G.I. Joe: Dropping the Mic - Vintage Hasbro Real American Hero

#retroblasting #gijoe #arah
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Michael is taking a trip back into vintage with a look at some of the more troublesome aspects of collecting G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero figures from Hasbro!

[@Fauntleroy.]

It's deeply satisfying to see all of those figures standing together, complete, in good shape, with their damnable helmet mics and breathing hoses accounted for. 🙏

[@pabcalderon]

Yeah, those colors haven't faded at all. Keep them like that requieres certain precautions and probably special equipment for temperature control 😊

[@LukeWarm05]

I've been a recording engineer for 25 years and I think I've spent less on actual microphones than it would cost to buy all the GI Joe mics.

[@MayumiC-chan9377]

My husband still has his PRC radio equipment from his time in the service and it's more put together than all the GI joe tiny parts.

[@kba702]

In hindsight, it seems amazing that there are actually any surviving examples of some of these things.

[@impossiblepie]

With the recent discovery of the warehouse of sealed mask toys a few years ago, I wonder if in any of the factories that arah were made there are sealed boxes full of gi joe accessories just sitting there collecting dust.

[@FNHot]

haha you made some EXCELLENT points, I never examined the fact that maybe the toy designers KNEW this stuff would get lost. My complete Ninjor, and Saurod were the final dollars i dropped in my MOTU collection because of those stupid nun-chucks and blaster.

[@deathtron5000]

Memories of 40 years past came flooding back to me of playing with my Joes in the back yard and loosing an accessory in the grass, never to be found again despite endless searching. Thanks for the trip down memory lane Michael.

[@HeadCanonUnlimited]

It was like they had a supervisor that would approve each figure by drawing a microphone, antenna or hose on each figure design so he could feel like he contributed to the design.

[@scottstalcup6980]

2:22 That is one of the finest Cliff Clavin impressions I've ever heard! RESPECT!

[@autoneurotic]

I think I'm the only person in America who likes Sneak Peak. I got him for Christmas when I was 4 and loved him, and still fond of him today. And....it took about 25 years to learn he actually was supposed to have a helmet microphone. I never even saw it. Same with 87 Cobra Commander.

[@mistermustachio336]

Right there with you. I finally completed my childhood example a few year ago.

[@NESADDICT]

I had sneak peak as a kid too. I thought even back then he looked ridiculous. 😂

[@NESADDICT]

I also remember pulling out his helmet microphone

[@bufordhighwater9872]

Sneak Peek was my younger brother's favorite Joe.

[@Jamesmincks819]

Michael casually shows off a $1500 dollar 💵 figure (The Blank from the Dick Tracy movie) 😂😂

[@defaultdaniel]

If anyone is wondering, one of the most expensive items shown here is Heavy Metal's (tank commander from Mauler) brown mic. I am a purist collector and all my stuff has to be 100% mint, complete, and original. Because of that, I spent $600 USD on a beautiful Heavy Metal with an original mic - and that's a reasonable price. You also have to be careful with the amount of repros out there. Always check or ask for pictures first.

[@dukeman3ca1]

Im not even a GI Joe collector, but i enjoyed this. Thanks, Retroblasting !

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

I lost the breathing hose to 87' Cobra Commander about 6 times in a row and my mom had to be the one who was running around like Nancy Drew on cocaine trying to find it. When I lost it the seventh time and she retrieved it from under the bed in the spare room and came out with a large amount of dust bunnies on her hair, she got super angry and super glued the breathing hose to my 87' Cobra Commander's head and mouth. LMAO. She did something that Hasbro should have done themselves. LOL.

[@bufordhighwater9872]

I may not have Rock and Roll's mic, but i still have both of my Mauler's antennas and tow cable. Lol

[@ericlewis217]

3:04 “Helmet Visors!? Hold my beer” LOL. That got me. 👍🏻

[@Miakel]

GI Joe toys for me were always played with in the back yard and as a result mine were absolutely thrashed with barely any accessories surviving. Especially compared to my Star Wars which were always played with inside.

