When I was in my twenties I accidentally, briefly met/befriended a .Com bro while partying on treasure island. Man those were good times and even better parties. Somehow while being mesmerized by a belly dancer that showed up for no reason I could tell (holy fuck she was a smoke show, a legit Dime! After this time, I’d see her at several other parties but that’s a different story) Anyway, you know how your mind will pick up on keywords? Well, a guy next to me out of nowhere said “something something GI Joe”. I turned and said, oh man I loved GI Joe! And thus a brief friendship was made.
The guy gets this this kinda sheepish, secretive, look and says. “You like G.I. Joe?” “Man I hella loves me some G.I. Joe!!” We start talking about GI Joe and late 80s/90s toys and turns out the guy didn’t have any of them. He’d grown up pretty rough. His parents couldn’t afford all those cool toys we were all bombarded by via relentless commercials between cartoons. Now my parents had some hard times but they had good times to so I had a decent though not crazy amount of hot wheels, transformers and Joes. After naming some characters vehicles and other toys I had long since loved and lost the guy says “Wanna see something kinda crazy?” Now when I was going to college in SF living in what I would later find out was a condemned building…. I learned that kind of phrasing could magically delicious turn bad real quick. I also learned that by virtue of my strength and size, I could generally work my way out of a bad situation and I can’t help my love for a story so I said “sure!” Turns out he lived next door and took me upstairs to a room with a coded lock on it. Yeah, I was like ohhhhh shit when I saw that mess. Well, after some hesitation he opens the door… guys… let me tell you! This dude had taken his newly found disposable income and started collecting all the toys he couldn’t afford as a kid!! All in back lit glass shelves and display cases! Dude had all the original small format Joe’s and vehicles with lots of duplicate cobra foot soldiers! Vehicles, the OG Transformers and then he leveled up with some stuff I’d only rarely even seen in person. OG robotech, voltron and assorted other Japanese cartoons stuff as well. I was blown away. Having all kinds of awesome flash backs to playing in my parents backyard or on the living room floor having imaginary adventures. Dude, It was like someone had found a lamp and wished for a genie to deliver only the coolest parts of the Toys R’ Us boy section. All in mint condition laid out before me.
My immense enthusiasm for his collection fully disarmed him, he felt weird for this pursuit. I couldn’t understand why! I was like this makes total sense! I mean if you can swing it why not man! I’d long since moved on from toys to cars but I couldn’t help being a bit jealous. What a great collection. From time to time I’d run into him on the island and we’d talk about his latest acquisitions. Dude managed to score the whole aircraft carrier in box never opened I was floored!! Sadly we lost touch and while I never got back into toys I recently, randomly came across what I guess is a re release from hasbro of the GI Joe F14, fuck I wanted one so bad! Luckily or sadly, it appears that I missed out on buying into the presale to get one but if it was still live… I’d absolutely have considered it.
So how about you guys? Is there any toy from your childhood that you held on to or would/have picked up given the chance?
Damn this sky striker re issue sure looks cool, I’m hella bummed I missed out on it!
James
The Lowered HMFIC
https://youtu.be/QxuOOkqjcXc
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