I had a great time in Indy, but the Atlanta convention is my all-time favorite, and the trivia contest was just a part of that. Remember the presence Hasbro had at that one? Quite a bit diferent from this year for sure.

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ATL-Con was probably my favorite with Indy and KC close runner ups.

ATL being able to meet tons and tons of JC people. Winning the trivia section and all of us cheering the team on (while passing around Jello shots and watching JoeMichaels wench at eating one). Dream being manhandled by Piper. Piper's jolly autograph session when a big group of us were having him sign it to our board names. ("BadAsh? HAHA That's great!") Seeing Cobra Commander (Sidewinder) in the elevator going up salute us. The bar scenes (wingman, tranny pick up, Hasbro employees,etc). Many more events from that event.

I think it was CabanaJack that came into chat one day and was telling us that there was a seller on Ebay putting up items for cheap prices. Of course we all hit it real fast. I was only able to win one lot, which was a lot of I think 12-13 HeadHunter StormTroopers for around $30 or so. I got the box in the mail and was amazed that they were all pretty much minty figures (only). I rejoiced.

More tales to come later:

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On Atlanta - yeah, I can't do it justice, but Nova's "I'm Hasbro's VP of Lead Paint" Line is perhaps the funniest thing said in a bar ever.

- R

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Wow -- when I started this thread I didn't really expect such amazing stories.

Smarchitelli, you definitely have my envy over that Terror-Drome. TWO AVACs! One of my personal all-time favorite Cobras!

Suburbanator, that's just amazing. You got YOUR HISS tank back after all that time and distance. That's incredible. Love that story.

SNAKE, Wow. All that cool stuff from your grandmother. Yes, she was still there with you that Christmas.

You do realize, if I had been there, I would have done my Chewbacca impression at that very moment?

I'm trying to think of one specific memorable moment and I'm blanking. I have a few smaller ones I'll share.

1-I used to go to the Pageant of Steam show in Canandaigua, NY when I was a kid. More often than not, I would find figures and vehicles to add to my collection. I think I got 5-6 SnowCats this way. One year I found an almost intact Defiant Shuttle.

About 5 years ago I stopped in and a lady had a Tomahawk, a TTBP, and about 6-7 other vehicles. It was the end of the day and she was not looking to pack everything up. I offered a price and she accepted. I posted the pics back then. Anyway, I got a great deal because she remembered me from the year before when I had gotten a bunch of puzzles from her. None of the vehicles were complete, but it was a start.

I've gotten ARAH figures for a quarter (although I'm still kicking myself for not getting the entire half bushel basket full...)

2-My Dad had driven over to the Post Office one Saturday morning and when he got home he told me to grab my wallet and jump in the car with him. We went around the corner to a yard sale and they were sellingpart of a GIJOE collection. I can't remember what all I got, but it was quite a haul.

3-A member of our church stopped by the house one day and gave me a big (like 2 foot square) box full of misc parts from vehicles and figures. I spent the entire afternoon sorting everything. I know there were HISS treads, MCC treads, the wind-up toys, missiles, weapons, etc.

4-Between K-Mart clearances when they had the new sculpt figures (these had the v2 Headman or the Viper or Mirage as an add-on figure) and the local Family Dollar marking down the similar packs, I managed to get quite a few figures for fodder.

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I was on the JoeBattlelines trivia team that year- we were probably the second best team, but got knocked out by the Joe Customs juggernaut before the finals. That convention was a lot of fun- my wife was with me on that one.

The one memory for me that stands out was when I was 4 or 5 I actually got to buy 3 figures for my birthday. We didn't have a lot of money but I didn't understand that as a kid. But I still remember it to this day. Muskrat, Shockwave and Hit & Run. One of those memories I always smile about. My cousins then proceeded to cut the O rings because they couldn't stand it. That's when my dad showed me how to take them apart and put them back together. I don't think I had a standard Figure after that.

Going to the ROC premiere in Rhode Island is a big one. Like an unreal, lifelong dream come true.

I had the same "Mutt" feeling when I got Flash, Stalker, and Steel Brigade, for the second times when I got back into collecting.

Plus when I went through my Mom's garage after I got back into collecting. As a kid, I had traded all my figures away and given most of the vehicles to goodwill. But luckily I kept: Tomahawk, Rolling Thunder, MCC, 2 Warthogs, Persuader, Tri-Cycle, Desert Fox, Razorback, and APC. So crazy to have all my new figures in my old vehicles and playsets. Just feels "right."

Since beginning collecting again, my cousin sent me all his old Joes including a super-mint white SS v1. That was tight.

Times when I was a kid are when I got Zartan (whose commercial was so badass), and also the Crimson Twins (also badass commercial and packaging that made it seem like the most special toy ever). Also getting Chuckles and the new 1987 cardback.

Another unusual, but not happy one: my cousin got the Toss'n'cross and we were playing with Tollbooth at a construction site (new housing development) and lost him in a massive mountain of dirt we were playing in. We probably dug for an hour, but poor Tollbooth was avalanched.

And getting mail order hooded Commander from my flag points, because that was just the best.

Just found this pic from 16 years ago.

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May not be exactly what this thread is, but I had a dream overnight I was traveling and stopped into this mall. In one store in had really long aisles, like longer than TRU aisles.

I went to the last one on the right and about 3/4 of the way was a section of action figures I hadn't seen before.

These had the same color packaging as the military line Big Lots Carrie's. These carded 4 figure sets had several themes, and the one that caught my eye was the Russian/Soviet themed.

It had heads, weapons, web gear, helmets, and molded waist pieces (belt, canteen, entrenching tool, bedroll, pouches, etc) that allowed you to customize any of the other figures in the line to Rusiian troops.

