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vintage 12 inch Gi joes


jeeplover

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jeeplover
2 hours ago, Blacksmith said:

Nice!  Are the green goggles correct, like the ones my Mountain Joe is wearing?

 

When I can, likely be a bit, I’ll see if I have the parts you need.

C1627D1E-82CA-4A10-80B6-A00CA1D356E5.jpeg

those are the right ones. those little suckers are expensive. must be Oakley. lol

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aerialbridge

My GI Joe 7000 Jeep.   57 year delayed gratification.  Picked it up locally in the San Fernando Valley last year from a dude that owned it for 30 years.  100% complete and original except missing the lug-nut for the spare. IMO, prices on the classic 1964-7? Original Joes have gone up bigly since WuFlu.   A figure that you could have bought on ebay in 2019 for $35 is now 50 and up.  Waaay up.  Some really crazy prices. 

 

 

jeep1.jpg

jeep2.jpg

jeep3.jpg

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Blacksmith

That is a fantastic-looking jeep, congrats.  
 

And yes, I am very thankful I built my collection years ago, as I would not attempt to do it at today’s prices.  

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jeeplover

awesome jeep. i looks real nice i got mine for a hundo and it needs work. the plus is my motor on my jeep works. i need a rifle rack shovel rack for the jeep. the trailer is missing a leaf spring and a light. my hitch is gone. i hope to recreate one.

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 Nice SOTW Joe's jeep lover; it seems as bit by bit is the way to buy now. Back when I was buying their was no E bay so it was either go to the toy store or buy by catalog. Probably passed up tons of the originals at yard sales toy, shows etc. Sigh😗 Anyway, here are a couple classic Joes and my one original Joe in Gulf War II uniform. The modern Joe on the right is from the 1999 FAO Schwartz store downtown near Westlake in Seattle. He came with another, more modern Joe in a cool presentation box which someday 🙄 I will come across again and put in this thread. The Joe on the left is from the previously featured retro 2004 edition.

IMG_20220506_093341.jpg

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aerialbridge

Blacksmith and jeeplover,  thanks for the comments on my "5 Star Jeep".   It cost me twice what you paid jeeplover.   I was lucky and pretty tough to upgrade.   For reference,  not my Jeep but here's where the two black rubber hoses go.   Very tough to find those and the flag, among the first parts to get lost or separated through the decades- along with the gear shift, steering wheel and hitch assembly.
 

jeep rubber.jpg

Jeep rubber2.jpg

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aerialbridge

I'd say the other iconic 1960s original GI Joe  "vehicle"  is out of this world.   The "GI Joe OFFICIAL Space Capsule", introduced in 1966.   The original version replicated after the Project Gemini space capsule came with a dark blue interior back panel, with a molded recess for astronaut Joe's back.  I was fortunate to buy this one in 2020.   This is the rarer, "glow in the dark" variant that came out in 1969.   The light tan back panel originally glowed in the dark.   The small hole there is for the microphone cord from the helmet.  The bottom of the seat is the non-glow blue plastic as in the standard version. This one still "glows" since it's in "gently used" condition and probably sat in its box for many years.   Along with the capsule the lot included the original blond Action Pilot GI Joe in mint condition, in its original single zipper suit with helmet (I don't think it had ever been out of the suit), silver plastic boots and space pack.  And the kid probably had one more Joe (as I had and still have) since also in the box was a near mint black haired Joe in the Action Sailor dungarees and a few random accessories.   When you find the space capsules today for sale, they're mostly in much rougher shape than this.   This one has a very good windscreen (on my list is to polish out the light scuffs) and excellent original decal and control panel.   The melt-marks (a common scourge for GI Joe and other plastic toys) on the base from something else sitting under it in the box for decades, can also be lessened with an ultrafine sanding. 

 

GI JOE GEMINI CAPSULE 1.jpg

GI JOE GEMINI CAPSULE 2.jpg

GI JOE GEMINI CAPSULE 3.jpg

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aerialbridge

Thanks, Blacksmith.  We're doing some work now, but when done I'll unpack the figures and stage the Jeep and Gemini capsule proper.  There's a couple sellers on ebay that make nice stands for the capsule, either horizontal or vertical.   Here's a neat commercial for the capsule.   It floats!  Like a VW bug, so bring in the Frogmen recovery team.   But, it can also sink for extra adventure, so bring in the Deep Sea Divers!    This has some scenes of the original orange suited Frogmen on their Sea Sleds,  Those orange wet suits have mostly disintegrated over 58 years, tough to find an original one looking very good.   I have the reissue black suit from the early 2000s.

