WHEN I was a kid, which wasn’t that long ago, my buddies and I would play Marine Corps sniper with a scope-mounted Daisy 880 pump-action pellet-gun. Some of our favorite targets were G.I. Joes, in particular the ridiculous bargain-bin figures such as Destro, the evil metal-headed sidekick, and Snow Job, the unfortunately named arctic warrior. Taking off a Joe’s head at 25 yards from a prone position under heavy cover remains one of my finest hours.
How times have changed. Instead of the K-B Toys fire sale and the firing range in my backyard, G.I. Joes now occupy an entire boutique in luxury toy dealer F.A.O. Schwartz’s posh Manhattan store. And it seems that the newfound wave of post-September 11 patriotism–MSNBC reports a 36 percent increase in action-figure sales –has spurred the creation of a new, glossier breed of toy soldiers.
