How did you start collecting joes? I'll post why I did tomorrow I' so tired.

Back in 1982 when the now vintage line came out with the original 11 members plus the two cobras (CC and Cobra Officer) all with the STRAIGHT ARMs! I persuaded my Grandfather to get me two of them on my birthday (I was 12).
Those two originals were Breaker and Rock and Roll - I've had a soft spot for Kibbey and McConnell ever since. (No I don't like the ROC Breaker - he's not Alvin Kibbey!). After that I was hooked and GI Joe was an obsession of mine through the years until I entered the Army in 1989. Time, occupation and peers tended to quiet my collecting activity after that. I continued to collect the comic until its cancellation in the mid-ninties.
In '97 I noticed the TRU exclusives and when the Spy-troops hit in the early 2000's I started picking up a few here and there - much to the anger of my wife. I'm not the collector I was in the early days. I don't collect everything and my interest is tempered by the adult responsibilities I now carry (Food, rent, gas, etc.), but this year I had the best birthday I've had in years (I'm 40 for those slow on the math), as my hobbies have become more limited by life, children and my job, my wife asked me what I wanted for my b'day. I told her GI Joes. I got Terminator figs, Star Wars vehicles and 20th Anni and ROC vehicles (Pics and reviews to come). I feel like that 12 year old all those many years ago...its really nice.

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Started when I was 5. My very first figure was straight-arm Breaker and my brother had straight-arm Snake Eyes. Over time the collection grew until 7th grade when my mom made us give them all to her friend's kid, because we were "too old". I bought a few every now and then, but always gave them away as I got older. Then the TRU Cobra Infantry Forces 6-pack hit and I was, once again, hooked.

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MY FLICKR PAGE......

I was 10 when they came out and I always watched the cartoon so I had both GI JOE and star wars collections going. I didn't have many vehicles as I came from a big family (4 boys,1 girl including me)I did get most of the figs while they were my top things to play with.I had a huge back yard and trees surrounding it.I wish I lived there now cause that would be dio paradaise.

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My Collections

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22356329@N03/sets/

I was 10 or so too. Got a whole slew of them for X-mas 1982 as well as an oversized #1. Just got stuck on that. But I was also at the age where Star Wars just wasn't working for me. The lack of elbow and knee joints really turned me off. As well as their crappy crotch and they couldn't swivel at the waist. Yeah, even at that age, I wanted more out of a toy. So GI Joe had everything I could want. Then swivel came out AND they had good vehicles!

I still like the military aspect of Joes which is why I try to cater to the more... 'realistic' stuff. And for the funny stuff, I try to justify it since Cobra is kinda weird BUT I try not to go too outlandish. That's right, I'm picking on YOU Coil Crusher, you waste of plastic!!!

Being a little older I started off as a kid with the 12" Adventure Team figures and vehicles (the Secret of the Mummy's Tomb was my favourite set) which I enjoyed for years. But then as I got a little older like alot of people I chucked 'em all out (idiot!). Then one day in '87 I walked into K-Mart and saw the new smaller Joes (that was when they first came out here) and bought a couple for old times sake - and was instantly hooked. Then I found my first comic (Special Missions #1 - still a great read!) and got hooked on that. The cartoon only showed sporadically here so I never saw much of that. A small fortune and many years later and I still love my Joes!

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"The future's uncertain and the end is always near." - The Doors "Roadhouse Blues".

I am with you Craig. The 12" AT guys is what I grew up with. Mummy's Tomb was awesome, I wish I still had my 6 wheeled ATV. I still love the 12" guys with all their gear. I still remember throwing my Land Adventurer off the top of the barn with the red & white parachute pack, it made me so mad because it never worked.

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Back in 82-83 I’d been watching the GI Joe ads on TV and thought they were the coolest thing ever, but my parents wouldn’t buy me any because my mother didn’t want me playing with guns. (Yet there were real guns and ammo in the house I could get my hands on at any time.) So while on vacation in New Hampshire I went and bought the VAMP and swivel-arm Clutch myself. When she seen it didn’t turn me into a mass murderer, my parents always got me Joes for birthdays and Christmas. I discovered the Marvel comics a little while later and that sparked my imagination and solidified my interest in GI Joe. (Never watched the cartoon.) I had a few other odd toys but GI Joe and Lego were the only ones I had any real interest in. In my early teens I boxed up my toys and put them in the attic trying to act grown up, but now I’m grown up and wishing I was a kid again. Yo Joe!

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My JoeDios photos | Flickr