The Power of Packaging: 1982 Short-Fuze
If there’s one thing that the ARAH line got right from the get-go, it was the figures’ packaging. From the bold design elements to the focus on the specialty and personality of each character, the success story of the marketing arm of the series was laid. While the figures themselves improved from year to year in those first few assortments, the only major changes to the packaging included the switch to the code names being more prominent.
You can’t mistake Short-Fuze for any other figure thanks to a striking painting that shows the man and his weaponry in action. These early card images to me echo the evocative illustrations of the 60s and 70s Joe packaging. It’s easy to see why kids took to the toys so quickly. Of course the one-two-three combo of toy, comic book, and TV adverts didn’t hurt either.
”The early 1980’s G.I.Joe packaging, takes me back to the time of Brick-And-Mortar stores, such as Perry’s, Bottom Dollar, Woolworth,
Sears, JCPenny’s ,etc.Those were the days before the World Wide Web ,and The internet technological onslaught that we, as a society, have to put up with today.Holiday Shopping was SO really simple/enjoyable, back during the 1970’s and the 1980’s.”
Very underrated character. As far as the Joe cards go, I prefer the code names over the specialties and the digital background over the blast.
”I would have to disagree.The early cards with specialists over code names,and the blast background over digital, gives anyone found memories of 1982-1985 G.I.Joe action figure/vehicle lines.”
I’ve always thought that he should have been a grenadier (his filecard even notes that he is a qualified expert on the M79). Not too many spec-ops teams lugging mortars around in this day and age (or even back in the early 1980s, so far as I know).