 

 

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aerialbridge

I didn't have it as a kid, but since my dad was an AF captain in 1960, I had to get the Action Pilot Dress Uniform, which along with silver wings coincidentally has railroad tracks.   And since the pilot needed somebody to tell about dodging MiGs in the wild blue yonder,  I came up with this custom Air Police Joe.  The original Air Police uniform was basically the same jacket and trousers as the dress uniform,  with a grey radio, rifle, bayonet and white "AP" helmet you could buy as one of the many, many "carded sets".   Since the Air Policeman didn't really have a unique uniform, I made one.  It's a blue beret instead of helmet, white ascot and a 60's GI Joe knockoff Ike jacket and trousers, that I bleached white and then dyed blue along with a white pistol belt dyed black and a .45 (without the bone handled grip).  I haven't got around to painting the laces on the boots white.

 

 

GI Joe Air Force.jpg

GI Joe Air Force 2.jpg

GI Joe Air Force 3.jpg

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jeeplover

very cool stuff. i do not mind the gently used stuff. thinking about it i don't mind beat up stuff either. where else would you get original parts.

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aerialbridge
3 hours ago, jeeplover said:

very cool stuff. i do not mind the gently used stuff. thinking about it i don't mind beat up stuff either. where else would you get original parts.

 

I think the gently used stuff is the way to go, stuff that will clean up well, and beat up stuff is okay if the price is right and you can salvage any of it.  Kinda like any collecting area.   The interesting thing about the original 60s GI Joe  is that it's more like an M1 rifle than a Matchbox or Hotwheels car.   Here's why- how many Matchbox collectors are going to buy a toy to swap out a door or hood?  But a firearm collector, or a GI Joe collector can swap out parts if need be--arms, heads, feet, hands, do a restring, etc.   I'd like to do a restring someday, since I like the general idea of saving and recycling instead of a landfill.  And like your SOTW and 8 Ropes,  you might have gotten any of them as a complete set, or you built them up piece by piece.  Plenty of original parts out there, but pricey as heck over the last couple years.   BTW, thanks for starting this post, and congrats on your top notch SOTW group, 8 Ropes of Danger and the rest of your collection.   And same to Blacksmith on a great display collection, in really nice shape and that amazing Deep Sea Diver near mint boxed set.   That's the nicest box I've seen of a very collectible set. Would like to hear his secret for whitening the diving suit.   Like one of you said,  the original "boxed sets" and "carded sets" are a whole other area that gets into really big bucks.   I don't have any original card sets and the only boxes I have are for the 5 Star Jeep and the Space Capsule,  both rough and I wouldn't display them, but they did their job in protecting the contents for half a century.

 

Curious to hear from either of you (or anyone else) which pieces in your collection were yours as a kid 50+ years ago and how your collecting progressed?   At Christmas 1964 or 5 (can't remember which) I got the Action soldier along with a bunch of equipment cards- field radios, tent, poncho,  grenades, .45,  M-1, machine gun, cartridge belt, field jacket, etc.   Somewhere along the line, either "allowance" (remember those?) funded or gifts, I got the Marine "Dress Parade" window box and "Hidden Missile Discovery" window box,  which was a single zipper astronaut suit, the rest of the astronaut stuff,  plastic boots (no gloves) and a double A battery powered mine detector with mines, that lit up.   And in summer 1966, on a trip to the local Sears, with my mother and grandmother who was visiting from Duluth,  my strict mother in a rare burst of spontaneous gift-giving, sprang for the SOTW Russian.   I believe he came in a box like the Action Soldier and definitely didn't come with any accessories.   That made it easy for him to lose to Action Soldier Joe every time, since he had no weapons.  It was around when that movie "The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming" came out and the depths of the Cold War.  So while Rooskie Joe might have been an ally in WW II  (the period for all of the SOTWs and most of the original 1960s GI Joe uniforms and sets) I knew he was a sinister dude and he was NO ally in 1966.  He was THE ENEMY as much as the German or Japanese SOTW.

