Nostalgia Trippin'

Only one child in that photo got a G.I. Joe from Santa on break-up  day. The rest had a festive season of 100% suck. Look at skater-kid-on-the-left's unashamed envy. Yeah he's smiling. But inside he wishes he was clutching that 1989 Stalker and his oh so epic included kayak. That figure was a ton of bang for your buck. Oh, and you guessed it, that lucky bugger in the middle holding it is me. Girl to the right can't stand it. 

Yes, Christmas of '89 was to be a good one. Got that sweet Stalker in the buildup, and Snake-Eyes on the big day. I didn't know it then, but I now know all too well how fitting it was to have those two figures united. Original team members, Vietnam buddies, essential core characters. But it was not meant to be. Tragically Stalker perished in the perilous jungles of the front yard, shredded to bits by a ferocious giant lawnmower attack. Snake-Eyes went the way of any sought-after, highly prized toy. Somebody nicked it. Children are ruthless. 

Flash forward to 2003, something new and exciting was happening in the world of G.I. Joe. Two new and exciting things in fact. You could order them from Amazon. Well, not if you were South African- for some reason Amazon wouldn't ship toys internationally at that stage, so an American friend of the fam sent the box on. The other new and exciting thing was NEW JOES! The new era of Joe sculpting and articulation had landed. My friends and I rejoiced...

...for a little while. It soon became evident that the new-sculpt era of Joes were a little more durable but horribly inferior to the old skool toys in every other way. Yuck. But it didn't stop us from celebrating the arrival of new toys. And bonus! My brother found a DVD of the '87 G.I. Joe animated movie. You can spot it in the bubble envelope on the bed, top left corner. I hadn't seen it since I was the age I was in the top two pics, and my buddies Al and Rob had never seen it. COBRALALALALALALALAAAA!
 

These were the offenders, left to right: Flint versus Baroness; Blowtorch versus Snow Serpent; Beachhead versus Dr. Mindbender; Duke versus Cobra Commander; Stalker versus Zartan.
It was a groundbreaking buy at the time. Up until then, I never had a Baroness, Blowtorch, Snow Serpent, Beach, Mindbender or Zartan. Much needed hole-filling. And I had some fun with them, before finally realizing that they were very much the ugly duckling of the Joe line and making them 'disappear'.