Wednesday, February 15, 2006

G.I. Joe as Doc Savage Sometime in the '70s

I found some of my G.I. Joe photo efforts from back in the day. I'm afraid the scan is about as sharp as I could get it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a Kodak Instamatic, and the drug store printed on a non-glossy paper. This is actually a later era of Joe photography for me.

I did some early shots with fox holes and sandbags using a couple of Joes with molded hair probably when I was six or seven. These were probably taken toward the end of the time I played with G.I. Joes, and this cast was assembled with help from friends.


Doc and the fabulous five
As Doc Savage fans will notice it's an attempt to re-create the scene on the back of the Bantam paperbacks using action figures.

G.I. Joe with his tattered fatigue shirt is Doc Savage. The shot also stars:
  • A G.I. Joe with a Captain Action head as Ham the attorney.
  • The G.I. Joe sea adventurer as Johnny the archaeologist.
  • An early Joe with lifelike hair as Renny the two-fisted engineer, wearing the sea adventurer's clothes it appears.
  • Johnny West as Long Tom the electrician.
  • Big Jim as Monk the chemist.
Ham's sword cane is a sawed off chopstick painted black. It's more visible in this action scene:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to do the same thing with my star wars action figures. I don't feel all that strange now

Echo Team said...

OK Sid, I as a Joe collector say NOW is the time to start a new Joe Blog! (but please leave out the Google Ads.....every Joe collector know that thesere's no money to be made...only lost in this hobby)
Ha...I'd say you're over the edge of Joe Insanity right about now. Soon you'll pick up where you left off;)
ET

Sidney said...

Kevin,

You had media tie in toys? In my day, as you can see, you had to turn your G.I. Joe into a media-tie in because that was all ya had, and you liked it.

Just kidding.

They had some different costumes for Captain Action actually so that you could turn him into Batman and a few other characters, then eventually a line of super hero toys came along.

Sidney said...

Echo,

I've seen how much just parts of Joes can cost. I should have saved more boxes, too. I usually got G.I. Joe stuff at Christmas and from Sears.

Looking at ebay now kind of reminds me of browsing the Sears Christmas catalog during those long months between its arrival and Christmas day. Then after the packages were opened, my cousin and I always began new Joe adventures.

Echo Team said...

Sid, the big difference between the Sears wishBook and evilBay is that:
1)everything in the wishbook was new and had a set price...whereas the Joe stuff on eBay is in various conditions and you won't know you got burnt until it's too late.
2) eBay is an attemt to rule the world by preying upon the human concept of greed. Greedy sellers, buyers...and did you see those auction fees....
That said.....
the best way to buy vintage Joe parts is at a local (or national if you can get there) Joe Show.
and/or buying from established Joe dealers with good reputations.....and/or joining a network of other Joe collectors that trade/sell stuff to each other.
ET

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