ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610070068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
HASBRO is introducing an armed female pilot to the G.I. Joe line of action figures.
G.I. Joe is no longer just for boys.
The new line of G.I. Joe figures unveiled Friday at the Kennedy Space Center features a woman - a U.S. Army helicopter pilot dressed in combat gear and armed, ready to airlift the wounded out of battlefield areas.
It's not the first time that the Hasbro Toy Group has come out with a woman, but the first female toy - a G.I. nurse brought out in 1967 - was a marketing fizzle.
Boys didn't want to play with a ``girl toy,'' and there were few, if any, collectors back then, company officials said.
Today, there are an estimated 500,000 G.I. Joe collectors. ``And this female is in direct response to consumer requests,'' said G.I. Joe Marketing Director Karen Lehman.
``We feel that this is a natural, and we predict it will be extremely popular and a big seller.''
The new line of 1997 figures (retailing from $25 to $45) also pays tribute to the fighter pilots and B-25 Bomber pilots from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the first units of black pilots in the American military.
The new figures will be a sure hit, predicted Mike Herz, organizer of a collectors' convention expected to attract several thousand people to the space center this weekend.
``Joe graduated to being an American icon like the Barbie Doll at about the time of his 30th anniversary in 1994,'' said Herz.
``As a result of the tremendous publicity generated by the anniversary, all of a sudden everyone was going to his attic or his closet and digging up the toys they had as kids,'' he said. ``People are latching onto a piece of their childhood. It's a nostalgia thing, but it can also be a big business.''
The G.I. nurse that didn't do well in the stores now fetches $2,500 to $5,000 among collectors because it is so rare, Herz noted.
But any comparison to Barbie stops there, Hasbro officials say.
``I definitely think people are going to try to compare the G.I. Joe helicopter pilot to Barbie,'' said Hasbro's Holly Ingram. ``But we are not marketing it as a fashion doll - with interchangeable outfits and things like that.''
The series also includes Mercury and Space Shuttle astronauts, and a historical commanders assortment that includes Gens. Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Patton.
The G.I. Joe action figures were 111/2 inches tall from 1964 to 1978, when anti-war sentiment and costs of production forced the company to quit marketing them. The company reintroduced them in a new 33/4-inch size in 1982. The first 12-inch figure came out in 1991.
Hasbro says more than 250 million of the plastic G.I. Joe figures and 115 million vehicles have been sold over the years.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. The new line of G.I. Joe figures unveiled Friday atby CNBthe Kennedy Space Center features a woman, a U.S. Army helicopter
pilot rigged out in combat gear and a sidearm.