Editing G.I. Joe (section)

=IRL History=
Around the world there are a bunch of slang terms for a normal guy, an American one is Joe Average (variations include "Average Joe", "Regular Joe", "Joe Schmo", etc). In WWII a general term for American Military stuff was GI, short for Government Issue. Eventually these two terms were crammed together and you got "GI Joe" as a term for your standard US Army grunt and in '45 the propaganda film ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' was released in American theatres. The name stuck and simmered in the background of pop culture for the next couple of decades.

Jump ahead to 1963 to the Hassenfeld Brothers Toy Company (latter shortened to Hasbro) and a puzzle they're trying to solve. A few years back, Mattel released Barbie and Barbie was a bombshell in the toy market. Especially since as a fashion doll people did not just buy a Barbie, but also a full wardrobe for her. They had the new plastic tech to make similar dolls, but Barbie had saturated her market. So the question was "How do we sell a Doll with different outfits to boys?" The Solution: call the Doll an Action Figure, make him a soldier and sell different uniforms and stuff. G.I. Joe was as good as a name as any so they snatched it up. In 1964 Twelve Inches of possible military fighting man were deployed to toy stores. And it was a hit, for a time.

Then it's popularity faded. Partially it was a shift in culture brought on by the Vietnam War against gung-ho militarist nationalism in the US, partially it was the 1973 Oil Shortage driving up the cost of plastics. Either way, sales gradually slumped. Gimmicks like "Kung-Fu grip" gave a little extra shelf life, but by 1976 the run was discontinued. A year latter, a [[Star Wars|samurai-cowboy movie with rocket ships rocked Hollywood like a hurricane]] and as a side effect a second stringer toy company named Kenner could not make Star Wars action figures fast enough to keep up with demand while some Japanese Imports were beginning to be hot new things. The Hasbro execs saw this and knew the demand was there, but if they wanted back in on the market they needed to do this right.
[[File:GI Joe comic numbah 1.jpg|thumb|left|300px|GI Joe Comics number 1, Turning "Army Dude" into "A Real American Hero"]]
The solution came with Marvel Comics and in particular a guy named Larry Hama. Previously GI Joe was a Soldier Guy, but the kids who bought Star Wars toys did not just want a Space Guy. They wanted Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewie and even C-3PO and R2-D2 because these were guys they knew and had some investment in. So they took some GI Joe soldier designs based around broad archetypes and made concepts around them (Leader, Big Guy, Demo-Guy, Sailor Guy, Female Soldier, Marine, etc<ref>''This is basically how the [[GW]] built the [[Imperial Guard]], only they casted a wider historical net than "1980s Military archetypes and Ninjas" and with worldbuilding for regiments instead of direct individual characterization.''</ref>) and worked them together as a team of elite soldiers. 

But another fact that had previously been overlooked by Hasbro was that the Star Wars kids also bought Darth Vader and Stormtrooper figures for them to fight. After all, what's a hero without a villain? So they needed a foe, and not a IRL one since that would cause a crap-fest neither Hasbro nor Marvel wanted or needed. So they came up with a bunch of quasi-fascists and mad scientists with snake iconography out to Take Over The World and made COBRA. First came comics which were advertised on TV and then the action figures and their vehicles in 1983. This lead to a five-part mini series in '83, another one in 84 and a full blown series in '85. Some new side characters were added both as new groups (the Dreddnoks, Oktober Guard, etc) and as individual dudes. Some stood the test of time, others did not.

From there, the franchise has had it's ups and downs, though it has really gone away. Yo Joe!