Steve's Thing of the Week #3 or so
J. Steven York
but this week, we're going to talk about things long ago made (and
possibly gone). Most of us started with Joes (or other 1/6th figures)
as kids, and in talking with people over the years, it seems that many
people had favorite accessories and uniform items that they have fond
memories of. So give us a short list (five - ten items) and maybe
something about why you loved them.
Here's mine (and keep in mind that I started out in painthead days,
back at the dawn of time):
Action Pilot Jumpsuit: The Action Pilot was my first Joe, and I played
that suit to death. Joe got buried alive in it, dropped in the mud,
and thrown out of trees more times than I could count. Later, my
Captain Action inherited this suit, after his tights developed a major
run and his metal chest symbol got all creased, and he went on to have
many more adventures in it.
Action Pilot Helmet: As I kid, I just never understood why this didn't
come with the Action Pilot, but then, I also didn't understand why he
didn't come with a plane. <g> The visor, the oxygen mask, it was
just cool, and to my childish eyes, very detailed and realistic. It
also broke almost immediately, but hey, in its moment, it was great.
Amber goggles: I loved those vintage style goggles, and this was the
best. Don't know WHY I loved them. I was kind of a sucker for
colored transparent parts, for some reason.
Ice axe: I lived in south Alabama. The only ice I saw was in the
fridge. But something about the look of this piece was just very
attractive to me.
AT Solar communicator: Why did I like this? The radar dish. The
little black connection hose. And those solar panels, which were
strictly state of the art in those days.
Ammo belt: I think this came with some Action Marine accessory set.
The FLAPS opened! What could be cooler than that?
Note the no guns made my list. I liked the GI Joe guns, but never had
much fun with them, I think because those vintage hands held them so
poorly.
J. Steven York - Writer Generation X Novels: Crossroads,
Genogoths - Bolo, Old Guard (Now in stores, from Baen Books)
Coming Sept. - Star Trek SCE, Enigma Ship
Michael Scott Norris
1. Vest and accesories for Super Joe - a drill, a big honkin' circular saw,
and other things plugged into the back of the vest where the battery was,
providing hours of fun, or at least till the battery died.
2. Atomic Man Secret Mountain outpost - tres cool!
3. a working parachute - my dad caught me trying to cut the oak tree in the
backyard down after an AT commander got stuck. For some reason seeking help
from an adult just didnt occur to me ;-D
4. Pursuit craft - its a car, its a boat its a plane, its strewn all over
the room after you drop it.
5. Fuzz head - my cat just loved to drag off one and groom its cheeks with
one. Hence the great cat hunts of 1/6 lore
Scott45
"J. Steven York" <j-stev...@sff.net> wrote in message
news:86difusuoviqpgair...@4ax.com...
J. Steven York
with mine, so I'll just take your word for it.
BTW, I was thinking more in terms of smaller items than accessories
and playsets with this one. If we let the answers get too broad, then
we have nothing to talk about next week. <G>
On Sat, 01 Jun 2002 22:20:26 GMT, "Michael Scott Norris"
<MNOR...@ec.rr.com> wrote:
>4. Pursuit craft - its a car, its a boat its a plane, its strewn all over
>the room after you drop it.
J. Steven York - Writer Generation X Novels: Crossroads,
aiwaloki
I called my favorite Joe, Scott. He was a painted black hair PH. He wore
the Joe denim jeans with an army jacket and carried his trusty .45 mm. My
fuzz head was a Land Adventurer, who I called Sgt. I had a few others in
the gang.
At the time I didn't understand why some Joes had painted hair, some fuzz or
even why some had muscular bodies. These were all left-overs from my
brother's days. The thing that always intrigued me were all these "60-70's
high tech" accessories and that the pants had real pockets.
Super Joe confused me even more because they were smaller. I remember the
night light figures that I wanted, but could never find. Darn those
commercials.
Jay
"J. Steven York" <j-stev...@sff.net> wrote in message
news:kknifu41134mk4pfu...@4ax.com...
HAROLD FOWLER
Really a nice story, J York:
I bought my first guy, Lt. W. T. Rice on the 10th of sept. 64.
