TOYHEM: A veritable platoon of Hasbro’s Movable Fighting Men… — Welcome to TOYHEM! For the fourth straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan — By JIM BEARD No matter how much I’ve talked about the toy over the years, it’s still a challenge for me to quantify my love for the original GI Joe. We’ve been together, see, since I was 4 and there’s a lot of history there. I met Joe on Christmas ’69 — Christmas Eve, to be exact — and though I’ve had other toys since that fateful meeting, none have measured up to the stature, the grandeur, the sheer coolness of America’s Movable Fighting Man. If you’re not that familiar with the original Joe, I’m hoping the following pictorial will impart some of what I’m trying to say about the toy. There was nothing like it before his debut in 1964, and in my opinion, there’s been nothing like it since. So, this is an ode to the so-called “military era” of GI Joe, the 1964 to 1969 stretch when soldier toys were a thing and it was OK for boys to have dolls… err, “action figures.” I’ll keep the verbiage to a minimum so as to concentrate on the figures themselves, because even all these years later — and me having published a non-fiction book about Joe and my homage fiction “DC Jones” series — I still find it hard to shape a solid salute to my old chum. These are the 13 vintage “soldier era” GI Joes I own. Enjoy. (Dan adds: Also check out Jim’s TOP 13 GI JOE ADVENTURE TEAM Accessories and Playsets. Click here.) — Action Soldier. It all starts here, the most basic of Joe figures, the common army grunt. — Talking Action Soldier. A variation on the previous grunt, with full pack and loaded for bear. This figure belonged to a childhood friend of mine. It still talks. — Action Pilot. Just as he came out of the box. — Scramble Pilot. “Scramble” is one of the coolest sets for the Action Pilot. Unfortunately, there’s no parachute...