Vintage G.I. Joe Reviews & Discussion

[Mandingo Rex]

This is for discussion or micro-reviews of vintage G.I. Joe figures, vehicles and playsets that aren't so nicely done as a "full" review like danielgogeta's APC review or more recent Pursuit of Cobra figure reviews, etc.

This is the place to ask questions you may have or share tidbits about vintage Joe toys, such as "will the 25th X figure fit in the Y vintage ARAH vehicle?" or to banter about vehicles and playsets until a proper thread gets made for a more complete review.

If you want to start a full thread, by all means go ahead, but if you want to keep it simple, feel free to ask away in here.

 

[Wild weasel]

Glad to see some vintage stuff getting in here... I need to check out more of the reviews.

I never had this as a kid, and while it doesn't have as much "play" value as say, a tank or something even sillier (Buzz Boar?), it's a great toy as an adult, and still looks pretty awesome to this day. I love the detail they put in their vehicles, the sculpting was really impressive for being "just a toy".

If they're that cheap and I can find room down the road on some shelves, this is one I'd like to buy.

I'm pretty happy with my 25th re-releases/updates as far as vehicles go, but this has now been added to the vintage vehicles that I don't expect to see released again that I'll hopefully acquire for my 25th collection.

(The Flagg, Terrordrome and Defiant aren't in that list, btw.)

Also, if you plan on getting one of the big 3, get the defiant. I own all of the big three, and IMO the defiant wins BY FAR! The flagg is just boring with it set up, and the deck and tower just aren't big enough to be useful, and yet ridiculously huge to begin with. The TD just doesn't have enough to it, it really is only just the top of it that can really be used, and there really isn't much but 2 large gun emplacements and a couple computers. It again needs to be bigger to have more features for display. The defiant is just bad ass. There is no other way to describe it

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have them, and if I had them as a child, would have gone bananas with them. The biggest toys I had were the General and the 90's HQ, but I always wanted the Flagg and TD. The Defiant never made it into the show, but I can appreciate it for what it was. It's awesome, but I have yet to really see any of those 3 in person to really check them out.

What I want are much smaller vehicles, like the APC, that I can manage with the space I have (and even then, it's all boxed up and nothing is currently on display).

I have recently dug out my vintage TTT, Thunder Machine, and I bought a H.A.V.O.C. at a toy show... And I got the Snowcat (sort of, from POC) and the Polar Battle Bear from the "Then & Now" Target set...

My new list consists of:
W.H.A.L.E.
Tomahawk
MBT Mauler
Mirage Cycle
Dragonfly
APC
Bridgelayer
Stun
A.S.P.
Ferret
Cobra W.O.L.F.

and I'm sure I'm missing a few more, but those are ones I always wanted, and still want, as an adult collector.

 

[Wild weasel]

this is of topic, but what do you think of the havoc, I know everybody that I've talked to that has one loves it, but I've only seen to in person, and never got a good chance to check them out. Is it something worth snagging?

 

[Mandingo Rex]

I'll do a review of it... I've been meaning to take pics recently, I just got overwhelmed with other real-world stuff.

It's pretty cool, and iconic from the cartoon. Totally goofy, but it has its charm, and I like it. I got mine in pretty flawless condition at Wondercon, from a child whose collection was sold to the shop, and they were all pretty immaculate. The only thing I strongly dislike are the goofy orange weapons on it. I may get a second set to paint black. My custom Cross-Country won't fit in the cockpit, so I don't know if you'll be happy about 25th figures not quite fitting in it, but he sits fine in the "top chair".

I may pull the second-topic banter from this thread into another topic of its own, as I like the discussion but don't want to keep getting danielgogeta's thread off-topic. Don't be shocked if it somehow shows up elsewhere...

 

[Wild weasel]

I think i'll have to get myself a havoc, theres a 25% off sale on saturday at my local comic shop, they may have one(and there prices are always good to start off at), last time they had a sale I got a mint night raven(complete with strato viper) for $35 . The good thing about the havoc though, is that it holds arah figures just fine, and I don't collect the new stuffs

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Okay, cleaned this up a little bit, we'll see how this works out.

 

[Mandingo Rex]

I think a new thread(gijoe vehicle discussion maybe?) would be best. I think i'll have to get myself a havoc, theres a 25% off sale on saturday at my local comic shop, they may have one(and there prices are always good to start off at), last time they had a sale I got a mint night raven(complete with strato viper) for $35 . The good thing about the havoc though, is that it holds arah figures just fine, and I don't collect the new stuffs

Ah, see, I actually had a freak fire that burned up a good deal of my vintage Joes a few years ago when I moved from NC to CA, but my vehicles were still in storage at my parents' house. Unfortunately, they were mostly late 80's to early 90's, and I missed out on a lot of the earlier, more realistic, vehicles that I always saw in the Sunbow toon but never owned.

I have been "rebuilding" my collection with the 25th versions, for the most part. Some vintage vehicles though, I've slowly been adding to the 25th reissues since last year...

The Night Raven is one I'd love to get, but for the size of it, I don't know if it'll be one I get for awhile. (The biggest one I would be okay with no matter whether I had room or not would be the MBT or W.H.A.L.E.).

