Decepticreep
Mostly Armless
Current stage of my latest project: to reassemble a Muscle Body GI Joe. All I need are the forearms and hands. I'm currently bidding on a lot that has those in it on ebay along with a few other parts, such as a pair of more minty legs I might substitute for the ones seen here.
My very first GI Joe ever was this type of Joe, a Muscle Body Land Adventurer. I was so young when I had him I have no memory or getting him. He was dressed in the "Dangerous Mission" uniform set, so my parents probably bought one that came with nothing but the shorts and then got that uniform set to go along with it.
I'm pretty sure my dad got him for me. I have a memory of overhearing my parents talking about GI Joe. My dad was complaining about how they had turned Joe into a hippy by giving him a beard and making him an adventurer, He had wanted to get me a soldier one, but couldn't find one because they didn't make them anymore. He DID get me the Jeep, though, which was pretty cool. I was playing with it in my parents bedroom while they were having this conversation about Joe in the living room. It was probably shortly after I got him. I think they were talking about him because I had declined to watch Little House on the Praire (at that time, one of my favorite shows) to play with my GI Joe and his Jeep and the only similarly scaled toys I had at the time, Geronimo, Sam Cobra and Johnny West.
Eventually, one of my mother's friends would buy me an Intruder, which I at first thought was a terrible toy until he told me he was supposed to be Joe's enemy, I always did like the name "Intruder" though, and his silver eyes fascinated me/creeped me out. Joe had many battles with the Intruder over the years although I always thought it was nutty that he was so much shorter than Joe. I figured he made up for his lack of height with great strength.
I even had a few Super Joes, one of the Adventurers and one of he alien good guys, Luminos I think. But as child I never made the association that these were related to GI Joe for some reason.
Eventually, this original Muscle Body Land Adventurer would be stolen from me. It was 1982, and I was getting into the new, smaller Joes and trying to figure out what, if anything they had to do with the 12 inchers (i had a theory that the character of Kwinn from the comics was actually an Intruder pretending to be human). My parents had split up and my mom and I moved into an apartment while we were trying to sell our house. I had left some toys I didn't play with so much anymore in the basement. We would make trips once a week back to the house to get our mail and I'd usually pick up a few more of my things from the basement. On one of these occasions, we found that some local kids must've broken into our basement and partied. They hadn't taken much - but my old trusty GI Joe was one of the only things that was stolen!
They left the Intruder...LOL!
As fate would have it, though the very same week we had a flea market at my elementary school and I found and bought an Air Adventurer (original style body, with Kung Fu Grip hands) which was in great condition, he was only missing the "AT" sticker on his uniform and his dog tag and rifle, but I didn't know that at the time. He actually came with a blue cap like the Action Pilot had come with. I got it for like 3 dollars or something like that! This figure then became one of my favorites and I frequently played with him for the rest of my childhood, until I briefly moved to Puerto Rico and then he got left behind when we moved back to the mainland US. A hurricane destroyed most of the stuff we'd left there before we could get it shipped back.
I went without any Adventure Team Joes for the next decade, but frequently had dreams where I got back my favorite old GI Joe toys. It wouldn't be until 2001 when I used some money I got for my birthday to order a GI Joe Collector Club Land Adventurer that I would fulfill my fuzzhead craving - sort of. The Club Land Adventurer was cool and all, but it wasn't MY GI Joe. My childhood Land Adventurer was much more buff and he was't dressed in camo, had hands that could actually hold things, etc.
I've been patiently waiting for the Club to do some replicas of MB Joes, but I've given up. They seem to have a bias against any Joe stuff made after 1973, (unless it's the Magnum Power set) and so, emboldened by my recent success in repairing some of my talking Joes and re-creating the AT Talking Astronaut I've decided to take things into my own hands and restring a MB Joe!
Special Thanks to Adventurer Josh for supplying the shoulders/upper arms seen here!
Mostly Armless
Current stage of my latest project: to reassemble a Muscle Body GI Joe. All I need are the forearms and hands. I'm currently bidding on a lot that has those in it on ebay along with a few other parts, such as a pair of more minty legs I might substitute for the ones seen here.
My very first GI Joe ever was this type of Joe, a Muscle Body Land Adventurer. I was so young when I had him I have no memory or getting him. He was dressed in the "Dangerous Mission" uniform set, so my parents probably bought one that came with nothing but the shorts and then got that uniform set to go along with it.
I'm pretty sure my dad got him for me. I have a memory of overhearing my parents talking about GI Joe. My dad was complaining about how they had turned Joe into a hippy by giving him a beard and making him an adventurer, He had wanted to get me a soldier one, but couldn't find one because they didn't make them anymore. He DID get me the Jeep, though, which was pretty cool. I was playing with it in my parents bedroom while they were having this conversation about Joe in the living room. It was probably shortly after I got him. I think they were talking about him because I had declined to watch Little House on the Praire (at that time, one of my favorite shows) to play with my GI Joe and his Jeep and the only similarly scaled toys I had at the time, Geronimo, Sam Cobra and Johnny West.
Eventually, one of my mother's friends would buy me an Intruder, which I at first thought was a terrible toy until he told me he was supposed to be Joe's enemy, I always did like the name "Intruder" though, and his silver eyes fascinated me/creeped me out. Joe had many battles with the Intruder over the years although I always thought it was nutty that he was so much shorter than Joe. I figured he made up for his lack of height with great strength.
I even had a few Super Joes, one of the Adventurers and one of he alien good guys, Luminos I think. But as child I never made the association that these were related to GI Joe for some reason.
Eventually, this original Muscle Body Land Adventurer would be stolen from me. It was 1982, and I was getting into the new, smaller Joes and trying to figure out what, if anything they had to do with the 12 inchers (i had a theory that the character of Kwinn from the comics was actually an Intruder pretending to be human). My parents had split up and my mom and I moved into an apartment while we were trying to sell our house. I had left some toys I didn't play with so much anymore in the basement. We would make trips once a week back to the house to get our mail and I'd usually pick up a few more of my things from the basement. On one of these occasions, we found that some local kids must've broken into our basement and partied. They hadn't taken much - but my old trusty GI Joe was one of the only things that was stolen!
They left the Intruder...LOL!
As fate would have it, though the very same week we had a flea market at my elementary school and I found and bought an Air Adventurer (original style body, with Kung Fu Grip hands) which was in great condition, he was only missing the "AT" sticker on his uniform and his dog tag and rifle, but I didn't know that at the time. He actually came with a blue cap like the Action Pilot had come with. I got it for like 3 dollars or something like that! This figure then became one of my favorites and I frequently played with him for the rest of my childhood, until I briefly moved to Puerto Rico and then he got left behind when we moved back to the mainland US. A hurricane destroyed most of the stuff we'd left there before we could get it shipped back.
I went without any Adventure Team Joes for the next decade, but frequently had dreams where I got back my favorite old GI Joe toys. It wouldn't be until 2001 when I used some money I got for my birthday to order a GI Joe Collector Club Land Adventurer that I would fulfill my fuzzhead craving - sort of. The Club Land Adventurer was cool and all, but it wasn't MY GI Joe. My childhood Land Adventurer was much more buff and he was't dressed in camo, had hands that could actually hold things, etc.
I've been patiently waiting for the Club to do some replicas of MB Joes, but I've given up. They seem to have a bias against any Joe stuff made after 1973, (unless it's the Magnum Power set) and so, emboldened by my recent success in repairing some of my talking Joes and re-creating the AT Talking Astronaut I've decided to take things into my own hands and restring a MB Joe!
Special Thanks to Adventurer Josh for supplying the shoulders/upper arms seen here!