The Rise and Fall of G.I. Joe

Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:

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Did you know that the secret to the long-standing success of G.I. Joe was an inverted thumbnail? When Hasbro produced the earliest 12-inch versions of the popular military action figure in 1964, they were concerned that companies might produce copycat versions. However, those early figures had a production error: the nail in the thumb was inverted, meaning it was on the inside of the thumb. This meant that if a company tried to replicate it without inspecting it too closely, copying the thumb would be a dead giveaway. The toys also had a scar on the face, which was intentional. These unique features made the toys distinctive and allowed Hasbro to pursue copyright or patent infringement cases. That was smart business.

In the decades to come, G.I. Joe would not only rule toy shelves but also dominate cartoons, invade comics, and cross over into live-action movies. At their peak in the 80s, two out of every three boys in the U.S. owned at least one G.I. Joe figure. It’s the story of America’s greatest fictional military force that has basically never managed to defeat its primary enemy or even hit a target.

Welcome to the show where we take a look back at some of the most influential pop culture stories and events you may remember from your childhood. I’m Erin McCarthy, and while I was not alive when G.I. Joe first burst onto the scene in 1964, I’ve been around for many of the toy’s moments in the spotlight. The public service messages at the end of the 1980s animated series taught me to never swim during a thunderstorm, never pull a fire alarm if there’s no fire, and never jump over downed power lines with my bike, which I really loved to do before that.

Before the Joes could lecture kids, they had to go through some growing pains of their own. You’re familiar with Hasbro, the gigantic toy company responsible for G.I. Joe, Transformers, and other classic toy lines. But in the 1950s, the brand was best known as the manufacturer of the unarmed pacifist called Mr. Potato Head. The word Hasbro refers to the Hassenfeld brothers—siblings Henry, Hillel, and Hermann—who were originally in the business of marketing textile scraps. They moved from that to school supplies and eventually to toys like Mr. Potato Head.

By the 1960s, however, the toy market seemed ripe for something else. America was caught in the middle of the Cold War, and Hasbro knew there was an appetite among kids for combat toys. After all, little green army men made of lead and later plastic had been perennial hits. But those tiny plastic toys weren’t posable like Mattel’s popular Barbie line. What if you could combine the two trends?

As with many such ideas, there’s debate about who came up with G.I. Joe. The fight centers on Stan Weston and toy designer Lawrence Reiner. According to one story, Weston was a licensing agent who cut deals for merchandising based on existing properties. Weston believed posable military toys could fill a need in the market. Reiner then came up with the idea of figures that could move their arms and legs.

Whichever story is true, Weston had a lot more than dolls in mind. He wanted to create a toy that emulated the razor blade business model. A customer buys a razor, but the razor blade company really wants that customer to keep buying disposable razor blade heads. That was what Weston wanted for toys—kids could buy an action figure and then all the accessories for it.

Hasbro executive Donald Levine liked it and worked with Weston to create some prototypes of the figures in uniform. On the strength of the samples, skeptical Hasbro boss Merrell Hassenfeld made Weston an offer: he could take a flat fee of $75,000 or a royalty based on toys sold. Weston countered with a hundred thousand dollars and handed over total ownership to Hasbro, a deal he would grow to regret.

Levine got the name G.I. Joe from a 1945 film titled “The Story of G.I. Joe,” but the name first appeared as the title of a 1942 comic strip. Levine also worked to develop the entire assortment of figures and had the idea to fit them with articulated joints, allowing the toys to kneel down or lob a grenade. Along with the accidental thumbnail and scar, Hasbro had a toy line—save for one problem: they were worried boys of the era wouldn’t want to play with what amounted to a doll. So Hasbro insisted retailers call the Joes action figures.

When Hasbro proudly showed off their Joe line at the toy fair in 1964, prospective buyers laughed. These were toy soldiers in fancy clothing, and few people thought kids would be interested. But they were. G.I. Joe was an immediate hit when it debuted that year, with sales of the four figures far exceeding Hasbro’s expectations. Multiple branches of the United States armed forces were represented, and each figure was an imposing 12 inches tall with real fabric uniforms and 19 points of articulation.

