During this month’s Toy Fair in New York City, GI Joe creator Hasbro will announce plans to celebrate the brand’s 50th anniversary that brought the term “Action Figure” into America’s lexicon. Although the brand wasn’t officially unveiled until March 1964, many consider February the true anniversary month.
GI Joes were my most treasured toys growing up and I know it wasn’t just me. During SHOT Show, a friend showed me a photo taken during his youth of his Joes. Although I had a lot of cool toys including Major Matt Mason, Sea Devils and a whole slew Marx war playsets, I’m a 1/6 scale Adventure Team Joe kind of a guy at heart (can you say “Kung Fu Grip?”). The smaller 3-3/4″ versions and comic book came out around the time I was moving on from toys, but I know a lot of guys grew up with them. Now that I’m grown, I’ve rediscovered the originals and really appreciate the memories.
How about we all take a knee and share our toy memories? Here’s one of mine.
