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?