Creator of "G.I. Joe" Action Figure Passes Away at 86

[swamprat69er]

When we played cowboys and indians we made our 'guns' out of tree branches. The snowball fights were a lot more fun.

[August]

We went from stick guns and GI Joes to crab apple fights.

Campaign season for crab apple warfare was in the late summer and fall when ammunition was plentiful. Our historical enemy was the kids who lived at the other end of Biscayne St. Every year solemn delegations from the two ends would meet at "Dead Mans Hill", a steep dip halfway up the street which was the accepted neighborhood border, and like ancient armies of old arrange a date and location of the great battle.

Ammo caches would be deployed and complicated tactical plans would be worked out but it always seemed to turn out to two lines of kids on the opposite edges of someones back yard pelting each other with crab apples (rocks were banned by mutual agreement) non stop until one side or the other ran out of ammo or got called in for supper.

Interestingly these annual battles did create an arms race of sorts. Garbage can lid shields were the first major improvement and soon everyone had them, the now cover-less garbage cans a boon for the local raccoon population. Forts were tried but found to be nothing more than traps for the defenders who were soon forced to make a running break though a hail of apple fire. Slingshots and wrist rockets were eventually introduced and became the standard.

Secret weapons were also developed like the bicycle lance made from a sharpened broom or mop handle. Six kids riding down the street in line abreast with those things tucked under their arms made an awesome sight. That one however the adults put a stop to pretty quick when one of the neighbors car radiators got speared during a practice run. Then there was the Bee Bomb. A mayonnaise jar full of captured bees and hornets that would be hurled at the feet of the enemy. Didn't work so well in the fields and woods we normally battled in.

It reached it's peak however with the BB gun. Suddenly things got real. Jimmy Burns had to go to the doctors to get a BB dug out of his butt and there was talk about repealing the rock treaty. If things kept up someone was gonna loose an eye for sure!

Lasting peace was finally declared upon our discovery of girls and alcohol and crab apple fights became "kids stuff".

[Betonov]

So much violence, so much hatred, such militaristic childhoods

And everyone turned out normal

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Betonov

So much violence, so much hatred, such militaristic childhoods

And everyone turned out normal

Define "normal" Dirt clods are still available.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Yeah, same with squirrels...there was a guy on tv last week who has a squirrel pie recipe and he was facing the same problem

Originally Posted by Betonov

And everyone turned out normal

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Define "normal" Dirt clods are still available.

NORMAL?!! My childhood safaris served with Spam and Hamm's BBY!unless it was to feed the raptors (hawks, falcons and owls) in the science department...anything for science! Waste not Want Not! Things keep better in the dead of Minnesota winters "Things go better with Co....Hamm's!"

[Wolferz]

Somebody totally forgot tire tread turtle and dented fender deer.

Bloviated Bear on a bumper ain't bad either.

[vienna]

I was a bit too old (about 13yo) when G.I. Joe hit the market. Also, I was infested by the "Beatle" bug having seen them on the Sullivan Show. My main passion was guitars. Girls were also a passion especially since I had taken note that girls, particularly the pretty ones, seemed to really like guitar players....

As a child growing up in the 50s, we played War and Cowboys and Indians. I also had a rather sizable assortment of those little green army men one could buy in large plastic bags; they looked kind of like this:





The boys in my neighborhood staged some mighty impressive battles on the sidewalks...


<O>

[magic452]

Originally Posted by vienna

I was a bit too old (about 13yo) when G.I. Joe hit the market. Also, I was infested by the "Beatle" bug having seen them on the Sullivan Show. My main passion was guitars. Girls were also a passion especially since I had taken note that girls, particularly the pretty ones, seemed to really like guitar players....

As a child growing up in the 50s, we played War and Cowboys and Indians. I also had a rather sizable assortment of those little green army men one could buy in large plastic bags; they looked kind of like this:





The boys in my neighborhood staged some mighty impressive battles on the sidewalks...


<O>

I use to have tons of those things. I was also too old for GI Joe.

Magic

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by magic452

I use to have tons of those things. I was also too old for GI Joe.

Magic

Yup. Tons of the army men lined up for mock battles when I was little and we used a couple of tinker toy hubs to simulate the destruction of each others army. Last man standing was the winner. There were times when diplomacy broke down and the hubs went from rolling across the floor to flying across the room.
My younger brothers got the GI Joes. AKA Macho Barbie dolls.

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Define "normal" Dirt clods are still available.

Horse apples worked good too. Grossed the prudes out, but what the hey.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by swamprat69er

Horse apples worked good too. Grossed the prudes out, but what the hey.

Just hay, grass and water but still.
I guess you used cow patties like throwing stars too?

[mapuc]

What a childhood memory I had different type of these figures, Soldiers, Cowboys and Indians.

For some it was or is nothing more than child play and for some it's more than that

I can't remember much of it, ´cause I was only a very little boy. I do remember I was with my dad visiting a friend of my dad and he had some landscape and on this he had lots of tin soldiers(it was first much later I understood it was Tin soldiers)

Markus

[CCIP]

For me, I had these three black plastic figures of cavemen, back when I was six years old. I think those were actually made in East Germany. Because of what was going on in the world around me at the time, I used to play with them acting out what I thought a democratic election was like.
Which basically was this: there was only one candidate for president, the caveman guy with a big club. There was another guy I called "minister of elections" who stood guard over the ballot box with a spear. And the voter was this hairy caveman with a rock, who had to cast his ballot for the only candidate, or my "minister of elections" would poke him with a spear. My parents laughed their butts off when they heard my explanation for what I was doing with my caveman figures that day.

Come to think of it, I had it pretty accurate to how it works in reality, didn't I

[Platapus]

Matt Mason could kick GI Joe's butt.

[August]

No GI Joe thread would be complete without the Nissan GI Joe commercial.