Complete History of GI Joe - 1990s — A Real American Hero Vintage Toy Documentary — 3.75" Figures

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Through the decades of action figure history, you'll more than likely hear the name G.I. Joe. With its sheer dominance as a powerhouse children's targeted brand for so many years, a lot of fans are likely to associate G.I. Joe with time periods earlier than the 1990s, even though it's had quite the legacy one decade after the next. For example, many will consider G.I. Joe as a staple of the 1980s. Of course, there's a considerable fanbase for those who will go back to the 1970s during the 12-inch scaled era where G.I. Joe was more of an adventurer. And even still, some will go further back than that to the original military roots of the toy line back in the 1960s. With all that considered, it's hard to ignore the role G.I. Joe played in the 1990s. During its time as a toy, comic, and cartoon franchise, the G.I. Joe A Real American Hero run of 1982-1994 remains memorable in the hearts and minds of its fans even in modern times. During my time here on Toy Connections, I've continued my year-by-year history segments regarding this amazing toy line. While these individual episodes have aired previously, this extended compilation will bring together the various videos between 1990 and the end of the line in 1994. Although G.I. Joe continued past this period, the scope here is to cover the 3 ¾-inch scaled A Real American Hero branded toy line. While we will briefly touch on the subsequent Sergeant Savage toy line near the end, we'll be excluding the rebranded G.I. Joe lines that came after this, since the focus will be on the saga of our favorite real American heroes whose story largely concluded by 1994. Hopefully, you enjoy the next couple of hours as we tell the story of G.I. Joe during the 1990s. So sit back and enjoy the show. While the 3 ¾-inch G.I. Joe A Real American Hero had been a constant at Hasbro since 1982, some changes in the company would result in G.I. Joe going in a slightly different direction. The high watermark for G.I. Joe would be during the years of 1986 and 1987, where annual revenues would peak at close to $200 million during this time. And while total action figure sales in the overall toy industry grew from the mid-1980s to a staggering $1 billion in 1990, G.I. Joe's portion of this was getting smaller and smaller, with their own 1990 sales dipping to $65 million by comparison. Now, shortly before G.I. Joe headed into the 1990s, Hasbro CEO Steven Hasenfeld passed away in June of 1989 at the young age of 47. His younger brother, Alan, would end up taking over as CEO shortly thereafter, and 1990 would be his first full calendar year at the helm. That said, while Alan already had a large role at Hasbro previously, his strengths were on the international side of the business, particularly in overseas manufacturing, sales, and marketing. Thus, it would take a bit of time for him to adjust to the American domestic side of things. Additionally, Ed Morrill, whose design firm had long been instrumental to G.I. Joe's branding and packaging, left during 1989 after a long tenure. What happened beginning in 1990 is that the G.I. Joe logo itself would have a slight redesign, appearing to be more metallic with beveled edges compared to its previous look. Also, differing red and blue color gradients would be added to the packaging behind the logo, which is an update from the all-black colored background that had been the standard for the brand up to this point. Vinny Deleva joined Hasbro in 1989, taking on the role as brand manager for the Transformers, and later on, Hasbro's WWF wrestling line as well. Though, he'd eventually find his way over to G.I. Joe, where he'd be an important member behind the scenes for the franchise as the 1990s went on. Somewhere around this point in time, Kirk Bazigian, who had previously worked on the brand several years earlier, returned to G.I. Joe after some time away, and would eventually be promoted to the vice president of Boyz Toys at Hasbro. Now, while G.I. Joe had never advertised actual firing weapons before, some vehicles would adopt the spring-loaded weapons for 1990. The figures themselves, though, were too far along in development by the time this decision was made, so the figures wouldn't adopt the spring-firing weapons until 1991. Also, the company Tonka, who had been a competitor of Hasbro's up to this point, was looking to leave the toy industry, and thus trying to find a buyer to take on its assets in 1990. That said, a deal wouldn't take place until 1991. The majority of this information was obtained from sources, such as The Art of G.I. Joe Omnibus that was published by 3D Joes, as well as the book Toy Wars by G. Wayne Miller. Additional sources, including other publications, as well as various websites, can be found in the description section of this video. Looking at the figure offerings, we can start with one of the G.I. Joe officers, namely Captain Gridiron. One thing you'll notice is that a lot of the figures in this set come with a ton of accessories, and Captain Gridiron is no exception. Listed as once being the quarterback of the West Point football team, joins the range of other sports-themed characters from prior years. We have Ambush, a concealment specialist, who is one of the figures that comes packed in with cloth goods. As a character, he's known for staying out of sight, which is a skill set that comes in handy for the Joes. There's Bullhorn, an intervention specialist, who comes with an actual Bullhorn accessory, and an opening case to hold his three-piece rifle. We've got Pathfinder, a soldier who grew up in the swamp areas of Florida. As a Joes, he's used for jungle assault, as well as recon purposes. Here's Rampart, a man known for his rapid reflexes, which his file card actually attributes to him playing so many video games during his youth. Interestingly enough, he's known as the G.I. Joe Shoreline Defender and Missile Specialist. Here's Salvo, with all of this heavy artillery, for his deployment as an anti-armor specialist. And you can see his intense loadout right here, with a ton of projectiles, including both mines and missiles. Here's Stretcher, a physical powerhouse and a medical specialist, who's in charge of carrying his wounded comrades off of the battlefield, so that they can get medical attention as fast as possible. Here's Topside, the Navy Assault Representative for G.I. Joe in 1990. And then, for cold and arctic conditions, Sub-Zero is the Winter Operations Joe for this year's lineup. And as something of a unique release, we have Rapid Fire. Like Captain Gridiron, he's listed with a captain's rank, and the figure itself is basically a recolor of the 1988 Super Trooper mail-away figure. Rapid Fire's most standout trait as a toy, though, is that he came packed in with the VHS cassette, featuring the episode titled Revenge of the Pharaohs, that was part of the animated series by Deke Enterprises. And then there's Free Fall, the team's paratrooper. Interestingly, Free Fall was not actually included as part of the heroic sub-team introduced this year, even if it might have made sense thematically. And that grouping would be the aerial-specializing Sky Patrol. For this team, there's Airborne, the Sky Patrol Parachute Assembler. Of note, this Airborne's file card name is listed as Robert's 6, and he hails from Wisconsin. This is notably different from that of 1983's Airborne, whose name is Franklin Talltree, and whose birthplace is in Arizona. As such, they're considered as separate characters, albeit sharing the same codename. This team also includes Airwave, the Sky Patrol audible frequency specialist. Altitude here is the group's recon scout. Dropzone is the Sky Patrol weapons specialist. Static line would be the team's demolitions expert. And finally, Skydive is listed as the Sky Patrol leader, albeit his E8 rank is actually lower than that of Altitude's E9 rank. Sky Patrol's vehicles would feature a silver-chrome redeco of existing vehicles from prior years. For example, the Sky Raven is a repurposed Cobra Night Raven from 1986. The Sky Havoc is an updated reuse of the original Havoc, also from 1986. The Sky Shark represents a third usage of this vehicle, which had been released as the original Shark of 1984, and later on as the Night Forces Nightshade in 1988. And the Sky Hawk reuses the design as well as the name from the 1984 Sky Hawk, though this vehicle was also used in 1986 as part of the Dreadnought Air Assault set. The Avalanche was among the vehicles advertised with firing weapons, and its driver Cold Front joins Sub-Zero as yet another snow-themed Joe for this year. The Retaliator was the uniquely shaped ordnance-dropping rescue copter for the G.I. Joe side. Its pilot's updraft was yet another this year with the rank of Captain. And now we have the General, which was the large item for this year. It served as the Mobile Strike headquarters for our Joes. With a large cannon, tons of missiles, electronics, and a landing platform among other features, there was certainly a lot of play value with this behemoth of an item. And like the Cobra Terror Drome in 1986 before it, this one came with a smaller flying vehicle as well, namely the Locust Helicopter. Its driver, Major Storm, was the senior ranking G.I. Joe for this year. And aside from being released with the General, the Locust got its own individual retail release as well, albeit this time in a brown color rather than green. Then, rounding out the heroic range of vehicles this year would be the attack jeep known as the Hammer, as well as the defense tank called the Mobile Battle Bunker. And standing opposite to the Joes, our villain side added a bunch of new items as well. Destro's Iron Grenadier ranks grew with the addition of Metalhead and this was a character with a ton of firepower that would be the enemy side's anti-tank specialist. And then Destro got his own frogman with Undertow, an aquatic army builder who can apparently swim his way through anything. As for the rest of the villain side, the Cobra Saw Viper came with his oversized heavy machine gun. And in the Marvel comic, the Saw Viper, known as Robert Skelton, was responsible for the death of several of our Joes. The Cobra army builder ranks also grew with the addition of a laser trooper known as the Laser Viper, as well as the camouflaged mountain trooper known as the Rock Viper. Cobra also added some hand-to-hand ninja reinforcements with the Night Creeper. And for operating in wilderness conditions, Cobra also had the Range Vipers inserted into their ranks. For vehicles, the Cobra Hammerhead was a neat submersible sea tank that could separate and deploy multiple smaller vehicles, thus giving it a ton of play value for children. Its driver, known as Decimator, came with a high-tech helmet that gave him a full 180-degree view, even in complete darkness. The Cobra Hurricane vertical takeoff and landing jet was yet another vehicle this year, and it came packed in with the highly skilled tactical fighter known as Vapor. The Dictator was another item that could split into more than one component and had a detachable jet pod. It was included with the ambitious, power-hungry, and diabolical character known as Overlord. Additional items included the sea vehicle known as the Piranha, as well as the urban assault vehicle called the Cobra Rage. And finally, Destro's Iron Grenadiers added another vehicle in 1990 with the Dominator, which was a tank that could convert into a helicopter. While that completes this year's toy range, it was previously thought by collectors that the Sonic Fighters subset debuted in 1990. However, further archiving and additional research by 3djoes.com in collaboration with other experts indicates that these did not show up until 1991. It also seems that there was some consideration to release a green version of the 1987 Mobile Command Center in the early 1990s as detailed in the art of 3djoes' omnibus. However, the plan never came to fruition. Additional items included things like the G.I. Joe Combat Rings that were included with some carded figures this year, which children could wear on their fingers when they opened the toys up. There was also the G.I. Joe Combat Pay, which were paper inserts included with some figures that had a marked value that you could redeem for certain items. Looking at things on the international side, the U.K. had been incorporating G.I. Joe into their Action Force International Heroes line for a few years up to and including 1989. By 1990, we would see the name G.I. Joe the Action Force on the U.K. packaging as part of their ongoing change and rebranding. Here's where we would see certain highly desired items like the Tiger Force version of Outback or Tiger Force Psych-Out, which were not sold in the U.S. The cartoon had already moved production over from Sunbow to Deke Enterprises by this point and while it debuted with the miniseries titled Operation Dragonfire in 1989, a full run would be ordered in 1990 and last for two seasons and this featured a revised theme song. However, with shifting television standards at the time, the show was a bit softer in tone and not as well-liked by long-term fans. The comics by Larry Hama would hit some milestones this year, what with the return of Cobra Commander as well as reaching its 100th issue. Now, with G.I. Joe being such a constant presence as an entertainment property, changing times would slowly result in it no longer being the king of the toy aisles. 