G.I. Joe on the block; the price is righteous... $ 600,000 !!!!!

[MORTARDUDE]

G.I. Joe on the block; the price is righteous
July 18, 2003

SAN DIEGO (AP) - The original G.I. Joe, the 1963 prototype that revolutionized the way American boys play, will be auctioned here today, and is expected to fetch at least $600,000.

For decades, the handmade 11 1/2-inch figure lay in a cardboard box in the Rhode Island home of his creator, Don Levine, a Korean War veteran and former Hasbro executive.


Levine set out to develop a toy that would do for boys what rival Mattel's Barbie had done for girls five years earlier.

Until then, boys had played with bicycles and balls, or perhaps stiff toy soldiers - and no one imagined they would play with a doll.

Levine's concept, inspired by posable wooden artists' figures, was ahead of its time, and for it Levine coined the term "action figure."

Levine said he used the toymakers' "razor-razor blade strategy" of providing a toy for which could be purchased accessories, be they combat gear for Joe or purses, shoes and dresses for Barbie.

"He was such a unique toy concept," said Derryl DePriest of East Greenwich, R.I., a 38-year-old Hasbro marketing director. "It required completely rethinking how boys would play with toys and really taking a chance." That was 375 million G.I. Joes ago.

John Petty, director of auctions for Heritage Comics, said the minimum price set by his Dallas-based firm for the "grandfather of all action figures" was $600,000, far surpassing the price for any other auctioned toy. Rare Barbies from 1959 can fetch upward of $10,000. A Yellow Kid bowling set once sold for $26,000, Petty said.

Levine, 75, said it's simply time to sell the items and divide the proceeds among his children and grandchildren.

Other items from his collection are also up for bid, which has some observers fearful they'll be divided. Petty and others hope that one bidder will buy the whole lot and make the Smithsonian Institution Joe's permanent base camp. Today's auction will be at the Comic-Con International convention.