G.I. Joe Figures and the Real American Hero Line

You're listening to the decaf radio network of

podcast cliff jumper comment countdown five four

three two Hello, and welcome to the 82nd episode

of toy cast I'm your host if you're Mike and

joining me for the first time Oh God, I think

it's over 40 50 episodes I think the last time

you're on the show is episode 38 where you were

talking about Perceptor is Kevin optimist solo

Thompson. Hello I'll explain that later. I'll

explain that off air No, I'm just kidding. No,

I'll say it. No, it won't make any sense on the

record. But yes, it's been a long time since

I've been on Toycast. Yeah. So this episode kind

of starts our themed episodes of the 80s. And

I've had themes on here before, but the 80s specifically,

the 80s episodes of Toycast will, most of the

episodes will be geared towards one toy franchise.

Episode 82 is going to be geared towards GI Joe.

It was a toss -up between GI Joe and He -Man.

He -Man will be episode 83 because that's the

year the cartoon came out, even though the toys

got released in 82. So, yeah, GI Joe. Yes, good

stuff. No, I love GI Joe's. GI Joe's were...

They had to be one of my first... I had He -Man

toys, G .I. Joe toys, and Transformer toys all

about the same time. Those are kind of like three

of the first toys that I really remember having.

I love G .I. Joe toys. I didn't have as many

as I wanted to, but I have one of the best. My

biggest childhood playing with friends and toys

memory involves G .I. Joe because I had some

G .I. Joe's. One of my friends growing up lived

two houses down from me and he had some. But

then we knew this other guy, he never was really

a good friend, but he was, we hung out with him

sometimes. He lived about, I don't know, four

or five blocks away. He literally had like almost

every GI Joe ever. As far as, and I'm talking

about the 1980, the real American hero line,

the 3 .75 inch ones. He had just about every

single one. Well, one day we got the grand idea.

Because my friend that lived to his two houses

down had a fairly big front yard with a bunch

of trees and whatnot I brought all mine the dude

that had a million of them brought all his and

Of course the friend that his house is that brought

all his and we had them all out in the yard So

we had probably over. I don't know. I'm guessing

over 200 GI Joe figures Cobra GI Joe we had the

vehicles we had Parachute guys hanging from trees

we had other guys in the bushes like his whole

yard became a GI Joe playset And it has to be

the biggest toy like day of playing with toys

I ever remember because usually it's just me

and a couple guys like inside somewhere or me

and one of my friends or me by myself with my

toys but this was like three of us with over

200 toys spread out across the entire yard now

granted you know the the collector and everybody

is like oh not good well let's be honest in 1982

or 1983 whenever you played with these things

let's be honest Us as kids we were not out to

collect drinks. We're out to play with our toys

because we're freaking kids I have a question

for you about this large display. I wish I would

add a picture of it Well, that's not what I was

gonna ask you This and I know you can't go back

in time and change this but this large display

of of every every You know you guys coming together

cannot be complete unless one of you had the

aircraft carrier I can't remember if the other

guy did or not. He had so much crap that I didn't

have. The aircraft carrier is easily the best.

Yeah, I don't think we had that in the group.

but you remember the aircraft carrier oh yeah

yeah it's huge it's like seven feet long yeah

we didn't have that there i had we had quite

a few vehicles and i think we had just about

every main character like represented and yes

there was quite a few characters that got a little

dirty i'm sure that there was a couple that may

have gotten broken over the course of the day

um and i i'm very convinced that Not everybody

went home with the same toys that they came to

this The day with I'm pretty sure one or two

figures somehow got mixed and matched into other

people's collections It's not like a book swap.

