[tycondrius]

what Joe Means to me
well Before It was Joe to me It Was Action Force and I loved reading the stories in the comics as a kid and then acting them out with the figures and seeing what ways I could have the good guys win or the bad guys steal that last minute victory . I always love the sense of right you got from the cartoon and even the moral stories that were added on the end , heck as a kid the cartoons in the 80's were the best . since I knew back then it was done buy the same people who did transformers as I always saw Starscream in Cobra Commander back then ,as I grew older I lost out on my Joe collecting to other things . but Now I have the time for the Joes again and it was all thanks to the 25th line . it totaly rekindled My love for the Joe's and the Joe team

[Lazulu73]

My parents divorced when I was 3 years old. My mother remarried when I was 5. Two years later my brother was born and I officially became the middle child. I also became the "inconvenience" that my step-dad now had to deal with. My little brother was his world... and I was a clumsy little jerk. I remember one day we were at a ball game and my step-dad was feeding my little brother peanuts and I asked if I could have some and my step-dad's reply was for me to get my own d@mn peanuts. I hated that little brat!!! Then he got old enough to talk and enjoy toys. He started getting G.I. Joes by the dozens... and I got to play with them! All of a sudden, the little brat became useful. I used him to collect all the Joes I wanted and I/we amassed an amazing assortment of those crazy little dudes. We had the hovercraft, the hydrofoil, the crazy oil platform thing... we had almost everything besides the U.S.S Flagg and the Tomcat plane. Although I initially used my brother to get what I wanted, the Joes brought us together. Through play with those crazy military kooks, we bonded and formed a life long friendship that brothers should have. Now he is grown with four children as an ordained minister and I am a soldier in the Army with 18 years of service. We still talk with fondness about those little soldiers and we sometimes come up with hypothetical scenarios of who would beat who in a fight. And we still curse our parents for throwing them all away... but they can not throw away our bond. G.I. Joe brought my brother and I together... YO JOE!

[xhairs]

what joe means to me

summer days with my friends playing in the back yrd with big battles!!

getting up early to watch the cartoon.

now a way to make my joes look the way i see them in my head .

the 80s where great for kids. now the kids have no clue what is fun.

[Tweaksalot]

Gi Joe means to me. . . .

My girlfriends thinks im a born again 40 year old virgin. . . but just 25 instead

YO JOE!!

[Operator7G]

What GI Joe Means to Me . . . GI Joe represents my happiest childhood memories (except for the time my buddy got the last Alpine because he could pedal faster than I could but I digress) . . . trips to the ma and pop toy store where I got to be the first to pick through the new shipments fresh out of the case (If only I had been wise enough to get the full cases then not to mention the listen and fun Tripwire) . . . hours upon hours of creating epic battles in my bedroom and then "resetting" for the next time . . . getting to live in a world where the good guys won and evil was vanquished . . . simply put . . . when I was a kid the world of GI Joe was where I would go to be happy

[Doom Saber]

To me, Gi joe represents the battle between good and evil, as well as being in a country that symbolizes freedom. Being a person whos parents came to the US from Vietnam, I am proud of being an american and am thankful that such a country took in my family right after the war.

[zekeb2345]

What G.I Joe Means to Me
As a child, I recall all the horror stories of war from my father who fought in the Vietnam War. He never cared for the cartoons or the action figures. When G.I. Joe came out, he explained to me battles are not like what you see in cartoons and that good guys fall too. I never had many of the action figure toys growing up but my friends next door had everything including the U.S.S. Flagg. We spent so many summer days setting up battles between the Joes and Cobra outside and then having to bring it all back inside at the end of the day. Now that I look back at it, it's funny that we would bring this massive collection outside and put it back but ask us to clean our rooms?? Because of the cartoon series, the comic book series, and the action figures, these were my heroes. I enlisted in the Army back in 1991 and served during the Desert Shield/Desert Storm campaigns. I was awarded the National Defense Service Medal before a medical discharge due to an retina issue. Even though G.I. Joe was fictional, they gave me a great childhood experience that I will never forget and aided me in becoming the man I am today. Now, I have two sons of my own and I've explained to them that yes, good guys fall too but in the end good will always triumph over evil. We have all started collecting the 25th line which my collection is unopened while they get great enjoyment in their collections. Watching them play with their G.I. Joe toys brings me back to my childhood and the thoughts of playing outside and now I get to share that experience with them. Yes, I do get down on the ground with them and play. My wife would tell you I'm the biggest child out of all of them. I thank Hasbro for bringing back this lineup so people like me who didn't get the chance to have them get another opportunity and for us to also share with our sons and daughters who have an interest in them. Yo Joe!!!

