---

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993                   TAG: 9301150141
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

---

GO JOE

He's back, he's big, and you'd better not call him doll.

"Collecting Toys" magazine reports the return of the foot-tall GI Joe.

If you're the parents of young boys, you've probably stepped on a vast array of little warriors called GI Joes. These are plastic toy figures with movable limbs that cause little boys to puff out their cheeks and make weird, ballistic sounds when they engage these tiny fighters in mini-battles.

But if you, yourself, were a little boy in the 1960s, you probably owned the bigger version - the original GI Joe.

According to the magazine, Hasbro changed the world in 1964 when it made it acceptable for little boys to play with dolls. The GI Joe wasn't called the dreaded D word - he was given the euphemism "action figure," and he came with fatigues, guns and other assorted instruments of destruction.

Back in 1978, the big Joe went off to that boot camp in the sky. But by the 1980s, he was bringing serious money among toy collectors. So Hasbro's brought out a new line that's aimed as much at the adult collector as the youngster.

There are four big Joes in the Hall of Fame line. The Joe-next-door, the square-jawed hero of the bunch, is called Duke, and he wears desert cammies.

Like the other Joes, he comes equipped with an arsenal of very large weapons. So don't call him doll.

---