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Yo Joe! A Roundtable Conversation with Hasbro's Lenny and Emily from the G.I. Joe Team!
462 Plays4 years ago
On this special bonus pod, best friend of the pod @cr33pynj AKA "Other Dave," Dave Potosnak sits down to chat with Lenny and Emily from Hasbro's G.I. Joe Team along with other toy bloggers from 3D Joes, Toy Wizards, The Full Force Podcast, Bleeding Cool, and Graphic Policy. Settle in and get caught up with all things G.I. Joe!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Bonus Episode
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:30
Speaker
We are back with another special episode, a special bonus pod. This one is a little long, but it is a bonus pod.
Roundtable with GI Joe Team
00:00:40
Speaker
Following PulseCon, much like we had the opportunity to sit down with the Marvel Legends team over at Hasbro, we also had the opportunity to sit down
00:00:49
Speaker
with Lenny and Emily over at Hasbro on the GI Joe team. Now, for this special bonus pod, both Dave and myself were not able to attend the call, but thankfully, best friend of the pod and voice you have heard countless times on these episodes.
00:01:07
Speaker
Dave P aka other Dave at creepy NJ on Instagram stepped up to the plate and Sat down with the GI Joe team and and did us proud representing adventures in collecting so what you're about to hear is about 90 minutes of of talking of talking GI Joe's
00:01:28
Speaker
Along with Dave representing Adventures in Collecting, you're going to hear from Carson over at 3D Joe's, Jeremy at Bleeding Cool, Scott from Toy Wizards, Brett from Graphic Policy, and you're going to hear from Chris at the Full Force Podcast. So it was a great crew at the round table here, and I'm going to shut up, and I'm going to cut to the round table. Enjoy. Yo, Joe.
00:02:00
Speaker
And knowing is half the battle. So I'm actually handed over to Carson and Samson to throw out the first couple questions.
Nostalgia and Return of O-ring Figures
00:02:11
Speaker
Oh, wow. OK. All right. So you guys are talking to the low hanging fruit here. We are the easily converted. We are the type that, you know, when you guys made your big announcements about has lab through the roof excitement, seriously, like I'm already really enjoying classified buying two of everything. Very happy about that.
00:02:30
Speaker
But you know, we've been begging for O-ring just because we're stuck on nostalgia and vintage. Enjoying everything you guys are doing currently, but we've been begging you for O-ring. And you made the huge announcement. So first off, cheers. Thank you for that. I'm very excited about it. I obviously, you know, I went in and backed up to five because that was the max that y'all capped it out at. And I have no problem doing that because I want you guys to be successful in that arena, both in Hazlab and with O-ring.
00:02:58
Speaker
My question is, how can we more effectively convert some of the other fans that are that are the more hard sell that see the price point of 230? And Chris McLeod and I did a full force episode on this this week. So if you want to hear my whole rationalization for it, I can actually rationalize the 230 pretty
Haslab Sky Striker Updates
00:03:15
Speaker
well. And I think it's a decent value for all the different items that we're getting with it. That said, I think
00:03:21
Speaker
And some of the other fan base is a little harder to convert. And so I think the case could be made by you guys and we could win over more of those fans. If we could clearly demonstrate, number one, I'll just rattle off a couple questions. Number one, is this an all new mold or is this a repurposed retooled mold based off of the SkyStryker that we've gotten over the last decade? That would be the first question I'd start with.
00:03:45
Speaker
So it is all new tooling, like this is just for the Hazlab. It is beautiful, Lenny and Chris have been working so hard on this and it looks so nice. We will actually over the next couple of weeks be doing some comparison photo shoots. So with the original 1983 Sky Striker next to the Hazlab model, you'll be able to see from a size perspective, super similar. So this will be, so the only physical version of our Hazlab that we have right now is the gray model.
00:04:11
Speaker
So the final 1983 Sky Striker with, you know, all the decoration and everything next to a gray model of the Hazlab Sky Striker. But you'll be able to see the similarities, but you'll also be able to see the extra detail and the extra love that went into the Hazlab. Yeah. So what we did was we did, we bought an old school one because our coffers, we can't actually, we cannot dive into our coffers because we try to keep everything pristine at our, in our vaults.
Packaging and Vintage Elements
00:04:36
Speaker
We bought a couple of Sky Strikers, ripped them apart, put them back together and then redesigned it. And then we designed it with intention of, we know the nostalgia is very strong, so we need to keep the nostalgia level. So we were like coming up with a percentage of how much we were changing.
00:04:51
Speaker
Because if I could have went in there and completely changed it, that would have been a cardinal sin, I feel like. So we're like, we can update this 10% to 15%. So what are we going to do? We added an actual cockpit inside. We buttressed the wings a little bit more so they feel a little more aerodynamic. We went in and the flight dampeners in the back actually move. We lined up the gapping guns on the side because they never lined up back in the day. So that's to name a few of the things. And Chris is a crazy jet nut.
