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Yo Joe!
Dec 25, 2021 13:03:52 GMT -5
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 25, 2021 13:03:52 GMT -5
My brother & I got the bearded figures, for Christmas, around the same time, in the early 70s. He got the dark bearded soldier/Marine, I got the aviator, though I swear mine had red hair, not the beige hair. Then, our grandparents gave us the toy sets. He got that Recovery of the Lost Mummy set, you see in the 1972 Sears catalog, complete with ATV and helicopter. I got the Adventure Team Headquarters, you see in the Aldens page, a couple of images down. It was laminated cardboard that folded up into a carrying case, with latches. You opened the latches and swiveled the two side s out. Then, the tower could be lifted up and locked into place. The Joe figure could sit in the observation chair, mounted on a pole, which could be slid up to the top of the tower, and then held in place by a little nub and socket. It came with equipment racks and a chart table, but everything else was just printed on the cardboard. The Mummy set had way more playable accessories, including an M-2 carbine. A neighbor had an earlier 1960s Joe, with Special Forces uniform, including beret (incorrectly styled, so that the flash was on the side, instead of over the left eye). Our Joes were part of the Adventure Team, when Hasbro was de-emphasizing the military aspect, in response to Vietnam. I later got the Bulletman figure they introduced, whose upper arms kept popping off. The helmet was removable, but the arms weren't supposed to be. With our Joes, you could actually unscrew arms and feet from their sockets. So, you could maim your GI Joes, for greater realism! We also got the footlockers, with our figures, which could store the figures and had a tray for accessories. I ended up with figures from a few different lines, in my childhood. For a birthday, I got the Geronimo figure, from the Johnny West line of western action figures. A neighbor had Johnny and his sister had Jane West, plus a pair of horses (sold separately). Those came with a ton of accessories. My figure had pistols and Winchester rifle, plus bow & arrow and spear, knife, Sioux feathered headdress and buffalo headdress (both of which were wrong, for an Apache, as were the buckskins he wore). I had The Steve Austin figure, from the Six Million Dollar Man (also a birthday present), with the bionic eye you could look through, the ratchet that raised the bionic right arm (came with an engine block for him to lift) and rubber skin that could be rolled back to reveal the bionic circuitry, on the arm. My sister had the Jamie Somers doll. A neighbor had the space capsule/bionic lab. I had a Big Jim, with karate chopping action, plus his camper van. These were from Mattell, as a rival for Joe. My sister got a Barbie with similar, but brighter camper van. I got an Evel Knievel doll and stunt cycle for a birthday and then the stunt van, with ramp to jump it, for Christmas. I had Dr Zaius and a gorilla soldier, from the Mego Planet of the Apes line. From the Mego superheroes line, I had Batman (with removable cowl) and Robin, Superman, Captain America and Aqualad, from the Teen Titans set. A friend had Tarzan and a couple of others. I also got an Emergency figure, based on Randolph Mantooth's character. I don't think those came out until the cartoon series was on Saturday mornings. When I got the Evel Knievel van, we were in Florida, visiting relatives, for Christmas and staying in a motel. My mom secretly packed my Evel cycle, but she didn't find the Evel figure and grabbed my Dr Zaius. So, until we got home, I could only launch Dr Zaius, on a motorcycle, over the van. It was a weird sight.
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Yo Joe!
Dec 25, 2021 13:12:55 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2021 13:12:55 GMT -5
Cody, did you watch THE TOYS THAT MADE US on Netflix?
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Yo Joe!
