I'm a huge Transformers fan, but
oddly enough one of my favorite memories revolves around my 6th birthday
(1983) when I received the massive GI Joe ARAH Headquarters. Before
my parents bought me the HQ my grandmother had taken me earlier for
lunch and to pick out a toy for my birthday. I always thought that was
cool of my grandmother to let us choose opposed to buying us some random
toy for our birthday. After a quick lunch at Wendy's we went across
the street to a store called Rose's (very similar to the early days of
Walmart). I had my choice of a lot of different toys, but ended up
going w/ the GI Joe M.O.B.A.T. tank.
Already having the tank in hand it
made my excitement that much more upon unwrapping that large HQ. I
wanted to immediately rip into the box and start setting up the playset
right there in the middle of my birthday party, but alas my dad made me
wait in fear of losing any parts. I swear for the rest of the party I
wasn't the best behaved 6 year old as I was ready for my friends to go
home so I could set up the new Joe HQ!
Once I had the chance to finally
sit down and pull out all the parts I was in heaven. One thing I liked
about the old Joe toys was building the vehicles and playsets. As cool
as the inner workings of the base were I loved the two bays on each
side. Once it was set up I was quick to park my new M.O.B.A.T. tank in
the repair bay. It was much later before I was able to get the V.A.M.P.
jeep to park in the other side of the base.
I kept all of my Joe toys for a
long long time, but like a lot of kids growing up my parents sold most
of my toys when I got older. It wasn't until a few years ago when I
bought the HQ again to "Cobra-ize" that these memories were re-kindled.
(all pictures courtesy of YoJoe.com)
I never had any of the bigger playsets, or playsets in general. And that's definitely cool of your grandmother to let you pick out a toy. And it is quite surprising that this was not Transformers related. :)
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