Toy soldiers are nearly as old as human civilization. In their classic form as "tin soldiers," they date back to the early 1700s. By the early twentieth century, most toy soldiers in the US and Great Britain were made from lead. It was fear of lead poisioning that led to the toys' plastic form. Most of these early toy soldiers (and many still produced today) were only 2 to 2 1/2 inches tall and unarticulated. The advent of the larger plastic soldiers we call action figures began with Hasbro's original G.I. Joe, and is usually thought of as a boys'-toy response to the success of Mattel's Barbie dolls, which took the toy world by storm in 1959.
Hasbro is the shortened form of the original company name Hassenfeld Brothers, founded by Henry and Helal Hassenfeld in 1923. The company made textile products, later including school supplies, before producing its first toys in the 1940s. Hasbro's most successful early toy was Mr. Potato Head, introduced in 1952. The idea for G.I. Joe was first conceived when toy designer Stanley Weston of Weston Merchandising Corp. sought to produce a tie-in to Gene Roddenberry's TV series The Lieutenant, starring Gary Lockwood as Marine 2nd Lt. William Tiberius Rice. Based on conversations with Larry Reiner of Ideal Toys, Weston desired an articulated toy soldier of the same scale as Barbie.
Hasbro Toys' creative director Don Levine rejected Weston's proposal of a toy tie-in to an adult TV series (which, in the end, ran for only one season). However, Levine adapted the idea into an independent poseable character whose mold was designed by Samuel Speers and Hugh O'Connor. (Weston received $100,000 for the original idea.) The resulting figure had 21 points of articulation and matched Barbie's height of 30 centimeters (11 3/4 inches). There appears to be truth in the claim that the face is that of WWII Medal of Honor winner Mitchell Paige, a US Marine who received an official Joe figure in his likeness in 1998, but rumors that he did this only on the condition that all Joe figures be Marines are unsubstantiated. Marketed as a "moveable fighting man" or "action figure" instead of a doll, the toy was named G.I. Joe—G.I. for government issue, and Joe for the average everyman—a name drawn from the 1945 Burgess Meredith film The Story of G.I. Joe.
The G.I. Joe line ran from 1964 to 1977 and is considered the quintessential collectible "12-inch" or 1/6-scale action figure. The concept was modified several times throughout its run: G.I. Joe figures were produced for all branches of US military service. Talking and "kung fu grip" features were added in the 1970s. As war became less popular, Joe was reimagined as an outdoors adventurer. What brought the line to an end was the oil crisis, since petroleum is a primary ingredient in plastic.
Meanwhile, a new kind of action figure was in its infancy. Takara, a Japanese company founded in 1955, sold Hasbro's G.I. Joe figures in the 1970s and created its own cyborg-themed spin-off. In 1974 they introduced Microman, a related line of cyborg toys scaled down to 10 centimeters, a scale that would become known in the US as 3 and 3/4 inches. The Microman toys eventually developed into a line whose shape-changing vehicles would be sold in the US as Transformers. Mego, an American company whose Action Jackson line competed directly with G.I. Joe, produced primarily 8-inch figures for Star Trek and other lines. It was Mego that brought Takara's new 10-cm scale to the US in the form of superhero figures.
Mego turned down an offer to produce Star Wars toy merchandise. That offer therefore went to Kenner, an Ohio toy company founded by the Steiner brothers in 1947 and owned by General Mills since 1967. Kenner's famous Star Wars collection, introduced in 1978, popularized the pocket-sized action figure format. Whereas previous figures were stooped over, Star Wars figures stood up straight and were well equipped with accessories. The intricacy of Kenner's figure designs advanced noticeably each year, and very quickly their toys dominated the industry just as the movie had dominated the theaters.
The specific origins of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero have been told marvellously and in detail in such books as The Official 30th Anniversary Salute to G.I. Joe 1964-1994 by Vincent Santelmo and The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe 1982-1994 by Mark Bellomo. Here's a summary: Amid the renewed patriotism of the early 1980s, Hasbro Boys' Toys Vice President Bob Prupis presented a plan to reintroduce G.I. Joe in the new, smaller size. He and others developed the concept into a toy line of various characters with a book (later a comic) advertised with an animated TV ad and its own commercial jingle. The pitch reportedly received a very emotional, and very positive response. As preliminary development continued, an enemy force was conceived, and the name Cobra was suggested by Marvel comics master Archie Goodwin. Larry Hama, who would draw from his Army experience during Vietnam in writing the comics, provided character sketches of the Joes that would ultimately be produced.
In the summer of 1982, Marvel Comics introduced G.I. Joe as a small "mobile strike force" assembled by U.S. Army General Flagg, largely from Vietnam veterans and young up-and-comers, with the mission of protecting America from threats to freedom which needed to be kept from the public, or which the regular military forces were ill-equipped to handle. Their duties quickly narrowed to defending America and its interests from the forces of an evil used car salesman-turned-terrorist known as the Cobra Commander. This villain had masterminded terrorist activities in the Middle East and, by the time of Issue #1, had come to command legions of troops in a militarized society called Cobra. The Commander's ultimate goal eventually became world domination. The comic freely added its own characers and equipment (beginning with the Baroness and a Cobra helicopter) and dealt with true-to-life political and military situations, though with fictionalized names and made-up countries. In early issues, the Soviet Union was as great a threat as Cobra, and by the end of the year there was a three-way fight between Cobra, the Joes, and the Oktober Guard, the Joes' Soviet counterparts. The Guard would be recurring characters, increasingly sympathetic, with most either dying or eventually joining the Joe team. Along with the down-to-earth plots of the comic, there were also science-fiction themes, the first being a giant robot left for the Joes as a "Trojan horse" to locate their hidden base.