To save on manufacturing costs, the bodies were the same; only the heads and accessories differed. This was a great idea until it wasn’t. By the end of the 1960s, America was deep into a divisive war in Vietnam, and the use of military force was no longer something that everyone could get behind. The toys, once a piece of Americana, became controversial. So Hasbro decided to pivot, reframing the G.I. Joe line as a team of adventurers who went on top-secret missions that had no military sanctioning.

There wasn’t a lot of continuity to these stories; sometimes the figures were on a mission to save the environment, other times they were fighting mummies or looking for the Abominable Snowman. Instead of a naval officer, a Joe might be an aquanaut. The new line also pioneered something that entered the pop culture lexicon: a “Kung Fu Grip” feature, which allowed the figures to grasp guns or ropes. By 1976, G.I. Joe barely resembled the original toy line.

The success of “Star Wars” in 1977 was felt throughout the movie and toy industries, and anything having to do with outer space was suddenly hot. To capitalize on the trend, Hasbro executive Bob Prupus decided to relaunch G.I. Joe as a military operation with a science fiction element. Soldiers would carry laser weapons and travel via jetpack. However, a series of energy crises in the 70s affected the price of petroleum, which was the raw material used to make the plastic. This meant each Joe would have cost too much at retail to entice customers.

Attempts to reduce the amount of raw materials needed for production hadn’t worked out. Some of the later Joes made to conserve raw plastic were so flimsy that their arms would spontaneously come off—not a good trait for a soldier. So Prupus innovated again, turning to “Star Wars” for inspiration. The “Star Wars” toy line featured figures that were just 3.75 inches tall, allowing for lower production costs and reasonable retail prices. Prupus decided these new Joes would need to be smaller in stature.

While American attitudes about the military had softened since the end of the Vietnam War, the Joes still felt a little aimless. Having them fight real-world threats was maybe a little offensive, and having them fight mummies was kind of silly. So, with the help of marketing from Griffin McCall and Hasbro creatives, Prupus tried to hammer out what the G.I. Joe of the 1980s would look like.

While Hasbro was excellent at making toys, they had never launched a cohesive mythology surrounding one of their toy lines. What they needed was a partner with experience in storytelling, and who better than the people at Marvel Comics? McCall reached out to Marvel, which was receptive to partnering with Hasbro in a mutually beneficial arrangement. Hasbro would design and market the toys, while Marvel would come up with motivations for the Joes to be marching into battle as part of a comic book series.

Marvel contributed a lot to the G.I. Joe lore at the time. Marvel’s editor-in-chief Jim Shooter knew writer Larry Hama, who was working on a title called “Fury Force,” a military adventure series. Hama was a Vietnam War veteran and knew his way around the tropes of the war story genre. Shooter told Hama to take some of the ideas he had earmarked for “Fury Force” and adapt them for the G.I. Joe series.

At this point, it’s hard to say where Hasbro ended and Marvel began. According to Hama, he would usually be presented with black and white drawings and a rough idea of the character’s purpose. It would be up to him to come up with a personality. Another Marvel editor, Archie Goodwin, suggested that the Joes face a perpetual foe in Cobra, a kind of non-specific terrorist organization led by the evil and helmeted Cobra Commander.

Hama contributed a number of character and vehicle ideas, which Hasbro eventually used on the packaging of the toy line. This bold new look for Joe was unveiled in 1982 when Hasbro debuted 11 figures and eight pieces of equipment, including fan-favorite ninja Snake Eyes, Scarlett, and Cobra soldiers. Even though the figures were smaller, they still retained a lot of articulation, each one having 10 points—double that of the average “Star Wars” figure.

