Chooch555
Thoughtful
Iceberg and Lifeline were the other two name only reveals. They are chewing through '86.
G.I. Joe Classified 2025 Top Ten Poll
- Thread starter Ru1977
- Start date
Justice
for Starhawk!
I can't wait for Lifeline. He is the ONLY Joe I can remember playing with as a kid. I didn't own any and I only got to play with them when I went to my friend's house. I also played with the figures long before I watched any of the show so I just wasn't familiar with the figures and who they were. Lifeline is the only one that stood out to me with his red and white color scheme.
Ru1977
The Irishman
Thank you! I'm probably gonna get Iceberg too since Frostbite is off the table heh.
It's funny because the 86 wave is still the "new" one in my head, and exciting. I didn't jump into the line until 85 apparently (I had a few before that), getting a few from 83 and 84 from my cousins, but the Eel, snow Serpent, Airtight, etc were the wave when I started collecting, so for me there's 85, and after 85. So iceberg, Beach Head, etc are the cool new guys to me. While I wanna get 85 stuff because that was my real beginning, but now I'm apparently ready to go all in on 86 as well. Looking at yojoe, as I do daily anymore, I only had a handful of them damnit.
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- Joined
- Apr 2, 2025
- Messages
- 2,126
I was born in '83, so really the '88 series represents the first figures I have any memories of in terms of buying them/opening them or getting -excited- about wanting them. Everything that came out before '88 would have been given to me as hand-me-downs/garage sale items. Much as I might love Raptor, Outback, Serpentor, etc; the joyful memories actually -start- with Budo, Spearhead, Hydro-Viper, and IG Destro.
Chooch555
Thoughtful
I was born in '77, so started in '82 and ran through '90. Looking back I'd get '91 looks for sure. Even the later stuff that I didn't ever have had some cool stuff.
Born in '74 and was in until about '88. Then a sharp drop off once I was in the workforce (McDonald's was my first job during high school) and girls were more and more of interest.
Ru1977
The Irishman
And there was my first excuse to visit YoJoe.com of the day. After 86, I think the waves always have some great figures but I feel like it's not quite as solid of a "oh yeah, as a whole, the entire wave is worth getting", BUT looking at 88 and imagining it being the first wave to encounter, it's damned solid. A lot of variety, some fun, not too much weird, and that Storm Shadow was my favorite figure of all time... Until 89 heh.
I also think, aside from the swivels and being able to nod etc, the figures definitely got better each year. Even the "likenesses" etc, looking more like a real person. Also, does anyone remember the toy magazine that did an article showing the hasbro employees with the figures based on them? The one I recalled the best was the blonde guy who was not only Downtown but also Witterquick in Visionaries.
Looking back, I guess Star Wars falling off is what got me to commit to Joes. My mom got me Snake Eyes and the Cobra Trooper for Christmas in 82, then my cousins gave me Zartan for my birthday the following year, but I was still such a star wars person that I was fine with just three Joe figures. And I still was getting comfortable potf figures which I think ended in 85, which is also when my cousin gave me a lot of his joes that weren't broken heh. Destro, Gung Ho, the Hiss Driver, Copperhead, Wild Weasel, Mutt, and Recondo. Not a bad haul, but I definitely appreciated the 85 guys that I ran around hunting down (with my mom) more.
I have Gung Ho but never played with him, and never got Mindbender. When I was a kid, and really still the case, I was horrendously modest. This was probably because my dad was the complete opposite. My cousins are still traumatized from the time out while family went to the beach and my dad didn't have swim trunks so he wore boxer shorts. And they were white, so he may as well have been nude when they got wet. He slept naked, which was a major issue when I had a friend spend the night and we got too rowdy too late and he jumped out of bed, threw my bedroom door open, and yelled "ENOUGH!!" But all we heard was his hanging dong flopping around. And I laugh about it now, so don't think I'm weeping while bringing this all up, but the funniest one to me is when he got work as an artist model for a college art class and got in the middle of the class then stripped naked without even being asked. The teacher said "whoa, you don't have to do that" and my dad said "eh, I mean, I'm already naked, so..." And lounged for them to sketch. Ridiculous person, and he actively tried to break my modesty growing up which of course probably fucked me up worse. So basically, as a kid, I had a lot of issues with male nudity. (Sidenote, my dad also chastised me for owning the D&D figure Warduke and called him "a little sissy boy", but I never got the new version they put out a few years ago despite intending to not only because he is neat but also as a slight, passive act of defiance years later heh.)
Just airing my personal little piece of shit story heh. But it's kinda fascinating all the things we all carry that are tied with our collecting. Trauma but also intense joy. We get excited for the ones we loved as kids and it's really so wonderful.
Just airing my personal little piece of shit story heh. But it's kinda fascinating all the things we all carry that are tied with our collecting. Trauma but also intense joy. We get excited for the ones we loved as kids and it's really so wonderful.
Ru1977
The Irishman
Same!
Agreed. I apparently still went into 91 because I did have Desert Scorpion but yeah, even the battle corps stuff had neat guys.
