As I scoured through the parts bin looking for just the right set of legs, it dawned on me that Hasbro really did a good job of using a lot of different shades of green throughout the ARAH run.

They could have just used one standard green, like the olive drab used for Grunt, on all of the figures. But they didn't. Of the early years, I've always liked the light/apple green used on Steeler and Zap the most. The pine green used for Rock 'n Roll and Grand Slam was nice, too.

The one green that I found revolting was the shade used on the comic pack figures. It made the figures look like they worked as park rangers in tacky polyester uniforms. Seriously, every time I see that shade of green on a Joe figure it irritates me. Stupid? Yes.

The blue uniforms of the original Cobra Troopers/Officers is a nice dark blue, with just a touch of slate. It works much better than the very pure blue used later to make the six pack set. The six pack set blue is not a horrible shade, but it if were just slightly darker it would have looked nicer.

About the color of the plastic/uniforms- are there particular colors that you appreciate? Despise?

Great topic, and something I've never seen discussed on here before. There are a few different colors in the history of the line that turned my stomach a bit, and a few others I wish they'd use more often.

-As you mentioned, the green used on the comic-pack figures is just horrendous. It's so bad, in fact, that even a die-hard Original 13 fan like myself has absolutely no use for those figures.
-Speaking of the comic-pack era, the flesh-tone used for many of those figures (you know the one: it's really, really pink) is just as bad, if not worse. I try to avoid painting fleshtones on figures for a variety of reasons, so the heads and arms using that color are completely worthless for me.
-For some reason, I've always had a hard time looking at the Talking Battle Commander General Hawk figure. It's partly his bizarre skin tone, but something about the base color of the pants and the way it meshes with the red of the camo grosses me out.
-Psyche-Out has such a cool specialty and would have seen a lot more action when I was a kid if he hadn't been wearing that hideous neon-green shirt.

-I always liked the green used for the ARAH Hit & Run. It popped up on a few other figures, too: Tunnel Rat and Outback spring to mind, and all three just happen to be favorites of mine. I would have welcomed more of that shade.
-I also have a strange affection for the yellow-suited guys in the line: Blowtorch and Lightfoot were favorites as a kid, and I really like Airtight, Clean-Sweep and Secto-Viper, too. I'm not as fond of the yellow used on the H.E.A.T.-Viper and Scoop, though: 1989 was a bad year for yellow.
-Starduster: I have no idea why I love that particular shade of aqua-blue-green-whatever the hell it is. I just do.

It's funny this topic comes up just now. I've been helping a guy who's been trying to round up some replacement parts for some of his "Original 13", from a couple of boxes of spare parts that I've accumulated over the years. I always liked the fact that, although the first yesr of G.I. Joe stuck to military green (Scarlett and Snake-Eyes notwithstanding), there was a variety of green. Thus, I can go through the parts and realize -- no, that's not Zap's legs -- Zap's are a lighter green, and so forth. Very handy, really.

I've never had any real problem with any of the uniform colors, but I really didn't like that orange skin tone they introduced on a few figures late in the line. What was up with that?

And the painted-on flesh tone of some of the later comic sets was pretty bad, too. Moreover, it wasn't even necessary. They painted the entire head -- face and hair. I mean, mold it in one color and paint the other -- preferably the hair.

I saw one figure where there had been some sort of glitch in the paint and the figure looked like he was doing a bad impression of Two-Face. These horrible "scars" on one side of his face from the lumps in the paint...

Hit & Run's been mentioned here, and yeah, he's a great figure with great colors. I liked the fact that they molded his head in green, almost giving him green skin, and then painted the camouflage stripes on it. Cool effect.

I really like The Color WORMS came in..its that rich toffee brown.... Sadly for LBC work he's the only figure released in that color.

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There was a period where, for both Joe and SW, the comic pack figures were made in a way to try to resemble the colors and shades used within the comic itself. I'm glad they stopped doing that in later years.

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