The commercials had been out I'd say a month, maybe 5 weeks: I saved
every dime I had to buy this guy:($3.98) I remember I bought my guy
with my brother along, He never said anything like, Why didn't I
get one too?....We always bought our own toys, except for at christmas
time. I remember saying if he's' a good guy I'll help buy you your
guy!...Okay! I'd say a few weeks went by and I had help finance my
brothers blond hair guy. We called him Sgt Sanders from Combat. Frank
Sanders: He was a pin head, Garrison caps fit him so good, I could not
believe they had made our two guys so different: My guy was a dark
brown haired guy: I had to buy the Buddy sets, that had a softer more
pliable cap to fit my guy when we put our guys in their dress blues,
They fit really well and even looked better then the Hasbro caps. My
best friend had bought his guy a dark brown like mine, I think about a
day after I bought my guy: At that time there were more Soldier, and
Marine guys in the store then Navy n Pilots. We all had army guys.
Peters' my brothers being the second shipment, His guy had no pockets
on his shirt, not like mine and my friends'.
At Christmas Peter got another guy buddy Charlie, And a
footlocker, I was nine and my dad thought that I was way too old for
toys, and dolls, was a really bad thing, My dad was so ashamed to have
a son my age with dolls:What I got for christmas in the toy department
was from my brother an my friend:
Buddy Charlie was not a well made Toy, I could see from the
start that he would not hold up to play: I never liked his hands, and
his wrists' were way to soft a plastic to hold up to the stress from
bending: We killed him off in I'd say four months,And we took care of
our guys, if we broke something we had to replace it ourselves,
Frank Sanders was killed in a VC Am -bush, Blue, our dog
chewed his head up: My brother never even cried, he just said what do I
do now?.......Well I told you I can't watch after everything you have, I
told you to keep Sanders off the floor when we're not playing
maneuvers!.......Now we have to get you another guy!....
I had another friend from school who had said he had a Joe, I
use to go over to his house and talk Civil War, and I asked him if he'd
take two dollars and 50c for his guy? Sure enough.....Here comes Sgt.
Tibbs, from 101 Dalmations: Thats where we got his name:My brothers'
new guy: 66 we had gotten our first news letter from the G I Joe Club,
and soon after we bought the Commando, me and the Aussie my brother;
Like I said I didn't like my guy much and took him down the street to a
competitor toy store and the clerk just traded figures. No big deal: My
second guy was and is a blond, Peters Aussie was and is a red head:
We got our year book in 67. I just had to have the West Point,
and the Annapolis Cadet uniforms. I bought them at the old White Front
Stores: They were like a K-Mart, Or a Gemco, an Wal-Mart could be put
in the same categories as department stores:
Sorry I talk to much
Hal #0053
R. Talsorian Games
j-stev...@sff.net wrote on 6/1/02 1:56 PM:
> Well, until now, "thing of the week" has been about things unproduced,
> but this week, we're going to talk about things long ago made (and
> possibly gone). Most of us started with Joes (or other 1/6th figures)
> as kids, and in talking with people over the years, it seems that many
> people had favorite accessories and uniform items that they have fond
> memories of. So give us a short list (five - ten items) and maybe
> something about why you loved them.
Hokay. Well, I COULD say my original four Joes--but as luck has it, I still
have them (Whew). But if I could resurrect things out of the past, they
would be:
1) MIGHTY MOE CANNON. Sure, it wasn't Joe. But this large (2 foot) metal
and plastic cannon fired plastic cannon balls! I had an entire squad of Joes
who served as it's gun crew, hurling long range (10 feet) death on Stinky
Hollands hapless SOTW Germans.
2) Red Sears Sea Sled (with diver). So there I am with this high speed
diving boat o' doom, and I'm living in an apartment in New York City, miles
from any lake. Finally took it down to the pool and cut it loose--it dove
to the ten foot bottom level and I don't recall ever getting it back.
3) Panther Jet. Sure I have a repro now, but my original one made NOISE!!!