Yeah an unintentional swap. We're all sudden

like weeks or months later You're like, where

did that figure go? And like I guess where does

that figure come from? I don't remember having

him I do remember though being nervous while

we were playing with all these that you know

Where's my guy or make sure in mine aren't getting

broken or I got to keep my eyes on which ones

are mine So I go home with them and I was very

nervous about it But it was just very fun like

I just remember having them hanging from trees

and bushes and you know under rocks or on rocks

or you know fighting this guy and that and it

was just I Don't even know what the other two

guys would remember this day, but I never had

that many toys with that many friends together

in that big of a place outside. Like the closest

I can come is that same friend that lived two

houses down. There was a couple times where we

had all of our transformers together in one of

our basements, but it can't really compare to

how many different GI Joe figures and that being

outside. It's just a great memory I have. That's

awesome. But yeah, I had, you know, for my general

memories, I mean, it's at all basically revolves

around those three, three inch figures. My brother

who I've mentioned a couple different times on

other podcasts. He's about 10 years older than

me So he had the original some of the original

12 inch 70s figures And I remember playing with

them some but I wasn't allowed to play with them

too much And he still has those and I remember

Getting some 12 inch ones of the newer lines

Eventually, but my main memories are with those

three three inch figures from the 80s Oh yeah,

very much so. I probably shouldn't be on this

episode of Toycast, because honestly, the only

thing resembling any kind of army people I ever

had was the little army men, kind of like from

Toy Story. Yeah, I had a bunch of those too.

I do not remember having any GI Joes. I honestly

don't. I don't know if it was something that

my mom said, well, you can only collect one to

two. I know she let me have multiple toy collections,

but I think there was like a limit and like maybe

six toy collections because I know I had several

different transformers. I had a bunch. Well,

the He -Man story that, yeah, we'll get to that

next time, but. I had everything he man. I had

Voltron toys. I had mask toys. I had thundercats

I had silver I had all the silver Hawks It's

another story for another episode anyways um

Yeah, it's it's it's funny dad had to sell the

damn he man toys, but he couldn't sell those

craptacular silver Hawks toys right anyway anyways

um so So I had multiple collections. I don't

know if it was something that I wasn't interested

in for GI Joe I remember watching the real American

hero cartoon I don't remember watching it as

much as transformers, but I do remember watching

it But I just I never I don't ever remember having

GI Joe's I definitely I mean I didn't have as

many as like some of my friends did but I had

I had quite a few I had the the Shoot I'm forgetting

the name now, but um snow job not snow job but

one of those guys came with like a tiger print

like orange and black like this this vehicle

and I had that vehicle I had like one of the

purple Cobra planes purplish blue planes you

know and that's one thing that I liked about

the GI Joe franchise is I loved their vehicles

because usually multiple GI Joes could sit in

them and whatnot. It's something that I wasn't

getting necessarily from Transformers because

they were the vehicles and the robots obviously

are all in one. And it's something that He -Man,

you had the vehicles, but they were like these

cool like alien type, not alien type, but you

know, like these. mythical type vehicle, whereas

GI Joe, you got to have some straight up army

vehicles. You had planes. You had these like

cool army cars. And I really liked that. Yeah.

Jeeps and all that kind of stuff. And I just

thought it was really cool. You had every kind

of vehicle imaginable to military. You had, like

you said, planes, jeeps. I'm sure there was boats.

I mean, obviously the aircraft carrier, but I

mean, the aircraft carrier is something completely

by itself as far as a vehicle many aircraft carrier

technically could be a play set because you could

put i i remember someone i remember watching

on tv somewhere someone put like over a thousand

jose on the aircraft carrier. This thing is seven

feet long. I'll have to find a picture of it

somewhere. Yeah. And you know, they range from

something that big to the, you know, they had

vehicles just for one person, but I really liked

the vehicles that multiple people could be involved

in. I even had this one, I don't even know what

it was. It was like for a swamp area and it was

like a gray, basically it looked like this gray,

like octagon type thing. And I think three Cobra

guys basically could sit in it and they each

had their own little gun pointing out. and it

came with freaking A, what's his name? The guy

had like a purple and black suit with like a

thing over his eye and he was super cool. But

you know, just stuff like that where multiple

figures could fit in the same thing I really

enjoyed. That thing actually reminds me of Bobby

Boushey's fan boat he rode into the stadium.

