I heared it on the saturday morning airing of the
Wall Street Journal radio program. It was the anniversary of the creation of the famous
Hasbro action figure -
G.I. Joe!
Then there is the link below to the article by
Chris Carola in the
Huffington Post entitled:
G.I. Joe, 'World's First Action Figure,' Turns 50. Hasbro showed off
G.I. Joe at the
1964 Toy Fair in
New York City and to this blogger, that 1 foot tall action figure has been successful ever since.
Don Levine is often referred to as the "father" of
G.I. Joe. He was the head of
Hasbro's research and development. And since most of
Hasbro's work force was of retired US military men from
World War 2, or
Korea; that is why there was a figure made for the four main US military services (
Coast Guard was lumped into the
Navy line I guess).
The war in
Vietnam was growing, but
G.I. Joe managed to survive that as well. When sales finally started to drop off, then the
AT (Adventure Team) was created. Now the "joes" were out of the military (kind of) - able to grow beards and the figures now had "
Kung-fu" grip for added playability.
Back in 1964, the cost per figure was $4.00. Adjusted for inflation, that figure would retail for about $30.00 each now.
In 2004, six years after
Mattel's Barbie earned the same honor;
G.I. Joe was elected into the
Toy Hall of Fame.
___
Ref.
1. Huffington Post. "G.I. Joe, 'World's First Action Figure,' Turns 50" by Chris Carola. February 6, 2014. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/gi-joe-turns-50_n_4735699.html).
2. One Sixth Warriors.com forum. (http://www.onesixthwarriors.com/forum/sixth-scale-action-figure-news-reviews-discussion/743991-happy-50th-g-i-joe.html).
3. Images of my own G.I. Joe action figures.
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