Yo, Joe.
Yo, Joe.
Aug 07Like a generation before who divided their cultural lines along the critical Beatles vs. Stones question, I believe a generation of boys who grew up in the 1980s are split along a similar divide: G.I. Joe or Transformers?
I was a Transformers kid, but I was agape with envy at the exceptional G.I. Joe anniversary toys I saw at Target yesterday.
They’re basically the classic figures, with silver coloring where the white would be, and they cost something like $6. Compare that to the similarly-styled Star Wars “vintage” repros that ran more like $12 apiece.
Plus, there’s this RAD boxed set.
(There’s one for the good guys, but the COBRA stuff was always WAY cooler.)
The front of the box is basically the Joe logo with a little hole where the star goes, and you reach into that hole and you press a star-shaped button, and the FULL G.I. JOE THEME PLAYS.
I love you, Hasbro.
I wrote an artifact analysis in University on GI Joe and how the localization of the packaging in Canada wasn’t simply limited to adding French, but to giving the characters Canadian backgrounds.
Scarlett was from Grand Prairie, Alberta. And I got an A, if anyone cares.
Oh, and I went to a wedding and they were running a slideshow and there was a picture of the groom some past x-mas morning, playing with his GI Joe aircraft carrier. And you knew all his friends were nerds, because half the crowd howled in anger.
That’s all I got for GI thoughts.