[KamenDreda]

Hope this isn't too late. What GI Joe means to me... In all honesty the meaning that GI Joe olds for me goes much deeper than just some plastic collectables that I might one day be able to sell for money. Collecting GIJoe is a way for me to hold on to a peice of my childhood. When I was 7, 8, 9, 10 years old my parents spoiled me by getting me pretty much every GI Joe toy I ever wanted. My days were filled with battles in the back yard and fort building on the livingroom couch. It was so simle back then. No worries. No concerns other than how GI Joe was going to take down Cobra (and possibly why couldn't cobra ever win!). So GI Joe means to me never having to have to let go of the simpler times in life.

[GreyDwarf]

I look at my collection remembering my childhood and the fun with I had with toys. But why GI Joe, why was it my favorite as a child and why do I collect it now as opposed to other toys? The truth is that GI Joe has always been to me about somwehat normal people being heroes. I still get goose bumps when I hear the GI Joe theme song. Other toy lines were about "super powers", magic, or future tech, but GI Joe was about heroes being the best they can with technology that was somewhat true to realism (well at least up until about 87).

[zweiman]

i dint read anyones post so as not to copy anything.

what g'i' joe means to me is i get to become a kid again. i get the excitement of opening a new figure and putting all his accessories on and posing him in cool poses. i, as an adult collectoram able to get the things i couldnt have as a child. i stand and look at the display of toys i have and it instantly takes me back to my parents backyard with my childhood friends werethe valient g.i. joe forces fought the evil tyranny of cobra for hours. it is a connection to who i was as a kid and who i am today as an adult.

[Ray]

GI JOE means to me...
I spent my childhood in a place that had almost no toys (in Mexico), no brothers and a baby sister. My closest friends were my cousins and they lived 3 hours away. But I managed to get The upper torso, head and left arm of a Tomax figure. I grew up with that... er... figure playing with other SW toys but it was my favorite (It had more articulations!). When I was in High school, I met a friend who also liked GI JOE and he explained to me who my Tomax figure was. Kind of late but I tried to get as many as I could, but I was still trapped in a small town with no access to any Joes so I had to make some calls and finally found a guy selling used action figures in a flee market. he often brought pieces of GI Joes so I started buying my figure collection back in 1987. I managed to get many in great shape and some legs for y Tomax. I even ordered many Joes from Mail order stores, so many of them got lost in the mail and never arrived, but it was worth it. When Internet finally arrived, I completed my collection and I bought a new Tomax I still have my old Tomax, after many years, I put it all together from parts and the only thing missing now is its lower torso. I never really played with them, except for Tomax. But every figure has a history of its own.

[Rhanen]

In an age when being a child meant to be innocent, although aware of the world that surrounded you, in a much clearer, true nature comprenhesion between right & wrong of the world, G.I.Joe cartoon represented my dreams of righteous adventurer man I wished to be.

Raised in a very humble home in Argentina, in 1985, with national economics going down the pipe and my parents getting split, every week day at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, while drinking milk & coffe, I tuned my mom's Zenith B&W TV in Channel 9 and I was stuck there in front of the screen for an hour dazzled with the stories of a group of men & women fighting to save the day. And I was happy.
It was like having a daily epic proportions Stars Wars show in your living room, when VHS rent videos was quite a baby in diapers and DVD players were just Sci-Fi then.

