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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

first post… I think I actually had this thing.. but it doesn’t make sense since I was only one when it came out.

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 11/17/2003 6:07 PM

They kept this in the stores for years after it initially came out, so you very well may have owned it. Although there was also another GI Joe train set, so you could have owned that instead. Or maybe you didn’t own either and you’re just thinking about the train from Silver Spoons.

Chestnuts roasted by Brian Jacks @ 11/17/2003 6:16 PM

Crashing through the sky comes a fearfull cry cobra, COBRA!

Chestnuts roasted by Scourge @ 11/17/2003 6:44 PM

Did anybody here ever have the Space Vehicle Launch Complex? That thing came in a box the size of a washing machine crate.

Chestnuts roasted by Hamburger Man @ 11/17/2003 6:54 PM

I’m fourth :)
I’m special :)

Has there ever been an X-E group outing? We should have a convention and all watch shitty 80′s movies and play with toys :)

Chestnuts roasted by *Applesauce* @ 11/17/2003 7:15 PM

Applesauce – if by fourth you mean fifth, then yes, you are. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 11/17/2003 7:33 PM

These ol’ blogs are filled with good folk that are good at figuring out what stuff is. So, some one help me out. I got this blue cube with jiggly eyes that turns into an elephant. It’s by Tomy and its from the 80′s. Any clue Any one?

Chestnuts roasted by kennef @ 11/17/2003 9:11 PM

I don’t care for Will Smith’s songs.

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 11/17/2003 9:23 PM

Just picture Storm Shadow saying "Choo Choo" there…
I mean, really go into your mind and have the voice artist of Storm Shadow say "Choo Choo"

Friggin’ hilarious!

Chestnuts roasted by AlphaCentaurian @ 11/17/2003 9:29 PM

I’m sure Will Smith and all of his fans along with all his money plus his not so bad lookin wife are all crying together becuase some kid who loves pikachu doesn’t care about Will Smith’s song.

Chestnuts roasted by karl byotch @ 11/17/2003 9:36 PM

"Did Destro know?" Ha! Of course he did. And me did too. I received it Christmas ’84, have the red-eyed, crazy haired, pajama bottoms only pictures to prove it too. I remember the track being so metal. Not like "rock out." More like, "eh, not a bad build." I grew up to be Kansas City Southern’s first laser-rifle totin’ conductor. Toot, toot! Ya’ll stop it with that there grafitti artin’ now! Toot, toot!

Chestnuts roasted by the Unstoppable @ 11/17/2003 10:52 PM

I keep farting, my pc room reeks, freakin spin doctors are on the radio. Yet my heart bleeds for the GI JOE electric trainset…

Chestnuts roasted by spazzamatic @ 11/18/2003 12:24 PM

I want to give everybody a big ol heads up

ABC is going to show A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on Sunday at 7 pm. Everybody should watch, and bask in the glory of toast…. TOAST!

Chestnuts roasted by Tony @ 11/18/2003 12:33 PM

G.I. Joe was never on my top list of cartoons to watch back in the 80′s. I was an Astroboy fan, meself. A whole nother breed. As for the train set, I had a friend that owned it, and I just chewed on a lot of the Cobra clan. Yeah, so I wasn’t THAT old, but that’s beside the point. Team Cobra tastes delicious in the hands of a 4 year old. Fare thee well!

Chestnuts roasted by Armagideon Time @ 11/18/2003 1:00 AM

Hey man, love the site

I’m wondering, will you be putting out any more reviews of Macy’s parades? I LOVED the 1984 one.

thanks a million

Brian A. Henegar

Chestnuts roasted by Brian Henegar @ 11/18/2003 1:53 AM

Damn….My parents never let me have GI Joe…though ofcourse i was 2 when this came out.
I did have a train set that i blew up with m-80s…though it was in my Gomez Addams phase.

Chestnuts roasted by Bfett @ 11/18/2003 3:01 AM

After reading about the greatness of this set, I can only wonder about its Cybertronian counterpart. Yes, they had a Transformers train set, too, but its a lot rarer than the Joe trains from what I hear. Still, if you ever manage to get your hands on it, you ought to have the two trains fight…somehow.

Chestnuts roasted by Moai Ou @ 11/18/2003 3:18 AM

twenty-or-so years later, you actually opened the darned thing…..
an idiot collector would’ve paid more than double the original cost…..
and that’s an "idiot" collector….
you’ve got a great piece there……..
probably worth a pretty penny…..
ugly pennies need not apply

Chestnuts roasted by oneless @ 11/18/2003 3:29 AM

I almost forgot about those parachutes. After the string pulled out of the circle tabs I did the plastic shopping bag thing. That sucked too.

I chucked the crusty plastic toys and used stompers. The military ones. Whatever hapened to those.

Chestnuts roasted by savemejebus @ 11/18/2003 3:29 AM

damn, after reading the comments from the other people commenting (comment, comment…..you get the idea………)
i feel old……
but hey, i collect 8tracks (ever heard of those, young’uns?) so old is the way i should feel :)
i remember the G.I.Joe that was a 12" tall DOLL……for boys, even…….
boys with dolls, but they were war dolls :)

Chestnuts roasted by oneless @ 11/18/2003 3:36 AM

Hmm… that shot of the kid adjusting the little soldier with the camera medium close-up and at chest-level on the table is *very* reminiscent of a *very* similar shot of Anthony (Luke Wilson) adjusting the toy soldier during the "not-quite-as-daring-as-you-might-have-thought" burglary scene in the 1996 film Bottle Rocket. Gee, you don’t think Wes Anderson could possibly have this commercial on tape, do you? Naaahhhhhh… (Lamest rip-off conspiracy theory ever.)

Also, I’m pretty sure that the device which reduces the current is called, and if I’m correct, you’ll be kicking yourself for not remembering this, a "transformer".

For the benefit of those of us Canadians here, how big is a box of Mr. Bubble? I remember my mother using Mr. Bubble on me as a kid, but it was the bottled kind.

(If anyone cares, now I have a crappy http://kiyone.fotopages.com/">photoblog.)

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 11/18/2003 3:47 AM

Hah. Lizard. Awesome.

Chestnuts roasted by Evin @ 11/18/2003 3:50 AM

That set is pretty massive but nothing beats the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier. This thing could hold like 5 or 6 deluxe jets. Now that’s honking big.

Chestnuts roasted by BillyBadAss @ 11/18/2003 9:21 AM

i’m in school right now third period and i’m bored. school is very boring.great commercial

Chestnuts roasted by Romo @ 11/18/2003 9:37 AM

was anyone else amused at the fact that they put in BIG letters across the train, SPECIAL FORCES… so much for those sneak attacks. Also it’s no wonder Cobra and troops were so mean when even their parachutes proudly label them as the enemy, they can’t exactly shake that stigma!

Chestnuts roasted by saint matthew @ 11/18/2003 10:16 AM

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2003 at 6:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.