Resources

What exactly was that bearded talking figure I had when I was 11 and how can I get another one?

This page contains some of the best resources I know of for collecting GI Joe. I have used all of these and have had good results. I have also added a FAQ for my most asked questions.

Cotswold Collectibles - Simply the king of the GI Joe dealers. Cotswold carries figures, accessories, books, reproduction items, and all types of supplies for the Adventure Team collector. They also carry a large supply of Action Man, Action Team and other foreign versions of the Adventure Team. When you get on their mailing list they send you a color catalog every month as long as you keep buying from them. If you don't buy anything for nine months they will drop you from this list, but you can call and get back on. This is a class operation and I give them my highest rating of ANY dealer. If you would like a catalog call (360) 579-1223. Cotswold also has a web page.

Pet Peeves of Collecting : Okay, I just had to add this because it happened to me again. You call a dealer up on the phone because they've got that set you've been looking for advertised. Heck, it's even in C9 condition. They tell you it's in stock and you send them a money order. Two weeks later the box arrives. You open it and the pounding of shipping has downgraded your item to a C6. No, I'm not blaming the post office. I'm blaming the idiots who can't seem to pass packing 101. Let me clue you in. It's NOT that damn hard. My favorite example occured about 5 years ago. I called a guy about a boxed Mobile Support. Box was a C8, vehicle was a C9. The price was good so I sent him a MO. Well the box arrives. I open it up and guess what? There was NO packing material at all. Nothing. It was just sitting inside the friggin box. It had taken a pounding and the clear windshield was beat all to hell. You know what, this turkey is STILL in business. I never ordered from him again. The box that arrived today was not nearly that bad but the previously C10 item was at best a C8 now due to the fact that the shipping box was too small and there was very little packing material, just a few wads of newspaper. Anyway the box was crushed at the edge and so was my item. I'll say it again. Packing isn't that damn hard!!! BTW, if you want to know how to pack an item right, order from Cotswold. It's amazing what a good operation can do with bubble wrap. Okay I'll stop ranting now. One last note. The temptation to list the names of these Turkeys is strong, but I'm not into starting a war. I'll just deal with them in my own way.

Toy Shop - Pot luck on this one. Toy shop is a magazine/newspaper with thousands of listings for old and new toys. There are TONS of GI Joe items in every issue. Problem is a lot of the "dealers" are those guys that buy up all the "Home for the Holidays" figures and turn around and try to sell them to you for $75. Still, if you dig around and read a lot of fine print you will discover some great deals. There is also a section in the back listing all of the toy shows for the coming year. This is a great way to see when a show is coming to your area. There are a number of dealers in Toy Shop selling reproduction Adventure Team boxes. I recently ordered a bunch of them. If they are good stuff I will list those dealers here. You can purchase Toy Shop at larger bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. You can also call for a subscription at (800) 258-0929. A one year subscription (26 issues) is $28.95. You can also choose to have your subscription sent overnight to beat everyone else to the good deals. I used to do this, but the cost has become prohibitive in my opinion.

GI Joe and Other Backyard Heroes 1970-1979 - There have been a number of books written on GI Joe and up to this point they have all been from the point of view of a collector of 60's Joes. Each author in question included the Adventure Team simply because they had to for their book to be complete. This book changes that. While not entirely a book about the Adventure Team it has a generous dose of photos, text and values covering the entire Adventure Team line. This is also the only book to see the rare (and cheap) childs size Adventure Team mess kits! Pure junk, but cool. The best part about the book is the author. John Marshall is the ultimate Adventure Team fan. His three part article on the Adventure Team in "Collecting Toys" was the first time in print someone came out and said the Adventure Team was Joes golden era. Thanks John. Buy this book. Buy two copies, buy a case and if you stumble across a back issue of Marshall Comics, pick it up Johns a funny guy, he deserves a comics company!
ISBN:0-7643-0201-9. or call: (610)593-1777 Schiffer Books. Tell them the Adventure Team page sent ya!

The Official ID Guide to G.I. Joe 1964-1978 - There are a number of books on GI Joe. This is the only one that lays out all of the figures and sets with all of the parts, in color, to let you see what you need to complete your collection. You NEED this book. This was published by James Desimone who may be the most enthusiastic of all the GI Joe collectors. I use this book often for a reference and it also makes a fun wish book. It's not perfect but it's pretty close. James does a good job of laying out all the gear and he even goes into some of the variations (an almost impossible task). Most books tend to skimp when it comes to the Adventure Team. This book treats everything equally. The Adventure Team coverage is as good as anything else in the book. I highly recommend this book. When it was first issued it was $75. Cotswold now carries it for $35 (item GIPUB-15). Well worth the money.

