Pleasant Surprises?

[r07a23c]

Have you ever gotten a Joe as an adult collector that you didn't have as a kid, and surprised at how much you like it? It's happened to me a few times, but the most recent example for me would be Scrap Iron. Didn't have him (or many Joes, for that matter) as a kid, and didn't really care about him one way or the other. But I recently got one in a lot, and I really dig him, way more than I thought I would.

Has this happened to anybody else?

[Pumphrey]

Of the old GI Joes of mine I dug out, I have a new Appeciation for the Razorback Drivers; Wild Boars.

He had no weapons, like so many vehicle drivers, and a very plain paint job, which as a kid I found just boring.
In fact, to have more ground infantry, we wouldn't put anyone in vehicles and just pretend they all had generic drivers.
(however IF you put the actual driver in a vehicle, it would now be almost unstoppable!)
and
Accessory Packs (I had 3) bugged me. The fact the weapons were the wrong color, or the idea of someone using a weapon they didn't come with?
Out of the question.

Now that I'm older, I am much more open minded about things...
Wild Boar has a nice intimidating red/black color scheme. The hose from his helmet to arm DOES give a flair; and outfitted as a Tele-Viper or Eel with Accessory Pack 6 looks good I think.
Or even just a ground force with a rifle and combat backpack from any other AP. And using AP6 again you can also give him snow serpent gear on top of it.
He's very versatile I think. And just cool in a generic way yet unique way... if that makes sense!

I think he'll be an army builder of mine if I go that route.

[GeekDragon]

That really hasn't happened to me yet. But, I'm only collecting 82-88 right now and haven't ventured into the 90's. So, let's see what happens.

[Pumphrey]

[Hammerhead11]

I haven't had the pleasure yet, but I know it's coming. I didn't have neighbors to play with and my brothers were 10+ years older than me. Gi Joes were like my after school friends. After not seeing the, for nearly 25 years, I was shocked he detailed and cool they still are to me. I had a lot of the figures on the Joe side and not many Cobra. Same for the vehicles. Once I get all my toys back to 100%, I plan on working on getting those things I always wanted but never got.

I'd say almost every GI Joe collector feels the same way as you.

[Katana]

I've collected figures I didn't have as a kid that I was aware of at the time, but the one that I was really surprised with liking so much is Major Bludd. I never watched the cartoon as a kid, just had some toys, so I wasn't aware of his character on the show as a kid, and when I started collecting as an adult I'd see him in collectibles stores and eBay listings and was always more interested in other figures. One day I picked up a few figures and decided to pick up Bludd also. He seemed like such a simple figure, but the more and more I looked the more interesting he became.

[Currahee_Chris]

The Dreadknocks- frankly, Zartan was a pretty odd figure but the stories around the guys as a biker gang were really excellent.

Storm shadow, snake eyes, flint, and duke too.