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10-30-2016, 08:10 AM | #21 |
just a Marine
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: central PA
Posts: 1,681
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I grew up in a small town out west, which tend to be smaller and more isolated than any place in the eastern US. I remember issue 1 of ARAH, printed on good paper and it was an entire team of GI Joe, not just one dude. I had been really into guns for about a year or so (I was 9 or 10), and soldiers with real world firearms seemed cooler than Star Wars, plus, most of the men in my family were veterans. My little brother was born and on a trip to the nearest hospital for a check up (quite a drive), parents came back with Grunt. I didn't even know that they were making action figures, I thought it was just a comic book.
Eventually, a small dime store in our town would carry them sporadically, but when I went to the "city", everywhere had them. Drug stores, grocery/drug stores, Kmart (Walmart didn't infiltrate until about 10 years ago), Woolworth, pretty much any place that sold toys. Lots of localish chains or one off stores that no longer exist. I remember paying the princely sum of 3.99 for Breaker at a drug store, where, like now, the toys are little higher priced, but it was the only time I had seen him in a store. My dad died young, a couple years later, and the joes definitely gave me an outlet and something else to think about. I have mentioned before, these toys had an outsize influence on my decision to join the service. I suspect that had I not come from a family of veterans, and needed the college money/opportunities, the joes wouldn't have done it on their own, but they tipped the scale for sure. Hardest thing to find when I was starting out, the Vamp. All the other vehicles were easy to find but it took a long time to find that Vamp. |
10-30-2016, 12:19 PM | #22 |
Bill Cosplay
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Staying clear of knee-jerk nerds.
Posts: 5,912
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You know, nostalgia is a powerful thing. Not only are we nostalgic for when we played with this shit as children, but I'm also finding nostalgia out there for when many of us started collecting these as adults.
I got into this as an adult in 2000 with the A Real American Hero Collection stuff. I remember just happening upon them in a Fred Meyer and buying them right then and there. At the time, I gave no shits whatsoever for toys, but I left that store that day with some $75 worth of toys. Later on after the 25th, I sold them off, but I still feel a pang whenever I come across one of those 2-packs on ebay. It's weird. So, I'm edging up on 2 decades as an adult who buys kid's toys. In that time I bought into it all--GvC, Spy Troops, VvV, DTC, 25th, RoC, etc--and sold/donated it all too. Right now we're coming up on a decade of "Modern Era." 10 years since the 25th! 2007 was when an influx of adult Joe collectors got back on board. Think about that for a moment. Many of us have been collecting Joes as adults longer than we ever did as kids. That's insane! 2007 or thereabouts is also when multiple Joe message boards popped up, including this one, to join the older, established boards. Out of curiosity, I "visited" a few of those sites just now, both some of the latecomers and the older ones from before 2007. I can't find the old "The Pit" yahoo mailing list. Joesightings is apparently defunct. That comic page (JMM's ?) also appears to be gone. So does that cartoon page. Joebattlelines/Sgt. Savage is practically a ghost town as a message board. Same with the Yojoe.com message boards. The Terrordrome is gone. JoeIntel is gone... So basically, in the span of almost two decades, we've witnessed a fan base and toyline blossom, grow at an incredible rate and then wither away. It's pretty crazy, when you really think about it. And I can't believe I'm now nostalgic over things I originally bought out of nostalgia. Powerful thing, indeed. Last edited by SmokeBellew; 10-30-2016 at 12:33 PM.. |
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10-30-2016, 02:23 PM | #23 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: May 2009
Location: LONG ISLAND
Posts: 1,399
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My father was always doing major projects on the house and he left a few yards of dirt in the middle of the yard on a cement patio and leveled it a big and created Gi Joe/cobra island! It was about ten feet long by four feet wide. On one side I had the joe based the other I had the cobra. The cobra base was much cooler because it has multiple levels, and underground garage with a ramp and a moat in the front wirh water that my moccasin patrolled and the Bridglayer came in very handy here. As for the rest of the island, it had roads to and from the bases, both high and low.
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10-30-2016, 06:55 PM | #24 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Louisville, Ky
Posts: 2,810
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I'm having this good old days with my son, he's 6, currently.
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#tankturd |
10-30-2016, 07:14 PM | #25 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Brooklyn NY!