 

And that was basically all she wrote for my kid collection.  I didn't keep any of the boxes and at the time I stored my small collection in a 1960s lunch box (still have it but a lot more rusty from 5 years in a Miami, FL garage in the 70s).  It all fit, but I don't remember what happened to the mine detector (probably left at a friend's house) except two mines survived.   Over the years, just about every other toy I had as a kid disappeared to Salvation Army or Goodwill (notably the Matchbox collection).   But somehow the two Joes and stuff survived through the years in the lunchbox,  over moves from DC to Miami, and then So. Cal.  My dad found the lunchbox in his garage about 1998 when he was cleaning and said "Take your stuff".    So pushing 40,  my old Joes, pretty much the last remains of childhood, that I hadn't thought about in 30 years,  came back.   Coincidentally,  I was dating a woman at the time who collected and sold Barbies.   I mean collected-  she had a large bedroom in her house with 3 massive wall to wall glass display cases with shelves holding hundreds of vintage Barbies and the sets they were still coming out with.   I believe she had every outfit and doll variant that Mattel ever sold and then duplicates.  She made a decent living just buying and selling those.   So she encouraged me to clean up my old Joes, press the uniforms and put them on display with her collection.  And I probably bought another 10 vintage figures at shows that I went to at the time in Southern California, sometimes with her.   We split up about 20 years ago, and since I didn't have display cases, I carefully wrapped up my somewhat expanded GI Joe collection and put it in a box and back in the garage-  but this time a Southern California garage: dry and not a lot of temperature variation.    And then another 16 or 17 years went by,  until for whatever reason, now pushing 60,  I dug out the Joes from my garage in 2018, and added more figures and uniforms.  My recollection of what I paid at in person shows in the late 90s and what you could buy the vintage Joes, uniforms and equipment for in 2018 and 2019 is that it was about 50% cheaper 3 or 4 years ago.   Now, the prices on ebay are at least as high as the in person shows in the 90s and probably much higher.   Others who have been more consistent in collecting might have other opinions on how prices have evolved.   I sense that while some guys like me that are tail end "Baby Boomers" and had GI Joes as kids in the '60s and early 70s are deciding to sell that figure or two, or maybe a whole collection, as we advance into our own 60s,  there are a lot of others, and perhaps younger guys, that are starting to collect the original 12 inch GI Joes.   Either they had them as kids, and they're long gone, or they have one or two in an attic, and some discretionary cash and the nostalgic interest to dust them off and maybe add a few.   While it's become a lot pricier to buy things, (and I'm glad I picked up what I did in 2018 and 2019 before WuFlu)   I'm glad to see the strong prices and apparent robust collector market for the Old Joes.

 

Here's my two original Joes-  the Action Soldier on the far left and the Russian SOTW on the far left.   All the other figures here (ones I picked up in the late 90s) are displaying the stuff from my original "kid collection" stored in the lunchbox, except for the brown M1 rifle that I bought 20 some years ago and the brown boots on the center Joe in the field jacket.  I only had one set of brown boots, that came with Action Soldier and he's wearing them.   I have my original brown M1, which has a broken barrel just like my Marine white  M1.   I've got a couple of broken donor M1s and one day I'll replace those barrels.  I'm happy to report that neither me nor any other creature chewed on the hands feet, or any other parts or equipment.  (What's up with that?)  Excuse the kitchen display area when I took this photo.  My plan when I retire in a few years is to cash out  (maybe sooner and rent) and move to a more reasonable real estate market where I can have that display room I've always wanted.  Thankfully, my wife doesn't collect anything.   👍

 

 

My orignal 1960s GI Joe Collection..jpg

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suwanneetrader

Today at the Flea Mkt I almost bought a Navy Seal, he was in black crawling with a rifle.  I did not have a tape but close to 12 inches maybe 14 inches. No box just loose with star trek figures and cars where anything on table for a $1.00.  All stuff was from a dealer who died and the market got about 9 booth's contents for back rent.     I know cheap but add mail cost to get to one of you and if not an old one what would I do with it?  Even my Grand kids late teens or adults.  Richard

 

PS I did not see a mfg name so maybe It is another brand, I'll look better next week if one of you want me to as no interest to me Richard

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jeeplover

i was born to late to have any of these as a kid. these were legend. i remember in day care as a kid in the 80s i was born in 77 when we were playing with the small ones guy would talk about a family member having these. we were amazed. my older cousins had them i was not allowed to touch they thought i would break them and it is a real possibility i would have. the restring is easy. the videos make it look hard. i have replaced my russian sotw hand and am currently waiting on a new hand for my rando sotw. the thing that bothers me is i can not find good elastic it is all to weak. i purchased a floppy joe kit just to see if i can duplicate it. i did not do the legs because for some reason the legs look almost mint inside no rust. the arms when i pulled snapped. if my guys are good looking and functional i just leave them alone. i am glad this thread has done well. i hope to see more. when the hand arrives i will take pictures of my rando sotw. he might be my mountain troop.

