Before this weekend, I didn’t own a single GI Joe toy, but the fates have delivered a veritable GI Joe arsenal to me in the last few days. I bought some great items at the Big Toy Auction over the weekend, and last night I saw a post on Craigslist for some GI Joe figures, so I grabbed my keys and made a late night run to the dark depths of Virginia’s burbs.
I was greeted by a massive shaggy black dog that was part German Shepard and part wolf, but he was a big pussycat once we became friends. I went for the figures but asked the seller if he had any more GI Joe toys or other toys from that era. He went digging through a closet and came out with a huge box of vehicles, including a Night Raven plane and a Moray Hydrofoil, which I remember drooling over as a kid.
After getting the items home, I spent the rest of the night cleaning them off and sorting them out. The Moray was filled with mouse fur and turds (no joke), and I can only imagine the fun times that mouse must have had cruising around the lake.
Despite the dirt and dust, these items are all in really nice shape. So, to all you Joe experts out there, did I find any diamonds in the dust?
One of the fun things about buying toys in bulk is that you never know what you’ll find at the bottom of the box. Blanka and Buzz were hanging out with this bug guy. Anyone want to tell me who he is?
I think there is a movie pitch somewhere in envisioning a mouse cruising around in that Moray 🙂
Maybe Stuart Little 3? 4?
Not sure about that snakey bug guy at the bottom, but there are a few other G.I. Joe Street Fighter figures in that mix above. Vega, Zangief, Sagat and possibly Ryu. Nice haul. I used to love the Water Moccasin as a kid.
You know, I thought those were some wacky Joe figures. Blanka was the obvious one. Thanks for the info!
Nice haul! Sounds like you had fun! I think the bug guy in the last picture might be from the GIJoe line where they go in space and there are a few aliens. I did a quick Google search, the line was called Star Brigade, but I didn’t see the bug guy so I may be totally wrong…
Wow, those are new to me. Star Brigade figures were released after my time with GI Joe came to an end in the mid 80s. I’ll have to do some homework. It looks like there are some “interesting” figures in that line.
Yeah. That monster guy is a “Mega Monster” called “Bio-VIper” If you wanna give him up, I’ll take ’em.
Thanks Justin! I think he’d be much happier in the WeirdoToys gallery, so I’ll send him along.
I’d gladly take that Night Raven of your hands.
I am open to any and all offers. 😉
What, no Quick Kick? Dawwwww… Quick Kick, Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander and Firefly were my favs. And Torpedo.
Nice haul of vehicles, dude. I only ever had the HISS tank and the WHALE hovercraft. Oh, and the jeep with the cannon on top. I always wanted the fighter jet and the Dragonfly. That Moray is NICE! GI Joe had the best group of vehicles and playsets of pretty much any toy line. EVER. They had a full military base and a space shuttle. It doesn’t get better than that.
I was always partial to Zartan and the the Dreadnoks. I think I had the HISS tank, the jeep, and a water moccasin boat when I was a kid.
It’s been fun to hold these things again, but I MUST resist the urge to start another collection. Some of these things are HUGE!
What a awesome score on all those “Small” Joes congrats. : )
Thanks, man. There’s nothing like buying in bulk!
The Night Raven (if complete) is worth in the ball park of $100 and same with the Moray. You can clean up Storm Shadow by dunking him in peroxide (a 2L plastic soda bottle works good) and then leaving him in the sun inside the bottle with the peroxide for an afternoon. From the top down view the Moray looks really solid. The hardest pieces to find and the one’s that are most often lost are the four mini guns and the depth charges. The majority of the figures in that collection are post movie era. If Zartan had his knee pads that would have been a major score. The Hiss driver looks like he’s in pretty good shape and is worth about $20 or so. The Vamp is nice. The Fang is worth a bit of money even though it’s missing pieces and has a broken roll bar. How much do you want for the Persuader?
Man, THIS is why I love the internet and collectors in general. Thanks for all the great info, Russell!
For offering up all the your insight, you get the discounted “Friends and Family” rate, and can have the Persuader for $5 plus shipping. Drop me an email at brian@coolandcollected.com and we can figure out the details. Thanks again!
Very Nice Haul.
Yes, that “Snakey Guy” is the Bio-Viper from the Mega-Marines line.
This was from right near the end of the line after Hasbro acquired Kenner and everybody there began to hate their jobs. Since they knew the end of the line was just around the corner and nobody seemed to really care anymore, they just started phoning it in with such awesome-ness as the Monstro-Viper and Robo-Joe.
