seems to me that GiJoe was the MOST POPULAR toyline and so I am curious, what was it that allowed it to replace StarWars/MOTU?
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Stars was already DOA by 1985. GIJoe had better, more poseable figures with more accessories. They were scaled to have better playsets and vehicles than MOTU. An actual good cartoon and comic books helped.
Playing army in 80s cold war america?!?!? Beats out scifi and fantasy which were always more like fads than anything else.
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I would have guessed transformers was more popular than GI Joe.
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Star Wars was the first phenomenon and sparked the early 80’s toy boom, but Lucas pulled them off the shelf due to some contract he wasn’t happy with while they were still hot. I always saw Star Wars figures as king. You just couldn’t get them anymore.
MOTU was huge, but a lot of us outgrew that quick and moved on to Transformers and GI Joe. They were pretty much neck and neck. GI Joe had a longer run, but I’d say Transformers was the bigger short-term phenomenon. To have high quality die-cast vehicles that transformed into robots was so bad ass at the time, and the branding took it to another level. For me 85-86 was all about speculative toy robots and electronics. Actually, Voltron was pretty much the cream of the crop of that market, but most kids collected the main Voltron lions and then moved on to other lines, so it didn’t last. GI Joe was a part of that as well though with all the different vehicle concepts.
Eventually that toy market dwindled due to videogames and death threat letters from nutty moms, and it was replaced with cards that did the fighting for you, paving way for future generations of limp-wristed homosexuals.
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Transformers never had the playability of GIJoe. They are the most playable action figure toy ever created.
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Plus Transformers and GI Joe had awesome cartoons, which doubled as advertising for the toy line. Anytime they wanted to roll out new characters or vehicles, they just had to put them in the show. The next day kids were bugging their parents to buy them.
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I loved my Star Wars action figures and vehicles until my friend brought home a G.I. Joe - blew me the fuck away.
The first generation G.I. Joes had jointed knees and elbows, rotating shoulders, ball and socket hip flexibility, and torso rotation/bending, putting the Star Wars action figures to shame. Eventually they would also include forearm swivel and neck tilt. Even the plastic was of higher quality.
Best action figures ever.
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I know that MOTU sold a over a billion dollars. I can’t find any info on how much Joe did.
I had mostly He Man MOTU growing up. Had a ton of them too and remember my family selling them all at garage sales later on in life. Probably would have been worth a lot now.
Also had WWF action figures. Including the first edition giant rubber ones. Had a lot of matchbox/Hot Wheels as well
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I agree with GI Joe being the most playable action figures. Just all around awesome. Cartoon & toys.
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Anyone here old enough to remember megos? They were before my time, but I’ve always been fascinated with them being among the original action figures, along with the original GI Joes. They’ve been showing up on store shelves again, and unlike most other reissues they’re practically identical to the originals and of the same quality. I believe the original GI Joes are supposed to be coming back as Target exclusives as well, if they haven’t already.
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Transformers was almost certainly bigger.
GI faced competition from the likes of He Man, MASK and…
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When I got interested in toys from a collector’s viewpoint in the mid-90s, MEGOs were always a big deal. Funny that they were action dolls for boys, before the advent of the action figure.
They just seem really dated nowadays, imo.
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I think I had almost every GI Joe. I never cared much for the vehicles.
Hard to decide. Maybe my age but I was a bigger transformers and tmnt guy than gijoe.
The build quality and functionality was really good. Transformer figures, on the other hand, sacrificed a lot to maintain their defining gimmick.
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Well faggot, Probably because Cobra Commander reminded young kids of a corrupt evil politician that was old and senile, liked ice cream, and went around sniffing young girls hair.
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Star Wars and G.I. joe both had a huge catalog of toys.
Transformers and he man were both super popular around the same time as well
Great time to be a kid
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Joes were the best and probably the longest lasting best selling toy…
but only because george lucas is a megalomaniacal control freak and after ROTJ completely shutdown any new stories or toys based on the original series.
the gi joe air craft carrier is great, but how fucking insane would a 4 or 5 foot star destroyer have been in 1985? but no, because george lucas is a bitch.
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I heard one of them got shot in the face this year.