[@wakuseimoe]

Thank you so much. The end of the video was the comedy I needed to punch my day in the stomach.

[@Geek_Chorus]

It's always an occasion when Retroblasting drops a new video in my household! Superbowl shmooperbowl!

[@AllBreaksLoose]

Right now there's a collector of 80s gijoe figures watching this and realizing his collection isn't complete.... 😆 Great video Michael!

[@MrDavid3443]

Thank you for another outstandingly informative and entertaining video!

[@YourUncleBenis]

If you don't mind me bringing in a childhood anecdote of my own, there was this line called Rescue Heroes back in the 2000's(think kinda like G.I. Joe, but for disaster relief. Cartoon is on KZbin, and is surprisingly well written), and a big thing on all of the figures was their headset that they would use to stay connected. However, while the antenna would usually break off since it was one of the few breakable parts on the figures(even today. They used some godtier plastic on most of these toys), the rest of it would remain since it was a molded-on piece for all but a few figures. And given how you'd never see a Rescue Hero operating without their headset in the show(having their headsets down was actually a cool plot point in the Meteor Shower episode), it wasn't like you ever wanted to take it off, so it worked out.

[@kjpphotography4764]

Another great video Michael! I always enjoy your G.I. Joe videos.

[@AzkabanGang765]

Thanks for the post,Love the trip through memory lane as a kid 😊😊

[@surrealcereal603]

This is why I’m glad we live in a day where we can reproduce vintage accessories. I bought a mic for my Lift Ticket figure for $8 and it looks amazing in my display case. My wife would divorce me if I spent our kids’ college fund on vintage mics! Thanks for the video.

[@a_world_made_of_cardboard]

Oh yes, the tiny parts and hoses. All during this video, I could only think of Battle Force 2000's Dee Jay: a uber small antenna and a hose. That figure RARELY got out of his zip lock bag. GI Joe was an incredible line, but I agree, there could be some difficulty in keeping everything together. Another fantastic video from Michael. Great humor and informative.

[@25toys3]

Video perfectly captures the sentiments of many us of who thought it would be a great idea to complete an ARAH run of 82-87. Cracked elbows, broken crotches and accessory pack weapons are all stuff of nightmares!

[@MrAvenger1975]

Don't forget broken thumbs!! 😃

[@25toys3]

@@MrAvenger1975 My Zap concurs!

[@pabcalderon]

​@@25toys3I don't even have Zap... yet 😅

[@HankyPanky44]

I think that we as collectors tend to put more importance on quirks/coincidences in the toylines than the companies originally intended for them to be. The influx of breather hoses in 1987 is an excellent observation though, would like to hear the thinking behind that😄

[@praetor1138]

Sneak Peak and Lift Ticket were my first two Joes. Awesome to see them in one of your Thumbnails. I don't have any memory of ever having their microphones, so I must have been one of the many that lost them instantly.

[@MayumiC-chan9377]

Happy sunday glad to see another wonderful segment!

[@yesterlandtoys1138]

Hahah! I forgot all about them hoses. So true! Great video Michael as always.

[@danszymanski4114]

Epic delivery! Standing ovation over here. Everything about this video was amazing. A+++++

[@irish3335]

I’m glad I collected a majority of my rare figures before the price jump of 2020-2021, always appreciate your videos Michael thank you!

[@ncopictures7182]

Reminds me of how I used to play with Rescue Heroes toys. Since it was Fisher Price the accessories were like the size of bowling balls so I never lost any (that I'm aware of). Keep up the good work Michael! It always cheers me up when you upload!

[@EveretteMP]

I got the original Princess Leia figure for Christmas in 1978 or 1979 and never even saw her blaster before it was lost. I didn't even realize she came with one until years later. Pretty sure it fell out of the package as I was opening it and into the shag carpet, never to be seen again.

[@Rodimusprimerib]

Awesome video!! That last skit made me chuckle 👀😂

[@erickteixeira7251]

The end IS PERFECT LMAO

[@brianrobinson2962]

Just awesome mate fantastic channel

[@kenhill8272]

As much as I used to love those tiny details added to the figures, G.I. Joe was the king of easily lost accessories. And I thought it was tough luck when the couch ate my yellow lightsaber.

