GI Joe from the late 80s

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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Addl
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GI Joe from the late 80s

Post by Addl »

Anyone else still have their old joe toys, neither sold nor collected more?

Unfortunately I started playing with gi joe the same time like TFs in the late 80s and so missing the generation 1 toys.

For joes I have stuff which never were seen in the cartoons and which I do not like so much today but never got around selling.

Once I looked for the cool stuff I saw on tv as a kid ( hiss tank, f14 tomcat, black cobra fighter, tanks) but also never got around really buying.

Anyone else have similar hate-love or suggestions?
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Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

I used to have a Rolling Thunder and I thought it was cool. I was big tank that had 2 giant rockets inside of it and could hold about 7-8 figures.

There was an aircraft carrier play set that was freaking HUGE could hold a lot figures and vehicles.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

I had a mate who was into G.I. Joe when I was just leaving Transformers. I remember being shocked at how detailed and realistic the Joe toys were. This was of course compared to the day-glo chunky block-ness of the TF's of '88/'89. Try looking at Misfire or Crosshairs and then pick up a G.I. Joe Sky Strike (was that the name of the big white plane? Maybe that's the F-14 Tomcat that Addl's referring to).

Just seemed like a different class.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

i had the dragonfly copter and the cobra rattler as a child. i liked the rattler best, and i liked the partially assembled nature of the toys. i also had a snow serpent which i liked cos of his neat accessories.

i have none of this stuff now.
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Post by Addl »

I cannot remember the names, but:

Joe Small green tank or mobile artillery with 4 barrels and some rockets on the side

? Small orange speedboat with rockets and machine gun

Joe Big green tank or mobile station where the front is a big glass cabin where the gunner lies in, the driver sits open on the top with two big guns and in the back is a flying machine stored

Joe Green swamp vehicle with a machine gun and rockets

Cobra purple trike with rotating gun seat in the back the cobra punks used

Joe Silver futuristic helicopter and jet, as it can retract the rotor blades

cobra airplane that separates into submarine and glider

One old toy I guess: cobra black trike where the front left and right gun pods with gunner can swing out. Driver sits open behind them.

Anyway, I have not sold them, but also no big interest in collecting.

Is this worth anything, or as I suspect not due to late release and non cartoon appearance?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

With some slight leeway for guesswork...
Addl wrote:
Joe Small green tank or mobile artillery with 4 barrels and some rockets on the side
Persuader?
Small orange speedboat with rockets and machine gun
Devil Fish.
Joe Big green tank or mobile station where the front is a big glass cabin where the gunner lies in, the driver sits open on the top with two big guns and in the back is a flying machine stored
HAVOC.
Cobra purple trike with rotating gun seat in the back the cobra punks used
Dreadnok Cycle
Joe Silver futuristic helicopter and jet, as it can retract the rotor blades
Skystorm
cobra airplane that separates into submarine and glider
Searay?
One old toy I guess: cobra black trike where the front left and right gun pods with gunner can swing out. Driver sits open behind them.
Stun.

Stuns, HAVOCs and Devil Fish all featured in the cartoon but generally I've found there's nowhere near as much interest in the vehicles as there is in the figures and what interest there is drops off sharply after it stops looking quasi-realistic. But if they're complete they might be worth listing - though I found the amount of money they went for wasn't worth the hassle of shipping.
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Post by Addl »

Ah, Cliffy, you found all of them except the first, which is this one:

SLAM

Then I guess the stuff stays in the basement to be played with by my one children when the time has come.

Edit

cool site... while exploring, I also have these, but forgort:

Imp

Rommel

Swampmasher




and these 4 are by far my favorite:

Mobat

HISS

Skystriker

Night Raven
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Post by Cliffjumper »

The Skystriker is superb but just incredibly huge (ditto the Rattler); it is just an F-14 with a scaled up cockpit. I got rid of basically all my vehicles larger than a jeep apart from those two and a MOBAT just because they take up far too much space (and don't tend to be compatible with the post-2007 'G3' figures; lots of the small 'classic' stuff like the HISS, the Vamp and the Stinger were retooled).