Dec 25, 2021 15:42:58 GMT -5
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 25, 2021 15:42:58 GMT -5
Cody, did you watch THE TOYS THAT MADE US on Netflix? No, but my boss had told me about it, when it was running, originally. It sounded like it focused more on later toy lines, than my generation; so, I didn't seek it out, at the time. I've watched some of the Toy Galaxy features, on Youtube, for specific properties, as well as critiqued some of the information they presented that wasn't quite accurate or was missing. The host is of a bit younger age, so some of the features are more nostalgic for him, than others. in general, though, they are very good and engaging. Mostly some details. I wasn't a toy collector, as that wasn't a thing, for most of my generation. We played with toys until we either broke them or outgrew them and never looked back. It was only when we were in our 30s and discover how much people were paying for those things, largely because they were older and nostalgic for simpler times (especially when you are the first generation to earn less than your parents, on average, adjusted for inflation). Comics were the only thing I collected; but, only because I wanted to read the stories, not just own them. When I was a kid and we broke our toys, we sometimes repurposed them for other things. I had a slot car set that just wouldn't work, after a while, because the tracks were worn and didn't make electrical contact well enough. Those became roads to use with my army men. My sister's old McDonald's playset (little restaurant with little figures and trays, with stickers of food) was turned upside down and became a headquarters for the enemy army, because the underside had all of these nooks and crannies from how the plastic was molded and shaped for structural support. I had gotten a Guns of Navarone playset, based on the movie . It had the plastic mountain, with the two guns in cave openings, a garage door entrance and a personnel door, plus rope ladders leading to certain points. On the inside, there were 5 levels, with plastic shelves creating the floors. There was the ground level, which was open and was just whatever you set up the unit on. The second level was the command level, with the personnel door leading outside. Then there was the big gun level, then the smaller gun level, then an observation point at the top. There was an elevator that ran on a plastic track, that you raised and lowered, with a string (which could wrap around a cleat, to keep it at a level). It came with German soldiers and US soldiers (even though they were British commandos, in the book and film). We had this big table my dad made for us, when we first got a train and slot car set. The train set lasted a few years and the slot cars even less, but the table remained for play, in our basement. My dad had wired an outlet there, with a power cord that went to a wall socket, to provide power for the sets. It was a wooden table, with side barriers, which sat on two sawhorses. I set the Guns of Navarone set on this and then put the McDonald's playset at the other end. The battle ground was in between. Over time, I added all kinds of defenses and base components. For one Christmas, I got the Flying Aces aircraft carrier. It was about 3.5 feet long and had a rubber band central catapult that launched polystyrene Corsairs. I used the Corsairs as fighter cover for the army men and made quonset hut hangars out of old gallon milk jugs, cut in half. I made camouflage netting out of old mesh potato sacks, from the grocery store. My dad sewed up some cloth scraps and I filled them with sand to make sandbags, for troop emplacements. I bought several bags of army men to increase the size of both armies, altering the weapons so you could tell one side from another. My neighbor and I used to then bomb them with bean bags (repurposed from the old Toss-Across tic-tac-toe game) and rubber bands. We were kind of vicious, since we went until one army was wiped out! I also had a small arsenal of toy guns, with everything from cap gun Colt Peacemakers, to a luger, several Colt 45 autos, an M-1, Thompson submachine guns (gangster and military), Winchester rifles, a flintlock pistol, an M-16, an AK-47, detective revolvers and a Mauser. The neighborhood boys would play war along our street an at a neighbor's farmstead and an alley between streets. We were too young to understand what was going on, in Vietnam and all loved war movies, like Where Eagles Dare and The Longest Day; and, especially, commando stuff, like The Guns of Navarone and The Green Berets. Probably why I was receptive to an ROTC scholarship, in high school (aside from the fact that it paid for most of my college).
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Yo Joe!
