G.I. jOE - Secret Asian Man

In the mid 1960's Hasbro created only two ethnic action figures:

- 1965 a "Negro" (African-American) G.I. jOE Action Soldier for the military theme and reused again in the 1969 "Adventures of G.I. jOE", both of which were the regular G.I. jOE, only molded in brown;

- 1966 the Japanese Imperial Soldier with a unique asian face sculpt with no scar.

Hasbro G.I. jOE Fighting Men - Action Soldiers of the World

America's Movable Fighting Man Comic pg. 22

1966 G.I. jOE Fighting Men, Japanese Imperial Soldier (code no. 8101)

- Japanese G.I. jOE action figure, Japanese uniform jacket w/insignia, Japanese uniform pants, Japanese helmet, field pack, jungle boots, pistol belt, two Japanese ammo pouches, Nambu pistol w/ holster, Arisaka rifle w/sling, bayonet, Order of the Kite Medal and Counter Intelligence Manual.

1966 Boxed Japanese Figure (code no. 8201)

Japanese G.I. jOE action figure, Japanese uniform jacket w/insignia, Japanese uniform pants, Japanese helmet, jungle boots

1966 Japanese Equipment Set code no. 8301

Japanese backpack, pistol belt, two Japanese ammo pouches, Nambu pistol w/holster, Ariska rifle w/sling, bayonet, Order of the Kite Medal

Sold on ebay in 2013 for $400.00)

Japanese Uniform - Backyard Patrol

Japanese uniform jacket w/insignia, Japanese uniform pants, Japanese helmet.

NOTE: There were two variations of the Japanese uniform jacket. The first had a longer jacket with wider spacing between buttons, the other was a shorter jacket with close spacing between buttons.

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The rare "yellow skin variant" Japanese Imperial Soldier, is a prototype. Here with what appears to be written and typed tags for pre-production. Supposedly there are only three known yellow skin prototypes in existence.

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In 1969, kids (or their parents) were not as interested in buying military theme toys anymore. Under the pressure from the public and their buyers, Hasbro decided G.I. jOE would no longer be a soldier, instead, he would become an adventurer! However, it didn't go straight to the Adventure Team. There was a transition period. At first, the newly civilian adventurer G.I. jOE line was called 'The Adventures of GI Joe', and the figures were the original painted head ones just with different names, outfits and accessories. The Action Soldier became the Adventurer (A caucasian and an African American); the Action Sailor became the Aquanaut (A caucasian and an African American); The Action Pilot became the Astronaut. However there was no Asian adventurer added to this group.

In 1970, when Hasbro introduced the G.I. jOE Adventure Team, it featured Caucasian team members with brown (the Commander and the Land Adventurer), red (the Sea Adventurer) and blonde (the Air Adventurer) lifelike hair and beards. An Astronaut with blonde life-like hair only and a Man of Action with brown life-like hair only were also introduced. A new face sculpt was created for the Adventurer, an African-American G.I. jOE with black life-like hair only, and later a African-American Commander with black life-like hair and beard.

However, again, there was no Asian member created for the Adventure Team. I always imagined that Hasbro would have reused the Asian head sculpt from the 1966 Japanese Imperial Soldier or create a new face sculpt like they did for the African-American Adventurer.

In 1971, this Karate accessory outfit pack was released for the GI Joe Adventure Team. In the late 1960's and early 70's, the North American public was becoming more and more aware of the Eastern martial arts, and in particular they gripped the imaginations of young boys all across the country. Kids had thrilled to Bruce Lee's lightning-fast moves in The Green Hornet, and wanted to learn the techniques themselves. Naturally, they wanted their G.I. jOE Action figures to do the same.

This set included:

Karate uniform ( white top with Adventure Team logo and white pants);

Break-Apart brick and stand;

Rank belts ( red, brown, and black);

Practice mat (white quilted mat);

Manual (Karate instruction pamphlet).

Click on the Kung Fu Grip logo for 1970's G.I. jOE with Kung Fu Grip commercial on You Tube.

In 1973, Hasbro introduced G.I. jOE with Kung Fu Grip, but still had not introduced an Asian action figure to the Adventure Team. My thought at that time was it could have been because previously the 1966 Japanese Imperial Soldier may not have been a big seller for Hasbro, so they did not want to try to sell that type of figure again?

In 1999, Dragon created a NYPD Asian Organized Task Force, Detective Chow. Clearly the head-sculpt is based on Chow Yun Fat. The packaging advises that this figure is not an official NYPD product, and has not been endorsed or sponsored by the NYPD.

Detective Chow was the first Asian action figure in my collection.

See review : http://theclearancebin.weebly.com/review-detective-chow.html

Cotswold Collectibles, The Elite Brigade: Keiji

I forget what year it was that Cotswold Collectibles, The Elite Brigade, decided to create an Asian face sculpt. 'Keiji' looked somewhat similar to the 1966 Hasbro Japanese Imperial Soldier face sculpt.

NOTE: In April 2019 Cotswold's Collectibles, The Elite Brigade introduced a revised version of this head sculpt, called 'Shuji'.

G.I. jOE Generic Asian

In 2003, Hasbro finally created a generic Asian figure, and these were available in limited quantities in various boxed sets. I purchased the "Air Force - Special Forces", Asian, code no. #81927, from the G.I. jOE ALPHA ASSORTMENT.

In 2008, the G.I. OE Collectors Club released it`s annual subscription G.I. jOE, the G.I. jOE MAN of ASIA with Kung Fu Grip and black flocked hair.