G.I. JOE was produced first in 1964—30 years ago—and was the first male action figure, creating a whole new toy category. G.I. JOE was never marketed as a doll; he was an “all American action figure” A made rough for full action play, which made it acceptable for boys to engage in a form of play reserved previously for girls.
When G.I. JOE creator Don Levine Commander, Deep Sea Diver, approached the Hasbro toy company in 1963, Hasbro was wary at best. During initial development, as the mold makers and prototype outfit makers toiled away, Levine approached the graphic design studio, Thresher and Petrucci, about the packaging look for G.I. JOE. Hasbro’s art director and Levine told studio owners Harold Thresher and Sam Petrucci to put action in their G.L JOE paintings, so Mr. Thresher, and a third artist, George Eisenberg, used their World War II experiences to make the package illustrations as realistic as possible. Thresher painted the first G.I. JOE figure the Action Soldier—based on a photo of John Wayne from the movie The Sands of Iwo Jima—as well as G.I. JOE Jeep, Tank Commander, Deep Sea Diver, the German, the Russian, and the Australian. Petrucci illustrated the West Point Cadet, Annapolis “Cadets,” Air Force Cadet, Green Beret, and Desert Patrol Jeep. Eisenberg painted all of the other basic figure boxes: the Action Sailor, Action marine, and Action Pilots, as well as the Dress Marines, Dress Pilot, and all the heads used for the basic G.I. JOE’s 30th Anniversary box, which will feature a limited-edition figure available only at the anniversary convention in New York City, 20-21 August.
These artists helped the toy line become the best-selling boy’s toy of the 1960s and 1970s. After his initial introduction, G.I. JOE survived a wave of antimilitary sentiment resulting form U.S. involvement in Vietnam by becoming an adventurer—under the sea, in jungle exploits, in outer space—wherever a figure could challenge a young imagination.