I miss....

[M6D]

I'd say there was a much more exciting dynamic just 10 years ago in the Joe world.

DDP was bringing back the comics. You had a lot of up and coming sites on the internet with a ton of fan interest and I would have to say it was a lot of those 80's fans who had continued with the line after 94 combined with those fans who were rediscovering GIJoe as Hasbro began bringing the figures back into stores. There was a nice mixture of re-imagined characters brought into a modern setting along with these great new characters appearing in Spytroops and Valor vs Venom eras. The stores were again chock full of a variety of two packs, single packs, COMIC PACKS!, vehicles, and even a few re-released and new playsets. I don't believe even the 25th launch rivaled what was going on between 2000 - 2006.

DDP had a nice little forum on their site as well that was always rocking, especially on the new release Wednesdays. I think by the time IDW got the license there was a bit of tiredness with the brand comic-wise and the reboot and slow burn of the first two years killed a lot of the interest in the new comic universe. I thinks there's been a little bit of a resurgence the last few months with ARAH and Cobra Command, but I don't see the books every getting back up to what they were at the end of the DDP license. I think that's also when sites like Hisstank and their new fans began hitting their stride, and a lot of the old guard moved on.

I think the fandom itself had so many great "characters" back then as well.

[zedhatch]

I remember DDP as having a major fight every month, the most adamant ones were the killing for killing's sake issues of the regular comic that lead into the America's eliete, but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows with that comic, I fact there was some downright violent arguements on their very boards about some of the things done int he series as I recall.

I remember several people, I beleive we would refer to them as appologists now, who would cheer for everything done no matter what and call anyone with a differing opinion a hater (some still do that).

I guess I am just saying, there has always been levels of arguements and frustrations, I do know some people left the communities because they got sick of not being able to say "Version 23 of Snake Eyes is unessessary" without being blasted and not supporting the line and that if they kept it up Hasbro would only give us "Justin Timberlake Joes" PS that is a direct quote and I never really understood the comment, one of the funnier ones from that era IMO.

[icebreaker]

bought a house, had a kid, and got a new job working 10 hour days means i post less, but i still lurk

^ Mostly the same here. Joe is being re-worked here to remain fun and manageable with life's additions and variations, and what not.

[PrimeOp]

I stop in every once in a while just to see what's going on. Most of my free time go towards website work and artwork, so I don't have much time to hit message boards. Oh, I also check in to see if the annual "Wal-Mart got rid of the Joes" topic came up again

Personally, I still keep an eye out for Joes and pick them up when I can, but collecting has become more of a rat race that I'm not a fan of. It's a bit difficult to get excited about new products that I probably won't find, so I don't talk about the figures all that much anymore. Mostly, I hope that the next Joe flick makes them popular enough to be carried in stores as much as Transformers do right now.

As for the board, a lot of people spend more time on Facebook than they do on individual message boards. I see most of the regulars I hung with there more than any other place on the internet. Facebook is one of the most irritating websites I've been a member of ("... and I bet 95% of you won't repost this BS chain-letter... "), but it's turned into that place you go to because some of your friends and family just wont' go anywhere else. The same story goes for many of the other boards I used to go to. Maybe the movie will make a few people wander back onto the board again.

[Crosshair]

As for the board, a lot of people spend more time on Facebook than they do on individual message boards. I see most of the regulars I hung with there more than any other place on the internet. Facebook is one of the most irritating websites I've been a member of ("... and I bet 95% of you won't repost this BS chain-letter... "), but it's turned into that place you go to because some of your friends and family just wont' go anywhere else. The same story goes for many of the other boards I used to go to. Maybe the movie will make a few people wander back onto the board again.

This is a great point. I wonder how much different things would have been if Facebook and Twitter were big 10 years ago. Most people in the community meet on message boards, but I think they end up branching out to Twitter and Facebook as a more personal/quicker interaction location.

[madmac41]

There have been so many Joe sites pop up and people move over to those sites. A big reason that JBL was hugely popular for all those years was the man himself, Fred put a hellva lot into this site. As for some of the people you are looking to reconnect with you should try Tristatevipers there is a link to it on the board index.

[MaxPower]

Whats up guys.

Its been a long time.

I miss the old JBL days, too.
IT was very fun and just friendly all around.
I miss trading with complete strangers.

[barbecue17]

Me too man.

I don't know. When Sigma 6 was coming out and the 25th, everything was really exciting. Leading up to Rise of Cobra was exciting as well, but somewhere along the way it just seemes like lots of folks migrated. I still checj Generalsjoes once a week and the Joe discussion on Toynewsi.com, but I don't check here often enough. I need to change that.

[Dusty Ayers]

Me too man.

