Hasbro GI Joe Adventure Team

As I work my way back through my favorite toys of childhood, I find myself once again fascinated by GI Joe and the impact he's had on the toy world and culture, in general. I have a new appreciation for the open-ended "non-licensed" property of GI Joe. The 12" GI Joe vintage line is the kind of line that seems to have disappeared, for the most part, from modern toy store shelves. It's wasn't based on a licensed movie, TV show, or comic yet it prospered on the idea of giving kids enough to trigger their imaginations... to carry out their own adventures with the toys.

The first GI Joes were 12" military figures (these were the very first true action figures). There were four basic figures available (Action Marine , Action Soldier, Action Pilot, and Action Sailor) and they all utilized the same headsculpt with different colored eyes and hair. Uniforms, weapons, and vehicles could be purchased to supplement the basic Joes. Hasbro used the basic razor and razor blades marketing strategy... and it worked. A child might buy or receive a figure but would then spend more money on items to be used with the figure. While I have a somewhat detached love for the first, military Joes (they were before my time), the GI Joe Adventure Team was MY GI Joe, growing up. The Adventure Team was introduced in 1970... right about the time I started really playing with toys as a child. I only had a couple of the AT Joes as a kid before moving on to such things as Mego Superheroes, Evel Knievel, and the Six Million Dollar Man (these licensed properties had a huge draw on me at such a young age) but I loved the Joes I did have. I never had any of the accessory sets or vehicles but enjoyed playing with the figures, all the same. In fact, my first "GIJoe" wasn't even a GIJoe, at all. You see my Dad wanted to buy me a GI Joe for my birthday but couldn't find one to purchase. So, on my birthday, I opened a Ken doll dressed in a GI Joe Marine Dress uniform (there you go, Bubba, have a field day).

The GI Joe Adventure Team was basically an upgrade of the military GI Joe figures. Hasbro took each of the four military figures, added flocked hair and beards, added a shoulder holster and pistol, and a giant AT medallion around their necks. Their uniforms were even identical to the ones used for the military figures. As America became embroiled in Vietnam, the idea of playing with toys based on war became less and less popular with the American public. So, Hasbro, in a brilliant move, transformed their military Joe line into an adventure line full of heroes that would rescue animals and search for lost treasure. They became more like Indiana Jones and less like Audie Murphy (you youngins will have to look that one up)... although, Indiana Jones wouldn't actually appear on the pop culture scene for another 11 years or so.

Many great vehicles, playsets, and accessories accompanied the release of the Adventure Team and the line continued to grow and prosper until 1976 when competing licensed toys (like The Six Million Dollar Man) and high oil-prices made the line no longer profitable.


In the past few months, I've started to acquire more of the original, vintage AT GI Joes and am excited to finally bring more AT reviews to Yesterville. So, stay tuned, as I post on some of the individual vintage AT Joes and even some of the more recent AT replica figures. It's a fun line that harkens back to a simpler time for many of us when playing with our GI Joes in the backyard with a buddy or two was about as much fun as you could have with a toy line.

Almost Vintage: Hasbro Gi Joe Talking Adventure Team Commander (Gi Joe Collectors Club Reissue)

There's something special about a Gi Joe. As kids, everybody had one (or more), it seems. Whether you are an older guy, like myself, or of a slightly younger generation, the world of Gi Joe has been kind of a collective experience for many of us.

Gi Joes started as clothed, 12 inch articulated figures. In the early 60s, wooden artist mannequins served as the inspiration for creating a brand new concept in boys toys... a large, fully-posable soldier. Boys were used to playing with toy soldiers in a much smaller scale but larger clothed soldiers were a new concept. Hasbro, afraid of Gi Joes being called "dolls," prohibited everyone in Hasbro's office from using the "D" word in reference to Gi Joes. They were to refer to Gi Joe as a "movable soldier." They even went so far as to tell their toy reps that if they were caught using the word "doll" to sell Gi Joe, they would have their orders canceled.

Gi Joe was the first true "Action Figure." All the great sixth-scale and smaller figures of today owe a debt to the ground that Gi Joe broke all those years ago.

Hasbro enjoyed enormous popularity with Gi Joe during the 1960s. However, when America became involved in the Vietnam conflict, sales began to wane as Americans no longer wanted to be reminded of the realities of war as they bought toys for their sons. Hasbro, eager to move away from Gi Joe's military theme, released the Adventure Team in 1970. Gi Joe no longer fought foreign soldiers. He fought the elements and anything else Mother Nature could throw at him as he searched for wild animals and even buried mummies. These new Joes also sported "life-like" hair and beards for the first time through an inventive flocking technique.

The Gi Joe pictured is a recent (several years) Gi Joe Collector's Club reissue of the Adventure Team Talking Commander. It is a near-perfect recreation of the 1970 figure... right down to the box. I had an original Talking Commander for a short time in the early 70s. I had received him for Christmas and remember enjoying playing with him that Christmas day. However, I have no memory of ever playing with him after that Christmas. I'm guessing that something was broken (maybe I messed up his pull-string talking feature) and he was returned to the store. Whatever happened to that Gi Joe will always be a mystery to me.


I'm not going to give an overview or review of this figure, at this point. Hasbro used the same body and head mold for almost all of the AT Gi Joes. I'll go into more detail about the figure, itself, in a future Gi Joe post. I have some vintage and quite a few reissue Joes that I'd like to talk about.

A few of the accessories that came with this reissue Joe

When you pull Joe's pull-string, he says one of many different phrases like, "I've got a tough assignment for you!"

I really love these figures. I love that they all used the same headsculpt and it was up to a child's imagination to create the different characters and adventures that these toys went through. Heck, they didn't even have names past monickers like "Land Adventurer," "Air Adventurer," and "Sea Adventurer." They were Gi Joes... and that was good enough for us.

Almost Vintage: Hasbro's Modern Vintage Star Wars Action Figures

The original 12 Kenner Star Wars action figures hit all of my nostalgia buttons full-force. It was the greatest thing to be a kid when the first Star Wars movie hit theaters and the first action figures started hitting toy shelves. It was a "magical" time.

I'm a vintage toy collector but I'm also an illustrator, as well. I've been working on some sketch cards for Topp's upcoming Empire Strikes Back Widevision card set and it has had me dwelling on that galaxy far, far away a bit more than usual. This has led to some discussions about Star Wars toys with fellow blogger Chunky B at Eclectorama.

We both thought it would be fun to find the best looking and best articulated modern versions of Kenner's original 12 action figures from 1978. I've started a meager collection of counterparts for some of those original 12 figures and a stray figure or two that weren't in the original 12. It's great to have them hanging around on the drawing desk for inspiration. I haven't collected these small figures since the Power the Force line back in the late 90s. So, it will be fun to dig back through the last 10 years of Star Wars action figure evolution and pick out my favorite doppelgangers for the original 12. I know that Chunky B and myself may have differing opinions about the "best" figures but I'm sure we'll probably end up choosing at least a few of the same figure for our modern vintage original 12 collections.

Hopefully, this will end with 12 great little versions of the first 12 Star Wars action figure characters and a detailed run-down of which figures were chosen and why. A custom, vintage-inspired stand to display them on may also be in the works. Stay tuned.

To see my past feature on the original 12 Kenner Star Wars action figures go HERE.