[En Sabah Nerd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomax

FYI: Gi Joe came out in 1964, Star wars came out in 1977

The GI Joe figures of 1964 were the dolls that were just generic army soldiers of varying types, not the Joes and Cobras that everyone really knows or collects. Few people actually collect those GI Joe dolls compared to the 3.75" line which didn't kick off until 1982. From the original 1964 line GI Joe didn't have any characters or story it was just dolls of a soldier, marine, sailor, etc. They weren't really a toy line that urged completion or collection since there were only 4 or so and and it was basically the same doll 4 times with different clothes. I'm not bashing them or anything but they were definitely toys of their time. When the 3.75" line started in 1982 (about 5 years after Star Wars had already been running its 3.75" line) they introduced the story with the Joes vs Cobra and the characters that fans could really get in to. That's when the collectible GI Joe world really started, that's where you have all the cool vehicles, play-sets, and the legion of figures that everyone remembers and collects with fondness. Sadly though for the GI Joe community it hasn't had the enduring popularity of a other franchises and there hasn't really been a dedicated GI Joe line of figures for some time now, this is a big part of the reason why I can't consider GI Joe the backbone of action figure collecting.

To bring this thread back on topic: it's also because of the original Star Wars toy line and the 1982 GI Joe series that the scale became popular enough for Hasbro to have ever made the awesome Marvel Universe line.