4) Barbie Corvette. Before you gag, recall that this was 1965 and ROUTE 66
was the top rated show back then. So, if you have a brown haired Joe and a
blonde one, one naturally gets names Todd, the other Buzz (was that Maharis'
name in the show?), and after you get out of the Army, you travel all over
1:6th scale America saving people, hitting on Barbies and thugging on Ken.
max mike
Richard Lewis
Got mine that year they came out in the Mummy's Tomb set and
eventually traded for two more scrapped ones from folks around the
neighborhood.
First modification was to add a cage over the back made from half of a
plastic strawberry box painted with black Testor's. Don't laugh....it
fit so well it looked like a factory original!
Second mod was to take one of the trashed ones (had been stepped on by
an adult) and scratchbuilt a new top section (plastic jewelry box sat
down into it with some plastic scrap trim around the edges) to turn it
into a cargo trailor for my ATV. Added a full strawberry box cage for
it (opened on both ends of course) and it matched mine....again,
looked factory original and gave Joe so much more room to haul stuff!
Next project was to take the third one (missing the two front wheels)
and added a lot of scrap plastic and a clear section from a box of
hair curlers mom was tossing out and made a mini space vehicle out of
it. The engines in back were made from two scrapped flashlight
reflectors.
That same ATV became a mini sub later on with the addition of a few
empty CO2 "oxygen tanks", a couple of cheapo toy propellors and a
heavily modified Micronauts "spear gun" mounted on the side.
I had my first experience with melt marks when I dug that out of a box
in the closet and found Joe's wetsuit covered butt had become stuck to
the seat.
ral
Astro Dan
Some of my favorites were:
.30 caliber machine gun - I always thought it was a .50 for some reason?
Many hours were spent building pillboxes out of shoeboxes or nests with lots
of sandbags. It must have been well hidden, it got stepped on many times.
One of the tripod legs was broken, glue never would hold, it was held
together with masking tape. The barrel was split right down the seem line.
I guess I needed the heavy weapons metal version back then. It was the one
weapon that Joe's vintage hands could actually grip. And you could pose him
in a prone firing position because of the great neck articulation.
M-1 rifle with a bayonet - It was fun while it lasted. Ended up with a lot
of stubby rifles without barrels and lost bayonets. It was always exciting
to get to occasionally get a new one.
Backpack with all the gear - I always tried to follow the pictures in the
manuals. I remember being thrilled when I finally had all the pieces to put
one together: backpack, tent, bedroll, and entrenching tool. I wonder if
that's what started me on my collecting/completionist habits?
Favorite uniform had to be the AT White Tiger Hunt. For some reason I
thought the ammo clip on the jacket looked cool?! And of course, the Aussie
hat was perfect for a big game safari.
-Daniel
Tom M.
<j-stev...@sff.net> wrote:
>Well, until now, "thing of the week" has been about things unproduced,
>but this week, we're going to talk about things long ago made (and
>possibly gone). Most of us started with Joes (or other 1/6th figures)
>as kids, and in talking with people over the years, it seems that many
>people had favorite accessories and uniform items that they have fond
>memories of. So give us a short list (five - ten items) and maybe
>something about why you loved them.
1) Mike Hazard's accessories. The latex mask & wig, the eyeglasses
w/beard, the trench coat with hidden pockets, the bullet-proof vest
(at least I *think* these all came with Mike), etc. Great fun -- and
they could even be used on Joes (more or less).
2) Mike Hazard accessory set! There were too many items to list here.
Exploading (cap) bag, radio that turned into a gun, sonic listening
device (also used as experimental power drainer <g>), and many more.
3) Captain Action's Captain America costume. This ended up on a Joe
due to CA loosing his mobility. As someone else mentioned, the boots
had to be slit in the back, but everything else fit. Man, if I'd only
had a Spidey costume, I would have been in heaven... <g>
4) York mentioned the Action Pilot outfit. I may be confusing stuff,
but I had a costume almost identical the the Scramble Pilot (zip up
front, etc.) that I used as an "indestructo suit" (think Iron Man).
Also used the helmet (York mentioned) with green visor (which broke
off) and O2 mask. This was a neat accessory with the exception of the
design used to keep it on Joe's head (the little rubber foam piece
didn't really provide a proper fit).
