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09-14-2016, 03:36 AM | #1 |
Hisstank.Com General
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Let's start a thread where we list out everything in pop culture that had a specific influence on concepts and characters in ARAH G.I. Joe. Or that G.I. Joe "ripped off" if you want to look at it that way. You can list out influences that are documented by the creators or your own speculation. We can include real life influences too, although we know the obvious, e.g. Sarge, Fridge, Piper and that many of the guns were direct ports from real life.
I'm also trying to avoid the obvious, naked homages. We know the cartoon episode Excalibur was based on the King Arthur legend obviously. And we can consider the converse question also, what were the most original G.I. Joe concepts that weren't really influenced or inspired by other things? I'll get it started. Larry Hama's in-development comic about Nick Fury and the Freedom Force was adapted into G.I. Joe instead. Similarly, Cobra was inspired by Hydra. Destro was inspired by The Man in the Iron Mask. I'm not exactly sure what inspired bringing in ninjas. Storm Shadow pre-dated TMNT and the movie American Ninja, but I believe ninjas were heavily featured in Daredevil comics starting in 1981 with the introduction of the Hand Ninja. So Frank Miller might deserve credit for this idea. Dreadnoks are similar to Mad Max bad guys in their style of dress, weaponry and choice of transportation. Shipwreck in the cartoon has been described as a cross between Popeye and Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail. B.A.T.s seem to be inspired by the Terminator, a movie that came out two years prior but became better known on home video the next year. Fatal Fluffies in the cartoon are obviously a knock-off of Gremlins. Maybe a stretch, but Quick Kick was introed a year after The Karate Kid made a hero out of another American-born martial artist. Big Boa was of course designed as a boxing-themed nemesis for Rocky Balboa. Chuckles was inspired by Miami Vice. Footloose in the cartoon was inspired by Spicoli in Fast Times. I assume the Crimson Guard were inspired by Cold War Red Menace paranoia, where people were suspecting their neighbors of being spies for the Soviets. Lifeline really seems to be inspired by the real-life guy in Mel Gibson's upcoming movie Hacksaw Ridge, Desmond Doss, a WW2 medic who refused to carry a gun (due to religious beliefs in his case). Mainframe was obviously riding a wave of increased exposure of computer programmers in media after Superman III, War Games, Short Circuit, etc. Superman III featured a weather machine a year before Revenge of Cobra had the Weather Dominator. G.I. Joe seemed to have gotten on the clone bandwagon fairly early before it really took off, however comic books have had clone characters going back at least to the early 1970s with the first Spider-Man Clone story. And Star Wars had at least mentioned Clone Wars in 1977. But I'm not sure if there was a specific clone story that made as big an impact in any medium prior to the Serpentor story. Serpentor, of course, has many obvious allusions to the Frankenstein story. The Tiger Force tiger stripe pattern was taken directly from planes seen in real life air shows. Eco-Warriors rode the wave of enviro-friendly themes started by Captain Planet, Toxic Avengers, etc. Star Brigade was made to compete with Star Wars. Predacon resembles the movie Predator. And modern POC figures Duke, Spirit and Shadow Tracker were also an homage to Predator. The Dino-Hunter playset was based on Jurassic Park. Pathfinder's gear was inspired by weed-whackers. Just kidding...or am I? And you can turn it around and look at things which G.I. Joe influenced... Star Wars prequel Battle Droids are like the B.A.T.s. Action movies with heroes fighting foreign terrorists seemed to take off in the years after G.I. Joe with Die Hard, True Lies, Back to the Future, Under Siege, etc. G.I. Joe was at the spearhead of transitioning away from Cold War-based action plots to terrorism-based ones. The idea of bringing back to life something from the past by cloning was used in Jurassic Park. The G.I. Joe cartoon itself cloned dinosaurs in one episode in a very similar fashion to Jurassic Park 5 years before Crichton's novel came out. I think Silent Interlude came out 4 months before TMNT #1. Although TMNT was clearly influenced by Daredevil which featured ninjas earlier than G.I. Joe, it feels like Joe may have expanded the buzz around ninjas to the point where everyone wanted to do ninjas. And certainly the stores were eating up ninja books, making TMNT a viable release. Hellboy II has the concept of an ancient society of creatures with biological technology that was forced underground and now wants to resurface with a wave of violence, like Cobra-La. Considering how close Pacific Rim is to the Inhumanoids concept, I don't think it's far-fetched to say Guillermo Del Toro is familiar with the Sunbow cartoons. |
09-14-2016, 07:13 AM | #2 |
Hisstank.Com General
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I can't remember, but didn't GI Joe take the PSA from the Superfriends cartoon? Or was it vice versa? I can't remember which cartoon was first.
