G.I Joe action figures

GI Joe was an action figure introduced in the year 1963 by Hasbro. Inspired from the cartoon of an American soldier in 1942, it gained tremendous popularity immediately after launch. The positive response led to tremendous demand and consequently sky-rocketing sales. Following the market response, the company moved on to introduce a range of products related to GI Joe.

Hasbro released some 75 different although related items to GI Joe in the last 60's. All this was done with an aim to project GI Joe as a soldier carrying different armaments, a marine sailor as well as an air force pilot.

Hasbro had also launched some other related figures to GI Joe including Mercury Space Capsules, a footlocker, a Green Beret, a Deep Sea Diver, Soldiers of the World and a GI Joe Nurse. However, these ranges of GI Joe collections were withdrawn from the market in a very short duration. This has made the collection of these figures as one of the rarest GI Joe collectibles in today's date.

GI Joe action figures depict an American solider. Hence these action figures have been inspirational for many American soldiers and natives to do something for their country and to work for the defense of the nation. GI Joes' collector Club, which is also an official club for the collection, holds an annual meeting every year. Recently, its tenth annual meeting was held in New Orleans . Sgt. Slaughter has attended the meeting as guest of honor. GI Joe in true sense depicts the American heroism and success story of Hasbro.

Recently, the GI Joe action series have been modified to base it on both military as well as civilian real-life heroes like Bob Hope, John F. Kennedy, Ernie Pyle, Theodore Roosevelt, Colin Powell and George Washington.

Story of GI Joe started on June 17, 1942 when it was introduced by David Breger in military‘s YANK magazine as an American cartoon soldier. Later a movie called The Story of G.I. Joe was released in 1945 which made it popular in American homes. It was then that the commercialization of GI Joe picked up and the toy industry started benefiting from GI Joe brand.

To replicate the military system, Hasbro introduced differed action toys to depict people from all four branches of military armed forces naming the Action Soldier, Action Sailor, Action Pilot and Action Marine. Sales promotions and campaigns made it quite easy for GI Joe to gain household popularity. It became a household figure, a military favorite and was loved and admired by kids and young boys and males by mid 60s.

American wars have also been influencing the story of GI Joe. In 1970 during the Vietnam War, Hasbro re-branded GI Joe to show it as an adventure figures. This was done to allow people to downplay initial war image of G.I. Joe.

Since mid 70's, a new line of toy is introduced every year. The ranges launched every year include soldier GI Joe, adventure GI Joe, Kong Fu GI Joe and Star War GI Joe. These creations are inspired and influenced cultural events also in US.