"which came first?" Topic

Was wondering which came out first back in the early 80's? The GI JOE 3 3/4 inch figs or the cartoon show & comic books?

Cartoon show for the smaller G.I. Joes. Bought a ton of them for the boys back then because of the show. Glad they liked them more than Skeletor! (He-Man) 8>)

Tom Dye
GFI

Not correct, they were released at the same time. The cartoon was developed as a way of advertising for the toys when they were relaunched in the 3 3/4 inch size instead of the old 12 inch size. It was the first toy line to have a cartoon specifically developed to help sell a toy line, of course there have been tons of toy and game lines that have done it since. Even that was just the mini-series and the regular cartoon series didn't start until a couple years later.

I had the toys when I was a kid. The cartoon came later. I remember it as the cartoon ruined them for me. I started buying the 4" action figures in 1982 and the cartoon came out in 1985.

1982 for the figures and Marvel Comic:
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1983 for the Sunbow animated series:
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Delthos;
an argument can be made that Strawberry Shortcakes tie-in came first:
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For comparison sake (because someone will), the 1st generation Transformers toys predate the cartoon (1984) by around a decade in Japan, but the entire Autobots/Decepticons thing is closely connected to the cartoon. The toys were un-named and had no over-arching story until the Marvel comics and the cartoon.

The Wikipedia (all standard disclaimers apply) article also suggests that the smaller GI Joe line was a direct descendent of the Japanese line that had also led to the Micronauts.