Th year you were born I'm sure greatly alters the characters that dominate your memories of playing with GI Joe figures. I was born in 1979. I had an older brother who was born in 1976, so GI Joe was always there from the time I can remember anything, but these 6 guys were my crew. Dusty and airtight were 1 and 2 and I used airtight as a pilot in my brother's Skystriker (which became mine) and my conquest. He could also fly on his own as I was a kid and didn't care about gravity. These were the main figures I remember using most often and cherishing the most.

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You kids, man -- I remember buying straight-arm '82 figs IN THE STORE (I was 10 )


My go-to team was usually Flint (team leader), Stalker (NCOIC), Snake-Eyes, Mutt & Junkyard, Gung-Ho, & Breaker.

I did use Airtight a lot after I got him, though - not sure why, just liked his look. Usually I'd have him or Tripwire as my SkyHawk pilot (because what does a 13yo know about CBR ops?)

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That's cool. Only 7 years apart and completely different figures.

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i was also 10 in 82 and remember getting the first straight arm figures. but me and my best friend Darren had a whole weird made up g.i.joe world consisting of joe people and characters from the warriors and berry gordies last dragon and our own created stuff and all sorts of other things. and i had a small screwdriver and started taking them apart early on.
so my go to figures were quick kick. and a figure named mcquade that had storm shadows legs, zartans torso and rocknroles head. they were both martial arts masters and i had a tiny vintage star wars jawa that was their mysterious master. their best friends were steeler and a guy named whitey that was just clutch with some liquid paper painted in his hair. scarlett and baroness were their girlfriends.

and their enemies were the drednoks and the main named cobras.

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I was born in 79 too. iirc my favorite figure was a gen 1 gung ho I got at a yard sale. spearhead and max were my "me" and tunnel rat arctic stalker and falcon were my crew.

It's hard to narrow it down, as the go to crew often changed year to year with the new releases. In the beginning, barbecue, recondo, airtight and Dusty, alpine and bazooka, lady jaye...Duke was usually leading.
I'm a big fan of flint from the cartoons but never actually had him.
Beach head, quick kick, shipwreck, snake eyes eventually replaced barbecue,and airtight. Slaughter was a big play huh too. With the TTT and all. Tiger force Duke became my default Duke after awhile.

I remember post 86 a little better, as falcon and outback were around a lot. Snake eyes '89 and rock n roll '89 got heavy play as well. Spearhead and shockwaves were used a lot. Going even farther out, and the "newer" joes like rampart, grodniron and bullhorn received heavy play in the later years.

Doesn't narrow it down really. I always had a fair amount of joes. At 3 bucks a pop it was always a cheap toy that you'd get for a good report card or reward. I could probably tell you which ones didn't get used a lot as opposed to which ones did lol.

On a side note, my go to vehicles I remember quite clearly. Awe striker, mauler and skystiker in the early years. Not much after that until the mobile command center. Then it became the mean dog and desert fox. I LOVED those vehicles to death.

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For the longest time I only had two Joes, Grunt and Breaker, so my go to team was diverse. Sometimes it consisted of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker along with the Joes fighting storm troopers. At other times they were with Bo and Luke taking on Boss Hogg and Rosco. Sometimes they teamed with my CHiPs figures.

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1975 here.

Gung-Ho and G1 Rock N Roll were always around since they were my first two. Then there was always an animal handler, usually Mutt and Junkyard, Shipwreck, and Cross Country (someone had to drive the APC).

I always had a good mix that changed as new stuff came out. But the one I remember playing with most was v.2 Hawk, or rather his head. Once I discovered the ability to take Joes apart Hawk became my main character in all my weekend morning bedroom battles. He swapped nicely onto the IG and Countdown bodies the most.

Spearhead, Mutt, Law, Spirit, Wetsuit and of course Rock n Roll (v.2 replaced straight arm v.1 due to articulation) were the others I recall using quite a lot. I had a thing for the animal handlers. Croc Master, Raptor and Voltar were among the A-list of Cobra forces.

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I imagine an older brother in the mix alters things too. The older stuff was off limits to me for a while as it was his.

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I feel a lot like Bucky. My figures switched out every year, though I always had favorites. Matt and I were born in 80, but we were lucky enough to get some 82 figures (Breaker and Short-Fuse for me!) at garage sell. My first figure from the store was Scarlett, and Matt's was Destro.

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I had a V1a Steel Brigade trooper as my own figure-self named "Pop-Top" (since he mainly used shotguns and drank A LOT of sodas, haha! ), Night Force Outback, Night Force Tunnel Rat, and Night Force Psyche-Out as a tight-knit mercenary strike force à la 'The A-Team.' Version 1 Chuckles was their leader and liason to all the other different toy line figures who "needed help." The whole group was CONSTANTLY traveling to Eternia, Endor and Hoth, as well as through time to help out Captain Power and his rebel forces.

The main Cobra adversaries they'd face was V1 Copperhead piloting the Water Moccasin with V1 Croc Master as second in command, V1 Firefly, V1a Zarana, V3 Cobra Commander, and a V1 Targat. "Guest Star Villains" were always the main baddies of the toylines mentioned above...

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Go to's where Hawk V2 team leader, Lady J for intel, Airtight team PNG, LnF TripWire, Mainframe and Thunder

but I really played with all of my joes all the time. Other toys where always badguys, he man was a cobra stooge, optimus prime just another robot waiting to get blown up.

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Ace was my go to guy for space adventures. He even fought Cobra Commander who became Super Commander when he stole Super Powers' Superman's cape. Luckily he was defeated by a bear.

Flash led my team until I lost him one morning before going to school. Scarlett was his girlfriend and the Baroness was also in love with him and betrayed Cobra at some point to help him.
Blowtorch became team leader after Flash vanished until 1987. Falcon picked up the burden.

Falcon was trying to live his life as a mechanic when Cobra tried to take over the city, so he picked up his secret stash of weapons and waged a war against them only to be left almost dead after a fight with Armored Cobra Commander.
Falcon then ran to the mountains (the couch) to train as a ninja and came back as the White Tiger aka Storm Shadow V2 or the Panther aka Snake Eyes V3.

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I never had a specified crew, it always rotated depending on the story/mission. I do recall certain figures like Armadillo, Tracker, Hit & Run, '91 Snake Eyes, Pathfinder, and SF Tunnel Rat all having very prolific roles in some of the stories I played out.

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