Remember the book and record sets of days gone by? I sure do. I can recall the veritable library of sets that my grade school maintained: everything from standard kids’ sing-along fare to then-current releases like The Black Hole and Star Wars. The GI Joe Adventure Team releases were a few years before my time, but they’re fun nevertheless. Youtube
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Mego’s Action Jackson was an imitator of GI Joe’s Adventure Team, and while the line didn’t survive too long, the body style and clothing concept went on to become one of the most successful types of action figures. Check out AJ today. Bold adventure is his game! Also check out one of his commercials here: Also also check out the
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Not according to View-Master. Who knew?
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The Intruders as a concept have been a mystery to me. I’d heard them called, according to commercials “Strong Men From Another World” and described by collectors as alien cavemen with advanced technology. Since I hadn’t seen packaging for the figures, I had no idea how (or if) the toy line had explained the methods by which these weird, diminutive
Read moreThere just aren’t enough shouting bearded men on kids’ toys these days. What the hell, toy companies? In all seriousness, there just aren’t enough painted packages any more. I liken it to the almost lost art of the movie poster, in which photographs and photorealistic renderings have taken the place of evocative and stylized art. Oh well, at least we
Read moreIt’s Terron–the Beast from Beyond! If the GI Joe brand lacked one element during its first generation of toys, it was an enemy. Sure, the concept of the original military line was meant to be open-ended–that’s what GI Joe himself was. But the nature of boys’ play almost always involves an antagonist. I see this in my own son, as
Read moreThe enemy of GI Joe! the packaging touted. The first enemy of GI Joe, to be exact. In all of its twelve year existence, GI Joe had no real antagonist, aside from animals and mother nature. These caveman-looking figures were described as strong men from another world. Their brutish looks belied their background as super intelligent aliens. Strangely enough, for
Read moreIt’s been over a year since I posted a GI Joe inspired haiku here. I guess nothing has really struck me in a way that was truly inspiring. When I recently took a shot of a Luminos that I picked up on eBay, I was saddened, yet moved by the strange beauty of this broken toy. Inspiration struck… Translucent pieces
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I’ve been remiss in doing some celebrating and reflecting (beyond what I do every day) about the history of my favorite toy line. As we near the end of this 50th anniversary of the first action figure, I began to think it would be a nice thought experiment to pick out 50 of my favorite items from GI Joe’s 50
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Packaging sells toys, doesn’t it? We’re starting a new little feature that focuses purely on the packaging side of things. It’s The Power of Packaging. Like the other aspects of the brand that have been covered here at JAD, expect the unexpected. My tastes are always a bit eclectic. GI Joe has had a long history of striking marketing designs
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