Attention Joes! A Mail-In Haiku
It’s been a while since I’ve unleashed a haiku (or a joeadaiku, if you will). Submitted for your approval today is a little something based on an inspiring mail-in insert titled Attention Joes…
Night Landing mission.
Lamprey, Firebat, Jinx struggle.
A typo frustrates.
Hahaha. Had to google it to be sure!
“Though you may see your’s written even by native speakers, it is incorrect. Yours should never have an apostrophe.”
Where exactly is this “Gulf”? The gulf of Mexico? the Persian Gulf? Another gulf i cant seem to recall of the top of my head?
Was Jinx a shelfwarmer? From what i have read on other sites, she didnt sell very well [in comparrison to the other girls] which led to her being a mail in offer.
Great Joeadaiku
It really makes this review sweet
Q. Check Grammar, Duh
I remember this ad very well. I always liked those little pamphlets with the mail-away offers in them.
Good one, Rob. Typos do annoy me for some reason. Can’t imagine Hasbro not having a good copy editor.
@Skymate
I’m not sure if Jinx was a popular figure but I know I wasn’t too keen on picking her up at retail. I didn’t like her at all in the comic. The mail-in offer did last a long time, so Hasbro must have had a ton of leftover stock in Rhode Island to dispense with.
@Clutch
I’m guessing her low popularity was due to her major appearance being in a rather bad movie. Maybe if there was a 3rd season it may have bolstered sales.
I didnt see the ’87 movie until 2004. Before then, i thought Jinx was a cobra ninja troop type.
Also, the toy makers have always claimed that female characters didn’t sell well as action figures, which is why they only had one character per year at the most. And after ’87, they didn’t have any for maybe 5 years until a new Scarlett showed up. Though we almost got a second Baroness in ’95.
I never figured out what the mail-in criteria was. They offered Bazooka for the longest time, too. Later they offered Quick Kick, but it was Brazilian made. The mail-in battlefield accessories were new runs, because they were Action Force. A few other vehicles had differences as well, indicating they were made for mail-aways, not left over stock.
@ Skymate
Depending on when this was, it may be the Persian Gulf if it was printed in 1990-91 as the region was on people’s minds then (Desert Storm and its prequel, Desert Shield).
Jinx might’ve been a shelfwarmer, but if so, she had to be shortpacked (very possible as she was a female figure and those had a reputation for selling less, though I’ve love to know from He-Man fans if Teela or Evil-Lyn shelfwarmed or sold well) because she didn’t seem very abundant, certainly not as much as Crystal Ball (though Dee-Jay is King of the Shelfwarmers among GI Joe). Then again, she was also a ninja and ninjas are cool and sell and they hadn’t been diluted by 1987, so there’s that. And her being in a bad movie… that didn’t seem to hurt Falcon or Tunnel Rat sales.
From what I can surmise, many, but not all of the figures in the mail-orders were shelfwarmers (hello Bazooka). Serpentor on the other hand was produced again (thus all the variations) and was sold like the hooded Cobra Commander as a special mail-order only leader figure for everyone who wasn’t into Joes in 1986-87. Others I suspect were made and repainted to pad a set with a shelfwarmer (like the Arctic Commandos for Dee-Jay). But were there that many Major Bludds lying around? I seem to remember him being around in many mail-orders in the mid-late 80s. As NegaT pointed out, the actual selection is a mix of items (Quick Kick definately wasn’t a 1985 shelfwarmer).
I just assumed Gulf of Mexico since that’s where Cobra Island is supposed to be.
I’ll give ’em an A for effort; they tried to make a story out of the random mail-in toys. And I’m going to call her “Jinx the Ninja” from now on. 😛
The gulf of Naples… 😉 !
@Little Boa
I understand He-man had a very high population of female viewers. From what ive seen of the old MOTU cartoon [the last time it aired in my area was in 1991] is that the Teela was’nt a damsel in distress and Evil-lyn was’nt an incompitant oaf like Skeletors other cronies. I’m guessing thats why they sold so well.
On the subject of Shelfwarmers. Where i lived, Dee-jay was also far from popular. but the king of shelf warmers was a Crystalball who sat on a toyworld shelf until 1998. I frequently wonder what ever happened to him. Did someone eventually buy him or was he shipped off to another country where he
continues to shelf warm. He must feel like Stinky Pete from Toystory 2.
I ALMOST won a mint-in-bag mail-away Jinx on Listia two years ago. I was SOOOO close!!! That would’ve been the first Jinx figure I ever had.