G.I. Joe (franchise)

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This article is about the real-world Hasbro franchise. For the fictional counter-terrorist team, seeG.I. Joe (team).

G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe, sometimes calledAction Force in Europe, is one ofHasbro's most long-lived franchises, originating in1964 as the very first line of "action figures." Though it has undergone many revisions and relaunches since then, it has always maintained a military theme, often with a science-fiction edge. In part because of the nature of the franchise and in part because of similarities in presentation,G.I. Joe andTransformers share much of the same fanbase.

The fictional universes of the two franchises have also overlapped on several occasions, originally due to pure marketing but more recently due to nostalgia. From the late 80s, Hasbro repeatedlytried to make a Joe/Transformers combo pack with Joes that fight inside vehicle Transformers, but the timing never worked out; one franchise would be popular and the other wouldn't be.^[1] In 2011, Hasbro made crossover toys and vehicles, though they wereexclusives toSan Diego Comic-Con and did not have robot modes. Finally, eleven years later, fully transformable G.I. Joe vehicles would be included within theTransformers Collaborative crossover line. By the 2020s, the two franchises have become closer-linked than ever before, parts of ongoing shared universes in both comics and films.

History

1980s

Following its initial popularity in the mid to late1960s, theG.I. Joe line underwent several rebrandings and redesigns in the '70s with varying degrees of success. In1982, Hasbro decided to try a complete overhaul, drastically reducing the size of the figures, broadening the cast, and commissioning the advertising agencyGriffin Bacal andMarvel Comics to develop a brand-new universe for them to occupy. The resulting comic book and toyline, dubbed "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero", proved massively popular, and Hasbro quickly expanded the scope of their marketing to include a television cartoon bySunbow Productions in1983. (Since advertising toys through cartoons was still frowned upon—if not outright banned—by that point, Hasbro circumvented that limitation by declaring the cartoon an advertisement for the comic books instead.^[2] The ban on toy-promoting cartoons was eventually lifted in1984.)

"Me? Cobra Commander? Don't be silly. Everybody wears faceplates in2006."

The success of this formula led Hasbro to repeat it a year later when theTransformers property was developed, having Marvel create theuniverse and print acomic while Sunbow produced acartoon based on Marvel's premise. TheG.I. Joe andTransformers cartoons were often broadcast in the same programming block, and their similar art style, shared musical scores and voice-actors, and mutual sci-fi action themes made them popular with roughly the same audience. The third season of theTransformers cartoon even featured cameos by characters intended to be (but never officially identified as)Flint andCobra Commander. The comics were more dissimilar in tone, but they actually shared a bona fide crossover,G.I. Joe and the Transformers. (While this crossover was fully in-continuity with the contemporaryTransformers storyline, theG.I. Joe comic ignored it.)

Meanwhile, in theUK, Hasbro had licensedPalitoy to sell similar products, but the marketing was somewhat different. The term "G.I." specifically refers to the U.S. military, so the line was sold abroad asAction Man. When theA Real American Hero line caught on in the U.S., Palitoy responded withAction Force, which was similar in engineering but contained its own unique characters and storylines. In1985, Hasbro's characters and concepts began to seep intoAction Force, and an awkward transitional period commenced. While the newAction Force characters looked like Joes and were given Joe code-names, their identities were changed to be more international, with members now fromEurope,Japan,Australia, and French Congo. For example, Flint went from being Dashielle Faireborn, born inWichita,Kansas,^[3] to being David Faireborn, born in Lincoln,England.^[4] AnAction Force comic was published that featured some of these G.I.-Joe-inspired characters alongside UK-originals, and its universe was very different fromG.I. Joe.^[5] But as theG.I. Joe property became more dominant, the existingAction Force universe was eventually discarded in favor of one closer to the American comics with a cast almost entirely indistinguishable from G.I. Joes, outside of their still-different bios. During this time, abrief crossover with the UK Generation 1 comic occurred, wherein anAction Force team foughtMegatron underneathLondon. Meanwhile, in a display of incongruity in Marvel UK's approach to the franchises, another storyline in theAction Force comic featured an ad for theTransformers comic...in the background of one of its panels!^[6]

Marvel UK'sAction Force comic also reprinted AmericanG.I. Joe issues, editing them slightly and claiming this was the American division of Action Force (the guys with toys out were the European branch andgot the original strips). In time, new UK-original material stopped being produced, andAction Force was rebranded asG.I. Joe: The Action Force. Marvel UK published a promotional comic explaining that Europe's Action Force and America's separate G.I. Joe team had been too divided to fight Cobra effectively. They ceremoniously joined forces, though the notion that there was a strange group of doppelgangers between the two teams was neither acknowledged nor addressed.^[7] This story did not fit into any existing continuity, but the strip quickly went back toG.I. Joe reprints anyway, eventually dropping the term "Action Force" from the title altogether.

