Toyline of Choice QOTD
    Question Of The Day

    Major Spoilers Question of the Day: Toyline Of Choice Edition

    Matthew PetersonBy 4 Comments1 Min Read

    Thanks to our most recent Top Five episode,  I’ve been thinking about the gifts of holidays past.  Since I was 12 in 1982, I was the perfect target audience for Hasbro’s G.I. Joe toyline, the perfect way to introduce the kids of the hippie era to the militaristic crypto-fascist future that Reagan envisioned for us.  It was my toyline of choice, more than Transformers, Go-Bots, Starriors, Wheeled Warriors, or even Star Wars.  Maybe it was the superhero inspired costumes, maybe it was the cool plastic vehicles, weapons and such, but the Joe team is my ride-or-die, plaything-wise, leading to today’s vacuum-injected plastic query…

    The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) might have gotten into the Food Fighters line, had the bad guys not included a fedora-wearing hot dog named Mean Weener, asking: What group of childhood playthings were your toyline of choice?

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    Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.

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    4 Comments

    1. Daniel Langsdale on

      My brother and I were all about the Wars of the Star variety and the associated straight-kneed and -elbowed figures with their tiny plastic guns and laser swords. The best play we had was with neighborhood kids where you would use shaped styrofoam packaging from electronics, etc. to use as “bases” where you’d set up your team of figures — and then you’d take turns shooting rubber bands as lasers to knock over the opposition’s team before all of yours were eliminated. Good times.

    2. Me on

      BaHumbug!!!!!
      When I was a kid we had a Stick…. and we were happy with it…… if we were lucky we may even find one with something resembling arms and legs…….
      later in life I ended up having star wars stuff foisted upon me, and would delve into the realm of timelord toys on occasion. oddly enough never got into ‘Playing’ with them.
      Me

    3. Dan on

      Looking back, i had a pretty decent collection of DC Super Powers and Marvel Secret Wars figures that my parents so callously dropped off at the dump first chance they got, instead of waiting for me to pick them all up and flip them for collector prices at my LCS. But my ride or dies were probably the original four gimmickless TMNT figures.

      I was also a fan of those little pink M.U.S.C.L.E. figures, as well as any and all generic green army men. Ah, the bedroom floor battles i used to wage. All those memories, and toys, are now lost like tears in rain.