[@TimHayes]

Excellent video Michael French!

[@jasondwilliams972]

Another outstanding video, French! I was 11 in ‘87. I still have that entire run of Joes AND all their accessories. I recently had them out, showing them to my children. When my daughter asked how I kept up w/all those tiny parts, I explained to her that I was a tad more particular w/my toys than most children were. As well played w/as they all are, I will never understand losing anything you genuinely care about. I cared about my Joes so much that I would wipe them down after play, place each one in an individual sandwich bag, & store them in a large tackle box until the next play session…

[@outpost206]

Oh God that skit at the end 😂. They really went all in on Paintball Snake Eyes in the dying days of the original RAH line. I think there was even a 12" version of him.

[@ForgeMaciejewski]

That ending... priceless!

[@wesleyhendricks2486]

I love those Rock n Roll bits. He right up there with DV.

[@justinsixx90]

The end of that episode was great lmao!!

[@skabcat242]

That ending was great.

[@sharkMac]

Rare as platinum! Nice!

[@sharkMac]

Got a hold of cobra commander with his Mike pack and gun! That was a lucky find! Great review! Lol

[@summonersumnerus4364]

I might be the only one here who has no missing microphones so far, but hoses, Fast Draw's damn triggers, snow sai's etc, oh yeah.

[@magicsp00n]

My parents would superglue blasters into my Star Wars figures' hands so they wouldn't get lost.

[@DsG_1982]

ROTFLOL!! Bravo Michael, BRAVO 👏🏻

[@drskelebone]

Looking at the intro shot: Oh crap. Yeah. I had pretty much all of them, and I can recognize things I lost within seconds.

[@chrislorusso433]

I think I had a figure of Scoop as a kid, but I'd need to see what he looked like without all the accessories to be sure.

[@BenDowdy]

He looked like Steve Gutenberg.

[@dgray7537]

Michaels microplastic microphone migraines are fortunately something I avoided by being an incompleteist

[@francoisregis2155]

Same here some might say but your figure is not complete I say to them I know but I will live with it.

[@pyramidsong]

I had Scoop. I have zero memory of him other than without any of his helmet or tubing accessories. Yeah, you are speaking truth

[@jpittmaniv]

I didn’t even know Heavy Metal came with a mic until a few years ago. I got him in 1985 and I assume that I just threw away the mic with the box after opening the Mauler oblivious that a mic was included.

[@Linkman247]

Im not a GI Joe Collector. The only figure I have bought is the classified Gung Ho with a retro Gung Ho Head to make a German Mechanic for the Adventure series. And I love your point about small accessories. The Club Obi Wan Indy came with a vial of antidote, diamond and Nurhachi. Those things are going to be ridiculously easy to lose.

[@francoisregis2155]

Great video Micheal and also interesting love the way you imitate a guy working at Hasbro 🤣 I think you were on the spot. Its fun to see you have complete figures in your collection, always like your point of views on something. I often ask myself the same questions sometimes over designs why not making a molded microphone for lift ticket or heavy metal? Their helmets were already molded but that question we will never know…

[@stephens4175]

I had a lot of the early stuff brand new as a kid from 82 at least till 85, my younger brother carried the torch 87 and up but I remember items like on my whale and he had that Shuttle...oh my god I know what you mean here, brilliant video and that ending was Cherry!! awesome work!

[@treyjohnson4035]

Lost my Thunderhawk rockets first day,the push knife on my Rambo,and the sword and axes on my super ninja figure from the invisible warriors line named Gen. Frightor.back then there were sharp plastic weapons and the gauntlets were too..love to see a video on that line..the company was Lucky Bell.k mart or Woolworth's carried them

[@rongee7337]

YOU HAVE THE BEST EPISODES BRO!

[@SlimboneLSWC]

This is the greatest YT video I’ve ever seen. BRAVO!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[@ConfusionDistortion]

COBRA MAGGOT! One of my favs that I own. Literally one of the best vehicles that turns into a play set.

