I was fourteen & thought G.I. Joe was, after all, just a doll.
After a childhood of playing war where boys wore actual WWII helmets, bandoliers, gas masks, and even binoculars, it was hard to be interested in all that in miniature. Rifles & pistols were plywood cutouts wrapped with 100 mile an hour tape. Some of them fired innertube `rubber bands’.
Some on the `enemy’ side even sported German helmets, SS officer’s caps, & daggers (long as their Dads didn’t find out!); all of these were our fathers’ souvenirs, the real McCoy.
I too was 14. I had dad’s uniform but no helmets. Had his Marine Raider knife made by camillus. It was taken away from my at age 10 when I threw it up into trees to try to get starlings it had a broke tip from me throwing it into stumps. I then committed the ultimate insult to this eminently collectable piece. I SHARPENED IT!!! Decreased its value by around $800. The sheath also sports my initials. Dad’s gone but the knife sits in my gun safe.