During the 1982 holiday season, Hasbro expected to sell $15 million in G.I. Joe toys. Instead, they sold $50 million. The second year, it was $100 million. Hasbro offered fans the chance to get a mail-in Cobra Commander if they sent in proofs of purchase of existing figures. Hasbro thought maybe 5,000 orders would come in; they got 125,000. The toys helped sell the comics, and the comics helped sell the toys. In fact, Marvel’s G.I. Joe was once its best-selling subscription title, moving over 331,000 copies a month, even outselling “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

It was clear Hasbro knew their resurrected toy line was turning into a phenomenon. However, knowing was only half the battle. As successful as the Marvel comics title was, Hasbro knew that to really break through to their audience, they’d need more exposure. Kenner’s “Star Wars” toys had a movie series to help them move little plastic Skywalkers. A G.I. Joe movie was a little too ambitious, but an animated limited series was very doable.

In 1983, Hasbro brought on a writer named Ron Friedman to script the adventures of the Joes in their endless conflict against Cobra. The result was “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero,” a five-episode series that was followed in 1984 by “G.I. Joe: The Revenge of Cobra.” These brief runs were a proof of concept for an ongoing animated series that debuted in 1985.

For that series, Hasbro enlisted a military consultant from the Rhode Island National Guard to ensure the uniforms and vehicles were at least plausible in appearance. In return, the Guard insisted the military be made to look good, but parents insisted that the military not look too good at their job. In the cartoon version of G.I. Joe, enemy soldiers who got hit typically parachuted to safety, and despite lots of firefights, no soldier ever died on the show.

So, on one hand, G.I. Joe glorified war and violence without any repercussions, but in some respects, it was also pretty progressive for its time. The Joes welcomed female members like Scarlett long before the actual U.S. military got its act together on that front, and it wasn’t mentioned as anything remarkable within the context of the show.

The Hasbro and Marvel synergy introduced memorable characters into the Joe canon, including Duke, Zartan, Baroness, Destro, Storm Shadow, and Lady Jaye. But the biggest character of them all might have been Wally Burr, the primary voice director for the show and a World War II veteran. According to voice actors, Burr treated the show like a regimented military assignment, barking orders and having actors fall in line with multiple takes.

All of this was made possible by Ronald Reagan. The president had pursued a policy of deregulation at the Federal Communications Commission, leaving Hasbro free to produce the cartoon, which they did in conjunction with Sunbow Productions, a division of the Griffin Bacall marketing firm, and Marvel Productions. In addition to the two limited series, the main show ran for 95 episodes and introduced the now-iconic phrase “Yo Joe!” to the Joe mythology.

However, to appease parents and broadcast policymakers who feared it was nothing more than a 22-minute toy commercial, Hasbro inserted a public service message at the end of each episode. These typically consisted of a Joe character popping up just as some kids were doing something irresponsible and admonishing them not to act foolishly. The closing line, “And knowing is half the battle,” became an earworm for kids of the 80s.

It all worked. G.I. Joe was a massive success, sending Hasbro’s stock from 42 cents a share to $4.36 by September 1985. But G.I. Joe’s tour of duty couldn’t last forever. They were about to get some competition—not from Cobra, but from four turtles who were familiar with martial arts.

Something unique to G.I. Joe was that, unlike most toy lines, it incorporated people from other areas of pop culture into the fictional world of the Joes. In doing so, it allowed audiences from other areas of entertainment to engage with the toys, comics, and cartoons. If you really think about it, the Joe line might be one of the earliest examples of a shared universe.

In 1985, the only thing more animated than a cartoon were the heroes and villains of the World Wrestling Federation. To capitalize on the popularity of pro wrestling, Hasbro invited Sergeant Slaughter for a meeting. Slaughter, whose real name was Robert Remus, is not an actual veteran but managed to carry the stern disposition of a drill instructor to the ring. Hasbro thought he’d make a perfect recruit, and Slaughter appeared as himself or his wrestling character in the toy line, comics, and series.

