The Greatest G.I. Joes and Cobras, but I'm adding a hitch

[Swindle]

Lowlight has one of my favorite lines in the movie: "Showtime!"

I also dug his spotlight episode, the nightmare episode. His dad was a dick. Him being suspicious of Scoop in the faux-Sunbow five parter, Dragonfire, rung true to me, so that's one of the few things I like from DIC.

Still, its Lady Jaye easily. Very iconic, I say the most popular female character in GJoe.

Ummm.... I'll go with Lamprays on the Cobra. I'm not very excited about that choice, but Laser Vipers excite me even less.

[Bravo]

M is for MUTT.

Mainframe IS LAME. Mercer is worser! Muskrat is scat! Maverick sucks d... Major Altitude is major suckitude. Mace has an ugly face. Mirage and Med-Alert are...uh...not as cool. Yeah. Majors Barrage and Storm...nice idea to have other officers, but these guys are never used.

Nah, all those guys are okay. But I'm voting Mutt.

Ignoring Moray and Medi, Motor, Monstro and Mega Viper, for Cobra it seems to be Major Bludd, Monkeywrench or Metal-Head. The Foo Fighters don't wannabe Monkeywrench. And Metalhead was dumb in the toon. There's also Mortal, or is he techincally "Cobra Mortal". Either way, I never owned a version so he's a non-contendor to me. Never owned Munitia, either.

It's an easy pick. Major Bludd

Mutt and Major Bludd

[Swindle]

Mirage has gotten a surprising number of action figures. I guess it was a case, during that strange 2000-ish time period, his mold was available, it got used. Doesn't make him iconic. Mace is a lowrent version of Chuckles. I wish they'd update Mainframe's gear. He's still using an outdated computer. Hmmm... Maverick, never a fan, just can't help but think of Top Gun. Mercer needed Sunbow season 3 to really take him to the next level. I do love his backstory, though.

So, Mutt was the first figure to come with a pet? Very cool. Hard to argue against him.

Yojoe.com lists Montezuma's Skeleton. Think that's dumb. Its an accessory. Monkeywrench is overshadowed because Thrasher had the Dreadknok ride. I don't really feel the need for Mercenary Wraith, which is code name. Zartan and his siblings feel that role. But imagine if Zartan's codename was Mercenary Zartan. "Mercenary Zartan, I have a job for you." It's stupid.

Major Bludd, I just remember the outrage when he got his 25th Ann fig and he completely reused Zartan body. It was ugly. Metal Head, better or for worse, the one thing that overshadowed other things in DIC. Bang Bang! He's fun and the design of the fig is neat. I don't understand why Hasbro hasn't made more figs of him.

I really want to go with Metal Head, but that would be me indulging in a guilty pleasure.

Can't go against Bravo's pics, Mutt (and Junkyard) and Major Bludd.

[Felix]

Major Bludd: Agree.

M Joe's: Mercer, you guys know why, I'm sure I've spat out why I like Mercer to you guys at least a hundred different times
so for obvious reasons, he's my favorite.

However, I will concede to the popular Mutt vote, but Mercer stays on my 'M' list. Mutt appeared as a primary character in the Synthoid Conspiracy. Most of the Joe's don't like the orders the synthoid infiltrators are giving them, but they follow them anyway because they're soldiers. Mutt is like the only one who says, "Screw that!" and becomes a wanted man. Rock N' Roll get's him cornered before he can get away, but R' N' R actually helps him get out It had a powerful impact on me, because it had a very real feel to it. What do you do when your a Joe, or a good guy, and someone at the top is giving you orders you strongly disagree with. It shows that a real Joe doesn't blindly accept authority. That you have to question it, and do what's right, even if it means nobody believes you and they're going to try and lock you up (which they do to Quick Kick).

In the comics, Mutt never appeared to much from what I remember, but there was one issue, #86 or #89 I believe..somewhere in there...where Mutt, Cross Country, and Law & Order battle the Dreadnoks. Junkyard gets sliced by Buzzer, and when it happens, you really feel like that's the end of Junkyard, and despite my love for the Dreadnoks, you can't help but hate Buzzer for this, and Mutt kicks Buzzer while he's down. Junkyard survives, and Mutt goes with Battle Force 2000 in the next issue for some payback. Kind of neat seeing Mutt riding one of the BF2000 vehicles

But Mercer blew up a Terrordrome (with some help) in the movie, they wouldn't have got inside if it weren't for him. What was Mutt doing? Probably picking up dog poop

[Swindle]

On to the Ns this evening. I can't sleep, so why not?

Name Your Own "Create a Cobra"... a far cry from the Steel Brigade figure. This Cobra fig is ugly.

Then we got some green Nano-Vipers, Nano-BATS. Yeah, whatever. Yawn.

Then we got Neo-Viper which became sort of the staple of new-mold era troops. I was never impressed by this group of Vipers. Night Adder is Cobra's answer to Mutt, but he's never appeared in any Joe media that I know of and you already got Croc Master as the Cobra security guy with a pet, so f Night Adder. Nitro-Viper gets to be the only vintage fig not to come with a filecard. Sad.grim.pathetic.

Bottom line, for Cobra, its Night Viper vs Nemesis Enforcer. Night Viper is just a troop builder that gets overpriced on the toy market because collectors randomly choose it to be the favorite of later year Vipers. Meanwhile, Nemesis Enforcer was in GIJoe the fucking Movie and kicked all kinks of ass.

Sooo... GIJoe side of things, Nunchuk vs Night Fox. First off, Night Fox was just a Beadhead-head fig, good enough driver filler I suppose, but version 2 of him is one of those drivers from the Retaliation line that has greatly reduced articulation. Yuck. Meanwhile, Nunchuk is a Ninja Force C list character. Double yuck.

