This is the whole "modern" collection here, with the exception of a few loose figure and accessories straggling in locations unknown nearby. These are pretty much the anyone can play with them G.I.Joes. There is a second Eaglehawk on the top shelf out of the picture, too. I was going to have one be a "junior joe's" chopper, and then one "mine," but I have not felt a lot of love for the new chopper compared to my classic one. It sits and looks pretty. Everything else has been brought down to the floor, scattered across a rooms, and played with.
The Parasite is still here and it gets a lot of play. The kids playing with these really have no real depth of G.I.Joe knowledge, other kids from the area have been over and really seemed to like loading up the figures and running the vehicles around on the floor; and I know they have no idea what these toys are.
The Fangboat is still here, and the Rockslide. The Fangboats fan blades and other small parts have been scattered to the play battlefield and is still missing the torpedo. A ninja cruiser A.W.E. and Ghost Hawk get some play time, but the newer V.A.M.P. gets loaded up more often than others.
I wonder if the V.A.M.P. is used more as it has more figure and interactive space? The various figure and vehicle accessories are loaded up and configured in all sorts of ways, and the open and spacious top makes it easy to fit the "modern" figures into.
The H.I.S.S. tanks are loaded up, too, but the bigger newer figures take more finesse than the kids put into putting into it. They don't force it, which is cool, but when there is a battle, the canopy is often not shut, blocked by the figures head.
The Eaglehawk takes flight, but I haven't seen it hopping across the room nor have I witnessed it blasting the Cobra tanks. It has both of the "lift ticket" pilot figures up front in it. The Skystriker has seen almost zero use. Ace is still in there, but it looks like the only thing that has happened to it is that a couple of guns were put in the cockpit with him.
And of course, the old Fang III, one of two that were here at one time. The pilot is still here, too.
I didn't expand on "modern" G.I.Joe. If anything, Lego is what I have bought the most of for the "junior joes." In some ways, my old stuff I considered my old stuff...., I didn't want to push my stuff. When I decided really trim down my old stuff G.I.Joe collection, I used that money to buy quite a few of the Lego things here. A good half, if not more than that, of the Legos here were bought using funds generated by the sales or trade-ins of G.I.Joe figures.
Here is the larger portion of the Lego scene about a year ago. This was after I had gone through one "junior joes" room and gathered up all the assorted and rather scattered Lego pieces. Into four big bins it all went.
From this point we rebuilt everything we could.
I like Legos, but was not impressed that they, funded by my old G.I.Joe figures, were in such disarray. After seeing the Lego movie, in some ways I felt like the big bad boss figure, but adding a quick price estimate in my head of the dollar amount of Legos with the building plans made me feel less bad about that.
Just the fire department alone was pretty darn impressive, or it could have been if it wasn't in pieces all over.
Everything was rebuilt, a few missing pieces, and many Lego sets were added this year, too. It is an impressive amount of Legos..., way more than my own Legos from when I was a similar age to the "junior joes."
Compared to G.I.Joe, at the store level, and with the kids all around, Lego is really dominating the consumer aisles here. Even Transformers, at the brick and mortar, hold no more than a couple pegs and a lower shelf. Star Wars, to my surprise, is not dominating the retail space, either. There isn't much variety locally in the Star Wars segment...., at the price of the x-wing, I'm not jumping all over that when I can get the big set of Lego's to compliment the ridiculously sized mass of Legos here.