about THIS SITE
ABOUT ME
Back in 1982, a friend showed me a new set of action figures. Growing up, he always had the latest Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats, and Super Powers toys, but this particular crop was...special. These were army men that had elbow and knee articulation, realistic guns, and a sleek looking Jeep curiously acronymed the "V.A.M.P." What was cool was the intriguing code names each figure had - "Grunt" "Flash" and "Breaker". Even cooler were their job descriptions like "Infantry Trooper" and "Communications Officer."
A colorful brochure which previewed the "G.I. Joe Mobile Strike Force Team" described, "Each member of the squad is an expert in the use of ultra-modern small arms, vehicles, and weapons systems. They are specialists trained in the latest fighting techniques."
Over the years, the file card has evolved, although rather subtly, but they generally contain the following information:
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Photo ID
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Affiliation
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Code Name
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Functional Description or Assignment
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File Name, the charater's given name
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Serial Number
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Primary Military Specialty
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Secondary Military Specialty
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Place of Birth
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Grade/Rank
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A paragraph detailing the character's backstory and training
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A quote describing the character's personality
The promotional intro urged you to "Read their Combat Command File Cards to select the best members for each perilous mission." Wait a minute. "File Cards?!"
File Cards! Detailed character information accompanied each G.I. Joe in the Sears multi-figure pack that mom bought or same card printed on the back of the figure's retail package. Each file card gave a background of individual characters using miliary terms, files names, rank & serial numbers, back stories and personality descriptions. What a novel way to provide creative context and a sense of "realism" to the character for greater playtime enjoyment! The toy packaging instructed that you "Clip & Save your G.I. Joe Command Files!" so you could collect team members in Rolodex fashion, pulling dossiers of those most suited for each mission.
Initially, G.I. Joe comics writer Larry Hama created "dossiers" as a way to keep track of the characters he would be writing. Hasbro thought these were a great way to market the toys so they incorporated the information on the retail packaging. These proved complementary references for following along the cartoon series, too.
This File Card concept, moreso than the toys themselves motivated me not only into buying the toys but also collecting the comicbook series and watching the weekday cartoon religiously. As a kid, my File Card obsession even compelled me to create my own homemade ones.
Over the years, Marvel Comics as well as subsequent comicbook houses published the dossiers in pin-up pages, short series, handbooks, and sourcebook compilations. Some were backup sections in the comic book issues, some duplicated the content from the file cards themselves, and some even elaborated the backstories and reflected events in the comics. (Most of those examples are displayed here.)
G.I. JOE ORDER OF BATTLE Limited Series (Marvel Comics, 1986)
G.I. JOE BATTLE FILES SOURCEBOOK (Devil's Due Publishing, 2002)
G.I. JOE: AMERICA'S ELITE DATADESK HANDBOOK (Devil's Due Publishing, 2005)
In 2008, Del Rey published G.I. JOE VS. COBRA: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE by Pablo Hidalgo in an attempt to reconcile the "histories" of the comicbooks, toys, and animated series, but featuring a limited number of dossiers.
I've always wondered why it was that A Real American Hero never recieved the "Ultimate Guide" treatment by Dorling-Kindersly (DK) like his Hasbro sibling Transformers or other mainstream action-adventure teams like the Avengers, X-Men, and the Justice League? Surely the toy icon was obliged one on his 25th or 30th anniversary or even when one or the other major motion picture was released.
This little site, albeit it in web form, is my attempt to take a crack at that type of project. G.I. JOE COMMAND FILES seeks to carry on the tradition of the original ORDER OF BATTLE. It aims to maintain the original File Card text from the toyline (especially those written by Larry Hama), enhanced with art from the toys, comics, cartoon, and games.
And just for fun and to keep things fresh, Military Specialities, qualifications, and additional skills are modernized and further detailed to give another level of "realism" to the lore of G.I. Joe that I found so appealing as a kid.
Design-wise, COMMAND FILES on this site maintain the same "Clip & Save" manila folder style as the original File Cards with updated graphical elements like government ID cards and the original figure packaging.
Primary and Secondary MIlitary Specialties have been converted to actual US Military Occupational Specialties and Ratings codes and descriptions.
