Why do you like it?

[Ranger_22]

Why is it that you like about G.I. joe that keeps you going for it. I like it for the military aspect, cobra is a cool TERRORIST group and its not a weird anime.

[ToneGunsRevisited]

[QUOTE=Ranger_22]Why is it that you like about G.I. joe that keeps you going for it. I like it for the military aspect, cobra is a cool TERRORIST group and its not a weird anime.[/QUOTE]
I'm still a child inside (I'm just 26 Y.O.)!

[Outrider]

[QUOTE=ToneGunsRevisited]I'm still a child inside (I'm just 26 Y.O.)![/QUOTE]

Lol! :D Luis, all of us "adults" who crawl around in the garden with toy soldiers and a camera have issues! That's why we all congregate on this site, we are all as bad as each other. Getting back on topic, the same reasons apply to me too. I've always enjoyed the military side of things, the reasonable realism of the figures and vehicles (ignoring the more weird stuff) compared to other lines, and Cobra is too cool as well. Plus the great Marvel comics run by Larry Hama used to have me waiting impatiently each month for the next issue. :)

[Sonneilon]

Way back in 1982, I was just a kid collecting toys. With everyone else, Star Wars was about it for 'action figures'. The 12" weren't my thing. They were dolls to me and they still are. That X-Mas, I got a slew of 'em along with the 1st comic and it was just so cool. Sure, it was a military toy but I loved the articulation. When swivel-arm came out the next year, it was still hella dope. But by the end of the Cobra War and DiC coming in, I gave up. The comic wasn't doing it for me either. Things were getting too weird, I was getting older and 'playing' w/ toys just wasn't cool.

2002 rolls around the nu skulpts show up. I told myself that THIS time, I'd have a full collection cuz I had a credit card(s). These weren't just toys. These were things I grew up with. I don't necessarily see a piece of plastic w/ paint and remotely in a human form, I see a character. Transformers, SW, everything else, I just don't see it quite the same.

I found myself, either at the end of Spy Troops or during VvV that a lot of the stuff coming out was junk. I had gotten sucked into buying 'the flavor of the week'. Missile Storm Copter anybody? That POS vehicle Grunt came with? The anti-tank thingy w/ Big Ben? The Fang 3??????? Luke said it best. "What a piece of junk!"

Also during that time, I was doing more and more dios. A few people might remember my 1st dio, "The Ultimate Weapon". But I did a lot of shorts and ads that are now gone from my hard drive. Deciding that I don't need EVERY figure out there, it freed me to items I wanted. Also, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to do GI Joe dios and I buy what I need for them. Just like Luke does.

In the end, I'm stuck w/ Joe because it's the best medium for me. BBI can't touch it, y'know whatta I mean? I'm not as militaristic as Craig or TG, but at what time, I was. I've decided that I want to see the Joes in different situations that aren't necessarily grounded in our reality. I'm not going totally off the rocker but not all futuristic military movies are utterly weird, y'know? Aliens might be too far out, but what about Soldier or to a degree, Stargate? Like I tell people, I want to be the Paul WS Anderson of dios. Luke can be George Lucas. Justin can be Steven Spielberg. Shane can be James Cameron. I bet if Craig did a dio, he'd be the John Tiernan of dios. (Clear and Present Danger)

I just want to be the guy who does the niche stuff. (Anderson did Mortal Kombat, Aliens vs Predator, etc)

[Mobius_1]

I originally started with the big dudes but was turned off for the fact that i couldn't by fighters for them. When i first spotted the Skystriker it was love at first sight. i eventually stumbled onto justin's site and eventually, after reading a ton of reviews, read one of his dios. i was immeadietly amazed by the story and depth of the plot. it also helped that the effects were cool. i immeadeately wanted to make dios and am still trying to this day. (I'm not very fluent in the ways of photo shop:/) the problem is, is that my mom isn't all that happy with me spending money on toys and is stingy about credit card use. (i usually have to beg her for weeks in order to get something, and even then i can't seem to get it) also, i don't have a driver's licsense and have to rely on my parents to drive me to the store. i'm just trying to catch up on the figures i skipped over for vehicles.(that was my first joe love) that pretty much covers it. also i think cobra is a much cooler terrorist threat than Al Qaida. :p

[Ion]

You know... I got my first Joe when I was about 4 years old, from my grandmother - it was TF Tripwire... Well, being a 4 year old kid makes you no good to see something more than just a toy.
Besides - I still have this Tripwire and for God's sake - he's not going anywhere from my collection :)

Then - I spotted in some toyshop Gnawgahyde. I have some of my pocket money, so I couldn't wait to buy it. Unfortunately, was sold. But - I bought Ambush then...
Still have him to this day :)

Third of them was Undertow, which...