Ru1977
The Irishman
That'll do it. In high school, I still collected comics pretty hard, but was all about guitar and girls. Though I did get the Kenner aliens and predator toys to put on the shelf because I'd wanted such things so badly as a kid that I felt compelled to get them anyways, and technically were my first "to pose, not play" figures. After high school it was POTF2 and I have always collected something since.
I still remember and associate what figures I was collecting with the year I was in school.
I was born in ‘77. Entered kindergarten in ‘82. It was all Smurfs for me.
First grade, ‘83, I was finally appreciating the Empire Strikes Back figures I had been gifted, and started adding Return of the Jedi figures. Also started in Masters of the Universe. Playsets and vehicles were coming in hot. Grayskull, Ewok Village, Jabba the Hutt were highlights.
Second grade, ‘84-85. Got some of my first Transformers, MotU was still going strong. Got Snake Mountain (playsets were always from Santa).
Third grade, ‘85-86. Really got into GI Joe and Voltron. Pieced together the Panash Place set for Christmas, and the ‘85 Joe crew, Crimson Twins, and Dreadnoks had me hooked. Got the Fright Zone, but MotU was wrapping up for me by then.
Fourth grade, ‘86-87. Back to Transformers thanks to movie hype. GI Joe was killing it, with the show still featuring favs from the previous year, while strengthening leadership with General Hawk, Sgt. Slaughter. Also took an interest in baseball, football, and pro wrestling thanks to local teams becoming champions (Mets and Giants) and Wrestlemania III.
Fifth grade ‘88 was my last year of elementary school, so it was becoming uncool to still play with toys, but that wasn’t stopping me. ‘88 got me further committed to Transformers with my first complete combiner (Terrorcon Abominus), and leaders like Ultra Magnus and Point Blank filling my ranks.
By sixth grade ‘89, starting middle school, I was really wrapping up any toy collecting. Transformers was the last group standing. Started collecting records and cassettes including Bon Jovi, Van Halen, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Fine Young Cannibals and the single for Don’t Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin.
By the time I was in grades 7-8, my six years younger brother was collecting, and of course I was guiding him into which TMNT, MASK, and RGB were the best to get.
High school was about being in bands. Taught myself guitar as a freshman by listening to Nevermind over and over. Was heavily influenced by the grunge era, til music started to lighten up with music from Weezer and No Doubt and Stone Temple Pilots. My friends and I were interchangeable members of maybe 10 different band configurations.
Wasn’t til college years (‘95-99) where I had my own PT job with my own income to buy what I want. PotF2 supplemented my original figure collection gaps, 5” Marvel figures were experimenting with added articulation and team completion with rad box sets. These would be the precursors to Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends. Transformers would return to form with designs that finally echoed the Generation One designs through their Classics line. And Masterpiece was just around the corner. Eventually GI Joe would come back into the fray with their modern 4” line. It would be a few years before I reluctantly revisited the Masters of the Universe through their Classics line.
I was born in ‘77. Entered kindergarten in ‘82. It was all Smurfs for me.
First grade, ‘83, I was finally appreciating the Empire Strikes Back figures I had been gifted, and started adding Return of the Jedi figures. Also started in Masters of the Universe. Playsets and vehicles were coming in hot. Grayskull, Ewok Village, Jabba the Hutt were highlights.
Second grade, ‘84-85. Got some of my first Transformers, MotU was still going strong. Got Snake Mountain (playsets were always from Santa).
Third grade, ‘85-86. Really got into GI Joe and Voltron. Pieced together the Panash Place set for Christmas, and the ‘85 Joe crew, Crimson Twins, and Dreadnoks had me hooked. Got the Fright Zone, but MotU was wrapping up for me by then.
Fourth grade, ‘86-87. Back to Transformers thanks to movie hype. GI Joe was killing it, with the show still featuring favs from the previous year, while strengthening leadership with General Hawk, Sgt. Slaughter. Also took an interest in baseball, football, and pro wrestling thanks to local teams becoming champions (Mets and Giants) and Wrestlemania III.
Fifth grade ‘88 was my last year of elementary school, so it was becoming uncool to still play with toys, but that wasn’t stopping me. ‘88 got me further committed to Transformers with my first complete combiner (Terrorcon Abominus), and leaders like Ultra Magnus and Point Blank filling my ranks.
By sixth grade ‘89, starting middle school, I was really wrapping up any toy collecting. Transformers was the last group standing. Started collecting records and cassettes including Bon Jovi, Van Halen, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Fine Young Cannibals and the single for Don’t Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin.
By the time I was in grades 7-8, my six years younger brother was collecting, and of course I was guiding him into which TMNT, MASK, and RGB were the best to get.
High school was about being in bands. Taught myself guitar as a freshman by listening to Nevermind over and over. Was heavily influenced by the grunge era, til music started to lighten up with music from Weezer and No Doubt and Stone Temple Pilots. My friends and I were interchangeable members of maybe 10 different band configurations.
