I still have my Snake Eyes V2 and Storm Shadow V2 fully complete. They are all I have left of my Joe collection. It was the vast amount of characters that Joe had that really annoyed, much like Transformers, most episodes had loads of different characters and never really built more than a couple interesting characters. The comic was vastly superior to the cartoon. The toys were good but most of the stuff after 85/86 when they went a lot more sci-fi were no were near as good. As for the 90’s ninjas, eco warriors and neon coloured stuff etc…no thanks.
Here in Ireland I never seen G.I. Joe/Action Force on TV. I only ever seen it by renting/buying it from the Video shops. But I used to get the Transformers comic nearly every fortnight and it always had a G.I. Joe story included. Strange how with such little exposure I ended up with so many figures. Most of them were pretty cool I guess. Ironically the sci-fi figures that appealed to me then are now what I really dislike about the line.
I will say this though the early vehicle toys were amazing. The SkyStriker and Mauler especially. The were great presents.
I started with MOTU and when I saw GI JOE for the first time and the figures that was it for me and MOTU and started collecting and putting 100% of my attention to GI JOE…
Transformers were too expensive for me at the time…
I was in Venezuela (South America) and I was able to watch Transformers the movie for the first time in 2001 thank to a friend that had an original VHS tape of it at the University. I GI JOE the movie in 2000…
Well the top cartoons I watched on TV a lot here in the late 80’s-early 90’s were: ThunderCats, Bravestarr, He-Man (MOTU and New Adventures), Defenders of the Earth, TMNT and Ghostbusters. Other cartoons had limited runs and shows like G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Dino-Riders, Visionaries and Transformers etc were only really seen by renting or buying videos.
But these are shows with toy tie ins. There was loads of other cartoons I watched that had no toys to support it (at least in shops here) like, Inspector Gadget, Chip n’ Dale, Gummibears, Vicky the Viking, Ewoks, Dangermouse, Duckula, Bananaman, Willy Fog and Dogtanian.
Oddly enough I didn’t see Transformers The Movie until November 2000 when I was 15. Found the video by chance in a shop for £2.99. Although I was all into my metal music etc at the time, seeing it I just could resist buying it.
Here was pretty much the same ThunderCats, Bravestarr, He-Man MOTU (No new adventures), Defenders of the Earth, TMNT and Ghostbusters plus TRANSFOMERS, GI JOE, M.A.S.K, C.O.P.S, Robotech and a lot of anime cartoons…
I didn’t like the FILMation Ghost Busters cartoon very much but they had one of the best toy lines of the 80’s. Ghost Command was probably the best playset ever made.
I have most of the MOTU Classics line and am pretty happy with them. I’m never saw Thundercats or had any, yet somehow I know the names of the main characters. I’m looking forward to having them in scale. I started watching them for first time. Episodes, I think, are better than Filmation He-man. I look forward to finishing and one day watching them again along with the 200x He-man series with my now two year old boy down the road. I’ll probably get three subscriptions.
Overall I think the Thundercats cartoon was far superior to He-Man…season two not so much, although it did have some amazing episodes like ‘The Last Day’.
I collected MOTU but gave up before the end of the first year. I wish I had still kept a couple of them, but sold them all.
I’m collecting again the Rambo Force of Freedom Coleco figures… I never saw he cartoon until 2005… As a kid I saw the action figures on sale and at school but I figures it out those came from the movies…