UPDATED APRIL 2014

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS WEBSITE

I BELIEVE AN INTRODUCTION IS IN ORDER HERE:
Hello and welcome to my vintage GIJoe information webpage or "INFOSITE". My name is Dan McKee and I was born in 1960. 1960 put me in the target demographic of Hasbro and one of my favorite toys growing up was GIJoe. I have been collecting vintage GIJoe for a long time now and have discovered so much I thought it important to share what I have learned. I DO NOT proclaim myself an expert, I actually HATE the term expert that other people so easily give themselves; I am only a knowledgeable vintage GIJoe collector. I vividly remember the day I received my only 4 painted hair GIJoes when I was about 6 years old. My first hand experience in handling vintage GIJoe's since childhood has helped me accurately identify genuine Hasbro GIJoe items. I still have a small vintage GIJoe collection of the items remaining in my possession since my childhood. I use the pieces from my childhood collection as a baseline of information. Not only do I still have my childhood collection to draw information from but I am also an avid collector of sealed packages of the vintage uniforms and equipment from the earliest years of GIJoe.

HOW I GOT STARTED COLLECTING GIJOE'S:
One day many years ago I saw an ad in one of my other hobby magazines for a book on "GIJOE COLLECTING". I promptly ordered it remembering I still had this old collection of Joes. After many weeks of waiting I got this little tacky book with many hand drawn accessories and uniforms and a very crude "price guide". There were some very nice color pictures though so I carefully read through it. I was astonished to find out my little footlocker had so many valuable treasures inside. This book, long since gone out of print, actually saved my whole collection from a fate worse than Mom throwing them away.

A few months after the arrival of this old GIJoe collecting guide I saw an ad in a local newspaper, "BUYING OLD GIJOE'S, call me at ..... "Well, this could be interesting" I thought to myself and I promptly answered the ad. I told the guy who ran the ad a little bit about what I had and he said "I'LL BE RIGHT OVER". "Hmmm, maybe these old Joes are worth a ton of money" I proclaimed to my wife after he hung up. I was quickly deflated to find out the guy only wanted to give me $50 for my whole footlocker full of stuff AND my 2 boxed Joes. I then pulled out my little "value guide" and the collector's face quickly changed. He said "well, if you want full retail price then I can't help you" and he stormed off shortly after that. THANK GOD for that little tacky book by Carol Moody, it saved my whole collection from a horrendous fate....FROM ME SELLING IT!

I have actually been collecting GIJoes seriously since 1995. I first stumbled onto the new era of GIJoes as they started to appear on toy store shelves in 1993. When I first saw them I grabbed them at the cheap $5.99 price and stuck them up on the shelf to examine later. I knew I still had my original GIJoes so these new funky ones didn't really "count". I still really didn't give my childhood GIJoe collection much thought back then though although I knew SOMETHING was different and interesting about them compared to the new muscle-bound breed.

After the new GIJoes started showing up on my shelves at home and finding several uniform and equipment packages I decided to do a bit more research. I saw the ads "you gotta get this thing" on TV so I curiously signed onto Prodigy after buying the start up package. It was in early 1994 when I discovered a few other collectors here online. I was using a really high tech 4800 bps wall modem hooked up to my Apple Macintosh Mac Plus. AOL was only a glimmer in a few people's eye back then as most online users dialed directly into BBS's or bulletin board services and a million or so people were on Prodigy. As more and more new Joes showed up on Target and Toys R Us shelves I saw the frequency of GIJoe posts on the Prodigy "action figure bulletin board" increase. I actually even bought a few vintage pieces and my first new "old boxed Joe" for $95. I didn't know it at the time but it was a TM-TM boxed Sailor in pretty rough shape. I really fell in love with the old vintage Joes then and dug in to find out more.

Some time in 1995 I saw an ad in the newspaper for a "GIJOE CONVENTION" up in Pasadena, CA. It was actually just a local show but it opened up a whole new world to me. I met James DeSimone, bought his very helpful color book and found some nice vintage accessories. I had prepared myself for the show as if it had been any other collectors show. I made a nice list of everything I already had from my childhood collection footlocker. Thanks goodness I did that then because I would be clueless as to what the actual contents of my childhood collection were now. As I added to my collection I kept close track of every single piece I bought and what I wanted to buy next.

About the beginning of 1995 many people had stopped using Prodigy and I decided to try AOL. "EVERYONE" seemed to now be on AOL and for about a year I kept going back and forth trying to make sure I didn't miss anything. I finally realized Prodigy was dying a slow death and I stuck with "the GIJoe Gang" in "the trenches" on the AOL GIJoe bulletin board. About this same time the Target exclusive Joes came out so there was a big buzz in "the hobby". From there the rest is history that many of you know but it gives you a good idea of how I really got started collecting GIJoes and how long I have been online. What is so curious is that a few people from the old gang are still around and some are still using their old original AOL screen names like me. My email address has not changed in almost 20 years, going back to this simpler time when having an email address what not very well understood by most.

In the showcase section of this INFOSITE there will be links to the showcases with mine and many other collectors collections. There will be links to my loose, packaged and my original childhood collection to give you more information on how and what I collect. There will also be links to a for sale section and a few other sections which will be added and updated soon. Please make sure to go back to the main page and check the showcase page.

HOW TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR:
I know a lot of people are hungry for a quick answer. I also know there are always new people coming into the GIJoe hobby and they desire help. I would be more than happy to hear from you and I do not mind answering a few questions. Please do remember that I am a normal working person who has very little time for leisure.
BEFORE YOU SEND AN EMAIL, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING::

DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!!!!
The author of this website, Dan McKee DOES NOT claim to be the end-all expert on any of the advice or guidelines given in this INFOSITE! This information is strictlyONLY ONE MAN'S OPINION! EVERYTHING is up to interpretation so please be advised that the information contained herein is ONLY A GUIDE! Items of information which are factual will be presented as such. Items of information which are speculation, common hobby thinking or even just theories will be presented with that notation as well.

The author reserves the right to change his mind, retract information and correct anything that appears on this infosite. The author is acting alone and not in concert with Hasbro or any collectors club or other affiliation, official or not. The author has not attempted to contact Hasbro to obtain permission to use their logos, names, patents or trademarks. If any of these items appear on this website it is strictly coincidental. These logos, names, patents or trademarks may appear in photographs and scanned images of my personal collection from pictures taken by myself with my own equipment.

This information is provided free of charge here on the world wide web/internet/information super highway and any use of any copyrights, patent numbers, trademarks or logos is only as a helpful identification guide in dealing with the hobby of collecting GIJoes . The use of the logos, names, patents or trademarks will not be to personally profit in any way, shape or form, monetarily or otherwise.

If you would like to include a link to this website on and from your own website then contact me via email as I would really appreciate it!

BACK TO THE FIRST PAGE OF THE GIJOE INFOSITE

UPDATED APRIL 2014