5) Joe's flare gun. Don't remember which set this came from, but it
became my weapon of choice for Joe. Maybe due to the fact that Joe
could hold it better than the other weapons... Dunno...
Tom M.
J. Steven York
wrote:
>.30 caliber machine gun - I always thought it was a .50 for some reason?
>Many hours were spent building pillboxes out of shoeboxes or nests with lots
>of sandbags. It must have been well hidden, it got stepped on many times.
>One of the tripod legs was broken, glue never would hold, it was held
>together with masking tape. The barrel was split right down the seem line.
>I guess I needed the heavy weapons metal version back then. It was the one
>weapon that Joe's vintage hands could actually grip. And you could pose him
>in a prone firing position because of the great neck articulation.
I had one of these. In fact, I still have the gun itself. The tripod
(which was the part I really loved) broke fairly quickly. I've been a
sucker for anything with a folding tripod since. I think that's why I
like the 21st TOW launcher so much.
>
>M-1 rifle with a bayonet - It was fun while it lasted. Ended up with a lot
>of stubby rifles without barrels and lost bayonets. It was always exciting
>to get to occasionally get a new one.
Happened to all mine too. <g>
J. Steven York
M.) wrote:
>1) Mike Hazard's accessories. The latex mask & wig, the eyeglasses
>w/beard, the trench coat with hidden pockets, the bullet-proof vest
>(at least I *think* these all came with Mike), etc. Great fun -- and
>they could even be used on Joes (more or less).
>
>2) Mike Hazard accessory set! There were too many items to list here.
>Exploading (cap) bag, radio that turned into a gun, sonic listening
>device (also used as experimental power drainer <g>), and many more.
>
Yup, those were all Mike Hazzard. I thought about listing some of
those, but it was so hard to narrow down. I still have the mask here,
a little stained, but pretty much intact. It's the last of my MH
stuff. All my Joes and my Captain Action used Mike's gear regularly.
Mike's pistols actually got used too, because he could hold them
properly in those wonderfully sculpted hands.
The trench-coat got used a lot, the vest, and some of his other gear.
I never had the Captain Action Green Hornet outfit, but I loved the
short-lived TV show, and really the Green Hornet was my first kitbash.
He wore the Mike Hazzard trenchcoat and hat, with the Captain Action
Batman mask. The pistol-grip listening device, minus the reflector,
became his "sonic sting." Sure, there was not a green thing on him,
but otherwise, he wasn't too bad. <g>
>3) Captain Action's Captain America costume. This ended up on a Joe
>due to CA loosing his mobility. As someone else mentioned, the boots
>had to be slit in the back, but everything else fit. Man, if I'd only
>had a Spidey costume, I would have been in heaven... <g>
I don't think I was much into Marvel characters at that point in time.
I had the Batman set, and would have loved to have Superman and
Superboy. Other than that, I think I lusted after Flash Gordon. Now,
of course, I'd kill to have the Spiderman or Captain American sets,
but I know better. <G>
Michael Scott Norris
http://www.gamesandbeyond.com/ca/2gfx.html
http://www.homestead.com/classicplastick/index.html
Kinda expensive, which is why I havent ordered anything yet.
Scott45
"J. Steven York" <j-stev...@sff.net> wrote in message
news:fnskfu0kgub6hnejs...@4ax.com...
J. Steven York
Dr. Doom is pretty cool though... <g>
Astro Dan
>
> I had one of these. In fact, I still have the gun itself. The tripod
> (which was the part I really loved) broke fairly quickly. I've been a
> sucker for anything with a folding tripod since. I think that's why I
> like the 21st TOW launcher so much.
I hear ya'. I think I have one of every .30 / .50 / air-cooled /
water-cooled / grenade launcher / TOW - basically anything on a tripod -
made by Hasbro or 21C recently. They are all lined up on a single shelf
with ammo belts and crates. Has nothing to do with my current collection of
pilots, astronauts, and modern AT, but I just think they look cool! And it
all stems from that original .30 machine gun and tripod.
-Daniel
Tom M.
