European G.I. Joe Collector
I’ve decided to give myself a late New Year’s present and so I ordered some new joes from smalljoes. As always, it arrived fast and in a good package. No doubt, you’re wondering what I ordered. Check out the pic.
Next to these new toys I also ordered some stands so I can finally get my collection organised and displayed. Over the next months I’ll be posting more updates on this.
Well London was great as ever. Busy streets and shops, great atmosphere. I really enjoyed my stay.
On the downside, I wasn’t able to score any Joes. Hamley’s and Harrods don’t sell them and the local Toys ‘r Us had no stock. I did find some toys @ the Forbidden Planet 2 years ago, so my hopes were still up, but even they didn’t have any for sale.
I did find some comics @ the Forbidden Planet and I finally bought a copy of Jake Humphrey’s Inside Track (link) @ Waterstones (and the nice people there gave me a free(!) copy of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider: The mission files (link)). F1 and Mr. Horowitz’s novels being another one of my many interests, it made up for some of the dissappointment of not getting any new Joes.
Coming home was another yet another troublesome adventure. The Eurostar train had (again!) one of it’s “Technical issues” causing us to miss our connection back home.
Well 2013 didn’t bring any new Joes to my collection, sadly.
On an even sadder note, it seems that Hasbro is not responding to my question whether the new Retaliation toys will be released in Belgium when the movie is screened.
But things may be looking up, since we’re planning a trip to London next week and I’m quite positive I can find some there. If anyone can give me some tips or pointers, just leave a reply.
Also check out the TCG section on the site. Helping me complete my collection of TCG’s will be much appreciated 🙂
Remains to wish you all a very happy, healthy and G.I.Joe-filled 2013!
Ok, what beter place to start than at the very beginning. Let me take you back to the year 1987. I’m 5 years old and my parents take me shopping to a big supermarket named GB. This chain also owns some family restaurants that are conveniently located next to their stores. When you order a children’s menu, you always receive a toy. Most of these toys were Chinese junk, but this time, I get my very first G.I.Joe 3 3/4 action figure, Blaster.
Apparently I had been quite persistent in wanting more of these toys, because we went eating there 2 more times in the following week. Those meals gave me Blocker and the fantastic 1984 Storm Shadow.
Unfortunately, when we went to eat there again, the deal with Hasbro must have ended and I got some lame toy car. But my interest in G.I.Joe was launched and my collection had to expand. Like I said before, the restaurant was located next to the supermarket. The concept of these stores was to not only sell food, but also non-food items, such as cookware, books, clothing and of course toys. So me being persuasive again led me to my first vehicle, the S.L.A.M.
The adventures could now begin and with birthdays and other occasions in sight, my collection got off to a great start…
Let me all welcome you to the European Joes website. This page will tell the difficult story of being an G.I.Joe 3 3/4″ collector in Europe.
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