I was setting up new displays for my curio cabinets based on the commercials. So in reviewing the commercials, I noticed the animation for this one was a mix from the comic commercials for #1, #5, #18, & #19. It appears that this was an update of the 1982 MOBAT commercial without animation, and aired in 1983. #19 was probably in comic shops by September in 1983, and the commercial was probably on the air when it hit newsstands in October (cover date or rather "sell by" date was January 1984 on #19). So my guess is the updated MOBAT commercial with animation aired no earlier than October 1983. I was an enthusiastic collector of the toys and comics at the time, and never noticed the animation in the toy commercials predating the comic commercial, it was always the comic commercial and then the toy commercials came soon after.
@@3djoes Thanks. I was older when the GI Joe ARAH line came out and I switched over from Star Wars, so I have very strong memories of it for the first few series. I can actually pinpoint about when it happened, because earliest memory was reading in one of those elementary school weekly readers about GI Joe being shrunk and released as 3.75" figures with a fuzzy picture of a kid playing with two or three figures. That had to be sometime during early in '82 as that was my last year at that school. I remember a friend was really into the line and he was telling me about the MOBAT, and I started to get interested. I'm pretty sure that was after the 1st commercial for the figures because I remember noticing the bearded figures which was all I had when I was younger with the Adventure Team, and I mentioned that to him thinking one of them was the actually GI Joe character. I remember the comic commercial had me really excited about it, and that was likely around March or later that I saw it. But it wasn't until my brother got the giant size issue #1 that I read and was hooked on Hama's story telling. I missed getting #2 after reading #1, so he must have gotten #1 in late April or May. But I picked up issue #3 and every one after that religiously. So that would have been in May '82. And I got my first Joe Breaker during the summer because I took him to the swim club right afterwards. I remember Flash after that, and by August I was getting the MMS, HAL, JUMP, and FLAK for my birthday.
I was setting up new displays for my curio cabinets based on the commercials. So in reviewing the commercials, I noticed the animation for this one was a mix from the comic commercials for #1, #5, #18, & #19. It appears that this was an update of the 1982 MOBAT commercial without animation, and aired in 1983. #19 was probably in comic shops by September in 1983, and the commercial was probably on the air when it hit newsstands in October (cover date or rather "sell by" date was January 1984 on #19). So my guess is the updated MOBAT commercial with animation aired no earlier than October 1983. I was an enthusiastic collector of the toys and comics at the time, and never noticed the animation in the toy commercials predating the comic commercial, it was always the comic commercial and then the toy commercials came soon after.
Loving these time stamp evaluations. Keep them coming!
@@3djoes Thanks. I was older when the GI Joe ARAH line came out and I switched over from Star Wars, so I have very strong memories of it for the first few series. I can actually pinpoint about when it happened, because earliest memory was reading in one of those elementary school weekly readers about GI Joe being shrunk and released as 3.75" figures with a fuzzy picture of a kid playing with two or three figures. That had to be sometime during early in '82 as that was my last year at that school. I remember a friend was really into the line and he was telling me about the MOBAT, and I started to get interested. I'm pretty sure that was after the 1st commercial for the figures because I remember noticing the bearded figures which was all I had when I was younger with the Adventure Team, and I mentioned that to him thinking one of them was the actually GI Joe character. I remember the comic commercial had me really excited about it, and that was likely around March or later that I saw it. But it wasn't until my brother got the giant size issue #1 that I read and was hooked on Hama's story telling. I missed getting #2 after reading #1, so he must have gotten #1 in late April or May. But I picked up issue #3 and every one after that religiously. So that would have been in May '82. And I got my first Joe Breaker during the summer because I took him to the swim club right afterwards. I remember Flash after that, and by August I was getting the MMS, HAL, JUMP, and FLAK for my birthday.