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G.I. Joe: America's Movable Fighting Man is a line of action figures produced by Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces. The term G.I. stands, in popular usage, for Government Issue and became a generic term for U.S. soldiers (predating the action figures), especially ground forces. The term originated in WWI, when much of the government-issued equipment was stamped "G.I.", meaning that it was made from galvanized iron. The development of G.I. Joe led to the coining of the term "action figure". ==The Birth of a Legend== The Hassenfeld Brothers〔DePriest, D. (1999) "The Collectable G.I. Joe" (ISBN 0-7624-0536-8)〕 (Hasbro) of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, began selling the first "action figure" targeted especially at boys in the early 1960s. The conventional marketing wisdom of the early 1960s was that boys would not play with dolls, thus the word 'Doll' was never used by Hasbro or anyone involved in the development or marketing of G.I. Joe. "Action figure" was the only acceptable term and has since become the generic description for any posable doll intended for boys. 'America's ''movable'' fighting man' is a registered trademark of Hasbro, and was prominently displayed on every boxed figure package. The driving force behind the concept was Don Levine, who in 1963 was creative director of Hasbro Toys. Stan Weston of Weston Merchandising Corp., a product development company, approached him with the idea of a military-based toy line that would include figures and many accessories. Stan Weston credits Larry Reiner, then head of the games division at Ideal Toys,〔 *Michlig, J. (1998) "G.I. Joe; The Complete Story of America's Favorite Man of Action" (ISBN 0-8118-1822-5) 〕 with the notion of an articulated figure, based on conversations he had with Mr. Reiner regarding the concept.〔Michlig, J. (1998) "G.I. Joe; The Complete Story of America's Favorite Man of Action", Section 1, pp.18–21〕 Sam Speers, then of Hasbro's product development team, is primarily credited with the specific almost 12" tall articulated figure design as produced by Hasbro; his name appears on the patent "Toy figure having movable joints", assigned on October 11, 1966. The all-important packaging graphics were sub-contracted to Thresher and Petrucci Art Studio, a company based nearby that had previously produced freelance work for Hasbro. The Hasbro prototypes were originally named "Rocky" (marine/soldier) "Skip" (sailor) and "Ace" (pilot), before the more universal name G.I. Joe was adopted. One of the prototypes would later sell in a Heritage auction in 2003 for $200,001. The initial product offering featured members of the four branches of the armed forces as follows; Action Soldier, Action Sailor, Action Pilot and Action Marine, with accessory sets immediately available for each branch. It was correctly assumed that competitors would try to emulate or outright copy the concept, so the idea was to offer a broad range of accessory items from the very start. The ongoing situation in Vietnam, and the growing anti-war sentiment of the late sixties signaled the end of the early years of G.I. Joe; by 1969, he was no longer a soldier/sailor/pilot/marine, but rather an Adventurer; he was marketed under the "Adventures of G.I. Joe, and the line consisted of Adventurer, black Adventurer, Aquanaut, and Talking Astronaut. Instead of military sets, the mostly recycled materials from earlier years were given names such as "Fight for Survival" "Danger of the Depths". "Mysterious Explosion", "Secret Mission to Spy Island" and "Mouth of Doom". Everything would change the following year, as G.I. Joe received lifelike hair and beards, courtesy of Hasbro's U.K. licensee; Palitoy. See G.I. Joe Adventure Team for more information on the later series of G.I. Joe. For more in-depth information and specifics, please refer to the books listed in the reference section 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「G.I. Joe: America's Movable Fighting Man」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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