Same thing happened for me...
I had some hand-me-down action figures in 1982. Adventure People, and some of my bro's original SW figures.
K-Mart opened on the hill in 1982, and with it came my first GI Joe... Flash. I pretty much was in love at that point, and Star Wars became a fun but secondary toyline to me, and Adventure People were the aforementioned hostage fodder for Cobra... Star Wars would have me in 1983 for a while again, but it wouldn't be #1 in my heart again till I was 13 or 14 and started collecting vintage figures through Toy Shop magazine, after ESB and ROTJ were aired on NBC one weekend.
Adventure People were cool though and those dirtbikes were insane. Cobra got those, immediately, and Snake Eyes always had one.
Don't tell me the motorcycles in GI Joe are lame because, when I was a kid, that was the vehicle the best Joe got to ride. The RAM cycle or mirage was always a top vehicle. Adventure people dirtbikes if you could keep their thumbs from snapping.