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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.
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