[chickenbroth]

Luckily for me, I went through my destructive phase with my hotwheels and matchbox cars. I cherished my Joes and kept hold of them all. Only a few items where ever played with outside so everything is still in great shape.

I have about 200ish figs. and about 60ish vehicles and playsets all boxed up in my spare room. When my wife and I move into our next house, I'm gonna have a Joe room to display them all and my ever increasing 25th collection.

[DaViper]

How funny this thread came up; I just recently found out what happened to my joe collection. Ok let me start from the begining, It was about 12 yrs ago when I just graduated from high school and was in my 1st year of college. I had gotten out of collecting joes for about 5 years before then, but I had them displayed in my room still. Feeling a bit too old to have toys laying around, I decided to sell them. A good friend of mine knew a guy who was big into collecting joes. So I asked him to sell them for me, he agreed and took my garbage bag of joes(nice way to store them huh? HA) with him. Well I never heard back from him and I forgot all about them since I was busy with school at that time.

So fast forward 12 yrs now and still wondering what ever happened to my joes. I recently found my friend on myspace and we got in touch again. It turns out he lives in Seattle now with his wife and 2 kids. Well we get to chatting and he brings up the topic that he has my GI joes still. You wouldn't believe how happy I was to find out my collection was still intact. I wanted to ask for them back, but it turns out his kids play with them religously. He said his 3 year old boys plays with them but his 4 year old daughter LOVES to plays with them! She would do all the sound effects and march them into battle like how boys would. I laughed but inside of me was crying "I want my joes back".

But I know at least they went to a good home and they are seeing action again instead of being displayed on some mantle like a trophy. What really makes me laugh is knowing that a little girl is playing with them and not some grown ass man! HA It just brings a smile to my face..

[Autobot_Goldbug]

I only lost 82 Rock N Roll who was one of my 1st Joes. The other... Snow Job I still have. I think Snow Job took him out because of jealousy like in the Toy Story movie.

[C.I.A.D.]

Being young & dumb, and at a stage where "I was a man now, and didn't need toys", I sold my entire collection.

At around 23 - 24, I went on the hunt, piece by piece, and re bought everything I sold and then some.

Sold those too, lol. I've been through collections like you wouldn't believe. As a matter of fact, the stuff I have now has been the longest I've owned items in my "adult collecting" years.

I still get that itch to list it all on eBay. :|

[Irid70]

My entire collection...many figs (couldn't guess how many) lots of vehicles, Defiant, Terror Drome, various tanks, jeeps, planes...is all in boxes in my mom's attic.

Except for the USS Flagg, which is in sections under some beds in the house. I'm sure many small pieces are missing but I'm reasonably sure I could reassemble a decent Flagg if I got it all out. I was careful with my toys; played with 'em, never tried to break 'em.

I remember when my parents made me put all my toys away; I was probably 13, maybe 14, freshman year of high school, maybe the summer after. Anybody remember "electric football?" The little sheets of number stickers you'd stick on the players? I created an inventory system with leftover sheets of number stickers, put them on the bottom of feet and typed up a list of all the names so I could remember them later.

Of course, YoJoe.com does that job nicely now, but in 1994, who knew from the Internet?

Anyway, when the wife and I have space, I plan to get it all out, see what is there, what isn't, dust it off, piece it back together. Hopefully for our future children to play with.

Incidentally there are tons of transformers in that house, too (including Fortress Maximus, in a closet) but those I'm pretty much planning to sell. I loved TF as a kid, but they do not wake the strong nostalgiac attachment in me that Joes do.

[ceraurus]

I collected joes as a kid from '82 until '85. Shortly after that, I decided I was too old for toys. My parents asked if they could give all the toys (mostly joes, SW, MOTU, and Mego superheroes and Star Trek) to a friend's kid (to clear some room in the house). I OK'ed the deal and there went all of my toys. The only things to make it were my Rattler, Skystriker, and a few odds and ends. I still have the Rattler, but I don't know what happened to my Skystriker over the years (I think it was tossed during a move). It always makes me depressed thinking about losing all those toys. I've only been collecting 25th joes, but if I had extra funds I'd be all over reacquiring those figures.

Well, skip ahead a couple of decades, when I'm looking through my parent's attic this Thanksgiving. I came across a deeply buried box with a bunch of vehicles - HISS, FANG, Stinger, and others. I almost cried finding those. So at least I've been able to hang on to some of my old collection after all.

[Justanoldfan]

in my parents attic. I've told my wife that when we buy our first house - I don't care about anything else, I want a basement...I want to make my own Fortress of Solitude with a GI Joe section, a Star Wars section, and place for me to display all of my sports memoribilia...

[Driftbot]

Da Viper, that was an awesome story man. very big heart of yours to see the real deal that happened there.

my story is pretty average, though similar to the OP.
had TONS of figures. a few vehicles. mostly mid-sized stuff. most of it got sold at garage sales to help pay bills (parents divorced in 85 i think) so most of my joes and star wars collection helped keep the lights on. some survived until my mom got a good job. then what i had left was sold in a big rubbermaid tub for a measly $20 to a friend in high school.
the only thing i ever destroyed was my tigerfly. broke off the end of the tail section and shoved an M-80 in there. yellow shrapnel EVERYWHERE.

i might have a few things left, boxed up either at my moms or in my storage cage downstairs.

and yes, when i move back stateside again, i'll need at least a 3 bedroom house with a 3 car garage.
this tiny two bedroom apartment with one parking space just aint cutting the mustard!!!

[WildWeasel]

So many like stories here.

Like a lot of you guys, I had a TON of stuff. My dad had found these perfect boxes for my brother's and mine's collection. They were like 3' x 3' and 5" or 6" tall. We had like 3 or 4 or them and they fit under our beds perfectly. These held tons of figures and the smaller vehicles. We had larger vehicles too.

As for where it went? I'm still searching for mine. All I've managed to find so far is Storm Shadow v2's bow and claw. I've searched my parent's attic a couple of times and that was it. I'm still holding out some faith that maybe it's buried somewhere in the basement. I do have doubt though, because for some reason I'm thinking I might have sold it to a friend of mine that had a comic shop in the late 90's.

So I've been slowly building a new collection. Mainly consists of the 25th line and stuff from 2002 to current. Along with vintage to current vehicles. Eventually (hopefully next year) I'll start working on getting back some of those vintage figures I had.

[Justanoldfan]

Wild Weasel-
I hope you find some of your stuff in the basement...