We all have vivid childhood toy memories. One stands out for me. I was out shopping with my mom and we stopped at a store called Bradlees on Rt. 23 in Wayne, NJ. Bradlees was a discount department store. In North Jersey, where I grew up, Bradlees and Jamesway were the predecessors to Target and Walmart. Both are now, predictably, out of business. Anyway, as a kid there was only one place in these stores that was worth a damn and that was the toy isles. You walk in, hightail it back taking whatever shortcuts you needed to, and spent the duration of your parents shopping trip checking out the glorious toys.

Well, on one auspicious day in 1982, my nine year old self turned the corner to the Bradlees toy section action figure isle and froze like a deer in the headlights. Hanging on the pegs was the brand new first series of a line of action figures that would run uninterrupted for the next twelve years: G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero. Now, I wasn’t the kid who got a toy every time we went shopping. I got toys pretty much on two dates, March 3rd and December 25th. But somehow my mom must’ve seen my enraptured face and taken pity, for that day I went home with Rock ‘n Roll. Funny how we went about making those choices. I guess I liked how he had ammo wrapped around his chest or something. Please, if you recall your very first RAH G.I. Joe,  let us know who it was in the comments!

This first wave of RAH Joes are cool for the fact that they’re just, well, army men (and lady) soldiers. Olive green fatigues. Specialties like: Infantry Trooper, Ranger, and Bazooka Soldier. It wouldn’t be long before the Joe team needed to recruit some pretty unique skill sets!

I’m a collector of vintage 3 3/4″ scale figures. Most vintage lines had fairly limited runs. Maybe a dozen figures at most. G.I. Joe? Endless. But these figures were such a huge part of my childhood that I couldn’t leave them out of my collection. Since wave 1 is so burned into my nostalgic brain I decided to piece together all the figures from that series. Some, like my original Rock ‘n Roll, I still had. Well, recently I completed my little collection. Now, granted, most are swivel-arm which means they are not technically series one. So please overlook that bit of inconsistency as you read on!

I’m sure much has been written and photographically catalogued about this iconic wave of figures. All I’d like to do in this blog is introduce the “good guy” characters and then exhibit what pieces each figured shared. Let’s start with the cast:

Oh, yeah, this guy too:

OK, nowadays its pretty uncommon to get 16 figures in a debut wave. (Not part of this blog are Cobra, Cobra Officer, and Cobra Commander.) But in 1982, if you collected all the single carded figures and vehicles with a pack-in figure and mailed away for Cobra Commander, that’s what you got. No doubt, in an effort to save some moolah, Hasbro created this small army by mixing and matching a few common pieces. Below is my effort to identify which pieces were reused in creating wave one. Let’s start with the heads…

The aloof four.

The “cool” crowd. (To be cool you had to have: a beard and rolled up sleeves.)

The Brooklyn accent three.

And now, torsos:

Good example here of how using the same piece can be camoflauged (no pun intended) so that you don’t really notice.

Obviously, Flash and Grand Slam called each other before leaving the house.

OK, now the guns!

Legs!

Pretty much a G.I. Joe A Chorus Line going on here…

So, what parts does that leave in the line that are unique? Well, for starters, Scarlett – head to toe. Also, Rock ‘n Roll and Clutch’s torsos. Steeler’s torso and arms. Stalker’s head. Snake Eye’s head and upper legs. Again, if I’ve neglected something or made the extremely uncommon error, please let me know!

Perhaps for a future blog I will write about the one other vivid staring-at-a-brand-new-line-on-the-pegs memory I have.
Location:Rockaway Mall K-B Toys
Toy Line: Masters of the Universe.
Whew, that one is seared in my mind, too.

Now ya know…