[Freedom]

I just want to hear what kind of household items you guys used to enhance your Joes or Cobra with back in the day. WAY back in the '80's before The Internet, Marauder Inc., PTE, or things we have today.

I used the spiral in a notebook for barbed wire.
The plastic piece that came in the center of a pizza was a table.
Remember 3 liter sodas back in the day? Take two caps from them, cut a section out of the side of one, and glue them top to top and you have a chair!
Paper towel rolls were elevators or escape tubes.
STYROFOAM! If your parents got a new appliance and it came with the styrofoam blocks at the ends of the box, there was no telling what they would become!
Building blocks and Lincoln logs got involved from time to time as well.
I was never fortunate enough to have a Terror Drome, so a book case became my Cobra HQ. Mom got mad when I dumped the books from that case in a closet! lol

Although I was one of those kids that would NOT combine toy lines. Cobra can NOT have the AT-AT, dammit!

I know some of you guys had to do some of the same things. Let's hear it!

[Echo7Solo]

oh man cool topic. I didn't get my Flagg until I was much older so what I did was in the back of HQ or on a twin bed I used a big cardbord box cut open and laid out flat with lines on it for a runway. I would put it out where the Sky Striker and Conquest could take off and land from. Other toy lines were used as Destro's new weapons. I had the bad guy thing from Captain Power...... not the jet but the one that was like a cannon. I used it as one of Destro's weapons. Um... just parts here and there were used. Mostly cardboard boxes, tape, glue, paint markers and stuff like that to Cobra bases. I remember taking like 6 hours to set everything up and like 6 minutes to end the battle. One time we spent so long to set up the battle and put people in the best spot for action that I forgot about Snake Eyes and he was in a potted plant in the living room for like a week. Ok I feel old.

[swafus]

definitely a cool ass topic man! kudos.

I remember using a lot of styrofoam (the one that came with my Nintendo was a cobra Ice station!)
I remember my brother (who is an artist now) took these 2 circular pieces of plywood and made dioramas on them using sticks, glue, paint, rocks, etc.
1 was a campsite with a creek running by it and the other was volcanic terrain.
Also any time we would trim the big tree in the back yard that would be a new upstart cobra base.
It also helped that my grandmother lived on an elevated lot of land and had a sloped hill in her back yard that had lots of pine sprigs, rocks, etc. That was were the battlefield was!

Good f-ing times!~

[Gunzlingr]

I used to build bases outside out of sticks and grass.

[Shpwrk]

The first Christmas I got G.I.Joes was awesome! My Dad took a huge sheet of cardboard and drew a road, a river, and trees all over it. Then he bought a model train mountain with a tunnel through it to put my new Mobat in. Then there was a bridge from Stompers (remember those little 4x4 trucks) for my new Vamp to drive on. He also made little tents from cardboard for my new Joes to hang out in. Also there was a landing pad he made for my new MASH helicopter to land on (Dad thought I needed medics!) The coolest part was that Dad stayed and played with my brother & I all day long. Best Christmas ever! (until the transformer/he-man year....)

[TEMPLAR BAGGINS]

My best friend's grandmother had a hill just like that in her back yard too! We called it "Boot Hill" As for non-Joe stuff that I used, I found a wine crate one time (perfectly solid/ no slats) that measured 2'x3'. That became my new Cobra base, as I already had the Joe one. I don't remember alot else about the Cobra base except that I had taken a wired remote control from my sister's broken Barbie Corvette and put it in my base. It had a few levers and a steering wheel on it so it became a perfect jail/ holding cell door for Cobra. And like others, popsicle sticks and the plastic middle piece from pizza boxes became custom fodder as well.

[fireflyguy]

I used lots of string as zip lines. My dad owned an old Ben Franklin store, and I remember using a jewelry display thingy as a radio tower. He also gave me some sort of shelving that looked exactly like the Biker Scout bunker from Star Wars.

[Shpwrk]

Here are some pictures from my previous post...

[Lt. Faceless]

I loved those little pizza table things,i would brake them and stand them up together.Just to put a Cobra/Joe through it.I had a creek and more woods than i knew what to do with,so i didn't use to much house stuff.A backpack full of joes,a Butterknife or spoon to dig holes in the ground and i was set for the day.

[amaro]

I was also one that could not mix toy lines.
However, I did use my Legos to build bunkers and such.

Styrofoam inserts were my favorite.
I used to glue parts I found onto them and then paint them.
Sometimes my dad would help me carve the Styrofoam into shapes.

My family would always look for interesting parts to give me.
Things packaging, caps from things, or things they found in the street. They would always say:

"Toma, para tu arte"
Translation: "Here, for your art"