A few weeks ago, I posted in the marketplace forum on both JoeCustoms and JoeDios that I was looking for classic styled black and blue HISSes.
Several people from both sites responded and I ended up with small platoon of about 12 HISSes. Some black, some blue, one white and one red.
As I was looing them over, I noticed on one of the black HISSes that the "788" decals weren't evenly placed on their respective sides of the cockpit. I remembered as a kid how much that bugged me, when looking at the tank from the top, I could see that the decals weren't lined up (I plan on getting some number decals from Cobra stickers so all my HISSes don't have the same number).
Anyway, I didn't think anymore about the decals, and decided to take a turret out to see if I could fix the broken gun elevation pegs. As I turned the removed turret over, I saw on the bottom, painted in white paint, the letters "KOP."
These are my initials
My mom painted the letters on the bottom of my toys so they didn't get confused with those of my friends. I asked her to not paint the bottom of the HISS coz the white would ruin the black (some how this mattered to me) so she painted it on the bottom of the turret so it couldn't get worn off and wouldn't show up on the balck.
I got my old HISS back. A-FREAKIN-MAZING!
I'm not sure from whom this particular HISS came, but I have an idea how they may have gotten it. About twelve years ago I lived in a small town in northwestern Colorado. I ended up having to take a job in another area and put all my stuff, my old G.I.*JOE toys included, into storage. During the course of the next year, I mailed in a check each month to pay for the storage unit. Apparently they had an incompetant book keeper who kept putting my monthy payment in the wrong file.
I found out later that they sold off all my stuff, and I guess all my old toys went out on eBay or other souces.
Stranger things have happened I guess, but this is really cool.
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Some people, when trying to avoid thinking about those things that cause them pain, turn to drink, food, or drugs...I turn not to any of those...I collect action figures. Over the years, I've found that alcoholism is much more socially acceptable by far.
"My dear Dr. Burkhart -- you will soon see the distinct advantages of having no scruples whatsoever!" 
:mayor:
