Frank and Joe Hardy

SDLagent · November 30, 2010, 07:24:43 PM

I don't know who the models are on the new covers. I've wondered, too.

And your the first person I've heard that says Frank is slow. Isn't he supposed to be the quick-witted thinker?

MacGyver · November 30, 2010, 09:03:03 PM

Maybe they meant athletically? It does seem that Joe tends to be a bit more active sometimes- but both of them have played football and track in the books. And they've both done fencing and I'm pretty sure they play basketball too. (I know they play in Slam Dunk Sabotage but I can't remember if it's both of them or just Joe that's mentioned. But either way, both Frank and Joe are mentioned as being pretty athletic and it seems they can both are pretty strong and can run pretty fast when they need to.

hardygirl847 · December 11, 2010, 04:47:25 PM

I am now in my *ahem* later 20s...but don't worry...I don't act like it. At all. LOL

So I don't feel like I'm in the target age range, but I don't care. HBs are classics. I giggle when older people than even me say they loved the Hardys "when I was a kid". I STILL love them. I don't even care who knows it!

I am definitely more fond of the Casefiles series but I am getting more and more into the other series. UBs are trying to gear towards what you were calling the "target age range" but I think they should stick to being classics. Classics don't need to conform.

It's understandable that they are trying though. I think the best reach to the younger target age range is the GNs. Those are really big right now.

I love Frank and Joe, but I do say I like Frank a tad more...if I had to choose. He is definitely not slow at times or EVER. If you are referring to instances in the UBs, please redirect your attention to the Originals, Casefiles, or even the Digests. Both boys are always smart, funny, and athletic in those stories. To what degree is depending on the boy and the circumstance.

UBs, I will admit, paint a somewhat different picture in some of them. They definitely try to make them seem younger.

I, too, find the Casefiles to be easier to relate.

Hardy Boys UB Fan · February 02, 2011, 07:46:06 PM

I think the UB's are easier for me to relate to.

SDLagent · February 03, 2011, 01:18:20 AM

Because you're a kid of the 2000s...

JoeHardyRocks · February 03, 2011, 12:35:49 PM

Technically we're kids of the 90's

MacGyver · February 03, 2011, 01:13:13 PM

Where are the kids of the '80s?

JoeHardyRocks · February 03, 2011, 01:49:00 PM

Kids of the 80's are like REALLY old, like 30!!!!!

MacGyver · February 03, 2011, 02:22:41 PM

Not quite- that depends on when you were born. Technically, a kid born in 1989 would still be a kid of the '80s and only be 21 or 22.

But of course, what was I thinking? 30? That's, like, ancient!!!!
What is this- Logan's Run? Don't trust anyone over 30.
lol

Hardy Boys UB Fan · February 03, 2011, 04:04:16 PM

Yeah.

I so don't get the caseflies with the lack of technology. How hard was it not to let them have cell phones, laptops, GPS and other stuff?

MacGyver · February 03, 2011, 05:21:47 PM

In The Hardy Boys Casefiles series, the books were first published in 1987. They kept publishing them all the way through 1998.
At that time, cell phones were certainly around "all the way back" in the 1980s. However, they were fairly expensive and pretty bulky and it was just not very common for a lot of people to have them other than Zack Morris.

Laptops may well have been around in the late '80s and into the '90s- but again, they were not very common for a lot of people and they were also quite expensive. Thus, not many people had them. The GPS was not available for the public market nearly as readily as it is now (though the technology did exist all the way back to the '70s - but that's how a lot of things got started. The government had top secret technology projects being worked on and eventually they filtered down to the general public market), but The Hardy Boys certainly knew how to use a compass. As the books progressed, Frank and Joe did use technology a bit more as that became more common. Even back in 1987's Evil, Inc. Frank gets a modem from The Network and has to go to a computer store to get the right part to hook it up to his computer. That was pretty cutting edge at the time.
And that's another factor to remember. For the most part in the Casefiles, The Hardy Boys are employing up to date technology, but when looking back on it, it of course looks out of date because it is from our current perspective. Of course, if you think that's a stretch, try reading the Original Text version of The Hardy Boys books and notice the differences from late 1920s and early 1930s culture and technology to today. I think it's kind of fun to read these books set in earlier times when so much technology was not as readily available. I think it makes things a bit more challenging when the Hardy Boys have to find a landline phone to make a call because they don't just have a cell phone at the ready or even a car phone (which was fairly popular in the 1980s and early '90s). Some of this technology can become an easy crutch for writers to use instead of creating a bit more challenging situation and creative solution.
It sometimes makes one wonder how people ever survived back in the 1700s when they didn't have cars and telephones and computers and all the stuff we have today. They did have books though and people were a lot more excited for them at that time I think. Sometimes I think it would be rather nice to have a time machine like in the Back to the Future movies and be able to try living life in another earlier time period. I think remembering history makes you all the more grateful for what is available today.

