Contest Alert! Win a Copy of the Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe 1982-1994 Vol. 2
ATTENTION: This contest is over. Thanks for your interest!
Thanks to the fine people at Krause Publishing, I snagged a copy of The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe 1982-1994 to give away to one fine Toy Bender fan (or ToyBendinite as you often refer to yourselves at the chapter meetings). That’s right, true believers! You could get your very own copy of the premier G.I. Joe collecting by Mark Bellomo. That’s a 26.99 value for free! I’ll be giving my impressions of the book soon, but here’s the quick and dirty version if you’re on the fence about entering the contest: It’s great and you should have it.
There are three ways to qualify:
1. Post a comment below stating what G.I. Joe figure or vehicle is your favorite toy from the line and why. Include your real email so I can get your address if you win.
2. Become a fan of the Toy Bender Facebook page.
3. Follow me on Twitter.
Each of the above items will give you an entry into the contest, so that’s up to three entries! If you already follow me on Twitter and/or are a fan on Facebook, send me a message to WinBigPrizesWinBigMoney@gmail.com telling me who you are so I can give you credit (sometimes nicknames don’t match up, so I can’t remember who is who).
One random person will win themselves a copy of the book! Winner will be announced July 17th.
Thanks again to Krause Publications, publishers of fine hobby books and magazines. They’re also located in Wisconsin like I am now, so Wisconsin pride… or whatever.
A special thanks goes out to Mr. Bellomo.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:07 am
My favorite Joe toy of all time is Blowtorch. Reasons: sentimental value. For a fuller explanation you can check my toyblog and look for my post on Blowtorch.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:22 am
My favorite G.I. Joe toy is 1983 Airborne, he a gun with a knife on it, what the hell did Snake Eyes have? An uzi submachine gun and a purse. That’s not a Real American Hero in my book!
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
My favorite GI Joe vehicle of all time would have to be… the USS Flagg, if all else, because of the massive size and the insane amount of pieces.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:43 am
My Favorite G.I.Joe toy of all was time was Destro he was the ultimate Kool villain with his Shiny Chrome mask he just stood out above the rest of the line up at that time and his outfit was pimped out, he had a chain with a emerald on it lol i really loved my Destro as a kid and have many great memories of Mr.McCullen as a kid and all the fun i had with my joes it was a great time for many of us im sure hope i win that great book looks pretty nice !
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
My favorite GI Joe character from the 80s line is Falcon. Excellent sculpting, great gear and great filecard. Horrible portrayal in animated nightmare, but I can get over that. Just a great character!
My favorite GI Joe vehicle is the Defiant Shuttle Complex - a massive beast that is just incredible.
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
My favorite vehicle is the Cobra Night Raven. yea it is a big jet but it is 2 toys in one with the mini jet on back. It can swoop down on the joes before they know it drop thier bombs on them and be gone just like that. thats why it is my fav. toy.
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Mutt w/ Junkyard. It’s a figure that includes his own partner, how cool is that. Timber and Freedom and the other animal pack-ins are not the same, they’re pets. Mutt and Junkyard are a team. Mutt was a cool figure in the 80s, an he got a great upgrade in the 25th line.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
If I’m already following you on Twitter, would doing the thing here increase my chances?
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Monty, yes. You’d have two chances. One for twitter, one for here. You’d get three if you did those things and then followed toybender on facebook.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:06 pm
It’s so difficult to choose. Frag Viper was awesome because my friends and I used to play Predator 2 before there were any Predator figures. Frag Viper was our stand-in Predator because of his bad ass Predator-like mask and his grenade thrower claw.
Then we’d gather up whatever Joes and Cobras were covered from head to toe (so they couldn’t be seen in infrared) and when they died they’d be hung upside down from the underside metal lattice of the fold-out bed couch (the meat processing plant).
We loved our GI Joes too much to ever behead any. Well…until we outgrew them.
Frag Viper was pretty cool as a Cobra Viper as well.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:19 pm
My favorite toy from the line was the Terror Drome. I never had any of the other big bases/vehicles, but I did have this and it was awesome. Unfortanetly it didn’t survive, though I don’t remember exactly what happened to it.
My favorite figure was probably Flint, though I don’t know of any particular reason why.
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Alright then. My favorite Joe has always been Shipwreck. Well, the Cartoon Shipwreck. It’s mainly because he’s always reminded me a bit of myself. He was a slacker, but could be tough and hardworking when needed. But, more importantly, he was ALWAYS cracking jokes. Even in the middle of a big battle. And then there was his animal companion, Polly. Even Polly was hilarious. The most sarcastic parrot ever. How can you not love all that?
Plus, Shipwreck has an epic beard.
July 4th, 2009 at 12:16 am
My favorite Joe figure is the 1992 Mail Away Ninja Viper. I always saw him in the order forms but never got him as a kid. Now I own close to 30 of those guys.