00:05:19
Speaker
like I didn't realize this until we started the project and I was like oh oh man so we went in and we went in and we had a lot of details and stuff like that I think if you think cost-wise I think it's a hundred dollars worth of figures after all yeah no it's uh there's six figures and on pulse the two packs are $39.99 so it's $20 per figure
00:05:38
Speaker
Does that make it $120 worth of O-ring figures? Not including, I mean, now you're getting the stand, which is so cool. Yeah, hands crazy. So that's something we did really- And the vehicles. Yeah, I think I was trying to articulate it, but the stand is kind of nuts. So we went in on this item to be long winded about it, but it was a really interesting delicate balance because it's like, what do we not touch? But we know we need to get people a new item. So it was actually
Updating Vintage Characters
00:06:04
Speaker
extremely difficult to work on this item. It's like,
00:06:07
Speaker
You're starting from somewhere, but what do you deviate from? But what don't you deviate from? And that's where actually we worked with Brumman. So it's actually a licensed jet. It's that 14 Tomcat. But they were great to work with too, because they're like, look, we know you're making a toy. And it's a jet we made 40 years ago. They're like, they're not worried about anybody getting the plans to it, which is actually awesome. It's very cool to talk to the old brass dudes. But it was really interesting. But yeah, I'm being long winded about it. But it's brand new. We updated it. We tried to be.
00:06:37
Speaker
humble and holy. Yeah. Well, so that's one of the things that Chris and I talked about an opportunity for conversion on some of these holdouts would be comparative shots a versus B comparisons to show all the upgrades. I'm hoping there's a little bit of LinkedIn with, you know, changes there. I know that the, the cockpit certainly has to be larger to have full size two seats and controls and all that stuff.
00:06:57
Speaker
And so I think once you start showing some of those A-B comparisons, people will realize, okay, I can sell some of my other Sky Strikers. This is going to be the ultimate one. If they need to raise money to afford it in their own minds, like sell some toys to buy some toys, this one's going to be bigger and better in every way. We just need to make that case to them and prove that to them, I think, for some of the holdouts. Okay, so second question. I am hopeful and optimistic that the O-ring stuff will go well for you guys and we'll get to see a lot more of that.
00:07:21
Speaker
I think one of the things that is sacred, a couple of the sacred cows to the vintage stuff that I hope you guys can incorporate into your packaging going forward for O-ring stuff. I love classified, I've already said this, I'm buying all of it.
00:07:37
Speaker
But I missed the cross cell and I missed the file cards and I love the icon stuff. I'm not saying throw away the icon stuff, but I missed the file cards and I missed the cross cell packaging, even if it's just an insert or something. But the cross cell grid on the back of the carded figures was timeless and the file cards that got us into the personality of each card.
00:07:56
Speaker
of each figure was integral to the experience. You guys are doing a great job with the artwork, but now we're missing the story, right? So my question is, knowing that you're trying to sell these and you're making multi-country packaging. So I realize you got the legal, you got to get in each language.
00:08:12
Speaker
Is it possible that you put QR codes in there that they could shoot, like you'd have the legalese in each language, you'd have the fully fleshed out file card, maybe in English, don't want to be ethnocentric or anything, but maybe you have the file card in English and then you have QR codes for the full file card in Spanish and French and everything else.
00:08:29
Speaker
And I think that that's a good idea. There's, we're trying so many different things that Hasbro to figure out how to be more inclusive. I mean, we are a global company that anybody who is picking up these toys at their local toy store is able to, you know, get a good idea of what the toy is and what it means. I don't know if you've ever been another country at like a grocery store and trying to decode what is in of, I have Celiac and trying to figure out like, does this pasta in Greece have gluten in it is a really fun challenge.
00:08:59
Speaker
But I think that there's lots of things that we can try. To us, the file cards and that cross-sell that you love, I think that you'll be pleased with the cross-sell situation that will be appearing on the retro card. And to us, the file cards are storytelling and we love, I mean, I mentioned it at PulseCon a couple of times, but we love the storytelling aspect. And so we are trying to figure out ways to really bring the storytelling aspect to the line. So that may take, we're not entirely sure how that may look in the future, but we promise that it's something that we're working on.
Storytelling in GI Joe Design
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, it goes across brands, too. You guys know my other life on Transformers. We were trying to figure that out, too. Because it's such the grid for power levels and stuff like that. It's like, you got to do it. Because it's part of storytelling. And I think.
00:09:42
Speaker
In a way, trying to say this in a corporate way, it makes us rely on entertainment less because we can rely on the brand itself and the strength and actually add new characters and the characters that network we're never done in form factors. If we are able to get those those wildcards in right because it's like for a kid and a collector when you're going in at purchase and you're looking at it. I remember when I was a kid.
00:10:01
Speaker
I wouldn't read it, my parents would help me read it too. But I looked at the back and I would, even if I didn't see the character in the cartoon, I didn't care if it was awesome and the file card kind of
Focus on O-ring Figures
00:10:11
Speaker
lined up with what I like, I buy it. So we're actually losing sales by not doing it. So we're trying to figure out how do you do it for this new, we live in a completely different environment than 1980. Of course.
00:10:24
Speaker
that we're working on. Cool. The precedent has been set in prior GI Joe product where you guys did include multilingual file cards inside the packaging. So if you could make the case that, you know, there's a QR code for each of the different languages that you need to be inclusive of, but the full file card is also printed inside. So they're not left out of having a printed product that was done before is done extensively in Europe in the 90s.
00:10:47
Speaker
And it was actually done here a little bit as well. I think for the 25th anniversary or the 50th anniversary, they had multilingual file cards tucked into the packages. So I think I've exhausted my two questions. Thanks, Carson. We appreciate it. I'll hand it over to Dave with Adventures in Collecting.
