Hasbro’s Super Joe
It is unfortunate that only the most popular of toys lines end up well documented, both in books and online. It’s not surprising — the more popular a line is, of course, the greater the chance someone can afford to sink time and money into a book — but there are times when I wish that some of the less popular toy lines of the past could be given the same level of treatment that we see with Barbie and Hot Wheels toys.
One series of toys from the seventies that I would love to see given its own quality book is Hasbro’s final attempt at G.I. Joe in the 1970s, Super Joe.
What Was Super Joe?
Smaller and with fewer points of articulation, Super Joe was Hasbro’s answer to the declining sales of the G.I. Joe Adventure Team and the growth of competitors like The Six Million Dollar Man toys from Kenner and Mego’s various superhero action figures. Hasbro had already tried to bring a sci-fi feel to their G.I. Joe Adventure Team series with the addition of Mike Power (see the review at mastercollector.com), Bulletman (see the comic ad at Infinite Hollywood), and the evil, caveman-like Intruders (watch the classic commercial at YouTube), but in the end none of those additions saved the line and the Adventure Team was removed from store shelves.
Over the course of about eighteen months, Hasbro really tried to establish a varied line for Super Joe, incorporating the kind of gimmicky action features mostly missing from the old G.I. Joe.
Super Joe, launched in 1977, dropped the “G.I.” part of the name — and the stigma of “war toy” that had been hounding the line since the late sixties — and sought to return Hasbro to dominance of the action figure aisle. Kenner’s Star Wars would quickly crush any chance Hasbro had, but I’m sure that in 1976 and 1977 — when Hasbro’s designers and sales force would have been hard at work on Super Joe — the company thought that Super Joe would revolutionize boys toys just as G.I. Joe had done over a decade earlier.
Looking at the 1977 and 1978 Super Joe catalogs — both hosted at the incredible Plaid Stallions — we find heroes, villains, accessory packs, and even a vehicle/playset, all things any action figure series needs to be a success, right? Well, Hasbro was competing with years of 12-inch scale action figures with a smaller line (and with less articulation) . . . and no multi-media smash hit to drive kids to the arguably inferior new “Joe” the line died quickly.
A Series Ahead of Its Time
Super Joe, in my opinion, was about five years too early to market. Lets run through a few points as I try to defend this opinion:
- Smaller Size. Even though Super Joe action figures towered over Star Wars action figures, when Super Joe first hit the market Kenner’s Star Wars toys were not yet available. Unlike the G.I. Joe 3.75-inch action figures released in 1982 the Super Joe toys were compared to the G.I. Joe Adventure Team toys . . . and Super Joe didn’t compare favorably. In 1982, the 3.75-inch scale G.I. Joe action figures were compared to Star Wars figures which came with fewer accessories and had far fewer points of articulation.
At eight and a half inches, the new figure embodied two goals Hasbro set out to accomplish with their new man of action: first, Super Joe was smaller and less articulated, so it could be sold at a lower retail price to encourage multiple purchases; and second, a science fiction theme put as much distance as possible between the new G.I. Joe and his military roots.
— GI Joe: The Complete Story of America’s Favorite Man of Action*
- Light/Power Gimmicks. I think that if kids in the eighties had been presented with these features in 1982 then we would have been blown away and excited. Stand this next to one of Kenner’s Star Wars action figures of the time and these gimmicks would have rocked! But following right on the heels of the Adventure Team I think the small size of the toys overshadowed any coolness of the gimmick built into the figures.
- Monsters. Not only did fans of the G.I. Joe Adventure Team have to replace all of their figures — I’m sure parents of that age were fans of the “I need the new!” as much as they are today — but the kids also had to swing swiftly from the almost-realistic Adventure Team vehicles and accessory kits to dealing with the addition of totally insane things like the Terron monster. It was obviously a bit more than they could handle.
I seriously think that those three points together, with the change in scale so close to the earlier line’s presence on shelves, is why Super Joe died so quickly. According to GI Joe: The Complete Story of America’s Favorite Man of Action*, delays in getting Terron to market made retailers fear the line was dying . . . which resulted in the death of the line. But I feel that even if Terron hadn’t suffered delays Super Joe still would have been killed; the problems with the line were just too big for it to succeed in the late seventies.
So Very Dead
What I find perhaps most astonishing about the Super Joe era of G.I. Joe is how the line is so very much overlooked and ignored these days. I supposed the Cobra-La land of the G.I. Joe movie from 1987 (see “Cobra-La” at Wikipedia) could have easily housed Terron, but if Hasbro ever incorporated elements of the Super Joe line into later G.I. Joe releases those homages slipped past me.