The Skystriker is on that list, but now that we're getting it in the 30th, I don't have to shell out the cash for a vintage one.

 

[Wild weasel]

Ah, see, I actually had a freak fire that burned up a good deal of my vintage Joes a few years ago when I moved from NC to CA, but my vehicles were still in storage at my parents' house. Unfortunately, they were mostly late 80's to early 90's, and I missed out on a lot of the earlier, more realistic, vehicles that I always saw in the Sunbow toon but never owned.

I have been "rebuilding" my collection with the 25th versions, for the most part. Some vintage vehicles though, I've slowly been adding to the 25th reissues since last year...

The Night Raven is one I'd love to get, but for the size of it, I don't know if it'll be one I get for awhile. (The biggest one I would be okay with no matter whether I had room or not would be the MBT or W.H.A.L.E.).

The Skystriker is on that list, but now that we're getting it in the 30th, I don't have to shell out the cash for a vintage one.

I know what you mean(well kinda) about having to rebuild a collection. My first 3/34 inch figure was the spytroops barrel roll, so I never had any of the 80's stuff either, so I had to basically start from scratch. The mauler isn't all that big(similar in size to the havoc but a little wider and not as tall), so that shouldn't be an issue, but the whale is rather big. I am still looking to get a perfect one, but right now I have a shell with a few parts and its bigger than you'd expect(atleast for me it was)

 

[Mandingo Rex]

I started collecting in two different periods... I was born in late '82, so I was only 3 or 4 by the time I had a few Joes from the early 80s, and although I took pretty good care of them (considering how young I was) I only had a few, and there was no rhyme or reason what I got. So I had Slaughter and the TTT, and 3 Dreadnoks, the tiny mine vehicle, and a few others, but there wasn't a clear "Joe Team with leader" or "Cobra team with leader" until many years later when I got back into them in late '88 or '89.

By that point, the first year or two of my collecting was the tail-end of the good run of Joes, and despite having a few great figures from 1990 and up, then they got neon and Sunbow was just a memory in rerun syndication. Over the years, I acquired a few more early gems from comic shops or from cousins who would give their scraps, but most of my childhood figures and vehicles were from the worst years of the collection.

Now, as an adult, I gotta collect 'em all.

 

[K-Tiger]

By that point, the first year or two of my collecting was the tail-end of the good run of Joes, and despite having a few great figures from 1990 and up, then they got neon.

Sci-Fi: 1986
Zandar: 1986
Zarana: 1986.


I'll be expecting an essay on why Joe collectors are hypocrites on the subject of 1990's neon in the ARAH line when it really started 4 years earlier, in one of their "vaunted years".

 

[Wild weasel]

heres a few pics of the mauler I took the shot with the apc to show you how small the mauler really is

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Hmm, I always imagined the Mauler to be bigger than something the size of the APC.

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Sci-Fi: 1986
Zandar: 1986
Zarana: 1986.


I'll be expecting an essay on why Joe collectors are hypocrites on the subject of 1990's neon in the ARAH line when it really started 4 years earlier, in one of their "vaunted years".

You pipe down, Grumpy Uncle K-Tiger! Yeah, they definitely had a few neon-ers, even Roadblock and Cross-Country, but I'm talking the majority of the figures being neon, or coming with neon trees of weapons. That neon era.

Fuckin' Joel Schumacher.

 

[Wild weasel]

Sci-Fi: 1986
Zandar: 1986
Zarana: 1986.


I'll be expecting an essay on why Joe collectors are hypocrites on the subject of 1990's neon in the ARAH line when it really started 4 years earlier, in one of their "vaunted years".

sci-fi:first off lime green is awesome, secondly, he's a laser trooper, and everybody knows green is the best color to stop a laser with
zandar:don't ask don't tell, so he's gotta be stylish
zarana: She's ugly so she's gotta stand out in a crowd of women

that simple

 

[K-Tiger]

You pipe down, Grumpy Uncle K-Tiger! Yeah, they definitely had a few neon-ers, even Roadblock and Cross-Country, but I'm talking the majority of the figures being neon, or coming with neon trees of weapons. That neon era.

Fuckin' Joel Schumacher.

Deal with it, all toy lines were neon in the '90s.

Laser troopers are for Hiss Tankers. Joes on this site use fucking bullets.

That Simple.

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Laser-bullets. *cries*

 

[lancelot]

Deal with it, all toy lines were neon in the '90s.

Laser troopers are for Hiss Tankers. Joes on this site use fucking bullets.

That Simple.

fuck that, Joes use bullets powered by lazers. That's complicated. or is it?

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

haha, cool thread

 

[nacho]

It's not hypocritical to tolerate a small amount of neon, especially when most of it is contained within a group of 80's punk biker mercenaries. It's completely different when every freakin Joe trades in his OD and camo threads for chartreuse holsters,helmets,guns,boots, and pouches just to be on the Eco-Squad or the Ninja-Squad, or the "I'm a sellout for any of Tipper Gore 90's fad squads".

KT is just bitter because even laser-wielding neon Joes are far cooler than Omega Red

 

[Monkeywrench]

look at Rex actually "working"

you get a gold star