like nearly every boy in the 70s, I owned a GI Joe doll. I never played with him too much, as I mostly wanted it for the deep sea playset that came with the octopus. wish I still had that! the early to mid 70s had them break out a whole bunch of new style Joes and this "action team", so they could add a few more to their cast of characters.
what gets me is that Bulletman was a superhero from the 40s, who hadn't been seen much since then. probably was a cheap license for Hasbro to pick up. the ads never stated he was a "real" superhero, so in my young eyes he looked kind of dumb. still does, actually. interestingly, wiki doesn't even mention the lawsuit that defined GI Joe as a doll.
2 comments:
Was the G.I. Joe Bulletman licensed from Fawcett? I don't think it was. DC thought they had rights to all of the Fawcett heroes (not just the Marvel Family) by then and they were tied to Mego. Later there was some question, which led to the Fawcett heroes vanishing again. And it seems they were in the public domain all along. Ooops.
The Joe Bulletman might have been "inspired by" (ripped off from) the comic book hero, but I don't think there's an actual connection. Could be wrong though! Alex Ross definitely used the figure as the basis for a revamp of Bulletman in Kingdom Come.
All I know is this toy looks almost exactly like the comic book hero. I'd say nearly actionable if DC didn't license it.
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