[@batangbatugan]

Our first GI-Joe was the Techno-Viper because he had Decepticon colors and he had so many accessories. A few years ago I picked up the 30th Anniversary version and he still came with the same thin, flimsy hoses as the vintage one!

[@AL-ws5yi]

I can relate but it’s not GI Joe. My Golden Dream Barbie doll had a diamond ring that you pop into Barbie’s hand. It was so small it went missing in a few hours lost in the deep crevices of my couch. And don’t get me started on Barbie’s shoes…

[@cristianof812]

All of the mics in my collection are pretty much repros at this point.

[@ericjohnson1289]

Now I know why a couple of my buddies glued these to helmets when they could.

[@Nijirain]

so nice and funny, man you should do "gijoe follies" more often :)

[@MrAvenger1975]

What the hell?! I always suspected my Lifticket was missing a mic. There's clearly a hole where one would fit. I always assumed that it simply never included one. I suppose it's possible that it was and just got thrown away with the packing inserts. 😒

[@erickavery1]

My coworkers are so confused why I burst out laughing...This change of clothes should be classified as a hostile work environment broke me lol

[@darthmaul33]

The '89 Rock N Roll is cool.

[@Arkhangel99]

Living during this time, i remember us as kids talking about how cool figures were that came with tons of accessories. This began with Ripcord and Storm Shadow and Scrap Iron (I believe that was wave 3). After that, each year they tried to up this as kids saw value in the number of accessories. And if they could carry or attach the stuff to the figure it was a bonus. So I imagine by 87 they were running out of ideas for new or unique accessories. The hoses were ridiculous and never stayed on and frayed at the ends. And most of the time we couldn't even figure out what they were suppose to do! I thought the Cobra La Guard had a breathing tube, not a microphone. Looking back, they were trying to add to the accessory count but not really thinking about practicality.

[@retroblasting]

Dude, it was attached to his head. Quit being pedantic.

[@Arkhangel99]

@@retroblasting I have no idea what you are thinking I was being pedantic about. I was a kid and that was what we concluded.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

I wonder how many if these atom sized things ended up in the intestinal tracts of the family pet....or baby.

[@curseoffenrir]

I doubt Hasbro had any idea the frenzied collectors this line would have 40 years later. I think collectors who were kids in the 80s are the first of their kind. Great video, thanks everyone at RetroBlasting! Always love Rock ‘n Roll and his Owen Wilson esque voice 😂 The biceps on that V2 Rock ‘n Roll tho and love how you snuck that Steel Brigade in and made him look the same scale 😂

[@LudwigPaiste28]

Mike delivers as always!

[@awesomefanger]

Sgt. Stalker lugging around his kayak and machine gun.

[@dennislogan6781]

Lowlight had a bipod for his rifle that was easily lost.

[@retroblasting]

And when I do the follow-up titled "My Gawd, the Bipod," I'll mention him and Dusty and Big Ben and all of the others that had bipods, but that's not really relevant to this video.

[@jeremykerr3871]

I feel so bad for my Hardtop figure,he's like Travolta in the boy in the bubble,while Payload and Countdown are free to wonder the gantry as they please,Hardtop is stuck in a small plastic case down in the control room,forced to watch the world go on without him.

[@kevinhicks9656]

Don't forget M.A.S.K FIGURES.

[@thunderrobots1980s]

lets not forget the weapons that always break , no matter how many times you replace it, such is the case with tmnts Nun chucks for me

[@bryanheinrich371]

fun video!

[@theflyingninja1]

For me, it was the kerium nuggets that came with Bravestarr figures, and the little red guns that came with Dino Riders figures. Those things got lost within nanoseconds.

[@sgzartan]

Good ending. In my opinion ,besides The Steel Brigade, The Night Force figures looked better after their upgrades.

