Footloose and Fancy Free: A Classified Blast from My 10th Birthday
Story by Mitchell Smith
Welcome to the Outpost. Today I’m taking a look at a 1985 G.I. Joe figure that I bought back in the day with money I got for my birthday. I remember that day very distinctly. My birthday happened to fall on a Sunday that year and we went to my grandparents house for lunch and cake. My grandmother worked at the Adirondack Lodge for a while as a cake maker so we usually got some interesting cakes. This year mine was a forest scene with a 12 inch Johnny West figure sitting on a fallen tree. The card said Hip Hop Hooray it’s Taodally Your Birthday. Inside was a 10 dollar bill, the only gift I got that year. Nevertheless later on that day we went to Ames department store and there I bought Shipwreck and Footloose. Prices were a little steep up there in the sticks, so I had to have my older brother cover the tax on the 2. Footloose was always one of my favorite figures and was a cool character in the cartoon.
He had a real American Hero look to him. Back in those days I didn’t want to grow up to be a doctor or lawyer, I wanted to join the service and fight evil. I guess in a way Footloose represented who I was at 10 years old. It really pained me when the 25th style Footloose came out as an exclusive and I just could not get my hands on him, so I made a custom Footloose. I think this was what was so great about the 25th style figures. It was pretty easy to swap heads add gear and have a complete different figure without even having to bring out the paint. With classified figures I’ve been trying to just find them at retail, as for me the hunt was always Half the Battle and half the fun.
Footloose though I pre ordered him only because of the original memories of my grandparents, my tenth birthday, and finding him in the store was something I wanted to capture with this figure. The memories and figure are in hand. I love the figure I think it’s great, my only beef would be that the helmet has a little doohickey on the front that I just don’t like. I might just cut it off. Other than that this is a great looking figure. Cool weapons, nice pack even though a 1985 pack would have looked better. Overall Footloose will remain in my top 10 figures possibly landing number 5 for nostalgic reasons. Who had Footloose as a kid? Who picked up the Classified? Make sure to check back next week for more GI Joe discussions.