Update - Recently on the newsgroup (alt.toys.gi-joe) I have seen a few posts trashing this book as highly inaccurate. Here are my two cents on the matter. In the Adventure Team area there are a few sets that have either: 1) Too few parts 2) Too many parts 3) Incorrect parts or 4) Correct parts in the wrong color. These are the exception not the norm. To James credit he had John Marshall review the Adventure Team section before the book was published. He picked the best person to review the AT sets. I can't vouch for the 60's stuff. I'm just an AT person, but I suspect it's pretty close too. So the bottom line is buy the book, I doubt anyone else out there will better it. If they do I'll buy it and list it here.

The Complete Encyclopedia to GI Joe - Vince has the Hasbro approved GI Joe book. Unfortunately that means absolutely nothing. This is a large telephone like book covering Joe from 1964 through the early Hall of Fame figures. All of the photos are in black and white. Vince Santelmo is partial to the military Joes and it is obvious in his writing, but there are some nice photos of Adventure Team sets. Update: There is now a second edition of this book out. I haven't seen the new edition but it does have 60 color photos. Knowing Vince all 60 are probably Hall of Fame figure s . Oh yeah, the cover (again) is common Hall of Fame stuff. You can order this directly from Krause Publications: 800-258-0929, Dept F7HT. Item JO02. $27.9 5. 2nd Update: Okay I've seen this version at Barnes and Noble. There are color photos. Guess what, the Adventure Team gets half of one page and Vince didn't even get that right. He has the Astronaut sitting in a tan jeep with an Adventurer and the Astronaut is dressed as a MOA. No, there is no such thing as a blonde MOA. It's a variation. All MOA's have brown hair. Pick up a box look at it. The hair is brown. This isn't the sixities where painted hair was random, ALL Adventure Team figures have a specific hair color, no exceptions. Oh yeah, the extremely rare and valuable Hall of Fame figures get six full color pages in this new improved update. Hey Vince, next time CNN gives you an interview make sure you show them that boxed Apollo 13 figure you gave a full color page too. I hear it is REAL valuable, almost as valuable as Grunt and Heavy Duty. Two more figures you seem to be fascinated with. Thank heaven John Marshall has a book out, because Vince knows squat about the Adventure Team.

The 30th Anniversary Salute to GI Joe - I listed this book for one reason only. It annoys the hell out of me. Vince took his previous book (see above) slimmed it down, added some color photos and issued it as a new book. As if that did n't annoy me enough, none of the Adventure Team photos are in color. I might understand it if he used all his color on the 64-69 years, but he wasted over half of it on recent 3 3/4" figures and current Hall of Fame figures. Hell, even the back cover has a Hall of Fame figure! Skip this one. Update - Recently I noticed this book on my bookshelf and took it down, wondering if I was too harsh in my review. After about 5 minutes I put it back. I still think it's a waste of paper. There is actually a FULL page color photo of the HOF Heavy Duty and Grunt. Man those are two hot collectibles, let me tell you. Oh yeah one more thing... Vince, the A-Team was that show with Mr T. It's the ADVENTURE TEAM! Geez.

The Tomart Guide to Collecting GI Joe - This is the only real price guide ever published for GI Joe. Unfortunately it is now out of date and out of print. Still, it does a nice job of listing all(most) of the figures and sets and includes a lot of photos. There are color sections in the book and the color photos are split amongst all of the Joes from 64-92. This was the first Joe book I purchased and I spent hours scanning the pages looking for that next item to buy. If you find one it is a nice addition to your book collection.

Action Man: The Gold Medal Doll For Boys - A somewhat inaccurate book for the British version of GI Joe. Still it has some great photos and it is full of color! This is a good book for seeing the variations on Adventure Team items that were produced in the U.K. Cotswold lists this book in their current catalog for $29.95 (item GIPUB-10)

Reproductions - A lot of people don't like reproduction items, they find their way in with the real collectibles and someone ends up getting burned. Still, they have their place. Boxes are probably the most common Adventure Team item. Also, recently(2/97) Cotswold has added AT dogtags for $5. They are identical except for a tiny cc imprinted on them. There is a dealer in toyshop that also sells repro AT tags, but his are $8. Many other AT boxes have been copied, including window boxes and boxes from large vehicle sets.

