Building off this success of Barbie dolls in the female market, in 1964 the first G.I Joe action figures were released.
Hey welcome to watchmojo.com, I'm your host Derek Allen, and today we’re going to take a look at the history of this mega successful franchise.
It was the first half of the 1960s when toy creators Stan Weston pitch the idea of a military themed figure, quickly approving development of the idea has grew immediately coined the terms action figure and movable man of action to describe these new toys.
In less than one year, the G.I Joe America’s movable fighting man line was introduced at New York International Toy Fair. The brand’s name was a nod to the Oscar nominated 1945 film, The Story of G.I Joe. Standing out 11 ½ inches tall, the G.I Joe action figures have 21 moving parts and featured full uniforms soon after Hasbro discovered they had indeed found an untapped market with figures aimed to boys. As they sold more than 2 million G.I Joes in the first year alone.
However, the second half of the 1960s, with the United States fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam has brought out that it was best to refocus the brand in 1970 as a non-military adventure team.
Now, G.I Joe fought ecological disasters and wild animals, as opposed to other human beings. Despite seeing new developments throughout the franchises’ first decades, such as the now famous Kung Fu Grip and line ended in 1976. It wouldn’t be until 1982 that another official G.I Joe line hits stores. Now, reintroduced as a 3 ¾ inch figure, the new toy line was named G.I Joe: A Real American Hero, and would eventually feature a long sided in animated television series, in animated film, as well as a Marvel comic book series. It was this incarnation of G.I Joe that would become the franchises most recognized series.
The new line placed the G.I Joe team as a counter terrorist team, who’s main objective was to protect human from the terrorist organization Cobra, who are then on world domination.
The animated series tended a feature a specific character in each episode from the G.I Joe line, as a way to advertise their figures. Each episode also finish, with the public safety lesson, which popularized the phrase, “Knowing is half the battle”.
A poorly received directive video animated film named G.I Joe the Movie was released in 1987, shortly after the animated series had been cancelled, seeing the interest for the real American hero line, waiting in the late 80s and early 90s, Hasbro decided to cancel the line in 1994.
There have been other more short lived lines such as Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles, G.I Joe extreme, as well as the more recent G.I Joe Sigma Six. Trying to bank in on the past success of the G.U Joe lines, Hasbro has released several collections based on past lines, including a master piece series, as well as a collection beginning in 2007 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the line first released in 1982. The G.I Joe franchise was finally brought to the big screen in 2009 as a live action film. The film cost a $170 million to make and is origins story, detailing the rise of the terrorist Cobra organization, starring Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid and Sienna Miller, the film’s actors were scanned for Hasbro’s 2009 Rise of Cobra toy line, proving that the G.I Joe franchise, even after 45 years is still fighting to win over new generations.
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