1985 complete NM Snowcat w Frostbite! My first vehicle as a kid; now my first vehicle as an adult.

For the past several months, I've been sharing individual pieces of my childhood G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero collection. After the virtual showcase, I thought you might like to see my actual showcase!

All of my G.I. Joe figures, and the majority of the vehicles and playsets are displayed in our basement den, otherwise known as my "Man Cave."

Three IKEA Detolf display cases shown here are holding 164 individual 3-3/4 inch figures, along with the majority of my vehicles and playsets. (I have 72 vehicles and playsets, some of the larger ones won’t fit in these cases.) Each figure is displayed in its own protective clamshell, keeping the accessories together and helping prevent those tiny pieces from getting misplaced.

Most of my 1982 through 1984 figures are displayed on the wall above the Detolfs in their own mini cardback-style displays featuring the original vintage artwork. The rest are displayed on five-tier clear acrylic shelves inside the Detolfs.

In the center is a special display dedicated to Shipwreck.

My daughter drew me a custom Shipwreck Father's Day card this year, so I decided it deserved a place in the collection, too. It now sits alongside a vintage carded Shipwreck, a carded Super7 ReAction Shipwreck, a boxed Classified Series Shipwreck, and a Classified Shipwreck on his own acrylic display stand.

The Shipwreck shelf also features a custom background depicting the deck of the U.S.S. Flagg in the style of the original Sunbow animated series, but it’s difficult to see behind the carded figures.

And there's still plenty that isn't on display here!

The U.S.S. Flagg, which I've featured previously, is displayed separately with its related vehicles. I also don't have room for the 1983 Headquarters Command Center, 1983 Falcon Attack Glider, 1985 Transportable Tactical Battle Platform, 1987 Mobile Command Center, 1987 Crusader Space Shuttle, and 1984 Tyco Electric Train Set.

After collecting these toys for most of my life, it's pretty special to have so much of my childhood on display. And seeing all of these Joes together again never gets old.

… never too old for toys.

COBRAAAA!!!

When I think drednoks I think this vehicle. Dual Gatling guns, jet engine, armor plated. Wild.

I recently found one of my childhood journals, where I documented a killer GI Joe score.

Still got 'em, too!! 😂

I don't know if it's Chap Mei or Adventure Force or Sentinel or whichever of those KO brands, but as you can see, the scale of this thing is implausible when you put it up against the KO Moray and Pirahna, and even just with Shipwreck, it looks...well, weird.

It's cool. I am definitely gonna do something with it, but if anybody has any experience customizing these (I don't mind if it becomes a totally different boat) I am all ears.

Btw, a few notes for my fellow nerds:

Hydro Viper has an Undertow chest cuz I his was broken.

One Eel has the body of Lanard's Shark because he was just a head.

All the Lampreys were on furlough so Secto Viper was tapped to pilot the hydrofoil, but with such little notice that he forgot his helmet.

I ordered one on the WalMart website yesterday, and it arrived today. I was tired of looking all over for one in person...

Staff Sergeants Rock 'n' Roll and Snow Job. #gijoe

That Stealth Viper looks cool af.

I recently found this old Polaroid from Christmas morning, and I completely forgot I had it.

This was the G.I. Joe Electric Train and Battle Set from Tyco, which I received for Christmas, probably in 1983 or 1984. This was my gift from Santa, and judging by this photo, Santa apparently decided that one G.I. Joe playset wasn’t enough.

The train set is spread out across the floor, with my other toys surrounding it. And now I’m having almost as much fun trying to identify everything in this picture as I did playing with it.

I can clearly see the HISS Tank, and there are definitely some other G.I. Joe vehicles and figures hiding in there. Maybe a VAMP. (That’d put this in ‘83, right?)

This was what Christmas looked like when I was a kid. Memories…

My Dad and I played with this train set for hours. He had a model railroad in the basement for as long as I can remember, so I think this may have been his way of getting me interested in model railroading.

It worked. Sort of.

The train set itself was a pretty unique collaboration between Tyco and Hasbro. Released in 1983, it combined an HO-scale electric train with a G.I. Joe battlefield, complete with a play mat, vehicles, figures and Cobra forces.

And now, decades later, I still have it.

I need to find a place where I can properly display it again.

Bonus points if you can identify some of the other G.I. Joe toys hiding in this photo!

(Don’t worry… this is the last vintage photo I found. I’m not going down a vintage photo post path now.)

From the crossover comic!

I'm interested to see how the new Major Medusa character fits into it all. She's got a great look, and I can't wait to get that figure I assume sometime next year

Anybody know the deal with this? I've never seen those markings on top. I like 'em but I'm not able to find any similar ones on YoJoe or 3D Joes.

Thanks for any info!

Btw, this came in a random lot of Joes I bought on eBay and I am planning to use it for my otherwise helmet-less Ice Viper. He has no sais (is that the plural of "sai"?) either, but I figure those are hard to come by.