G.I. Joe

Dress him, load up the gear and choose the mission. G.I. Joe was the original action figure.

A soldier, a sailor, a marine, or a pilot. Pick your G.I. Joe, get him dressed, load him up with gear, and decide what the mission was going to be.

Hasbro introduced G.I. Joe in 1964 and called him an “action figure.” The original Joe was roughly a foot tall, with movable joints and a changeable cloth uniform. He could bend his knees, turn his wrists, and hold his equipment, which gave him a lot more possibilities than the familiar little plastic green army men that were popular at the time.

And there was plenty of equipment - uniforms, vehicles, and playsets could turn one figure into quite a collection. Getting everything on Joe could take quite a while, and loading all the equipment and gear for the mission was an undertaking in itself. My brothers and I would often commandeer my sister’s Barbie Dream Camper to make sure that our G.I. Joes had enough space to carry everything across the backyard to our mission control campsite.

G.I. Joe changed a little bit over the years. The Adventure Team arrived in 1970, with exploration and rescue adventures, while the later, smaller A Real American Hero figures gave another generation its own G.I. Joes.

Most G.I. Joes today are not the 12-inch-tall action figures you probably remember. Today’s Classified Series G.I. Joe action figures are only 6 inches tall - but they still have plenty of movable joints and plenty of accessories. And the S.N.A.K.E. Battle Suit for the Classified Series G.I. Joes is one of the coolest G.I. Joe accessories I have seen - I wish we would have had this back in the day.