And that’s unfortunate. I suppose all we can do is hope that someone at Hasbro has been looking closely at the 1977 and 1978 Super Joe catalogs, and whatever archives Hasbro has, and is thinking through ways to bring Super Joe concepts to today’s G.I. Joe. Why? Because I think it would be fun to see some small bit of the forgotten past re-imagined for today’s fans.
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I had a few Super Joe figures (although in the UK I think they were released as Commander Power or some other rebrand, as we didn’t have GI Joe) and they were fun toys. Gor (the reptilian alien) was a personal favorite, although I’m not sure which others were released (I also had Shield but I’m not sure if it was limited to the three figures I mentioned.)
@Iok – I don’t even remember these being on shelves. I was 5/6 at the time and focused on Star Wars. But looking back at the line I think it had some fun designs and ideas.
Wow, those look like henshin cyborg. I’m sorry I missed that as a kid and I hope hasbro is aware that they could make some nerds happy still with homage to overseas use of the GI Joe mold.
Those were the last G.I. Joes I had. I was really into them — especially for the lights, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. I was 8/9 at the time — and then, of course, STAR WARS ate my life.
When the Joes were re-launched in 82, I was 13 — and my playing-with-action-figures days were coming to a close, so I never got into them (although I did read the comic).
Also — at the time, I think the comparison for the smaller Super Joe figures were the MEGO dolls, which were also around 8″ — and were EVERYWHERE in the mid-70s, which was probably a factor in Hasbro’s decision.
I had a Super Joe that was in excellent condition… that is, until his elastics disintegrated in about 1991. He’s been sitting in pieces in a little bag, waiting for someone to fix him which, alas, will likely never happen.
It’s again one of those very weird things, like the Denys Fisher Cyborg/Muton/Android re-releases of Shonen Cyborg/King Walder/Android A that, as a kid, I didn’t realize was actually from a different toy line. I think that happened a lot in the UK, to be honest!
There’s a fellow over at The Chest Engine who apparently can restore Super Joe figures:
http://moranity.dyndns.org/topic.php?id=111
I think the disintegration factor which even impacted MOC samples has played a strong role in the lack of interest in the collecting community. I’ve long wanted a Luminos and a Shield but what’s the point if I can only find one in pieces…?
It’s all rather unfortunate.
Also let’s not ignore that the 3 3/4″ Micronauts came out right around the same time (shortly before the Star Wars line), and blew away Super Joe in terms of articulation (being even more articulated than the 80s RAH GI Joe line, and the creation of the inventor of the 3 3/4″ o-ring based articulation, Takara’s Iwakichi Ogawa, as a scaled-down adaptation of the 12 incher’s articulation), diversity of toys, a much lower price point, and more play features in terms of interchangeability. The clear bodied Time Travelers in particular looked quite similar thematically to Luminos (which, like them, was likely inspired by their direct ancestor, Henshin Cyborg, which used a 12″ Joe body licensed by Takara from Hasbro), but came cheaper and in a variety of color options on top of the clear…plus they could ride in a giant robot (Biotron), had enormous playsets, etc…
@Openchallenge – I suppose all it’s going to take is for one influential designer or manager at Hasbro to see the Super Joe line and say: “Hey, there are some ideas here we should mine.” I hope that guy gets busy and creates some toys for us soon.
@Gareth – The Mego toys are something I pretty much missed completely. I think if I had been just one or two years older than I was I would have been deeply into Mego.
That G.I. Joe comic from the eighties had an awesome run. I’ve got the first six volumes of the collections (Marvel published 1-5, IDW has published 1-???) and they’re still fun reads.
@Ministan – What’s funny is I opened an old game just this morning — Chainsaw Warrior — and found that a rubberband in wrapped around cards had dissolved and turned into a glue-like substance. I guess rubber just wasn’t meant to last.
@Iok – Hey, the UK even got that incredible cardboard Death Star playset while the US never saw it. Unfair!
@microbry – I know that if I could find some Super Joe’s in decent shape I’d go after a few. Thanks for the link! Knowing someone out there can fix these makes me a bit more interested in the line.
Hey, the UK even got that incredible cardboard Death Star playset while the US never saw it. Unfair!
—
I had it and it was indeed incredible. Although again it was something I didn’t know the history of until much, much later.
@ microbry – Thanks for posting the link Bryan! I am the fellow that repairs SuperJoes. Anyone that needs help, just e-mail me here —>>> aadesign@nctc.com Be glad to fix your SuperJoes.
I remember seeing these figures on the pegs back in the day. But, only at a few stores. I was into Megos and never had any SuperJoes. Today, I have a pretty good collection of them.