"GI Joes vs Ken" Topic

When I was kid, and GI-Joes were 12" tall, My GI-Joes would always kick my little sister's Ken doll's butt and take Barbie out on the town. She always came back smiling.

Did that panzy Ken ever win any fights with YOUR GI-Joes ?

Heck no! Ken can't fight as he has no elbows or knees

Heck no! GI Joe was then and remains now THE MAN!

Even as an adult, I remain a big GI Joe fan.

Think Chuck Norris vs. Neil Patrick Harris.

No contest.

Ken might get a Bitch slap in, but that would be the last slap he would ever get.

Well, given that G.I.Joes were 5" tall when I was a kid, not in 1 on 1 combat.

But of course, that just leads to "Attack of the 50 Foot Tall Woman" scenarios…

I guess you guys never read the magazine issue on the difference between GI Joe and Ken – basically the last frame was that Ken was smart enough to dress in Barbie's clothes to dodge the war. Of course this issue was back during the Vietnam War.

I vaguely remember that Mad Magazine bit about GI Joe from the late sixties. Ken doll burning his draft cards. GI German was our enemy but now he's our ally. GI Russian was our ally now he's our enemy. GI Cong, accessories available from GI Russian. Something like that.

Somehow my sister's Ken ended up nekked in bed with Barbie while my G.I. Joe was out digging up the cursed remains of some forgotten pharoah.

No justice, no respect for our veterans, and HOW CAN THAT KEN AFFORD HER LIFESTYLE ?!?

My sisters always stole my GI Joes for their Barbie fun since they considered Ken to be a big wimp. In a fit of pre-teen anger I recall taking back my Joes and declaring "GI Joe's a soldier, he wouldn't hang out with *girls*!!"

LOL!!!

I still love that old Nissan commercial where GI Joe steals Barbie from Ken

You mean this one? link

There was also a sequel: link

The Kung Fu grip and life-like hairdo (yeah right) were boss man!

Don't forget though Steve Austin had mechanical enhancements and that cool jogging suit.

Heck, GI Joe had the Kung Fu grip, Scars, and could grow facial hair. Did'nt Ken have the limp wrist grip? Go Joe!!!!!

I still have collector's Joes.

Here in Sacramento county periodically some soul would take rental of one of the exhibit halls at Cal Expo, our state fair site for a gun show. Most of the time, they'd use another hall in the same complex for either a Barbie or a teddy bear show. I had the theory our local Ken Dolls and teddies were very well-mannered out of fear that Barbies shopped for firepower like Uzis to keep them in line.

I used to have the Jeep with the recoiless, from before the Kung Fu Grip. I wish I had had the apollo module, too. I wish I had both, now…

My brothers were too busy filling GI Joe up with ketchup and shooting him with the pellet gun.

Although I had inherited Barbies, they didn't see much play time with me; she always struck me as a bit of a tramp, even when I was a kid. I didn't much want to play with her.

Hey, why hasn't AzSteven chimed in yet?

At any rate, a back burner project idea I've had for a while is to do a small squad of GI Joes based loosely on the Troopers from Mark Copplestone's Future Wars line. They wouldn't be exact but I imagine I could get them pretty close since the Troopers are sort of generically modern US/Canadian/Australian/Western European style. There are a lot of pieces from 1/6 scale collectible military figures that could be used to put these together.

Hmmmm…. near future skirmish gaming in 1/6 scale. *ponders*

I find it hard to believe that Ken would ever be in bed with Barbie, unless is was a sham marriage to get the insurance benefits before the days of the thought police. Ken did not play that way. And Barbie knew it. She dated GI Joe and would only hang around Ken when Joe was off defending our country.

I reckon Ken wouldn't mind being slapped around a little.

Neotacha wrote: "she always struck me as a bit of a tramp."

My response: GI Joe's a soldier – he likes his women to be a bit of a tramp!

:-)

True story:

Years ago when my son was a toddler, we'd have "play group" at our house. My wife would have a group of moms over, the kids would waddle around the den and redistribute toys, and the ladies would talk. As I worked at home, I could often overhear their discussions. One day they started talking about a news report that Barbie might have undergone "reduction surgery" after critics claimed the doll's unrealistic proportions warped young girls' perceptions. They were joking about "what 'They' had done to Barbie," when I stuck my head in and said, "You think that's bad, you should see what they did to Ken!"
That pretty much broke up the discussion.

"reduction surgery"

If I remeber correctly this done for the asian version that sold oversea. Along with giving her black straight hair.

Those marketing boys really know their stuff.

8)

re: Reduction surgery.

I have a couple of nieces who are in the target age group for Barbie. At least among the "play line" dolls my wife and I have bought them as gifts, the bodies are very different from the old familiar Barbie of the past. The torsos are much less "curvy" and defined and the heads are relatively large and stylized. A female friend who is an avid Barbie collector also told me that they had shortened the dolls quite a bit but went back to the taller bodies when customers complained that clothes couldn't be exchanged between the older tall and newer short body dolls.

GI Joe, for his part, is pretty much back to his roots these days. The past couple of years, Wal Mart has sold store exclusive Joes that are pretty accurate reproductions of the figures from the '60s and '70s, even down to the original style boxes. Last year they did the Adventure Team Joes with fuzzy hair and Kung Fu Grip and this year they sold the military style with painted hair and hard hands. They also released separate, window boxed accessory sets that are copies of some of the '60s era sets.

Used to have the 12" GIJ figs myself,the mini-sub,the ATV, way back early '70s. Loved Eddie Murphy's SNL take on the Joe figs,shrunk from 12" to 3","but still a macho guy" to quote Murphy.

I used to have a next door neighboor that had could have been the scaled up model of Barbie!
(About the same amount of brains, as well)

Sadly my GI Joe lost his life to The Mighty Cinderblock long before he got a chance to rip Ken's head off.

Girls the lot of you

Go for Action Man – elbows, wrists and a light tank link

Andrew
kings-sleep.blogspot.com

Andrew: Action Man never made it to the US (at least not in retail shops -- he was strictly a tea-sippin' import!).

I had the Joes, but must admit that I preferred Big Jim.

Oh, and Barbie is Ken's hag. Everyone knows that!

Although… man, I'm loathe to mention this… but there have been a few rumors about Ken and Navy GI Joe. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

@Andrew Beasley: Joe and Action Man originally had the same body. I have a '70s fuzz head, hard hands Action Man and, although the body looks slightly different, the basic design and engineering is all the same.
As far as the Scorpion light tank, I'll agree that Action Man wins that debate hands down. I'd love to have one of those even now.

BTW, for those who miss the old Action Man and have the money, Modeler's Loft is doing an anniversary reproduction series. They're somewhat similar in concept to the 40th Anniversary Joes Hasbro sold several years ago but the sets are more varied and elaborate.

This should prove Joe's da man…
(never saw Ken doing this.)

picture

:?)
Wolf

Action Man was Gi Joe distributed in Europe by Palitoy.(in the 70's) Many of the vehicles and accessories were just re-dressed for that market. The difference was that Hasbro stopped making 12" Joe in the 80's, and Action man continued.

However I don't remember that really cool looking tank here in the US.

Action man was brought to the states in the 90's, before the 12" Joes were brought back.

Both lines were very cool. i picked up a bunch of the repro Joe Action Team figures last year when they were at Walmart.