Monday, November 24, 2008

1986 G.I. Joe Trading Cards

Were you aware that Milton Bradley put out a G.I. Joe trading card set in 1986? I sure wasn't! If I would have seen these in 1986, I probably would have picked them up. I never saw them, so my money went towards Baseball Tattoos, All-Star pop-ups and G.I. Joe comic books.

I was a huge G.I. Joe fan in the mid eighties. I thought most of the storylines in the cartoon were imaginative and well thought out. It never seemed like they were trying to just sell a product. It seemed like the staff of the cartoon and the comic book really cared about the characters and enjoyed what they did.

This was a set of 192 cards and 12 stickers. I would have been up to the challenge of wasting my money on trying to complete the set, in 1986. Now... not so much. I still get a nostalgic twinge when I run across anything G.I. Joe related. I'll pop in the cartoon DVD sets that I own on a whim. Maybe once every three years, I'll dig out the old comic books and give them a read.

I can't help it. G.I. Joe was a huge part of my life back then. It's only natural to go back to the well when you need to feel like a kid again. If the stories would have sucked, I don't think I would ever want to relive those plotlines. I appreciated the fact that the writers never dumbed anything down for the kids. Not intentionally anyway.

To see pictures of the packaging and a more in depth look at the set, check this out.

The cards featured art from the action figures, the vehicles and stills from the cartoon. This would have been right up my alley in 1986. There were 8 cards and 1 sticker per pack. 96 packs came to each case.

Cards 1-30 featured the Joe team. Cards 31-65 featured Joe accessories. 66-95 featured action shots. Cards 97-113 featured Cobra members. 114-126 were Cobra accessories. 127-191 were more action shots. Cards 96 and 192 were the obligatory checklists.

The card checklist looks like there was some thought given to alignment. It seems pretty much in order. It would be interesting to see how all of these cards would look in an album. The art that I've seen uses the 1985 blister pack artwork from the action figures. I preferred the 1985 packaging with the more cartoony explosion, rather than the 1986 digital Morse code burnout that took over the background.

It appears that the corners are rounded on the cards. I really like that on some card releases. It seems to fit well with the subject matter and the artwork. Actually, I think I'm glad that I never saw these in 1986. Those cards would have been destroyed from overuse!

7 comments:

Scott C. said...

Man I am right there with you on the GI Joe nostalgia. That artwork brings back some memories. I had oodles of the toys and was a subscriber to the comic from #21 (the famous silent issue) until about issue 148 (those last few issues are hard to find - and expensive). And yet I must say I've never seen these before. But now I know - and knowing is half the battle!
Scott C.
http://greenmonster1138.blogspot.com/

Steve Gierman said...

I was wondering who would be the first to chime in with that PSA line! I was a subscriber from issue 48 until somewhere in the early 100s.

Ben said...

I remember being well beyond drunk one night watching GI Joe re-runs on Cartoon Network. I liked the show as a kid, but I remember sitting there drunk and mentioning to my room mate at the time "this show is making me stupid... I think I can actually feel my intelligence decreasing... it hurts."

Of course, an episode of Captain Planet was on before GI Joe, so it could have been some residual dumbing from Captain Planet.

I just remember the bad guys being kinda apathetic.

Steve Gierman said...

The schemes were usually ingenious and complicated on a grand scale. There were a few plots that got into ridiculous territory, but no matter how crazy it seemed, the plots seemed to be rooted in basic science.

Even when Cobra was grave robbing for DNA, the theories seemed plausible. The low points were probably the Lady in the Lake with Excaliber and the Joes being trapped in the Funhouse.

The bad guys were apathetic because no matter what they did, the animators were not allowed to show or elude to anyone being killed, which is why when a plane gets shot down, you always see a parachute pop out.

I know waaaay too much about this subject.

Anonymous said...

I thought about this post this past weekend... I went to a card show in Charlotte and someone was selling a whole box of G.I. Joe cards for $8 bucks. It looked to be about 400 or so cards. I almost bought it, almost...

Anonymous said...

I'm selling 1986 & 1988 Hasbro GI Joe cards at the moment if any is interested. The site is called "Trademe". The link to my auction is below. If you have problems bidding on it as you live overseas let me know and I might put it on ebay if you offer to buy it for the right price :-)

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=217441492

daniel john said...

I'll pop in the cartoon DVD sets that I own on a whim. Maybe once every three years, I'll dig out the old comic books and give them a read.
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