Gi Joe Toys Throughout The Decades

Whilst browsing through the local toy shop the other day looking at figurines, I noticed something strange. There were no parents shopping with their kids. There were no kids clutching their allowance money, looking to spend it on the latest action figures. The people in the aisle were all grown men. Toys are no longer made solely for children, they are now created with a wider audience in mind. Toy makers now also market to the money demographic of adults aged 25 to 30 years old. Amongst the most popular are action figurines and collectibles based on popular movies or TV series. GI Joe toys have maintained their popularity throughout the decades, appealing to a wide demographic.

The GI Joe toy line was launched in 1964 by Stan Weston in an attempt to capture the commercial success of Barbie dolls. Instead of catering to girls, the GI Joe toy line included military themed action figures marketed towards boys. Although it met with enormous success initially, GI Joe toys was challenged with coming up with new products and techniques to appeal to fresh generations of boys every decade. It achieved the height of commercial success in 1982 when it was relaunched in a smaller size comparable to the widely popular Star Wars toys.

The 1982 GI Joe toy line achieved unprecedented success as it reinvented itself with a variety of innovations. It created a unique set of characters with code names and tagged them as "Real American Heroes". Kids could now collect characters such as "Snake Eyes" or "Destro" rather than the faceless action figures that came before. Paramount to the success of the toy line was the animated TV series and popular comic book from Marvel. The popular appeal of the TV series also allowed Hasbro to come out with a number of vehicles and play sets to complement the GI Joe toy figures.

GI Joe toys can be popular with adults because they are a way for them to remember their childhood. Much as a return visit to our elementary school or a glance at our yearbooks can trigger memories from childhood and adolescence, so too can collecting toys that we played with in our youth. For many of us, GI Joe toys conjures up vivid memories of Saturday morning cartoons and carefree days playing outside with our action figures. GI Joe toys represent another time in our lives, one which many adults enjoy reconnecting with.

But its not just all about the memories. GI Joe toys are aesthetically pleasing and designed to be pose able, colorful, creative and detailed. They come with a wide variety of accessories and are highly playable. They are also highly collectible and can be displayed prominently within your home. The GI Joe toy line has never looked better and is now easier to collect than ever before with Hasbro's release of the 25th anniversary line. With a blockbuster movie coming out in August 2009, GI Joe toys are poised to make a comeback and is sure to be a hot seller. This time, its not just kids that are taking notice.