1990 would see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hit the big screen, further cementing its place at the top of an industry that was targeted at the young male demographic. Ultimately, G.I. Joe was starting to get a little bit lost in the shuffle of all the other entertainment options at the time and the 1990s would see more of a deviation from the 1980s in terms of overall entertainment style. As the 90s went on, G.I. Joe would shift towards a more outlandish look, at least color-wise, and they'd add even more in the way of sub-teams to flesh out their ranks. That said, while it's common amongst fans to think that G.I. Joe sales dipped heavily after this time, revenues actually increased after 1990, though the brand would still come to an end by 1994. It's also worth mentioning that adjacent to G.I. Joe, Sgt. Slaughter would return to the World Wrestling Federation in 1990, albeit having turned into a villainous character who would be an Iraqi sympathizer during the Gulf War. This is a storyline that would culminate with his reign as WWF World Champion early in 1991. All in all, the year of G.I. Joe in 1990 can be remembered as one where a lot of new characters would debut in the range, as we didn't really get any updated versions of prior characters like we were used to getting by this time. Thus, it was quite the expansion of ranks for both our heroes and villains. As such, it's always worth the discussion to go back and see what stood out and to revisit the options that children had during this vintage time in toy history. For a brand that made its debut in the early 1980s, it's amazing that G.I. Joe, a real American hero, still had a presence in toy stores as the 90s rolled on. Naturally, the brand had to evolve from the more traditional aesthetic of its early years, and it's perhaps these changing times that resulted in G.I. Joe making the shift towards a style that would come to be known as the neon 90s. With these changing times, and as you'll see here shortly, G.I. Joe would ramp up with the inclusion of more play features, since Hasbro as a toy company was hoping to keep up with the more gimmicky nature of the other toys that it was sharing space with in the toy aisles. Certainly, the 1991 cast of characters and the associated range of vehicles did their part in providing new offerings for children to play with. Thus, we can take a closer look at this particular year of G.I. Joe toys. Let's begin. While it's important to go through the various G.I. Joe toys that we got in 1991, it's equally as important to have a look at the rest of the landscape in the toy industry during this year. Even though G.I. Joe was at its peak during the years of 1986 and 1987, it bottomed out in 1990, dropping to $65 million in sales during that period. However, 1991 would see a slight uptick with sales reaching over $70 million again. The year of 1991 would also see Hasbro complete its deal to acquire a rival toy company in Tonka. In doing this, Hasbro had managed to edge out another rival, namely Mattel, in their bid to purchase Tonka with Hasbro CEO Alan Hasenfeld striking a deal that was in the range of half a billion dollars. A quote from the book Toy Wars by G. Wayne Miller also states that Hasbro was able to put up a full offer of cash compared to a less desirable bid which combined cash plus stocks that Mattel offered. This acquisition of Tonka would put a significant gap in terms of company size between Hasbro and Mattel for this time. Note that Tonka themselves had previously purchased the company Kenner Parker back in 1987, which, quite notably, Kenner Parker had previously folded the British toy company Palatoy under its banner prior to this. However, Tonka would be left with a huge debt through this purchase of well over a half a billion dollars, which is why the buyout from Hasbro was necessary. This acquisition was just one example of Hasbro's multiple large company purchases, given that it had also acquired board game manufacturer Milton Bradley back in 1984 for about $360 million, which was during the tenure of the previous Hasbro's CEO, Stephen Hassenfeld. For the toys themselves, 1991 would see a wide introduction of spring-loaded weapons packaged with the figures, even though this feature was included with some vehicles earlier on in the 1990 range. Some figures would also be packed in with display stands amongst their loadouts, where previously, this was just an accessory that would be included in specific battle gear sets or certain playsets, and that's in addition to all the other new play features that this year would have. And for this 1991 year, General Hawk would return, now sporting aerial gear, including a foldable backpack. He's a unique commander in that he's capable of being out there on the front lines with his troops while still keeping an office job. This would be the first version to denote him as General Hawk directly on the packaging as prior releases were simply showing his codename as Hawk, albeit he did have the rank of General on his file card already when he was released in 1986. Big Ben would also enter the lineup and it's great to see a member of the British Special Air Service assigned to the ranks of G.I. Joe, as the SAS did have a role in the aforementioned Palatoy company that Hasbro would have acquired amongst their corporate-level purchases. Namely, Palatoy had in prior years represented the SAS both in their 12-inch Action Man line as well as in their own 3 3⁄4-inch scaled toy line Action Force. And since we're on the topic of international characters already, here's Red Star. While the October Guard team already had prior representation in the Marvel comics by Larry Hama as well as in the G.I. Joe cartoon series, the October Guard's official introduction into the G.I. Joe toy line was indeed with the Ukrainian captain, Red Star. Red Star has the distinction as well of being initially released on a Cobra card with the red backing and like the Cobras of this range, he had a Cobra emblem and text on his bio. This was done as an error, so Hasbro covered the Cobra logo and writing with the G.I. Joe sticker and eventually he'd be released properly on a blue card with the file card fully corrected. Dusty would also return into the G.I. Joe lineup. Dusty, of course, was named after the 1980s G.I. Joe figure designer Ron Rudat, albeit with Ron's last name spelt backwards on the file card. This time, Dusty came packed in with a pet companion which is a coyote known as Sandstorm. Then there was Heavy Duty who was the heavy ordnance trooper that came with two spring-loaded launchers. Grunt, one of the original G.I. Joe members, was back with the team after having left to get his engineering degree at Georgia Tech. Another version of Lowlight was also part of this year's lineup, now sporting some night vision goggles. Here's Mercer, the ex-Cobra member, appearing as an updated version from his first release as a member of Sgt. Slaughter's Renegades Group. The energy expert and laser weapons systems operator Sci-Fi also got another figure this year with a more muted look compared to his much brighter 1986 release. G.I. Joe icon Snake Eyes got one of his more colorful looks this year with this being known as his version 4 appearance. As always, he's the ninja commando who's probably known as the most feared member of the Joe lineup. And then there's the Navy SEAL Tracker, who among the more playable figures this year came with an inflatable raft within his loadout. Tracker is listed as Christopher Groen on his file card, thus being named after the brother of G.I. Joe designer Kurt Groen. A mail-away version of Lifeline was available through specially marked packages of Kellogg's Rice Krispies. This serial offer also included options to get My Little Pony or Weebles items. And of note, while Lifeline aesthetically is very similar to his original 1986 carded appearance, this one didn't come with any actual weapons, nor the gun and holster that was originally on his leg in the first release, thus showing his true nature as a pacifist. The lineup for Cover the Enemy in 1991 consisted of a lot of army builder options. For the carded range, we got a second version of the Battle Android Trooper or BATS. While it came with less attachments than the original 1986 version, it did have a spring firing launcher that could also be tabbed onto its back. The Crimson Guard Immortal seems to be the next evolution of the original Crimson Guard with its more armored look and coming with a full loadout including a bunch of missiles among other armaments. The Snow Serpent got an updated look this year, this time coming with a snowboard, thus giving us another release of one of the popular Cobra army builders. The fire resistance specialists known as the Incinerators served as the flamethrowers amongst the Cobra ranks and came with a catapult as its play feature. And then there was the Desert Scorpion which is said to be a Cobra assignment that's really more of a punishment for under-motivated troops. As the enemy Desert Trooper these literally came with a Scorpion accessory. And since we got a new version of the G.I. Joe leader in General Hawk this year one could say it only makes sense that we also got another release of the Cobra enemy leader Cobra Commander. Sporting his traditional blue colors, this one came with a translucent mask and interestingly actually had a face behind the mask this time unlike the earlier releases. Of note, some variants came with eyebrows painted on while others did not. And perhaps to capitalize on other environmentally themed shows at the time G.I. Joe added the brightly dressed color-changing eco-warriors subgrouping to their lineup this year. Cobra color-changing eco-warriors and septic tanks sold separately. firstly we can talk about Flint who's making his third appearance into the G.I. Joe lineup now as leader of the G.I. Joe eco-warriors and joining this brightly colored team of heroes also is Clean Sweep a chemical operations specialist and we also had Ozone an environmental health specialist who's named after G.I. Joe designer Dave Kunitz. The villain side had cesspool notable for his disfigured look albeit his name and likeness were also taken from Hasbro's Vinnie de Leyva. There was the Sludge Viper who's a hazardous waste trooper and we also had a revised version of the Toxo Viper used for working in hostile environmental conditions. And for the eco-warrior themed vehicles we got the septic tank this year which uses some parts from the original 1983 his tank. And another subgroup making its debut this year would be the electronic featured Sonic Fighters. Only G.I. Joe Sonic Fighters come with an electronic backpack. The Sonic Fighters were known for their large sound-making backpacks. Law would return this year albeit without his dog order from the previous 1987 release. Again, Law takes on the likeness of Hasbro's Kirk Bazigian. Also joining would be revised versions of other fan favorites like Dialtone as well as Dodger who's returning from his previous Battle Force 2000 appearance. And we also had Tunnel Rat who, like Law was one of the rawhides from the 1987 animated film. The helicopter known as the Desert Apache would be the Sonic Fighters vehicle this year. There was also an electronic battle gear set which allowed kids to wear combat gear and emulate the Sonic Fighters. On the Cobra side we got another version of the Viper as well as the Lampreys who had previously been the vehicle driver of the Cobra Hydrofoil. It's also worth mentioning that the Sonic Fighters were at one point thought of in the G.I. Joe fanbase as a 1990 release with the follow-up Super Sonic Fighters thought of as the 1991 release. However, various research and ongoing archiving by G.I. Joe experts have found evidence that the initial Sonic Fighter releases namely the six characters we're talking about now are from 1991 with the Super Sonic Fighters being a 1992 release. This is all part of the fluid nature when it comes to archiving. One example would be when it was once thought that Starduster was a 1987 figure. Later evidence showed that he may have debuted as early as 1985 and note that he was in the 1985 segment of this Toy Connections history video series. However, later evidence showed more definitive proof that he was actually a 1986 release. All that's to say don't be surprised if figures or vehicles get shifted around in future years. We're here which packed a combination of figures with gliders. Cloudburst is one of the glider troopers on the Joe side with another international hero namely Skymate from Australia being the other glider trooper on the Joe side. For the Cobra side the Sky Creeper was their air recon leader and he'd be accompanied by an air recon trooper known as the Night Vulture. Joining the 90 character known as Altitude who himself was a sergeant major. And for the Cobra side their battle copter came with a pilot that was known as interrogator. The more standard G.I. Joe vehicle offerings in the 1991 range would include the attack cruiser with its multiple flying bombs. We also had the front line attack jeep known as the Badger. The motorized battle wagon was a four wheel drive vehicle with its rapid fire cannon. And the brawler was the tracked vehicle on the Joe side with a large cannon that sat behind twin missile launchers. Cobra would have a fast attack vehicle known as the Paralyzer and then expanded its arctic range with an assault carrier known as the Ice Saber. And to revisit the existing snow themed vehicles we got a mail order release of the Cobra Wolf which originally debuted in 1987. Do note the change to the black colored missile rack and engine cover for the 1991 version of the Wolf when comparing them side by side. And even after 1991 we'd continue to see other re-releases via mail-away offer of some other classic G.I. Joe vehicles from previous years. We'd also get a set of micro vehicles offered through special catalog booklets. Thus the Mobat APC His Tank Vamp Mark 2 Awestriker Warthog Persuader and Snowcat were available in the smaller versions. In this year we'd also see some significant comic stories such as the death of several Joes some of which were at the hands of Cobra's Saw Viper. Additionally tensions between Cobra Commander and Destro would ramp up and we'd get the year. 1991 was also the year of the G.I. Joe Nintendo game which was featured on the cover of the July 1991 video games and computer entertainment magazine. This would be one of several G.I. Joe games we'd get going forward and on that subject as far as video games are concerned 1991 would also see the debut of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis and quite notably Capcom Street Fighter 2 would hit the arcade this year ahead of its release for home console gaming later on. This would be important for G.I. Joe who would incorporate Street Fighter into its lineup in 1993. Attention amongst fans of the action genre would get a huge jolt with the blockbuster movie