>>9161598While they were more affordable back in the day, I certainly remember a lot of barren shelves. But at least back then I had options of which store to go to, as places like TRU and Kaybee were still around and thriving. But overall, I'd say '07 to '11 was a good time to be a Joe fan. The Retaliation and 50th lines had some great figures mind you, but at that point it was getting harder to find stuff and you could tell the line's days were dwindling.
>>9161804I had to make due with what I had. To this day it baffles me how few of Cobra's big named characters got decent updated figures. Like, most of the grunts and vipers got FANTASTIC figures, hell Alley Viper has like three different great figures and the 50th Eel is just an amazing update to the already pretty great original 25th one. But Blood, Mindbender, the Twins? They all each got like one figure each, most of em in multi-packs no less, and never saw any kind of update or modernization like so many of the Joes. Blood got it the worst imo, because he actually had three figures in '08, but all of em had the same awful, static, inarticulate arm for no discernible reason. People can argue whether it's cybernetic or armored, but one thing everyone can agree on is that it should be able to freaking move.
Anyway, speaking of Classified, I finally picked up a CI Trooper from Target today! That makes my fourth Trooper, so my squad is now complete. One Squad leader, two riflemen and one squad marksman. Now I just need to hunt down a pair of Vipers and a Beachhead and I'll be set until the Breaker/Classic Roadblock stuff starts hitting shelves.
