Posted on 02/06/2014 6:46:28 AM PST by Phillyred
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) - G.I. Joe is turning 50.
The birthday of what's called the world's first action figure is being celebrated this month by collectors and the toy maker that introduced it just before the nation plunged into the quagmire that would become the Vietnam War - a storm it seems to have weathered pretty well.
Since Hasbro brought it to the world's attention at the annual toy fair in New York City in early 1964, G.I. Joe has undergone many changes, some the result of shifts in public sentiment for military-themed toys, others dictated by the marketplace.
Still, whether it's the original "movable fighting man" decked out in the uniforms of the four branches of the U.S. military, or today's scaled-down products, G.I. Joe remains a popular brand.
"Joe stood for everything that was meant to be good: fighting evil, doing what's right for people," said Alan Hassenfeld, the 65-year-old former CEO for Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro Inc., whose father, Merrill, oversaw G.I. Joe's development in 1963....
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
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.
See if you can find the “Venture Brothers” homage with their OSI opening. Much like the Joe opening, but giddy with mindless violence and gore. It’s what GI Joe should have been, except for the homosexual agents like Shore Leave.
They took too much off the top !!!
Either that or the steroids took a toll!
I created a GI Joe long before, when ii was about 10, say1947.i played with plastic toy soldiers for years . One day I found a doll of a man in a blue suit, tie and all. Prob 12 in with movable arms and legs. I quickly painted his suit olive from my model airplane supplies. I fashioned a helmet from medical adhesive tape and painted that olive. Not sure how long I had him but at some point buried him and never dug him up. Larry
Hey, 50 is the new 35!
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