The toy was a mail-in; kids had to send in proof of purchase tabs to get him. Based on the success of Sergeant Slaughter, Hasbro went after another larger-than-life character in the form of William Perry, an NFL star and Chicago Bears defensive lineman whose nickname was “The Refrigerator.” In 1986, the Bears won the Super Bowl and became something of a cultural sensation. It made perfect sense for Perry to become the Joe’s physical fitness instructor, packaged with a football and a chain.

Hasbro also released a figure named Crystal Ball that year, which was inspired by Stephen King’s son, Owen, who was such a big fan of the Joe toy line that he and his father pitched the idea for a Cobra hypnotist to Hasbro. Hasbro liked the idea and eventually released him as an action figure in 1987. Hasbro also released a figure named Sneak Peek that year, which was made in Owen’s likeness and carries his name. Both Crystal Ball and Sneak Peek had ties to Bangor, Maine, King’s hometown.

After the Joes’ heyday in the 1980s, Hasbro issued a line of retro 12-inch figures in the late 1990s based on iconic American historical figures, including George Washington, General George S. Patton, and Theodore Roosevelt. I obviously had to have one of those.

Finally, Hasbro negotiated with Sylvester Stallone to incorporate the character of Rocky Balboa into the G.I. Joe universe. Rocky would have been a hand-to-hand combat instructor. It nearly happened, but Hasbro failed to complete the deal, and Stallone’s likeness was used for a Rambo toy line instead. Hasbro released a boxing-themed Cobra toy named Big Boa in 1987.

The end of the 80s was also the end of an era for G.I. Joe. Newer toy lines and cartoons, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, were diverting the attention of kids. Not even some last-ditch attempts, like incorporating characters from the popular video game Street Fighter II, could make much of a difference. In the 1987 G.I. Joe direct-to-video animated movie, they even tried to kill off popular leading character Duke, though someone clearly had second thoughts, as a dubbed line indicates he had merely gone into a coma.

A second cartoon followed, airing from 1989 to 1992, but it wasn’t very well received by Joe fans. Hasbro discontinued the main Joe line in 1994, and Marvel ceased publication of their comic after 155 issues that same year. In the final issue, the Joes were disbanded, and their headquarters closed—perhaps for good.

But the Joes had one more round of ammunition left: nostalgia. As time went on, kids who grew up with the Joe toys and cartoons became adults who started snapping up classic Joe toys for hefty prices throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. Hasbro tried to reinvigorate the line with ideas like Sergeant Savage and his Screaming Eagles and G.I. Joe Extreme, but fans seemed to prefer the original recipe.

The toy line got its second wind in 2009 when Paramount released “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” the first live-action adaptation of the franchise, starring Channing Tatum as Duke and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander. It was successful enough to warrant a sequel, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” in 2013. The story got another wrestler involved: former WWE superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who co-starred in the film. More recently, “Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins” hit theaters, starring Henry Golding as Snake Eyes and Samara Weaving as Scarlett. That film only did middling business, but it’s clear that Hasbro will continue to explore the G.I. Joe universe. A Lady Jaye television series is still in development at Amazon.

So why has G.I. Joe endured for nearly 60 years? Early on, it was about filling a need—kids wanted an action figure that was nimble enough to fuel their play scenarios. Later, the toys became a way to interact with characters they saw on television. Good and evil were clearly defined, the characters were memorable, and the opportunity for waging war seemed endless. Unlike a lot of real wars, the motivations were clear. Hasbro had made superheroes of soldiers.

The only person unhappy about this development was Stan Weston. Remember that he created the toy line and received a hundred thousand dollars for a franchise that’s made hundreds of millions. In 2015, Weston sued Hasbro to try and recapture the copyright. The case was settled in 2016 with undisclosed details, but hopefully it made Weston, who died in 2017, happy. Without him, Hasbro might still be in the business of sticking plastic eyes into potatoes.

Who is your favorite member of G.I. Joe not named Snake Eyes? Leave us a comment below. Thanks for watching, and remember: never swim during a thunderstorm.

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