The Fate of D20 Modern

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

GI Joe was originally a WW2 era comic book series. In the 80s it was remade as a futuristic military action cartoon. This was one of the first successful hyper marketing ventures. The cartoon was used to sell toys. Every once in a while they would add new stuff to the cartoon, so you would have to buy the latest set of toys, etc. This method of marketing was eventually perfected with Power Rangers and Pokemon' reinventing themselves every year, with an all new set of merchandise. It was quite popular, but looking back the production qualities were poor at best.

Re: parental intervention. Wow, never had that happen with any of my weaponry related toys. But most kids that I grew up with had their own rifle by the time they reached 10. However my first set of gaming books was destroyed because it contained "satanic" references like magic and dragons.

Well, my mother good "softer" over the years, but she was a feminist and pacifist. She still is, but, well... softer. But she taught me well... (Not that females around here have anything to gain from my "male feminism", nor that my peaceful nature lead to me refusing military conscription, either, or stop me liking violent video games... )

 

[CountPopeula]

GI Joe was originally a WW2 era comic book series. In the 80s it was remade as a futuristic military action cartoon.

Actually, it was originally a barbie-doll sized WW2 hero doll that debuted in 1964. The first comic came with the 1980's revival. The WW2 era comics were Sgt Rock and Sgt Fury.

 

[Nadaka]

Actually, it was originally a barbie-doll sized WW2 hero doll that debuted in 1964. The first comic came with the 1980's revival. The WW2 era comics were Sgt Rock and Sgt Fury.

meh. close enough for handgrenades.

 

[The Black Kestrel]

Now all D20 modern forums under gleemax are being deleted.

This is now complete. Started 29 June and finished sometime today. The new d20 Modern/General d20 forum is up and its a mess . This begs the question: where will all the hardcore d20 Modern fans go? Enworld, stay at Gleemax, split between the tw or something else?

 

[Nadaka]

Most of the active posters have moved here: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?board=30.0

I may no longer be among the most active posters (a fiance, graduation and real job tends to do that), I have been coming here more and more often, and encouraged others to follow me.

 

[Horacio]

Who is this GI Joe people talk about? Is it something that never arrived in Europe or Germany? Or just something I ignored?

They arrived to Spain, and they did great there!
The toys, the comics and the cartoon. It sold very very well, and all kids loved it.
I still have my GI Joes at my parent's house.

GI Joe is decidedly an American thing.

Which is why the movie, coming soon, will be about an international team.

International team is good

I googled for pictures - Action Figures? Nah, I didn't play with Barbies for boys. (Well, to be honest, I think my mother wouldn't have let me play with such militaristic stuff. There was the day, at the flea marked, my father was a slightly little drunk, and I convinced him to buy a set of game tanks and vehicles... Well, the vehicles that couldn't be recolored to "demilitarize" them disappeared in the trash... )

I used a bit of Playmobile, lots Matchbox and SIKU cars and even more Lego.

My childhood memories are made of Playmobil, LEGO, Matchbox, but also Star Wars and GI Joe action figures...

 

[Armadillo]

Actually, it was originally a barbie-doll sized WW2 hero doll that debuted in 1964. The first comic came with the 1980's revival. The WW2 era comics were Sgt Rock and Sgt Fury.

GiJoe also received a post-Vietnam reboot in the 70s as The Adventure Team.

 

[CountPopeula]

GiJoe also received a post-Vietnam reboot in the 70s as The Adventure Team.

And he was released in Europe as Action Joe, generally. Might be a more familiar name on that side of the pond.

Also, GI Joe was made of win and awesome.

 

[Banshee16]

With all due respect, Finland is so far off the beaten track when it comes to "European culture" that it might as well in Asia. Things that flop spectacularly in the rest of Europe do well there, and music that's been dead for literally decades in the US/Europe is alive and well there (not that there's anything wrong with that - but you can't assume what's true in Finland is true anywhere else in Europe). So no, not something he ignored unless he's a fellow Finn.

In the rest of Europe, GI Joe, including the UK, made a few half-hearted attempts to succeed, but winked back out of existence pretty rapidly. I understand it did ok in Israel and a few other places, though.

So it is indeed essentially an American thing, with a few other random nations. You'd have had to make an effort to track it down in the UK. Things like Thundercats, MASK (yes even MASK), He-Man, Transformers and so on utterly eclipsed it here.

We're North American, but not American, here in Canada, and it was big enough here. Maybe there was some kind of tie between where G.I. Joe was popular, and what countries were purchasing military technology from the U.S., or doing military development for the U.S. (ie. Canada meets both requirements).

There was a time, before I got into D&D, when I was big into G.I. Joe toys, and a lot of my friends were also.....for the boys, it was either G.I. Joe, Transformers, or Star Wars.

I have a bunch of the original generation comics packed up in a box somewhere, but found that they had little value, and consequently I couldn't get rid of them when I grew up, though I didn't want to throw them out.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Re: parental intervention. Wow, never had that happen with any of my weaponry related toys. But most kids that I grew up with had their own rifle by the time they reached 10. However my first set of gaming books was destroyed because it contained "satanic" references like magic and dragons.

Hmm.....I'm pretty sure that countries outside of North America likely raise their kids a little differently....maybe the violence in children's toys isn't as pervasive. But I also think there's been a generational shift, as when I look to see what's out in terms of cartoons nowadays, it seems like there were far more violent/action oriented cartoons 20 years ago than there are now...or maybe I just don't pay attention as much. Back in the day, there was He-Man, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Robotech, the D&D cartoon, Voltron, and a bunch of others. Now kids watch Sponge Bob.

My parents never took my G.I. Joe's away, but it was always just a children's toy.....and it never progressed to handling real guns. They did take away my D&D books in high school though....not for content...but simply to make sure I paid more attention to school work, and less to my hobbies I always got them back for summer vacation.

Banshee