Reproduction Boxes
• Cotswold - Cotswold sells the following AT figure boxes: Sea Adv KFG, Air Adv KFG, Talking Commander HH, Talking Astronaut, Man of Action HH. These are beautiful boxes and are clearly marked on the interior as reproductions. The two boxes I have from Cotswold are Sea Adv KFG and Air Adv KFG. Both of these boxes are produced by Frontline for Cotswold. These are beautiful boxes, maybe too perfect. I believe they are actually better made than the originals which makes it easy (for me) to tell them apart from the real thing. The Talker boxes (complete with insert) are $33, the regular boxes are $20. Update - For some reason Cotswold no longer seems to sell the Sea Adventurer box. More Updates - The Sea Adventurer box is back. Also, Frontline has recently inproved some (all?) of their boxes. They are now dead ringers for brand new vintage boxes. If not for the disclaimer from Frontline on the inside of the box you could not tell the difference except for the fact that they are too nice. I don't think it's possible to find a box this mint.
• Thomas Marsden I recently received two repro boxes from Thomas Marsden. He advertises in Toy Shop and lists a lot of Joe boxes(AT and 60's). I was pleased with both boxes. Like all repro boxes I have seen they are slighly darker in color than the originals, primarily because they are a second generation copy. Unlike the Cotswold boxes, these boxes are assembled identical to the originals. The cardboard is folded different on the Cotswold boxes. On one of the two boxes you could tell the original had slight edge wear. Because the copy has the same wear! This doesn't detract from the appearance IMO. The Cotswold boxes I have seen seem to be touched up via computer to remove these imperfections. Both of the boxes I bought were talker boxes. Thomas sells all of his figure boxes for $20. The difference between these and the Cotswold talkers are they don't have inserts. Cotswold charges $33 for a talker box with inserts. If you need the inserts Cotswold sells them separately for $10. The AT boxes Thomas sells are: Talking Commander HH, Talking Commander KFG, Land Adventurer HH, Sea Adventurer HH, Black Adventurer KFG. One nice touch he also adds is to include reproductions of all the paperwork, AT Club Form, Boots Instructions and Talker Instructions. He also tossed in a set of instructions for: Sea Wolf, Mobile Support, Fantastic Freefall, White Tiger Hunt and Danger of The Depths. Thomas doesn't charge postage and his turnaround is fast. Thomas can be reached at (716) 264-3808. Tell him The Adventure Team Page sent ya.
• Dennis Hindmon Dennis has a large ad in Toy Shop. He has a LOT of repro boxes. Recently I purchased three of his boxes, Black Commander HH, Talking MOA HH, and Adventurer HH. As with all repro boxes they were slightly darker due to the fact they are copies. These are good boxes but t hey have flaws. First of all none of the copies is from a C10 box so all of the copies have imperfections. Unlike the Frontline (Cotswold) boxes they haven't been touched up via computer either. The imperfections are not necessarily a bad thing. As I sit here staring at the toy shelf, these repro boxes don't stand out as copies. They actually fit in with the timeworn original boxes that they sit beside. Don't let me scare you off. They aren't ripped or anything, just shelfworn. Dennis has so many boxes that if you are trying to complete a collection on a budget (non original) you will probably come here because he has some boxes no one else carries yet. Alright, now time for my main complaint. They aren't put together all that well. On two of the three boxes it is very obvious where the "decal" of the box doesn't quite overlap and it leaves some white showing. The other problem is, on the two talker boxes the lid doesn't quite fit. When you place the lid on there is still some cardboard from the box bottom showing. On the plus side, the insert for the talker boxes is very nice. Overall I don't like these as well as Cotswolds or Thomas Marsdens, but they do fill a need if you can't find a box somewhere else. I am seriously considering buying the 8 Ropes window box repro, if I do I'll review it here also. From order to receipt it took about 17 days to receive my boxes, which is about average. Dennis carries the following AT boxes: Land Adv HH, Air Adv HH, Sea Adv HH, Adv HH, Moa HH, Commander HH, Black Commander HH, Talking Moa HH, Land Adv KFG, Air Adv KFG, Sea Adv KFG, Adventurer Kfg, Atomic Man custom box, 8 Ropes of Danger window box, Abominable Snowman, AT Vehicle, Devil of the Deep, Karate window box. Figure boxes are $25 for talkers, $20 for the others. The other boxes vary widely in price. Dennis can be reached at (847) 803-4296. One last note. These are just barely stamped inside as reproductions. Removing the stamp would be a breeze. I can tell these are repros, but I'm somewhat concerned that a new collector could be fooled. I think the repro stamp could be better. Oh yeah almost forgot. The ad says a copy of the AT club form is included in each box. Not in mine! If you need one, make sure to ask when you order. Update Dennis now has an e-mail adddress: Reprostuff@hotmail.com
  This may make it easier to contact him and ask about his boxes.

Repairs - For the most part you can make most minor repairs yourself. Uniforms can be sewn, washed and pressed. Figures can be restrung and mute talkers can have their voice restored. A great reference for repairs is the alt.toys.gi-joe FAQ for repairing Joe. Some nice items for cleaning figures and uniforms are sold by Cotswold, so check the back of their catalog. Update If you need a head reflocked try this page. Haven't tried it yet, but I will. If you have, let me know - Hair Club for GI Joe

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