[hardcorps]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWOL

I remember playing with a broken Wolverine and Cover Girl, which I think were my older brother's. I may have also inherited his Armadillo.
The first Joes I explicitly remember being handed to me mint-in-package were General Hawk and Sgt. Slaughter with the Triple T (said older brother had to put it together for me). I gradually received more and more Joes up until '92, when puberty took over.

yeah, my little brother was the recipient of my largess. When I decided girls weren't icky, he ended up with my joes and my hot wheels/matchbox cars. He is 10 years younger so I was kept abreast of joe happenings for quite a while.

[PhantomTrblmkr]

Born in 1976.

My first Joes were bought off of a wire spinner rack in an Eckerd pharmacy in 1982. The card art caught my eye, but the fact that their knees and elbows could bend was the big appeal. I'm not positive, but I believe I got Zap, Short-Fuze, and Stalker that day. Maybe one or two more.

My Dad - who retired a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army - was pretty enthusiastic about the line at the start.

Santa brought the rest of the '82 releases that Christmas. Unrelated, but I like to imagine Dad stopping by Lionel Playworld or Service Merchandise after work and smiling at the early, more grounded figures and vehicles.

[xasonnex]

Born in 1981, pretty sure my first figure was Bazooka, followed closely by Alpine. Not sure what year I got them, as they were both available in 1985 and 1986. I know my best friend and I both started collecting at the same time and neither of us could find Duke, but we both got Flint and Hawk V2, so probably '86. I collected until 1993, ignored the 97-98 TRU line, but restarted in 2000.

[MongooseMG]

I was born in 1985. I got my first GI Joe in 1990, Slaughter's Marauders Footloose.

[AnimatedTako]

born 1987. First Joes - Freefall and Topside.

Just the right time for the 90's ARAH, TRU 97-98 exclusives, RAHC, and some JvC/SpyTroops era to be part of one continuous childhood. 25th anniversary hit right when I was in the middle of college. Never really stopped buying Joes, even in high school I still liked doing customs so I would still grab anyone I thought would be cool fodder.

[DarthBrett]

Keep the great stories coming! It's cool to see how much GI Joe had an impact on us as kids, teens and adults.

I'm surprised nobody on here was born after '96. Also wasn't really expecting anyone here to be born before '70, but I love that all generations of Joe fans are on here and sharing their memories.

[CombinedArms]

Saw this thread linked over the weekend in the main Classified 2023 thread, so thought I'd chime in. I was born in '76 and was into GI Joe from the start of ARAH. I can't really remember the exact beginning for me, but I had all of the '82 figures and most of the vehicles. GI Joe immediately pushed Star Wars out of the top spot in my toy interests. Lots of other toy lines would come and go (Transformers, Robotech, MASK, Starcom), but I was still buying Joes until 1990, when teenage interests (girls) finally took over.

[probilio]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd chime in. I was born in 1968 and got my first 12 inch Man of Action when I was 4. To say it deeply influenced me would be a fair statement. I was an Adventure Team kid, but got into collecting the whole Action Soldier, Sailor, Pilot, Marine line in the early 90s. I've probably owned every uniform from that era.

I had 2 sons that were young in the whole Spy Troops/Valor vs. Venom era, and we all got interested in the 3 3/4 inch joes. The collecting bug is strong, and I quickly amassed an impressive ARAH collection. That stuff was dirt cheap then. People would sell whole boxfuls of vehicles on Ebay. I was able to piece together a complete Defiant, USS Flagg, Killer Whale, Sky Striker, Rattler, Headquarters, Rolling Thunder, etc. I was really into the early line until about 1986.

I lost interest as my kids got older and sold off most of my ARAH vehicles. I kept most of my figures. I was also a comic collector and really enjoyed Larry Hama's work. The original ARAH run really makes the figures come alive. I've now been interested in the Classified line and have enjoyed having the random Joe sitting on my desk at work.

A great toy for the ages. Most young kids aren't interested. I loved having a plane or a vehicle you could put a figure in. Makes your imagination soar.

Drew