G.I. Joe was born in 1963 when the Hasbro toy company decided to create a soldier-based 12-inch action figure. with 21 moveable parts which enabled it to strike a number of realistic, lifelike poses. The doll was christened G.I. Joe after the film The Story Of G.I. Joe.

The toymakers at Hasbro had concocted the original G.I. Joe in the 60s as an boy-friendly "action figure" answer to Mattel's Barbie. The fully-poseable he-doll rocketed to popularity like a bazooka shot, The initial wave contained 75 different accessories that covered four different Joes: soldier, marine, sailor and pilot. They were a hit, and were soon joined by a Green Beret Joe and the popular Deep Sea Diver Joe. There was even a G.I. Nurse, which a hot collectible today. Joe was supplied with the Five Star Jeep and the Mercury Space Capsule. By 1968, thanks to a technological breathrough, there were TALKING G.I. Joe figures.

The changing times of the late 60s to early 70s brought a cooling of American attitudes toward their fighting men. The Vietnam War had taken a toll on Joe, so he was revamped as the leader of an "Adventure Team," and his sales rose to new heights. Boosted by new features like "kung-fu grip" or "life-like hair" the G.I. Joe line peaked and then fell during the 70s, and was finally discontinued in 1978.

A good soldier never dies...he just waits for an opening, and that opening came after a brief five-year pause. GI Joe was more than ready for a new offensive, and the gung-ho military buildup of the Reagan Years helped move our boys in camo back into the spotlight, ready to fight the Soviet "Evil Empire" just in case the Cold War ever heated up again. In this atmosphere, G.I. Joe returned not as a man, but as a team of military men and women. Scaled down to 3¾-inch plastic size, Hasbro's new Joe figures were advertised in two key ways: a new Marvel comic book and a series of animated TV commercials. The commercials led to a pair of successful five-part cartoon miniseries in 1983 and 1984, which in turn led to the debut of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero in 1985.

For a half-hour of pure star-spangled butt-whoop, there was no place better to turn. You got the military might of "America's top-secret special mission force," evil plots to destroy the entire planet, and a badass mute ninja who never revealed his face or real name (and he was a good guy). Truly, it was a golden era of in-your-face cartoon patriotism.

In the series, the Joe team consisted of such rugged warriors as buzz-cut field leader Duke, the crossbow-shooting redhead Scarlett, a musclebound Marine named Gung Ho, and the aforementioned mute ninja badass, Snake Eyes. Together, they protected the world from the terrorist syndicate COBRA, whose principal rogues included leader Cobra Commander (another facial-no-show, hidden behind either a shiny faceplate or a blue hood), Nazi-esque femme fatale The Baroness, and Destro, a villain with a metal faceplate. The bad guys also had their own resident ninja, Storm Shadow, though his loyalties sometimes shifted to the side of justice.

Taking its cue from the original five-parters, G.I. Joe featured plots that were often elaborate by kid TV standards, and multi-episode story arcs covering the entire planet (and even into space) were common. The Joe universe was constantly expanding, adding heroes like Snowjob, Deep Six, Quick Kick, Cover Girl and Heavy Metal, and villains like the twisted twins Tomax and Xamot, Major Bludd, and the "evil master of disguise," Zartan.

Aside from the military action (always bloodless - every aerial dogfight ended with a parachute dropping safely toward the ground), perhaps the most memorable part of the show was the public service message that came at the end. Some kid would be swimming in a thunderstorm, painting his bike in a closed garage, or doing homemade dentistry with an ice pick and bolt cutters (note: we may have just imagined that last one), and a member of the Joe team would show up to tell him how dangerous that activity was. The grateful kid thanked his rescuer ("Now I know!"), allowing our hero to deliver his or her wise tag line: "And knowing is half the battle."

The show was a smash in syndication, and toy sales were strong in the mid-80s. Joe gave way to the Ninja Turtles and others in the late 80s, but Hasbro tried for a comeback in 1990 with a G.I. Joe show (mostly reruns, a few originals) hosted by pro-wrestler-turned-G.I.-Joe-action-figure Sgt. Slaughter in live-action wraparounds.

The cartoon revamp never caught on like the original, but Joe toys hit another wave of popularity in the late 90s with a return to the classic 60s models. It all proves you can't keep a good fighting man down… or maybe that knowing is half the battle, but kickin' tail for love of country is surely the other 50 percent.