X-Entertainment | New Article: The G.I. Joe Train!

New Article: The G.I. Joe Train!

My friend Brian's been asking me to do this one for years, so here it is: a review of the G.I. Joe Electric Train & Battle Set, by Tyco in 1983. Pretty cool, actually -- you might assume this is one of the more generic military Joe toys, and it kind of is, but there's still a little Cobra going on. Review includes a firsthand look and a download for the original commercial, so go. Go get jiggly with it. Go now.

Posted by Matt on 11/17/2003. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 71 comments

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That’s the Tyco Turbo Train Cameron T. I don’t know if you can put pictures in here or not.
Nope, sure can’t.
Useless trivia, The Turbo Train’s engine is used as a mold for some MST3000 Tom Servo Parts.

Chestnuts roasted by katubaradanikto @ 11/19/2003 4:13 PM

I had the Transformers train set. Was VERY cool. All the train bits transformed into combat train modes and it was full of little robots who you could have fight over the train.

Chestnuts roasted by Bloodcat @ 11/21/2003 12:11 PM

I heard they have action figures based on this train thing. Only they are bigger with more movement.

Chestnuts roasted by R Hunter @ 11/21/2003 10:05 AM

I found this link showing the GI Joe train set and other cool ones like the Transformers, MASK, A-Team, and Rambo.

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/tycotrains/id55.html

Looks like trains were the cool thing to have back in the days. I didn’t like the size issue. So I stuck with the USS Flagg and the Space Shuttle play sets. They kicked major ass. Till I had to give them to my stupid little cousin. I haven’t seen most of my vehicles in 10 years. Anger rising….rising…..

Chestnuts roasted by Yeti Hunter @ 11/21/2003 1:34 PM

My brother had this train set. Dad ended up building a city for it. Lateron, we destroyed it. I guess that is what happens with war

Chestnuts roasted by Zeppie0802@yahoo.com @ 11/21/2003 8:18 PM

Man, I never understand these people who complain about Joes being easy to break. What the hell did you do with them?

We buried a few in the back yard on accident a few times and dug them up years later and they were find.

Sadly enough, my dad does have a giant room set aside solely for huge train sets. And he’s done jack with it for 15 years. Pisses my mom off.

We didn’t have the "official" GI Joe train set but we did have a ton of army train cars for our trains. A howitzer, a hospital car, a transport car, and a spotlight car if I can remember correctly. We also had those tiny tiny army men out the yin yang growing up. I remember being miffed watching Toy Story because the Army Men were huge.

Chestnuts roasted by Regault @ 11/23/2003 5:44 PM

I always wanted one of those GI Joe train stes abd I wasn’t even a GI Joe fan. I would have had it run over the bad guys.

Chestnuts roasted by planet garp @ 11/24/2003 11:34 PM

Oh man, I used to have that thing. It broke within a record time of four hours.

But, even though the train didn’t move anymore, it was still a great source of good chewable plastic figurines.

Chestnuts roasted by RadishAttack @ 11/25/2003 11:57 AM

Slap the name of any franchise you want on ‘em…train sets are GAY!

Well,unless you did a Gemm is truly truly truly outRAgeous express or an Empire Strikes Back "Rebels on Hoth Supply Convoy" set,nonetheless…the futility of the electric trains eternal circuit makes for some nil replay value.

Chestnuts roasted by Rudolph @ 11/26/2003 4:56 AM

Dude!, that f’ing rocks! I had this toy and loved it till I buried all the joes in a big dirt pile and used the power pack for making homemade "remote" controled cars. Thanks for the memories and yes that box is huge!

Chestnuts roasted by Dave @ 12/24/2003 1:08 AM

I just bought my 4-yr old son the 1985 Transformer Train for $300. Is that bad?? Not in it’s box, but the person that had it said everything is with it and he’s had it in his attic since he was a teen. I’m trying to find a list of all the contents, just so I could see. It’s in great condition! A couple of stickers fell off though.

Chestnuts roasted by Holly @ 12/24/2003 11:07 PM

HOLY SHIT! i had completely forgotten the fact that i owned this toy, and it was awesome, and i want it back.

Chestnuts roasted by Charlie @ 02/03/2004 11:50 AM

I had one of these. It was freakin great untill my hellspawn of a sister broke it.

Chestnuts roasted by Joe 70006 @ 02/07/2004 1:56 PM

I had the aircraft carrier. It took up my entire room, but, damn, the stories you could tell/play… The only problem was that you got locked into sea battles, and cobra’s base (that circular thing with the jet that shot out of the middle…can’t remember the name) ended uphaving to sit on the bed, which wasn’t so sturdy.

If I remember, that thing’s still sitting under my parents’ bed. My dad still tells awful stories of how "Santa" almost got his head crushed getting the box out of the attic where they hid my toys.

Oh, and the Admiral figure was pretty sweet…much cooler than Mr. Sailer and Sgt. Parrot.

Chestnuts roasted by Craig @ 02/10/2004 1:40 AM

The Cobra base that shot the jet out of the top was called "The Terror Dome"

Chestnuts roasted by Robin. HLB A @ 02/28/2004 10:02 PM

Omigawd, this frigging thing ruled my little 8 year old world! My room was dwarfed by the massive cardboard playmat but I played with that train set for like 6 months straight. I kept buying (same scale) trains so that I could have Cobra attack the Joes. And I even created my own parachute so that I could "drop in" like my cheap plastic counterparts. Luckily for me I never was able to get on top the house to try it out.

Chestnuts roasted by James @ 03/01/2004 12:31 PM

I had that very train set a young lad. I also had the transformer train set as well. My dad built got a bunch of extra track pieces and made us a sweet set up in our basement. Ahh, those were the days, playing train wars between the GI Joes and the transformers, see which train wouldn’t derail in a head on crash.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve @ 05/26/2004 11:38 PM

I say, this GI JOES train set came with the same exact play-mat as the Transformers train set. I used to have the transformers train set, and whilst it came with fewer accesories, the mini, HO-Scale robots were very cool. They looked like cybertronian versions of some real Transformers, and were kid of a hard rubber that allowed them to last.

Chestnuts roasted by Robo Dude Charles Monataque-Hurly IV @ 05/28/2004 2:09 PM

Where did you get the train? rockin site dude!!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by spencer the great @ 04/21/2007 9:55 PM

Because when you need to move the tonnage of men and materiel behind enemy lines and giant lizards, you’ll want to rely on a 4-wheel industrial switcher to do it. Feel the power!

Chestnuts roasted by Nelson @ 06/20/2007 12:06 AM

”To tell you the truth, i wasn’t into trains ,like my older brother was,…BUT …The 1986 COBRA NIGHT RAVEN S3P BLACK V.I.P.JET TRANSPORT PLANE!”…Now that is the perfect vehicle to purchase, back in 1986 when..BOTH..the g.i.joe aircraft carrier ,u.s.s. flagg(about$80.00) ,and the cobra terror drome(about $50.00/more) were TOO PRICEY”.

Chestnuts roasted by ''RAVEN'' @ 04/22/2011 4:16 PM

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