In 1986 I used to assist my uncle in repairing refrigerators, and he paid me around 5 Australes (our National coin at the moment) every time I helped him with tools and carrying fridge motors. Whenever I saved 20, I asked a friend of mine to go with me to a toystore that used to sell Hasbro's G.I.Joes, which my friend looked childish since we were 10 year old boys already and his "favorite toy" was his Commodore 64, but then he was quite amazed as well with these wonderful toys. My first Joe was Bazooka, and with work sacrifice at young age, I managed to collect 12 figures (even though, I was not able to get Snake Eyes which was and still is my favorite).

Growing up gave me a different perpective of the world, but the foundations of the man that I'm right now relies in the experience of not being a spoiled child, and doing my best with sacrifice and hard work to achieve or obtain what I desired, and part of that is thanks to G.I.Joe.

[cureock]

G.I.Joe saved my life....I know it sound crazy to say but reading the new comics and becoming so involved with the characters opened a world that I had only dabbled in before. My love for comics (particularly G.I.Joe) got me a job at a store as a teenager way back in 1989. Life took a turn for the worst but G.I.Joe was always there; it opened a world of opportunity to me and was the the saving grace of my childhood. I will always remember moments of my childhood fondly because of the memories G.I.Joe comics, toys and cartoons provided me with.
Simply put I have a debt that can never be repaid to those responsible for the characters and stories that provided me with hope and enjoyment during my youth.

[colorsoner]

GI JOE means to me
child hood memories a time of innocence I grew up in a bad side of town aka " the wrong side of the tracks " i remember going on a family vacation to mexico because our apartments were getting broken into a lot , my old man decided to take a trip to try n get our minds off of it .Before our trip my parents stopped off at Mervins <----- they carried toys way back when ...anywho i get blowtorch and rock and rol , but i remeber looking back at that isle and seeing rows and rows of army figures whom i had never seen before ,and the card board artwork is what drove me to want them , it was eye catching , it was like as if they were action packed ..literally .....the pets , the guns, the vehicles the ninjas..oh yeah ...The whole trip to mexico i remeber not talking to my family and just being in my own little world at war , two men took down all enemies , that trip was a bust , but i got to realising something , inside me that i never knew i had . a wild vivd imagination , i created this world in my head and thats all i thought about . I wasnt allowed to go outside and it would upset me because in th ecommercials i would see kids playing in theyre backyards and what not being a part of the action and my moms would no allow that . So i went on to playing gijoes and everytime my parents would go to target or mervyns or kay b toys i made sure to ask for another figure , and in my heart i wanted to army build , like the cobras ,all in all gi joe gave kids imagination and bravery , the ability to see good in people .

This is why today i collect joes , not for greed and self fullfillment , but because i saw that look in my sons eyes when rah releases theyre first line of originals at toys r us back in 2000 i saw the potential ... because of gi joe i now work at high end tattoo shop , i paint murals and on the weekends take my son outside and play gijoe with him it , i made it out th eneighborhood alive and i gained alot of things from that , imagination , courage , motivation , and a drive thats out of this world ....on top of that a ton of memories , one who wich alot of us can agree on (the days of free rent) and a very innocent era, although our real world wasnt safe in the gijoe world it was a safe haven

[JayC]

Thanks to everyone who posted, there is some great responses here. As for the winner of the set of HOH figures, the name drawn was Rapitrone. Congrats to him and thanks for everyone who entered.

[Capt.S.G.Wiseman]

JayC, on May 25 2009, 09:02 PM, said:

Thanks to everyone who posted, there is some great responses here. As for the winner of the set of HOH figures, the name drawn was Rapitrone. Congrats to him and thanks for everyone who entered.

Congratulations Rapitrone!! Getting free G.I.Joes is always a good thing.

[The Thing]

Congrats, Rapitrone.

[asurmac]

Thanks guys! I'm really excited to have won this drawing. This is actually especially good for me because I was laid off two weeks ago, and I wouldn't have been able to get these guys otherwise.