GI Joe Collectors?

[haran_banjo_]

I'm a GI Joe collector, but only for the vintage european 12" figures.
In Italy GI Joe was distrubuited initially by Baravelli but it hadn't success. A few years later Polistil intruced the muscle-body line of GI Joes and it had a little success, 'cause Big-Jim was the firt item of the childs desire.
I own many Polistil issues and some of the Hasbro and Palitoy issues...I love the Bullet Man figure and I own both the Hasbro and Palitoy editions.

[Joe90]

Dumpster Diving for GIJoes, I never heard that story but sounds plausible.

In the late 1980's there was a guy with ads in Toyshop Magazine selling sealed SOTW sets, various backyard patrol, and military cards. I bought multiples of stuff over a period of about 4 months. He got to know me well enough that he eventually told me that over the years he would walk by Hasbro's warehouse while walking his dogs and "harvest" the pickings of the day from their garbage. I told this story over at the Sandbox and one of the guys related a story about a guy who was selling Japanese SOTW heads at a Convention. Apparently he dug them up...

[steelcouch]

I was born in 73 and mainly had the 3 3/4 childhood memories. The only 12 inch joes I had were the war battered ones my older brothers left behind. I heavily collected the 12 inch vintage line and at one time had well over 250 figures. My wife took a bad spill and had to have surgery so off to ebay they went to suppliment her income till she got back on her feet. I have just recently started reaquiring some of the 12 inch stuff slowly. Also started collecting the 3 3/4 stuff to rekindle some of my youth but the 3 3/4 stuff has monsterous playsets that I had to draw the line and stop at a certain point. Own most of the rare and older 3 3/4 exclusive stuff and a few of the bigger sets. Really partial to the United Kingdom action man. Own alot of the harder to find sets. I love the euorpean outfits mainly because they offered more of a variety. My favorite action man figure is the argyll sutherland.

[ThatBatmanGuy]

I grew up with RAH, but I make repro decals for The Adventure Team. LOTS of them.

Bob

[nvmbrsdoom5]

I was one of those "in-betweeners" who just barely caught the tail end of the 12" AT Joes, and was prime aged for SuperJoe, and then was into the first few waves of RAH before I got a bit too old for it. My main exposure to G.I. Joe at first (oddly enough) was from my parents giving me the Book & Record sets (the Mummy's Tomb was the first one I got). I don't think I even owned a Joe figure yet but after that I got a fuzzy head Joe and Mike Powers Atomic Man and Bulletman. Also had the yellow 6-wheeler. Before I knew it, I couldn't find much of the 12" stuff anymore and then I got into SuperJoes which I LOVED, but they disappeared soon too. I thought it was great that I had Joes that could mingle with my Megos, hehe.

I had some initial disappointment when RAH came out and realised it wasn't centered around a main "Joe" character, but I picked up the 1st issue of the comic and then watched the cartoon mini-series and loved both. By 1985 I started getting more into girls and music and toys faded away for a while....

While the different scales (12", 8", or 3-3/4") never bothered me, I do admit that my play preference was more geared towards the more semi-realistic war/army side of things. SuperJoe wound up being a bit of an anomaly, I think because of it's Mego-scale I tended to think of him more in the Super-Hero realm of things. I loved, and am still partial towards, the first few waves of RAH figures, because they still had a more military theme overall. Once they started getting a bit more sci-fi and the vehicles and outfits getting more colorful and weird and spacey, I lost interest. Even now, I do collect the RAH figures but only the ones from 1982 thru 1984. Unfortunately I was still kinda turned off to RAH by the time I started adult collecting, and I missed out on alot of opportunities to get some great early RAH pieces for cheap. Obviously now that stuff is worth a small fortune.

I'd love to collect more of the SuperJoes and 1970s AT figures but they're either usually in busted up condition, or too rich for my wallet, as I'd prefer to have them carded. I do have a nice Atomic Man and Eagle Eye Joe loose though, in fact they're sitting across from me right now

Seems like most Joe collectors do tend to be on one side or another though, I haven't meet all that many crossover fans like myself, and when I do they're usually in that 36-42 y.o. range.

[haggis]

Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeCanuck View Post
I was born in 1973 and thus, grew up on discounted Megos and the 3 3/4" G.I. Joe line..... well, those and of course Star Wars.


Nowadays, I'm done my Joe collection (kinda), finished my SW collection and still (slowly) working on my Mego one... what can I say, I'm fussy and cheap! lol
I guess you're the guy I should ask about the Hamilton convention!

Is the focus here mostly the 3 3/4" RAH or will there be some programming/dealers for the 12" lines as well?

Are the dealers here GI Joe only, or is there any chance a mego-head like me might find some cool seventies superhero/scifi stuff? I'm probably the odd man out since I gravitate towards the Bulletman and SuperJoe eras of GI Joe.


I've attended the Canadian JoeCon before(last year) and will be again this year. The focus is primarily 33/4" RAH figures(including the outstanding set of Con exclusives) but the large number of vendors have a fair bit of 12" as well as other toy lines. I'll be on the hunt for a Bulletman again this year and hoping to complete my sets of the more recent repro 12" AT and 'plastic hairs'.

[Neutron X]

JOE90-Great story about the dumpster diving for Gijoe. I wondered where he found all that SOTW stuff. I used to live near Glennwood Distribution who at one time was the second largest distributer to the didrect sales market of comics ect. I used to see kids in the dumpters pulling out stuff all the time. I had discovered girls and had no time for that. LOL

[Joe90]

JOE90-Great story about the dumpster diving for Gijoe. I wondered where he found all that SOTW stuff. I used to live near Glennwood Distribution who at one time was the second largest distributer to the didrect sales market of comics ect. I used to see kids in the dumpters pulling out stuff all the time. I had discovered girls and had no time for that. LOL

I bought a beat up Russian accessory card from him as well as numerous French and Australian bagged accessory sets. I got some military cards as well. He lived in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and was getting the stuff from the dumpster at the warehouse.

The heads were taken from a Hasbro property somewhere in RI. Remember, Hasbro also buried their flop toy, Flubber, on one of their properties in Pawtucket as the local dump refused to take it and the Coast Guard wouldn't let them dump it at sea.

[Jason73]

Born in 73, I loved ARAH the most as a child. However I did get some hand-me-down 12 inch figures and now as an adult I collect both 12 & 3 3/4th inch Joe figures. I am really happy with the repro AT Joes that Walmart put out a couple of year ago.

[chunky B]

I guess you could say I collect GI Joe as well. I was into the 12" Adventure Team as a kid and in college started collecting RAH, only one or two figures survived my son. Now I'm back into the 25th Anniversary line and I have picked up a few of the 12" reproduction figures from Hot Topics and Walmart.