the first wave of the new line and I won't. The looks of the new figures just don't impress me. Duke's helmut not being removable really sucks. Storm Shadow... uh, forget it. And I don't like the fact they went with the towel face look for Cobra Commander. His metal face plate was the best look for him ever. Destro just looks plain bad. Hasbro needs a cartoon to make this line succeed. Which I think is gonna happen later this year. They just haven't announced it. Without a cartoon, the fans alone can't support this line to keep it alive. Go to this link to view the new GI Joes. Scroll down to look at the ones that our out in stores new. Everything else on the page is news and pics about upcoming Joe stuff.

http://www.americandreamcomics.com/sys-tmpl/gijoetoycollectingnews/

So far Mattel reigns supreme with He-Man. I really hope Mattel strikes gold twice on this line. They really deserve it.

The Clown Prince

[optimuslives]

I agree with you that the He man line is the best so far..although I do have the new Joes and they are pretty cool, plus Hasbro is actually listening to the fans and giving us our o rings back and debulking the figs a bit. Potenital vehicle releases in the line are a newly designed Fang,Hiss, Skystriker, Rattler, and others not to mention that there are going to be all new vehicle molds as well.

Transformers..I really do not know what to say about these yet..I like three of them(guess which ones?) the others are just lame looking. I really hope that hasbro will redeem themselves by releasing reissues as Takara does..this is what the fans really want..not this really lame looking offering(Perceptor and that mutant skateboard thing) WTF????

Did you see the new sculpt He man fig that sold for over 170.00 the other day..that's just wacked

[The Clown Prince]

I was surprised to see that Hasbro did listen to the fans and are bringing the O-rings back. I'll just have to see what kind of sculpts Hasbro pumps out in the future.


Did you see the new sculpt He man fig that sold for over 170.00 the other day..that's just wacked

If your talking about the statues that sold at Comic Con last summer, then yes. It's surprising to see how high those things are going for. Good God!

Again, as for Armada, I can't believe they're taking the name Perceptor and giving it to a Minicon. Hasbro must think that a transformable microscope wouldn't be profitable in today's market, so they are just transfering the name to something else. Mattel is doing a compromsing thing with the fans for He-Man, and Hasbro is doing the same with TF. For the fans they're bringing back G1, but the designs themselves seem to be kiddie like almost to please the little tykes. Everything is plastic, and there are no rubber tires anymore or no die-cast metal of anykind. I don't know. We've only seen a small portion of things to come, but if more of what we've seen comes out, hmmmmmmmmm.

As I was saying about Mattel earlier, they've allowed The 4 Horsemen to basically give the fans back the original characters basically looking the same as they did in the 80's, but the compromise is that they have to be marketable to kids also. That means less articulation for less breakage. There for no elbow, knee, wrist, or ankle joints like the Horsemen had originally wanted and actually designed and created in there prototype figures. It was Mattel's idea to get rid of the joints so that the figures could stand up to abuse better and not break right away like TF figures seem to do. So now all that is left for articulation is leg movement, arm movement and head movement.

The Clown Prince

[Clayface]

My take on it all:

The He-man line looks, of course, fabulous. I'll definitely be getting these.

The Transformers line I'm really disappointed in. None of the figures I see there appeal to me in any way. And about the the Megatron as a tank issue - if you look further down that page that you linked, they say in the notes on Megatron that this Megatron is said to be "descendant" of the original.

I can't believe anyone doesn't like the new GI Joe line! I absolutely love it! I've bough two of each that's been released - one to play with and one to keep in package. My g/f is also a big fan and is collecting them. The sculpts are great, the redesigns are great, and the articulation is great! I couldn't care less if Duke's helmet is removeable. I love the look of both Storm Shadow (the red on white is awesome!) and Snake Eyes. And I always prefered the towel mask to the silver mask on Cobra Commander when I was a kid, so the fact that they went with it on this line is great by me. I will agree that Destro looks bad, but, if you've read the comic, you know he's not supposed to be the same Destro anyway. Of all my friends that liked the original show and toy line, I don't know one that is disappointed in any way with the new line.

[optimuslives]

The Clown Prince,

I wan't referring to the statues..there are people on e bay that are selling advance release action figures..if you do a search for completed items you will see them

Here is an example of what i am talking about...

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1699211003


CRAzeeeeeeeeeee!

Optimus

[The Clown Prince]

I wan't referring to the statues..there are people on e bay that are selling advance release action figures..if you do a search for completed items you will see them

GOOD LORD!!! I can't believe people are paying this much for a figure that will be out in stores in about 4 or 5 months. I guess it's the feeling of having it before anyone else does I guess.


And about the the Megatron as a tank issue - if you look further down that page that you linked, they say in the notes on Megatron that this Megatron is said to be "descendant" of the original.

Wow! I didn't see that part on web page. And I must say that idea REALLY sucks. In every TF after the original, Megatron is ALWAYS a descendant!!! God, doesn't that idea get old. Shame on you Hasbro.

I guess I am being a little harsh on the GI Joe line. All I've seen so far are pics. I haven't actually seen one in person. I'm out in here in the Portland Oregon area and none of the stores have gotten them in yet. Everytime I go to a Target, TRU, or Wal-Mart they're never there and the employees don't know what I'm talking about. The west coast always gets things last. It's gonna kill me when the new He-Man line hits and we'll be getting it last over here. And BTW, I do read the comic. I think the idea of what they're doing with Destro is great.

The Clown Prince