00:11:04
Speaker
Hey, how's everyone doing today? Hi! So all the excitement around PulseCon, an incredible showing, you reintroduced the world to three and three-quarter O-ring Joes. We're just wondering, what are we going to see out of the current retro line? Is it going to be retired?
00:11:24
Speaker
So we love the modern retroline and we think that it is amazing. So currently we are, we're really excited, as you mentioned, to be bringing back the three and three quarter inch O-ring scale. So that will be our focus for a little while. So consider the modern expression kind of on hold. We know that it is a beloved part of the GI Joe line, but we are going to be focusing for at least a little while on really bringing back that amazing O-ring scale from the 80s. Yeah, especially with seeing the reaction to it's like, you know, you got to
00:11:54
Speaker
but you know your audience and you do your research on your audience, but when you get reactions from your audience, like it's going with just your design. And what is the problem we have to solve? The problem we have to solve is getting more vintage figures to everybody, right? Getting more retro, old school figures. So it's like, there's other things we have to do to do that. So trying to say corporate. But yeah, I mean, more to love, more for the fan. So it's great.
00:12:20
Speaker
And on top of that, I know it was really interesting listening to the engineering side, talking about the Hazlab, but with the O-ring Joes, it's been mentioned that they are going to have new rings and armpieces. Can you tell us what went into the engineering of these new pieces while trying to stay true to the origins?
00:12:45
Speaker
So it's interesting, if you ask me, I think O-ring figures are kind of like perfect figures, but they have one flaw they degenerate over time. But don't we all? Yeah, that's right. So working with Chris on that, we were looking at materials. So the original figures are made out of complete ABS, maybe an ABS blend.
00:13:06
Speaker
What we ended up doing was figures are basically PVC figures now. And that's what a six inch figure is made out of. So no more broken thumbs, no more broken pelvises. And then the inner O-ring, I've been pulling on them. Like I can pull them like this far. I imagine they will snap if you like go crazy with it.
00:13:23
Speaker
but we've designed them so that the material itself is different, but the actual design is the same, which is interesting because a lot of it starts at a scan. So like we've been scouring and trying to get everything we can and then we scan it and then we go back into it. So after it's scanned, it is one for one with the 40 year old scanned item.
00:13:47
Speaker
So we have to go in and actually adjust it. And there were some things done 40 years ago that like, you know, it's like a designer, it's like, oh yeah, this is a military helmet, which they did an awesome job at. And I knew a lot of these guys were working on that stuff, but at the same time, it's like production timing, reasons for getting it done, draftability, all that sort of thing. So we actually did go in, you will notice little minor things like in particular, oh, I can't mention that character.
00:14:12
Speaker
In particular, on Storm, there's some things with the balaclava that when it came in with the scan, came in, it was just like, what is going on? What did they do here? Did this happen on purpose? Which it could have been a mistake with actually the panographing of the two tools into the skull, into the mold. So what we ended up doing is like cleaning things up, making things like not so messy, but making sure that it is pretty darn close
00:14:42
Speaker
to what it was, if not 98.8% close to what it originally was. I think the biggest difference is they see Vietnam on the back now instead. And their thumbs won't break. And their thumbs won't break. And it's interesting. So Chris was putting my horns on the hands. He's like, we got to make the hands exactly the same. But we all know when you put the weapons in either of their hands with what's it called, the sword grip that they would put on all the weapons.
00:15:04
Speaker
they kind of like shift a little bit. So that's actually something that you're going to see probably progress through the line as we develop. We're trying to hone that in so that we don't have like you're holding an oozy
Balancing Nostalgia and Innovation
00:15:15
Speaker
and it's like sticking that way or falling out. So I will say that's where the 98% comes in with it. We're trying to adjust something so that functionality wise they're better than they ever were.
00:15:27
Speaker
And then at the same time, there's a delineation between what was done 40 years ago and now because 40 years ago, we don't want to completely wash over what was done. So it is slightly different, but it's done in a reverence of what was done, but done what we can do today, essentially. And the figures look really great. I have them sitting like little friends on my computer monitor at my office.
00:15:56
Speaker
Right on track with all the stuff. It's funny the nostalgia feel we got when we got the first EPs in and we get EPs coming in like crazy colors and stuff. Actually these came in like white and black, but usually we get like pink. I was kind of hoping they come in.
00:16:08
Speaker
But when you get them in hand, man. They're great. They're so good. I haven't had them in forever. Because we moved from, I'm going with the details. We moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island, then to Jersey. I lost them in a bunch of moves. So when I got snake eyes in hand, I lost it. I was like, oh my God, I haven't had it in school. And I had got my second hand from family members and stuff. So having it like, sorry, I'm going on a nostalgia boom. I apologize. You guys have questions to ask.
00:16:38
Speaker
I know so many people that were introduced to the idea of kit bashing from being able to kind of wiggle their way in, pop them apart, pop pieces together, and looking at the figure custom community now and where things have grown to, it all started with O-ring Joes. I'm a designer. I mean, all these things apart come back together.
Plans for Classified Series
00:16:59
Speaker
Have fun. Well, thank you so much for your time. I think that's my two. Yeah, thanks, Dave. I'll hand it over to Chris with full force.