I would literally stab a baby to own the USS Flagg, though.
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Post by Hound »

Cliffjumper wrote:I would literally stab a baby to own the USS Flagg, though.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

We just need to find a psycho with two unwanted Flaggs and two unwanted babies and we're cooking with gas.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Wait till you both have kids and then you could stab each other's baby.












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Post by Warcry »

Addl wrote:Unfortunately I started playing with gi joe the same time like TFs in the late 80s and so missing the generation 1 toys.
This was my experience with G.I. Joe, pretty much. I didn't really get too many of them, but the toys that I had were mostly no-name guys. Out of those, the ones that I've still got are Downtown, Freefall, Topside, Annihilator and Pathfinder (two or three of which have broken rubber rings, so they're in pieces), but I remember having a few more at one point too. I did eventually get versions of Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes and Hawk when they got new toys around the time of the G.I. Joe/G2 crossover, but Hawk was a spaceman and Snake-Eyes was poorly-constructed around an action gimmick and fell apart quickly.

The only vehicle I had was the Hammer, which was a lot of fun but must have been made out of peanut brittle considering how quickly it broke and into how many parts. Well, the only vehicle aside from this silly rocket pack thing that I don't remember the name of, anyway.

I did play with them a fair bit, but because of the characters I owned I don't really "get" any of the modern G.I. Joe revivals since they focus on guys like Duke or Roadblock or Scarlett and I have only the vaguest idea who any of those people are.

And on a completely random note, in spite of the fact that I've seen the guy on TV many times because my wife is a huge wrestling fan, my brain refuses to accept the fact that Sgt. Slaughter is a real person and not just a cartoon character.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Yeh, GI Joe vehicle plastic tends to be very crap - some of it's nearly as bad as Reveal the Shield figures. Either it's insanely brittle or very rubbery, and it tends to stress or snap really easily. I'm guessing it was some attempt to keep the vehicles viable financially; Sar collects Barbie stuff and the cars and the like from that tend to be the same, very cheap and fragile compared to the detailed sturdy dolls. One of the main reasons my Skystriker's kept boxed in the attic is because I know if I drop it it'll shatter like glass.

Based on what I have, even the newer stuff isn't a lot better in that respect, but then I get the impression that now at least the vehicles are just an occasional sop on the off-chance of bringing in a few kids and the figures seem to be the driving force.
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Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

I had the following:

Rolling Thunder That thing was fun and big (I even use it as a TF base and transport a few times) and put it was to keep it too together and a lot of the missels were very, very, frgaile.

Destro's Despoiler Fun and stupid looking thing.

Some artic thing it might have been a Snow Cat ver. 1, and some orange tank with a green turret.
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Post by Warcry »

Cliffjumper wrote:Based on what I have, even the newer stuff isn't a lot better in that respect, but then I get the impression that now at least the vehicles are just an occasional sop on the off-chance of bringing in a few kids and the figures seem to be the driving force.
I got the impression that the opposite was true back in the 80s...that the figures were meant to be cheap pocket-money impulse purchases that would hook the kids so that they'd ask for a big-ticket vehicle for birthdays and Christmases. It never seemed to work out that way, though. In fact, other than the Hammer that I had, I don't think I've ever even seen another G.I. Joe vehicle out of the package. The kids that I grew up with always had at least a couple Joes, but no one seemed to be really hardcore about it like we were with Transformers (or later, like some of my younger friends were with Power Rangers). That said, being born in 1984 I think I missed out on G.I. Joe's big rush of popularity, even moreso than I did with TFs.