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09-14-2016, 09:21 AM | #3 |
Hisstank.Com General
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Chuck Norris was the only inspiration for gijoe
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09-14-2016, 09:30 AM | #4 |
I.O. SpecOps
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Quote:
Let's start a thread where we list out everything in pop culture that had a specific influence on concepts and characters in ARAH G.I. Joe. Or that G.I. Joe "ripped off" if you want to look at it that way. You can list out influences that are documented by the creators or your own speculation. We can include real life influences too, although we know the obvious, e.g. Sarge, Fridge, Piper and that many of the guns were direct ports from real life.
I'm not exactly sure what inspired bringing in ninjas. Storm Shadow pre-dated TMNT and the movie American Ninja, but I believe ninjas were heavily featured in Daredevil comics starting in 1981 with the introduction of the Hand Ninja. So Frank Miller might deserve credit for this idea. Enter the Ninja. Former soldier travels to Japan to learn Ninjutsu. 'Heir" to the clan shows jealousy and ends up a mercenary. Ninja in white. Red ninjas.
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Dr. Venture: Why is it every time I need to get somewhere, we get waylaid by jackassery? http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...r1s-b-s-t.html Last edited by blackrazor1; 09-14-2016 at 10:38 AM.. |
09-14-2016, 10:31 AM | #5 |
Hisstank.Com General
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Great idea for a thread.
I can see the parallels between the Fatal Fluffies and the Gremlins but I did read or see an interview with Larry Hama (maybe on the DVD box set) where Hasbro wanted him to write bad versions of Ewoks into the Marvel line due to the popularity of the Ewoks in RotJ. Presumably they didn't want to be obvious rip off so the went with bad guy versions of them. Hama protested saying ' "I'm not going to have GI Joe fighting teddy bears!" and flatly refused. I wouldn't doubt that the Fatal Fluffies had their roots in this Hasbro idea of Evil Ewoks. But again the transformation could easily have been taken from Gremlins. Footloose as Spicoli is hysterical and I never though of it before. I always though of him as more based off that surfer idiot in Apocalypse Now. And Gung Ho as Chef replacing Gumbo in lieu of a sauceir. Shippy as Nickolson makes a lot of sense, Easy Rider/McMurphy. Yeah it explains the accent and I do believe I have read or heard that before (maybe on this website). Makes perfect sense. Yeah great take on the CG! Crimson is the color of Harvard also. I guess they would have been that same cold war mind set but also a satire at the rising evils of Corporate/Collegiate suburban America that began to resurface in the 1980s. But CC was against Corporate America initially so who knows. Maybe he just used them as a means to his end game. I know Hama was a rock fan and had a copy of a late 70s EARLY 80s album (I want to say Thin Lizzy) with a fellow on the cover who looked suspiciously like Destro. I'll try to find the image and post it. But there is no denying the history/character of Destro in Dumass' "Man in the Iron Mask." Especially since his family's history always goes back to that same era. As far as ninjas go martial arts films were VERY popular in the late 79s early 80s. My dad watched them every Sunday. I'm sure Hama was a fan as well and just found a way to work them in. I don't think the Ninja influence came from any other comic or media source other than that genre. I always assumed that Quick Kick was supposed to be a humorous take of Bruce Lee-due to his film carrier and martial arts background. I could have sworn that John Wayne had the same getup on as Clutch in a scene from the Green Berets, but Google shows me no such thing. I may have the wrong war movie in mind or I may have to watch it again. I always suspected that Stalker was based on Carl Weather's character in Force Ten from Navarone. I now the first Snake Eyes figure came from Hasbro asking either Hama or RND (not sure) to come up with 1 more figure that would cut down the cost of the toy line by having NO paint apps at all. The ballistic mask was an obvious choice as was all black. Hama was from NYC and knew Brooklyn. I'm certain Heavy Metal (read is file card) was from South Brooklyn. If you Google Floyd Bennett Field on Google Earth you'll see the wilds of Brooklyn. It's NOT like what you see on Law and Order out there. It's like the bayou of the north east! Fort Wadsworth was an actual military base on Staten Island but is under control of the Parks Dept and not an active military base-but was active during the Marvel run. They also never had a proper motor pool, their actual motor pool was at FT Hamilton across the Verrazano.