Hasbro's advertising strategy was a clever subversion of existing regulations: Toy commercials could only contain a tiny amount of animation, but there was no such restriction on ads for books or comics, since print material was seldom advertised on TV anyway, especially not to a child demographic. And so the television ads for the comics would contain a full thirty seconds of animation and a specialized verse of the jingle, usually focusing on the newest vehicles and "figured" characters. Then about ten seconds of this animation would be recycled for the toy commercial, the rest of which featured children playing with the toys. This animation came from Hasbro's advertising agency Griffin-Bacal (a partnership of Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal), whose Sunbow Productions studio had created The Great Space Coaster and would go on to create cartoon series for Transformers, Jem, Inhumanoids, and The Tick.
Hasbro's first assortment of figures included nine G. I. Joe and two Cobra figures, each packaged individually on cards similar to those used in the Star Wars line. Each came with accessories (e.g., helmets, backpacks, weapons). The back of the card featured art of all available figures along with a filecard providing personal information about the figure. The filecards would primarily be written by Larry Hama through at least 1990, though with occasional executive assistance/meddling.
Several vehicles and other equipment were also produced; in fact, Hasbro exec Kirk Bozigian had originally hoped the vehicles would carry the line's sales. (The figures, however, were the real cash cow of the franchise.) One of the Joe line's many advantages over the Star Wars line was the inclusion of exclusive figures with the larger vehicles. One of these was Hawk, the Joe team's leader. Cobra Commander was available through a mail-in offer later in 1982. In all, sixteen figures and eight pieces of equipment were released this year.
Intelligence, espionage, and betrayal were prominent themes as Marvel's monthly issues continued. This year introduced Cobra's American base, an innocent-looking town called Springfield. Also appearing was the young Billy, soon revealed to be Cobra Commander's son, and a Cobra scientist named Dr. Venom whose brainwave scanner would be used to interrogate or brainwash characters for the next ten years. A Cobra Officer known as Scar-Face was also important to this year's plots. The new figures for the year were introduced gradually: Airborne, Doc, Gung-Ho, Snow Job, and Wild Bill first appeared in #11 (May 83), along with a silhouetted introduction for the then-mysterious Destro. Torpedo came along in #13 (Jul. 83), Ace in #14 (Aug. 83), and Major Bludd in #15 (Sept. 83). Tripwire and Cover Girl were the last figures to be incorporated into the story this year (#16, Oct. 83). The mail-order Duke, who soon joined 1984's carded assortment, was brought into the comic along with the '84 characters (#22, Apr. 84).
Sunbow's animation was maturing, and the time had come for a cartoon miniseries. Airing September 12-16, the story used nearly all the existing figures, plus the Baroness in a crossover from the comic, with a simple premise: Cobra develops a superweapon, requiring G.I. Joe to build a device of its own and race Cobra for the three rare elements needed to power the machines. Notably absent from this cartoon was the leader Hawk, in favor of the new and heavily promoted top sergeant, Duke. Featured in the cartoon were Duke, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes, with significant parts for Stalker, Doc, Torpedo, and Gung-Ho. All the Cobra leaders received significant screen time as well, with considerable bickering between Cobra Commander and Destro. The budget allowed for a cast featuring some of the greatest talent in the business: Michael Bell (who also had a guest part in the Star Trek: TNG pilot), future comic-opera performer B.J. Ward, master voice actors Frank Welker and Rob Paulsen, the now-legendary Chris Latta, and others.
The first new figure of the year, Major Bludd, was first available by mail through an offer sent to those who had ordered Cobra Commander. He and the Commander would be released on card along with Destro by summer. The six new members of the Joe team were in stores by early spring. Whereas the first year's Joes shared many parts and the same overall look, most of the new figures had original molds and more colorful paint schemes.
The most important feature this year was swivel-arm battle grip, which greatly increased the poseability of the figures. In fact, the torso, waist, and upper legs were also redesigned to reduce stress on the O-ring and make the waistpiece slightly less fragile. All the previous year's figures were re-released with the new construction.
Vehicles and playsets multiplied this year, with air power being the greatest innovation. The HISS and SkyStriker achieved iconic status among 1980s toys. The Joe Headquarters set had amazing play value and was much larger than the Star Wars playsets, whose largest (the Ewok Village) was released at the same time at a higher price point. Hasbro decided to save some money on the vehicle drivers this year, with three being repaints and several of the others sharing parts with other figures. Cobra's soldiers were still ill-defined at this stage: the characterization of the previous year's troopers and officers was simply recycled for the drivers of the Viper Gliders and HISS tanks, who were simply called Viper Pilots and HISS Drivers, respectively.
