The father of the GI Joe toyline and one of the people responsible for creating “action figures” for boys. Let’s give him a 21 gun salute.
Ironic that he passed away that close to Memorial Day.
RIP to the Kung-Fu Grip.
I started playing with my 12" tall G.I. Joes (with their 21 points of articulation) way way back. I remember when Kung-Fu grip was new (and found out it just meant that the fingers would soon break off). Sadly, my G.I. Joes saw lots of combat, and none of them made it through to modern times.
Thank you, Don Levine, for countless hours of fun and happiness.
“The father of the GI Joe toyline”
If so he was an absentee father, because it was Larry Hama that did all the “fathering” of what is today thought of as GI Joe (aka the Real American Hero line as opposed to that generic 60’s stuff)
Is he really dead or just knocked over?
A real American hero.
(Am I really the first to use that joke in this thread? Wow.)
GI Joe was an adult (18 years old) when Hama first entered the picture (1982). No doubt his characters helped Hasbro expand the line, but he came into an established franchise and just used ideas he had pitched for a different franchise.
Never mind that- who invented the lifelike hair and the kung fu grip?
Not only that, but Ziff-Davis published more than 50 issues of a G.I Joe comics back in the 50s before the [del]doll[/del] action figure was even released.
Hama still created a mythos and framework that has defined the franchise for over 30 year now (much longer than the original concept).
It’s kind of like when people talk about Ray Kroc and McDonalds versus the actual McDonald brothers. Yeah, the brothers created “McDonalds” but Kroc made it what it is.