Terminator 2 in 1991 which of course had its own line of toys. Other hits like Robin as Anthem. All of this and other noteworthy 1991 debuts would further divide the time amongst fans who traditionally made G.I. Joe a big part of their entertainment. And adjacent to all of this famous G.I. Joe personality Sgt. Slaughter would win the WWF Championship at the Royal Rumble from defending champion Ultimate Warrior in January of 1991. He would drop the belt a couple of months later to Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 7 and he'd also still compete in other high profile matches throughout the year such as the tag team main event at Summerslam 91. Ultimately 1991 can be remembered for many things amongst the pop culture landscape that G.I. Joe was a part of. By this point some fans who got into Joe's during the early 80s were aging out of buying the toys. While it's clear that many people associate G.I. Joe as a predominantly 80s brand there are more than a few good collectible gems that were part of this 1991 year. And this particular ongoing saga of G.I. Joe as far as toy history is concerned still has a ways to go as we'd see a further uptick in sales for G.I. Joe when 1992 rolled around. All that's some of the miscellaneous merchandise included here would be the battle figure collector's case and I've actually got my original one here from childhood and this general flag is actually the son of the previous general flag that general flag was killed by major blood in issue number 19 of the Marvel run one really cool international edition this year would be big bear and what I like about this one is that it expands the ranks of G.I. Joe as far as the October Guard team is concerned for mail-aways you had the Ninja Viper I personally keep mine in a display case like this simply because it's kind of getting up there in price it's one of the more desirable Joe's from the vintage run by this point in time G.I. Joe had been on store shelves for literally a decade having debuted in 1982 and what some people might not know is that this particular year of 1992 that we're going to talk about was one of the better years in terms of sales for the brand honestly there's still a lot here in terms of the figures the vehicles the play sets so we may as well dive in and have a closer look 10 years after its release into toy stores G.I. Joe A Real American Hero still very much had a presence as an action figure brand the 1990s would see a shift to incorporate aspects such as spring firing weapons as well as more neon colorful looks with the purchase of Tonka during 1991 the year of 1992 would see the first full calendar year the Tonka's previous properties would be a part of Hasbro quite notably this included lines that had once been made by the company Kenner who Tonka had previously acquired in 1987 Kenner as a toy maker had an extensive history what with having been overseen by multiple different parent companies over the decades before being acquired by Tonka and eventually being acquired by Hasbro as such it had already been widely recognized as an action figure brand and still existed as a design marketing and sales organization within the greater Hasbro company in fact Kenner was actually kept as a separate division from the usual Hasbro toy division and there were also other internal divisions such as PlaySchool PlaySchool Baby and Kid Dimension all falling within the overall Hasbro structure all this is important because by this time in the 90s there be internal competition between divisions with sometimes fighting to acquire the same brands for licensing purposes that said G.I. Joe naturally would remain as a directly marketed Hasbro toy line and in particular 1992 sales for Joe would see a boost to over 100 million dollars the first time since the 80s this is quite significant given that the brand dipped to $65 million in 1990 with a slight resurge to $71 million in 1991 Vinnie spike in sales to the existence of G.I. Joe's Hall of Fame line a 12-inch series of toys in the same scale as the original Joe's of the 60s and 70s albeit featuring characters from the real American hero franchise of the 80s and 90s While this Hall of Fame line did already debut initially with a single figure of Duke 1992 would see a greater expansion with more items and the line would continue through 1993 and beyond A deeper discussion on the 12-inch scaled Hall of Fame line does go past the scope and intention of this particular video series as the focus here will be on the 3-3 quarter inch scaled toys however the Hall of Fame series is at least worth a mention for its part in the overall brand The concept of the Hall of Fame was and there are a total of 20 unique cards that you could collect but on that note we can dive in and have a look at this year's roster of Joe's as well as their opposing faction of Cobra the enemy one really cool addition into the line would be General Flag right here and this General Flag is actually the son of the previous General Flag who in the G.I. Joe be included into the lineup and I guess he would actually be considered amongst the top brass for G.I. Joe alongside General Hawk and Admiral Kiel Hall and he came with this really cool catapult accessory one really cool international addition this year would be Big Bear and what I like about this one is that it expands the ranks of G.I. Joe as far as the October Guard team is concerned and they had actually introduced the October Guard as far as the toy line is concerned with Red Star the previous year so it's just nice to see them together we also got a shiny new Joe this year a bunker buster and armored assault specialist known as Barricade the team's commonly known field leader was here too with another version of Duke the Master Sergeant while the spring loaded missile launcher gimmick was common by this point for G.I. Joe this one gives Duke the added feature of being able to sit on his launcher which itself sat on a tripod another long time favorite gung-ho was back his third version into the line and this time carrying old glory with him wetsuit also returned this time with a removable helmet and able to ride on his jet sled here's Wild Dragonfly helicopter and this time his hat was removable we then get to a more highly talked about release amongst G.I. Joe enthusiasts namely the figure that would come to be known in fan circles as the recalled version of roadblock this toy was initially released as shown here with the circular blue launcher however Vinny Deleva mentioned back in 2013 that the launchers clutch could get overwound and result in breakage he also later states in the art of G.I. Joe a real American hero omnibus that the trigger on the launcher was unstable at times and due to its overall lack of reliability they ended up retiring the item the figure itself though would be re-released in 1993 under the G.I. Joe battle core sub branding but now with a different set of accessories this does make the earlier release quite rare and sought after Cobra would update their ranks this year including another version of the evil faction's arms dealer Destro the saboteur Firefly was back now with a much brighter color scheme by comparison to his more camouflaged look from 1984 the eels which was the team's underwater demolitions army builder now returned as well but with a shark like torpedo launcher and for anti-aircraft duties we dual spring loaded launcher the environmentally themed water squirting eco warriors would add to their ranks on both the heroic and enemy sides as such we got this version of barbecue inserted into the Joe lineup deep six was also added to the group now with a pet dolphin known as Finback of note Finback was actually meant to be a black colored sea creature initially and thus was planned to be a killer whale at first but this was changed late during the development stage and replaced with the lighter gray colored dolphin that we got for vehicles the heroic eco warriors had the eco striker their all terrain environmental assault vehicle which basically is their evolution of the original awe striker the villains added the toxo zombie which is a mutated form of the toxo viper the villains also added a two level laboratory and headquarters for their ranks known as the toxo lab the supersonic fighters expanded on the previous year's sonic fighters having both electronic lights and battle sounds in their large backpacks here's psychout known for using his psyops for deceptive warfare purposes there's zap an artillery soldier used as the team's combat engineer who was also a member of the original 1982 lineup and another member of the original roster namely rock and roll would also become a member of the supersonic fighters this year and we have the green beret who was previously quite prominent in the 1987 film lieutenant falcon falcon would be the victim of a drug addiction during the controversial two-part episode known as the greatest evil during the deke animation run of the series a significant vehicle this year for the supersonic fighters would be Fort America which could convert from a battle fortress into a tank but you change it into supersonic Fort America with eight electronic sounds the mercenary major blood would headline the cobra side of the supersonic fighters this year and he'd be joined by another returning classic the dreadnock known as road pig and somewhat similar to the supersonic fighters we had the talking battle commanders whose electronic on the back rather than them being tabbed in like a backpack their key feature was shouting out various commands in addition to combat sounds during your child's playtime there was General Hawk to lead the Joes and you'll also notice that on his file card he's listed as a major general now having been promoted from the previous rank of brigadier general the team's Ranger yet another original G.I. Joe team member in Stalker would return as well standing opposite to our heroes would be the talking battle commanders versions of Cobra Commander as well as Overkill the leader of the battle android troopers and while ninjas had always been a part of G.I. Joe we'd see a more official expansion into the ninja theme with the addition of the ninja force subgrouping and these had real spring features built into the figures directly Storm Shadow would lead the heroic side having defected over to the Joes sometime earlier Nunchuck is the team's self-defense instructor Dojo would be the team's silent weapons ninja and Chabang is the ninja swordsman for this faction On the Cobra side we had Slice who is the enemy team's very own ninja swordsman and then we had Dice a specialist bo-staff ninja and with the anti-drug movement having ramped up very heavily by this time in the 1990s the G.I. Joe line would incorporate another new subgrouping with the DEF or drug elimination force these were figures that came packed in with light up missile launchers remember real American heroes don't do drugs the leader of the DEF would be Bulletproof a new G.I. Joe at his time of release the C operations specialist Cutter would join this sub faction as well making his return after his prior appearance where he was included with the killer whale hovercraft Mutt would also return along with his companion junkyard appearing again after both their initial 1984 release as well as their previous sub team appearance with the Slaughter's Marauders grouping and here's Shockwave returning part of G.I. Joe's Night Force team opposing the drug elimination force would be the head man and his narcotics guards known as the head hunters the head man himself is a drug kingpin who the Joes and Cobras allied against during the aforementioned two-part set of episodes known as the greatest evil and of note the head man suffers a gruesome death at the conclusion of that story arc and after their debut in 1991 the Air Commandos would expand their ranks this year adding the fan favorite Spirit on the Joe side along with his glider Spirit would be listed as the Air Commandos leader and for Cobra we had the Cobra Air Devil who was their acrobatic aerial assault trooper along with his glider the zip cord activated flying battle copters also added some faces to their battle copter as opposed to having his more recognizable sky striker jet and for the Cobra side their battle copter was included with the heli viper and to round out our cast of heroes and villains there were the figures that you'd have to obtain via special offer for mail aways you had the ninja viper which I guess you'd say is just a recolor of storm shadow and I personally keep mine in a display case like this simply because it's kind of getting up there in price it's one of the more desirable joes from the vintage run now the ninja viper did have some variations to it in particular this one comes with darker colored swords but there are other versions that have lighter color swords and some that were released even without the swords altogether and an the figure that you could assign your own name codename and abilities to effectively making your own character you'll notice that this version has a gold head and some revised uniform colors by comparison to the original release of the 80s and it also came with a patch albeit a different type of patch when compared to the original this figure is another that commands a high price due to its desirability amongst collectors as far as the Joe play sets are concerned there was the headquarters not to be confused with the original 1983 release this headquarters was advertised to be able to hold over 50 figures this one also had lights and sounds as well as spring action missiles and you could have it in its fully extended mode as well as a folded up mode for smaller vehicles there was the barracuda a one man attack sub interestingly it came in two variations one with the black colored upper and lower section with the blue center section and another that was reversed with a blue colored top and bottom and a black middle piece the Patriots served as the heroic side's armored missile launcher transport and the storm eagle was the high powered tactical fighter which came with the water firing action cobras vehicles included the earthquake which is a construction and combat vehicle the liquidator was the enemy team's advanced tactical