Me-i-Joe!!!

As a kid, I wanted to be all kinds of things. For a while, I watched L.A. Law and I really wanted to be a lawyer, but aside from that, and a short stint wishing I was a ninja turtle (it was not meant to be), I just wanted to be in the army. More than anything, I wanted to be a stealth double agent, a clever and sneaky spy. A big part of that was due to my love of GI Joe. What boy didn't love GI Joe back then. The thought of being on these exciting missions to save the world from the forces of evil... that was huge for any young dude.

I'm not sure where it came from, but at some point, I got my hands on a form to fill out to get a personalized action figure. You'd answer a series of questions, and based on the responses, they'd send you an action figure that matched your profile (I'd assume they used the same action figure for everyone, regardless of the answers, but it was still cool).

When I got my guy in the mail, I was pleasantly surprised... not only did I have an action figure I never saw before (which was apparently me), but it came with a folder of top secret information on missions I needed to carry out, as well as some dog tags with my name on them.

I never did without as a child... always had anything I could have wanted, but this was more than a toy, this made me feel like I was a part of something important. Like I was a part of GI Joe.

That was such brilliant marketing. Not only did it make me so happy back then, but I still remember the experience so clearly over 20 years later. I still have the action figure too. I took a picture, have a look!...