I don't know. When Sigma 6 was coming out and the 25th, everything was really exciting. Leading up to Rise of Cobra was exciting as well, but somewhere along the way it just seemes like lots of folks migrated. I still checj Generalsjoes once a week and the Joe discussion on Toynewsi.com, but I don't check here often enough. I need to change that.

I wonder if if is people migrating of if it is also a matter of economics. The economy has been rough to say the least for awhile now and the toy budget is probably one of the first things to go. If I stopped collecting I wonder how much appetite I would have to log on and check out the cool reviews and stuff.

[Shinnobi]

I wonder if if is people migrating of if it is also a matter of economics. The economy has been rough to say the least for awhile now and the toy budget is probably one of the first things to go. If I stopped collecting I wonder how much appetite I would have to log on and check out the cool reviews and stuff.

agreed.

lack of product plays a big part with me. even with Retaliation, the series is bringing few items. given the large amount of RoC products left last movie, perhaps the bean counters chose to be careful this time around. and very little was available between the big screen movies.

enthusiasm among the general populace (not including us, Joe fans) has also diminished since the last movie. the Renegades toon lasted only 1 season and the 25th Anni came to an end around the time of RoC. specialty stores like BBTS got what remained with Cobra Island and now Dreadnoks/Marauders sets. lastly, the WalMarts around here didn't even bother to pick up the last series of Joe figures. thus, hunting for that series was more pain-staking for me....more time and more gas... both of which i had little to spare lately.

on the flipside, die-hards show their thirst by paying eBay mark ups of the latest Dollar General series.

one thing is for sure, its a crazy time to be a JOE fan.

[barbecue17]

I wonder if if is people migrating of if it is also a matter of economics. The economy has been rough to say the least for awhile now and the toy budget is probably one of the first things to go. If I stopped collecting I wonder how much appetite I would have to log on and check out the cool reviews and stuff.

I actually notice some JBL members over at sites like He-man.org. I'm sure the economy has had stopped some people from collecting, but It seems that lots of fans have just branched out into other lines that have a bit more excitement going on with them at the moment. While Mattel has their share of QC and CS issues, they do know how to keep their properties talked about and hot. Not a week goes by with Mattel where there isn't some kind of new reveal, release, hint, speculation, or controversy. Hasbro has really detached itself from the fan community while Mattel, Diamond Select, and a few other companies have really attempted to get more involved and engage the fan/ collector's market.

The nostalgiac appeal of the G.I. Joe line has been gone for awhile, too. While POC and the 30th anniversary was, IMO, the best the ARAH brand has ever been, it was difficult to track down, plagued with accessory cutbacks and cancellations of popular characters (Kwinn), marred with nearly impossible to get SDCC exclusives (Slaughter and Zarana), little dialogue between fansites and the company, and a loss of the vintage styled packaging. While I'm super excited about Retaliation and loving every issue of Larry Hama's continuation of the original comic, the toyline has really left me cold. The club stuff seems nice, but it just seems to expensive for what they offer, no offense to them.

Hasbro seems to go through a cycle where they really push Joe, let it sit on the back burner, push it again, let it sit, rinse and repeat. There was a huge gap between DTC and the 25th, the 25th and ROC, ROC and POC/ 30th/ Renegades, and between all those and Retaliation. Those gaps give fans and collectors time to move on to other properties.

I think companies like Mattel, Hot Toys, Sideshow, Diamond Select, and others have discovered that the collectors market needs to be constantly stimulated to succeed. Mattel has releases every month on Mattycollector. With MOTUC, every month my collection is growing, which as a collector is desirable. Diamond constantly brings out releases with their select line. Sideshow and Hot Toys know how to publicize their line. Hasbro hits two or three shows a year and kind of sits back.

[Dusty Ayers]

I wonder if if is people migrating of if it is also a matter of economics. The economy has been rough to say the least for awhile now and the toy budget is probably one of the first things to go. If I stopped collecting I wonder how much appetite I would have to log on and check out the cool reviews and stuff.

agreed.

lack of product plays a big part with me. even with Retaliation, the series is bringing few items. given the large amount of RoC products left last movie, perhaps the bean counters chose to be careful this time around. and very little was available between the big screen movies.

enthusiasm among the general populace (not including us, Joe fans) has also diminished since the last movie. the Renegades toon lasted only 1 season and the 25th Anni came to an end around the time of RoC. specialty stores like BBTS got what remained with Cobra Island and now Dreadnoks/Marauders sets. lastly, the WalMarts around here didn't even bother to pick up the last series of Joe figures. thus, hunting for that series was more pain-staking for me....more time and more gas... both of which i had little to spare lately.

on the flipside, die-hards show their thirst by paying eBay mark ups of the latest Dollar General series.

one thing is for sure, its a crazy time to be a JOE fan.

