G.I. JOE Action Figure Inventor Stanley Weston Has Passed Away

G.I. Joe played a huge part of my childhood! When I was a kid I lived and breathed G.I. Joe. My whole life revolved around it and it was a part of my life all thanks to Stanley Weston. Weston was the man who invented the military action figure that went on to become G.I. Joe.

I just found out that he had passed away at the age of 81 in Los Angeles. The man wasn't only the inventor of G.I. Joe, but he was also a veteran who served in the military after the Korean War, and later became a pioneer of the licensing business.

After Barbie dolls were introduced in 1960, Weston saw an untapped market for boys, and that's when he came up with the idea of a military action figure. He took that concept to a little Rhode Island toy company and sold the "outfitted action figures" idea for $100,000. That little company was run by Donald Levine, a Korean War veteran who is credited with creating and naming the action figure. He also got it into the marketplace. Eventually, that company became Hasbro, and Weston watched his idea explode into a $100-million success that spawned an amazing animated series and a couple of crappy live-action films. Hasbro was built on the success of G.I. Joe. 

Weston eventually formed his own company, Leisure Concepts, and went on to represent Charlie’s Angels star Farrah Fawcett, the World Wrestling Federation, and even Nintendo. In 1967, he also signed a 10-year agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Assn. for the likenesses of pretty much every baseball player in the National and American leagues. He was also inducted into the Licensing Industry Hall of Fame when it was created, beating out Walt Disney.

I honestly don't know what my life would've been like without G.I. Joe, so I have to thank Weston for giving me so many fond memories of playing with the action figures that spawned from his concept when I was a kid. 

Via: THR