We’ve got some G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary images– courtesy of the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club Facebook page! Eagle-eyed fans will recognize some of these figures from the Concept Case from Joe Con 2013.
I’ve mirrored them below but I’d also encourage everyone to stop by their Facebook page and give ’em a “Like” to stay abreast of the latest GIJCC news!
Also, check out the continually updated JBL Toy Fair 2014 Coverage as the day progresses!
Check out the updated information on the forthcoming Toys R Us exclusive products:
Just a quick reminder– JBL’s coverage of the Hasbro Brand Entertainment Preview Event from Toy Fair 2014 will be going live later today!
Good friend of JBL, Mike Breaux of The Breaux Show has braved the East Coast winter weather to make the trek up to NYC to attend the event which starts at 1pm EST today. As soon as he’s able to report back, we’ll post coverage of whatever Hasbro’s plans may be for the G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary.
There’s been a lot of speculation as to what, if anything, Hasbro will be doing to commemorate this half-century of the first action figure. My own opinion is that we’re not likely to see anything before Q3 2014– meaning that more information could potentially be revealed at Comic Con 2014 than at Toy Fair this year. However, that’s just my opinion– it’s not based on any insider knowledge. Whatever the folks in Pawtucket decide to do, we can all agree that G.I. Joe has provided countless boys and girls, men and women with a source of inspiration and imagination over the past 50 years.
You’ll be able to view the coverage HERE as it is submitted!
If you’re looking for early info before it’s posted here, follow @TheBreauxShow on Twitter.
Next week the International Toy Fair in New York City begins! This Saturday at 1pm EST, Hasbro will be holding an advance Entertainment Brand Preview Event which is slated to feature the latest in Marvel, Transformers, Star Wars, and My Little Pony brands and is scheduled to include a spotlight on the G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary. In partnership with The Breaux Show, JBL will bring you coverage of the event beginning Saturday evening.
What can fans expect to see from Hasbro commemorating a half century of “America’s Movable Fighting Man”? At this point no one knows but hopefully Saturday will offer some insight into what plans, if any, the folks in Pawtucket have in store for fans and collectors everywhere.
Keep your eyes peeled to this page or any of the following links to see coverage as it goes live:
In the meantime, check out these two articles that offer some speculation as to what might lie ahead for the brand.
This year marks an important milestone in the history of the G.I. Joe brand– 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the G.I. Joe brand. For months, the internet has wondered what this milestone year will have in store for the brand that began with “America’s Movable Fighting Man”. This year at the International Toy Fair it seems that the fandom just might get its answer. Hasbro’s annual Entertainment Brand Preview Event will be held on February 15th at the International Toy Fair in New York. At that point, fans will know what, if anything, Hasbro plans to do for the G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary.
G.I. Joe was the first action figure. Not just the first in a series but the first of an entire genre. Without G.I. Joe there might not be a concept of the “action figure”. With such a legacy behind the brand, fans began to speculate just what Hasbro, the brand’s manufacturer, might have in store for this half-century anniversary. First there was Pixel Dan’s interview with long-time G.I. Joe fan and V.P. of Global Brand Development Derryl DePriest. It was short on specifics but hinted that the folks in Pawtucket had some surprises in store for fans. (Video courtesy of Toy News International.)
The holidays, however, were not kind to the current movie-themed incarnation of G.I. Joe. Beginning in Q3 2013, product became scarce at retail with the line being dropped from major retailers such as Target and Walmart. Even former retail giant Kmart ceased carrying new Joes which left Toys R Us as the sole mass market outlet for the product. Restocks became few and far between and the last wave of product became near-impossible to find. The fandom began, quite naturally, to worry that perhaps the future for the 50th didn’t look quite so rosy.
Next came the announcement from long-time G.I. Joe retailers SmallJoes.com in a newsletter that:
“We are not expecting any new GI JOE 3 3/4″ product at retail in 2014.”
