G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero


G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a military-themed line of action figures and toys in Hasbro's G.I. Joe franchise. The toyline lasted from 1982 to 1994, producing well over 500 figures and 250 vehicles and playsets. The line reappeared in 1997 and has continued in one form or another to the present day. It was supported by two animated series as well as a major comic series published by Marvel Comics.
The toyline continues to play a large part in Hasbro's G.I. Joe franchise.

Origin

"A Real American Hero" was created as a revival of the original G.I. Joe brand of the 1960s and 1970s. After the 12" figure had been absent from toy shelves for a few years, G.I. Joe was re-introduced in a action figure format following the success of the Star Wars and Micronauts 3″ scale toylines.
The genesis of the toy line came about from a chance meeting in a men's room. According to Jim Shooter, then editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics:

The President or CEO of Hasbro was at a charity event that Marvel's President was also at. They ended up in the men's room, standing next to each other peeing, and I think that's how they met. They were talking about each other's respective businesses, and it came up that Hasbro wanted to reactivate the trademark on G.I. Joe, but they were trying to come up with a new approach. was like "We have the best creative people in the world! Let me bring in this Editor-in-Chief of mine and we'll fix it for you!"

Prior to G.I. Joe's relaunch in 1982, Larry Hama was developing an idea for a new comic book called Fury Force, which he was hoping would be an ongoing series for Marvel Comics. The original premise had the son of S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury assembling a team of elite commandos to battle neo-Nazi terrorists HYDRA. Shooter approached Hama about the Joe project due to Hama's military background, and the Fury concept was adapted for the project. Shooter suggested to Hasbro that "G.I. Joe" should be the team name and that they should fight terrorists, while Archie Goodwin invented Cobra and the Cobra Commander; everything else was created by Hama. Hasbro was initially uncertain about making villain toys, believing this would not sell. Marvel would also suggest the inclusion of female Joes in the toyline, and to include them with the vehicles.
It was decided that the comic book series itself would be advertised on television first, as opposed to advertising the toys directly for the time being. This was because television advertising for toys were subject to strict regulations such as to how long an advertisement could depict a toy in animation. By contrast, the regulations for a literary creation were much more lax, allowing them to depict animation for the entire advertisement.
Each G.I. Joe figure included a character biography, called a "file card". Hama was largely responsible for writing these file cards, especially for the first ten years. When developing many of the characters, he drew much from his own experiences in the US military. The overall premise for the toyline revolves around an elite counter-terrorist team code-named G.I. Joe, whose main purpose is "to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world," to quote the voiceover on the animated series' introductory segment.
Every year, Hasbro and Marvel would meet up to discuss the upcoming toys and marketing. Larry Hama was given free rein by Marvel's editors. Both the toys and the comics would become a great success, the comics being Marvel's most subscribed title at one point, but Jim Shooter has said sister company Marvel Productions, who handled the cartoon, overspent on production and had "a critical success but a financial disaster" with the show.
In 1994, Hasbro transferred control of the G.I. Joe toyline and brand name to the newly acquired Kenner division, who promptly cancelled the A Real American Hero toyline and replaced it with G.I. Joe Extreme. After brief revivals in 1997 and 1998, the toyline was revived as the "Real American Hero Collection" in 2000 to the mass market. In both cases, previous molds were reused and some characters had to be renamed due to trademark issues. Another relaunch was made in 2002 under the theme "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" and new designs and characters were introduced.
Hasbro.com officially announced a new line of "25th Anniversary" 4″ G.I. Joe figures on January 18, 2007. The line is primarily based on the characters and designs from the early part of the Real American Hero line.

Toyline

The action figures were tall, at roughly 1:18 scale. Throughout the original toyline production from 1982 through 1994, figure construction remained relatively the same. The most notable changes were the second series' addition of "swivel-arm" articulation in 1983 which allowed the forearm to rotate above the elbow, and the fourth series' ball joints replacing the former swivel necks, both dramatically increasing a figures poseability.
Hasbro also released various vehicles and playsets to be used with the figures. Many of the vehicles and playsets were based on, or influenced by, real or experimental military technologies that were deployed or being developed during the 1980s. Some examples of this among the vehicles released were the G.I. Joe Skystriker XP-14F fighter plane based on the F-14 Tomcat; the Cobra Rattler, which has similarities to the A-10 Thunderbolt II; the Dragonfly attack helicopter which was nearly identical to the Bell AH-1 Cobra; the Cobra Night Raven S3P inspired by the Blackbird SR-71; and the M.O.B.A.T. tank which was modeled after the MBT-70. The Mobile Missile System playset was also strikingly similar to the MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missile system, while the V.A.M.P. and its Cobra counterpart, the Stinger, were based on the FMC XR311 prototype combat vehicle and its derivative, the Lamborghini Cheetah. However, other toys were completely original and in-story incorporated technologies that were unavailable at the time such as the H.A.L. artillery laser, and J.U.M.P. jet pack.