00:17:08
Speaker
Hi Lenny, nice to see you again and lovely to meet you Emily in this weird face-to-face but not face-to-face way. As you can probably tell I'm from the UK so I'm going to lead with that. The panel over PulseCon was just absolutely superb like I was blown away in actual fact by the amount of stuff that you guys were kind of
00:17:29
Speaker
throwing ass like it was like I was like calm down I've got to I've got to share this for goodness sake um it was amazing um one of the things obviously that stood out to me was the euro exclusive homage that you threw in with the very first tiger force figure which like you know for one thing I love tiger force anyway
00:17:49
Speaker
I love Tiger Force anyway. But to get a Euro exclusive so early on, I was like, who's in charge there? What is Lenny doing, the crazy guy? No, in all seriousness, great idea. Outback is one of the most iconic, but still blown away. Have you guys considered doing that
00:18:15
Speaker
More like kind of like taking in the kind of foreign homage Are you looking at doing that in the future with classified like a not just without back? It was hugely iconic but with any other characters going forward
00:18:27
Speaker
And I'd say yes. Oh yeah, absolutely. I think that there's the really fun thing about classified series is that there are so many different stories for us to explore. And they have, we have these beautiful iconic characters and there are so many different versions of them that have existed in the GI Joe lore, whether that's in toys, in the cartoons, in the comics, and that we get the privilege of being able to kind of draw them all in and draw that influence in.
00:18:52
Speaker
And with Lenny's magical creative design abilities really being able to bring those to life in premium six inch figures is I think really cool. And one of the things that makes classified really exciting in that, you know, we don't have, we're not necessarily beholden to just doing current entertainment. We get to pull from
00:19:11
Speaker
years and years of history and really being able to explore that. And I think that the sub teams are a great example of that with, you know, Tiger Force and Python Patrol and Cobra Island and, you know, who knows, maybe some more things that may be coming down the pipeline in the future. Could you just list them out, Emily? Could you just list them
Cultural Relevance and Modernization
00:19:29
Speaker
out? Sure. So I'll just list, like, I don't know, like all of the sub teams that exist and then we'll just let you like pick. Yeah. And then send the send the images and I'll just I'll share them. Perfect. That sounds ideal.
00:19:39
Speaker
kind of part of why we didn't do the first 12 up front. Yeah. Right. So it's like, I felt like, yeah, we could have did the first 12 and that's the GI Joe classified line. But we looked at it and we're like, GI Joe has been reiterated every time it comes back out to a different scale. I mentioned this like when we first were releasing it and it's like, it would be a disservice to the brand to do it verbatim as to the 1982 line because it's not what the brand is about. Yeah. As a fashion brand. If you look at GI Joe throughout the years, it is reflective of
00:20:09
Speaker
the environment, social, whatever that it is in, so you have to design it towards that. However, you do have to be reverent to the awesomeness that it was. So that's where we found the balance, I think. And I feel like GI Joe has done a really good job of
00:20:24
Speaker
not necessarily staying exactly the same so that you have that evolution so that it remains current. There's elements of that. And I think that the modernization of the classified figures also really speaks to that because there are more modern elements that are in play with like the 1980s retro feel.
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah, and that's why you'll see characters like the international version Tiger Force outback because in which he had a completely different name. But like we looked at in our research, it's like what are characters that are buzzworthy, right? That's why we have Pedestro that we did. He's a buzzworthy character. So it's like we want to make it a fun line too. We could do verbatim stuff.
00:21:01
Speaker
But there's a level of like, that's how you update things from a design and style standpoint. Like there's a level of fashion design. And if you think about Tiger Force, he kind of screams Tiger Force too. He's the brandy sign, isn't he? With the t-shirt, with the purple logo on it. It's weird. It's like a warden always says it this way. He's like, Lenny, go to your beautiful mind, crazy
00:21:24
Speaker
Like, you know, like magic stuff, like put everything in the cauldron and see what comes out. And it's like there is a practicality in business to it. But then that's where the art of design comes in when you're like kind of paying attention to the zeitgeist of the community and potential new fans because we want new fans to. Right. So it's like I think that character kind of resonates a little bit. And I like to put a 12 inch crocodile into the line.
00:21:47
Speaker
You know, like... Can I add a question here, Emily? No, go for it. During PulseCon, and I was... For one, I think it was brilliant. Before I say anything, I thought it was amazing. But it appeared as though you made a little mistake when you guys were talking about what
Challenges in Updating Figures
00:22:05
Speaker
your favourite reveals were or whatever. And you mentioned Fiona before having seen Crop Master. And then everyone's kind of like, we haven't revealed that yet.
00:22:13
Speaker
and then beautifully timed Outcomes Crockmaster. Now, was that scripted and you were just really good at doing this stuff, or was that a genuine mistake? Well, isn't that part of the mystery? I respect you too much, Slidy, but it was scripted. Well, in that case, I'll say that is absolutely brilliant then, because you absolutely nailed that to perfection.
00:22:42
Speaker
Well done. Good acting. Good acting rehearsal. And it was, it was an accident the first time it happened. And we're like, Oh no, that was kind of funny. Like nice. For real in the show. I think our nervousness, cause we did rehearse like four times, but I think the nervousness of it, like, you know, you're, we, we, we don't have a script on Joe. We just have like, Oh, these are the points I got to tell you. So remind me of bullet points. And then we just kind of go, cause we feel it's more genuine that way. But, um,
00:23:09
Speaker
Like we, I think in our nervousness, we like to stick to that and it was kind of fun and those go with it. Yeah. I think if we went off, it would have thrown us off the pace. I will say it came across really well. I think out of all the brands, nothing to take away from any of the other brands or any of the presentations, but you guys are so slick and so it kind of shows on screen really. So shout out to both of you and Corey and Chris as well. You did a great job.
