G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

Joe was re-introduced in a 3+3⁄4 in (9.52 cm) action figure format following the success of the Star Wars and Micronauts 33⁄4″ scale toylines.

director Nick Fury assembling a team of elite commandos to battle neo-Nazi terrorists HYDRA.

Marvel would also suggest the inclusion of female Joes in the toyline, and to include them with the vehicles (as Hasbro again worried they would not sell on their own).

By contrast, the regulations for a literary creation were much more lax, allowing them to depict animation for the entire advertisement.

Joe, whose main purpose is "to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world," to quote the voiceover on the animated series' introductory segment.

Both the toys and the comics would become a great success, the comics being Marvel'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.

The most notable changes were the second series' addition of "swivel-arm" articulation in 1983 which allowed the forearm to rotate above the elbow (initial figures could only bend at the elbow), and the fourth series' ball joints replacing the former swivel necks, both dramatically increasing a figures poseability.

Many of the vehicles and playsets were based on, or influenced by, real or experimental military technologies that were deployed or being developed during the 1980s.

and its Cobra counterpart, the Stinger, were based on the FMC XR311 prototype combat vehicle and its derivative, the Lamborghini Cheetah.

Over the years, the file card has evolved, but they generally contain the following information: For the enemy characters, most of the details are dispensed with, usually leaving only the picture, code name, function, descriptive paragraph and the quote.

The 1982 to 1984 file cards contained information on weapons specialties, but this was later removed over concerns that children were being given knowledge on firearms and also that a character would be limited in his weaponry.

Joe toy line saw the release of Cobra hypnotist Crystal Ball, whose file card was supposedly written by bestselling horror novelist Stephen King.

By 1988, the file cards no longer contained details about education, and focused more on the character's upbringing, or what he or she did prior to joining the G.I.

In addition to the regular information, this new design of card also included a listing of which vehicle the character is licensed to operate.

While it is common for many characters to share the same mold for producing a body part, it was much more noticeable in the first year as for the original thirteen G.I.

Three unique molds were assigned to Stalker, Snake-Eyes and Scarlett, while the other ten characters utilized one of three generic heads.

In 1983, "swivel-arm battle grip" articulation and some extra tweaks were added to the new characters and the existing figures in order to make them more poseable.

Joe sub-group, Tiger Force, a line of classic characters and vehicles re-colored with tiger-striped camouflage patterns, was introduced before the year's end.

The relative success of Tiger Force the year before led to the introduction of Slaughter's Marauders and Cobra's Python Patrol in 1989.

The Star Brigade sub-series was revamped with a more science-fiction storyline involving an extraterrestrial enemy, the Lunartix Empire.

The Real American Hero Collection, as it is called, included Team Packs of three figures grouped together by a common theme such as Commando and Cobra Command, and Mission Packs, which featured classic figures packaged with a small vehicle like a Cobra Flight Pod or Silver Mirage motorcycle.

Joe figures, the so-called "Profit Director Destro" (or PDD for short), was released in 1997 in the Cobra Command Team pack.

The PDD figure was so named for the fact that it had leopard-print accents on Destro's legs and his famous open collar.

It is believed that the versions of PDD that made it to market were production samples (as opposed to true variants) that were changed prior to release and thus and were not meant to be seen by the public.

Also in 2002, a set called the Sound Attack 8 pack was released as an exclusive to BJ's Wholesale Club and Fred Meyer stores.

In 2020, Hasbro released a new line of super-articulated figures and vehicles, similar to Star Wars The Vintage Collection, utilizing retro-themed packaging from the 1980s.

This line also started mixing with Hasbro's other massive in house toy property, "Transformers", to produce G.I.

Joe: A Real American Hero has seen three separate publishers and four main-title series, all of which have been based on the Hasbro toy line of the same name.

The second and third series, published by Devil's Due Productions from 2001 to 2008, totaled 80 issues and included several spin-off titles as well.

Joe: A Real American Hero TV show and toy commercials were parodied in the Community episode "G.I.