My last few blog posts were about toy conventions, and my next four(!) will be too, so it’s time to return to the old bread and butter of A Real American Book!, which is toy development paperwork.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Toys and Toy Art
Extreme Freight by Ben Torres
Ben Torres had drawn comics for a pair of small black and white publishers when he started freelancing as a toy designer. This was around 1994, and with the A Real American Hero line of 3 3/4-inch figures ending, I’m referring not to Hasbro in Rhode Island, but Kenner in Ohio, and what became known as GI Joe Extreme.
This image was faxed from Kenner to Hasbro’s advertising agency in October of 1994, along with other drawings at a time when Kenner’s designers, marketers, and lawyers hadn’t yet pinned down all the character names. Click to enlarge.
I’m unclear on who “Tank” is supposed to be. To my mind, the biggest Extreme character is Freight, and while some characters morphed in the development process, what art I’ve seen indicates a pretty linear path for each character type (the leader, the martial artist, etc). From here, Freight is pretty locked in — shoulder pads, do-rag, and everything he says in the TV series is a football reference. Here’s a production figure:
Torres continues to have a fascinating career in toys, product design, brand creation, and marketing. He briefly returned to comics in 2017 for Marvel’s Kingpin miniseries, collected in softcover that same year.
Extreme fans, please feel to make a football reference in the comments.
Filed under G.I. Joe Behind the Scenes, Toys and Toy Art
Rampart by Payette
James A. Payette made an important but limited contribution to G.I. Joe.
Continue readingFiled under G.I. Joe Behind the Scenes, Toys and Toy Art
Sgt. Slaughter by Woodbridge
In the development process at Hasbro, every G.I. Joe figure that made it to retail (and some that didn’t!) got a fancy drawing or painting whereby the higher-ups could see the character as a bold, dramatic illustration. This wasn’t the package art that we all saw on toy store shelves, but rather, internal only to Hasbro. A pencil turnaround of the figure from front, side, and rear views didn’t offer enough punch, nor did a sculpt or a casting. George Woodbridge, better known for military history books and Mad Magazine, was one of the eight or so artists who created these. (He also delineated most of the 1988 turnarounds.)
Filed under G.I. Joe Behind the Scenes, Toys and Toy Art
Gnawgahyde by Pennington
The Dreadnoks are a biker gang under the leadership of Zartan and informally and occasionally on the payroll of Cobra. It’s one of the wonderfully bizarre team dynamics in the G.I. Joe universe.
Filed under G.I. Joe Behind the Scenes, Toys and Toy Art