A few weeks ago at the 2007 G.I. Joe Collectors Convention (JoeCon), a toy I would have killed for growing up was released. It combined two of my favorite childhood pastimes, playing with G.I. Joes and watching Professional Wrestling. In the 80’s you had the creation of two “celebrity” G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero action figures and surprisingly both became WWE Hall of Fame inductees. The first was Sgt. Slaughter and the second was former Chicago Bears player William “The Refrigerator” Perry. Both were great toys and I had a few different versions of the Sgt. Slaughter figure, but both were considered good guys and at some point you have to have someone for them to fight.
This brings us to this year’s JoeCon, which saw the creation of the first “celebrity” bad guy/member of COBRA (well really he’s a member of Destro’s Iron Grenadiers, but I KNOW that’s more information than anyone reading this would want to know). Of course they had to choose another WWE Hall of Famer and this time one of my all time favorite wrestlers, The Hot Rod himself, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper!For those of you who don’t remember him or didn’t grow up in the 80s, Piper was THE bad guy in Professional Wrestling. Whether it was fighting Hulk Hogan and Mr. T at the original WrestleMania or leading the “bad guys” on Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling, Piper was the character you loved to hate. Later on he showed everyone why he was such a big star in Professional Wrestling by hosting the now legendary Piper’s Pit, the greatest wrestling interview segment ever. And now he’s immortalized as a G.I. Joe action figure, which even comes with his signature kilt. Man, the kid inside me is dying for one of these!
Of course the Rowdy Roddy Piper G.I. Joe figure sold out before the convention even ended, and while a friend of mine who lives in Atlanta offered to go down to the convention and pick me up one (Thanks IJMN!), I just couldn’t justify sending him down there. Besides, I figured, there was no way they’d sell out. Man was I wrong. Now if you look for one of these bad boys on Ebay they’re selling somewhere in the ball park of $100-200 each, so to everyone who says toys are just for kids, don’t believe it! Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to add one of these to my book shelf.
“And knowing is half the battle! Yo Joe!”