I have been collecting action figures for over 35 year. I can still remember some of the figure I had before GI Joe and still have some of them. But I never will forget my first Joe(s).

My first two were Grunt and Breaker, the straight arms. I got them at a Roses store.

Who was the first GI Joe you all got?

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I honestly don't remember, but I think that's because I had an older brother and his toys were always around and we had to share most of our stuff, so I guess I never really had that "first Joe" experience. I know Dusty and Airtight were my favorites.

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Grunt v1, then Airborne and the Baroness. Got the first accessory pack and a RAM. Carried them all around in a tiny backpack (one that had the belt strap and looked like a regular backpack).

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The first that I remember were the '82 straight arm Rock 'n' Roll, Snake-eyes, Scarlett and the R.A.M. Cycle.

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Croc Master was technically my first, but I was given it before I knew anything about gi joe and promptly lost everything but the Croc. The first I ever picked out for myself was Psych-Out, which I still have.

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my 1st were 82 snake eyes,flash and scarlett

SnowJob v1 and the PACRATS, but they were only to use with my SW figs. But the first Joe I bought myself and that really got me into Joedom for its own merits was SciFi v1.

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It is a Tie between, 1982 straight arm Rock 'n' Roll, Clutch,Stalker, and Breaker, what a great birthday it was!

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Breaker was the first, SE the second. Grunt, Short-Fuse and Stalker were third.

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Torpedo along Gung Ho, Doc, Snake Eyes and a Cobra trooper for my 6th birthday.

A kid that was living in my building asked me if I wanted to play soldiers. I was expecting army men or SW figures, but the guy had a big bucket filled with Joes.
That's when I fell in love with the brand. After a great afternoon of fun and adventure, I rushed home to tell my mom about these cool new figures. Seems like she got the info about them and the next fall, I got my very own Joes.
The word quickly spread in the family and my aunt got me the APC for the same birthday and she gave me the Skystriker for Christmas.

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Snow Job. Bought him in the toy aisle facing the cafeteria at K-mart and I can still smell that slightly toxic Kmart food smell when I hold the figure. I took him with me everywhere, and was so impressed with him because he came with so much stuff compared to the other guys. He seemed like the best deal, and he had a red beard which was totally different than most of them.

- R

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1972: Adventure Team Land Adventurer
1982: Snake Eyes and Short Fuze. I picked Snake Eyes because it was, c'mon, Snake Eyes, and I picked Short Fuze because of his visor and all of the accessories he had, Grunt and his backpack and rifle didn't make the first cut.

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I didn't catch Joe Fever until around Christmas 1985. I was in a couple toy departments right before Christmas, and remember seeing the pegs FULL of just about every character released at that point. But I passed. Then , a couple days after Christmas, I went back to pick up a Destro and Firefly. Of course, every single store I went to was wiped out... except for the Xamot/Tomax 2 packs. So they were my first.

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If we're talking ARAH, it was Flash and Snake Eyes. I picked out Flash first, so Flash. Couldn't pass up a sci-fi guy. I thought he'd make a great X-Wing pilot.

If we're talking GIJoes in general, then it would be some twelve inch tall guy, probably name Joe. Pre-beard and fuzzy head.

Straight-arm Rock-n-Roll - I can still remember it. It was the Christmas gift exchange at school in second grade. I opened the present I got and it was this tiny little soldier with a big gun and a helmet. I thought he was kind of lame because he was so small compared to all my other figures, since I was heavily into He-Man and the other similarly sized toys. I'd seen GI Joe in the stores a couple of times, but it was always as I walked past to get to the He-Man figures. He-Man was so big and powerful, while the Joe figures were so small and wimpy looking. On the bus home, another kid was going on and on about how awesome GI Joe was and how lucky I was to get it, when all he got was a couple of Hot Wheels.

He wanted to trade the Hot Wheels for the GI Joe, but I hated Hot Wheels even more than the lame little guy. I played with the guy some and did like that he could move his arms and legs more than He-Man. When I got home and was showing mom and dad, dad talked up how neat the figure was. I said maybe he'd be neater if I had other guys for him to fight. A couple of weeks later, opening presents on Christmas morning, there was the APC's box with a carded Gung-Ho taped to it. Rock-n-Roll and Gung-Ho went on a lot of adventures in the APC before my collection started to grow. Those two figures, and their characters in general, will always be my favorites, though.