G.I. Joe is a line of military-themed articulated "action figures" produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces with the Action Soldier (Army), Action Sailor (Navy), Action Pilot (Air Force) and Action Marine (Marines). The term G.I. stands for Government Issue and became a generic term for U.S. soldiers, especially ground forces.

The development of G.I. Joe led to the coining of the term "action figure". The G.I. Joe trademark has been used by Hasbro to title two different toy lines. The original 12-inch line that began in 1964 centered around realistic action figures.

In the United Kingdom, this line was licensed to Palitoy and known as Action Man. In 1982, the line was relaunched in a 3 3/4-inch scale complete with vehicles, playsets, and a complex background story involving an ongoing struggle between the G.I. Joe Team and the evil Cobra Command. As the American line evolved into the Real American Hero series, Action Man also changed, by using the same molds and being renamed as Action Force.

In 1963, noting the commercial success of the Barbie doll for girls, Stan Weston, a toy creator and licensing agent, had merchandising rights to a 1963 American television show The Lieutenant. He presented the show for viewing to Don Levine, the creative director of toy manufacturer Hasbro, both thought the plot of the adventures of Lieutenant played by Gary Lockwood in the 1963 U.S Marine Corps seemed like a soap opera. Weston came up with the idea of a line of Barbie-sized dolls with a military theme that would be marketed to boys.

Levine visited a New York store called The Soldier Shop that sold a variety of militaria including French porcelain dolls in accurate cloth Napoleonic uniforms that he combined with the posability of an artist's mannequin. Both men saw the potential of the idea and approved development. The prototypes were originally named "Rocky the Marine", "Skip the Sailor", and "Ace the Pilot", before Don Levine, inspired by the popular 1945 film The Story of G.I. Joe, decided on the generic name "G.I. Joe."

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