1990s

Meg's action figure.

Where the1980s had seenA Real American Hero and the originalTransformers toyline ruling toy aisles, comic shops, and TV screens, that glory quickly faded in the '90s. The death of "Generation 1" came in1991, and when it was reborn asGeneration 2 in1993, Hasbro decided to promote it through theA Real American Hero comic, itself on death's door. Where the previous crossover had been politely ignored in the pages of the more "serious"G.I. Joe book, this one was unavoidable, and the author simply ran with it as though the first crossover had happened all along. But then, when the crossover ended, the universes seemed to split again, as theGeneration 2 comic featured worldwide apocalyptic havoc and the obliteration ofSan Francisco, events that showed no signs of happening in the contemporaryJoe issues.

Around the time of the 1993 crossover, Hasbro also planned to produce aTransformers/G.I. Joe crossovertoy. Even though a prototype was made, the toy was ultimately never released.^[8]

By the end of1994,A Real American Hero came to a close. The franchise continued to lurch on with two retools:Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles and the laterG.I. Joe Extreme. This would extend the franchise for a few more years;Extreme even got its own two-season cartoon series and a short-lived comic. However, sales were naff and the franchise quietly went dormant, bar the occasionalReal American Hero collectors' set.

2000s

Around the same time that nostalgia filled the sails of Generation 1 once more,G.I. Joe also enjoyed a comeback. Hasbro began to invest again in newA Real American Hero toys and comics, commissioningDevil's Due Press to continue Marvel's continuity. While these new comics also pointedly ignored theTransformers crossovers nominally in their backstory, Devil's Due happily produced severalTransformers crossover miniseries set in afresh, unique universe of their own. As usual, this universe was based on a mixture ofA Real American Hero and Generation 1 elements, but by the end, it had also referenced some older concepts, such as the '70s-eraAtomic Man andAdventure Team.

The closest we're going to see of aG.I. JoeCrossovers toy ever, for sure, right?

Meanwhile, the comic company with theTransformers license,Dreamwave Productions, producedits own alternate-universeG.I. Joe crossover. The first miniseries transplantedA Real American Hero and Generation 1 concepts into an alternate version of World War II, with Cobra playing the role of the Nazis. A second miniseries followed that universe into the present day, but it was halted after a mere single issue by Dreamwave's bankruptcy and collapse.

Outside of comics, there were scant few connections between theG.I. Joe andTransformers franchises except for a handful of toys. The first were homages in theUnicron Trilogy toyline, of all places: TheEnergon characterSnow Cat was clearly designed to look like theG.I. Joe vehicle of the same name, and theMini-Con Skyhammer, sold under the2008Universe franchise's "Armada Series", was given a deco very similar to a CobraRattler. However, this universe has never featured any other kind ofG.I. Joe crossover, so the significance of these toys is unclear. The JapaneseBinaltech line, meanwhile, told a storyline in the toy instruction booklets that included twoJoe villains...General Blitz andIron Klaw from theSgt. Savage andG.I. Joe Extreme lines!

Those were followed by thefirst 6"Titanium Series Megatron, whose on-packagebio mentioned subservience to Cobra. The details were sparse, but they seemed to reflect the Dreamwave WWII-era crossover, even though the toy looked nothing like his appearance there.^[9] A statuewould have been released ofthe Baroness walking Ravage, but sadly it was not to be.

2010s

In 2010, bothG.I. Joe: Renegades andTransformers: Prime began airing onThe Hub as sister shows. The showrunner forRenegades isTransformers Animated'sMarty Isenberg.

....and now Snow Cat joins the rest of his toyline oneBay.

In 2011, Hasbro at last revealed a true mingling of the franchises in toy form for theirSan Diego Comic-Con exclusives. That year saw a specialredeco of the new-mold G.I. JoeSkystriker asStarscream, packaged along with Cobra Commander wielding a 3.75"-figure-scaled Megatron gun, and the Commander's filecard mentioned an alliance with the Decepticons. This was followed up in 2012 with a Cobra HISS tank as the alternate form of G1 Shockwave, packed with a Destro and a "Constructicon" Battle Android Trooper. All three toys had tech specs/filecards talking about the crossover. 2013 saw that tradition continue with a GI Joe Vamp jeep redecoed intoHound, a Skystriker with a new paint job and rocket booster pack to representJetfire, a 3.75"-scaleRavage being led on a chain by the Baroness much like the aforementioned unreleased statue, and a 3.75"-scaleBludgeon. While the 2013 set was billed as the "epic conclusion" to the line, a fourth crossover set was released in 2016, featuring a CobraRattler redecoed intoPowerglide, a HISS tank redecoed intoSoundwave, and figures ofScarlett andZartan.