Wasn’t til college years (‘95-99) where I had my own PT job with my own income to buy what I want. PotF2 supplemented my original figure collection gaps, 5” Marvel figures were experimenting with added articulation and team completion with rad box sets. These would be the precursors to Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends. Transformers would return to form with designs that finally echoed the Generation One designs through their Classics line. And Masterpiece was just around the corner. Eventually GI Joe would come back into the fray with their modern 4” line. It would be a few years before I reluctantly revisited the Masters of the Universe through their Classics line.
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Ru1977
The Irishman
@NORM yeah, we have some very similar beats! Transformers and Joe were huge around the same times, but my mom was an immediate star wars fan and got me into it immediately, so I don't remember ever not being a star wars fan. She even took me to see the original, though I was only a few months old and she is such a sci-fi person that she wasn't gonna miss it just because she couldn't get a babysitter heh.
I was definitely full on with grunge, though Pearl Jam was/is my favorite band, and as a teen I reacted to so many people asking if I saw Eddie Vedder cut his hair and dyed it red for that new Plush video by hating Stone Temple Pilots. I've since given them a real chance and yeah they had some good songs that are in my 90s playlist. (Sidenote, my second job was at a guitar store in San Diego and the guitar played from STP came in to check out the tab books (they had a massive selection at that store) and I talked to him a bit but never made a thing about who he was nor mentioned I hated his band because my classmate were idiots.) Anyway, by the end of high school, I was all about Stevie Ray and all his influences. When I worked at Tower Records, I managed the meager blues section, but I went to town on every blues album I could find there, and employees could take the sample discs home, and I was lucky because no one else ever wanted to rockpaperscissors over blues stuff. Now I rarely play guitar anymore but forgot all the Alice in chains songs I learned and only play blues anymore.
Playsets for Christmas was a great move. And I found a way to collect the anniversary Joe line because I got them for my son. He also got (and still has) my entire collection of POTF2 and subsequent lines up through 2006 or so.
I was definitely full on with grunge, though Pearl Jam was/is my favorite band, and as a teen I reacted to so many people asking if I saw Eddie Vedder cut his hair and dyed it red for that new Plush video by hating Stone Temple Pilots. I've since given them a real chance and yeah they had some good songs that are in my 90s playlist. (Sidenote, my second job was at a guitar store in San Diego and the guitar played from STP came in to check out the tab books (they had a massive selection at that store) and I talked to him a bit but never made a thing about who he was nor mentioned I hated his band because my classmate were idiots.) Anyway, by the end of high school, I was all about Stevie Ray and all his influences. When I worked at Tower Records, I managed the meager blues section, but I went to town on every blues album I could find there, and employees could take the sample discs home, and I was lucky because no one else ever wanted to rockpaperscissors over blues stuff. Now I rarely play guitar anymore but forgot all the Alice in chains songs I learned and only play blues anymore.
Playsets for Christmas was a great move. And I found a way to collect the anniversary Joe line because I got them for my son. He also got (and still has) my entire collection of POTF2 and subsequent lines up through 2006 or so.
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Ru1977
The Irishman
Awesome and rightfully so. Also, that must have been an AWESOME concert! One of my friends got in to see Red Hot Chili Peppers during the tour where Pearl Jam and Nirvana opened for them, but by the time her concert happened the bands had shifted so after Nirvana and Pearl Jam played, the crowd thinned pretty severely. Which sucks... like Chili Peppers were hasbeens already in 1991? Psh.
(Sidenote, I remember the day after Dirt came out, this idiot tweaker I knew we called Ogre brought his copy with him and I was wearing a Mother Love Bone shirt which he mocked, then pointed to the Dirt cd and told me that was real music and made some homosexual slur or something. but I told him, "The best song on that album is about this guy," and pointed to Andy Wood. Which I'm still self satisfied about.) But Would is still a song I listen to maybe once a week. I liked the songs they did for Last Action Hero, but their first album with Mike Inez really didn't do much for me. I do like a few of their songs from the albums they did with the new singer, I admit. Alice in Chains was also the only thing I listened to (aside from Blues stuff) that my dad had anything positive to say about ("they have great harmonies"). But my dad was a big blues guy as well, and he would throw parties constantly that always turned into 'hey, look at me' fests where he'd play guitar for everyone, and anyone who could play something would join in. And one cool thing he would do for me was when he could get me to play with him, he really enjoyed 'hey, look at my son' almost as much and always told everyone "I never taught him anything; he did it all himself". but I always sat in the corner on my amp and just stared at my fretboard. When I was in bands in high school, I was usually behind the drummer as well. I just wanted to play.
I know none of this had anything to do with Joes or polls. Or poles even.
With BloodSugarSexMagic, RHCP went full on mainstream. Loved that album, but can understand other’s disdain for it. Their sound changed. And PJ and Nirvana had what I’d consider an edgier, more sophisticated following. I don’t think the Peppers were hasbeens, but definitely more on the sell out side than early Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
Ru1977
The Irishman
I can see that. And I was a big Mike Patton person, whom I felt did what Kiedis was doing only better, and with far more range. My wife is a massive Chili Peppers fan, so since meeting her I have developed a real appreciation for their albums after Frusciante came back the first time. but she and I have a playful Faith No More/Red Hot Chili Peppers rivalry. But she has no problem admitting Patton is extremely talented and Kiedis is limited.