I was already a teenager when it came out. Guys my age were unmercifully with younger kids who bought A DOLL(My generation had those tiny plastic army guys). . In retrospect of course it was a good thing cept for the thumbnail being where the thumb print should be.
Sorry little brother. Didn’t mean to spoil your fun.
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.