When I was about 17 or so, I loaned my entire ARAH collection, 1982-1990, to my little cousin. After a while, I decided to be charitable and tell him he could keep it. He was pretty excited and I'm sure he got a lot of play out of it, so I guess it was worth it.

Naturally, when I got into collecting toys a few decades later, I winced a bit. After searching through a few bins of my old toys, all I came up with was a Captain Gridiron helmet, one of Darklon's lower legs, and a few assorted missiles. I do still have the Joe HQ and my MOBAT, which I think were already in storage by the time I gave my Joes away.

I have since replaced a handful of my old favorites and picked up ME versions of a lot of the others, but I still kind of wish some of them were the Joes I had actually played with as a kid. Still, though, the hunt for the replacements has been fun, so I'm come to terms with it.

(Oh, I do still have one figure, who in some ways is one of the most important: my very first custom figure, Imp. Imp was the result of a horrific Cobra experiment in teleportation gone wrong. Horribly disfigured and driven mad by Cobra's nefarious experiments, Imp escaped and became a quixotic ally to the Joes with an uncanny knack of teleporting in to the rescue just when their backs were against the wall. I have since restored Imp to his former glory and I've been contemplating tracking down the parts to do a ME version as well!)

Good story, dude.
Good luck in putting together an updated version of Imp.
Post some before/after pics when you're done. :)

@Savage - This IS a really good thread, man.

Thank u I am supprised no one else started this topic lol

I've had more go MIA than i could think of.I've had over a 100 ARAH joes when i was a kid....i have none now.The creek and woods were my #1 killer.

Too bad!
 

100 M.I.A.s!? You were a bad General!
:D

@vadr 9900 - still got some to sell? i'd like to see what you got.

My entire collection was in an army ammo cache in my front yard (I know I was a Kid) and when I came back from school BAM!!! gone

I had to think on this a while, I know I've had figs disappear but I can usually track them back down where I left them. I can't think of one time I had a perminat MIA on my hands. My one exception might be when I was younger and some kid broke into my house and grabbed some random figs, but I was able to replace them in a few short years, so nothing terrible there.

Guns, that's a different story.

Just sold my last 4 last week. I now own 0.

My Zartan's v.1 laser pistol got pretty badly dismembered in a one time dispute with mom's vacuum cleaner.

Vac = 1, Pistol = 0.

My children are now 10 and 8. The following took place when they were 4 and 1ish. My v1 Zartan was out being played with by my older son, and he left him on the floor. My younger son must have found him.

He was found amputated just above the knee with no sign of the lower leg. Crotch also broken. (I really hope he didn't EAT the leg.) :eek:

Do not fret...I have a good v1 Zartan from eBay, but MY Zartan of MY youth suffered a terrible fate. I believe he now is permanently transforming into Tripwire through the right leg... lol I can laugh now, but not at the time.

And my sons are excellent with Joes right now...but they never remember to pick them up.