Oh God. Now I'm gonna go absolutely... nuts until

I figure out what that guy's name is. Think about

it for a second here. And I actually, I still

have this guy, but this is a sad story. GI Joes,

some of mine I lost. I didn't lose any of the

GI Joes in the garage sales, but I still have

most of them in a Rubbermaid container downstairs

somewhere. But I opened it the other day because

I was looking for, I think I was looking for

some old Silverhawks figures to annoy you with.

and I was looking through and you know, I was

going through some of the other toys in there

and apparently somewhere in the movement because

I don't They were in a container that I didn't

transfer with as much care as my Transformers

and Star Wars collection my Transformers and

Star Wars collections are all in sealed bags

or boxes and cases within Rubbermaid containers,

so there's no way that any of them can get harmed.

Right. And then I kind of had some of the miscellaneous

toys just kind of loose in a Rubbermaid container.

I don't know what happened, but the guy that

I'm talking about, his limbs are no longer connected

to his body. I don't know what happened in the

transfer. I don't know if it was just so old

that something snapped inside, but he literally

has a body with his head on it and then arms

and legs are separate. And that is one thing

that could happen to your GI Joe toys if you

weren't careful with them Right, they broke a

lot. I mean they did not break as easy as transformers

I'm not gonna say that because transformers broke

easier than any other toy because People were

usually too careless with them as far as the

transformation process and their diecast So it

was very easy to break transformers if you weren't

careful with them but GI Joe's have to be like

a close second with as far as like that type

of figure because those arms and those legs were

Liable to be very loose at some points die cast

construction. It's a lost art I know it's a sad

lost art because you actually had to know your

you had to know your toys you had to you had

to have a relationship with your toys and You

know to the point where you knew how every little

part of them moved so that you would not break

them And you could not let your friends touch

them if they did not respect them now recently

And I've said this before on some of the other

shows in the recent weeks and months i have been

hooked on the uh... history channel show pond

stars and you know you might think well uh...

i love that show this is awesome well a lot of

people think why is something called pond stars

on the history channel well because you have

people who go to like a state sales and stuff

where they've had stuff in their basements or

addicts from you know years on and lake uh...

you know there's you know that they bring an

old like civil war guns and they were in you

know stuff like a lot of history that they get

to exactly there's a lot of history in that show

yes it's just somebody going into a pawn shop

but i mean it's still It shows more of the buying

end of pawn dealers than it does the seller's

end. And they have shown some cool Transformers,

and like you were saying off air, I think it

was off air, some G .I. Joe stuff. They've shown

both things on that show. Well, that's what I

was going to get to because a lot of us know

about the 1970s 12 -inch figures, but G .I. Joe

Hasbro originated it in 1964. And on one of the

more recent episodes of Pond Stars this lady

brought in her 1964 GI Joe nurse doll it was

the only girl GI Joe they ever made I mean in

the original line up until like they brought

in like the GI Janes later in the 90s. unfortunately

it wasn't like fully complete there was some

problems with it so he was only willing to like

give her like I don't know 800 bucks or something

for it I don't know um and you know the transformer

is the one that they showed that it was so expensive

that they didn't even offer anything well he

couldn't well he he was gonna offer him 15 ,000

but I just couldn't take it the guy wanted 20

,000 and the problem with that collection on

pawn stars and we're kind of getting off the

GI Joe topic but the problem with that collection

on pawn stars He had multiples of a - Yeah, he

did, he did. He had multiples of Power Master

Prime, he had multiples of Devastator, multiples

of Trypticon, so it wasn't just like collecting

the 1984 line, 85 line, 86 line, 87 line, just

one of each line. He had multiples of each line,

so that's why it made it a little bit more valuable,

but still, it's having multiples. Right, no,

I'm with you on that one. So, but anyway, Still

trying to think of the damn name of that guy.

I'm sorry, but oh Voltaire it had to be Voltaire.

Well, okay Voltaire Okay, that's what I think

that's what his name was. Anyways, I can move

on now Um, I am sorry anything over Ten inches

is a doll to me So the 12 -inch GI Joe original

line they were dolls They were not at the time

though. They were not action figures They weren't

necessarily action figures in my opinion, but

for what kids had at that time to play with You

know that was that was pretty cool. It was pretty

cool toys, right? I love Voltaire. I'm sorry.

