Memories of Backyard Battles

[majik40]

I was in the discussion section of the collector club today and noticed that someone was asking who are "non-popular" favorite characters were and that got me to thinking about when my best friend & I would play with our Joes growing up. We always seemed to have certain characters that always had to be in our teams of 10-12 regardless of where we were playing. For me I always had to have for the Joes: Backblast, Beachhead, Bullhorn, Cap. Grid-Iron, Leatherneck, Pathfinder, Rock n' Roll, Salvo, Shockwave, & Spearhead. For Cobra I always had: Copperhead, Destro, Firefly, Frag-Viper, Gnawgahyde, HEAT-Viper, Incinerator, Metal-Head, Techno-Viper, & Zanzibar. The last 2 spots usually rotated for both teams.

 

Anyone else care to share their childhood go-to teams?

[CaptainPowerWasher]

I didn't really like to form teams.I liked putting individual Joes on solo missions.Eventually that Joe would need to be rescued and Outback would always head my search party,along with Law and Order and Repeater.

[I AM SCI-FI]

I still have flashbacks from the Backyard Wars. Man, the things I saw.

 

I just used as many jungle camo Joes as I could against the forces of Cobra, in general.

[Dark Horse]

I just used to have Storm Shadow take on Cobra in a ninja stealth mission. Must have payed that same game every night. I'd put on Street Fighter music on, Storm Shadow would glide onto the Cobra base (a wardrobe). I'd have all the Cobras set up on guard duty. SS would just pretty much dash through them killing them all and stealing the secret plans. The Cobras that didn't die by sword/ arrow/ shuriken/ nerve strike etc fell to their deaths from the wardrobe haha.

 

Man, good times!

[Crimson Twins]

I used to play out a Snake Eyes death scene over and over. Helplessly outnumbered, way out gunned, and the other two members of his team already dead, Snakes would go on a rampage taking out as many Cobra as he could before finally giving in to his wounds. Then I had to send in a rescue party to recover the dead Joes bodies. Usually it was Outback, Salvo and Backblast. I would give them other weapons though. Usually one of them died on that mission too before getting away in the Mean Dog's front vehicle.

 

The Joes didn't win many battles back then. I've always been somewhat of a Cobra sympathizer.

[CX1]

Favorite team I would make was Flint, Falcon, Tunnelrat & Beachead. They were my kick everyones ass team. Whether it be against Cobra, Transformers or He-Man. I have those old figures saved and got my new version figures (except Falcon @grumpy@ ) ready to go.

 

For solo missions me and Dark Horse have a similar story.

[averagejoe]

i didnt have a usual line up of corse snake eyes and storm shadow were played with a lot and zartan and his brother and sister.the most i play with are any gijoe that had to do with water like wet-suit and eels cutter i loved the boats and all the water themed joes and had a place right after it rained and the were big puddles around were i lived on days their weren't i digged holes and fill them with water man those were the days.

[xhairs]

those where the best days as a kid me and my friends would get all of our joe together and have huge battles it was great.

[GuitarDevil]