[@xeroabyss9597]

I loved the redesigned Rock n Roll and Stalker figures 🖕🏼🤪🖕🏼

[@voxorox]

My main joy with the GI Joe figures when I was a kid was when I figured out how to dismantle them and mix-and-match the body parts. I think I still have a small box of parts laying around somewhere. No accessories, though.

[@robertdaniels2005]

I'm not sure if this was ever sold in the US. However, Hasbro Canada at least sold replacement equipment packs. These generally included weapons (including the Machine gun with the Bi-pod), several helmets and back packs, some helmet accessories (including helmet mounted binoculars which I don't remember any character having). There was one helmet mounted headset but unfortunately none of the microphones mentioned here. I'm sure there were other packs but I only ever saw one. I stopped collecting GI Joe in the early 90's. This was at least better than Star Wars figures that had no weapon packs that I ever saw. You'd think that Kenner would have at least have weapon packs for their Retro line. *SIGH* I guess Princess Leia's blaster is gone forever.

[@GrnChallenger]

I got a Tomahawk brand new back in the day & still have it, complete with Lift Ticket & box. I had no idea there was a helmet mic until recent years. It must have been lost instantly upon opening in 1986

[@TurtleTrackin]

Ace's helmet. That ridiculous black hose on armored Cobra Commander. Missiles on the Skystriker, etc. Missiles everywhere! And nowhere! We should have got an accessory pack for vehicles!

[@TurtleTrackin]

Oddly, Breaker was my first and favorite character. And I never lost the backpack and mic. (Till the transition to adulthood when Mom and Dad boxed everything up).

[@PlainKen]

Wow! Some of these figures I don't even remember that they have mics, or antennas.

[@cyberfrank-bx2nv]

fun topic, I was missing your sarcasm, D well, for me, it was no problemo, I was 13 in 82, when one starts to care more about their things I kept all the files and small stuff in bags, kept all the blueprints gi Joe was serious stuff to me, never cared that much about toys before... so now you know... good show bro

[@J-T-A]

Ah Paintball Snake Eyes…

[@kba702]

It's honestly freakish how Snake-Eyes managed to go from one of the coolest-dressed Joes to one of the dorkiest. Even in a unit full of football helmets, giraffe pants, and neon-green ninjas, he still managed to stand out in a bad way.

[@Zanaax25]

Just watching this stressed me out. Thinking of all the joes I still have but missing their parts. Let’s not forget get visors. 41 years later I still think about where I was when I lost Flash’s visor.

[@retroblasting]

I mentioned the visors... very clearly... at the start of the video.

[@efrainvelez1456]

Great tube , it was hilarious !

[@skunkworksstudios]

lol man I can remember diving into my toy chest looking for all those accessories. Mind numbing.

[@OfficialCesarValdez]

I still remember vividly when I lost roadblock’s rifle Bipod in some bushes. I searched forever trying to find it to no avail. Total needle in a haystack.😢

[@markstevens9249]

I have the same problem with the model trains I collect, one good example is an exploding boxcar from 1961 where the sides that make up the car are rare are often lost. For toy safety reasons since the 70's it's never been remade.

[@eksit101]

Omg. I want a bob and Vincent. I'm so glad I chose vision, indies, and bones over joes. They did kill it that year! 🤣

[@russelllemieux]

The other day I dropped a blast effect ...That thing strait up disappeared. Just noticed a magazine is gone to and it at the front of the room ...And yeah I lost all my cessories at a tender age of 8 who knows maybe I ate em all ???

[@comicsgatekeeper9746]

That joe is right about avatar. They're instantly forgettable

[@gerainthorton8980]

How many people watched this video and realised. Damn I have missing pieces.🙋‍♂ Me looking at Falcon's antenna and Outbacks' flashlight. It does highlight the frustration of these lines we love but no one talks about. It could take half an hour to get all of your figures with their accessories and you are ready to play. Then your mate knocks on the door and it's time to go outside.

[@Toy-Master]

The lesson in this video acceptance to enjoy things as they are and resignation that you will probably die die before you ever complete some of these vintage toys .that's the conclusion I have come to with my mattel space 1999 Eagle and all it's small part's 👍