I wish Voltaire hadn't died such a brutal death

Okay, then he was school he was he was done since

lunch anyways i'm open back together you know

though and he was cool also because i had a set

of puzzles when i was a kid uh... set up six

i think it's six georgia puzzles and you could

take the the edges off and combine them into

a massive puzzle one of them had a big face of

volt are on it and it was very cool but that

was as i still have those puzzles by the way

I'm sorry, I'm gone off track. I do like, I do

love though, this is kind of getting a little

bit ahead, but he brought up the 12 inches from

the the 60s and 70s and I've seen like four of

them of that were my brothers and you know, they're

all right. They're cool and whatnot, but they

seem so generic because they really don't have

much of a personality as much as an action figure

can have a personality, but they don't. But I

am. Was a fan at the time of the 12 -inch ones

when they were released as part of the later

line in the yeah, the 90s whatever it was the

19 Oh Whatever see whatever 98 or 94 I just looked

it up earlier and I can't freaking remember now

the real American hero collection TRU exclusives

97 98. Yeah the yep. Yep I remember those and

I was a big fan of those at the time, or actually

it was the 92 to 94, the Hall of Fame 12 inch,

12 inch. And I had Destro and Cobra Commander

and Duke and Grunt and they were very cool because

they came with the dog tags and they came with

these weapons that made sounds and lit up, but

they had their own little display stand that

they could sit on. And they just, they're really

cool. I have those in the basement as well. But

they were cool because I'm big on the display,

and they looked really nice displayed because

of the stand and because they were so big. And

they had a lot of articulation for a figure that

was coming out in 92 to 94. They had more articulation

than most things had in that time period. Articulation

seems to be something that's come leaps and bounds

since the 90s. But they were pretty much ahead

of their time, I think, with the articulation

of a big 12 -inch figure. Oh, I'm sure they were

yeah, but those are the main ones I remember

as far as the 12 inch ones I doubt they're way

better than the 1960s or the 19 whatever years

it was Yeah, but nothing can quite compete like

you said an action figure is those small You

know three point seven five inch same size as

the the Star Wars figures although I do find

it interesting that Kind of going off topic a

little bit, but at the different sizes that different

Action figures have been released even just in

the 80s Because you had stuff really tiny like

the mask figures Then you had your Star Wars

and GI Joe with about the three three point seven

five inch ones And then it just goes all across

the board Like thundercats were huge Yes, they

were he man were pretty big turtles were kind

of a medium size You know transformers are everywhere

because they had so many different types but

There's no consistent sizing really as you see

it a lot more nowadays nowadays when you have

like when they make action figures for like the

latest movie that came out like whether it's

like Whatever the new Star Trek movie or the

the newest Terminator movie or like Iron Man

or whatever it is They're all the same size as

the GI Joe Star Wars figures almost. Yeah. Well,

I think the thing is today that they're all in

line with The same sizes so Yeah, but you don't

see it like it back in the 80s when you'd get

like one toy was one size one toy was another

size now It seems like it's pretty standard well

and the other thing about today is you have three

or four different size classes in a line So like

say you take Well for example Marvel Marvel Action

figures you have Marvel legends which are I believe

three and three -quarter inch figures, and then

you have the six inch figures Then you have say

a seven inch figure. So I mean, yes, there are

different sizes, but for the most seems like

all of them have the three and three quarter

size. Yeah. It seems like, and it makes it nice

for display and purposes and as far as if people

are buying like stands or cases or different

stuff like that, it's cool. But I just find it

funny that, you know, the 12 inch figure just

really didn't last or didn't stick around as

long, whereas this three and three quarter figure

that came out, you know, it's really stood the

test time and become everybody's, I guess, favorite

size for. a lot of collectors. Most of us, obviously

I can't speak for all collectors because I don't

know all the collectors, but I mean most collectors

in general like a range, and of course it depends

on the line, it depends on the brand, but range

from three and three quarters to about seven

inches depending. Like I know the DC Universe

Justice League figures are mostly three and three

