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Collectible Dolls - G.I. Joe

Posted on April 2nd, 2008 in Uncategorized.

In this article we’re going to discuss a doll that was made specifically for boys, the classic G.I. Joe.

Back in the late 50s and early 60s dolls were just not something that boys played with. Your typical doll, even before Barbie came out, was a baby doll, maybe with a bottle and rattle. These dolls were made specifically for girls because boys didn’t play with dolls. If they did, they were looked at as sissies.

So Hasbro had its work cut out for them. They already had great success with their Barbie Doll but wanted to break into the doll market for boys if it was at all possible. After a lot of thought and careful research, Hasbro decided that if they were going to make a doll for boys to play with then it was going to have to be a doll that ONLY boys would want to play with. It had to be tough and rugged, just like boys were supposed to be. So in 1964, Hasbro introduced the first doll made specifically for boys, the G.I. Joe Doll and ever since, it has been one of the most popular dolls in history.

G.I. Joe was indeed tough and rugged. The doll stood one foot high and had moveable joints so that it could be posed in a number of ways. He was a private in the United States Army and came with dog tags and boots and that was it. He was a pretty bare bones doll for boys to play with. And therein lies the genius of Hasbro’s thinking.

If a boy wanted accessories for his fighting man he had to buy them separately. The doll itself sold for around $5.00. But where Hasbro really made its money was on the various accessories and uniforms that you could get for the doll.

The accessories were sold in flat packages as opposed to the dolls which were sold in boxes. The accessories usually sold for about $1.50. Some were more and some were less. They were usually sold in logical sets. For example, there was the infantry set which came with an M1 rifle, belt, helmet and hand grenades. Most accessory packages didn’t contain more than 3 or 4 items in it. Some accessories, like the sandbags, came alone. Hasbro made a mint with these as there were just so many of them.

Aside from accessories, you could also buy different uniforms for G.I. Joe. You could dress him up as a Marine, Sailor or Pilot. In later years you could dress him up as an astronaut and even get a space capsule for him. The capsule was quite a piece and sold for about $10. Back then that was a lot of money.

In the late 60s, with growing outrage against the war in Vietnam, G.I. Joe became a very controversial figure. But Hasbro had won its own war. Boys were totally taken by the doll and it went on to become one of the best selling dolls of all time even though it only appealed to one segment of the child population.