G.I.Joe Slugger 1997

This is an old drawing from 1999 I just rediscovered that I did.  This would have likely been done on a weekend during this summer as I was working at a summer camp that summer.  This was after my first full year of what we'll call 4-year design college.  I don't know why I chose the Slugger.  And I have to wonder if that's my dresser that it was sitting on as I was doing the "still life" thing here most likely.   

I'm in an temporary HQ shell these days after being removed from my "permanent" HQ shell by the occupying oppositional force.

What's that all mean?  Divorce sucks but it's also a very good thing for me.  For over 22 years, I have been slowly undermined, pretty much everything slowly taken away from me.

My collection has always been changing.  It really peaked in 2004 on the vehicle side of things.  In 2005 and 2006 I had been trimming back already.  And 2006, I had the "junior Joe," but I wasn't going to force my interests on this little one at all.  To get some things for the little one, I traded and sold for some toy money and did some ebay-ing.  Waking up at 2AM to see if I could get my sold items shipped out before anyone else up.

Coming into 2010 and 2011, I had continued to trim down my collection as another "junior Joe" was inbound.  Into 2012 I had been selling, trading, and even selling a large chunk of vehicles to BBTS just down the road.

By 2013 in January I landed in my "permanent" home.  Which becoming an owner was an adventure and it really became more the priority among other priorities.   My little "to be" a thing corner of the basement had some changes and what have you.... but in 10 years, I just didn't get a lot of what I thought I would have.

Anyway, I sold the non-G.I.Joe fun stuff I had been hanging on to forever and took a trip and upgraded some things. 

Then the person I had been nothing more than a supply source for decided to have me removed and 2 years later it's almost done.

But today, I was looking at the stack of unused paper pads I had left over from my college days.  There's not much here at my temporary HQ, but I've had these big pads sitting around since not being supported to finishing school by the ex.   So, 28 or so year old paper pads.

I was thinking of getting back into school eventually.  Or getting into some manufacturing or maybe even tech school, or maybe even exploring some freelance stuff.

It didn't happen.

But up above is a drawing that I had in one of the pads.  I had tossed a lot out a couple years back, and this I guess I forgot about.  

The 1997 Slugger.  I bought this  at the Toys R Us in Duluth, MN, likely walking up from the tech school there and maybe walking back with it, or riding the bus home.   

I didn't even open the Gung-ho figure.  It just had no appeal and I was so much more interested in the Battle Corps Gung-ho.  A much cooler figure.

I had the Slugger on some adventures.  It has the hatch and I liked that more "tank" like feature.   This next up image might be the "welcome" to the collection battle below.

I have some 2003 and 2004 pictures where the Slugger was on the shelf or in a "desert" battle.  I may have traded the Slugger at the 2005 G.I.Joe Convention in Minneapolis or possibly later in 2005 when I was in Madison, WI for the only "Wisconsin meet" that the YoJoe.com group had.   


I appreciate you reading through this or checking out some pictures.  I didn't realize how much was being slowly stolen away from me over the decades.  It was a lot.  The G.I.Joe stuff and the amount of cool fans online were a huge thing for me.  That really kept that little fire kindled that was slowly being snuffed.    And with that, thank you.
 

G.I.Joe Hovercraft W.H.A.L.E. 1984

 An older photo from 2011 here.  This is my original childhood hovercraft when it was on sale at the place I sold it to.  I had replaced the steering vanes through basic trading on the old forums.  I also had to acquire a recon bike that I can't remember when or how that got lost sometime back in the mid-to-late 1980's.

There are many hovercraft out there, no doubt.  I wonder where this ended up going?  The only unique identifying "mine" parts might be the stressed upper hatch plastic by the forward window.  This is a part that is likely easier to replace and has been already.  I think my inner recon sled launching mechanism may also have had a snapped or bent portion.  The stickers likely fell off by now, or just removed and replaced.

There was one time, back in the latter half of the 1980's I was bringing my hovercraft over to do battle with someone else who had a Cobra Moray.  I don't remember much of that battle.  I do remember using the wheel house's windscreen area as a hand hold while carrying my hovercraft.....  and it came apart.  On the street as I was walking.  The whole upper deck separating from the bottom.

