G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero - Origin

Origin

"A Real American Hero" was brought about as a revival of the original 12 in (30 cm) G.I. Joe brand of the 1960s and '70s. After the 12" figure had been absent from toy shelves for a few years, G.I. Joe was re-introduced in a 3+3⁄₄ in (9.53 cm) action figure format following the success of the Star Wars and Micronauts 3¾" scale toylines.

The genesis of the toy line came about from a chance meeting in a men's room. According to Jim Shooter, then editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics:

The President or CEO of Hasbro was at a charity event that Marvel’s President was also at. They ended up in the men’s room, standing next to each other peeing, and I think that’s how they met. They were talking about each other’s respective businesses, and it came up that Hasbro wanted to reactivate the trademark on G.I. Joe, but they were trying to come up with a new approach. was like ‘We have the best creative people in the world! Let me bring in this Editor-in-Chief of mine and we’ll fix it for you!

Prior to G.I. Joe's relaunch in 1982, Larry Hama was developing an idea for a new comic book called Fury Force, which he was hoping would be an ongoing series for Marvel Comics. The original premise had the son of S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury assembling a team of elite commandos to battle neo-Nazi terrorists HYDRA. Shooter approached Hama about the Joe project due to Hama's military background, and the Fury concept was adapted for the project. Shooter suggested to Hasbro that "G.I. Joe" should be the team name and that they should fight terrorists, while Archie Goodwin invented Cobra and the Cobra Commander; everything else was created by Hama. Hasbro was initially uncertain about making villain toys, believing this wouldn't sell. Marvel would also suggest the inclusion of female Joes in the toyline, and to include them with the vehicles (as Hasbro again worried they wouldn't sell on their own).

Each G.I. Joe figure included a character biography, called a "file card". Hama was largely responsible for writing these file cards, especially for the first ten years. When developing many of the characters, he drew much from his own experiences in the US military. The overall premise for the toyline revolves around an elite counter-terrorist team code-named G.I. Joe, whose main purpose is to defend human freedom from Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

Every year, Hasbro and Marvel would meet up to discuss the upcoming toys and marketing. Larry Hama was given a free rein by Marvel's editorial here. Both the toys and the comics would become a great success, the comics being Marvel Comic's most subscribed title at one point, but Jim Shooter has said sister company Marvel Productions, who handled the cartoon, overspent on production and had "a critical success but a financial disaster" with the show.

In 1994, Hasbro transferred control of the G.I. Joe toyline and brand name to the newly acquired Kenner division, who promptly cancelled the A Real American Hero toyline and replaced it with the new Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles toyline instead. After brief revivals in 1997 and 1998, the toyline was revived as the "Real American Hero Collection" in 2000 to the mass market. In both cases, previous molds were reused and some characters had to be renamed due to copyright issues. Another relaunch was made in 2002 under the theme "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" and new designs and characters were introduced.

Hasbro.com officially announced a new line of "25th Anniversary" 4" G.I. Joe figures on January 18, 2007. The line is primarily based on the characters and designs from the early part of the Real American Hero line.