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Visit my vintage Joe restoration page! https://www.flickr.com/photos/131988164@N07/albums Cross Country's super smooth feedback thread. http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...ml#post4456308 Currently available Hasbro items. PM me for your prices (DO NOT be discouraged by the listing prices) https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr...nirtoys&_oac=1 Last edited by Cross Country; 09-14-2016 at 11:41 AM.. |
09-14-2016, 11:49 AM | #6 |
He Who Remains
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Florida
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I read that Crystal Ball was supposedly inspired by Stephen King. Not sure if it's true or not. Also, the Baroness seems an awful lot like Black Widow, who I believe was around a while before her.
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09-14-2016, 11:55 AM | #7 |
Hisstank.Com General
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Cool. Love this sort of stuff. I always had CB in my head like Cobra's Rasputin.
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Visit my vintage Joe restoration page! https://www.flickr.com/photos/131988164@N07/albums Cross Country's super smooth feedback thread. http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...ml#post4456308 Currently available Hasbro items. PM me for your prices (DO NOT be discouraged by the listing prices) https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr...nirtoys&_oac=1 |
09-14-2016, 12:31 PM | #8 |
Crimson Guard
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Tomax and Xamot were "The Corsican Brothers" from the Alexandre Dumas story.
Dr. Mindbender, the orthodontist turned interrogator was probably inspired by Laurence Olivier's Nazi war criminal dentist character from Marathon Man Big Boa's look was influenced by the "death guards" from the cult classic Beast Master (according to Ron Rudat) The Moray was influenced by the speed boats on Miami Vice. (again, Ron Rudat) |
09-14-2016, 01:26 PM | #9 |
Hisstank.Com General
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Tomax and Xamot were also riding a wave of evil corporate businessmen characters, a year before John Byrne reinvented Lex Luthor as an evil businessman. The Luthor "replacement" character in Superman III ended up being more like post-Crisis Luthor than the actual movie Luthor as played by Hackman. I'm not quite sure how big the evil businessman cliche was at that time. It seems to have only grown in the '90s and 2000s as the search for politically correct villains expanded.
Also, Extensive Enterprises Towers were the World Trade Center. Crystal Ball was rumored to have been created by Stephen King and/or his son Owen King. Or they at least wrote the file card and/or named him. The full story has never been told. I can't remember if there was a contest to create a Joe that might've been local to New England or something. Sneak Peek was also named after Owen King and his likeness was probably modeled on him as well, which is why he has something like a little boy's face. I asked Owen King on Facebook and he said he couldn't go into details of what happened with these two figures at this time. Also if you think of the names "Crystal Ball" and "Sneak Peek," they both suggest a character who can see into the future. So one theory is they were two names suggested for a fortune-teller character by Owen King, and when the name "Crystal Ball" was chosen, they reimagined "Sneak Peek" as a guy with a periscope instead of a fortune-teller, and gave him Owen's likeness and name. Enter the Ninja and other ninja movies definitely have to be considered. Frank Miller debuted the Hand Ninja in Daredevil it looks like a matter of weeks before Enter the Ninja's release date. Ninjas may have been hot in the movies but I think we have to give Frank Miller credit for making them major comic book characters. Ninjas seem to have become more uncommon in movies after the mid-'80s even as they were becoming a huge deal in toys, comics and cartoons. I remember they showed up in an episode of Benson in the '80s too. The appearance of the "nice" Fatal Fluffies is probably a mix of Ewoks, Gizmo, E.T. and or Yoda. Quick Kick wears a handband so that's Karate Kid-ish. I wouldn't discount Bruce Lee as an influence though. Last edited by JediJones; 09-14-2016 at 01:32 PM.. |
09-14-2016, 01:37 PM | #10 |
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Quote:
Tomax and Xamot were also riding a wave of evil corporate businessmen characters, a year before John Byrne reinvented Lex Luthor as an evil businessman. The Luthor "replacement" character in Superman III ended up being more like post-Crisis Luthor than the actual movie Luthor as played by Hackman. I'm not quite sure how big the evil businessman cliche was at that time. It seems to have only grown in the '90s and 2000s as the search for politically correct villains expanded.
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