They provided a little information and then you'd tell yourself a story and take your toys for a ride anywhere you wanted and for as long as you felt like (or until you had to go to bed). Toys were to me (and still are, let's face it) like a Bowflex home gym for the imagination. Joe comics from Marvel) calls "the little bit of information that triggers the internal fantasy machine to fill in the holes, gloss over the mold lines, forgive the compromises for the realities of manufacturing and creates that wholly personal 'state of play' wherein universes are born."* All of those physical and intellectual details are what Larry Hama (writer of the file card biographies and the original 155 G.I.
Joe toy line, from the artwork and graphic design of the packaging to the character design and sculpting of the figures (for the first several series there were very few duds!), and the thought put into each character's biography are unsurpassed in the realm of American toys.
In my opinion the design of the 1980's G.I. Joe toy I would momentarily beg, plead, and bargain with my mom to get me! Without a doubt it was the colorful and exciting packaging that drew me toward those toys. I'll never forget being a kid and looking up at toy racks in stores like Woolworths, the now defunct BEST chain, and the out of business KB Toys and trying sooooooo haaaaard to decide which G.I.