50 Years of G.I. Joe!

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.


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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.

Nissan's GI Joe Kicked Ken's Butt TV Ads

I'm starting to get the 1/6th scale itch again.  I still have my Charlie Chan project that I need to finish.  Only thing that I've done to him since my last post about that figure project was the fact that I finally got around to painting the 'Oddjob' bowler hat white today.  I still need to paint Charlie's eyes and get him some decent shoes to "finish" that project.

But, surfing the web using MacDonalds free wi-fi today, I came across Patches of Pride word press blog and their April 5, 2012 posting about the famous Nissan Ads that showed G.I. Joe getting it on with a Barbie clone and leaving ole Ken clone in the dust. The reference section below has the Patches of Pride link to this article.

This was Nissan's "Enjoy the Ride" promotion and the two ads where done in tradional stop motion animation style.  Quote:  New York Daily News, Advertising Age executive Scott Donaton was quoted as saying, “The Nissan ad is like a minimovie, and it’s probably better than most of the programs on TV.” end quote.

Those mini-movies were created by Rob Siltanen, of the TBWA Chiat/Day agency in Venice, California.  Quoting him:  “Nissan said, ‘Let’s do something different, let’s break the rules,’ To a creative person, that’s as close to nirvana as it gets.” end quote.

The first mini-movie featured the new 300ZX sportscar and that took 11 weeks to film.  And the song "You Really Got Me" from Van Halen was just right.  The G.I. Joe like figure coems to life in the boy's bedroom and he jumps down to get into the Nissan 300ZX and goes roaring off to visit the girl's bedroom.  The non-Barbie was wearing a tennis outfit and her boyfirend "Tad" is dismay to see his girlfriend dump him for Joe driving the sportscar.  Then the Nissan logo comes up.



The second mini-movie commercial featured Nissan's Pathfinder and had the KISS song, "Calling Dr. Love." I don't ever remember seeing this particular ad before.



In the Daily News article, the author writes that the production company used 8-inch plastic doll figures, not the 12" G.I. Joe figures. So, the ad maybe was made with 8" inch Mego figures or it could have been the 12" inch ones from Hasbro and Mattel.

Despite the appeal of the commercials, Mattel objected to Ken being treated the way he was and the Nissan "Enjoy the Ride" ad campaign was suspended.  And I also didn't realized until I wrote this post that my last Charlie Chan update was back in 2009!


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Ref.
1. Patches of Pride (wordpress blog). "REMEMBERING NISSAN’S GIJOE VS KEN TV ADS (1996)" (http://patchesofpride.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/remembering-nissans-gijoe-vs-ken-tv-ads-1996/).
2. NY Daily News. "A Car Ad That Floors Viewers Nissan's New Doll-driven Commercial Is Superb Tv, And It's Been Getting As Much Attention As Any Show Out There" BY ROBERT DOMINGUEZ. October 29, 1996.  (http://articles.nydailynews.com/1996-10-29/entertainment/18019934_1_nissan-ad-nissan-logo-nissan-spot).
3. Flash Force 255 Bunker.  Charlie Chan update (http://flash255bunker.blogspot.com/2009/12/charlie-chan-update.html).

Triad Toys Doll Clothing

In the back of my mind, I have been wanting to do a kinda of James Bond/Matt Helm photostory using my action figures as the actors of course. I'm waiting on news about that future Matt Helm movie project and what might be spun off of it for my Matt Helm custom. I already have a few James Bond to choose from in my collection already.

And what would be a good spy story without some good looking female eye-candy hanging around? I already have most of the female action figures that Blue Box originally released from a few years ago, but civilian clothing for them has been lacking unless I modified some Mattel Barbie stuff.

Crusing One Sixth Warrior forum today, I spotted a post about Triad Toys offering sexy outfits for the 1/6th ladies in your life. (And really, this is jsut an excuse to post some sexy looking babe dolls). Quote: Triad is releasing more casual and fashion-based outft sets. Starting with the contemporary skin-tight dresses. Each set comes with two (2) dresses in different colors and styles. There is a total of three sets in the latest Nite Out 2.0 series, totaling 6 different dress styles.

Two outfits per set that run $19.99 per set which isn't too bad a price for these hard economic times. Figures not included in these sets.

Link (http://www.triadtoys.com/).