For all the tons of crap that made it on to shelves in ’93, what’s even more amazing is the pre-production stuff that someone on staff sobered up long enough to decide *wasn’t* good enough to stand alongside the likes of Fluorescent Mohawk Zartan and For-Some-Reason-Now-He’s-A-Robot Destro. If you want to see some mind-numbingly insane stuff, check out YoJoe.com’s unproduced figure archive here – http://www.yojoe.com/archive/preprod/94/
The plan was (and I am not making this up) to have the Joe team go into space to fight Cobra where they would all get infected with space monsters that would jump out of them to become MANIMALS! Instead, thankfully, the higher ups decided to just let the line die.
Wow. Thanks for all the info Chris! I have so many great memories of GI Joe as a kid, it’s been fun to get some of these items again. It’s a shame to see where the line headed, though.
I got the Persuader in the mail yesterday and my son who is turning 3 appropriated it. He’s very gentle actually so I don’t mind too much, but man did he ever fall in love with it and I don’t have the heart to take it away from him. He kept bugging for a trailer to attach to the hitch so I grabbed a few clunkers I have hanging around for parts and a few extra Joe’s with broken thumbs and crotches and let him go to town.
Thanks again man! I appreciate it and now so does my son. 🙂
Awesome! My two boys have commandeered all the boats and have turned them into bath toys (except for the moray!).
”Excellent haul on the assorted action figures and vehicles ,Mr. Brian, sir”. The most interesting item in your collection, being displayed, and admired by all is…The 1986 COBRA NIGHT RAVEN S3P BLACK JET TRANSPORT PLANE”. 3 feet long, black glossy finish , room for the strato-viper driver ,and cobra commander, (he has made this his personal v.i.p. vehicle) ,and with plenty of defensive armament,to protect the head snake ,-why not travel in style?”.
Ho-kay, these are the figures you got out of that deal, going from left-to-right, starting with the top row:
-1993 Frostbite
-1982 straight-arm Breaker
-1994 Shadow Ninjas Nunchuck
-1989 Dogfight
-1993 Muskrat
-1991 Flint
-1987 Sneak Peek
-1987 Nemesis Enforcer
-1991 mail-away version of Lifeline
-1987 Gyro-Viper
-1993 T’Ginzu
-1989 Stalker
-1993 Beachhead
2nd Row
-1989 Frag-Viper
-1991 Grunt
-1988 Iron Grenadier
-1989 Slaughter’s Marauders Spirit (sans hair)
-1986 Iceberg
-1994 Dial-Tone
-1986 Roadblock
-1994 Star Brigade Payload
-2005 Snow Serpent
-1991 Cesspool
-1991 Crimson Guard Immortal
-1987 Crazylegs
-1993 Snow Storm
3rd Row
-1986 Strato-Viper
-1986 Special Mission Brazil Mainframe
-1991 BAT
-1993 Cyber-Viper
-1986 Zandar
-1989 Dee-Jay
-1991 Cobra Commander
-1992/93 Firefly
-1991 Sludge-Viper
-1987 Taurus
-1992 Slice
-1992 Mutt
-1989 Wild Boar
4th row
-1993 Dr. Mindbender
-1984 Blowtorch (with an accessory pack helmet)
-1985 Crankcase
-1988 Blizzard
-1987 Zanzibar
-1987 Steam-Roller
-1987 WORMS
-1987 Techno-Viper, Tunnel Rat, and Big Boa
-1988 Voltar
-1992 T’Jbang
-1986 Dr. Mindbender
-1992 Nunchuck
5th Row
-1993 Championship Edition Ryu
-1993 Star Brigade Payload (green version)
-1993 Dino-Hunters Low-Light
-1993 Street Fighter II Ryu
-1987 Ice-Viper
-1993 Street Fighter II Vega
-Another Nunchuck
-1993 Street Fighter II Sagat
-1985 Frostbite
-1993 Street Fighter II Zangief
-1988 Road Pig
-Another Techno-Viper
-1991 Talking Battle Commanders Stalker
In addition, that pick of the five bad guy figures consists of (l-r) Zartain, Xamot and Tomax, a very yellowed Storm Shadow, and a HISS driver. In addition to your Bio-Viper, the blue redhead figure is the 1993 Championship edition Blanka.
You have quite a mix of accessories, in addition to the four filecards and 1992 Collector’s Case.