My very first Joe Connection was Grunt it was the only Joe my cousin had, he lived out past nowhere in the middle of nowhere. He set into motion what would be come one of my favorite interests in this life, I thought we were poor growing up buttt he had nothing, but I had to wonder a lil as he was the first person to ever show me how to tie an M-80 onto a Cobra trooper light it, throw it & run for our lives......(he would also do anthills, as there's literally nothing to do out in the middle of nowhere)...after blowing up Cobra, Grunt was the only Joe he had left, maybe some plastic green army guys who eventually I inherited that summer along with Grunt (very Keewwl) so Grunt pushed around the plastic maggots & I usually invented imaginary bad guys.....few years later, I awoke on a bright Sat. morning, w my older brother running into my room screaming I got you a whole lotta kewlll $hiii Q! For 10 (which was alot of chore money for us) bux he snagged up (used mind you) Cobra rattler, Skystriker, Cobra Stinger, ASP!, Armadillo, Sharc, Megatron (with his 26 other parts), Optimus w/trailer & roller & other TFs & Joes!! Airtight, Blowtorch, Snake Eyes, Stalker, Deep Six, Torpedo, Spirit, Alpine & for the Cobras, CC, Storm Shadow, Zartan, Baroness( eeew a girl), Major Bludd, Wild Weasel, Scrap Iron (he still had his missle launcher intact!) Firefly(he was SS's secret twin in my Joe-verse but no one knew) & 2 cobra regs.......my mind has been blown ever since then sooo I guess that's why to date I'm still a few beers off......most of the fellas still had their weapons and my line up was of course SnakeE(I was a big Bruce Lee fan so I loved Kaaraateh & ninjas so sue me) Airtight (his mask made him default ninja) Stalker(he was SE old army pal, like a wartime Starsky/Hutch) Torpedo(Masked man complex) & lastly Spirit(I never saw that many minority heroes back then sooo he was 2nd in command, plus Freedom! having your own eagle was monnee)....the rest of mahh joes were the ones who got caught, shot, interrogated, down behind enemy lines, tortured (I would use plastic container using water as an acid bath or use my ma's yarn tie them up), usually team SE's hadda sneak in or go in gunz blazin to get their comrades back, CC would die first usually ninja blade thru his black heart, SE vs SS&Firefly (FF would die first then SS would turn up the heat get his a$$ handed to him & get away) the rest of the cobras would die horrible deaths cept Baroness cause she was girl she would geta pass (sometimes). I would dig holes in the backyard line them with plastic wrap (a trick my brother taught me) fill it up creating a quick sand pit where unfortunate joes and cobras would meet their demise.....I wuz such a dumba$$ I would loose guys in there including some of my old star wars guys & my moms would say thats it no more figs, I used anything as bases, old boxes, stereo styrofoam toss offs, laundry basket prisons, rolled up blankets for walls, old paper towel tubes for tunnels. I even used to cut up milk cartons. I think Cobra won only one maybe 2 times with SE taken hostage, all the joes dead and Spirit getting away vowing to come back for him...haha....I used to make zip lines (cool trick a friend taught me) I would use toothpicks for handles, & I used sewing needles & tossed out mixed drink parisols/little swords for weapons. I was a weirdo as a kid so I played alone mostly but a few times (my older Bro outgrew toys at a young age, he mostly preferred sports & reading so he thought my toyz & time spent with em wuz stoopid) a neighbor next door would bring over his He-men and TF's & toss them in the mix...When we moved to a new school I got new buds finally buttt I grew up in a poor town, soo when ever we would have battles other kids would show up with their one guy with broken arms or missing head (not that I took great care of mah guys but I would never break em on purpose) & no weapons. Soo eventually I would loose Joes & awesome weapons where they would get up & walk away w/other kids or my moms would sell my stuff at her garage sales!! All you Parents/Future Parents out there, spare your kids the horror, there's nothing more damaging than watching strangers & neighbors goin thru your best $hii for mere pennies & quarters, man I had alot of fun looking for new bases down by the creeks or in old trees, one of my besties had divorced folks so he raked in the joes, so I would drool over his collection, he had the Morray, Triple T, Nightraven, and whole list of others but other kids in our area would steal his shiii too, oh well alls fair in imaginary plastic men & robots......I think the greatest loss for me was when one of my best friends (who I later found out, stole stuff from me on the regular) took my Storm Shadow, that was heartbreaking let me tells ya, but new kids would move in an out & leave stuff behind, I inherited a Cobra Claw & a Water Moccasin!!! But friendships would break and start over on who won/lost those battles haha, telling somebody you shot down their rattler with just a Joe rifle was like trying to convince an old GF not to leave you, nothing but shouting, lies & sometimes tears cause they were stoopid, "I totally got you! NO you din't, no that gun would never do that", "it happens in the cartoon all the time" "it missed, you suck, I'm goin home".....and taking my toyz with me.....haha........goot times my friends great times so long ago in those lost summers while the world went by w/out a care.......Yo Joe fellas

@pun@

[CX1]

@lol@

 

I normally don't read long responses, but yours seem to get my attention since I started posting here.

 

I can relate to the kids taking your stuff. I had a uncle who was younger than me (grampa remarried and started a new liter) and did that crap with me.

 

Thank goodness for internets! Now we can be playing with our figs and take pics and post them online. And call them "action pose pics". Tell our spouses "I'm not playing, I'm posting pics!" When in reality it just an excuse to recreate these fun scenarios.

[Crimson Twins]

Shhh. Don't let the secret out of the bag. As far as my wife knows, I haven't played with toys since I was 12. This is just collecting and dio story stuff that I do now. @hmmm@

[punishment-101]

I didn't have backyard battles so much as bedroom battles, I just pretended the carpet was a jungle, taking my toys outside was a no-no ever since

I lost the TRU exclusive Alley Viper that came with the RAGE tank. I lost a number of those little green army men too so the Joes stayed safely inside.

 

Beachhead was always on my teams and ever since I got their original figures, Recoil, Salvo, Rampart, and Bullhorn became big favorites. Snake Eyes would always make appearances and Cover Girl and Scarlett would as well. I'd always go through multiple battles during a play session, any good guys that died would stay dead throughout the war and of course the bad guys would end up being resurrected so they could die again. I particularly enjoyed using a couple of old LEGO technic figures as cannon fodder that get blasted apart, since they could be completely disassembled they made excellent "gore" as body parts on the battlefield.

In hindsight I might be a little disturbed. @firedevil@