Who was your VERY FIRST G.I.Joe?

[e-Viper]

Straight arm Breaker as well (What??? No gun?????? ). My brother got the VAMP earlier, and got Stalker on the day I got Breaker. Might as well have happened yesterday.

[Crimson Guard Jayhawk]

Zartan. I year before, a friend of mine was trying to convince me Joes were the greatest toys on the face of the Earth, but I was blinded by love for Return of the Jedi.

I remember Zartan sitting on the toy shelves and thinking a figure that comes with a mask, changed colors and had a "usable" backpack was just too cool. We were pretty poor so I kept going to the store for months (a Pamida in Nebraska) and looking the box over and over again. Finally, Christmas of '84 came and my brother gave him to me. As an aside, I also got the Watch Tower and Skyhawk, but I didn't get anymore Joes for almost 9 months. Zartan simply became part of Star Wars galaxy.

[the joe bandit]

My first ones were Clutch w/Vamp, Breaker, and Rock N Roll for my 7th birthday!

[bigjohnwoo]

Wild Bill w/Dragonfly. Got it for Christmas when I was 2 (!?) from a grandparent that woefully overestimated a toddler's dexterity. The chopper was destroyed immediately, but the figure survived. Still have it.

My second figure was Cross Country. I received the Havoc at a much more appropriate '5'.

[Jonas]

Straight-arm Short Fuse, followed immediately by Grand Slam w/ HAL. I think I still have pieces of each one somewhere in a bag full of broken toys.

[Big Iron]

Short Fuze and Clutch with the VAMP on the very same day.

I made the switch from Star Wars ESB THAT VERY DAY after playing with the two figures and the one vehicle for about six hours.

-- MWB

That's funny. The same thing happened to me, I got Short Fuze and the FLAK in Summer 82 and Star Wars was forgotten in a single afternoon. The rest of the orginal Joes were deployed on my Birthday a couple weeks later, with 2 of the figures defending the top of my cake.

[TYPE*S*TOYS]

Mine was a Dragonfly with Wild Bill in 1983.

[Arashikage_Tengu]

Duke and Cobra Commander w/helmet. Unfortunately, during the first day of play Cobra Commander's O-ring broke. Trying to figure out how to put him back together I stretched Duke to see how the torso, waist and legs were kept together. During this process his O-ring broke. Afraid my parents would get mad at me for breaking them I secretly hid them in deep in the garbage. I wish I knew now what I didn't know then.
The next two figures I had were Firefly and Mutt & Junkyard. I still have them to this very day.

[Spillspleen]

I got three at once...straight arm Stalker, Snake Eyes and Cobra Officer!

[Sergeant Duke]

My first figure was also Shipwreck. I got him right around this time 20 years ago...summer 1985. I was 8 years old. I got him at the TG & Y store right down the street from my parents house , the same location that I got my first Star Wars figure Han Hoth about 4 years before. I think my Dad influenced my decision to get Shipwreck because he was a Navy vet. I remember throwing him into a bath tub full of water not long after I got him...lol The water caused his rubber band to pop apart. He came out of the water in two pieces. My Dad decided to perform surgery on him. He took a regular rubber band..rolled it up and put it into Shipwreck. That same rubber band stayed in him right up until last year when I finally replaced it with a standard figure band.

Shipwreck was by himself for a while until I got Flint for my Birthday later on that November. I got more figures for Christmas...Dusty , Tele-Viper , Tomax , Xamot , Crankcase and Heavy Metal.


I was late getting into G.I. Joe. Star Wars ruled my world up until then. Two things finally got me into G.I. Joe...My friend who got Duke and Blowtorch for his birthday a year before and the Mass Device series which I'm pretty sure I was watching right around the time I got Shipwreck.