Of course, now that a single Joe figure costs $10 or something idiotic like that (which puts the bitching about the price of Transformers firmly in perspective, IMO) they're nowhere close to the impulse-buy item they once were.
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Post by Jaynz »

Warcry wrote:I got the impression that the opposite was true back in the 80s...that the figures were meant to be cheap pocket-money impulse purchases that would hook the kids so that they'd ask for a big-ticket vehicle for birthdays and Christmases.
Actually, the first year was moving the vehicles, but there weren't really "Big" items in the line for a bit yet. The PITT (Mobile Command Center) was the second year and was the 'big toy' for quite awhile. From a price-point range, the larger vehicles, like the Rattler and Skystriker, weren't really all that more expensive than the Transformers Gift Sets.

When the cartoon hit its stride (the second miniseries), the vehicles instantly got a back seat to the characters. You lose a lot of the 'generic' GI Joe vehicles and most things would get more stylized to their pilots or factions. The Flagg would appear at the end of the 1985 run.

Generally there was ONE big toy at a high price point, usually the Joe's HQ of the year. Wwe got the PITT, The Flagg, Defiant, Cobra Terrordrome, Mobile Command Center, Crusader, etc.
Of course, now that a single Joe figure costs $10 or something idiotic like that (which puts the bitching about the price of Transformers firmly in perspective, IMO) they're nowhere close to the impulse-buy item they once were.
Neither are. I still think Hasbro was heading in the right direction with the mini figures and the vehicles at 1/4 scale. It made both the figures more impulse-driven and collecting the vehicles less of a space sink - but Hasbro was never behind the idea.

Oh well.. maybe next years' Kreo Joes?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

TBH Hasbro seem to have at least partially admitted that G.I. Joe is selling to the same people it did thirty years ago - hence every batch of figures supplementing the 'big names' with seriously fannish stuff (Airtight, Law & Order, Zanzibar) that seems deliberately chosen to complement the 2007-onwards '25th' anniversary.

I guess with the relatively cheap cost of producing Joes as opposed to TFs it's a more viable route, especially as Rise of Cobra did not so well (especially in the toy stores). It's not an area I pay a massive amount of attention to, but there don't seem to have been many new vehicles this side of the first film, and it doesn't look like there's much of a particularly large size planned for Retaliation either.
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Post by Jaynz »

Cliffjumper wrote:TBH Hasbro seem to have at least partially admitted that G.I. Joe is selling to the same people it did thirty years ago - hence every batch of figures supplementing the 'big names' with seriously fannish stuff (Airtight, Law & Order, Zanzibar) that seems deliberately chosen to complement the 2007-onwards '25th' anniversary.
GI Joe really worked due to two things. The first was that Reagan was in the White House. The idea that we could and would use the military to defeat bad guys may seem naieve now, but it was a refreshingly positive outlook about our power after three decades of completely getting shit on. It was unabashedly pro-military, pro-American, and did so with a confident and positive pride rather than a thuggish arrogance.

The other issue was that the early 1980s was also a time not heavily encumbered by PC fear mongering. Boys were allowed to be boys. Heroes could use guns to save the day, and so on... Today we have schools actually shut down because some kid had their dad's GI Joe figure and therefore created a "security threat".

Seriously, compare the themes and approach between the Sunbow GI Joe and the GI Joe: Renegades series. Even if you can argue the later show is better written, etc., it's not fun, and that drives the kiddies away. No kid says "I want this guy! He's emotionally conflicted about his loyaties!"

*sigh* And people wonder why I miss the 1980s...
I guess with the relatively cheap cost of producing Joes as opposed to TFs it's a more viable route, especially as Rise of Cobra did not so well (especially in the toy stores). It's not an area I pay a massive amount of attention to, but there don't seem to have been many new vehicles this side of the first film, and it doesn't look like there's much of a particularly large size planned for Retaliation either.
Rise of Cobra wasn't as bad as it was made out to be. It wasn't good, however, and that really hurt it as a toy-selling vehicle. Too much reliance on stupid-tech to move the plot, way too much PC nonsense all around, and it's biggest battle took place underwater so you couldn't see much, and a GI Joe movie where the cast and crew were embarassed about being American.

