Thursday, May 21, 2009

GI Joe General Dwight D Eisenhower

All wars need generals and this was the first in the GI Joe Historical Commanders Edition series and rightly so - 5-star General Dwight D Eisenhower. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45.

The box is printed using metallic ink, giving it a metallic shine (guess Hot Toys wasn't the first to create this look in their Movie Masterpiece series since this figure was released by Hasbro in 1997)

A not-so-brief description of General Eisenhower from an obscure colonel in 1940 to his masterful planning and handling of the massive Allied invasion on D-Day, June 6 1944, "Operation Overlord".

GI Joe 1/6 scale 12-inch General Dwight Eisenhower comes with peaked cap, garrison cap with stars, shirt and tie, dog tags, decorated "Ike" jacket, pants, decorated "Ike" overcoat, socks and shoes. Also comes with display stand, the US flag and US Army flag plus 1/1 scale Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (abbreviated as SHAEF, pronounced "shafe") patch.

The US flag and US Army flag

1/1 scale Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (abbreviated as SHAEF, pronounced "shafe") patch

General Eisenhower wears the Eisenhower jacket or "Ike" jacket, introduced by none other than "Ike" himself in 1943. The idea was based on the British Battle Dress coat which predated the American "Ike" Jacket by a number of years.

Ike without his head gear

Ike with garrison cap

General Eisenhower's jacket is decorated with 5 stars and medals


General Eisenhower wears the SHAEF patch on his left sleeve. SHAEF commanded the largest number of formations ever committed to one operation on the Western Front, with American, French army of liberation, British and Canadian Army forces. It had three Army Groups under its command, which controlled a total of eight field armies. SHAEF also controlled substantial naval forces during Operation Neptune, the assault phase of Overlord, and two tactical air forces: the US Ninth Air Force and the RAF Second Tactical Air Force. Allied strategic bomber forces in the UK also came under its command during Operation Neptune.



Ike with peaked cap and overcoat



Ike's overcoat also comes decorated with stars



In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO. He became the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961.

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