I'll go with Nunchuk on GIJoe side of things, just because that Night Fox v2 figure offends me on a basic level. Nemesis Enforcer on Cobra side of things, ha, two Cobra La characters make it! hehehehe, suck it movie haters.

[Bravo]

Other N's: Nullifier, an odd pilot said to have started out as Cobra-La addition. Neurotoxin, just a Sand Scorpion repaint, later reissued as a regular Sand Scorpion. Night Creeper and Night Creeper Leader. Night Watch Officers and Troopers. Night Stalker women.

Night Creepers started out a bit more interesting, because they were high tech ninja mercs who work for Cobra but aren't part of it. Later that was mostly ignored and they were just another redundant band of ninjas.

I'm amused how Night Vipers were the standard Cobra trooper in Dragonfire, even after Python Patrol was made, most of the python guys disappear and you have Night Vipers operating python Stuns in broad daylight.

I liked the original, except his bulky torso design meant he couldn't aim weapons well. For some reason his later release have almost been deliberately hard to get. Fan club jungle version, new sculpt became a fan club item, RoC heavily scalped and scarce...now the new one is red? Why?

Nemesis Enforcer left an impression, because he's not a coward-at-heart henchman type...he's a super strong monster that beat the heck out of anyone besides Slaughter (maybe Roadblock). His name is a bit silly when I think about it, very much two aggressive words thrown together. But whatever, this is GI JOE.

Nunchuk, I often forget he was retconned into being a Quick-Kick stand-in for the new sculpt era. So he wins by exposure and Night Fox is a generic type (I forgot he's a Navy SEAL...a Navy guy who's only been released as a ground vehicle driver...yes, I know SEALS mostly work on the ground.)

There's a room to argue for Night Creepers or Night Vipers, but yeah, I'll agree on Nemesis Enforcer and Nunchuk.

[Felix]

Nemesis Enforcer: Agree. Night Creeper is a good runner up. Night Creeper is the only ninja that could wear purple and make it look cool, sorry, no "Dice". I was a huge fan of the Night Viper idea, but the figure sucked. Colors were cool, but he couldn't hold his gun worth a damn, and his head looked weird without the visor down.

Joe N: Fail.
I refuse to acknowledge Nunchuck as one of the greatest G.I. JOE's.

The O's are easy, Outback or Ozone, who would win in a fight? I think we all know the answer to this one, Outback wins. They even tried to make Outback an Eco Warrior. He was Ozone's replacement. Ozone, it just isn't working out.

Cobra O: Overkill wins instead of Overlord because he has had more releases. I don't care about either of these guys.

[Bravo]

Outback. Yes.

Overkill, yes...I liked Overlord more before fanboys/modern comic writers got a hold of him. There's really two Overkills, original one's a machine and the other is a cyborg.

[Swindle]

Outback vs Ozone is pretty easy. Outback, just remember Hasbro trying to "replace" Outback with Big Brawler. LOL

I go with Overlord over Overkill. Overlord made it into GIJoe commercials hyping figs opposite the Sarge and was in a video game.

[Bravo]

P is a more interesting contest. Pathfinder, Payload or Psyche Out?

Pathfinder is okay, but suffers from not being used outside of Dic episodes. Psyche-Out was used most of the three, but when did Psyche-Out ever do anything that involved those dishes/sound waves? At least Payload went into space, even though I'm not that big into the space joes, I'm going with Payload.

Pit Viper, Para Viper, Predacon or Pythona? I skip the Python Patrol guys, because they are all pythonized versions of exist troopers/characters.

Pythona is the only one who had media influence. Still no figure of her.

[Felix]

Pythona would win if she had a figure. Default goes to Python Copperhead. His comeback isn't as good as Grandslams, but it's up there.

Payload: Agree. The figure was white, but he was black in the comics. Very expensive toy comes with a one of a kind figure, yeah, lets mess with his ethnicity. I never had the defiant, but I had a Crusader. Fun vehicle, fun figure. The Defiant was something I wanted more than a Flagg, it was at least accurate in scale.

[Swindle]

Pythona is just missing the figure. She is far more popular than the other Ps, plus, she is the centerpiece of the single best animated segment outside of the Movie intro. I don't care, I choose her, figure or no figure (she'll get one eventually, via the club). Copperhead is Copperhead, imo, Python name doesn't apply. IMO.

I really don't feel strongly about the Joes. Pathfinder is seems lagging big time behind Payload and Psyche-Out. I go with Psyche-Out. I don't feel strongly about it, but I dig the gear. Its funky.

[Felix]

I'll change my vote since this is based off "Greatest Characters", not figures. P goes to Pythona.

Q is for Quick Kick.

I have to go to work, somebody start the R's!!!

[Swindle]

Quarrel ... international nothing character... Quick Kick.... star of one of the worst season one episodes.

Quick Kick falls into the sole Q spot. That annoys me because he sucks, kind of.

[Felix]

Quick Kick was awesome. I always enjoyed it when he was in the cartoon. He doesn't do much in the comics, but he does get captured with Snow Job and Stalker. In the animated 1987 movie, he comes to Dukes aid with Snow Job (Kind of interesting seeing them paired up in the toon and comic). He get's killed later in the comic series, although he survives the initial massacre, he mournes the loss of his buddies more than the rest (actually cries), and gets the upper-hand so some of the Joe's can escape (uses SAW Vipers gun to kill some COBRAS). He was also one of my favorite figures. He also defeats Storm Shadow in one on one combat, after Stormy sends six Crimson Guards to attack him.