<j-stev...@sff.net> wrote:
>On Sun, 02 Jun 2002 19:14:14 GMT, obea...@hotSpamSucksmail.com (Tom
>M.) wrote:
>>2) Mike Hazard accessory set! There were too many items to list here.
>>Exploading (cap) bag, radio that turned into a gun, sonic listening
>>device (also used as experimental power drainer <g>), and many more.
>>
>Yup, those were all Mike Hazzard. I thought about listing some of
>those, but it was so hard to narrow down. I still have the mask here,
>a little stained, but pretty much intact. It's the last of my MH
>stuff. All my Joes and my Captain Action used Mike's gear regularly.
>Mike's pistols actually got used too, because he could hold them
>properly in those wonderfully sculpted hands.
I still have about 95% of my Mike & accessory set.
>The trench-coat got used a lot, the vest, and some of his other gear.
>I never had the Captain Action Green Hornet outfit, but I loved the
>short-lived TV show, and really the Green Hornet was my first kitbash.
>He wore the Mike Hazzard trenchcoat and hat, with the Captain Action
I forgot about the hat. That built-in recording device allowed Mike to
perform 'mind control' under certain circumstances. <g>
>Batman mask. The pistol-grip listening device, minus the reflector,
>became his "sonic sting." Sure, there was not a green thing on him,
>but otherwise, he wasn't too bad. <g>
Amazing what a kid's mind can do in the imagination department. <g>
>I don't think I was much into Marvel characters at that point in time.
>I had the Batman set, and would have loved to have Superman and
>Superboy. Other than that, I think I lusted after Flash Gordon. Now,
>of course, I'd kill to have the Spiderman or Captain American sets,
>but I know better. <G>
I was (am) into Marvel stuff. Still have all my old Marvel comics.
My DCs -- which I left at my mom's house when I left home -- were
later (around 1990) 'borrowed' by my niece to be given to her
boyfriend. Wish I had kept them with my Marvels...
Tom M.
Tom M.
<MNOR...@ec.rr.com> wrote:
>Speaking of CA have you seen these two sites?
>
>http://www.gamesandbeyond.com/ca/2gfx.html
>
>http://www.homestead.com/classicplastick/index.html
>
>
>Kinda expensive, which is why I havent ordered anything yet.
Neat links! I'm with York on the copyright thing. I wonder if this
outfit has actually _delivered_ anything (or is it like Angor)?
Tom M.
Tom M.
<MNOR...@ec.rr.com> wrote:
>Speaking of CA have you seen these two sites?
>
>http://www.gamesandbeyond.com/ca/2gfx.html
>
>http://www.homestead.com/classicplastick/index.html
>
>
>Kinda expensive, which is why I havent ordered anything yet.
Neat links! I'm with York on the copyright thing. I wonder if this
Dan Johnson
say hello in.
First Joe was for my 4th Birthday, April 1964. Broke his hand the first
day trying to make him fly. Dad fixed it with some wire. Joe's still
alive and kicking, in fact is stands next to my computer in 101st gear.
He was originally a Marine. The guys in the neighborhood all had marines
and we had a certain way they HAD to be, or they weren't good enough.
Black boots with the pants pulled over the tops. This meant we all had
USAF Joes too so we could use the boots,but they never quite matched up to
the Marine Joes. Everyone had to have carbines with the banana clips as
well as the belt with canteen and the camo helmet. If you really got
things right you had a knife strapped around the top of one boot too.
Even though they always carried guns, I don't know that we ever really
shot anything. It was more adventures in the yard, or until we got in
trouble, one kids mom's garden.
Scary to think Joe turned 38 this year.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane
Dan
J. Steven York
story.
J. Steven York - Bolo, Old Guard (Now available from Baen Books)
Coming July - Bolo, Cold Steel, Coming Sept. - Star Trek SCE, Enigma Ship
R. Talsorian Games
recover was the 1960's Barbie Corvette. Damned if the NEXT DAY one showed up
on Ebay. I snagged it as a surprise for the First Four Joes, who used to
drive one back in 1965. One amusing note--I didn't know at the time that it
was made by Irwin toys, the same guys who did all the blow molded Joe
vehicles!
mm