Was doing and why they lied to us. i would think you would be owed that information, mrs. andrews. thank you so much, again, for being here and we apologize for your loss. here with me now is a reporter from the new york times. he s done some deep digging on the claims that sergeant bergdahl caused the deaths of fellow soldiers. andy, good to see you again. in the headline of the times can gi be tied to six lost lives, facts are murky. how come? we wanted to take a step back and look at the secret military dispatches being written at the time both before and after bergdahl s abduction. to try to bring readers back to what afghanistan and in particular this eastern province right along the pakistan border to see what the war was like both before and after. the reason why that s important is that in that area you had a
Earthquake hit south carolina overnight. there were no reports of damages or injuries. it s the second largest earthquake to ever hit the state. the los angeles area is preparing for a major freeway shutdown. they are calling it jamzilla. lane closures began on friday night on the 405 freeway and are not expected to reopen until after the presidents day weekend. right now, we are in day four of deliberations in the so-called loud music trial, the shooting death of jordan davis. we are live outside the courthouse. as jurors decide the fate of defendant michael dunn. also, marking a milestone. the first action figure and a real american hero. the story behind g.i. joe. that is not the right picture, folks. stay with us here on msnbc.
He was the little green army man in plastic, cast-lead soldiers. if you were playing soldiers, they were faceless. and now you could identify with this action figure soldier. let s take a look now at a commercial from back in the day, this was in the 70s. g.i. joe underwent major changes. let s take a look. and here is g.i. joe with kung fu grip. g.i. joe has hands that grip, fingers you hold open and let close, hands that hold on with a kung fu grip. a lot of changes to the image over the year. why were many of these necessary? it kind of became this all-american guy. the reaction to the vietnam war turned people against the military. there were people protesting g.i. joe. so he sort of mustered out of his military role and became part of an action team so that he is going on adventures rather than being part of a military
Hard to believe it s been 50 years since the introduction of g.i. joe, the action figure that started it all, represented all four branches of the u.s. armed forces. let s bring in now chris bench, vice president of collections for the strong toy museum which houses the national toy hall of fame. how did they get this was a big deal. you essentially were trying to get boys to play with dolls. was that important to make sure it wasn t called a doll? it was. as i understand it, doll was the unspoken four-letter word at hasbro and that he needed to be this new thing. he needed to be an action figure. i was a heman guy as a kid. this is the one that started it all. how revolutionary was it at the time? right now, it s no big deal because we have action figures all over. but at the time. everything before him had been fixed and little.
Unit. what do i have here? i have a few sitting here. what am i looking at? the original 1964 g.i. joe, the army variation of that. in between him and the larger g.i. joe this is the original? right. and then he got downsized, as so many of us have in our careers. in the 1980s, he turned as a 3 3/4-inch action figure. we know how iconic this g.i. joe is. but it lost popularity to the point that people may assume it s being made every year and updated. it s not. in fact, he was off the market for five years in the late 1970s, early 1980s. just not selling, kids moving on to other things? that s right. star wars characters basically blew him out of the water. can it still be relevant? i know the g.i. joe movies,