quarter. However, Lobo is the fan collection

Lobo he is seven inches he's slightly bigger

the Masters the universe classics they're all

seven inches with the exception of like Orko

but Orko comes with a stand so you so technically

he is seven inches with the stand but without

the stand obviously he's about three inches yeah

For me, just like displaying wise, like in my

room when I was younger or growing up, it was

easy for me to justify the GI Joe and the Star

Wars collections because they each had the three

and three quarter and they each had the 12 inch

figures. So it made it easy for me to display

them in my room as far as shelf spacing and stuff

like that. So I really kind of enjoyed those

two sizes. I would love to see fully articulated

action figures at a 12 inch scale. I don't think,

I honestly don't, like honestly, a seven inch

Masters of the Universe, and I know we're talking

about G .I. Joe here, but I mean seven inch Masters

of the Universe, that's kind of pushing it. Yeah,

no, I agree. There's a couple of them that are,

you know, eight inches or nine inches, but it

would be awesome. Mean especially with as far

as the GI Joe line has come today It would be

awesome to get actual 12 inch action figures

and not dolls. No. Yeah, I agree with you. I

Don't like the doll aspect except for display

purposes and stuff like that as far as some of

them like I like some of the 12 inch Joe's I

like some of the 12 inch Star Wars guys They're

kind of cool. But if I had my choice, I would

much rather have the three and three -quarter

inch. Yeah So after oh go ahead Well, I don't

really mind the six -inch figures either because

those are still Yeah, that's kind of cool. So

I mean those are still you know fairly you know

posable playable all that stuff Right. So as

far as the three and three -quarter inches, you

know, we had the Real American Hero from 82 to

basically 94. It was a long -lasting toy line

and there's tons and tons of Joes in that line

and that's the one that, you know, most die -hard

Joe fans are most probably familiar with. But

since then we've had, you know, we've had quite

a few as far as exclusives that have come out

or like commemorative stuff that's come out.

You had a couple different real American hero

collections. You had some G .I. Joe versus Cobra

in the early 2000s. And then the one that I've

really liked was the 25th anniversary collection.

I don't have any of them because, you know, as

a collector that's not rich, I've always had

to choose my battles as far as which lines I

could collect. And usually Star Wars and Transformers

wins out if there's something on the shelves

of those two franchises, which there always is

for Star Wars. um... but uh... the twenty -fifth

anniversary i think looks really cool as far

as the g i joe i know it's not really out there

anymore because the movies came out took over

like movies are bitches for doing uh... i hate

it when movies come out like that and destroy

the current line Yeah, but the 25th anniversary

had some real cool Destros and I remember seeing

one some on the shelves of silver mass some with

gold mass some with you know different color

mass so that was cool they did a good job of

making them look as much like the old one to

kind of respect the original figures but to upgrade

them like we've seen with the Masters of the

Universe classics like we've seen with the Transformers

classics where You know, there's enough of the

old stuff that fans aren't gonna be upset, but

it's upgraded to a point where it's better. And

I do have to bring up one of my favorite 25th

anniversary G .I. Joe figures. When they decided

to put out a 25th anniversary G .I. Joe figure

named Specialist Tracker, who is basically Matt

Tracker from M .A .S .K. I know we've talked

about this when we did - Fuck you! Fuck you!

No, Matt Tracker was awesome. He looks awesome.

I actually still want to go buy the 25th anniversary

Jeju Matt Tracker one, because I think it's awesome

that they mixed him in there. No. I know you

don't agree, but I love it. I wish they would

have mixed more stuff in there. No. Awesome people

call into the voicemail line. No, no, no, no

No, I said give us your opinion your honest opinion

people that are listening Tell us what you think

of a line like GI Joe's and some people are gonna

hate it But I have a feeling some people might

like it but give give us your opinion of Putting

a figure from a completely different line mask

in this case into the 25th anniversary GI Joe

line I want to hear people's opinions. It shouldn't

have been done. That's your opinion I just sent

you a link to muglab .com with the GI Joe Mighty

Mugs. This is honestly the closest I come to

GI Joe figures. Yeah, and I know you're a huge

Mighty Mugs fan and I like the looks of them.

It's just not anything I've been able to get

into, but I think they're pretty cool looking.