00:23:32
Speaker
It was a lot of fun. So I was on the Power Rangers team for the last year and got to kind of cut my teeth on doing Fan First Fridays. But this was really like the first
Storytelling Strategies in Design
00:23:41
Speaker
time that I'd been in a studio doing it live from the studio with other people. We didn't have to deal with filming delays. So it was a lot of fun. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And it is also a little nerve wracking. I mean, I went to school product design, not talk on. And yes, here we are. Here we are.
00:24:03
Speaker
Here we are. Well, yeah. Thank you very much. Well, Fiona. Yeah. And thank you. All right. Thank you, Chris. Handing it next to Jeremy, Lenny Cole. Hey, guys. Amy. Hi. Congrats. I'd like to echo his sentiments and say congratulations on a really awesome panel. Paul's kind. I almost said Hascon. Sorry. Paul's kind.
00:24:28
Speaker
My first question would be about Tiger Force and Python Patrol. I've been really enjoying the character selection and designs in the Cobra Island figures. Was it always in the cards to switch from Cobra Island to other sub lines in the classified series after a certain period of time? Or were you just like, okay, we've kind of run its course on Cobra Island. Let's switch to this and make it more exciting again. Maybe get that fervor kick back up.
00:25:02
Speaker
But I think that we, based on strategic needs and stuff like that, we're like, no, let's do something a little different. And the line grew exponentially. As it started turning on, we had different needs that we had to
Diversity and Community Engagement
00:25:15
Speaker
fulfill. But for me, I think we should change it. Maybe depending on where it is and where it lands strategically business-wise, maybe one exclusive partner will have something different every year, one will have something for two years,
00:25:23
Speaker
From the start, I actually wanted to try to go first of the first year.
00:25:31
Speaker
I think it depends on the need of the business. Like I think Cobra Island and Python Patrol, there are particular characters we need to get into. So perhaps it could last a little longer. Other programs, maybe they can be in and out.
00:25:45
Speaker
I mean, some of the sub teams were smaller, so it wouldn't make sense to be able to have that flexibility. And from a storytelling perspective, it's so cool to be able to take the characters to different locations and have like, I love the different vibes that each of the sub teams have. And I think from a collection point of view, it's what were you saying? It's like mini collections on your shelf. Yes.
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah. And so being able to kind of have those and like, so you could feasibly do like a Python patrol tiger force diorama on your shelf. You could do one that is just a Cobra Island one so that these characters are acting it's, but it's super feasible to also mix and match them. So I think that that's kind of the beautiful part about the programs. They work really well.
00:26:23
Speaker
Like just with their like little baby programs, but they also work really well with the overall line. Like I would personally love to just have a giant shelf full of Python patrol vipers and bats. Like that sounds amazing to me. I think that would be super cool. It's interesting too. Cause like, like, if like we're looking at like GI Joe from 82 till like 2012 or no, 2000 and 2012 and it kind of dwindled from Hasbro. Um,
00:26:49
Speaker
there's a lot of figures to pull from and like what goes in mainline and then what
Addressing Feedback and Market Presence
00:26:53
Speaker
goes into exclusive programs and it's like some of those sub teams are like five characters does that get a program or does it go into mainline so it's like it's mixing and matching and it's business needs it's cost issues it's a lot of things it's like john said it's the art of design and marketing to where it gets a little it's more mana based than logic based at times yeah
00:27:16
Speaker
And necromancers, by the way, control. I want to set this for the record as opposed to the comments. Necromancers control inanimate objects or dead things. So it actually figured technically Corey could be a necromancer. That was, I think, the best comment of and so we do go back to so that everybody knows like we do go back and read all of the comments that come out of events that we do and we want to see, you know,
00:27:38
Speaker
What people are interacting or what what your feelings are like what character selections you're putting out when we ask questions Like we genuinely want to know the answers that are typed in the chat So we go back and look and that was hands down my favorite one that or it was that The Fiona comes with a free croc master figure. That was also one of my favorite comments And feel an applicator. That was a nice one. So my top three. Yeah
00:28:04
Speaker
Sorry to segue into that. I know what a necromancer is. I'm also sorry that you had to read the comments as well. Oof. That sometimes could probably get written. I've had to chill. I've had to chill because, I mean, you guys know. We're the ones writing those horrible comments.
00:28:26
Speaker
I think for the most part, people seemed like they were really pleased with the line and pleased with the figures and the character selections. And I mean, it's nice to be able to get that. I mean, it's not like we only do what we do for the positive reinforcement from fans, but it doesn't hurt when we get positive reinforcement from fans. And negative reinforcement, too. You're like, ooh. Yeah, that holds course correctly. Maybe not that again. You know what I mean?
00:28:49
Speaker
My second question is also kind of a compliment as well. I was on with you guys about this time last year and almost every question that we were asking you was about distribution problems.
00:29:02
Speaker
And it has not been a problem since you guys told us on that first call, we're fixing it. Don't worry about it. If you want these figures, you'll be able to get them. And that has been the case. I just got barbecue like literally two seconds before we went to fall. But with everything that's still going on in the world, has it been a little bit hard to see the excitement surrounding a line?