Having acquired the rights to printG.I. Joe comics in 2009,IDW Publishing hinted at crossovers with theirTransformers books for some time. The first one to come along wasInfestation, which draws in other titles as well but has the heroes facing thesame threat rather than meeting each other, followed by the sequelInfestation 2. A proper crossover was finally released in 2014 in the form ofTransformers vs. G.I. Joe, an ongoing comic book set in a new continuity separate from IDW's mainG.I. Joe andTransformers books.

In 2016, IDW announcedRevolution, a 5-issue miniseries that would merge several of their Hasbro titles (excluding things likeMy Little Pony,Dungeons & Dragons,Magic: The Gathering, andLittlest Pet Shop) into a shared universe. The IDWG.I. Joe comics were subsequentlyretconned into being in the same universe as theIDWTransformers comics, and served as a kind of "connective tissue" to introduce other franchises likeAction Man,M.A.S.K., andROM. FollowingRevolution, anewG.I. Joe series was launched, which, due to the addition of ex-DecepticonSkywarp to the Joe ranks, we cover in full on TFWiki.

In late 2019, the human factions were added toTransformers: Earth Wars, with Soundwave transforming into aHISS tank, Hound into aVAMP, Jetfire into aSkystriker and Skywarp into a Nightraven.

2020s

To celebrate the 40th anniversary ofG.I. Joe: A Real American Hero in 2022, theTransformers Collaborative line introduced a range ofTransformers toys that turn into 3.75"-scaleG.I. Joe vehicles, designed to hold figures from the concurrently runningG.I. Joe Retro Collection toyline. The firstCollaborative release was aMegatron H.I.S.S. Tank andBaroness set in 2022, which was followed byBumblebee A.W.E. Striker andSgt. Stalker in 2023.

Perhaps the biggest development betweenG.I. Joe andTransformers came with the release of the filmTransformers: Rise of the Beasts in June 2023, which ended with the surprise reveal of human protagonistNoah Díaz being invited by G.I. Joe'sAgent Burke to join the team. The idea to finally bring these two together came from directorSteven Caple Jr., who wanted to pay off Noah's arc in the film, but didn't feel like other canon organizations likeSector Seven would be the right fit for the character. Caple Jr. pitched the idea to producerLorenzo di Bonaventura, who had been looking for an opportunity to bring the two franchises together for years, but it took about another two years to get all the other involved parties on board. Once the groundwork had been laid, however, Paramount went all in, announcing the following year at CinemaCon that a proper crossover film between the two franchises would be released in 2026, withDerek Connolly tapped to write the script.^[10]^[11] Caple Jr. has stated that he intends to introduce a few of the Joes in the next film, but did not give further specifics,^[12] though he expressed interest in doing a new take on theRenegades concept.^[13] No further news has been announced regarding the film, which has allegedly been held up due to a number of external factors

On the comics side of things, IDW announced in 2022 that they would be losing theG.I. Joe andTransformers licenses at the end of the year. Only days after the release ofRise of the Beasts, however, it was announced thatSkybound Entertainment had picked up the licenses for both properties, and would be relaunching bothTransformers andG.I. Joe as part of the shared "Energon Universe".G.I. Joe began with four limited series that released between December 2023 and October 2024, which tell the story of both G.I. Joe's and Cobra's formation as a result of the Autobots and Decepticons' arrival on Earth; the story then continued in a mainG.I. Joe book that launched in November 2024. An animated series adaptation of theEnergon Universe stories is also in the works.

Notes

Declarative: must stand tall when it comes down to the wire, must play rough when crossing line of fire.

A handful of South American Hasbro licensees would makeG.I. Joe toys during the 1980s, incluingRubiplas in Venezuela andEstrela in Brazil (the latter releasing under the name ofComandos em Ação, i.e., "Commandos in Action"). Interestingly, during this time, these two companies wouldalso produce regional versions of the original Generation 1Transformers toyline.
At JoeCon 2011, Hasbro'sRik Alvarez hosted a "Treasures from the Hasbro Archives" panel, where he revealed that he had then-recently found a box in the company archives containing an assortment of artwork, concept boards, and proposals for what "could have been" in a series of Transformers/G.I. Joe crossovers. Of these concepts, the only one shown at the panel were parts of anOmega Supreme that had been redecoed and intended for release in the G.I. Joe toyline (this was later shown again atBotCon 2011, though no photos were allowed then). Whether these redecoed parts were intended for use as a "crossover" G.I. Joe/Transformers character or as a non-living G.I. Joe vehicle was unsaid.