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.  

The H.Q. today or rambling thoughts of a G.I.Joe collector

 The old headquarters from the start of these ramblings, with the now the deleted photo_ucket photos, and the various dead ends to forums and sites long ago of other photos and information, looks like quite a mess.

The previous shells* that housed the headquarters in the various states and sizes have changed and another shell* change is locked in for yet another year.

From 2012, while looking for some other photos for my original intended ramblings, I came across this one.   Lots of photos are gone on that post, some of my favorite set ups were from that "security" force I had built up.   Something about that D.E.F. flavor that I rather liked.

But here with Low Light, Shockwave, and Snake Eyes, well, this photo is what my entire G.I.Joe team consists of currently.  The only difference is I have Night Force Shockwave instead of the 1988 figure seen here.   They are equipped with one 2001 A.W.E. Striker.


In self-reflection, this was 12 years ago, it seems like yesterday.... but it almost sort of showcases my cycles of doing some of the same things over and over.  I've been testing and evaluating a lot of things for a long time.



My "collector" stage really started in 1991.  And it was more of a continuation of having G.I.Joe as a kid.

With the Tripwire stand-in for Tiger Force Tripwire and 1985 Frostbite for Tiger Force Frostbite, this photo above was what my G.I.Joe team was (minus those A.W.E. Strikers) back at that time.   It's a real rag tag group for a fall of 1991 collection. 

This was my G.I.Joe experience.


It definitely grew by 1997, those two cardboard boxes contained my figure collection at that point.  The 1997 Slugger was brand new on this adventure, and the Stargate All Terrain Cruiser was my A.W.E. Striker and the Street Striker was my V.A.M.P.   These were some good, fun years.

My ramblings are hard to get through on here but I am going to try and share the photos over all here.



By 2004 my collection had increased even more, I had some awesome stuff across the board and into 2006 this was possibly the high point of accumulating stuff before I started to trim some things.   

Where it all kind of started, when I started to think of myself as more of a collector was in 1991, though.  

Here is my G.I.Joe vehicle collection (without the 1983 Headquarters pictured) as it was in the late fall of 1991.


The A.P.C. and the Cobra H.I.S.S. (both mail-in's) were my newest vehicles.  The Triple T, DeSpoiler, Sky Hawk, and Stinger came from my best bud at that time.  I finally got to meet up with him after about 22 or 23 years recently for the first time.  The Evader was a trade from kid in the town I had recently left.  The Piranha was a newer vehicle.  I recently tossed my records on where I got everything and I'm not sure where I bought that one off hand. 

And here is the 1990 Cobra Rage, my newest vehicle.  That might have been the catalyst for me to set up all the vehicles for a group picture like this.   I don't see my old 1983 F.A.N.G. here, I still had it and it is still with me today as my first G.I.Joe vehicle.  With all the wear a tear from my ownership and some new rockets. 

But what's the point here, Icebreaker, if there is one?


I have the red carpeted vehicle photo on my desktop now.  It replaces my photo of my hiking backpack over-packed for a trip I made last year.  I didn't go hiking.  I had that on my screen as 2023 was an incredible year of both extreme growth and extreme loss. 

Now as I make a slow transition over the next couple months over to the next shell* I bring with a near literal handful sized G.I.Joe collection.   Smaller than what I had in 1991 by far.  Possibly the size of what I had in 1984!!!


Now, where does it go from here?

More old G.I.Joe toy pictures

 These are some "group photos" I made and had posted on JoeSightings a long time ago, I was able to save a few and thought I would throw these up for you to randomly look at.

G.I.Joe Vs Transformers Bumblebee A.W.E. Striker 2022

Here's one of those late to the game looks at something I should have been more excited about when it first came around.

In scale transforming Transformers and the classic 3.75" scale G.I.Joe together in one package.  It should have been a win.  It's really not.  It wasn't even the cost at the time but the real lack of imagination and effort on such a big company that could have knocked this really simple and long overdue natural out of the park.

