The Power of Packaging: 1982 Snake Eyes
I have a pretty vivid memory of picking up my first Snake Eyes figure. I came into the GI Joe line sometime in 1983, and had already found a few refitted 1982 characters, but I had trouble tracking down Snake Eyes. Say what you will about him nowadays, but back then almost every kid I knew wanted him. How could you not, especially with this dynamic card art. What’s he pointing at? Who cares? We love it!
I finally snagged mine at the TG&Y just down the road from my house. Unfortunately, it was a straight arm version. I would have preferred a swivel arm, but I still liked my Snake Eyes. He went everywhere with me, including to my grandparents’ for a sleepover. I don’t recall ever taking other toys with me like I did with Snakes. I guess he was a good buddy to keep me company. I notice now that my son sometimes does the same with his favorite toys.
”Everyone has a favorite action figure or two, that they remember the most.I used to take with me, 1982 Scarlett/1986 Strato-Viper with me for sleep overs also, during my childhood.”
I used to take Man-at-arms with me everywhere. Took him to my grandmother’s, which was 8 hours away and lost him. I was distraught. Couldn’t find him. When we finally returned home, a picture appeared in my mind as I was falling asleep showing me where he was. He was in a bush. So I called my grandmother and asked her to look in a specific bush far away from her house and there it was!
She saved him for me until I returned the next summer. By this time I had moved on to Joes so I brought Recondo and Hawk with me to battle the Barbarian techno-giant of the forest.
After Christmas of ’82, we had three of these figures, one each for my and my brothers. So, he became the bad guy since we didn’t have any Cobras. I remember playing with him in the fold out bed in our family room when I was home sick one day. His opened card was nearby and I wished the figure was as cool as the art.
Because of this, Snake Eyes really didn’t matter to my collection until the ’85 came out. But, then he was a major player for a long time. (At least until the ’85 broke from overuse!}
My pocket pals were my 1978 Chewbacca, and later my Sideswipe Lamborghini Transformer.
The Man.
It’s interesting to me how readily available the old card art etc. are to us with the advent of the Internet. When I first got majorly into G.I. Joe (1986, so only the 1985 line and that were out), I ALWAYS speculated and wondered what the cardbacks of the original 13, etc., especially that original Snake-Eyes looked like.
I eventually did get a straight-arms Snake-Eyes, I think, in a trade. His arms and legs were super wobbly, like some of the older figures one would get to. But I thought it was so cool to have, even though the MASS Device mini-series’ Snake-Eyes had different colors and ungloved hands, which I thought was cool because we got to see some more of him (and I remember when he was unclothed completely and had no tattoo on his arm, I was bothered! Oh, to be a kid!)
My worst calamity with having figures was with my ’84 Duke. My parents bought me a few when I was younger, but I didn’t save the cards. Long story short: Someone stole my Duke. I’m pretty sure to this day I know who it was, but I never had a Duke again until the Tiger Force version, and then eventually I traded a baseball card for a sadly wobbly ’84 Duke, so I finally had him “return.” But boy, was that frustrating.