fighter and had a water blasting feature much like the storm eagle the parasite was an armored personnel carrier capable of transporting up to 17 figures and the cobra rat was the enemy's high speed attack hovercraft for mail-away vehicles we'd see updated releases of some classics among them we saw an update to the 1983 APC albeit this time with the top section switched from a camouflaged color to a dark green to match the rest of the vehicle the mail-away cobra ferret was available in a lighter blue color by comparison to the original the slugger maintained a similar look for its mail-in release albeit they dropped the camo by comparison to the original 1984 version and the mail-away triple T featured some revised colors as well with the weapons and the rear grille section being switched to an orange color now one thing I want to quickly ask is if you happen to be enjoying this video please make sure you're subscribed to the channel press that like button and ring that notification bell so that you don't miss out on any future line there would be some other items adjacent to the things that we've covered here for 1992 some of the miscellaneous merchandise included here would be the battle figure collector's case and I've actually got my original one here from childhood and you can see some of the characters from 1992 included on the front here there 'd also be some role play items like the Snake Eyes battle gear set as well as a water and missile shooting Ninja Power Bow by this point in time G.I. Joe had been on store shelves for literally a decade having debuted in 1982 honestly there's still a lot here in terms of the figures the vehicles the play sets there'd also be a G.I. Joe multiplayer arcade game made by Konami as well as a Nintendo game called G.I. Joe The Atlantis Factor Published by Capcom Note that some sources cite this Nintendo game as being from late 1991 but as we already covered the previous G.I. Joe game during our 1991 revisitation I figured we'd touch on the Capcom one here The comics by Larry Hama would be getting towards the later parts of the run and we'd see some of our 1992 characters featured more heavily during this calendar year Now whether your own opinions and memories of G.I. Joe in 1992 are good or bad there's no denying that it did manage to outlast many of its other contemporaries from the 1980s G.I. Joe would have to continually adapt and coexist with other types of entertainment in the world of pop culture with 1992 being no different That said despite a good sales year it seemed that G.I. Joe was turned towards superhero based cartoons like Batman the animated series as well as X-Men the animated series Whatever the case though we'd see a highly expanded roster in 1993 with G.I. Joe even incorporating further elements to keep the line going Thus our real American heroes were still ready to march on for a little while longer typically when one sees characters across various franchises it's natural to associate them with a specific type of entertainment some will naturally be seen as video game characters first and foremost while others are most prominently thought of as comic book heroes still there are those who are most commonly considered as a toy along with an associated cartoon to help promote that toy line sometimes you get the best of both worlds crossover characters whose names can span across multiple forms of entertainment and by 1993 G.I. Joe was certainly no stranger to bringing in either real-life personalities or well-known fictional characters to add to their already expansive roster of heroes and villains such was the case with Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior game that began life by being played on coin-operated arcade machines before making its way over to home console gaming systems quickly becoming a household name players were keen to master their favorite characters in the game across various difficulty levels all with the hope of defeating other fighters one by one so that they could quickly tell their friends that they were able to beat the game's final boss seeing a potential business opportunity toy company Hasbro partnered with video gaming company Capcom to bring the Street Fighter 2 characters into tangible form within Hasbro's long-standing G.I. Joe a real American hero range of action figures thus giving kids a crossover play option with characters that they were probably already familiar with and it's interesting to see what happens when we mix two big name brands with Street Fighter and G.I. Joe into a toy line so let's have a look at this part of toy history in 1993 let's begin in some ways 1993 was a big year for G.I. Joe there was the wide range of mainline figures that were now known as the Battle Corps line there were various subteams as well as mail-aways and even a Dino Hunter set to show just how varied the line had become and yet this was the same year that Street Fighter found its way into the 3 3⁄4 inch scaled line thus adding to G.I. Joe's growing list of sub-branding the year of 1993 did bring some changes to the G.I. Joe franchise for example larger figure cards became the norm thus deviating from the traditional 6 by 9 inch set of dimensions that were the standard before this that and we'd see the weapons tree with accessories that you could peel off of various sprues within the card bubble as opposed to the previous standard of just packing in loose accessories adjacent to the figure do note that there are over a hundred different figure offerings plus vehicles in this 1993 year for G.I. Joe so I thought what I would do is segment out the Street Fighter portion into its own individual topic looking at the history of Street Fighter Japanese video game company Capcom which developed Street Fighter traces its origins back to 1979 and over time Capcom would spawn other big name video game franchises such as Mega Man and later on Resident Evil in 1987 we'd see the first Street Fighter video game on arcade systems which would introduce characters like Ryu as well as Ken and Sagat that game would also be the start of the rivalry between principal hero Ryu and Sagat who at the time was the game's final boss in fact the giant scar on Sagat's chest is from his fight with Ryu an initial attempt for a Street Fighter sequel began with a project that had a working title of Street Fighter 89 that said the genre was changed from being a direct fighting game into a beat-em-up style game that was more adventure driven thus the game was reworked into what would be called Final Fight Final Fight would follow the story of protagonist Mike Hager as he tries to rescue his daughter who had been kidnapped by a crime boss the eventual direct sequel to Street Fighter titled Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior was released in 1991 for arcade machines later making its way onto the Super Nintendo entertainment system this game featured eight playable characters and four non-playable boss characters the game was set up so that a player could choose one character then go through and fight each of the other characters one by one until they reached and hopefully eventually defeated the final boss of the game M. Bison as a notable bit of information it's estimated that over 25 million people had played Street Fighter 2 in the United States by 1994 which interestingly was also the year that the G.I. Joe A Real American Hero toy line came to an end the popularity of Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior lent itself well to several follow-up releases Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition brought the four boss characters into the lineup as selectable characters for players Champion Edition also allowed for matches where two players could face off against one another by selecting the same character albeit wearing different colored uniforms to distinguish them apart other examples included Street Fighter 2 Turbo which offered an increased faster playing speed compared to previous installments then there was Super Street Fighter 2 The New Challengers which ramped up the character selection further by adding additional names such as T-Hawk Feilong DJ and eventual fan favorite Cammy and there was also Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo which gave players additional move combinations and game mechanics as well as adding in the fighter known as Akuma as an unlockable secret character I certainly played the Street Fighter games during the 1990s and they are responsible for a lot of my memories both on the Super Nintendo as well as on the traditional stand-up arcade machine Getting back to Street Fighter 2's inclusion into the G.I. Joe toyline for 1993 Hasbro's Kirk Bazigian does make note that the 1992 Ninja Force figures sold so well to the point that it was worth approaching the licensing agents for both Street Fighter as well as Mortal Kombat With neither gaming company having a major toy agreement at the time Kirk was able to secure low-cost deals to get characters from these video games made by Hasbro The Street Fighter figures did include spring action features much like the existing G.I. Joe Ninja Force toys did We'll start with Ryu as he's usually known as the main protagonist protagonist in Street Fighter lore Ape here warrior and a master of Shotokan karate The character is known for his fireball hurricane kick and dragon punch special moves We certainly won't go through all of the signature moves for each character here but do note that each figure in the line comes with a ton of accessories that we don't normally associate the Street Fighter characters with but that's part of what makes these G.I. Joe releases unique Right after Ryu we often hear about his American counterpart Ken who's another practitioner of Shotokan karate One notable thing is that in the Toy Fair catalog that advertised the Street Fighter figures Ken's name is not present unlike it is for the other characters This was done to avoid trademark issues with Mattel's Ken doll that was part of their Barbie franchise You'll notice that Hasbro adds in the last name of Masters a name that has since become canon in Street Fighter lore Again the thought here is to avoid the trademark and naming rights and I wanted to thank Patrick from the Articulated Points YouTube channel for the images shown here Patrick also points out in his own Street Fighter 2 G.I. Joe video that the figures in the Toy Fair catalog are kitbashed together often using heads from previous figures as the final heads for the Street Fighter characters were not yet ready There's also Guile the Special Forces character and master of the Sonic Boom Guile is interesting as the eventual 1994 Street Fighter movie pivots away from Ryu as its main focus while putting Guile as center stage as the main character Part man part beast you also have the Brazilian jungle fighter Blanca with his ferocious teeth and claws and oddly he's shown in his alternate colors for the artwork on the figure card Hailing from China Chun Li is the female character of the series with her spring activated kicking motion This kicking motion isn't quite as cool as her whirlwind kick in the video game but the same could be said for the action feature of many of the figures in the Street Fighter subset We We also have the highly disciplined patient yoga based fighter with Dalzim who's more of a distance fighter rather than being a sluggish brute and quite different from Dalzim you have Zangief the large Russian wrestler looking for new competition to challenge his skills And since Street Fighter already incorporates a lot of different fighting styles and martial arts styles it's only natural that they would have a sumo wrestler with E-Honda as part of the franchise As a figure E-Honda is quite unique in that the wider frame needed for a sumo wrestler meant that you couldn't use existing parts to make the figure nor was it a natural fit to use the parts for follow-up characters That said both Dalzim as well as Sagat also featured entirely original figure sculpts at the time The boss characters included M Bison who's the leader of the Shadow Loo criminal to the early Street Fighter 2 games Balrog is another key villain and a former championship level boxer who found his way into working for M Bison There's also Vega who's the Spanish ninja and matador A man with a narcissistic personality he's known for the signature mask that he wears into his fights And lastly we have the aforementioned Sagat Being a Muay Thai fighter we did mention earlier that he was the end boss of the original Street Fighter game though in Street Fighter 2 he's the second to the last boss right before you fight M Bison Note that in the Japanese version of Street Fighter 2 M Bison is called Vega Vega is called Balrog and Balrog is called M Bison The names were switched around in the US because having a boxer named M Bison would be too similar to uses the 1986 Dreadnought Thunder Machine This vehicle came with alternate colorways of two characters known as the Championship Edition or Player 2 releases of Blanca as well as Chun Lee Unlike the other versions that we already talked about the vehicle driver releases of the Street Fighter 2 characters did not come with any weapons There was also the Sonic Boom Tank which is a redone version of the 1991 Cobra Paralyzer vehicle This one comes with the Championship Edition version of Guile Then there was the Crimson Cruiser which is a recolor of the 1991 Badger and this one comes with the Championship Edition release of M. Bison And for playsets we have the Dragon Fortress where the Street Fighter characters train and hone their skills The Dragon Fortress shares many pieces with the previously released Eco Warriors edition releases of both Ryu as well as Ken It's also worth noting that the 12-inch tall G.I. Joe Hall of Fame line also released several Street Fighter characters Namely we had Guile as well as Blanca Ryu and M. Bison And while it's generally beyond the scope of the 1993 G.I. Joe line as part of the 1994 Street Fighter movie line we did get a Hall of Street Fighter film that 1994 live action film did feature other big stars such as Raul Julia as M. Bison though sadly Julia passed away just before the film was released we also had Ming Nao Wen starring as