As a kid my only exposure to G.I. Joe beyond the toys was the cartoon. Until I got his figure I thought Zartan's hood was actually his hair.

What silly (or not so silly) things did you believe about G.I. Joe that weren't completely accurate?

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That the original 12" GI JOE was just one guy. And the media still repeats this. He wasn't one guy, he was countless nameless guys at least until Adventure Team. The 80's comic book ran with that GI JOE was one person idea, and it worked, but the truth is the 60's GI JOE was the first generic army builder!

I though Destros chest was a yellow shirt. I didnt realize that was supposed to be his chest.

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I thought Bludd was a good guy (a la Nick Fury) because the mail-in fig I got in '83 said "GIJoe" on the filecard. Then we he showed up in the comics, I figured it out.

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Some of my friends thought that Torpedo was a girl because of his chest.

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I thought Beach Head was another ninja commando. I also thought (...and am not sure I'm entirely wrong...) that the snake that came with Serpentor was mutated Cobra Commander.

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I was pretty sure anyone with a mask was a ninja. I still do actually. Damn you American Ninja and other wonderful 80s movies.

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Something cool I learned last year at the Canadian Joe Con, looking through Ron Rudat's sketch book, one of the concept sketches for Beach Head was labelled "Ranger/Terrorist"." Some of the figures could have gone either way at the design stage, which I found was fascinating. And you just know that Beach Head would have made a badass Cobra.

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In early 1983, I thought the newly introduced characters in the comic book like Snow Job, Gung-Ho, Doc, etc., were just done to make the comic book more interesting. I couldn't see any way that they could be made as figures using the rather limited supply of existing molds, although I thought Snow Job's head could maybe be done by taking the Breaker-Rock & Roll-Clutch head and giving it red hair, but I couldn't figure out the rest of it.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered these characters on the racks in a toy department, and they all featured new molds!

Early design sketches and other paperwork that has surfaced for Mutt first showed him as a Cobra K9 trooper.

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My biggest misconception was that I'd actually be able to buy the figures. Oh wait that's now.

not sure about my misconceptions as me and my friends only had the figures and made most of it up our selves before i was ever aware of a comic or the cartoon came out.
something that seems to keep in line with other comments so far though, was as a kid we genunely though lady j was cold.

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Hah, hasbro burn.

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Man, if it's only now that you have problems finding figures, count your blessings.

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Like Darko with Beach Head, I thought Firefly was another ninja (despite the fact that he actually is).
My friend and I thought Tomax's brother was "Eks-mot" not "Zay-mot"

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