I really didn't understand that last bit. Dr. Who is very bluntly pro-Britian many, many times - yet he's popular world-wide. What was Hasbro and Paramount afraid of?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I hate Rise for a variety of reasons but I'll agree that it's very badly marketed due to the reluctance to say "We're American, **** you!", which watered down home reception - but the whole idea was still so negatively received in Europe even with sops to internationalism like Breaker and Heavy Duty that it didn't matter (TBH, most British people I've spoken to who had some fondness for the old line were disappointed that tokenism saw more popular characters bumped for a few Europeans who didn't do anything beyond being European).

But yeh, the line as a whole is very un-PC now - it's very difficult to do a military line without killing anyone; Transformers gets away with it because aside from the films and the teen-and-up orientated comics they're generally shown to be very difficult to kill; with Joe it's harder to come up with reasons why there isn't a massive casualty count the whole time.

Retaliation looks like it's got the vibe down a bit more but TBH the G.I. Joe concept's big problem is that if you make it more realistic it's just a Hollywood action film. My guess is that's why Rise had all the silly tech so it wasn't just - say - the Expendables - but it didn't really come off. Even the more adult-orientated comics struggle a bit with the basic lack of realism in the concept - a big terrorist organisation with tech and troops threatening world freedom and the only guys there to stop them are 100-odd lunatics in costumes, rather than the regular armed forces? It creaks around the edges when it's put into any sort of real-world background.

Renegades I only lasted the first few minutes of... it seemed determined to combine the worse of all the previous incarnations. Everyone seemed to be a crazy comedy character.

The Sunbow show I like for what it is, which is a fairly standard 1980s cartoon with a few stand-out characters (well, Shipwreck basically) and the relatively low stakes and standard supervillain plans stop you realising that the central concept is a bit iffy.

Cool figures, though. As I say, Hasbro seem to have realised there's a big enough adult fanbase to keep the toyline ticking over if they thrown enough bones to them. Considering how cheap it must be to tool the toys (and the massive back-catalogue of parts they can sift through before creating new moulds) it's probably a lot more viable - Lifeline or someone probably cost a fraction of the cost of, say, RTS Windcharger to produce, so that he sells X thousand fewer units probably isn't a problem.
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Post by Jaynz »

Cliffjumper wrote:I hate Rise for a variety of reasons...
I'm not going to be spending a lot of time defending this particular movie, Cliffy. :P
But the whole idea was still so negatively received in Europe even with sops to internationalism like Breaker and Heavy Duty that it didn't matter
Because it obviously tried too hard in a very Hollywood way. The French guy might as well had been eating croissants and surrendering to Cobra Vipers every two minutes. "We want to be inclusive.. by having as many bad European stereotypes as we can muster". Honestly, I think Europe would have loved it a lot better if Paramount had said "America, **** Yeah!" and had done with it. At least that part would have been fun.
But yeh, the line as a whole is very un-PC now - it's very difficult to do a military line without killing anyone; Transformers gets away with it because aside from the films and the teen-and-up orientated comics they're generally shown to be very difficult to kill; with Joe it's harder to come up with reasons why there isn't a massive casualty count the whole time.
Easy. Ditch the mass combat and go for small strike teams. That way your dead generally will be Cobra Vipers and that's it, with maybe a big name or two for dramatic purposes. IT DOES seem like "Retaliation" is going that route.. but being put on hold for so long just to make the movie 3D doesn't bode well...
Cool figures, though. As I say, Hasbro seem to have realised there's a big enough adult fanbase to keep the toyline ticking over if they thrown enough bones to them. Considering how cheap it must be to tool the toys (and the massive back-catalogue of parts they can sift through before creating new moulds) it's probably a lot more viable - Lifeline or someone probably cost a fraction of the cost of, say, RTS Windcharger to produce, so that he sells X thousand fewer units probably isn't a problem.
True. It's a lot easier to make a new GI Joe character by mixing existing parts and giving a new deco than it would be to make a new Decepticon Warrior by throwing parts from BW2 Starscream, weapons from RID Skybyte, and legs from Energon Roadblock...
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