Chun Li and pop singer Kylie Minogue portraying Cammy amongst other names in the film unfortunately the movie was not well liked by critics though it did make money relative to its for money making movies when it came out in late 1994 the follow up 1994 Street Fighter movie base line of 3 and 3 quarter inch o-ring construction figures as well as their associated vehicles made use of existing G.I. Joe parts that said unlike the 1993 set these were not branded and not promoted as official G.I. Joe toys even if they blend in seamlessly with your existing G.I. Joe collection and the same can be said about the eventual Mortal Kombat video game based toys which use G.I. Joe parts as well without the G.I. Joe name cross branded on the packaging I also want to point out that there were early plans for a Street Fighter 2 Turbo line some packaging mockups are shown here albeit these were never produced and released with the Turbo branding however some changes were made to release some of the toys in the aforementioned Street Fighter movie line for more information you can pause your screen and have a look at the post made by Hasbro artist Adam Riches back in 2017 now one of the reasons I stated near the start of this video that 1993 was only a big year for G.I. Joe in 2019 was the year that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a hit for American audiences with toy companies and the top of the year. The price of the year was the year that hasbro's G.I. Joe had fallen from its high spot as the go to toy line for children. In particular, 1993 was the year that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a hit for American audiences with the year. The year that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a hit for American audiences with toy companies and the year that the year was the year that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a hit for American audiences with toy companies and the year that the year was the year that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a hit for American audiences. With toy company, Bandai, reaping the rewards of that franchise's blockbuster levels of merchandise sales. So, love it or hate it, in retrospect, one can look back and at least appreciate Hasbro's attempt at including Street Fighter toys into the G.I. Joe line, especially as new ideas were needed to keep the line fresh. Now, while the inclusion of personalities like Sgt. Slaughter and William the Refrigerator Perry had already existed in G.I. Joe for years prior, the crossover marketing of names like Slaughter, Perry, and the Street Fighter toys that we talked about here all add to the tale of what makes the G.I. Joe, a real American hero toy line, so memorable. And while some fans had dropped out of collecting G.I. Joe toys by this point in time, I certainly remember playing with the G.I. Joe branded Street Fighter toys as a kid while also turning on my Super Nintendo to try my hand at beating the game time and time again. Thus, it was fun to look back at the year of 1993 not only when it comes to toy history, but video game history as well. If one thing could be said about G.I. Joe, a real American hero is that Hasbro consistently made changes to keep the line fresh one year after another. What started out as a primarily traditional green military look would slowly evolve to include biker gangs, real life celebrities, and eventually neon colors splashed all over their branding. And along with the continual sweeping changes, Hasbro would rename its main line of 1993 G.I. Joe toys as the Battle Corps, a wide sub-branding that would encapsulate several dozen characters for both the Joe and Cobra factions. Certainly, G.I. Joe, a real American hero, had a huge range of offerings in the 1993 calendar year, what with over 100 figures and vehicles, as well as the 12-inch scaled Hall of Fame line. Thus, what I thought I would do here is segment out the Battle Corps portion into its own individual upload. So let's begin. Hasbro had always been known for exerting its dominance as a toy company over several decades. But in this penultimate year for G.I. Joe, a real American hero, Hasbro would face a number of changes as well as challenges. As mentioned, the regular mainline releases for G.I. Joe were additionally branded with the Battle Corps logo adjacent to the standard G.I. Joe naming scheme. And you can see how some characters from 1992 got some new figure colors as well as adding this Battle Corps sub-branding for 1993. Thus, the Battle Corps were not a traditional type of G.I. Joe sub-team like the more specific operational based groups like Tiger Force, Python Patrol and others. Card back sizes were also larger when you compare them to the Joe figures of the past, a change that was made at the request of retailers to match the card sizing of other action figures in the toy aisle. Additionally, the weapons tree was included for many figures, which meant that you'd need to peel and remove the weapons from the sprues that they were attached to. And this is in contrast to what we saw previously with individual accessories packed into the card bubbles. There was also a choking hazard warning added to the packaging as part of the changes for this 1993 year. And in terms of industry-wide challenges, while Hasbro had enjoyed success at being ahead of other companies sharing the same competitive retail space, toy rival Mattel would acquire the company Fisher-Price in 1993. A key acquisition given that Mattel had come up short in its attempt to acquire Tonka previously, as Tonka was purchased by Hasbro in 1991. Closing the gap in competition, Mattel was ready to compete on the same level as Hasbro again. And this was evident by the end of 1993 when both Hasbro and Mattel finished the year with similar sales records, as both companies came in at just north of $2.7 billion each. Note that that includes company-wide sales in all divisions, far beyond that of just the action figure genre. That said, for G.I. Joe alone, Hasbro would end 1993 with $88 million in sales. That in of itself is not a bad number, but given the 100+ figures, plus vehicles, and the 12-inch scaled Hall of Fame toys that Hasbro released, one does have to consider that they had much higher earnings with G.I. Joe in previous years with less items on the market. Looking into the Battle Corps figures directly, we had a new character by the name of Colonel Courage, who designer Kirk Groen has noted that he had this high-ranking officer wearing a tie as well as boots, as inspired by the real-life officer, General Patton, who served in World Wars I and II. We had the return of another high-ranking officer, namely the Admiral of the 1985 USS Flagg, Kiel Hall. It had been a long while since his previous release, and now he came released on a card instead of with the large aircraft carrier. We got another version of General Flagg, and since he was a repaint of his first release, he's among the figures that didn't get a weapons tree in his card bubble, being released with more traditionally packed weapons. This will be the case for a few of the repainted figures in this 1993 range. Here's Bulletproof, who's now advertised as an urban commander, where previously he was known as the leader of the DEF, or Drug Elimination Force, in 1992. And now would be a good time to mention that there were indeed plans to expand the range of DEF and enemy headhunters that had debuted in 1992. We'd have seen nine more figures and the shark vehicle included in 1993, but these never made it to release in U.S. markets, so what's shown here are some early engineering pilot figures. Thus, as things got shifted around, the packaging was altered and the planned figures and shark vehicle were moved to the Battle Corps lineup, at least in the U.S. We'll come back to this topic later. And assisting with our Battle Corps leadership structure was another version of the field leader, Duke. Kurt Groen has stated that Duke's design here was largely based on the 1991 12-inch figure released as a Target exclusive that kicked off the GI Joe Hall of Fame line. And his uniform pattern is meant to match that of Desert Storm. We also got a new version of the anti-aircraft soldier in Backblast, as well as a recolor of the Bunker Buster known as Barricade. And we got an update of the fan-favorite, missile specialist Bazooka, now sporting a more fisherman type of look. The Tough as Nails Ranger, who was also another fan-favorite in Beachhead, was also back. And then we got a release of the former Havoc driver in Cross Country. This figure is controversial in that it has a Confederate battle flag on the back, which is covered up when you put the backpack on. Now, for Arctic conditions, we got another release of Frostbite. Here's this year's version of Iceberg, notable for the snowboard accessory that he comes with. And in terms of other Arctic releases, we got two versions of Snowstorm this year. And various sources show two different sub-team plans for Snowstorm initially, before he ultimately ended up as part of the Battle Corps. Creating G.I. Joe Vol. 11 states that there were plans considered to put Snowstorm into the Star Brigade subset. On the other hand, the art of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Omnibus states that there was a plan to continue the Eco Warriors sub-team. And that among the inclusions into this sub-team would have been Snowstorm. That is, until plans were scrapped for an Eco Warriors continuation. So, alas, we have two color schemes of the character in the same release year, as he had both a blue as well as an orange deco scheme. And a similar thing could be said for Outback. We know that he was planned for inclusion into the Eco Warriors sub-team before it was cancelled. But, ultimately, with its cancellation, there were two versions of Outback for 1993 that ended up as part of the Battle Corps range. For new versions of other characters, we also got a third release of Law, as well as Leatherneck with a different camo. And like Bulletproof, we saw some rehashed names from the 1988 cops and crooks line by Hasbro. They gave us this character named Long Arm, as well as an undercover operative named Mace. Designer Kurt Groen has stated that he wanted Mace's design to represent what FBI and drug enforcement agencies were wearing during that time. We got a revised version of Muskrat, who was now considered as a heavy fire specialist rather than being a swamp fighter. And the ever popular duo of Mutt and Junkyard made yet another appearance in this Real American Hero toy line. As far as other favourites are concerned, we got this version of Roadblock, who's the team's usual heavy machine gunner. On that note though, we should mention that the previous version, known in fan circles as the recalled version of Roadblock in 1992, that is, the one with the problematic, unreliable launching device, would see a re-release of that same figure in 1993, but now with the Battlecore branding and a new set of accessories. So when considered like this, in a way we can say that we got two versions of Roadblock this year, when counting the revision to his 1992 release. Additionally, the US Marine Gung Ho would appear, carrying the US flag again like he did in his 1992 version. And rounding out the carded range for our heroes would be more recolours, such as wetsuit with an orange deco scheme compared to his previous year's yellow deco scheme. And we also got this recoloured version of Wild Bill. For heroic vehicles, here's the aforementioned Shark 9000. And zooming in, you can still see the DEF logo on the vehicle, shown on the box. This version of Cutter was included with the Shark 9000, much like how he was included with the Whale hovercraft in 1984. This vehicle has an interesting backstory. While Bill Young is credited as the designer, another employee named Alan Ferraro built an early model for the Shark 9000. The design team would add a deco label that would read "AJ" followed by some numbers. This letter and number designation is a tribute to Alan Ferraro's son named AJ. AJ, due to complications, was born three months premature, with the February 5, 1992 birth date being the reason as to why the deco reads with his initials and birthday. As something of a happy ending to this part of the tale, AJ would not only survive the birth complications, but would grow up into an adult serving as an officer in the US Army. For flying vehicles, the Battle Corps had the Ghost Striker X16, a high-tech, image-targeting combat jet. And we got some more familiarity, as it came with the well-known GI Joe pilot, Ace. And representing the Battle Corps vehicles on land, we got the all-terrain, 4x4 battle truck known as the Mudbuster. Looking at the villains, we got a sixth version of Cobra Commander in a black color scheme, where most of the figure was a reuse of the 1992 Talking Battle Commanders version of him. He came with silver weapons, thus creating a nice-looking color contrast. Here's the Battle Corps version of Dr. Mindbender, who's more brightly colored than his original 1986 release. The saboteur, Firefly, also returned as part of the Battle Corps, and he's another well-known fan favorite, albeit on the villain side. The Night Creepers added to their ranks this year with the Ninja Master known as the Night Creeper leader. And the Crimson Guard also added to their upper echelon with an elite officer in the Crimson Guard Commander. For other army builders, here's a revised version of the Alley Viper, now clad in a yellow and black color scheme. Here's the Cobra Eels for underwater demolitions. Albeit, this Eels release has a slightly different color scheme compared to the 1992 version, and he swaps out the torpedo-launching shark robot for a more standard-looking spring-loaded launcher. The Flak Viper, with his anti-aircraft dual-spring loaded launchers, was back in a revised color scheme compared to the previous 1992 release. And we had this version of the Heat Viper, who's the Cobra team's high-explosive and anti-tank-related trooper. As we get to the end of the carded range, here's Gristle, who's an urban crime commander. And for crime-related street work, here's a second version of the Headhunters, now branded as Battle Corps, whereas the first version from the previous