File card

A file card is cardboard packaging with profile information, that accompanies most G.I. Joe or Cobra action figures. The owner of the action figure is encouraged to cut out the file card and save it. Over the years, the file card has evolved, but they generally contain the following information:
  • A picture
  • Indication of allegiance
  • Code name of the character
  • Function
  • File name – the real name of the character
  • SN, his/her serial number
  • Primary military specialty
  • Secondary military specialty
  • Birthplace
  • Rank grade
  • A paragraph detailing the background of the character such as his/her education, upbringing, training
  • A quote from an unidentified source, usually giving the owner an idea of the character's personality
For the enemy characters, most of the details are dispensed with, usually leaving only the picture, code name, function, descriptive paragraph and the quote.
The file cards for the first eight or so years were primarily written by comic book writer Larry Hama. Originally, Hama created "dossiers" as a way to keep track of the characters he would be writing. Representatives from Hasbro saw these "dossiers", and figured they would be an additional attraction to the action figures' blister packs.
They were known for giving much needed details about the characters, such as their specialties, education and training. So detailed were the file cards, that they even mention the military schools the G.I. Joe characters attended. The 1982 to 1984 file cards contained information on weapons specialties, but this was later removed over concerns that children were being given knowledge on firearms and also that a character would be limited in his weaponry.
The file card information would later be reprinted in a G.I. Joe comic book mini-series Order of Battle. The mini-series contained all new art by Herb Trimpe. The first two issues focused on G.I. Joe, the third on Cobra, and the fourth on their vehicles and equipment. The mini-series also corrects some of the grammar and misspellings from the original file cards.
The 1987 G.I. Joe toy line saw the release of Cobra hypnotist Crystal Ball, whose file card was supposedly written by bestselling horror novelist Stephen King. By 1988, the file cards no longer contained details about education, and focused more on the character's upbringing, or what he or she did prior to joining the G.I. Joe Team. In addition to the regular information, this new design of card also included a listing of which vehicle the character is licensed to operate. This would remain largely unchanged until 1991.
In 1991, in a major overhaul of the file card format, the paragraphs and the quotes were replaced by a short quote from the character him/herself, followed by a paragraph that hypes up the character's abilities. This would be the general format for all the file cards that followed.

Line history

A Real American Hero (1982–1994)

The first eleven characters were introduced in carded packs while four others were bundled with vehicles. The first series of action figures had straight arms with elbow joints. While it is common for many characters to share the same mold for producing a body part, it was much more noticeable in the first year as for the original thirteen G.I. Joe figure, only six head molds were created. Three unique molds were assigned to Stalker, Snake-Eyes and Scarlett, while the other ten characters utilized one of three generic heads. Despite these limitations, the new toyline was a success.
With the success of the first line of toys, Hasbro expanded the line the next year with new characters and more original body part designs. In 1983, "swivel-arm battle grip" articulation and some extra tweaks were added to the new characters and the existing figures in order to make them more poseable. In 1985, the base of the action figures' heads were given a ball joint which gave the figures' heads the ability to look up and down. Unlike the change to the arms, older figures were not rereleased with the new neck articulation.
The years from 1983 to 1985 are considered by many to be the golden years of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero as many of the most popular characters were introduced around this time. Vehicles and playsets became bigger and seemed to top the design of the previous year, culminating in 1985's impressive USS Flagg playset, an aircraft carrier that measured long.
Like Hasbro's other main franchise at the time, Transformers, G.I. Joe saw its popularity peak around this time. This year is also notable for the overhauling of toy packaging, which the background artwork being changed from the familiar explosion background to a pixilated pattern of a red, yellow, and white explosion.
In toy stores, two of the largest playsets of the entire line were introduced: the G.I. Joe Defiant space shuttle and the Mobile Command Center. Before the end of the year, the G.I. Joe special team Battleforce 2000 was introduced in time for Christmas.
The toyline continued to sell well, despite its lack of media support. A new enemy, Destro's Iron Grenadiers, was introduced. The new Cobra line-up was composed mainly of Viper-type henchmen. Issue #86 of the comic series celebrated the 25th anniversary of the G.I. Joe toyline in general. Another G.I. Joe sub-group, Tiger Force, a line of classic characters and vehicles re-colored with tiger-striped camouflage patterns, was introduced before the year's end.
The relative success of Tiger Force the year before led to the introduction of Slaughter's Marauders and Cobra's Python Patrol in 1989.
The lackluster performance of 1989 convinced Hasbro to scale back on production. They concentrated on the action figure line-up and reduced the number of new vehicles for that year. The logo for the toyline was slightly redesigned as well. Special teams such as Ninja Force, Eco-Warriors, and Star Brigade were introduced.
In the final two years of the line, characters who were not part of any sub-group were branded as part of the all-encompassing Battle Corps. The background artwork for the cards was replaced by a design featuring laser-like lines. The Star Brigade sub-series was revamped with a more science-fiction storyline involving an extraterrestrial enemy, the Lunartix Empire.
The characters from the Street Fighter II video game became part of the G.I. Joe line up in 1993, as Hasbro bought the toy rights to the characters.
Although the line would officially end in 1994, design elements of the G.I. Joe figures and vehicles would continue in later toylines, such as a line based on the Street Fighter motion picture, as well as another based on the game's equally popular competitor, Mortal Kombat. The mold for the A.W.E. Striker vehicle from 1985 was also modified to accommodate larger figures for Hasbro's Stargate line.