Stanley Weston

G.I. Joe began life well before there was any inkling of Cobra or a General Hawk or any name to the character today's fans would recognize.

Licensing agent Stanley Weston conceived the military-themed 12-inch dolls in 1963, derived from the abbreviation for the military term General Issue and or Government Issue, itself mutated from the same abbreviation used for galvanized iron shells whose first recorded use goes to around World War I.

By 1935, GI became a slang term for a member of the Army, and use in radio and comic strips spread the term through the 1940s, so by the time Weston got his hands on it, it was already well-worn into the zeitgeist.

When he pitched the idea to toy company Hasbro, they were more than impressed and purchased it from him to the tune of $100,000 and hard 1960s money.