Now you should have a clear main point - I've got all my childhood figures and vechicles to this day. Everyone from them reminds of something from my childhood. I'm pretty damn sentimental and have a rule not to sold ANY of this "main collection" Joes.
And - I think that no better toy was ever concieved. It's the most articulated action figure I'd ever came across with :) That's why they're ideal for making diostories :)

[Sonneilon]

I think these became more than toys for me when they were shown in cartoon and comic form. It made them characters stuck in toy form. Kinda like Small Soldiers (as opposed to Toy Story). Cuz face it, if our Joes and Cobras came alive, they would NOT be saying, "I'm a toy!" So when I look at a lot of the figures, I see who they are, not just pieces of plastic. SW on the other hand...

[Bayer]

My reasons are the same as Sonnelion had.

[Outrider]

[QUOTE=Sonneilon]I think these became more than toys for me when they were shown in cartoon and comic form. It made them characters stuck in toy form.[/QUOTE]

Well said G, that's a great point. I never really saw the cartoons, but the comics gave GI Joe life. They weren't just plastic toys, they had personalities and foibles and a history, and the way LH wrote them, they could have been real people. I think that's why so many people have such an attachment to certain characters; above all else, thier personalities and their exploits hold a great appeal.

[Sephron13]

I love the way GIJoe has grown up with me. It's been around since I've been around, really and I like that. It has evolved and is constantly reinventing itself, just like me. I also love how it challenges my creativity. As a kid, I was always coming up with some awesome idea and storyline to go on and on for weeks with. Now, as an adult, I'm starting to get into the dio-story aspect of it and it just gives me that feeling I had as a kid.

YO JOE!

[Ion]

You know... I never really watched cartoon or read comic - that as something that I wasn't very keen on. I got other great cartoons tht day - General Daimos for instance .
But the personality.. yes... EVERY figure has a file card. And if sometimes Cobras are shown as a complete dumbasses, these filecards DO give them life :) Yes... they are alive for me, as they are alive for you :)
That's why It's always a great problem for me to decide who's gonna die in my dios. (I'm counting only SINGLE characters. Vipers always die in dozens, as you know... target practice;))

[Sonneilon]

In my 1st dio, I killed off Big Ben, Rampage, Torpedo and a WHOLE slew of others. And for those who actually got thru it, Nunchuk is still in disguise as Viper and Firefly is still in a jailcell! I never did wrap those ends up. lol.

[G.I.*Jock]

[QUOTE=Sonneilon]In my 1st dio, I killed off Big Ben, Rampage, Torpedo and a WHOLE slew of others. And for those who actually got thru it, Nunchuk is still in disguise as Viper and Firefly is still in a jailcell! I never did wrap those ends up. lol.[/QUOTE]

Big Ben? :eek: :mad:

*De-cloaks for posting*

This is a really great thread! Like some of you I grew up with the Joe's! I was born in 1985, in 89 I got Dodger. My first figure. I was hooked. The videos of the cartoon soon followed. I grew up with the toyline and stayed reasonably faithful to it. X-MEN and the Turtles tried to put me off Joe, but never succeeded! Because I watched the toon as a boy, the cartoon style sculpts and colouring of figures are usually always my favourite. My only regret is, that as a boy, I didn't have many cartoon style figures or vehicles. As a boy I wanted every Joe figure and playset made. My first ever ambition. One which I still try to accomplish today! I might have had it done had I not started army building! Oops!

GI Joe is more than a toyline, to all of us and to every other collector.

Realism still does not really bother me, though. I blame the toon for that!

Another thing for sure, is that in my case at least, is that the older I get, the more the Joe's mean to me. So many memories!

Also since starting to take pictures of my Joe's, even before I started posting here, I learned to appreciate the Joe's all the more. I love photographing the Joe's and that has played a big part in keeping me hooked, even still! I have General Hawk and Timelf to thank for that! Their dio's inspired me to start doing dio pics. Although these guys and many other dioists -I know that isn't a word, but you know what I mean- inspire me still, these days you guys on Joedios, inspire me and influence me to keep on snapping all the more! Now I just need to make more progress on that pesky dio of my own!

So now you know...