Naturally, this sent fans scrambling for answers. Joe fans were crying foul and going so far as to declare that “Hasbro lied to us.” My good friend Justin “General Hawk” Bell penned an excellent piece on The State of the Hobby 2014 in which he encouraged patience in the fandom. No news doesn’t necessarily mean bad news, after all. It just means that nothing has been made official. Always a voice of reason, Justin suggested that fans merely wait and see what, if anything, is revealed by Hasbro at the annual International Toy Fair to be held in New York in a few weeks.
This morning a brand new news article has been making the rounds on the AP Newswire. Penned by Chris Carola the piece entitled “G.I. Joe, ‘World’s First Action Figure’, Turns 50” once again swings the pendulum of fandom speculation in the opposite direction. In the article, which focuses on the fact that this is the 50th anniversary of the 12” G.I. Joe figures, offers the following quote:
“Hasbro said it intends to announce details of its 50th anniversary plans during this year’s fair in New York on Feb. 16-19.”
This is the first semi-official mention of any sort of announcement from Hasbro that it will acknowledge the brand’s 50th anniversary. Light on details but that is to be expected in the world of brand advertising. However, the fact that the AP is running a story on G.I. Joe is a hopeful sign. It means that there is still interest in the brand outside of the niche fandom that G.I. Joe has found itself enjoying these past few years.
So, why all of the conflict? Why all of the back-and-forth and the “will they/won’t they” that seem to have hit the fan community these past few months? Quite honestly, G.I. Joe isn’t the power house brand that is once was—dominating retail shelves in the 80’s in a way that has seldom been seen since in the toy industry. The G.I. Joe Retaliation line, while producing some of the most amazing sculpts and design innovations seen in the 1:18 scale line, was not a break away hit. It was plagued by dubious retailer perceptions after the debacle that was the Rise of Cobra over-merchandising and let’s not forget the 9 month delay due to the 3D conversion of the film. In addition, 2014 isn’t just a banner year for G.I. Joe– it’s the 30th anniversary of another flagship brand from the 80’s: Transformers. Let’s also not forget that Transformers has a brand new film hitting theatres this summer. Additionally, Marvel has multiple movie lines to promote this year– Captain America: Winter Soldier, Amazing Spider-man 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy. In other words, the focus won’t be solely on G.I. Joe. In fact, with the current perceptions of G.I. Joe as a more movie-based line the presence at the event could be limited to an acknowledgement of the milestone fifty years.
As I’ve stated before on JBL, this is NOT the anniversary of the “Real American Hero” brand of G.I. Joe that this site and many others focus on. 2014 marks 50 years since the release of the original 12” G.I. Joe—“America’s Movable Fighting Man”. Rightly so, any product that highlights this anniversary should be themed toward the 12” brand—honoring the innovation and the legacy of those early trail-blazing days when “dolls were for girls.” Hasbro took a bit risk back in 1964 and it paid off spectacularly for the Pawtucket, RI toy manufacturer but it very easily could have gone the other way and G.I. Joe could have gone the way of many other failed merchandising attempts.
On February 15, 2014, Hasbro is hosting their annual Entertainment Brand Preview Event as a prelude to Toy Fair in NYC. The annual showcase, which is open to members of the media by invitation, showcases the company’s plans for their key brands in 2014 including Marvel, Star Wars, My Little Pony and Transformers. This year’s invitation also indicated that it will spotlight its G.I. Joe brand. I’ve no doubt that by the evening of the 15th, fans will have SOME idea as to how Hasbro intends to celebrate the anniversary of the debut of the original 12” action a half-century before.
Until that time, fans can only wait and wonder. However, there is a quote from another favorite property of mine that also had a 50th anniversary this past November that seems terribly applicable at this point in time:
“Never believe what is said… only what you know.”
The Doctor, Doctor Who: Trial of a Time Lord – The Mysterious Planet
The media event is a little over a week away at which point the fandom will have some sort of answer to all of the nervous speculation. JBL will have someone on-site to provide coverage of the event and we’ll be posting the information just as fast as well have it. At that point, we’ll know and G.I. Joe fans are certainly familiar with a quote that pertains to knowing.
No matter what—2014 will be a year to remember. Yo Joe!
