JoeDeclassified.com

So I'm wandering around Goodwill today when I see this:



At first I'm like "That's cool, but I don't need to spend $3 on that".......then I saw the patch



That sealed the deal for me

It's definitely child sized so I won't be wearing it anytime soon (Not that I've been in a boat in the past 8 years or so anyway) I could have sworn I had seen this online before but I couldn't find it in Yojoe or Joeintel. I think it's from 1988 based on this stamp



I'm assuming the last two digits there are the year, but I don't know for sure

Someone on another forum asked if the patch was possibly a modified patch that came with the figures, here's my response:


Looks like it was made for the vest. The graphics are different (in fact they look like someone was copying it by looking at the original as there's a few minor differences between the two)



The patch on the left is a good conditioned patch, the one on the right is the one from my childhood

Here's a pic with the flash turned on




and a clearer pic of the whole vest




For those interested, I think I found a little more info on the life vest:

From an article about new fishing toys in the Chicago Tribune published August 19, 1987:

"SGI Marine`s ``Navigear`` goes a step farther with life vest costuming in the form of a GI Joe flight suit for boys and a frilly blue and pink outfit for girls. Industry sources expect life vest ``playsuits`` to sweep the market in the next few years."

That's the last paragraph on a 3 page article about the American Fishing Tackle Manufacturer`s Association trade show. According to the article that trade show is where the deals are made in tackle shops for that fall and winter. So I assume the Vest was sold in the winter of 1987.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987 ... p-vectra/3


From what I can tell it appears the Navigear, Inc. company (who made the vest) went out of business around 1995 (when the registration was cancelled)

Now to make this even more confusing, I found a similar vest that also looks to be made by the same company (Navigear had copyrighted the term Flex Fit which is seen on this vest) and appears to be a "flight vest" at this archive/store: http://www.toyarchive.com/STAForSale/NE ... rver1a.jpg

So now I'm unsure if the article above is referring to my vest, or this one above

Sweet. I'd say '88 is a good guess.

What's weirdest about it is that I wouldn't have figured the marketing push behind the Steel Brigade mail-in would have been big enough to get behind an item as strange (for a toy line) as a life preserver.

That's a very neat find! The goofy odd stuff is always the funnest to find. I have the TV tray and the bowl and cup set.

I think Hasbro was really pushing Steel Brigade at the time, the 1987 (I think) fan club was all Steel Brigade themed too

Thats an awesome find. I have never seen or even heard of that before! $3 well spent.

That is full of win right there. What a cool oddity. Would have loved to have had one as a kid.

Awesome find.

On the off chance it's for sale, I'd be very interested. This is exactly the sort of thing I collect.

Roger

That's really cool! At first I was gonna say maybe the patch came from this:
http://www.yojoe.com/archive/fanclubs/8 ... kit1.shtml

but upon closer inspection they are actually different, so you've got me stumped. Still a really awesome find!

Wow, that is a really great find. The pic of the patches really shows that they are not the same.

It makes me wonder what other SB stuff is out there. This has kind of a fishing kit feel to it to me. I wouldn't be surprised now to see a SB tackle box or pole.