year was branded as the narcotics guard for the headman. Now, for the next evolution of the Headhunters, we have the elite urban crime guards known as the Headhunters Stormtroopers. You'll notice that I saved Gristle, the Headhunters, and the Headhunters Stormtroopers for later in the discussion for this carded figure range. And that's because these three were supposed to be part of the previously mentioned DEF vs. Headhunters set that was planned but not released in the US. However, interestingly enough, this planned 1993 range was released in Australia on these DEF-branded cardbacks, thus making them something of an international variant for enthusiastic collectors who like to see something a little bit different. Now, for Cobra vehicles this year, we had the detonator for long-range assaults. This vehicle came with the Nitro Viper. Strangely, the Nitro Viper was unique in that it was not released with a file card. However, G.I. Joe fan Michael Levanos created a file card that ended up being sanctioned by Hasbro and released later on in the action figure news and toy review magazine for 1994. And finally, the other Cobra vehicle we got this year was the Ice Snake, a fast attack Arctic vehicle. A few other tidbits worth pointing out are that there would be select mini-comics as well as trading cards packed in with some of the toys. And additionally, there were a couple of different mail-away inserts so that you could mail in for some figures from Hasbro. Now, while the Battlecore theme would carry on into 1994, that 1994 year would see the end of the 3 ¾ inch G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line as we knew it. Thus, we would see a cancellation on the otherwise planned follow-up range known as the Battlecore Rangers that would have taken the G.I. Joe Battlecore branding past 1994. Transitioning quickly to the comic, in 1993 we'd see things like Scarlet Train with Ninja Force and we'd also see a crossover with the Transformers who were now experiencing an attempted resurgence with their Generation 2 rebranding. Overall, 1993 was a competitive year for action figures as a whole. With the debut of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Western audiences, they'd eat up a considerable segment of the same market share as G.I. Joe. Given that during the fall of 1993, Power Rangers topped all other programs among children during the weekday morning time slot. And with the G.I. Joe Deke cartoon having already concluded prior to 1993, it became very difficult for G.I. Joe to compete with Power Rangers. That and the superhero genre was going strong by 1993, not just with the cartoons, but with larger scale figures for kids to play with rather than the traditional 3 3/4 inch G.I. Joe sized figures. Additionally, G.I. Joe struggled to maintain $100 million in sales during the 1990s, with the aforementioned 1993 year dipping to $88 million. By comparison, Batman could reel in $500 million, so the writing was really on the wall for our favorite real American heroes. Furthermore, corporate-wide changes at Hasbro would see the sun slowly set on the G.I. Joe brand as a whole. Alas, G.I. Joe would meet its end in the following year, during the summer of 1994. Even though the actual plan to end G.I. Joe occurred earlier on in the same summer, August 16th 1994 would infamously come to be known as Black Tuesday. On this day, a significant amount of Hasbro staff was let go from the Rhode Island office, where G.I. Joe was stationed. This made things bittersweet when the G.I. Joe International Collectors Convention was held from August 20th to 21st in 1994 at the USS Intrepid in New York. Among the survivors was Kirk Bozygian, who'd been both a G.I. Joe brand team member and the VP of Boys Toys at Hasbro. But he'd be taken off of the G.I. Joe brand to work elsewhere in the company. We'll cover 1994 more closely when we get the chance, but for now, the idea here was to look back at the second last year of G.I. Joe in 1993 to see what Hasbro did before ultimately deciding to shut down its real American hero brand. Maybe you loved or maybe you hated the various sub-teams in 1993, or perhaps you have certain feelings about Hasbro's attempt at collaborating with Capcom's Street Fighter II. You may have felt that the battle core was meant for you as a child and later on as a collector, or you may have felt all along that it wasn't as good as what the brand did earlier on in its existence. In any case, it all played a big role for G.I. Joe's history during the 1990s. Ninjas, dinosaurs, outer space, and more. Between the years of 1982 and 1994, G.I. Joe, a real American hero, certainly didn't shy away from including more and more concepts into an already vast range of heroes and villains. By 1993, G.I. Joe had already proven itself time and time again, but now in a crowded industry with other kid-targeted products all occupying the same retail space, the toy line still had to go through some changes to stay relevant for a little while longer. Yes, it's well known to fans that the line ended just one year later in 1994. However, that didn't stop Hasbro as a toy company from at least trying to swing for the fences, knowing that they were in a now or never situation to either go big or go home. Alas, there were plenty of sub-teams as well as mail-aways for the G.I. Joe year of 1993. Some were carryovers from previous years while others were entirely new as part of the 1993 effort to keep up with the rest of the competition. But in any case, it's worth a closer look. Let's begin. With 1993 being such a massive year for G.I. Joe in terms of the number of releases, I've covered the Street Fighter G.I. Joe crossover sub-line in its own Toy History segment, as well as another segment for the Battle Corps, which represented the broad-reaching mainline release characters for G.I. Joe in '93. That'll allow me to focus on the wide range of sub-teams G.I. Joe had for this year in this video, along with the new mail-in toy offers, which for 1993 was the most numerous out of all the years for G.I. Joe. Now, as part of the aforementioned Street Fighter History segment, as well as the Battle Corps History segment, I did already discuss some of the wide-sweeping changes that Hasbro faced with the G.I. Joe brand. But it is important to repeat at least some of this information as part of telling the rest of the story. Summarizing quickly though, the card back sizes were changed to be slightly larger to match card sizing of other items at retail during this time. The weapons tree was also added with the weapons now being attached to sprues rather than the more loosely packed accessories that we'd seen in the past. And the choking hazard label was added for safety reasons. In terms of performance at retail, I've also already mentioned the $88 million sales figure for G.I. Joe in 1993. But to give more context, I came into this sales graph recently relative to the timing of this video. You'll see the G.I. Joe sales in red relative to the sales in blue which indicates the total sales for boys' toys across all US companies. And this chart covers the years of 1982 which is the debut year for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and goes all the way up to 1993. As a comparison, all the way back in 1983, G.I. Joe sold $87 million worth of product. Which was a good sales figure relative to the $486 million sold across all boys' toys for US companies. And G.I. Joe would be on the rise for the immediate years after. But by 1993, a comparable sales figure of $88 million was a much smaller size of the pie relative to the nearly $1 billion that was sold across boys' toy brands all around. Thus painting a bit of a picture as to what was going on in the industry at this time. We've talked a bit in past videos already too about the rising competition of the 1990s that was eating up some of this market. Credit for finding the information in this slide goes to the non-profit Joe Declassified Group that has worked to educate fellow G.I. Joe fans over the years on behind the scenes as well as pre-production information. And further credit goes to 3djoes.com for cleaning up this slide for modern presentation purposes. Additionally, former G.I. Joe product manager and Hasbro vice president of Boys Toys, Kirk Bazigian, also once recalled that the information on this slide was originally prepared by the Griffin Bacall Advertisement Agency for a Hasbro Annual State of the Business Review. Looking at the toys now, Ninja Force is the obvious sub-team that carries over from 1992 into 1993, complete with their spring action feature on the figures. Here we got another version of Snake Eyes, who's somebody you'd obviously want to include in such a sub-faction. We got a character named Banzai, who designer Kurt Groen has stated that the mask for Banzai was designed to resemble that of a Japanese rising sun symbol. Here's Bushido with his samurai mask, and he's listed on his file card to be the blood brother of Banzai. Scarlet is a great addition into the sub-faction for Ninja Force, and she's unique in that she's a female character that got more than one version in the '82 to '94 G.I. Joe line. 1993 was truly her year in the comics because not only would you see her in her Ninja Force get-up, but she'd also end up working as a double agent this year. Going undercover as she pretends to work for Cobra, she finds herself not only face to face with Cobra Commander, but also with the Decepticon Megatron in a Transformers crossover. And she even takes the time to reminisce back with General Hawk about one of her earlier missions. Rounding out the heroic ninjas would be Jin Zu, a student of Storm Shadows, and he was packed in with one of the Ninja Force vehicles, namely the Ninja Raider Piledriver. The Ninja Lightning Cycle was the other heroic Ninja Force vehicle this year, and it was noted by Hasbro's Vinny De Leyva that this vehicle sold far more units than the other Ninja Force vehicles this year, at somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 units. The Cobra side of Ninja Force quite notably added the fan favorite, Master of Disguise known as Zartan. He was joined by another version of the Ninja Swordsman, namely Slice, now wearing orange rather than red from his 1992 appearance. We also got a revised version of the Cobra Night Creeper as part of Ninja Force. And another army builder for Cobra would be the mercenaries known as the Red Ninjas. And the Red Ninja as a figure came packed in with a vehicle known as Cobra's Ninja Raider Battle Axe. And, while G.I. Joe was no stranger to releasing space-themed toys before 1993, Hasbro felt it was time to take that next step. That said, before Star Brigade was fleshed out, the thought was to develop a futuristic military segment known as Techno Joe. And amongst the Techno Joe items would be the precursor to what would become the Armor Bot. You'll see a green colored foam model of the Armor Bot in one of the G.I. Joe catalogues. But, taking things a bit further back, there was also a prototype made by designer Bill Young of an olive drab green and black terrestrial vehicle that wasn't originally designed as a specific space vehicle. Once it was decided to go ahead with Star Brigade, the colors were changed up and we got the Armor Bot that hit retail shelves. The Armor Bot was included with a version of General Hawk, who on his file card is somehow back to the rank of Brigadier General, even though he was a higher ranking Major General in his 1992 Talking Battle Commander's release. You'll notice Hawk is on a larger body, and such figures would become a subset of Star Brigade known as Armor Tech. That said, during development of that Techno Joe futuristic military before it evolved to be part of Star Brigade, Vinny Duleva further shared that these larger suits were inspired by exosuits we were seeing in shows such as Exo Squad. But it became evident that Hasbro wanted G.I. Joe to make that jump into space. To keep up with the competition, they knew that Playmates had a line of Star Trek figures based on the successful Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. That and word had gotten out that Kenner was likely to bring back Star Wars. Yes, Kenner was now owned by Hasbro at this point, but with Kenner still having separate offices in Cincinnati, Ohio, and still existing as its own division within the greater Hasbro corporate structure, it bred internal competition with G.I. Joe, whose staff were located in Rhode Island. So as Armor Tech was developed and included into Star Brigade eventually, Hawk would be joined by characters like Robo Joe, who was loosely based on and inspired by the Robocop film. Existing favorites like Heavy Duty joined the Armor Tech grouping as well. Duke joined Armor Tech also, giving us yet another version of the team's field leader. And we got another version of Rock and Roll, who was released both with yellow accessories and then again released with purple accessories. Destro would lead the Armor Tech, Star Brigade villains for Cobra, and we also got another version of the Cobra Bats, now dubbed as the Battle Armored Android Trooper, rather than just Battle Android Trooper like it was dubbed in the past. And because Armor Tech figures were at a different price point, we had regularly sized Star Brigade figures as well. Here's Countdown, the Combat Astronaut, and then here's Ozone, now moving over from Eco Warriors into the Star Brigade sub-team. And note that Ozone also got a second color scheme this year. Here we have Payload, and interestingly, he was meant to use the mold from the 1987 version 1 and 1989 version 2 Payload of the past. But due to a lack of availability with his tooling, Hasbro opted to use the Eco Warriors BBQ from 1992 instead, and give the figure a green color for Payload. You'll notice that the prototype on the file card shows Payload in his original mold, so thus we know that this was the initial intent. A heroic fan favorite, Roadblock, the Joe's Heavy Machine Gunner, joined Star Brigade as well. GI Joe's Star Brigade lineup also had another version of sci-fi, and he was packaged in with the Starfighter, which was a recolor of the 1988 Cobra Stellar Stiletto. For the Cobra side, the Astro Viper was a natural addition into Star Brigade, and Cobra