00:29:29
Speaker
it dovetailing into this weird, I want these figures but I can't have these figures and it kind of ebbing and flowing like excitement when the announcements are made and then vitriol and they can't find them on the shelf for a little while and now they're everywhere and everybody can get them. What's it been like dealing with all that?
00:29:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think that it's really hard. And you know, when you're so, I mean, realistically, GI Joe relaunched as a brand very recently. So as the classified series iteration of the brand, we are still very new. And to be quite frank, we did not know what the appetite would be for classified series when it launched. Like, would this be this new scale for GI Joe fans? Would this be something that people would respond positively to? And it turns out that the answer is an overwhelming yes.
00:30:14
Speaker
But you know, with that, it took us a little while to kind of course correct on just how popular this line was going to be. But I think that it as
00:30:24
Speaker
I feel like we are at a very good point in the line where we have figured out what kind of quantities we need to be manufacturing to make sure that fans are happy, that retailers are able to get enough to actually have product on shelf. I know that there was a long time where when you would walk into stores, regardless of what store you went to, the GI Joe pegs on the shelf were empty, no product at all. And it's too bad that the world is in the middle of all of the things that are happening right now with the global supply chain issues.
00:30:54
Speaker
and the pandemic that's still raging and all of these things. And so we're trying our very, very best to get figures into your hands as soon as possible. One of the things that I know that we've mentioned, I think the Star Wars team has mentioned, is that we really want the pre-order experience to be positive for fans.
00:31:10
Speaker
And so to us, what that means is that if you if we open up pre-orders for you, you should not be being able to go to brick and mortar stores and find them on shelves before like your pre-order is fulfilled. So to us, that's really important. We want you to have a good experience. And so what that means is we run into situations like with the mainline bat and the alley viper.
00:31:32
Speaker
where we're not doing, we didn't open pre-orders for them, specifically because we want you to have that good experience. And so as those figures kind of slowly start to roll out, I mentioned on
00:31:45
Speaker
his tank the other day, that it would be, you get to, basically retailers kind of get to choose how they're doing their own rollout. So some may open up pre-orders, some may just put things in brick and mortar, some may wait until they actually have them in hand and just put them up online, but then we promise that figures are coming and that it is an absolute priority to us that this process is as unfrustrating, is that a word?
00:32:08
Speaker
Unfrustrating for you as humanly possible because, you know, we're making these figures for you for the fans. And if you can't get them and if you're upset about them, like we don't want that to happen. And so I think that we've done, it's working well and with target pre-orders, you know, there were pre-orders for I think the Cobra Viper or the Bat stayed up for like 24 hours after PulseCon because they have upped their pre-order quantity so much in response to
00:32:35
Speaker
all of the passion from the fans. And so we think that we're kind of on a good path at this point. Kudos Emily for going to his tank and just going straight to the community with that candor because as you all know some random got a bat sent an alley viper through Walmart through using a code name and like the whole community is going crazy and then you come on to his tank and directly address the issue to try to minimize that fear of missing out that
00:33:02
Speaker
all the collectors share when something like that happens. So we appreciate that. I think Emily's been doing an awesome job of like kind of like managing expectations a little bit because it's like we are a really strange environment and we launched this new brand. I was afraid it was going to die because of the pandemic. I was like, oh no, this is going to fall apart. We've been working for years. Nobody can go to stores anymore. Yeah, right. So I think you've done a really good job of like
00:33:29
Speaker
We could have been like the pre-order is going up at this time, but we don't know. Yes. So it's like, will we gonna lie to everybody? Yeah. And then it's a mess. And then it's like, just trying to be real about it, right? It's we can, we should. We should.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it's working. Oh, yeah. Right. Exactly. And I mean, some of those Cobra Island preorders have gone back up on target. Like I was able some of them are difficult for us to find, too. So I think I just pleased an order for a barbecue like a couple of weeks ago and it showed up at my house. I was like, wow, this is a fun surprise. And I'm not joking with like on Instagram and stuff like every once in a while, like a little comment on people's things. I really don't try to put work stuff up, but I'll be like, OK. I'll say the other day I was like, I don't even have these figures in box.
00:34:10
Speaker
I don't. I have FEPs with numbers across their heads. That's how bad a supply chain is, but we don't even have final what we call PSP. We don't have those yet. Just because we can't get them, we can only have our production samples that I will then Frankenstein to do other things with too.
00:34:28
Speaker
like that's how the environment is crazy right now and i'd also like to point out somebody left a comment on the 1027 video about how i had so many of the cobra island vipers behind me and that's why nobody could find them because they were all sitting on my desk and we have those for um so those are like all of the samples that we have that we can use for sample needs
00:34:50
Speaker
If like something comes up for PR that we can use for photo shoots, you know, we love to be able to kind of mix and match waves for storytelling in photo shoots. And so those are the things that we just hold for those things. I promise that I'm not hoarding all of the GI Joe figures in the universe, although I do have a couple of boxes of profit director Destro's hiding under my desk. But I think he was still available on Pulse, either now or until very recently. So I feel proud about that one. OK, perfect. Zero guilt. Right.
00:35:19
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. Over to Fred with graphic policy. Thank you. So my question is, so one of the things that stood out to me about the presentation was when Spirit was revealed and how much like clear thought was going into updating the character.