I didn't pay full price for this. I traded in some of my little bits of remaining stuff and thought it would be fun to try out some Transformers for a change.

This is not a good Transformer.  I'm not a Transformer collector but my last Transformers were the amazing Generation 2 Laser Rod Optimus Prime, the G2 big tank Megatron, and the incredible G2 Dreadwing.   These are all gone now.  These are all mid-1990's products.  They are FAR SUPERIOR to this Bumblebee.

This robot was a real let down.  This is why I didn't get it right away, I knew I would be disappointed.  I was right.   But, surprisingly, the Stalker figure might be the better half of the package even though I'm not interested in having any limited swivel neck only figures.  (That's so "1984.")

This robot form is really hard to play with.  There's some human like movement but the tires get in the way, the roll-cage is annoying and pointless, and the mid-section doesn't "snap in" to hold the torso form, all creating a very wonky robot figure that has you spending more time correcting the robot form or fighting conflicting parts.

This mid-transforming mode is just so all over the place but it's not to far off the way the robot just gets loose while playing with it.

The vehicle mode, once you finally cobble it together, kind of holds form fairly well, though.  This is the better form of this Transformer.

As a G.I.Joe vehicle fan, more so than the figures, there's a lot more that kind of really does "upgrade" the A.W.E. Striker.  To a point.   But also has many points that make it so much less than a regular A.W.E. Striker.

Where it could have been a much cooler package would have been the inclusion of another accessory.  Another Transformers weapon or something, there's usable space right here.

Let's not get into how this should have just been the Transformer Beachcomber.  Even in a darker blue and gray, this would have been a much more cool G.I.Joe vehicle.  But the easy stick to the same old formula of rinse and repeat pattern seems to be acceptable to everyone else out there.   In Beachcomber blue/gray/black, a really cool variation of a "night striker" A.W.E. Striker with some new accessory armaments would have been so cool.

The original A.W.E. Striker does not have a folding brush guard or blue lights, so that's a plus 1 point here.

Non-steering front wheels take that plus 1 point away just like that, however.

The pivoting antenna holders are the single best improving feature ever.  I always had my A.W.E. Strikers antennae off the vehicles.   On the shelf or in a rubbermaid storage box.   I didn't want this getting bent.

Having this position changing feature on a regular A.W.E. Striker would be great.  But it's almost pointless as these antenna are really easy to pull out and plug right back in.

The seats are separate pieces and look more padded compared to the traditional one-piece bottom of the A.W.E. Striker.  This is a huge plus.  

The plus is taken away form the see-through floor somewhat, though, it's not horrible, so maybe a 1/2-plus take away.

The first A.W.E. Striker with tilt-steering is a really neat detail.
That's also the most action the remote recoilless rifle control has ever seen on an A.W.E. Striker.  No hoses or wires, so we can only assume this is a wireless control.

The people who make this Transformer probably didn't know what that was anyway.   It's a thing that was there, so they just stuck it back in there to play up the 1985 look-a-like thing.

All-in-all, it's a better A.W.E. Striker than a Bumblebee.

The "ride on the back of a robot" stand thing is just lame.  Having that figure stand on the back in vehicle form would have been more fun.  Or incorporating a roll-cage strengthening part on the back that can double as a third gunner seat would have been a little to much to ask, I suppose.

I won't buy any more of these G.I.Joe Transformers unless I can get it for almost nothing.  And even then I'm even now just contemplating maybe trading this one for something else.  Even though it's opened and the "value" now really diminished, I'm just not feeling the "staying power" of this thing.

 

The big H needs to step up the effort.  There's no need to replicate the past over and over and over and over again just because it's easy.  Take some elements and start making good products again.  

People who buy this simply because they made it and think it will lead to "them making more" need to also upgrade their standards.  Some things were really better back in the day and they are not better a few decades later at all.