also had the Targat or Transatmospheric Rapid Global Assault Trooper, and for vehicles, Cobra's Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball was recolored into the Invader, thus giving the bad side their Star Brigade vehicle this year. Note that the card art is reused across these standard sized Star Brigade figures, and the art shows Payload battling the Astro Viper. Time constraints resulted in this card art being duplicated between releases rather than being unique to each figure. The Mega Marines and Mega Monsters formed another subset of sorts for GI Joe in 1993, whereby Hasbro was, in their own way, revisiting what was going on with the Alien franchise, all the while putting their own spin on it. You Cobra monsters are pretty tough, but I'm Gung Ho! Gung Ho was the leading face for the Mega Marines, being the commander on the heroic side. Now, with Hasbro acquiring Tonka in 1991, one brand that they got in the deal was Play-Doh. They came up with the idea for using Play-Doh as moldable bio-armor for the Mega Marines. That said, they never did end up actually calling it Play-Doh despite the material, and in fact, Play-Doh itself was being manufactured domestically in the US, while the moldable bio-armor was being made in China. Joining Gung Ho on the heroic side of the Mega Marines would be the flamethrower known as Blast Off. Mirage was also on the team as a bio-artillery expert and another classic character, Clutch, joined the ranks as well. And the Joes' vehicle for this range would be the Monster Blaster APC, with its lock and load missile firing cannon. The Monster Blaster did have some variations to it, with the green being a different shade between versions. The villain side would consist of the Cyber Viper as well as the Mega Vipers, the latter of which were the trainers for the Mega Monsters. As for the Mega Monsters themselves, we had the oversized, DNA-altered Bio Vipers, and likewise, they were joined by the Monstro Vipers. One thing about the Mega Monsters was that they were not supposed to be the size that they ended up being. But by the time the G.I. Joe brand team realized the oversized proportions of the toys being produced, it was too late to make the change at the time. Like some of the Star Brigade figures, the Mega Monsters also did not receive unique card art, keeping more generic presentation art between the figures. Now one thing I do want to ask is if you happen to be enjoying this video, please make sure you're subscribed to the channel, press that like button, and ring that notification bell so that you don't miss out on any future Toy Connections video content. Yes, it's a small effort for you, but it'll go a long way towards helping me with growing this channel. And in an attempt to keep up with Jurassic Park and its release into theaters during 1993, Hasbro would release a special Toys R Us exclusive box set known as the Dino Hunter Mission playset. Here we'd see versions of Ambush as well as Low Light packed in with the set. And the vehicle included was largely a reuse of the 1988 Desert Fox. The dinosaur though is often the topic of conversation amongst collectors, particularly due to the goofy nature of the toy that we got. Now initially, Hasbro was actually going to license a dinosaur from Imperial Toys. And you can see the side-by-side comparison here between the dinosaur that Hasbro planned to use and the one that we got. It turned out that the 1985 Imperial Toys Dinosaur had arms that were too thin and thus unable to pass Hasbro's internal quality standards at the time. As such, Hasbro had to tool up a new dinosaur and reshoot the photography on the packaging. That said, the eventual dinosaur's arms were tucked in and molded onto the toy, thus reducing the functionality. And I do want to take a moment to thank Patrick Stewart as well as Philip Donnelly from the Articulated Points YouTube channel. As they were the ones who provided the imagery and footage to make this comparison possible between the original Imperial Toys Dinosaur and the G.I. Joe Dino Hunters one. You can subscribe to their channel by following the link in the video description listed below. The various mail-away offers gave children tons of options this year. For example, another subgrouping came in the mail and was called the Arctic Commandos. This set consisted of revised versions for Stalker, Sub-Zero, DJ and the Snow Serpents. Here's the International Action Force 4-pack, which name-wise was probably an homage to the Action Force International Heroes brand that ran during the late 80s in Europe. This particular International Action Force set consisted of Spirit, Budo, Big Ben and Big Bear. The 1991 Battle Copters got new mail-away versions this year, but now without the Battle Copters themselves. So here's Major Altitude for the Joes and Interrogator for Cobra. Individual mail-in offers included this shiny version of the Deep Sea Diver, Deep Six. And then we had this neon version of General Hawk, wearing a recolored version of his flight gear outfit from 1991. Now, Cobra's answer to the G.I. Joe Steel Brigade was this "Create a Cobra" figure offer. Now for the villain side, you could customize your own character's name, traits, and abilities. Lastly, we had a grouping advertised as the Rapid Deployment Force. Albeit, the set consisted of re-releasing existing previous versions of Fast Draw along with the Night Force versions of Repeater and Shockwave. The Rapid Deployment Force did come with different accessories for the figures compared to their original releases and the Pocket Patrol pack itself was issued in a black color rather than the traditional green from its earlier release. Hasbro also offered several impact mini-comics and trading cards. And as can be seen, G.I. Joe tried to be anything and everything all at once by 1993, with its military roots as the overarching theme to tie it all together. Perhaps it was too much, or perhaps Hasbro was just doing what it needed to do in order to keep Joe alive. 1993 was a time that we'd see a shift in pop culture, partly in the world of toys and children's entertainment like we've already discussed. But as another example, 1993 was also the year when things like the long-running sitcom known as Cheers would conclude its 11th season run, and in some ways be succeeded by its spin-off, Frasier. 1993 was also very much a peak year in grunge music as well, shifting the trends away from the hair bands and popular rock and roll style of the 80s. But in any case, G.I. Joe would march on for just a little while longer, concluding its run midway through 1994. And as we wind down this particular history series, I do hope that you as a viewer can appreciate the information that I've tried to pack into these videos. When I first started this G.I. Joe history series, I was only just learning about the wealth of information sources that would come available as I progressed this story into the 1990s. Between all the various resources, it has been a pleasure to deliver this information to all of you. I'm also grateful for the deep information in websites such as 3djoes.com and the associated Art of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Omnibus as spearheaded by G.I. Joe Ambassador Carson Metaxas. Special mention should also go to Dan Klingensmith and his amazing Creating G.I. Joe 15-volume series that has also gone a long way to enhance my knowledge. Books like Toy Wars tell a fantastic tale of the toy industry in the 1990s with a Hasbro direct focus. There have also been others like the aforementioned Articulated Points YouTube channel and the Joe Declassified group all working to open up new avenues of knowledge for fellow G.I. Joe fans. And we can't forget the archiving crew over at Total Toy Books who have done a lot to broaden the knowledge of G.I. Joe's European cousin, Action Force. And this is just to name a few out of many who have done a lot as modern age curators of the brands that we love. All that's to say is that I'm happy to play my part in presenting the information to you all as the information comes available to me and to use these retrospectives as time capsules to a more innocent and blissful time in our past. That said, this series is not over yet. So stay tuned as we conclude the discussion of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero when it comes time to talk about 1994. G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, Fighting Man from end to end to end. Introducing the new G.I. Joe Adventure Team, Five Rugged Men. [01:42:00] Speaker ?: Yo, Joe! [01:42:02] Speaker 1: G.I. Joe, American Hero! Yo, G.I. Joe! Nobody beats G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero! Nobody beats G.I. Joe! Yo, Joe! Yo, Joe! [01:42:15] Speaker ?: Yo, Joe! Yo, Joe! [01:42:17] Speaker 1: Yo, Joe! Yo, Joe! [01:42:19] Speaker ?: Yo, Joe! Yo, Joe! Yo, Joe! Yo, Joe! [01:42:25] Speaker 1: It takes a special type of franchise to stay around as long as G.I. Joe has. Yes, its level of relevance has shifted up and down over the years. But its roots date all the way back to 1964 when it debuted as a culturally iconic 12-inch scaled military toy before eventually evolving into the adventuring concept of the 1970s as well as a short-lived sci-fi themed Super Joe toy line in the late 1970s. But the series largely being covered on Toy Connections is that of the smaller, 3 ¾ inch scaled G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line. It's a brand that famously ran from 1982 until 1994 and featured characters that would be revered by fans even decades after their initial release. That said, while 1994 would represent the 30th anniversary of the franchise as a whole, the year also marked the end of an era as the last chapter in what many consider the strongest continual run in G.I. Joe's history. And it's interesting that such a symbolic year could mark both celebration as well as a level of sadness for such a quintessential toy line. I do have mixed feelings about this particular subject because it does take us to the end of this history series. That said, it is a necessary part of the story. So, let's have a look at the final year of the vintage G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero run. There's really a lot to talk about when it comes to G.I. Joe in 1994. And the story wouldn't be complete without acknowledging the other changes occurring in and around the toy industry. And in particular, Hasbro as a toy company at this point. Now, I'm not sure that everyone has an understanding as to what was going on at Hasbro's Rhode Island office around this time. So, what we need to do is have a discussion about the most significant week for G.I. Joe during 1994. After so many years on the front lines for Hasbro, much of G.I. Joe's dissolution during this era can be attributed to a fateful day on Tuesday, August 16th, 1994. Infamously, it would come to be known by those who experienced it as Black Tuesday. G.Wayne Miller's Toy Wars book goes into detail about some of the inner workings at Hasbro during this period. Much of the staff who worked on G.I. Joe would be let go during this time, which was a cost savings and internal consolidation measure. G.I. Joe's further development after 1994 would occur at the Cincinnati office where Hasbro's Kenner division was located. As a quick reminder, Hasbro obtained Kenner as part of a larger deal when they purchased Tonka in 1991. And Tonka had previously acquired Kenner back in 1987. And those who did manage to stay employed at Hasbro would get moved to different aspects of the business. For example, former G.I. Joe product manager and vice president of Boyz Toys, Kirk Bazigian would be moved over to work on Play-Doh. Others, like designer Greg Bernson, known for his work on the epic USS Flag, would move over to work on Play-School. But it seems that the decision to end the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero three and three quarter inch line occurred well before Black Tuesday. As mentioned in an Articulated Points YouTube video from 2023, Patrick Stewart flips through the 1994 G.I. Joe convention issue of the action figure news and Toy Review magazine. Here, he notes that some of the article writers were at Hasbro's office in July of 1994. And the decision to end the line had already been made by the time of this visit. But getting back to the week of Black Tuesday in August, three days later, on Friday, August 19th, 1994, there was a Christie's East auction to sell off many remaining G.I. Joe items in Hasbro's archive. Some of which were things in development for potential use down the line or things used in the past that they no longer needed. Again, I'll thank Patrick Stewart for sending me a PDF copy of this auction. And one interesting thing that I noticed was that the price realized for certain items sold was often lower than the predicted value. But of course, this was way back in 1994 and such scarce items might go for much more had the collectors market back then been what it is in modern times. That said, some items did go for quite the high price. Timing wise, strangely, Black Tuesday was also just days before the 1994 G.I. Joe International Collectors Convention, which occurred on Saturday, August 20th and Sunday, August 21st. This took place at the legendary USS Intrepid, which of course was a World War II aircraft carrier that was converted into a museum in New York. Thus, it was something of a bittersweet experience because on one hand, it was the 30th anniversary salute for G.I. Joe as an overall brand. But at the same time, it represented the end of something historic, as the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line was now a casualty of the shifting times in the toy industry. It seemed the G.I. Joe had tried to be all things to all people, what with all the differing concepts introduced during its run, and it may have been a little too much. Such was admitted by Hasbro CEO Alan Hasenfeld at the time in a quote found in Miller's Toy Wars. Action figures were shifting larger in size, and by 1994, there were more and more things to take away the attention of a child who may have grown up with G.I. Joe. For me personally, I spent 1994 glued to the television screen as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers transitioned between its first and second seasons, which included a change in Zords, toys of which that I asked for that Christmas. And, of course, there was the entire mystery surrounding the introduction and identity of the White Ranger. Additionally, during this year, I also found myself distracted that June by an epic Stanley Cup playoff finals series. The grunge music scene took a major turn with the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain that spring, and this 1994 year was also the time of the highly covered O.J. Simpson manhunt over the murder charges that eventually led to his later trial. So, as can be seen, 1994 was quite the eventful calendar year. But back to the toy front, 1994 was also a year in which Hasbro rival Mattel actually outsold Hasbro, even if Hasbro had enjoyed success over Mattel prior to this. Mattel had upped its sales to $3.2 billion this year, while Hasbro had dipped slightly to $2.67 billion. Note that both companies were just north of $2.7 billion in 1993, with Hasbro having just barely edged out Mattel that previous year. So, perhaps it was indeed time for change at Hasbro. Now, even through all this, and with that crazy week between Black Tuesday on August 16th and the Christie's Auction and G.I. Joe convention that occurred in the days after, it's important to note that the G.I. Joe legacy was honored in many ways with its 1994 30th anniversary. The anniversary figures included a very special character, listed simply as G.I. Joe. But really, he was Joseph Colton, the first and original G.I. Joe who would lead an ultimate freedom fighting force. The figure was released both as a bag mail away as well as being a boxed convention exclusive. Colton wears some gear akin to the taller 1960s Joes, in particular the beret and scarf from the 1966 Green Beret. And on the topic of 12-inch tall Joes, while the scope of the 12-inch 1990s Hall of Fame line goes beyond what this history series covers, I personally find it important to note that Joe Colton was also honored with a 1994 mail-in figure in this scale as well. The character of Joe Colton was again revisited during the Marvel Comics G.I. Joe run in 1994. Specifically, Colton would be called back to active duty at the end of issue 151. Then, in issue 152, he recalls a mission during his days in Vietnam. Later that issue, he tells how he was called into the Oval Office where President Kennedy assigns Colton to command a new team, handing him a folder with the name G.I. Joe on it. It's also worth noting that Joe Colton's name comes from that of Kirk Bozygian's son, whose name is Colton. For other figures commemorating this anniversary year, we have the Action Soldier, who very much is another callback to the original Action Soldier of the 1960s and the gear that you could outfit him with. Likewise, here's the Action Marine, another figure commemorating the original larger line of G.I. Joe from the previous era. Similarly, we have the Action Sailor, representing yet another classic. And then here's the Action Pilot. As such, these four three and three quarter inch representations were introduced to commemorate the earliest releases of G.I. Joe back in 1964. On that note, though, these figures were also released as part of an original Action Team box set. But for this release, the Action Sailor came in an orange color and the Action Pilot came decked out in blue. Then there's the Action Pilot, which was specifically included with the original Action Team set, not having his own individual anniversary release like the other four figures. And included in the Action Team box set was an Action Space capsule. There was also the convention exclusive fighter pilot and parachute, and the parachute came in some different variant colors. Here's the special box that came with this fighter pilot. For the main figure line, you'll notice two different styles of logo. First is the more traditional horizontal logo, but 1994 was also the year that Hasbro elected to make a change to the vertical style logo. This logo also adds a thicker black outline compared to the previous version. And quite notably, some figures got released on both styles of packaging, while some only got one or the other. This also resulted in two different styles of file cards being made at times. For this year, Hasbro produced figures both in China as well as Indonesia. As such, you'd see variations to some figures. Going over a few examples, you see a dial tone variant here with some green paint applications on the sides of the torso and Star Brigade Roadblock also has a variant with black chest details with another that has silver details. Looking at the main line of Battle Corps figures, the heroic side had the aforementioned dial tone as well as Stalker in their lineup. Our favorite Warrant Officer, Flint, was also back, as was the team's Ranger, Beachhead. The rescue trooper, Lifeline, was also here, as was another version of Snowstorm. We have the somewhat humorously named Ice Cream Soldier, though his name seems to be derived directly from the Sergeant Rock character from DC Comics. The Navy Seal, fan favorite, Shipwreck, also got a figure this year. And the heroes also got this version of Windchill, who came packed in with the vehicle known as the Blockbuster. The Blockbuster's main feature was its double-barreled, pom-pom cannon. The G.I. Joe Battle Corps also got the Manta Ray as a vehicle. And then there was the string-traveling Razor Blade, a unique vehicle for which, during the development process, designer Bill Young said that he was inspired by Mattel's Hot Birds line. And additionally, he wished he could have done the Razor Blade in metal to give it more weight to travel faster along the string. The Cobra Battle Corps got this revised version of the Mercenary Major Blood. And joining him was the anti-tank specialist, Metalhead. And here's the Night Creeper leader, also returning with new colors. And for Army Builders, we got this revised version of the standard infantry, the Cobra Viper. And then there was another release of the Urban Assault Trooper, namely the Alley Viper. For vehicles, the Cobra Battle Corps got the Scorpion, which came both in a tan body variant that had black weapons and a variant that had this color scheme reversed. Star Brigade was back this year and we got a release of Duke to lead the Joe ranks. Joining him, we have Countdown and an explosives expert named IF-X. We also got Ozone, who's now got three versions within Star Brigade when you include his two 1993 appearances. Similarly, Halo got a version this year where he's mostly decked out in black and another where he's mostly wearing white, thus giving him three versions as well when you include the 1993 release. I've already mentioned Roadblock earlier when I was talking about examples for certain variants. Here's Syfy, now advertised as a Star Brigade pilot, and then we have another pilot by the name of Space Shot. Here's Gears, along with his Star Brigade Power Fighter, which serves as a one-man attack unit similar to what the ExoSquad line was doing in the 1990s. Cobra got their Power Fighter 2, and this one has a few different variants in terms of weapon colors and color detailing on the fighter body. It came with a Techno Viper, who's mostly found in the color scheme shown here with the copper detailing on his body. That said, some much rarer versions with the yellow detailing as shown on the box photography here have also leaked into the collector's market. It is possible, though, that the yellow detailed versions are pre-production samples that were not intended for retail. Here we have a version of Cobra Commander to lead the villain side for Star Brigade, and then Cobra had an elite space pilot known as the Cobra Black Star. The Star Brigade subset also expanded to include the strange Lunartix Empire. Such alien creatures included Predacon, who designer Kurt Groen has stated that he drew inspiration from both the Aliens as well as Predator movie franchises. The Lunartix Empire also included the alien destroyer known as Carcass and an explorer known as Lobotomax. With the perpetual inclusion of ninjas in the G.I. Joe line, the Shadow Ninjas subset represented the next evolution of the theme. The figures were made of translucent plastic and could switch between a translucent look and a colored look when exposed to water. Note that much like the regularly carded Star Brigade figures of 1993, the Shadow Ninjas reused card art across each figure. The villain side included the Night Creeper and the Cobra Swordsman known as Slice. The heroic side had Bushido as well as Nunchuck. Storm Shadow is a natural choice to fit into this grouping. And of course, we had Snake Eyes. Snake Eyes had a significant part in the final issue of the original G.I. Joe Marvel Comics run. This issue, numbered 155, would see the disbandment of the G.I. Joe team. But also, a young boy named Sean Collins, who's the son of a previous Cobra Crimson Guardsman, would write a letter to Snake Eyes to seek his advice about joining the military. In that last issue, Snake Eyes would take the time and write back to Sean. And then years later, when Devil's Due Publishing picked up the rights to create G.I. Joe Comics in the early 2000s, author and company founder Josh Blaylock would write Sean Collins in as the apprentice of Snake Eyes. Taking the name Kamakura, he'd become an important part of G.I. Joe lore thereafter. So, while the 1994 year signified the end of a very memorable era, it's worth pointing out that with the line's conclusion midway through the year, that not every item planned for 1994 got released. For example, the Star Brigade Manimals were set for late 1994, and the Ninja Commandos were also slated for this period. That said, neither made it to retail. Of note, however, and even before G.I. Joe's transition away from the Hasbro offices in Rhode Island to the Kenner offices in Cincinnati, Hasbro had actually already developed something for release. Sergeant Savage is the biggest, baddest soldier ever to join the G.I. Joe team. The G.I. Joe line known as Sergeant Savage and his Screaming Eagles was introduced, and contrary to common belief, it was initially conceived as something to run in parallel with the existing as well as other upcoming G.I. Joe brand segments, many of which we've talked about in this video. Thus, Sergeant Savage wasn't actually intended to be a replacement to the G.I. Joe 82-94 line, even if it sort of ended up that way. Development material for Sergeant Savage, as presented by Patrick from Articulated Points, shows dates from prior to the end of the three and three quarter inch line, with some documentation dating back as far as early 1993. With this context in mind, it may be more accurate to say that the Sergeant Savage series was actually the last segment of the G.I. Joe, a real American hero line that was allowed to survive and continue past the end of the three and three quarter inch scaled line, with the intention of carrying G.I. Joe into 1995. That said, it became publicly known at the August 1994 G.I. Joe convention at the USS Intrepid that the G.I. Joe line as we knew it was ending, and it was here that Sergeant Savage was unveiled to the public. However, Sergeant Savage did maintain the real American hero branding on its packaging, even if it was a larger figure than the Joes that preceded it, sizing up to the other action figures that were on the market at the time. And thus, they looked a little different than the G.I. Joe that we knew. Now, despite many fans considering Sergeant Savage as being something entirely different, it did have ties to the previous Joes. This was clear by the fact that the Sergeant Savage cartoon included General Hawk, Lady J, Doc, and Cobra Commander in addition to Sergeant Savage and his Screaming Eagles. But unfortunately, Sergeant Savage would be short-lived, and Kenner wanted to make its own mark on the G.I. Joe world. They'd do this by starting development of their G.I. Joe extreme line even before 1994 was over, thus never really giving Sergeant Savage a chance to get a foothold in the action figure market for 1995. Additionally, we'd see Street Fighter movie figures co-branded with the late 1994 film. While using the G.I. Joe style of body construction, they were not co-branded with G.I. Joe, unlike the 1993 Street Fighter II figures. The G.I. Joe stylized Mortal Kombat figures were also not branded as being part of G.I. Joe. That said, they're still worth a mention here. Thus, if we could look back at the 1990s for Hasbro, it was a time of change and shifting interests in the toy industry. There were both ups and downs. In addition to everything we already said, Hasbro would make investments like the sliced bread project, which was planned to be something of a head-mounted virtual reality console that could compete with Nintendo and Sega. Though after spending tens of millions of dollars in investment and development money, it would never come to fruition. There were even serious talks about Mattel and Hasbro merging into one company during this era with Mattel being the more interested party in such a colossal industry move. That said, Hasbro CEO, Alan Hasenfeld, stuck to his guns and the companies remained separate. Ultimately though, that takes us to the end of this G.I. Joe 1982 to 1994 toy history series. And it's been a pleasure for me to make time and take that stroll down memory lane to both research as well as present this information to all of you. While it is a bit sad for me to conclude this particular year by year history series and also a bit sad to look back at how such a great toy line drew to a close in 1994. It's still great to know that G.I. Joe has maintained a legacy amongst its fans over the many years since. But if anything, all the time spent playing with G.I. Joe as a kid, then researching plus collecting, as well as spending time with fellow collectors that became friends later on, has all been worth it for me. And hopefully you've learned something from watching these videos, because as they say, knowing is half the battle. is half the battle. And knowing is half the battle. Thanks for watching and stay tuned because we'll cover a lot more toy history right here on Toy Connections. See you next time.