Posts: 5,239
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I miss being able to find Joes in local mom and pop shops. Now I only know of 1 in all of Brooklyn that still does. I had gotten my Flint a year after he came out, when you could no longer find him in TRU due to a local card and candy store that bought older cases of Joes. I popped in on my way home from school and saw him there. I ran home, got my allowance money and ran back up. I love that figure. One day a couple of years ago at the local beach I was trading such stories with a few childhood friends (we pretty much stay in the neighborhood). Turns out I wasn't the only one to run home and get money for Flint that day, luckily I was the fastest. At times I walk through those neighborhoods, places that family run stores would carry Joes, and would hook you up with hard to find figures if you were a regular and a true fan. They're all gone now. More's the pity.
My father's side came from a long line of Marines, my mother's Navy. More than likely going back to Europe as well. I'd often take the entire evening getting my Joes set up and equipped and would leave them out to play with the next day, with my parents permission. I'd come home to find my Joes in various action poses. I know Dad was messing with them after I went to bed. Good times
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Visit my vintage Joe restoration page! https://www.flickr.com/photos/131988164@N07/albums Cross Country's super smooth feedback thread. http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...ml#post4456308 Currently available Hasbro items. PM me for your prices (DO NOT be discouraged by the listing prices) https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr...nirtoys&_oac=1 |
10-30-2016, 07:52 PM | #26 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Houston
Posts: 2,449
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lol yeah adult collecting nostalgia is also a funny thing. When I see the 2 pack figures from 2000 and 2001, I think about my job working 2nd shift at a Kinkos. I was out of the Army and trying to finish college, living in my first little apartment where I only had a few figures boxed up in the corner, next to my crappy old computer and 56k modem!
After school and before work, I'd run over to the ghetto mall near my work and see if the Kay-Bee had any of them in stock. A few years later I sold off my whole collection and regretted it. During the 25th line, I kept wanting to get back in, but always hesitated, knowing how much it would cost to re-obtain them all. I had a son a few years later, and the nostalgia all hit hard, so I started re-collecting the vintage line, the 90's stuff, and getting the 25th things I'd always wanted. As a kid in the 80's, there was nothing, and I mean nothing cooler than going to the store, seeing a new Joe, flipping it over, and seeing the entire new lineup of Joes, Cobras, Dreadnoks and Iron Grenadiers. My dad is an ex-Marine that served as a pilot in Vietnam, so I'd usually have to ask him questions like, "What is a mortar?" or "What is a Ranger?", and I think he loved seeing a new line as much as I did. I remember when the Cobra "or, Dragonfly" came out, he was stoked and bought it for me right away, even assembled it while I watched. He flew Huey gunships but he always wanted to fly one of those. Growing up in the "Rambo and Red Dawn" Cold War 80's, I always thought it would have been cool if Cobra had a Hind-type transport and gunship. Make it blue and black to match the Rattler and ASP, give it a slight sci-fi tough (maybe some laser weapons on the pylons, along with rockets and machine gun pods), a lot of room in the body for troops... it would have been crazy cool. |
10-31-2016, 11:49 PM | #27 |
Cobra Interrogator
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Undisclosed Military Installation in Kentucky
Posts: 1,466
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When I was a kid there was a construction site across the street building a hotel. They excavated this huge pile of dirt for the foundation and just left it sitting there. So of course the kids see this big huge dirt pile and go bananas. It was like the world's most epic sandbox, and I remember driving my Mauler up and down the little mountains.
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11-02-2016, 04:12 PM | #28 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Secret underground complex
Posts: 7,025
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Quote:
Just having a moment
Man I sure do miss the old days of no worrying about anything but waiting til the line (Joes) came out. Those days are passed and times have changed. It sure does amaze me that Hasbro and this G.I. joe line impacted us as kids. To all you collectors keep at it and live the happiness of the good old days |
11-02-2016, 05:06 PM | #29 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Athens Al
Posts: 2,741
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This right here
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Looking to trade for Vintage Iceberg and Frostbite 25th Mutt Just loose figs, no need for accessories. |
11-03-2016, 01:11 AM | #30 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Worland, Wy
Posts: 95
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It's like my Mom said.....Memories are whats important to have in your life. when things get crazy you go back and look at those happy memories and things are good for awhile again...do it as much as needed! She is right! You brought me Joes when I was little and those are solid happy memories
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