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. 

Evolving G.I.Joe fan and the near end of a collection

 Spring of 2023 revealed a new level of existence to this fan.  There is no way to really explain it.   It was both an external impact on this fan but also just as much an internal impact.

Sitting here in my new HQ's shell this morning I was wondering if I had taken a picture of some toy acquisitions I had made about March 19th/20th/ or so in 2023.  It looks I had not done this, however.  I may have snapped a picture but, things took a shift in life at about this time.

I was reminiscing again. here.  And I think it's great to be able to look back at photos.  There was a lot of fun stuff.  I really enjoyed playing and creating and organizing.

So, I guess, that last purchase of G.I.Joe stuff, which was in a way just buying some of the old stuff I had started to trim down on back in 2010-2011 in way.  It was kind of weird over 2023 and really great but also time to let something else in life crash, too.

It comes to cycles.  Basically.  I looked back at the March 2023 purchases I had made, and these were sitting on my table in my corner of the basement from the day I brought them into the house until the day I sent them out the door.  It was over $100 of figures from a local store.  And I guess as I grew a little in spring 2023 and grew some more in the summer of 2023, the dollar amount I put into those figures just seemed almost, well, not wasteful, but when that could be put in other places, if that makes sense. 

And it's not like I wasn't paying all the bills and then some anyway for anything else in life.  This was pure extra or surplus money when you think about it.  And I wasn't living beyond my means at all.  I never have.  


I cleared even more recently, too.


Where my super small collection just got a little smaller.

But, now it is a tiny travel size collection.


It's interesting how much it has all changed.  


I would like to have it all back and even my former HQ's shell.  In fact, I want it back. 

However, the opposition is entitled to half or more, without any accountability.

More random old G.I.Joe photos