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Blacksmith
4 hours ago, aerialbridge said:

 

I think the gently used stuff is the way to go, stuff that will clean up well, and beat up stuff is okay if the price is right and you can salvage any of it.  Kinda like any collecting area.   The interesting thing about the original 60s GI Joe  is that it's more like an M1 rifle than a Matchbox or Hotwheels car.   Here's why- how many Matchbox collectors are going to buy a toy to swap out a door or hood?  But a firearm collector, or a GI Joe collector can swap out parts if need be--arms, heads, feet, hands, do a restring, etc.   I'd like to do a restring someday, since I like the general idea of saving and recycling instead of a landfill.  And like your SOTW and 8 Ropes,  you might have gotten any of them as a complete set, or you built them up piece by piece.  Plenty of original parts out there, but pricey as heck over the last couple years.   BTW, thanks for starting this post, and congrats on your top notch SOTW group, 8 Ropes of Danger and the rest of your collection.   And same to Blacksmith on a great display collection, in really nice shape and that amazing Deep Sea Diver near mint boxed set.   That's the nicest box I've seen of a very collectible set. Would like to hear his secret for whitening the diving suit.   Like one of you said,  the original "boxed sets" and "carded sets" are a whole other area that gets into really big bucks.   I don't have any original card sets and the only boxes I have are for the 5 Star Jeep and the Space Capsule,  both rough and I wouldn't display them, but they did their job in protecting the contents for half a century.

 

Curious to hear from either of you (or anyone else) which pieces in your collection were yours as a kid 50+ years ago and how your collecting progressed?   At Christmas 1964 or 5 (can't remember which) I got the Action soldier along with a bunch of equipment cards- field radios, tent, poncho,  grenades, .45,  M-1, machine gun, cartridge belt, field jacket, etc.   Somewhere along the line, either "allowance" (remember those?) funded or gifts, I got the Marine "Dress Parade" window box and "Hidden Missile Discovery" window box,  which was a single zipper astronaut suit, the rest of the astronaut stuff,  plastic boots (no gloves) and a double A battery powered mine detector with mines, that lit up.   And in summer 1966, on a trip to the local Sears, with my mother and grandmother who was visiting from Duluth,  my strict mother in a rare burst of spontaneous gift-giving, sprang for the SOTW Russian.   I believe he came in a box like the Action Soldier and definitely didn't come with any accessories.   That made it easy for him to lose to Action Soldier Joe every time, since he had no weapons.  It was around when that movie "The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming" came out and the depths of the Cold War.  So while Rooskie Joe might have been an ally in WW II  (the period for all of the SOTWs and most of the original 1960s GI Joe uniforms and sets) I knew he was a sinister dude and he was NO ally in 1966.  He was THE ENEMY as much as the German or Japanese SOTW.

 

And that was basically all she wrote for my kid collection.  I didn't keep any of the boxes and at the time I stored my small collection in a 1960s lunch box (still have it but a lot more rusty from 5 years in a Miami, FL garage in the 70s).  It all fit, but I don't remember what happened to the mine detector (probably left at a friend's house) except two mines survived.   Over the years, just about every other toy I had as a kid disappeared to Salvation Army or Goodwill (notably the Matchbox collection).   But somehow the two Joes and stuff survived through the years in the lunchbox,  over moves from DC to Miami, and then So. Cal.  My dad found the lunchbox in his garage about 1998 when he was cleaning and said "Take your stuff".    So pushing 40,  my old Joes, pretty much the last remains of childhood, that I hadn't thought about in 30 years,  came back.   Coincidentally,  I was dating a woman at the time who collected and sold Barbies.   I mean collected-  she had a large bedroom in her house with 3 massive wall to wall glass display cases with shelves holding hundreds of vintage Barbies and the sets they were still coming out with.   I believe she had every outfit and doll variant that Mattel ever sold and then duplicates.  She made a decent living just buying and selling those.   So she encouraged me to clean up my old Joes, press the uniforms and put them on display with her collection.  And I probably bought another 10 vintage figures at shows that I went to at the time in Southern California, sometimes with her.   We split up about 20 years ago, and since I didn't have display cases, I carefully wrapped up my somewhat expanded GI Joe collection and put it in a box and back in the garage-  but this time a Southern California garage: dry and not a lot of temperature variation.    And then another 16 or 17 years went by,  until for whatever reason, now pushing 60,  I dug out the Joes from my garage in 2018, and added more figures and uniforms.  My recollection of what I paid at in person shows in the late 90s and what you could buy the vintage Joes, uniforms and equipment for in 2018 and 2019 is that it was about 50% cheaper 3 or 4 years ago.   Now, the prices on ebay are at least as high as the in person shows in the 90s and probably much higher.   Others who have been more consistent in collecting might have other opinions on how prices have evolved.   I sense that while some guys like me that are tail end "Baby Boomers" and had GI Joes as kids in the '60s and early 70s are deciding to sell that figure or two, or maybe a whole collection, as we advance into our own 60s,  there are a lot of others, and perhaps younger guys, that are starting to collect the original 12 inch GI Joes.   Either they had them as kids, and they're long gone, or they have one or two in an attic, and some discretionary cash and the nostalgic interest to dust them off and maybe add a few.   While it's become a lot pricier to buy things, (and I'm glad I picked up what I did in 2018 and 2019 before WuFlu)   I'm glad to see the strong prices and apparent robust collector market for the Old Joes.

