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[Thunderloaf]

Ok...I'm admitting it. I touched Canada.

Actually, I touched the Canadian side of the Soo Locks between the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Canada. Does that count?

Wondering about something Joe-related though. Were Canadian Joes the same as basic "American" Joes - just with the Maple Leaf and French instruction on the packaging, or did you get some of the Brazilian or UK sculpts as well? Were there any name changes on any characters?

Thanks!

T-Loaf

[akpayne]

I am not an expert on this, but for the most part Canadian figures where the same.
Some figures had their file cards modified to make them Canadian, vehicles had stickers with Canadian Flags.
The only figure that I am aware of that had a different code name was Spirit, in Canada he was released as Shaman.

As far as figures go, I don't think we got any new molds, or really unique paint variations.
Vehicles, however we did get many store exclusives from Sears Canada, and Consumers Distributing.

I am sure others will fill in more of the blanks I have left above.

[martin-montreal]

Hello,

Here is a quote from http://www.thejoeindex.com/joeindex/international/canada/ that will answer you:

In Canada, the G.I. Joe items (especially on the G.I. Joe side of the conflict) would be nearly indistiguishable from the domestic U.S. save for minor alterations. On the vehicles this would mostly be Canadian flags and name in place of the Stars and Stripes and the United States moniker.

For the figures, the most notable differences would be dual-language filecards (English and French) and occasionally varying text from the U.S. figures. Usually a change in name and/or birthplace among the G.I. Joe team members.

Canada has some unique collectibles, including a differing version of the Vamp mk. II and the various Sears exclusive items including the Cobra Combat Set M.S.V.

For different birthplaces, you should read the first JoeCanuck issue (or all of them!) where Ryan explain that Steeler was a proud citizen of Hamilton (Ontario, Canada).

Look here: http://www.joecanuck.com/joe/board/http://joecanuck.com/board1//viewforum.php?f=2.0

Keep postings on Joe Canuck!

Martin

[sniper]

Other file cards with birthplaces in Canada that I can think of off the top of my head are:

Scarlett: Grande Prairie, AB
Grunt: Quebec I think it was Trois Rivieres.
Snowjob might have had a Yukon birthplace.

[ARROW]

It really depended upon the "what, where and whens" with the figures. Sometimes different toy stores in the same city would get the same figures, but the packaging from their suppliers could be either US or Canadian.
Back in the late 80's one store I knew of in Vancouver, used to get all US packaged stuff, and another store a block away would get the goods from Hasbro Canada. Sometimes even the same store would get different sourced stuff from one wave to the next.

Woodwards, which used to be a chain up here, would get waves like that.
I do not recall Spirit being named otherwise, but that could be just an example of  the different distributed toys.
Only a few of the Joes were given altered file cards up here though, but most of the vehicles sold would have Canadian flag insignia, or both Canada and US flags.

What used to ticked me off what the dual language file cards, which always edited out stuff to accommodate both languages. That's why I always preferred the US sourced stuff myself.

[Thunderloaf]

Cool! Thanks for the info.

The Timbits & SnowBank figs got me wondering whether there were any exclusives, like Brazil had.

So...here's another question. In the States, we had "knockoffs" like Sgt. Rock, A-Team, M*A*S*H, Lanard (The Corps!) and others. Were there figures that were unique to Canada?

I'm in research mode, due to a new "timeline" project that I'm doing here at work. (Nothing to do with action figs, unfortunately!)

Thanks again!

Thunderloaf