Well, the best one easily is Destro. Yeah. Because

his head is all mirrorish chrome looking. I mean,

I can see my reflection in his head. Oh, that's

pretty cool. Yeah. But yeah, the G .I. Joe Mighty

Mugs, unfortunately, Wave 3 got cancelled and

unfortunately I don't think Hasbro is making

any more Mighty Mugs at all anymore, which kind

of sucks, except maybe convention exclusive stuff,

which obviously SDCC only comes once a year,

unfortunately. So basically, since the 25th anniversary,

we've just had the movie lines. the rise of Cobra

and now the pursuit of Cobra. But there is still

some classics that you can still find on the

shelves here and there, which are kind of cool

when you come across them. They're not really

like the active lines, but you can still find

them every once in a while. Oh, yeah. And, you

know, of course, there was Sigma Six figures,

which, no, thank you. I'm surprised. I am assuming

that there's never been resolute figures. I think

they're making them. Oh, I was gonna say those

would be some kick -ass figures. I think they

are. Let's see, Classics, Super Joe, Short Live

Line, Sigma 6. It doesn't say anything about

Resolute, but I could have sworn that they were

gonna be making some. Oh, that would be cool

because the Resolute are some of the best G .I.

Joe designs ever as far as the character look

and like the design of them and that would be

really cool to see those. But especially the

Cobra Commander and the Resolute line to see

him. But, you know, so far, if you're going to

the store, you're only going to be able to find

the current movie lines, which, eh, I'm not a

big fan. Yeah. To me, it'll always either be

the, it always has to be somewhat an homage to

the original 80, not the original 12 inch ones,

but the original three and three quarter figures.

There has to be something that reminds me of

them. It can't be movie lines. So hopefully the

classic collection or some type of like 30th

anniversary will be coming out here eventually

and we can just Let those take over again The

30th anniversary actually should be 2012 then

So yeah, hopefully in two years. We got some

some 30th anniversary collection I'm sure we

will and then the movie figures can go away I

like the GI Joe movie. I'm not trying to say

I don't like the GI Joe movie I like the GI Joe

movie, but I hate it when the movie figures take

over and the old lines get shut out Yeah, that

is kind of crappy. So, I think that's it. We

very quickly went through a few decades of G

.I. Joe figures. And I know we're gonna get shit

for this episode because we didn't include, say,

Michael Wilson, even though Michael doesn't really

collect G .I. Joes, he knows a lot about it.

Or, say, Steve Megatron, which, you know, it's...

It is what it is. Well, I was going to say it's

1 a .m. that we're recording this and Steve should

have been online at some point, but he wasn't.

But anyway, so yeah. But I think they're cool.

Like I said, the main reason I like the GI Joe

figures is because of the militaristic vehicles.

And just to connect the characters that you wanted

from the cartoon series, it wasn't like the G

.I. Joe figures did a lot compared to like let's

say the Masters of the Universe figures with

all their gimmicks, the Transformers figures

which you could transform. You know, G .I. Joe,

like I have said different times, to me they

kind of remind me of the Turtles where there

wasn't a lot of gimmicks, there wasn't a lot

of stuff you could do with them, it was basically

up to you and your imagination. But that's not

to take it away because G .I. Joe, the franchise,

has so many characters. So it was always fun

to try to you know get your favorite character

and try to line them up And you know like I said

the 25th anniversary was very cool So I'm looking

forward to some 30th anniversary stuff, and maybe

by that point. I'll have some extra money I could

actually buy a couple Yes, so thank you for joining

us here on toy cast or so ways to get in contact

with us or leave feedback for the show Visit

the website geekcastradio .com you can comment

on each episode post leave the show's feedback

and iTunes, please do this FOLLOW US ON TWITTER,

TFTOYCAST IS THE SHOW TWITTER MINUS TFJOANMIKE,

WHAT IS YOUR TWITTER? BossKDog. BECOME A FRIEND

ON FACEBOOK, IT'S FACEBOOK .COM SLASH GEEKCAST

RADIO NETWORK. CALL THE MOIST MAIL LINE, TELL

US WHAT YOU'RE SHOWING US A MESSAGE FOR AND YOUR

NAME, 502 -526 -5821. WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS

EPISODE OF TUNECAST. YIKES. SHIT. We hope you

enjoyed this episode of toy cast and wish you'll

join us next time for now IMTF you and Michael

with Optimus solo Almost forgot my name. Thank

you for listening until next time. Wow, we really

fucked that up