Dec 25, 2021 16:37:35 GMT -5
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 25, 2021 16:37:35 GMT -5
Here's the Guns of Navarone set...... and the McDonalds set.... Now, imagine the McDonalds building turned upside down, on the roof. The eaves now provide trop emplacements, because there are a bunch of sections, due to plastic ribs that provide the shape. The base is now a big flat roof, with a depression, that was the serving counter, on the inside of the building. More emplacements. Pieces of wood become perimeter walls. I turned it into a whole base. The Flying Aces carrier... The center catapult had a plastic shuttle, that traveled along a plastic belt. The handle that the kid is holding rotated the belt. The Corsairs had hooks and pegs on the underside. You hooked a rubber band and pulled it back and set the Corsair peg into a socket, on the shuttle. You yanked the handle and the belt rotated the shuttle down to the end and when you hit the stop, inertia launched the plane. The side catapult was just a simple rubber band and socket. You hooked the plane in place and tripped a switch, which flings the plane. I made the aircraft hangars with milk jugs. I cut the jug in half, from the opening to the base. Then, cut off the opening end, leaving the base and a wide open end, in a vague semi-circle, like a quonset hut.... I believe the British army called them nissen huts. Our grocery store sold potatoes in mesh bags, instead of burlap sacks. I cut up the mesh into sections to make camo netting. So, I'd have sand bags setting up an emplacement and then covered it with the netting. I brought in some gravel from our driveway and made berms. I wish I had had a camera of what it looked like, when I was done. Of course, we bombed the @#$% out of it!
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Yo Joe!
Dec 25, 2021 16:44:14 GMT -5
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 25, 2021 16:44:14 GMT -5
This was the GI Joe Footlocker. The tray held accessories and lifts out and you could store the doll in the compartment below. Unfortunately, the wood was very thin and broke rather easily, especially if you got in an argument, like we probably did.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2021 10:21:42 GMT -5
Anyone want to buy this for me?
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Yo Joe!
Dec 29, 2021 14:15:50 GMT -5
Post by berkley2 on Dec 29, 2021 14:15:50 GMT -5
What are those tiny little skulls supposed to be, rabbits?
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,922
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Yo Joe!
Dec 29, 2021 14:37:59 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Crimebuster on Dec 29, 2021 14:37:59 GMT -5
This was the GI Joe Footlocker. The tray held accessories and lifts out and you could store the doll in the compartment below. Unfortunately, the wood was very thin and broke rather easily, especially if you got in an argument, like we probably did. I have one of these, but without the trays. I inherited it from my grandfather when he died, and I have no idea why he had it. I'm guessing he didn't know what it was when he got it.
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Yo Joe!
Dec 29, 2021 21:16:11 GMT -5
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 29, 2021 21:16:11 GMT -5
This was the GI Joe Footlocker. The tray held accessories and lifts out and you could store the doll in the compartment below. Unfortunately, the wood was very thin and broke rather easily, especially if you got in an argument, like we probably did. I have one of these, but without the trays. I inherited it from my grandfather when he died, and I have no idea why he had it. I'm guessing he didn't know what it was when he got it. I was ticked off that it didn't come with the accessories in the picture, just the image on the lid and the empty tray. I don't know if it originally came with the accessories and they stopped including them, to hold the price down, or what. We would have gotten ours probably between 1971 and 1973. Or, maybe those were just the most common accessories available. I do note that whoever took the pictures has some of the items on the lid display and has others instead of the ones shown.
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Yo Joe!
Dec 29, 2021 21:17:16 GMT -5
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 29, 2021 21:17:16 GMT -5
What are those tiny little skulls supposed to be, rabbits? Baby seals.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 29, 2021 21:19:48 GMT -5
Anyone want to buy this for me? You can't sell, Kwinn; when he gets there, everybody always jumps for joy!
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Yo Joe!
Dec 30, 2021 11:53:38 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2021 11:53:38 GMT -5
This is my “holy grail”:
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Yo Joe!
Dec 30, 2021 12:51:59 GMT -5
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 30, 2021 12:51:59 GMT -5
This is my “holy grail”: He should have forearms like Popeye to gold up that "thermal cannon," with one hand. Even Jesse Ventura and Arnold needed two to hold a mini-gun (and a load-bearing rig). I'm betting he suffers badly from ice cream headaches.
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Yo Joe!
Mar 16, 2022 9:15:48 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2022 9:15:48 GMT -5
Be remiss of me not to share this:
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Yo Joe!
Mar 18, 2022 9:54:17 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2022 9:54:17 GMT -5
Another great tweet/photo:
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