There were two other sets I am blanking on, as I was searching for more of the Russian ones on the peg. I think there was just 6-8 of these sets, and someone had already grabbed a few of them of that wave.

I woke up before I could head down the aisle to pay for them. Grrrrrrrrr....

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"A picture is worth 1,000 words." seems appropriate here.

There's a story to be told in this image.

Great thread, nice to see it revived.

So I have a lot of absolute favorite joes. As a Kid Lady J might have been the favorite for a while. For a wide variety of reasons . Anyway, I kept losing her, by that I mean I would lose her, scrape together the three bucks,and buy another, then bam she got lost somehow too. I got lucky and got my third for about a buck fifty on sale at a Woolworth. So a year or so goes by and I am at my best friends house for his bday. I get sent on a quest to his bedroom to get some Mask figures he wanted to display with whatever new Mask stuff he got for his bday. He had tons of Mask and Joes and transformers. Anyway I open his toy box, I don't know why, the figures he wanted were on his dresser. I'd already grabbed them. When I open the toybox there are two lady J figures. right on top. both with DM in whiteout on the feet. (which is how I marked my joes) I put them in my pocket, had three lady J's from then on. never talked to that kid again.

I have also had tons of good memories related to joes and the grown ups I have met thanks to them. but this memory always kicks around in my head when it comes to childhood stuff.

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My favorite Joe memory is Xmas 1986.

My uncle worked for Hasbro. He had made me a "toy tester" basically I got a ton of toys before they were released and I had to play with them and fill in a survey about how I liked them. My mom had to fill one in on how often she saw me with the toy and how long aI played with it, stuff like that. I had gotten all kinds of stuff from him.

Anyway, that Xmas I see this HUGE box under the Xmas tree from Santa. I had to wait to open it last, thankfully we were dirt poor so I didn't have to wait long. I tore it open and it was a massive AC box. I was so confused. I didn't want an AC. My dad helped me get the top off and inside was EVERY SINGLE JOE made in 1986 plus a Terror Drome! I flipped!

Turns out my uncle was able to hook me up with all of it. I keep the AC box and stored everything in that for years.

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I have a few . When I was a kid, I made battles in the shed we had in our garden, and I used a lot of plasticene to keep weapons in place, make armours, mini vehicles, etc. I left them overnight, and on the morning, a few had vanished, others were heavily displaced, and the plasticene was nearly gone. After thinking longly what could have happened, there was only one conclusion; rats had eaten the plasticene, and went so far as to take away the whole Joe. I cannot recall exactly what I lost, but more or less it was a Madelman 2050 orange (which only one weapon was left) , a Beachhead bootleg, a Kaido and possibly another Joe I've forgotten. I had very few joes, so it was a huge blow for me . After that, I never ever played with plasticene in the garden .

More; I applied for a mail-in offer of Kelloggs, in which after buying many cereal boxes, you could get a free Joe figure! I wanted Astro Viper badly, and so I chose him. After what seemed eons, months and ages, Raptor arrived (apparently, all the others had run out, probably). I was very glad to receive it after having forgotten about the offer, but it came without filecard. So I thought for ages that Raptor was not a GI Joe figure, but something different made by Hasbro, something Sci-Fi or motu style. When I played him as a Joe, simply because of his similar build, for me was "Eagle-Man", and was always a Joe . Another fun fact; I lost his head cowl, and replaced with plasticene, and yes, left it in the garden. His headgear was eaten, but at least he survived unscathed, and I still proudly conserve him . I was flabbergasted to learn he was a Cobra!

More; my brother got for his birthday Sludge Viper, Sci-Fi with the Star Fighter, and the Sgt Savage jeep, at a big Toys R Us sale, in 1997. Without that sale, I probably wouldn't be here . This got our interested for Joes back again, and after finding a Monster Blaster in 98-99 in an old town shop, being so empty of figures got us rounding up all the figures that were GI Joe or seemed like together again. In a fleamarket we found Airwave and Vapor, with his leg attached with tape which we promptly repaired . After that, we went to a corner shop, and they still had some GI Joes. My brother could choose between; Mudfighter, Snowblaster, The Tiger Paw with euro Psyche-Out carded cellotaped on top, Darklon with the Evader and the Fang 2 with Frag Viper taped on top (to clear everything, they taped figures on the boxes of the vehicles that didn't come with driver. After much consideration (with more or less the same prices than 10 years ago, that by the time were more or less acceptable ) My brother chose Darklon with his Evader and so we battled on countless battles with him! and having the catalogue and being able to identify everything, defined our Joe-collecting mania for the future.

Another curiosity; I bought a Cobra Invader through eBay, new, mint and sealed. It was a bit expensive at the time (about 30 $, very cheap considering nowadays prices) to open it and mount it. I was surprised when opened, that instead of having Payload, it had a whole carded bent Astro Viper v2 inside! and two extra cockpit windows. The down side, was no missile launcher! I wonder what went with that!

And I have more, when I have time I post them .

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The one that immediately jumps out at me:

I was a pretty careful kid when it came to my Joes, so I wasn't one to lose accessories, but I had somehow managed to lose the claw hand to my B.A.T. in the backyard at some point after getting him. When I was eight, my parents and I traveled to New York City to visit some family friends. My parents took me to see the Empire State Building, and on our way out after the tour, I caught a glimpse of something silver on the sidewalk: a B.A.T. claw that someone had dropped! It was slightly misshapen, probably from hundreds of people stepping on it, but it was a B.A.T. claw, and that was enough. I don't know who the poor kid who lost it was, but I was thrilled to have one again. So, for me, the Empire State Building is less a feat of architectural design or a historic landmark, and more the place where I found my replacement B.A.T. claw.