Wish lists

Back in the day, wish lists were made for what was in the old JC Penney and Sears catalogs.  I'll have to see if I can find any that might be hoarded away and scan them.  That was even some of the fun, though, just the wishing.

The fold-in inserts that came with vehicles were another source of making up wishlists for me.  Seeing the whole product line up and being able to study them all was fun.


These days, I haven't heard the term of "wish list."  Maybe I just don't get out enough.   Or maybe it is all done online through a shopping web site, which is convenient now that I think about it.   Maybe the kids are even on the smartphones and everything is virtually connected?


Every once in a while, seems less frequent these days, us collectors and fans get a forum thread or online discussion going on a wish list.   It is kind of like more in the vein of re-issues now, like vehicles.    Or a modern style figure emulating a classic generation 1 or 2 figure.


In some ways, the Tomahawk came close to a modern wish list vehicle for me.  So far it has pretty much sat on a shelf, but hey, it looks good doing even just that.

Christmas seems to get pushed out on the retail side of things earlier every year, though, so that's what kind of made me think of the wish list.  But, September....., that's early, I mean just seeing Christmas department merchandise rolling in late June when I was working "big box" retail was one thing, but on TV and circular ads....., that's early.


For a GIJoe wish list this year?   What would you put down?  I can't think of anything, well, I don't even know if there will be any GIJoe stuff in the market to put down.


So, beyond the retail wish list I have to go, into that realm of stuff that will never happen but I can wish for it anyway, right?



Classic generation 1 style oring Viper Fire team 13 pack.
Cobra Stinger with swappable weapons turrets and extra armor, etc.
Cobra Ferret twin pack.



.....  wait a minute... this could get long.....

The Super Trooper, Rapid Fire, and the new school.

It was sometime, back in the day, I first bought Rapid Fire.  It was something bought my Grandparents, I think, when we were in a small town drug store.   Back in those days, even in a small town of a population of less than 2000, one could find GIJoe stuff in multiple locations in town, such as that very drug store, or the Ben Franklin, or one of the hardware stores.  I think even the grocery store had some at one point.  But that is neither then or now, just a random point of information.


Rapid Fire came with a video cassette.  At this time in my history, despite the DIC G.I.Joe cartoon still being broadcast, this was huge.   I had never really seen the DIC series, in fact, the only time I would see it was when I was visiting my Grandparents, and it was on early so I often would only catch the very last bit of the show by the time I got up.   And back home, even considering home was a nice sized metropolitan area (combined, well over 100,000 people), no stations were carrying the cartoon.   Revenge of the Pharaohs is my only really long term familiarity with that cartoon series.

And the tape quality was just as fuzzy as the open-air broadcast signal I would see at my Grandparents.

Rapid Fire is a guy who came with what would become one of my favorite GIJoe weapons, the Dial Tone (1986) sub-machine gun.  Despite the neon green, this weapon got passed around.

Rapid Fire was never really a major player in any play or disPlay adventures.  Maybe it was the armor that detracted from me using this figure, I remember wanting to remove it quite a bit.  Or perhaps it was the obvious "franken-joe" aspect that made the figure less appealing..., I mean, I had 1986 Wet-Suit and it was immediately obvious who's arms they were.  And they looked a little...goofy, in some ways.  Zandar's legs weren't as obvious to me, though, even though Zandar was a major player in my play days.

As the days, years, decades went on, Rapid Fire never became a stand-out character or figure.  When I was on a figure/ character kick a few years back, I was heavily considering hunting down the Super Trooper.  But it would have been essentially the same figure, only coloring would be different.  And if you know from reading here, I'm not a huge fan of "twin" figures unless they were meant to be twins.  (Wild card vs. Major Altitude, for example.)


One aspect of both Rapid Fire and Super Trooper that still has me intrigued is the possibility of "other" aspects of a large GIJoe universe.   And these aspects of these characters are totally contained in the file cards, despite each one being something that should be taken with a grain of salt, no doubt.

The "new school" mentioned as these guys origins is what helps launch my imagination.  Super Trooper comes from secret school with no name, a school with an extremely low profile and no chance for advancement.  And he's a West Point officer, as well.  Rapid Fire, while most likely just a re-edit to make a "new character," contains a very similar profile.   The edit makes the secret no-name school a "new school for fast attack maneuvers," however, along with Congressional Medal of Honor recipient requirement.  Of course, he ranks as an officer, too.

Overall I never really found a good fit for Rapid Fire when I had my larger character/ figure collection going on.

I still find the secret  "new school" aspect something that could make for some good fan-made fiction.  Could they be some sort of Rapid Deployment Force?

Perhaps an off-shoot of the Steel Brigade, of the Steel Brigade itself?

How does Super Trooper or Rapid Fire or both fit in your collection?




I'd like to give a shout out here to Joe A Day, too, without them I would have never had known Rapid Fire was available in 1993!

Battle station

Being more permanently located, more options for permanent disPlay places abound here.  Real life biting around the edges aside, I haven't been able to decide on exactly what I would like to do "permanently."

So instead of running out and amassing a lot of new material, I'm going to play my way into the space with what I have laying around.  That playing around with the display and storage aspect of my GIJoe collecting is really just about as much a part of the hobby for me.  Sometimes it was because of where I was living, or even at one time, it was all I had; making creative use of what was available was the way to go.

I have definitely reworked it all, no matter how I set it up over the years, too. Even back in the day at my parents, I would take all the vehicles down and rearrange shelves. 

It was a constant evolution, and really, why should today be any different?

Up above, well..., that's what I got done.  The big steel legs on that table are the ones I mentioned in a previous post or two that I picked up in about 2007 and are just now getting used. 

The big brown board is one I found up in the rafters of my last apartment, it's been one of my main "battle" surfaces over the last few years, and is a solid piece of material.

Surprisingly, and welcomed, the legs lift the board up to a good height for sliding Rubbermaids under the sides.

I attached the same 6-foot white board you have seen in many pictures here before just above the table on the wall.  Originally this was a spare board found in an older apartment from 2003-2005.

From here, I will may go purchase another 6-foot board, likely not as deep, to attach on the wall just above the white board.

On the bottom, I'm thinking my drawers will be good for spare weaponry and what-have-you.

It's not much, but, something got done!