While the New York Comic Con may not be the font of new product news that many G.I. Joe fans were hoping for, all is not bleak in Joe-land! New Kre-O sets and blind-bagged figures are dropping at Toys R Us stores across the nation. To celebrate this, the good folks at Hunter PR passed on a stop-motion animation gem that is sure to put a smile on the face of even the most stodgy of Joe fans!
So, check out “G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers” — Kre-O style!
If you’ve been you’ve been following the JoeCon coverage here at JBL over the past few days– thank you! It’s been several years since I’ve been both at a con and an active part of the Joe community and there was some personal apprehension about coming back to this event after being away for nearly 4 years. However, I can honestly say that it’s good to be back in action again.
Earlier today, I posted live coverage of the Hasbro panel on Twitter. What follows here is a more detailed summary of the information that was presented earlier.
Hasbro had a very small presence at JoeCon this year. Consisting solely of Derryl DePriest and John Warden and a single display case, fan weren’t quite sure what to expect. In fact, the Dynamic Duo from Pawtucket opened their presentation by saying that they were showing the same slide show that was used at Toy Fair and that nothing new would be presented. However, some good information came out of their discussion.
In terms of G.I. Joe Retaliation, the highly anticipated wave 3 will be available later this year– and it’s looking like late July/early August. The order has been sent to the factories in China and production has begun. Figures like Kwinn, Data Viper, Ultimate Duke, Ultimate Roadblock, and Ultimate Flint will be hitting stores with a great deal of fan and retailer anticipation. During this part of the discussion, John Warden broke down some interesting facts for the wave.
This year at JoeCon many fans seemed disappointed that Hasbro didn’t have more to showcase in terms of new product. During the Hasbro panel, it was announced that there was nothing new to see due to the six month delay of the release of G.I. Joe Retaliation. So, attendees steeled themselves and found other news to be excited about.
I was sitting in the “What’s On Joe Mind” panel when my cell phone rang. It was Madmac41 telling me to get my keester down to the dealer’s room and bring my camera. So, I sauntered down, spotted him, and then dropped to my knees in awe. (Literally.) There, in the midst of the Hasbro case were new “concept case” figures and right smack dab in the middle of them was the greatest Marine to ever grace the team’s roster: GUNG-HO! (Suck it, Leatherneck.) Seriously– completely unannounced and unexpected.
There’s no guarantee that these figures will get made but are merely presented as means of gauging interest. So, this is one of the few times that I’ll ask anything of the fandom– if you have the opportunity, drop the name GUNG-HO at every opportunity. After all, he was one of the core characters in the Sunbow series as well as Larry Hama’s Marvel run.
With no further comments, here are the 2013 Concept Case figures:
More news from JoeCon from the land of the block figures– KreO!
Hasbro’s product showing on Friday was pretty minimal but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality. The wave two Kre-O sets were on hand and should be hitting Toys R Us in the coming months. Of course, all of this could change with the Hasbro 2013 panel set for 11am on Saturday.
Enjoy the pics of the figures below. Honestly, if there is one true SURPRISE hit in the Joe brand right now it’s Kre-O! Let’s just hope it moves beyond Toys R Us to mass retail in the near future!
If you’ve already purchased and opened your G.I. Joe Retaliation Duke action figure, you’ve probably found that his accessory compliment is “less than stellar”. The figure is equipped with a gun that I can only call the “Blast-o-Matic 6000” as well as an orange rifle that resembles Agent Coulson’s final weapon in the Marvel movie The Avengers.
However, there was something oddly familiar about it. Over at MarvelousNews.com, Jay had posted PR pics of the variants from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends 2013 series 3 figures including the brand-spanking new Blade figure. As I was looking at the image a certain weapon leaped off the screen and caught my attention.
Once you see it, you can’t “unsee” it. It looks like Hasbro continues the tradition of sharing tooling and molds across brand lines. After all, the G.I. Joe Renegades Storm Shadow mold is getting a reuse in a forthcoming Wolverine line. Plus, it makes poor Retaliation Duke just a bit cooler by association.
And now you know…