Boys across America may shake their heads in dismay, but the courts have spoken: G.I. Joe is a doll, not a toy soldier.
Hasbro Industries Inc. had sought to get Joe out of duty - import tariffs, that is - by battling the less-than-macho designation of doll. But a panel of three federal judges wasn't persuaded.Not to worry, said company officials in Pawtucket, R.I.
"G.I. Joe is still one of the guys," said Donald Robbins, Hasbro vice president and general counsel. "Boys know who he is."
"Even though G.I. Joe has lost this battle, hopefully he will not lose his courage for combat," wrote Judge Paul R. Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, upholding the U.S. Customs Service in a July 12 ruling.
At issue in the case was not just G.I. Joe's macho image, but a sizable chunk of his booty from the toy wars. Since Hasbro began importing G.I. Joe from Hong Kong in 1982, the Customs Service has imposed a 12 percent tariff, amounting to millions of dollars.
Last year, Hasbro argued before the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York that G.I. Joe is just an updated version of the traditional toy soldier and should not be subject to the duties placed on imported dolls.
Although he wears military duds, brandishes a submachine gun and lugs an assault pack, both the trade court and the appeals court ruled that Joe fit the standard definition of "a representation of a human being used as a child's plaything" - in other words, a doll.
Ten-year-old Michael Ritchie of Allenwood, Texas, who has about 40 G.I. Joe figures, was skeptical.
"It's not really a doll," he said. "It'd be weird for me if I saw a girl playing with G.I. Joe, 'cause I never have. Girls usually play with a doll or something."
When introduced 25 years ago, G.I. Joe was a pioneer in the marketing of flexible plastic figurines to boys. Hasbro was always careful to refer to him either as a "mannequin" or "action figure," never a doll.
After a lull in sales in the late 1970s, Joe's popularity surged in the 1980s as baby-boomers began buying their children the same toys they had as kids. Since 1964, total sales of the G.I. Joe line have exceeded $1.2 billion, Hasbro said.
But like other old soldiers, Joe seems to be gradually fading away. From his original 11 1/2-inch size in 1964, he shrank to 8 1/2 inches in 1976 and then to 3 1/2 inches in 1982.