G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe, line of military-themed dolls and action figures created in 1964 by Hasbro, a Rhode Island-based toy company.

Hasbro marketed the first G.I. Joe as a lifelike “action soldier,” consciously eschewing the word doll despite the fact that the original G.I. Joe was 12 inches (30 cm) tall, was poseable, and featured interchangeable outfits and accessories—all traits consistent with Mattel’s popular Barbie doll. G.I. Joe was at first a great commercial success, but sales declined as support for the Vietnam War waned. In 1969 Hasbro responded by reimagining “America’s Movable Fighting Man” as “G.I. Joe Adventure Teams.” During the 1970s, various other attempts were made to keep the franchise in step with popular culture, but sales declined and the toy line was discontinued in 1978.

With the intensification of the Cold War in the early 1980s, the franchise was relaunched as “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.” These figures were just 3.75 inches (95 mm) tall, a scale virtually identical to that of the wildly popular Star Wars toys. While the original G.I. Joe featured characters simply named “sailor” or “pilot,” the 1982 toy line introduced a diverse, often outlandish cast of heroes and villains. The adventures of the G.I. Joe team were recounted in a monthly Marvel comic helmed by veteran writer Larry Hama. Featuring story lines that were surprisingly mature and complex for a toy-based franchise, the book was a top seller for Marvel. Most notably, Hama wrote and drew the groundbreaking “Silent Interlude” (March 1984), an issue that featured no dialogue. The story was cited by critics as a landmark achievement in the development of sequential art. The animated television series G.I. Joe premiered in 1985 and aired regularly in syndication over much of the subsequent decade.

The franchise made the transition to the big screen with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and its sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013). Although the films were poorly received by critics, they earned nearly $700 million worldwide.