This was a little harder and slower to happen of a trade/sell thing for me as it was one of the bigger gifts from Grandparents.  It might have just been a whatever pick out when my Grandparents picked it out from all the other things out there.  Then again, Grandpa's World War 2 Navy experience on an L.S.T. may have made an amphibious vehicle a more attractive purchase.   I will never know.

The hovercraft was often rolled around on the wood floor of my old room and slid under my bed.  I used this as a headquarters or base, too.  I did have the Headquarters play set but the set up time for play adventures seemed too long and involved to me in my younger days for some reason.  The 1986 L.A.W. was used as a "base" quite often, too.

Then again, at that time, my G.I.Joe team consisted of 1986's Hawk, Sci-fi,  Low Light, and Tiger Force Frostbite for the most part. Cutter, Tiger Force Tripwire, and Wet Suit were around, too.  Eventually Budo, 1988 Storm Shadow, 1989 Snake Eyes and Stalker, joined in.

Old G.I.Joe collection photo scans

Above is my figure collection in 1995.  There were two matching boxes and I don't know where they came from but I like matching things and it was about this time I swapped my figures into a G.I.Joe and a Cobra box.  In some ways it doesn't look like a lot of figures as my collection of figures grew quite a bit slowly and steadily up and into 2011.   It was still a lot from where I started.

Here's a spread of stuff in about 2004 as I was setting up the wall shelves in about 2004.

Below is more in late 2004 and likely early 2005.  I found a parts Dragonfly somewhere. 

This was the set up in the living room of my apartment in 2003-2004 or so.  It was a two room.  Ultimately I didn't want to "takeover" the living room and I moved it into the main room with the wall shelves.  We had a friend living in our 2nd bedroom around this time, too.

 

Gijoe in-store end cap display 2024 building kits

With the 1982-1985 G.I.Joe logo standing out to me from way down the aisle I had to go take a look.  It's the largest display of G.I.Joe anything I have seen at a store in a very long time.

Sale price seen here went through yesterday and might have still been good today but I still really didn't want any.  There's more on the upper shelf to the left, too.

The Retaliation Ninja Cruiser seemed out of place with a 1983 H.I.S.S. and Skystriker.  I didn't look hard but if a big pack of the mini figures were there I would have possibly bought that.

What do you think? 

Are these awesome?  Better than 2012's Kreo G.I.Joe?   Another excuse to make a separate Facebook group for another format of G.I.Joe?   Go, team, go?

The Cobra High Speed Sentry. Or H.I.S.S. Or the Missing Cobra H.I.S.S. III.

 

Growing up on reruns of the old Sunbow cartoon, the H.I.S.S. tank was front and center for the action.

It wasn't until 1991 that I had a Cobra H.I.S.S. through the mail-in catalog.  With the cartoon advertising and staring at the pictures of the toy on the insert catalogs, this was THE vehicle of Cobra for me.  It some ways even at the time I finally got one I kind of did feel like it was underwhelming.

Maybe it was because at that time, the Mobile Battle Bunker was my "main battle tank" for my G.I.Joe force.  Sure, none of these are tanks.  Even though the Track Viper file card refers to the H.I.S.S. II as a main battle tank lineage.   I had to work with and enjoy what I had at that time.

Pound for pound, the Mobile Battle Bunker steamrolled the 1991 mail-in H.I.S.S..  Heck, Fast Draw was more than a match for that H.I.S.S., let's be honest.

But when it comes to the "High Speed Sentry" part, the cartoon and media uses the H.I.S.S. a lot but the Cobra STUN is often left in the mid-'80's and doesn't seem to get as much of a nostalgia driven recycling.  It's a "high speed sentry" as well.

And I never did buy that "H.I.S.S. III" as that was simply a regular H.I.S.S.  My one and only H.I.S.S. II didn't stick around long.  In some ways I found it clunky and it nose-dived a lot.   As cool as the drop down canopy was along with the slide out troop tray seats, I found myself preferring the 1990 Rage and 1991 Paralyzer much more.  (Although the Track Viper is my favorite "tank" driver.)

