The story starts almost 20 years before the toys were launched, but it's important to understand the heritage to appreciate what happened with the toy line. In 1965 a meeting between a British company called Casselloid and an American company known as Hassenfeld Brothers Inc. Casselloid approached Hassenfeld Brothers Inc (later to become Hasbro) for the UK rights to manufacture its new 1/6th scale boys 'doll', known as GI Joe.