00:35:45
Speaker
on the background and all that for as you go back in and decide on like what you want to bring back in an update, like how are you actually deciding and recognizing like what needs to be updated? Like the prime example in that was there was a there was a comment about making him a sniper instead of a tracker. And when it was said, it was like, oh, yeah, no, that totally makes sense. But like, until that was said, it's not even something that would click, like click for me.
00:36:09
Speaker
So I'm just kind of interested in knowing what your process is, kind of going through that and thinking through all that. So on all classified figures, part of my job is to research and refresh my memory on the character's specific abilities. And as you guys all know, what they're trained in, what they do, kind of like what military background they have or what military, what non-military background they have.
00:36:34
Speaker
So when we try to pick accessories and orbs, like on the beach head with the with his beret, like that's a beret on his vest. That's why he has a beret. But in the case of Spirit, well, I got to say I wasn't. Spirit is one of my favorite characters. Spirit and Sartan.
00:36:52
Speaker
They're the jam. Right. So it was like it was very important for us because that is a community that has faced a lot of problems right from the country at large and it's like multiple communities within a community.
00:37:07
Speaker
So we wanted to make sure that we got his backstory correct. We wanted to adjust some things that were done back in the day that needed to be adjusted. And a lot of that was actually thanks to YouTube. I did a lot of YouTube video watching to see what fans had commented on that maybe have needed a bit of an update, right? And then same thing with indigenous communities, like watching YouTube videos on indigenous communities and what is important to
00:37:35
Speaker
those communities, just like with any other character that has kind of like a heavy cultural background to them or like, like even if it did a character from, if we did a character from Taiwan and he had like a lot of influences from their country, we would do research on that. And that's what's so cool about G.I. Joe, like my dork hat goes on. And it's like, let's go into become history buff of what this character is, hence the chevrons being flip-flopped on him. Things like that that needed to be updated
00:38:05
Speaker
And what a pleasure it was to work on him and I gotta say when when we talked with taboo and he was telling I got goosebumps a little bit because I really did it was so like very important to me that we got him right because he is one of the characters but I do know that there's some sensitivity points that needed to be addressed.
00:38:22
Speaker
So we went in and we worked with our D&I team. It's our diversity inclusion group to like run it through like on these designs a lot of times like it's not just me like I do design them and then other people look at them they rip me apart and then I go design them again and then we do it again and then we do it again and then we do it again it's kind of you know you guys have seen a lot of production design videos on movies and
00:38:44
Speaker
comic books and stuff, it's a bit kind of similar. So long story short, extremely important. Long story short, we did a lot of research to see what was important and actually working with Tabu changing his backstory to make him Navajo. He's changing where he's from and things like that and picking an actual nation.
00:39:03
Speaker
And then we were able to pinpoint that and run with that So I think it also like saying, you know now he is Navajo now all of the all the elements about him saying Navajo He is no longer a hodgepodge of different Native American identities He is a Navajo character. And I know we saw a couple of comments asking his broadcloth. Is that what it was?
00:39:28
Speaker
Actually, it was an Apache, I believe, war apron, which that was one of the first things we were like, he's not Apache. He never was Apache. Why does he have a war apron? And that was one of the things that we looked at. And I apologize if I'm misquoting things or anything like that, but that was one of the things we looked at and it was like, we wouldn't have it. So that's why it's one of the things that was removed. Yeah.
00:39:52
Speaker
That's actually really cool. That's a link of detail I wouldn't even thought of. So to hear that is pretty awesome. Yeah. We looked at Navajo culture too. What could we add that's Navajo? Yeah. And I think that having taboo as, you know, so taboo for those of you who don't know founding member of the black IPs, but also like a really great kind of representative of the indigenous community and is part of like, it makes him really happy to be able to help kind of, uh,
00:40:21
Speaker
What's the phrase that I'm looking for? Make sure that spirit isn't an offensive stereotype. That's a phrase. So being able to really bring him into the modern era and make him a character and a figure that the Native American community can be really proud of was really important to him and really important to us. So I'm really glad that we have gotten to work together on that.
00:40:44
Speaker
So for this second question, you've talked a bit about like updating the sky striker and then you've also gone back during the presentation, talked about Zartan and updating the color changing aspect for that, which was a really cool update. And you said how the tech has changed in the 40 years since this came out. Is there been anything you've gone and you've wanted to update and you just were like, we actually can't do it today. Like we really, you know, we either technically can't do it or just. Technologically, I mean, it doesn't work. Yeah, something, something just doesn't work now that we can update.
00:41:14
Speaker
While Lenny's noodling, I will say on color-changing Zartan, it brings me great joy that people are saying that he has been so cold in the delivery truck that he shows up already blue. And once he's in their house, he starts to be the regular skin color. That's amazing. It brought me a lot of happiness. It's funny with that, too. It's like we were trying to figure out, somebody had thought about it, make it heat because of the sun. They were like, you'll melt the plastic.
00:41:40
Speaker
So that's why we're like, no, you got to go cold. But I'm trying to think, you know, this is a little tidbit. There's a lot of stuff we're still building the line. That's the first kind of like, again, for my prior life on Transformers, there's a lot of kid stuff and it's generation stuff. But like from a feature standpoint, we are not really deep into the features yet. So that's our first like big feature on the act on an action figure collector, action figure world. But from a design standpoint, we were going to change the Cobra logo.
00:42:10
Speaker
Oh, really? Well, we weren't. But design and graphics was like, we're going to burn the building down if we did. Because it is a perfect logo. But I think.
