25th Anniversary Line

[CHEWIE]

And check out this...

[iFett]

I'm a die-hard carded SW collector, but I had to break the rules for these guys.  Just way too much to love about this line.  It is nice to actually enjoy a toy for what it's worth rather than just boxing them up.

What's not to love about this line??  Other than the Roadblock and SEv1 that came in the box set - all the figures are stellar and very true to the original designs.  I was thinking that I'd have to go back and pick up all the vintage stuff again when these came out, but I'm just going for a full set of the 25th Joes (how many ever we'll get.) 

These guys brought back enough good memories of my childhood.   

[DarkKnight2k4]

God that Flash....he was my first one ever!

[CHEWIE]

I don't understand why they didn't stick with these kind of more realistic designs throughout the original line... instead they started going with weird color schemes and silly techy designs -

[Reid]

Picked up my first wave 2 figure, Buzzer, at Target.

[Jesse James]

God that Flash....he was my first one ever!

You too?  Flash?  Hah.

1982...  K-Mart on the hill opened up its doors for the first time ever.  My rural communities first national retail chain getting a store within a 5 minute drive or so...  Mom goes up for the "grand opening", and returns with a Flash for me, and a Flash for my older brother...  And thus was born the fondest memory of my childhood.

I would scour K-Mart, Fisher Big Wheel, Gold Circle, G.C. Murphy Co. ("5 & Dime"), and Ben Franklin, and Hills.  All these were within a 20 minute drive or so from my house, so some you hit on payday when you went grocery shopping with mom, some you could hit because they were just up on the hill or in the next town over...  I can remember EVERY figure I bought and which of those stores I got them at too.  Finding Airborne at GC Murphy in Vandergrift with its creeky wood floors, or finding Flint and Snake Eyes V.2 at Gold Circle on a trip to get some tools...  Getting Storm Shadow in the mail from my aunt up in Mercer because we couldn't find that one at all on our travels.

Gotta love Star Wars, it's great and all, but my childhood was devoted to G.I. Joe.

[DarkKnight2k4]

You too?  Flash?  Hah.

1982...  K-Mart on the hill opened up its doors for the first time ever.  My rural communities first national retail chain getting a store within a 5 minute drive or so...  Mom goes up for the "grand opening", and returns with a Flash for me, and a Flash for my older brother...  And thus was born the fondest memory of my childhood.

I would scour K-Mart, Fisher Big Wheel, Gold Circle, G.C. Murphy Co. ("5 & Dime"), and Ben Franklin, and Hills.  All these were within a 20 minute drive or so from my house, so some you hit on payday when you went grocery shopping with mom, some you could hit because they were just up on the hill or in the next town over...  I can remember EVERY figure I bought and which of those stores I got them at too.  Finding Airborne at GC Murphy in Vandergrift with its creeky wood floors, or finding Flint and Snake Eyes V.2 at Gold Circle on a trip to get some tools...  Getting Storm Shadow in the mail from my aunt up in Mercer because we couldn't find that one at all on our travels.

Gotta love Star Wars, it's great and all, but my childhood was devoted to G.I. Joe.

Yeap ...

Straight arm version.

Woolworth's in NYC.

Downstairs... they kept them behind a locked glass... lol.

I saw it and had to have it. It was crazy. Begged mom for it... and it started me on a real long trip with these guys...

I thnk Rock n Roll was next.

[CHEWIE]

I remember liking GI JOE in the early-mid 80s and playing with my neighbor's Joes, but I didn't get my first figures until summer of 1987.  Until that time, I was more into Star Wars, He-Man and then Transformers.

At that time, the 1985 and 1986 line was very easy to get still at least in my area, which were my first Joes.  I'm guessing that some of the earlier figures weren't "that" hard to still fine, as there was a huge toy store in St. Louis that still had figures like the Crimson Guard, Storm Shadow, Flint, Snake Eyes, etc... I think I ended up gettnig all the regular figures from 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988.  I seem to recall getting Rock N Roll and Flash as mail-ins too as it was the only easy way to get those older figures for me.  I also was able to get a few Cobra Officers through mail in too, but none of those mail in figures were ever carded.

I think my favorite as a kid was this version of Destro -



I was completely psyched about this one as I never was able to get the original version of him.

From the age of 10-13, I was completely into GI JOE, until I discovered girls around that age and stopped asking my parents for toys.

Then, at age 18, I redisovered Star Wars (1995).  Now this past year I'm starting to get back into GI JOE slowly... but I really can't justify getting into it like Star Wars.

[Brian]

I stopped by our local WM over lunch today, and they were stocked full of Wave 1 and Wave 3 singles (no Wave 2).  At $4.88 each, I couldn't pass up getting a few, so I guess I'm going to try to continue this line in a limited capacity.  With the lower prices, it isn't quite as much of a pinch financially either.  Anyways, I picked up Firefly, Zartan, and Shipwreck.  I might end up going back to get Stalker as well, but I limited it to three of them today.  Now if wave 2 shows up, I can get a Beachhead (and maybe Lady Jaye) as well.  Reading those filecards really brings back memories .

[Mikey D]

I still haven't seen any single packs at Walmart.  Grabbed Flint and wave 2 at Target and found Shipwreck and Zartan at KB (for $7 each  ).  I'd love to find Firefly, red Ninja, Stalker and the Cobra Troopers for $5 but that's doubtful.  My WM hasn't stocked in weeks and I can't even find a spot for them on the pegs.

[CHEWIE]

A couple of the Walmarts in my area don't have peg spaces for them either.   

[Paul]

My closest Wal Mart doesn't have any pegs for Joes since their reset either...I almost missed the 12 inch Adventure Team guys...but for the 3 other Wal Marts in the area...

Also the "Fixed crotch" has shown up on a Beachhead according to another site...so be on the look out for that as well.

[iFett]

Reading those filecards really brings back memories .

Are the filecards the same as the vinty ones besides the verbaige that says everything is fake?  I never even bothered to check.. 

[Brian]

Are the filecards the same as the vinty ones besides the verbaige that says everything is fake?  I never even bothered to check.. 

That I'm not sure of, as the majority of the filecards from my childhood didn't make it (or are packed away), but I'm pretty sure they are the same.  They do still have the "Characters and events referenced herein are fictional and are not intended to depict actual characters and events."  I do think they seem pretty familiar to me though, so I think that they are pretty close - or the same - as the old ones.  I'm sure someone else here could tell us for sure.

[iFett]

I'm a bit confused on distrubition for this line.  They're either selling out immediately or somebody at Hasbro greatly underestimated how popular this line was going to be.  My TRU has the 5packs - still does, but I've never seen a carded fig there.  WM's have been sold out of the 5packs and you can rarely find a SE & SS on the pegs - that's even if they bother to dedicate shelf/peg space to them.  Targets are dry of carded figs and may have a 5pk or two hangin around.  I mainly shop at Target, and it seems that each store stocks one case per month - again that is if they're not selling like mad crazy.

Thank god I'm all caught up - not sure If I need the Stalker/Shipwreck/SE variants, but I'm sure it's got to be like this in more neighborhoods than mine.