The only 12" figures I have are the mail in Joe Colton and the one that came in the box set with book from the mid 90s, though he's probably lost now. I love the Colton, and I like the format just fine. However, anyone who grew up in the 80s with GI Joe, well 99.9% of anyone, only had the small guys. Some people I'm sure got collections from their older brothers, but no one I've known. I am pretty sure I had been into Joes for some years before anyone even told me the franchise began in the 60s with larger scale dolls. It became clearer to me that most, if not all references to GI Joe in films and tv refer to the tall dudes, at least up through the early 90s. That is confusing, and it is still confusing because people like Conan O'brien continue to perpetuate the knowledge of GI Joe as 12" dolls. That's cool, but the two lines are pretty far afield from one another in their appeal.
When Hasbro relaunched the 12ers as the dinky figures began to fail, I thought it was great. Of course I didn't buy ANY of them, but it was really awesome to see a bigger section for them than for the 3.75s at Toys R Us. I always loved seeing which political figures and military icons would be made next. But they were priced for the over-30 crowd and I completely passed on the whole run. It doesn't mean I hate them, it just means that they have never successfully been marketed to the target demographic that was raised on A Real American Hero.
If I was rich I'd surely begin collecting them, since they have a far more legitimate claim to the GI Joe throne than my beloved little ARAH men.