Dave

[brineb]

I got my first Joe in 1964, he was the Action Pilot, I played with him all the time and eventually got about a dozen Joes and various 1/6th scale figures. I remember having the Mercury capsule and having "splashdowns" in our pool. I was always a comic book/strip fan and used to make my own elaborate stories with my Joes. Somewhere around 1971, my Mom gave away all my Joes to a cousin. In 1973, I started doing stop-motion animation and bought a bunch of Mego figures (8" tall as opposed to 12" tall). Most of these guys survived and i still have some. In the 90s when the 12" Joes were reintroduced, I got a few and some Action Man as well as Captain Action reissues. I really started to go crazy about a year ago and have been all out G.I. Joe insane. I started to get some of the sets I had as a kid and also started doing photo-stories with them. I never got into the 3.75" Joe, too busy doing all that fun bad stuff we all do in our 20s and somehow I kept that up into my 30s. When Sigma 6 came out, I fell in love with the cartoony Joes and have been collecting them.

So, why do I like Joe? He let's me feel young and creative again. He inspires me to be a 48 year old kid!!!

[firefly#1]

i first got involved with gijoes when i was 9 and i'm 11 now so when i get my allowance and theirs actully 3,3/4in joes on the shelves cause in VA theirs barely any new little joes we still haven't gotten the viper lockdown set but in johnson city theirs a toys r us that i have not been to yet and xmas is comming up so you never now

[Ranger_22]

When ever I see a joe I grab it!

[silencer]

Yeah G, how can you kill off Big Ben?! I hope it wasn't the original! :)

Joes make me feel like a kid again. I'm 29 and in denial. A kid will say- adults suck, they're boring, stupid, and excessively serious, and for the most part I sympathize completely. :D

[Sonneilon]

In the era of nu skulpts, the older archaic ones just didn't seem to match up. Big Ben and Surefire were quickly killed off in a pretty cartoony generic attack. Therefore, it was the W1.5 JvC versions that bit the dust.

[silencer]

Ah oui, R.I.P. --that was Big Bon, a member of the french SAS :D

[lehsreh]

I like them for the same reason everyone else does. They take me back to simpler days. Days when i would rush home from school, grab a bite to eat and run to my friend's house, where we would all meet and start picking who we were gonna be. We would play for hours and hours and didn't have to worry about paying bills, working, or even girls, although that is my fav thing to worry about,lol.
I think toys, not just joes, but all the toys we played with as kids make us feel young and take us back to the worry free days. What i would'nt give to have a channel with M.A.S.K, the Real Ghostbusters, Bravestar, COPS, Transformes and G.I. Joe to watch in the evenings. Sorry I went on so long, this is why i dont post.

[bluestalker88]

[QUOTE=lehsreh] Sorry I went on so long, this is why i dont post.[/QUOTE]

don't worry about it :D you can post as long and as short as you want :) thats one of the things thats great about posting ;)

I like it cause its a way to stay a kid and a way to live in your own little world where the bad guys have advanced robot soldiers and clones and advanced weapons and lasers and high-tech lab equipment and....ect...ect... you get the idea :D it has always been fun to collect, play and build stuff with G.I. Joes. I have collected gi joes since I was a little kid and have off and on ever since.

see lehsreh we all post long little indepth stories about ourselves, its our way of letting each other know more about who we are.

Nick

[Sonneilon]

AHAHAHAHAHHAHA... You call that long? It may look long when you type it out but after it's posted, it's dinky! DINKY!

[Ranger_22]

My mother used to say collecting joes or building with legos calms some officeworkers and keeps them away from getting an Uzi and shooting all their co-workers. So she doesn't get mad at me for still collecting.

[Mobius_1]

[QUOTE=Ranger_22]My mother used to say collecting joes or building with legos calms some officeworkers and keeps them away from getting an Uzi and shooting all their co-workers. So she doesn't get mad at me for still collecting.[/QUOTE]
Shooting an uzi at co-workers! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[GoCards]

First off I'm new here. Longtime viewer. I don't yet have a digital camera of my own, and I'm not as creative as y'all are, so I'm not sure when I'll start posting pics of my own.
Now, getting to why I like this stuff. I grew up with it in the 80's. It's the whole nostalgia trip thing for me. Collecting this stuff reminds me of a simpler time when I didn't have to work the daily grind and pay bills. My collection pales in comparison to what I've seen here, and what I had as a kid, but it's growing nicely.
So that's why I like it, simply for the fact that it helps keep me young.

[Ranger_22]

[QUOTE=Mobius_1]Shooting an uzi at co-workers! :eek: :eek: :eek:[/QUOTE]

Just an exaderation. It could be a 9mm pistol or something.


Welcome GoCards! I can't wait to see your collection.

