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In 1985, I received my first G.I. Joe figures: Mutt & Junkyard and Flint. I don’t recall why I selected these two specifically, but I remember as a kid always wanting the figures with animal sidekicks, so that have been my reason I got Mutt & Junkyard. I remember countless hours of playing indoors and outdoors with all my action figures: G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers, Go-Bots, etc. Although I went through different stages of what my favorite toy or toy line was, my interest always went back to G.I. Joe. I remember getting a Crimson Guard in my stocking for Christmas and my Dad assisting me when I got vehicles that needed stickers to be placed on the vehicles. I remember the year I got the Night Raven, I carried it upstairs into my parents’ bedroom, and woke my dad up asking him to come downstairs and help me apply the stickers to it.
Over the years, I would acquire a fairly large collection of G.I. Joes, Transformers, He-Man, etc. I wouldn’t consider myself a collector at this time because I was a kid, and my toys were meant to play with and use my imagination in creating different stories. I remember playing for hours in the sandbox, the yard, at school, and at friends’ houses.
When the 12” Hall of Fame figures started coming out, I was buying them and displaying them. Although I was collecting the 12” HOF figures and the Classic Collection figures, it wasn’t until 1995, that I got into collecting the 3 ¾” G.I. Joe line. One day at my place of employment, I saw a Toy Shop magazine lying around, and started to look through it. When I came across a page that showed the carded G.I. Joes on Chinese cards, it brought back several memories. One of the figures I saw was the 82’ version of Cobra Commander. I remember how I always wanted this version of Cobra Commander, but it wasn’t available by the time I start getting into G.I. Joe. The only version of Cobra Commander I owned was the 1987 version. If I recall, the figures were only $10.00, so I bought a few different ones on the Chinese card. Once I received them, I got hooked again, and started looking for other figures and vehicles I didn’t have as a kid. I went to the internet, and found a guy who had about 75 figures and about 20 vehicles for sale. After negotiating a deal, I paid through money order, and received 4 big boxes of Joes.
After acquiring this small collection of loose figures and vehicles, my goal changed towards getting every loose figure and vehicle. After making this decision, I stopped collecting the 12” figures because I wanted to focus more on the 3 ¾” line. After finding several reasonable deals on MOC figures and MISB vehicles, my goal of acquiring everything loose changed to getting one of everything MOC or MISB. Although this task would be hard, I was ready for the challenge.
After several years of lending my images to other sites, I decided to create my own site, DansJoes.Com. Over the years, I have changed the site, but always stayed true to the original concept: an archive of my personal collection for fellow collectors.
When I came up with the idea of UltimateToyCollections.Com, I started to contact several different collectors who had large collections of carded or boxed toy collections. Eventually, I may add loose figures and vehicles, but for the time being, I’m strictly sticking to MOC or MISB items. One of the reasons I started collecting MOC and MISB was the artwork on the packaging. Without the help of collectors who share this passion, I wouldn’t have been able to create this new site of archived toys from the 80s and 90s!
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