July 4th, 2009 at 7:58 am
My favorite Joe was always Sgt. Slaughter. There were several reasons for this:
-I was also a big wrestling fan, and this figure connected two things I really liked back then.
-Slaughter was a real person, which made his action figure that much cooler.
-I was never able to get any mail-away figures, as I didn’t have the money to buy enough figures to get the required number of flag points or what-have-you, plus shipping. I wanted Slaughter’s action figure so bad, but I couldn’t get him, either. I lucked out big time and found him at a garage sale a few months after the commercials stopped airing. As the lone mail-away figure I was actually able to somehow acquire, Sgt. Slaughter became one of my prized possessions.
-Since the only action figure line I was able to get more than a few of was Masters of the Universe, I frequently mixed figures from other lines in with my MOTU stuff. Due to that, Sgt. Slaughter often made an appearance as hired muscle for Skeletor. I have some insanely fun memories of Slaughter locking Stratos into his Cobra Clutch finisher!
July 4th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I like Bazooka Joe. His gum was great.
July 4th, 2009 at 10:47 am
My favorite vehicle is probably the H.A.V.O.C., it’s one that I always wanted as a kid, probably because it was featured so much in the movie, but didn’t get until I got back into collecting as an adult. The thing throws realism completely out of the window, but in this case I just don’t care. I was so happy when I got this that I definitely felt like a kid again. Brought back tons of memories of watching the cartoon and using some other generic space jeep that I had and pretending it was the HAVOC. They looked nothing alike whatsoever but that’s how much I wanted it as a kid.
July 4th, 2009 at 11:38 am
i love all the females in the line:baroness-lady jaye-covergirl-one from the october guard
if i had missed any i apoligigize
per437@aol.com
July 4th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Breaker has always been my favorite. He was the first one I bought in 1982, still have him today. The entire line had a huge impact on me picking my career as a Soldier.
July 5th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
There were two that were my favorites - Cobra Commander and Cobra Officer. Those were the first two figures that I ever bought when I was a kid. Looking back, their design was a classic.
July 5th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I’m going to go with a recent favorite: Barrel Roll. Snipers are awesome, guys in disguise are awesome, so a sniper in a disguise is doouble-awesome. That’s so awesome that it needs an extra O in “double.” plus, he’s based on a real person, and he and his brother became a big part of the comics…
July 7th, 2009 at 1:38 am
My favorite is Airborne. He was the only Joe I thought that looked like me and the first figure I bought with my own money that I had earned from working.
July 7th, 2009 at 5:34 am
My fave character was always Snake-Eyes (all the versions are cool in their own special way.)because he was the man of mystery. Silent, super deadly, and a jack-of-all trades.
I always enjoyed the turmoil surrounding his origins, his romantic entanglement with Scarlett, his turmoil with Storm Shadow, and his use on the JOE Team as the man to get the job done when all else fails.
There’s also that air of the mystical that surrounds him too, which always attracted me to the character.
For me no one tops Snake-Eyes. Larry Hama created one of the most iconic characters ever when he thought up that masked man with the wolf.
Anyone who can survive radiation poisoning, be an elite member of the Arashikage clan, kick ass in Vietnam, deal with the death of his sister, remain ultimately disciplined, and score with a hot red-head without ever saying a word, is AWESOME by my standards.
Snake-Eyes is the ultimate JOE, he’s the last line of defense in a team made up to be the last line of defense.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:35 am
It’s funny because I have favorites for nearly each year, but one that stands out is a later oddball: Range Viper. Those monkeys eat bugs and kick ass. And they have skull masks. So yeah, be neon blue, but wear a skull mask and win. Having funky ordnance helps too!
July 7th, 2009 at 11:13 am
For some reason, Dusty always stood out for me, even as a kid. He retained a realistic, military look, but at the same time, really stood out with his desert camo fatigues, cloth “neck cover” (not sure what it’s really called), camo face paint and bullpup assault rifle (w/bipod!). He got a lot of play as a kid - unfortunately losing his gun and a thumb in the process. He was one of the first vintage Joes I picked up when I started collecting too.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
My Favorite Joe Toy was the Killer Whale Hovercraft. This toy was my favorite in the comic, and growing up in a Navy household made me love this toy even more.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
My favorite vehicle was the Rolling Thunder. I saved up money for a long time when I was really young for the thing. Once I got it home it was awesome battle after awesome battle. It had freaking cluster bombs in the rockets!
(By the way, I’m not the same Shawn as the other Shawn above.)
July 8th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Shawn (the second) I figured it wasn’t you when he mentioned he was in the military, unless you made some huge career change recently.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Paul - You don’t know what it is like out here these days.
I figured you did, I just wanted to clarify for clarification’s sake.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
My favorite G.I. Joe is Blackstar.
He was the only figure I had that didn’t break in half from my destructive play habbits.