[bluestalker88]

yeah welcome GoCards! good to see someone new on the sites :D

[G.I.*Jock]

Graham! I demand the resurection of Big Ben! :D

Welcome to the site go cards! Nice to see the Joedios community growing! :)

[Mobius_1]

[QUOTE=G.I.*Jock]

Welcome to the site go cards! Nice to see the Joedios community growing! :)[/QUOTE]
Agreed. Good to know there's more of us out there! :)

[NemesisEnforcerFan]

[COLOR=Indigo][FONT=Century Gothic]Now that everyone has welcomed the newb perhaps we could get back on topic to discussing why we like GIJOE?
For me.. it has nothing to do with the comics or cartoons.. it's literally the Swivel Arm Battle Grip.. I was 5 and had lego.. I was 6 and had star wars.. I was 7 and got G.I.Joe my parents knew that in 1987 I'd cross a border that held no boundaries.. :D The fun thing now is.. I remember being 8 or 9.. and spent countless hours of the summer in the garden setting up figures and bases.. and setting my figures in poses.. I'd think to myself.. woah if only i had a way of filming it all.. and if only I could biuld my own sets... Guess what!!! :eek: Today I realise that dream.. you could say for me growing up as meant nothing.. just that all the materials & resources I wanted as a child.. example.. dremel.. wood.. paints etc.. I couldnt get.. now I can.. and since I got a digital camera each waking day I spend on new ideas and plots.. and I have a folder to work on these projects.. . to me the figures I got into in 1987 ....my first we're... flint, dialtone, crazy legs, airtight, frostbite, dr.mindbender and ripper.. all swivel arm figures.. and I really could never see beyond that.. as I said the boundary or border was crossed and today the collecting continues.. I love GIJOE cause its a cool toy primarily because of the articulation alone. The majority of characters are based on the filecards written by Larry H, I've seen some of the toons.. and tbh I see them as just entertainment and nothing more.[/FONT][/COLOR] :D

[Stormer]

I guess I was originally drawn to the line by the classic good vs evil aspect, with a varied cast of intriguing characters. What hooked me was probably the articulation and level of detail given to the figures.

My first Joe figure was Zartan v1, so I got a figure that was not only super-articulated but also had a colour-change feature, a pretty unusual vehicle and other accessories (a Jesus mask that could be stored in a backpack!) and box art, not to mention the filecard, giving a lot of depth to the character while maintaining an air of mystery... Of course I then needed some good guys for him to fight (or trick with his disguise...) and learning more about them to decide which ones to get just pulled me in even more!

The unique, specialised accessories each figure had added to the character of each of them, and the intricate vehicles added another level of play value. There just seemed to be an incredible level of thought and attention to detail which had gone into this toy line and even as a child I appreciated that. The variety within the line also helped, I think, in that they were able to incorporate aspects of all sorts of popular concepts - ninja, robots, mad scientists, clones...

And by the time Larry Hama's comics made their way into my hands I was well and truly engulfed in the GI Joe universe!

For me it's less a nostalgic thing since I never really stopped liking GI Joe; my approach has changed, sure -- I miss my childhood imagination and ability to play SO much -- but the franchise is something that has been important to me for the majority of my life and has enough depth that there's still plenty to keep my interest however I may grow and change.

[guiltridden]

Joes remind me of beinga kid,and it is relaxing to me to come home from a crappy day at work and snap a couple pics of some figures. I will never forget the first 6 joes my gram bought me they were having a bogo sale at Montgomery Ward I got Shipwreck, Flint, Lady J, Snake Eyes w/ timber, Ripper, and roadblock v. 2 Poor Ripper until I got some more cobras they used to beat the crap out of him.

[gung ho]

the reason i like my Gi Joes is cuz you make your own missions they don't have to follow any story lines and doesn't have to fight the same enemy over and over again (like power rangers) and they come with an awesome sellection of vehicles and plus i love taking pics of my GI Joes and vehicles esp since i live in the country and not in the city :D

[silentdusty]

My very first GI Joe toy, was the Adventure Team helicopter, my folks couldn't afford to buy the figure with it, so my mom who was handy with a sewing machine made me a twelve inch bearded stuffed Joe for it. I was hooked. When the 3 3/4" line came out in 82 it was much more affordable for my folks, so I ended up with a VAMP and a MOBAT for my first toys. After that I gradually built up a small collection.

It was always the military aspect for me, I was always into the military, I am in the military now. When the cartoon started, it brought the characters I had to life, I never read the comic until recently, and wow, did I miss alot. So here I am almost 35 years old, and still playing with Joes, wait till I'm 80, senile and back into the sandbox. :D