Hmm.

I actually have to thank my eldest sister really. I was 22 at the time, and my son was too young for Joes. I remember when they first came out, and like Trekker's emotion, I said "You've GOT to be kidding?"

I remember the foot high Joe, and the everything that went with it, from the footlocker to the outfits. Dad being one of those WWII master tech sarges, it was kind of a subtle hint of his to plant a military seed early. Captain Action, sweeter for me because of the Marvel and DC costumes you could put on him. I remember when the RAH first arrived, and one of my sisters had me rolling:

"Hey, Eric, it's GIJOE!"

(looks it over) "Nope, GIJOE I recall was 12 inches."

"Well, you know how you guys always get your measurements wrong...now he's the 12" you guys keep trying to convince us about."

(hilarity)

But it was another jaunt much later to Toys R Us for my Mike's birthday when she found Spirit. Stereotypical or not, that Native Pride thing runs very strongly in the family and when she found Spirit, that was the motivating factor. Prior to that, most Native American representations were abominable, like Peter Pan abominable. So I gave it a chance, and then was very pleasantly surprised. The ability to customize was the boon though. They took to paint fairly well, and sadly the playsets were always scooped up before my son could get one. Yet, we at least found out that a box, some PC News magazines, and Elmer's glue can make one heck of a headquarters. Then we started getting hi-tech and making the railroading dioramas for Joe. It was a stretch, since my scale at that time was purely 25mm and 1/72. But the fun~on~a~bun was in full swing now.


and we all know where that ended up.

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I've read every post with great interest. Here's mine - the whole thing.

1982 - I'm 4, and playing in my sandbox in the backyard. My grandmother comes by to visit my mom, and I'm playing with army men in the sand. I remember thinking that I wish they could hop off their bases and MOVE. My grandmother comes back and hands me two vibrant, huge (remember, I'm 4!) cards with army men encased in plastic. The EXPLOSIONS - red and orange look huge and exciting - the weapons top notch and up to date, like my toy M-16.

The filecards - like real print-outs! With top secret info! The soldiers, in green, with MOVING joints! Like a dream come true - I wanted something, and here it was! Amazing. Soon I wanted vehicles, but the TG&Y didn't have anything. Eventually a Huey got made, and Sgt. Rock followed. I'd buy whoever looked cool to me, and I got them for all kinds of occasions. They were fun, and I primarily played "WWII" with my guys.

Soon I discovered the comic book, and the TV show really made my love of the little guys explode. Up till now, they were just my soldiers, but they all got personalities now. Things really took off in 84, and I was hunting Destro all over - finally found him in a K-mart. I remember those golden years where amidst the new guys, you'd hunt and hunt for the old favorites that (mercifully) they kept making.

1985 was a banner year - the Flagg came out, and my friend had it and everything else. My love of Joe reached its peak - Cobra Island fascinated my friends and I, we played invasion of Cobra Island constantly. The pack ins and catalogs inspired hours of play, as did the role-play accessories.

1986 was another great year, although in retrospect the cartoon suffered a little with Serpentor's addition, though I loved the toy.

Everything kept rolling along, with me getting the Headquarters in 1991 and the Ghost Striker in 1994. When the line was going towards the end, I was a member of the fan club again, just like in the first years. They focused one issue on the original 13, and they began to obsess me again. I bought remakes of anybody original 13 that were on the shelves.

When the line died, I hardly noticed. At that time a resale shop opened up for collectibles, and I began to get all the figures I ever wanted, including Duke, who I could NEVER find back in the day. In 1997, I was graduating high school, and I found Joes again. Wasn't too impressed as next door to TRU I was getting what I needed from the old run. Began buying in 1998, and outfitted all the kids in my family with Joes that year for Christmas. Got into Joe even more on the internet, joining the PITT mailing list at this time. Began building dioramas then, and kept at it, peaking a couple years ago. Eventually 25th came out, and I bought those.

That brings us to today - no breaks, no time off, just loving Joe every year. I really just had times in which I'd get more into it than before, but thats about it. Hope this wasn't boring.

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I got into joes late, was in 86, was 15 and browsing at a magazine store when came across issue 37 and got hooked on the comic, buying back issues etc and learnt there was a toyline and cartoon, in 87 managed to get the cartoon on VHS and my mum bought me Hawk and Mainframe there, and slowly I built my collection to 20 figures until 1988 and dropped out of collecting the toys as I felt that it was impossible to really collect given my situation as a high school/college student but I continued to collect the comic. Flash forward to 96/97, found yojoe on the net, joined the Pit mailing list and started collecting back again as found the tail end of the RAH line being cleared out here in my country (Malaysia) and then started collecting again seriously via ebay and trades. Still collecting today but doing less online due to work.

I guess it was Christmas 1982, that I opened a shirt box from my older brother, and inside were Rock N Roll, Stalker, Short Fuze, and Flash taped to the bottom (along with 2 Star Wars figures). For someone who normally didn't get very many toys from his parents, seeing that box was incredible. Up until then, I was only a SW fan. But, seeing figures that could actually hold guns somewhat (these were pre-swivel arm), I was hooked.

My first swivel-arm figure - the tan Grunt and glider I got for one birthday. Man, that glider stunk.

One Easter, my mom made me do an Easter egg hunt. After finding eggs saying my "presents" were hugs and kisses from my mom before school every morning , I finally scored a Cobra Commander and Cobra Officer. At that point, the AK47 became my all-time favorite gun.

One of the very few times I ever had friend come over to my house to play, three guys from class brought their Joes over, and we had a massive battle in the front yard.

Spending months, after seeing his picture on the back of another figure's card, checking toy stores for Mutt. I love dogs, and to finally have a GI Joe with a dog was too awesome. Finally, I'd say after 6 months of endless searching, I found him at Alpha Beta (a grocery store).

Somehow convincing my dad to buy me Snake Eyes V2 that was at a Broadway (old department store). That one also was helped by the fact that he had a dog.

Getting back into GI Joes in the early 90's, when I found out about the Joe Colton mail-away, and found a bunch of figures at a Toy Liquidators. In hindsight, I wish I would have looked more at what figures they had there, and picked up a few more.

Being dumb enough to sell most of my vintage collection when I lived in Utah in 1998 to one of those slimey antique store owners. Only afterwards did I learn what a scumbag he was, and realize how much I screwed up getting rid of my stuff.