The earliest art from the packaging of the GI Joe toy figure will auction next month with an entry price of $40,000.
The picture was created by Sam Petrucci in 1964 for Hasbro, the makers of the GI Joe toy.
Petrucci was offered stock in the company in payment for his work, but instead opted for a flat fee.
This work, and Pertrucci’s subsequent productions for other toy and fantasy companies, made the artist a well-known and much loved figure in collecting circles. He appeared at GI Joe conventions after his retirement. He died in 2013, aged 86.
This is his best-known work, which was done for Hassenfeld Brothers Toy Company, who we now know better as Hasbro. Sam also drew the Mr Potato Head packaging in a long commercial art career.
GI Joe was made by Hasbro using an idea they bought from Stanley Weston, a New York-based inventor and licensing agent.
The toy was the first “action figure” as Hasbro decided they should call a doll for boys.
Artist Sam Petrucci had served in the US Navy in World War II, perhaps helping him create such a convincing image for GI Joe.
Hasbro bought the concept from Weston for $100,000, and made a very good return on their investment. GI Joe is now a cultural icon in the States, and was licensed to the UK as Action Man.
From 1964 Sam Petrucci helped shape Joe’s image as “America’s Movable Fighting Man” (a public image that would be softened as the Vietnam War shone a less favourable light on US armed forces).
The toys are collector’s favorites. A prototype realised $200,000 in 2003 at Heritage, who are selling this artwork.
It is a design for the GI Joe Action Sailor figure box. The boxes were closed, so the image on the outside was key to selling them to kids, and their parents. Petrucci was hired to get the job done for release day, and he continued to work on the character until 1969.
This piece of art, says Heritage, is “the earliest and only known surviving piece from the original launch of GI Joe.”
They add: “At the time, Sam Petrucci’s artwork set the new standard for toy packaging and fans of GI Joe maintain a very strong connection to the images and what they represent.”
The oil on illustration board piece is 6 inches wide and 17.25 inches high.
It will be sold by Heritage as the star item in their November 20 – 21 sale, “The Windy City Collection: Action Figures & Toys Signature Auction #7389”.
The sale includes a large number of action figures, including a GI Joe-brand nurse and a German soldier from the range. There is more packaging artwork too, and trading cards.
A number of Garbage Pail Kids items will bring back moral-panic memories for 1980s children who remember the shock at the bad-taste range.
The GI Joe painting is by far the most valuable item in the sale on opening bids. You’ll need $40,000 ($50,000 with buyer’s premium) to compete for the image.
