The Greatest Toy Line Ever Made: G.I.JOE!!!

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I used to read the ID cards over and over again. I remember one Joe was a local boy, but I don't remember who it was. We all thought it was pretty cool that he was from Chula Vista. I also used to use G.I. Joes as supplementary Rebel troopers when playing with Star Wars toys. I only ever had a couple of vehicles. One was a sort of sand-colored jeep, I seem to recall, and was there a helicopter? That tank seems really familiar, too. Gave all my G.I. Joes and Star Wars dolls away in the late '80s.
 
I used to use them as wrestling figures because of all the articulation, since wrestling toys were just worthless lumps of plastic that didn't move.
 
Best toy series?

Um...no

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I missed the boat on GI Joe. I was in Kuwait in 1982. By the time I move to Ohio in 1984, all my money and gift wish list space was going to RPGs and books, not action figures.

I did have the C64 game though, and that was a fun two-player game aside from the painful load times.
 
I'm a bit mixed on the best line. They all jumped the shark at some point, getting sillier and more childish as time went on. Probably the original Space Lego line for me. Though the Buck Rogers TV show figures had the Star Fighter and that's my favorite ship. We never got a Last Starfighter Gunstar. Those two vessels would be my whole fleet if I had my way. Smaller lines that stay on target. For all that I really wish I'd collected the Warlords line of HeMan knockoffs based on DC's The Warlord. I wish they'd do those guys as toys now. Oh well, my childhood was Lord of the Rings, D&D, Arak Son of Thunder, and The Warlord.
 
Dumarest said:
Gave all my G.I. Joes and Star Wars dolls away in the late '80s.
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At the time you didn’t realize that you could have paid for your future children’s college if you had kept those toys around. I made the same mistake but much later.
 
David Johansen said:
I'm a bit mixed on the best line. They all jumped the shark at some point, getting sillier and more childish as time went on. Probably the original Space Lego line for me. Though the Buck Rogers TV show figures had the Star Fighter and that's my favorite ship. We never got a Last Starfighter Gunstar. Those two vessels would be my whole fleet if I had my way. Smaller lines that stay on target. For all that I really wish I'd collected the Warlords line of HeMan knockoffs based on DC's The Warlord. I wish they'd do those guys as toys now. Oh well, my childhood was Lord of the Rings, D&D, Arak Son of Thunder, and The Warlord.
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G.I.Joe jumped the shark in 1987, when they introduced Cobra-La to the toy line. Larry Hama said “no way” when he was asked to put them in the comic.
 
Baulderstone said:
I had those, but as an Australian, they were Action Man not GI Joe.
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Interesting didn't know they named differently elsewhere.

Water was death to their flocked hair luckily I had the head from even older style of GI Joe with painted hair so whenever I had water adventures I popped the head of one Joe and put that one on.

I had the Sea Wolf Submarine and the Deep Sea Diving Suit among numerous other action sets.

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The reason those 12” figures died out in the late 1970s was oil prices skyrocketing. That’s when 3.75” took off and kids loved it because you could have more that cost less and took up less space.
 
Endless Flight said:
The reason those 12” figures died out in the late 1970s was oil prices skyrocketing. That’s when 3.75” took off and kids loved it because you could have more that cost less and took up less space.
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I prefer the wider variety of characters as well. Well, at least until they recruited Sergeant Slaughter and what not.
 
Well the 3.75" did have a lot of cool vehicles and forementioned variety of figures. But the 12" had all the cool equipment :-D For me the equivalent was the original release of Star War figures. I still have four of those (Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, Han Solo, and Chewbacca.
 
Anybody else remember when Marvel Comics included Rocky Balboa as a G.I. Joe and then had to issue a retraction in the next issue because they didn't actually have the rights?
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Baulderstone said:
I had those, but as an Australian, they were Action Man not GI Joe.
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Action man was cool. As a kid, I loved playing with Action Man. Mine was the old one with painted hair and stiff hands, my brother had one with wiry hair and gripping hands.
It was great until I took it to school on a "Bring your favourite toy" day and one of the teachers said "Come on Simon and don't forget your dolly". I never took it out again, but still played at home.
 
I can't find a clip, but Hamlet Cigars had an advert featuring Action Man and Barbie, where Barbie is in bed with Action Man and they realise he hasn't any "bits", cue a very glum Actoin Man sitting on the side of the bed as the Hamlet Theme starts playing. Those of us of a certain age remember the excellent Hamlet ads very clearly.
 
soltakss said:
Action man was cool. As a kid, I loved playing with Action Man. Mine was the old one with painted hair and stiff hands, my brother had one with wiry hair and gripping hands.
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I had the Eagle Eyes version.
 
These guys were kind of like G.I. Joe except instead of fighting Cobra they delivered foreign aid payments to Cobra Commander in exchange for promises to disarm at a future date to be determined.:wink:
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Bunch said:
Aww now I want to play a comical modern warfare rpg. I want to be Eclair!
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That would actually be pretty fun. Do it like the G.I. Joe cartoon where everyone is shooting all over the place but no one ever gets hit.
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Bunch said:
Now that I think about it I'm pretty sure Extreme Vengeance! would be perfect for this.
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Ha ha...I have that and the Maximum Damage supplement...nobody wants to play with me. I keep saying who wouldn't want to play an over-the-top 1980s action movie hero for at least a one-shot?
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I might even have Die and Die Again but I would have to look for them to see.
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I wonder if they'd work in play-by-post...
 
Sure enough I have all three! Lord only knows why or how, but for some reason I have two copies of Extreme Vengeance! I feel twice as manly now.
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For those who don't own Extreme Vengeance (like me), Simon Washbourne's Dogs of W*A*R will handle this genre perfectly.
 
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