MU HA HA HA! I SHALL OUTLAST YOU ALL AND ERADICATE THE MEMORIES YOU HOLD DEAR!
Wait what?
I was born in 1980, and back then stuff hung around in stores for a while I guess, as I remember most of the 1982-1983 stuff, though I think most of the toys I had were from 1984 onward. I vividly recall getting a carded Baroness for a birthday or something.
Hell, I even had EcoWarriors GI JOES!
I was too old by the time the dumb GI JOE EXXXTREME or whatever came out though.
But yeah I can see being on the 'younger' side of the 'classic' fans.
(and thank you!)
1980?!?! No wonder you remember Eco Warriors! SMH...
I was born during the early days of the Ford administration, and I recall buying straight-arm Joes off the pegs in '83! (I feel old just typing that...) My first Joe was Clutch (because VAMP), and then I followed with SEv1.5 and Stalker v1 (I wasn't old enough to have bothered looking for swivel-arm Stalker, as I still didn't realize the difference or that there were two versions).
I'll never forget buying Zap and having both of his shitty thumbs breaking off in the first 24 hours because he had zero prayer of holding that bazooka without bicep swivels.
Anyway, I can see it now. In a decade, NSA will be like, "Happy birthday, daughter! For your special day, I got you this case of Sherman's from Monkey Depot! It wasn't easy, but I tracked it down..." That's what I do with my son. Every birthday and x-mas, in addition to stuff he's asked for, ten-year-old SW and Indiana Jones toys appear to my son's delight, and I play like I had to scour the earth finding them... not just rummaging through my storage unit.