Hardy Boys UB Fan · February 03, 2011, 05:35:28 PM

Quote from: MacGyver on February 03, 2011, 05:21:47 PM
In The Hardy Boys Casefiles series, the books were first published in 1987. They kept publishing them all the way through 1998.
At that time, cell phones were certainly around "all the way back" in the 1980s. However, they were fairly expensive and pretty bulky and it was just not very common for a lot of people to have them other than Zack Morris.

Laptops may well have been around in the late '80s and into the '90s- but again, they were not very common for a lot of people and they were also quite expensive. Thus, not many people had them. The GPS was not available for the public market nearly as readily as it is now (though the technology did exist all the way back to the '70s - but that's how a lot of things got started. The government had top secret technology projects being worked on and eventually they filtered down to the general public market), but The Hardy Boys certainly knew how to use a compass. As the books progressed, Frank and Joe did use technology a bit more as that became more common. Even back in 1987's Evil, Inc. Frank gets a modem from The Network and has to go to a computer store to get the right part to hook it up to his computer. That was pretty cutting edge at the time.
And that's another factor to remember. For the most part in the Casefiles, The Hardy Boys are employing up to date technology, but when looking back on it, it of course looks out of date because it is from our current perspective. Of course, if you think that's a stretch, try reading the Original Text version of The Hardy Boys books and notice the differences from late 1920s and early 1930s culture and technology to today. I think it's kind of fun to read these books set in earlier times when so much technology was not as readily available. I think it makes things a bit more challenging when the Hardy Boys have to find a landline phone to make a call because they don't just have a cell phone at the ready or even a car phone (which was fairly popular in the 1980s and early '90s). Some of this technology can become an easy crutch for writers to use instead of creating a bit more challenging situation and creative solution.
It sometimes makes one wonder how people ever survived back in the 1700s when they didn't have cars and telephones and computers and all the stuff we have today. They did have books though and people were a lot more excited for them at that time I think. Sometimes I think it would be rather nice to have a time machine like in the Back to the Future movies and be able to try living life in another earlier time period. I think remembering history makes you all the more grateful for what is available today.

How was Frank having a modem cutting edge?

SDLagent · February 03, 2011, 06:01:29 PM

Quote from: Hardy Boys UB Fan on February 03, 2011, 04:04:16 PM
Yeah. I so don't get the caseflies with the lack of technology. How hard was it not to let them have cell phones, laptops, GPS and other stuff?

Because it was the 80s! Cell phones and laptops weren't created by the big bang you know.

Hardy Boys UB Fan · February 03, 2011, 06:21:03 PM

Quote from: SDLagent on February 03, 2011, 06:01:29 PM
Because it was the 80s! Cell phones and laptops weren't created by the big bang you know.

Yeah. I guess I'm so used to seeing them in everyday life that I forget that we didn't always have them around!

MacGyver · February 03, 2011, 09:04:01 PM

QuoteHow was Frank having a modem cutting edge?

I doubt many people would have had them in 1987 outside of the elite electronic geeks, basically.
There was a time when certain technology could really only be used by programmers because they were the only ones who really understood how to use them. It wasn't until Internet browsers started becoming readily available to the public by about 1993 or 1994 with the advent of Mosaic and later Internet Explorer that more of the mainstream consumers started using modems and getting connected to the Internet and such.