The "D.T.C." HISS or 2005 HISS is my favorite HISS.   No acronym.  Some might say HISS V but unofficially.  And there's the H.I.S.S. IV, which despite the super organic and snake like body, has the obvious tread lineage.  I prefer the "Strike Hiss" naming of this one, and that may have been in the trading card game or a comic, I don't know.   I really liked this one and this was my main big gun for Cobra.  I even did a custom armament on a 2nd one I got.  In the end, as a person who is somewhat on the edge of homeless during a divorce, real life strikes, and it's time to refocus and get lighter for the next life move.  Whatever that may be.

The Pursuit of Cobra HISS and Retaliation HISS took the form into a more monster tread vehicle area and I was never able to pick up either of these at the time they were out in the stores.  I wanted a black one and after we knew what box code to look for to figure which one was inside a box, I waited for one to make the rounds in the store.  Of course, it never did.

Here we are today.


I was thinking about it and starting to draw some a little bit.  With pencils, pens, paper.   I used to do this more way back in the day and I had fun with it.  Just doodling.   Nothing super "good" or anything but something to have fun with.  Before I tossed these, I scanned some to preserve something that no one on the planet really would care about.


I liked how G.I.Joe had a progression in the G.I.Joe A Real American Hero line.  We had version 2, 3, 4, or figures.  They weren't just generic army men redone in some different uniform but they had character built into them.   1989 Stalker is my favorite Stalker, for example.  Great sculpt, awesome mission gear.  Adds to the 1982 Stalker figure seven years later.   It's original and fresh.

Same with vehicles.  The Cobra H.I.S.S. II.  Or Fang II.   I like these.   

They have the acronyms and we can definitely debate on whether the acronyms apply to what they are.  Such as the 1983 Fully Armed Negator Copter versus just "Fang" for the Fang II.


But in action, what does Cobra do.   Cobra comes at you with hiss and a fang, a rattler, or a stinger.  Unlike the acronym W.H.A.L.E. or M.M.S., for example, is a strong military way of doing things, Cobra may be more of an entire battle system of action.   Then maybe there is an Arbco or Extensive Enterprises selling these things and that's where the acronym is applied in a fictional world.  


Either way, this is all getting to me thinking about the H.I.S.S. III.


Something is missing and I feel like it would be a fun thing to play around with today.  Where would a real original and new "H.I.S.S. III" fit in in the original A Real American Hero line if YOU could go back in time.  What would it look like?


Me?

Using the STUN high speed sentry description, I'm going to step back and maybe wonder if the STUN wasn't a 1983 HISS replacement.   Then maybe that wasn't very successful and it moved into Python Patrol in 1989 for that reason.  And also to make room for the H.I.S.S. II.

Older H.I.S.S. tanks were used in 1991 for the Septic Tank.  

Thinking in lines of progression, the Cobra H.I.S.S.II should have been the main battle vehicle and if it was successful, like the 1983 H.I.S.S., it should have been around more often.  Right?

But in 1990, the Rage seemed very present as well as the 1991 Paralyzer getting some media use, too.

So, if the years in between the "high speed sentry" vehicles are equal, we should have seen a H.I.S.S. III in 1992.


That didn't happen.


But what if it did.  Can you play vehicle designer and create a vehicle that would fill the role of the H.I.S.S. and make it fit for 1992?


Will your design fit for the later G.I.Joe versus Cobra H.I.S.S. IV and 2005 Cobra HISS?

Back in 2004 or picture of a G.I.Joe room

This was 2005.   After some years in the "college apartment," and post 2005 G.I.Joe Convention with the Steel Brigade Sky Hawk on the Transportable Tactical Battle Platform. Maybe it was nearing into 2006, I'll have to think about that some.

That's my old "childhood" dresser, it's now in my daughters room at the marital residence.  That's a dresser my mom got on the cheap and stained for me back in the 1980's.

I had the gray shelves from before, possible back in the mid-90's.   I bought the two white plastic shelves for the vehicle display shelves.   I like a matching set of things and I had wall bracket shelves but I didn't want to put holes in the "brand new" rental construction we were renting in.

On top of my old original 1983 Headquarters I had a foam core "roof" of sorts built on top.   At this point in my life I was only a couple/ few years away from my college education and I had somewhat hoped to get back into school to keep on going on the Toy Design path.