There are days where I wonder how much ROC damaged the brand. It wasn't a "bad" movie but it was a terrible G.I. Joe movie. If you took out any relation to G.I. Joe then ROC would have been a decent summer flick. However it was supposed to be a G.I. Joe movie andthe characters didn't resemble the mythos and the storyline didn't either. I talked to a few people after the movie and they ranged from guys who had Joes as kids and then moved on to hardcore fans. The consensus was that it was a good movie but not G.I. Joe. Retaliation looks to be a truer form of G.I. Joe but I obviously haven't seen the movie. This one has to not only be good but also good enough to make people forget ROC. That is an incredibly tall order. I think Hasbro got burned by ROC and they are a lot more cautious with Retaliation.

[Shogun]

bought a house, had a kid, and got a new job working 10 hour days means i post less, but i still lurk

Not like I ever posted a ton, but I'll second pretty much this whole thing.

To top it off, there was this perfect storm when all of that happened around the same time that really reduced the time I ended up spending on Joe stuff.

1. Last year's G.I. Joe Collector's club exclusive. No need to rehash my issues, but the end result was that I never rejoined. So a very large chunk of my joe cash that used to go to the club products now goes elsewhere. And naturally, my time and money tend to go the same places. Less time and money spent on Joes.

2. SDCC Zarana. Like everyone else, I had both in my cart and got the website errors. I get that were exclusives just for the convention etc etc, but the end result was that buying a Joe was frustrating. (Now that I think about it, I probably haven't been on HTS since.) Last year I saw the Zarana previews and thought "can't wait, let's see what else I can find out." This year I look at Jinx and think "too bad" and I move on. Less time and money spent on Joes.

3. The third factor was more positive in that I more or less completed my sigma six collection (awesome) at about the time the sigma section of JBL really slowed down. Again, less time and money spent on Joes.


All of that said, I'm really happy with what's been produced the last couple of years. POC, 30th, Renegades, and the BBTS 7 packs rocked. And the new Dollar General guys are fantastic. I still collect, but I spend way less Joe time on the internet and way less money on the higher end figures. When the money is spent on something else, so is the time, so I somehow post even less! I do still check in, but it's more like weekly instead of daily.

[Steel]

If you miss the conversation..the Community atmosphere..the Joe Content..MAKE IT HAPPEN.

I spend 99% of my time at another Joe site with a tight group of people that love the hobby and share the same interests. We ll try to network with each other and share the aspects of the Joe verse that we like in the midst of a majority of Fatal Furries and staff members that could care less. The majority of the posters seem to promote scalping and actually go so far as to deter you from organizing public Community Networking as it takes away business.

This place could use some reorganizing of the forums to make it less confusing. Other than that, there are people that would really enjoy posting in a COMMUNITY atmosphere, rather than posting and immediately ducking for cover, knowing a bullet was headed their way.

Plus, now is the time with so much happening in the Joe World. The movie is coming, new figures are out there and it's a good time to be a Joe Fan again.

This place was THE place for a long time. TAKE IT BACK JBL!

[Steel]

My friend calls me from a Walmart yesterday....

In his hands, is a 6" Ra's Al Ghul from the Mattel Movie Master Line, Yokozune from the Elite WWE Line and a few other Marvel Universe figures he was thinking of for me. A young boy comes to the aisle and starts looking at his handful of items, at which point my friend asks "which one are you looking at?" feeling that the boy might actually be a budding fan and looking for one of the items not on the pegs.

The boy replies "I was just here and didn't see THAT on the peg (points at Yokozuna, but was glaring at the Ra's).

My friend asks "oh, are you a wrestling fan?" as it's always nice to see that next Generation of Wrestling fan appreciating the classic wrestlers of old like Yoko. Yet, he is still glaring at Ra's, so my friend then asks "Do you collect these and play with them?" to which the boy replies "No way...he's worth waaay too much online...I'm gonna keep it in the box. (looking at Ra's ) And do you know how much THAT is worth??"

Now my friend realizes he is working to get that Ra's which is indeed pretty rare and has been talking to him try and get him to give up the Yoko and Ra's and asks "How old are you? Do you KEEP these figures?" and then the kid drops it by responding "I keep some of them and I also sell a lot too. I'm 11 ."

11 YEARS OLD. This kid is a budding scalper, all ready working people for their finds at 11 YEARS OLD.

I miss the time when kids played with toys and enjoyed them for what they are. Ebay, auctions, scalping and even such have ruined the natural fun and beauty of collecting.