1st February: GI Joe

Today is GI Joe day. Here are some things you might not know about GI Joe.

1. The name G.I. Joe came from a 1945 American war film, The Story of G.I. Joe, starring Ernie Pyle and Robert Mitchum. G.I. stands for Government Issue.
2. The idea for G.I. Joe was conceived by Stan Weston. He'd noticed how popular Barbie dolls were and thought there'd be a market for a similar toy for boys.
3. Only not if you called them "dolls". 1960s boys would not play with dolls - so the term "action figure" was coined, instead.
4. One thing which can't be patented is the human form. So to stop cheap imitations Hasbro needed to add patentable features - hence the scar on G.I. Joe's cheek and the branding on his buttock. A misplaced thumbnail became another feature. It was also possible to patent the 21 points of articulation.
5. G.I. Joe and Action Man are essentially the same thing. Hasbro licensed the toy to Palitoy. It wasn't called G.I. Joe in the UK because "G.I." is an American term not really used here.
6. Hasbro came up with some prototypes before the name G.I. Joe was adopted. These were "Rocky" (marine/soldier) "Skip" (sailor) and "Ace" (pilot). These are extremely valuable now if you can find one - in 2003 one of them sold for $200,001.
7. Also extremely valuable if you happen to have one in your attic are various figures in the range which didn't go down so well when they were first marketed. One is the G.I. Nurse Action Girl, which could net you $6,000 on today’s collectors’ market if you have one mint in box. The nurse figure didn't do well because boys saw it as a doll while girls weren’t interested in anything related to G.I. Joe. The figure had the additional problem that toy shops didn't know where to put it. Some decided to place it with G.I. Joe, others placed it with Barbie, but 50% of the potential market was lost either way. Another initial failure was Bullet Man, a superhero whose enemy was a caveman from space - but these could fetch serious money now, too.
8. The first G.I. Joes were 12-inch (30 cm) tall but later on, as the price of plastic increased, the figures shrank to 3.75-inch (9.5 cm), complete with all their accessories and vehicles.
9. G.I. Joe's enemies included the evil Cobra Command which tries to take over the Free World through terrorism, and The Intruders – Strongmen from Another World.
10. Hasbro Canada produced a Canadian Mounties set; the first G.I. Jane was a Helicopter pilot; and there have been some G.I. Joes which talk, including a Navajo Code Talker. There is also a range of G.I. Joe figures based on real people, both military and civilian, who are considered to be Real American Heroes.

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