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GREAT MOMENTS IN TOY MARKETING:

G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe made his debut as the first ever action figure (doll for boys) in 1964. Based on a comic book soldier, G.I. Joe kept a relatively low profile in the late sixties and seventies, when the Vietnam war helped spark national concern over war toys. However, in 1982, Hasbro re-introduced him as an American Hero, a 3.75-inch poseable figure with a full line of futuristic accessories (weapons and vehicles), his own TV show, and an extensive licensing program with Marvel Comics. The new G.I. Joe came with an assortment of team players, including "real life" people such as wrestler Sgt. Slaughter and William "the Refrigerator" Perry of the Chicago Bears.

With the new team came new duties: G.I. Joe defended the environment with his Eco-Warriors; fought drugs via an in-school program sponsored by Hasbro and the Drug Elimination Force (D.E.F.); and conducted the "G.I. Joe Search for Real American Heroes" to honor heroic American kids. Such do-gooderisms helped legitimize and reinforce G.I. Joe's animated television show, where Joe and his futuristic squad used as many weapons to kill as many enemies and blow up as many things as possible, all so good could triumph over evil. This defended G.I. Joe against charges of catering to mindless violence (it wasn't mindless). As Stephen Kline writes:

If there is one striking common feature that came to define character narrative as a genre it is the presence of rather heavy-handed moralizing. The producers of children's television began to morally circumscribe the action sequence so the struggles of their heroes could be explained away as parables rather than wanton violence. . . . Unlike the amoral and anarchic tales of classic cartoons (was Bugs Bunny really a good guy?), the newer animations clearly situated characters within a moral universe--where good and bad are clearly denoted by more than the color of hats. To ban G.I. Joe would be to censor democracy itself. . . . Unlike the literary efforts of the 18th century moralizers, these parables of good and evil arise from the pragmatism of the toy merchandisers, who found that the use of mythology was a successful means of promoting toys.

In the past two years, two new G.I. Joe product lines have been introduced: (1) G.I. Extreme, featuring a larger (five-and-one-half inch), ultra-buffed body and (2) the G.I. Joe Classic Collection, twelve-inch figures "authentically dressed to represent today's military" and designed to appeal to the collector's market.