Unknown to me was that the person I settled for as a mate was a covert narcissist and I had already been hooked with marriage and the next goal post was pregnancy.  This room was my son's first room for the first year of his life (born in 2006) and most of my G.I.Joe stuff was organized into Rubbermaid containers.  

My collection never recovered and about 19 years later after this photo was taken only one of those A.W.E. Strikers remains.

It was good collection and I don't where to go or if there is a higher purpose to life but I am looking at some old photos and sharing some online elsewhere, too.   There's a lot of good stuff.  It's not as flashy as the latest, greatest, or the biggest.

Here, I don't know if I should attempt to rebuild my collection.  I miss it but I am also a little more picky as to what I have.  I am not going to settle for some beat up worn out loose product that is, frankly, overpriced.   On the other hand, to get what I want is going to take more effort or, the MIB route, which is even more costly.  

Originally I scanned this photo to share some thoughts on a type of shelf that makes a good display with the Headquarters and Battle Platform.  Looking back, I like this a lot now.  I ultimately picked a lot of steel shelves for my former basement HQ, and I didn't get that much farther past that point.   But here, I like this HQ and the roof that I had entirely forgot about.   That shows a former me and the creative side I used to have.  

Narcissistic abuse is no joke and they do not teach this in school.  As you read this on a random G.I.Joe blog, unless you have the experience, you might not even understand what that means.  And that's okay.   I am starting to understand it more and I now pick up on it with people I meet.   It is a problem on this planet. 

But here in my old G.I.Joe room photo.  Or, well, it wasn't even a full room, it never got that far.   I can see my creation and now I can revisit it and I can see what was good and now I have the experience of multiple iterations of a "G.I.Joe room" or space and all the hundreds of items I have had. 

What was good, what was fun, and what got tossed into the Rubbermaids or storage boxes that rarely saw the light of day.

Perhaps I will rebuild my G.I.Joe collection.


Perhaps it should start with the rebuilding of the Pit at Icebreaker's HQ?

G.I.Joe Classified Clickbait or what's left of a life's worth of collecting G.I.Joe

There's a season for everything.  This autumn is like the last one.  Taking in some growth this year, enjoying the abundance, while also shedding that which no longer serves.

First up, this is what's left of the HQ.  That's my first G.I.Joe vehicle, the Cobra F.A.N.G..  Thrasher may be my original Thrasher from the 1980's.   I'm not sure.  That's a different Thundermachine I do believe, though.  Still no antenna but a steering wheel is there.  That 1993 Cobra Commander is my favorite version and a figure that I bought off the pegs new.  The Iron Grenadier Destro is a figure that came from my best bud (who I more recently just got together with after 22 some years) and I would like to get it back to him.  He doesn't know this yet.  It's one of my favorite figures, too.

Other than that, it came to a very hard trimming a little over a year ago.  Just when I thought it was a very small and tight collection, I got even smaller.

So there's a little sentimentality in the photo.  The one Headhunter remains.  It's not an "army building" season for me right now.  I won't be having any mass battles and it took me a long time to get that little Headhunter army built up.   And I like the Dreadnoks, and these are figures I really like.  They have some character/ personality.

The remaining three G.I.Joe figures?  It's not my original Low Light, but that's a figure that is just cool and was in my "original" childhood collection.  Shockwave is pretty nice and the Night Force version is just better.... and pairing them with my amalgamated Snake Eyes, it's three bad guys that go bump in the night.   And they get the 2001 A.W.E. Striker.

The Thundermachine and A.W.E. made the cut as they have wheels that steer.   It's a shame as 1985 and 1986, so long ago, are some of the few vehicles that have this.  And the real rubber tires on the Thundermachine, not the fake soft plastic they have now, but real.
 

What did it look like before all this?

A lot of figures.

I divided up small sections to organize my G.I.Joe team.

Here is the command staff.

For my vehicles, I created crews.

There was general infantry breakdown here.  Land, sea, and air, G.I.Joe is there.

And specialized squads.  The "security" force stood out to me as the most fun.   Even though they all were.   The arctic squad was a no-brainer, but also that one was very fun.