My first G.I. Joes were hand-me-downs from my older brother. I got additional sets from the Adventure Team line during the 1970s. Some big sets were the Fantastic Sea Wolf and Fate of the Troubleshooter sets. I was all in and had a membership with the fan club that provided a cool magazine and certificate. However, most of my Joes and accessories came from local sellers clearing out their old toys in the late 1970s. Yes, my parents looked in the classified ads, saw listings of G.I. Joe toys and bought in bulk.
The Sea Wolf got a lot of play in the bath tub. It was just deep enough to use the submerging feature and I could look through the mirror box underwater. Lots of fun having my Joes attacked by a giant squid! The Trouble Shooter All-Terrain-Vehicle was my next favorite set. It got a lot of play in the backyard and it had a voice box in the communications unit, which was pretty common feature in 1970s toys.
Having the Adventure Team include more superhero like characters and enemies was a good choice. They were competing again Mego action figures and characters like The Six Million Dollar Man. The Mike Power cyborg figure was clearly a direct response to Steve Austin and you can see how much play time he got by how deteriorated his hands were from use.