 

Here's my two original Joes-  the Action Soldier on the far left and the Russian SOTW on the far left.   All the other figures here (ones I picked up in the late 90s) are displaying the stuff from my original "kid collection" stored in the lunchbox, except for the brown M1 rifle that I bought 20 some years ago and the brown boots on the center Joe in the field jacket.  I only had one set of brown boots, that came with Action Soldier and he's wearing them.   I have my original brown M1, which has a broken barrel just like my Marine white  M1.   I've got a couple of broken donor M1s and one day I'll replace those barrels.  I'm happy to report that neither me nor any other creature chewed on the hands feet, or any other parts or equipment.  (What's up with that?)  Excuse the kitchen display area when I took this photo.  My plan when I retire in a few years is to cash out  (maybe sooner and rent) and move to a more reasonable real estate market where I can have that display room I've always wanted.  Thankfully, my wife doesn't collect anything.   👍

 

 

My orignal 1960s GI Joe Collection..jpg

Very nice figures my friend, and thank you for the kind words.  Those parade Garands seldom have the barrel ends still on them.  Not sure what the story is there.  
 

Your lineup of Joes looks awesome.  I particularly like the Astronaut.  Those silver boots are tricky to find.

 

I’ll try and find the article I read on cleaning Joe clothes.  If I do, I’ll link it here.

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manayunkman
3 hours ago, suwanneetrader said:

Today at the Flea Mkt I almost bought a Navy Seal, he was in black crawling with a rifle.  I did not have a tape but close to 12 inches maybe 14 inches. No box just loose with star trek figures and cars where anything on table for a $1.00.  All stuff was from a dealer who died and the market got about 9 booth's contents for back rent.     I know cheap but add mail cost to get to one of you and if not an old one what would I do with it?  Even my Grand kids late teens or adults.  Richard

 

PS I did not see a mfg name so maybe It is another brand, I'll look better next week if one of you want me to as no interest to me Richard


I know you don’t have the box but did it look like this one?

 

As shown $35.00 free shipping on Amazon.

 

Better be careful when you get close to him, he might choke you.

 

 

988013B4-8C3B-43F3-9CA7-F6EBF0CDF639.jpeg

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aerialbridge
3 hours ago, suwanneetrader said:

Today at the Flea Mkt I almost bought a Navy Seal, he was in black crawling with a rifle.  I did not have a tape but close to 12 inches maybe 14 inches. No box just loose with star trek figures and cars where anything on table for a $1.00.  All stuff was from a dealer who died and the market got about 9 booth's contents for back rent.     I know cheap but add mail cost to get to one of you and if not an old one what would I do with it?  Even my Grand kids late teens or adults.  Richard

 

PS I did not see a mfg name so maybe It is another brand, I'll look better next week if one of you want me to as no interest to me Richard

 

Richard,  I'm always glad to give an old Joe a new home.   If you come across at a swap meet, garage sale,  etc,  an old, Hasbro painted head 12" GI Joe from 1964-69, or one of the "Adventure Team" line (they have fuzzy heads and often beards) that Hasbro introduced in 1970 (to 1976), when it discontinued the original GI Joe due to dwindling sales and Vietnam anti-War sentiment, for under $30 (no uniform or accessories)  in good shape (head has minimal paint or "fuzz" loss, all limbs intact, no abuse like chew marks, holes, gouges, etc),  you've done well.    The heads all look like the ones in this post but the way you can know for sure it's not one of the "Classic Series" or "Timeless 40th anniversary" re-issues made in China in the early 2000's is to look at the butt, where it will have either Copyright 1964 and "patent pending"  Made in USA if made between 1964 and 1966, and after 1966, when the patent was issued, it has the patent # on the butt.   GI Joes were also made in Canada during this time for the Canadian and Great Britain market.  And as somebody mentioned,  Hasbro licensed GI Joe to Palitoy in England which made them there under the "Action Man" trademark until at least the late 70s.  The new reissues made in China, will say "China" on the butt.

 


 

Patent Pendin.jpg

joe trademarks .jpg

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