{"id":4169,"date":"2024-11-11T14:12:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T19:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4169"},"modified":"2024-11-11T14:13:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T19:13:34","slug":"action-figures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/11\/action-figures\/","title":{"rendered":"Action Figures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

The Hasbro toy company hoped to make a new product splash at the 1964 New York Toy Fair.

What they ended up doing was introducing an entirely new kind of toy.

It was a doll for boys \u2013 a human form, fully 12 inches tall, that could bend at every joint and wore military fatigues. OK, there was no way they were ever going to call it a doll<\/em> and hope to market it to the half of the population with Y chromosomes. The folks at Hasbro decided to call it an \u201caction figure,\u201d thereby launching a surprising new product line of plastic companions.

Hasbro\u2019s original figures included four branches of the U.S. military. There was \u201cRocky,\u201d who served the Army and Marines; \u201cSkip,\u201d who was part of the Navy; and \u201cAce,\u201d a member of the Air Force. An Action Nurse also appeared.

Ultimately just one name prevailed for all the male figures: G.I. Joe, \u201cthe fighting man from head to toe.\u201d

Toy sculptor Phil Kraczhowski was charged with creating a rugged representation of American masculinity. Joe was given a scar on his right cheek. His right thumbnail, strangely, was placed on the underside of the thumb (something that came in handy during copyright disputes with knock-off action figures).

He looked a whole lot tougher than Barbie\u2019s boyfriend Ken. Maybe Barbie could imagine taking Ken home to meet her parents, but she would definitely prefer Joe if she were ever in a street fight.

Hasbro\u2019s toy for boys embodied another bit of American identity. It is widely thought that Kraczhowski, who had created a number of busts of John F. Kennedy, applied some of the slain president\u2019s features to the action figure\u2019s face. G.I. Joe appeared to be set for a long run at toy stores everywhere. 

Then reality intruded.

The Vietnam War dealt a crushing blow to America\u2019s self-confidence. Sales of military games and toys plummeted. In 1978, Hasbro retired G.I. Joe.

But our culture\u2019s appreciation of the women and men who risk their lives to provide security for our country \u2013 a reality that is spotlighted on this Veterans Day \u2013 has radically grown in recent years. G.I. Joe, after being reintroduced, quickly became a hero again.

Sales exploded after 9\/11. Video games and three feature-length films, starring some of Hollywood\u2019s baddest actors, have kept Joe in the spotlight.

Interestingly, his face has almost become a canvas. Over the years, special editions of G.I. Joe have featured depictions of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, General Douglas MacArthur, President George Washington, entertainer Bob Hope, and baseball legend and World War II hero Ted Williams. Even William \u201cthe Refrigerator\u201d Perry of the Chicago Bears and professional wrestler \u201cRowdy\u201d Roddy Piper have received their own G.I. Joe incarnations.

It seems that anybody can become an action figure these days. Even you and me.

We don\u2019t have to be on a military front line to be called into the fray. Our fight is against bullying, unfairness, prejudice, and injustice. Human trafficking. Violence against children, senior adults, and helpless creatures. Evil in any form.

The apostle Paul makes it clear that there is a spiritual dimension to these struggles:

\u201cFinally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil\u2019s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms\u201d (Ephesians 6:10-12).

Wars against the \u201crulers and authorities\u201d (or \u201cprincipalities and powers,\u201d as the King James Version renders the same phrase) represent a call for every follower of Jesus.

Automatic weapons are not what we\u2019re talking about here.

Courage, perseverance, integrity, prayer, and a steady dependance on the Holy Spirit are what make all the difference.

So don\u2019t just pose like an action figure this week.

Get into the action<\/em>.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The Hasbro toy company hoped to make a new product splash at the 1964 New York Toy Fair. What they ended up doing was introducing an entirely new kind of toy. It was a doll for boys \u2013 a human form, fully 12 inches tall, that could bend at every joint… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[746,835],"class_list":["post-4169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-action","tag-spiritual-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4169"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4173,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions\/4173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}