Wednesday, August 05, 2009

What is G.I.Joe?

G.I.Joe: Rise Of Cobra opens this weekend and I'm pretty excited about seeing what Steven Sommers has crafted.

What some people in this part of the world may not realise is that G.I.Joe is really what they used to call Action Force. When Palitoy launched their Action Force brand - basically reducing the size and cost of Action Man from 12" to 3.75" to mirror the change made to G.I.Joe in the US, they used some of the G.I.Joe figures to supplement their line, albiet in different colours and with different names. So when Hasbro began marketing G.I.Joe here they were released under the 'Action Force' title, since the term 'G.I.' was not in common use on this side of the atlantic. The figures now had the same appearance and codenames as the American G.I. Joes, but their identities and histories were international rather than purely American. The range was later renamed G.I. Joe to bring it into line with international markets.

So for all you folk who only know Action Force, here's a video presentation of the U.S. G.I.Joe experience from 1964 to present day from IGN:

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