Bay Area artist helped design action figures for G.I. Joe franchise

Artist Mark Pennington still gets questions and hears stories about a job that he had nearly 40 years ago. It comes with the territory of designing action figures for the iconic G.I. Joe franchise.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Artist Mark Pennington still gets questions and hears stories about a job that he had nearly 40 years ago. It comes with the territory of designing action figures for the iconic G.I. Joe franchise.

"I didn't think that it would carry over 40 years later, but these young men who played with these Joes, they're all grown up now," Pennington said.

The backstory:

Pennington started at Hasbro in late 1985, after a recruiter from the company visited his school, Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. Pennington believes his three years of service in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer gave him an advantage over his fellow talented artists.

"It helps a lot because just knowing what weapons look like. I've shot a grenade launcher, then you've got a bank of ideas and stuff in your head," Pennington said.

Pennington used those ideas many times until 1988, designing or helping design around 75 different figures. After Hasbro staff met to discuss what figures to create for the upcoming year, Pennington would create 10 different variations. Pennington designed several notable figures, including the third version of Snake Eyes, the second version of Storm Shadow, the Techno Viper and a special release, "The Fridge" of the Chicago Bears. Many figures have vivid memories attached to them.

"Hit & Run is the first Joe that shows no skin color whatsoever, because I wanted to do a totally camouflaged guy," Pennington explained. "Shockwave, I called the Rhode Island SWAT Department and asked them if I could come in and draw their toolbelts and their rigs and their vests and all this stuff, so I could use reference for making him."

Dig deeper:

Pennington currently has a studio in the Warehouse Arts District in St. Petersburg. He works as a commercial artist, dabbling in a little bit of everything, including a big project that has ties to G.I. Joe.

"Here we are 40 years later, and we're redesigning some stuff for Operation Recall. We're doing new Joes. It was a fan-generated thing, and it's a great Kickstarter, and they brought me back in," Pennington said.

Pennington isn’t alone. He’s joined by other G.I. Joe original designers, illustrators, sculptors and original comic book writer Larry Hama. Operation Recall was spearheaded by superfan Carson Mataxis, after going through the full experience of creating his own G.I. Joe figure from start to finish.

Pennington designed a handful of the line’s 19 figures, which are currently in production overseas. The design ideas originated from fan submissions on the Kickstarter page.

"A young man came up with this idea. He was only 10-years-old. He came up with a character called Clanker and Tank, and he wanted to see a Galapagos turtle turned into a GI Joe, so that's what I did," Pennington said.

What's next:

Pennington loves meeting G.I. Joe fans, whether at his St. Pete studio or at various conventions. He calls himself extremely blessed because he gets to create art for a living, and that much of the art from that 1980s toyline still has an impact today.

"I have grown men, 35, 40-year-old men, come up to me in tears, telling me how their dad had to drive through the snow to get this certain Joe that they wanted," Pennington said. "It inspired them to go into the military. It inspired them to become firemen. It's inspired them to do all these different things."

The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13 photojournalist Barry Wong.

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: