20th Anniversary

On November 10th, 1999, I posted two write ups of G.I. Joe figures on some obscure web space that was given to me by a friend.  These two little blurbs were created as a response to the prevailing attitude among collectors of the day that anything made after 1987 was terrible and anything made after 1989 was even worse.  I felt that there were many gems from all years of vintage Joe releases.  And, categorically dismissing something due to the release year was shortsighted by fans of the time.  So, I came up with a way to spotlight some of the more obscure, but still insanely cool figures from all Joe years.

The site's history has taken many turns.  From that early webspace, I moved to a new domain of my own.  This held up through 2004.  At that point, my old web host went out of business and the site disappeared.  In the summer of 2005, though, Beav at JoeCustoms.com offered me some blogging space on the JoeCustoms.com domain.  Here, new profiles were resurrected and I happily blogged away until 2007.  At that point, I moved to another web hosted domain and reposted all of the site's archives.  All was fine here until 2009 when the site went dark.  At the time, I was pretty down on Joe and mostly removed myself from the community.  I didn't think I'd come back.

In 2012, though, that changed.  I had some time in the beginning of the year and was also able to buy several of the figures that I had always wanted but never tracked down.  I discovered several new Joe sites that were producing amazing content and that a few of my old favorites were still around.  I started writing about Joes again in April of 2012.  Shortly thereafter, I put my old archives back online and even published many of my unfinished drafts and incomplete ideas.  The two blogs hit a technical snafu in 2014 and I lost most of the work.  But, a discovery of an old back up in 2015 brought me back online with this current iteration of the site.

I lament missing a couple of years.  But, that's mostly because the year by year chronology at the right of the screen has gaps in it.  (I did attempt a slight comeback in 2010.  I posted up two or three profiles on a new site.  But, I had 10 MB of image storage.  So, that didn't last long.  But, it is also home to my lost Grand Slam profile along with a slew of photos that were unique and excellent and can never be recreated.)  But, everyone needs some breaks from the hobby.  And, with over 1000 posts over the past 20 years, I've still averaged about one item per week for two decades.

In looking back at the two decades I've spent doing this, I can see my progression as a collector.  In 1999 and 2000, I was a wide eyed optimist who found the great in all the Joe world had to offer.  From 2001 through 2003, I was getting a bit jaded.  But, still toed the "Hasbro" line.  In 2004, though, I started to get fed up with Hasbro's choices.  At that time, I stopped buying the JvC sculpts and focused, instead, on solely vintage style releases.  From 2005 through 2009, I was bitter at Hasbro and generally unhappy with the way the community had gone.  In 2012, I refreshed my thinking and that helped me appreciate the hobby one again.

But, since then, I've slowly become the grumpy old man of Joe collecting who hates the club, despises Hasbro's treatment of the line and its collectors and doesn't see anything wrong with factory custom producers recreating anything and everything to help keep the hobby alive.  I'm not a fan of the new breed of super collector who wants every Joe figure to be a $100 collectible that's kept locked in a case, away from hands and eyes.  I think the toys are now very over-priced and don't like that many items I have owned since I got them for less than $1 each are now worth 50 to 70 times that.  Dropping a box of Joes used to mean $50 and a week's worth of time to replace them.  Now, it's two months of my mortgage if my 1993 army builders get broken.

1990's G.I. Joe collectors were early 20-somethings trying to find ourselves and feel out what being a collector meant.  The early 2000's brought the greatest resurgence of Joe collecting we'll ever see.  Massive retail releases and late 20's careers meant that collectors established themselves as a force.  The 25th Anniversary brought in hordes of toy collectors who didn't really care about Joe.  They nearly ruined the hobby.  The movies made it worse and poisoned the Joe brand for a decade.  The post 2018 price surge has been brought by trash pickers trying to make a buck off a community that isn't as mature as it's age would dictate.  We stand on the precipice of a new movie attempting to (once again!) resurrect the G.I. Joe brand.  It's doubtful that Joe toys will become a retail force again.  But, it's also unlikely that a movie will pass without at least some attempt by Hasbro to sell toys.

By then, I'll have started my third decade of writing about the line, what it means to me and how the community stands at any given time.  For sure, the tools that I use and the avenue to reach collectors will change again.  I'll follow the technology as it matures and will hang around, doing this, for as long as I can.  I'm at a point now where the reminiscing about the line and days gone by are my primary joys of collecting.  Having tons of toys in boxes and tubs is a pain.  Moving them is worse.  But, I still enjoy taking the figures outside and photographing them.  The blog gives me an avenue to post the pictures with some thoughts about the figures within them.  The photos have an organization that prevents them from falling into the black hole of social media noise.  I get a bit of satisfaction from that.

I end this anniversary post with a thank you to all the collectors who stop by every day.  Since coming back in 2015, pages on this site have been viewed nearly half a million times.  Thousands of collectors have stopped by through the various iterations.  Each visit is something very important to me as they let me know there are others out there to whom Joe means a great deal.  That is something we all share.  I let my grumpiness get in the way of that, sometimes.  But, it's the bond that keeps this community alive through the thick and thin.  I've seen my share of each but intend to stick around to see even more.

Thanks for all of your support through 20 years!