00:42:23
Speaker
I think this kind of pertains to that, right? Where we look at things and we're like, this is perfect. Why would you change it? There is no stylistic or fashion need to adjust this. And that's where you'll see some of the design languages change or be adjusted or update or something like that. Because a lot of times unclassified, you'll notice seams and textures. I do that to hide where a strap is going or hide a shelf in articulation.
00:42:49
Speaker
And that's the really cool part about this line is it's like, oh, well, if we put a holster here and put this here, we can actually hide the thigh swivel. And then for photos, you don't have any thigh swivel breaks on your figure and it looks dope. So it's kind of a really fun part about working on GI Joe, where it's like we are adjusting for that. I think that kind of connects to technology.
00:43:11
Speaker
Is thigh swivel the technical term? Yeah, thigh swivel, that's what we call it in general, yeah. I guess I've never paid attention to the thigh swivel joint before. But I think it's as good as your technical term for tush pockets. So, Bjorn has tush pockets too, I just noticed while we were talking. Yeah, 100% the technical term. You know I'm using that from now on, by the way.
00:43:33
Speaker
Please, and I dropped some gems when I was on Power Rangers too. I referred, oh, the A-Squad Power Rangers armor had these like really kind of, it was a, it almost looked like when you go to play laser tag, like the cool laser tag vest that you get to have on. And so it was, there were these big shoulders and I definitely, I think it was one of the, or fairly, no, it wasn't them, it was an earlier live stream. Anyway, I definitely referred to somebody as having shoulder pads in a like a Power Rangers live stream.
00:44:02
Speaker
and was like, oh, oh, and it was King's face. He had these like really posable ankles. I was like, and he has such pretty ballet feet. That was just like, oh my God, these people are going to hate me. I mean, at the end of the day, like we're serious about the characters, the actors, but same time you make toy products. Yeah, we make toys. We are fun. We're a little whimsical about things.
00:44:21
Speaker
I think the technology points to it's like a lot of our technology issues are our tolerances in plastics and you know working things out like this figure will stand with it with freedom on him like it was not spend some time to make it work but like actually getting the tolerances to work to get this to go in there and stuff like that where
00:44:43
Speaker
Back in the day, they probably would have made freedom out of polypropylene and you wouldn't have been able to do swappable wings and stuff like that. Don't quote me on the plastics, Chris will yell at me. But, you know, I think it's a lot for us. It's mastering of the craft itself. And then what can we add to the craft like you see with the Zara Chan?
00:45:05
Speaker
And I actually have samples of the color change with a photo chromic. It's crazy. It's crazy to watch it work. But when we did testing, Chris wasn't lying. It literally would last four times and then you'd be done. And we couldn't release that to you guys. That would be, it would be sad. Yeah. No one would be happy. Yeah.
00:45:24
Speaker
I will say to finish up really quick, what you released was amazing. It kept my three-year-old daughter busy for an hour, just going back and forth between the freezer. That's what it's all about. That's awesome. I loved it. Blue her mind. Jason at Backyard Battles, when you see the Zartan in the freezer next to all of his frozen food, I was like, this is perfect. This is exactly what everybody is going to be doing with their figures, and I love it. I want some pizza. I want a good pizza in there.
00:45:52
Speaker
And now a word from our sponsors. And now back to the show. Oh, handing it over to Scott with Toy Wizards.
00:46:04
Speaker
Great to see you guys again. Of course, Emily, I know you're from the Power Rangers side as I'm Power Rangers, you know, eccentric as well. As G.I. Joe. Just like a little, you know. Are you going to come to Morphicon next year? Yeah, I would totally come to Morphicon next year. When's it happening? It's in August. Yeah, but it sounds like so much fun. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Come on. It'll be fun. I mean, of course, G.I. Joe.
00:46:32
Speaker
This GI Joe line has just been fantastic. Wave after wave just keeps getting better and better. And part of that, I believe, is just the design aesthetic has definitely taken a turn to be more realistic and also a nod to the vintage.
00:46:53
Speaker
And I think that's really, really impressed upon the fans on how the line is going. And I just want to, another affirmation from you that that is the plan and going forward, we're going to keep getting this, uh, darker nod to the original lines. Yes. It's funny. You said, so it's funny, like.
00:47:16
Speaker
Looking at the old school toys and you're like all right so lady J's and the greens and that and the black hat and then like match if I if I was to go in there and take my pants on book and drop the Pantone book on top of the three quarters lady J and inspect lady J into that color.
00:47:32
Speaker
When you see it at a larger scale, it doesn't work. And there's something about it, and I think GI Joe has a grittiness to it. And I think that it needs to have a bit of that, but at the same time, it's still approachable. It's not like scary world. It's like these are everyday people going above and beyond, but it has to have a little bit of grip. And it's funny, I was like talking, I'm like, I'm not making toys.
00:47:55
Speaker
I'm making, I'm making heroes or something. Like I had like a little like designer tangent. I was, I wasn't mad. I was just like, I'm not trying to make a toy. I'm trying to make something dope. Sounds like a baby designer tantrum. Yeah. And basically it's like, even my color spec, like I'm like, I've been finding like, Oh, when I think it's a color, it's actually two colors darker because the way it works, the plastic, cause we really are trying to make miniatures in a weird way, right? We're trying to make miniature heroes.
00:48:21
Speaker
And I think that goes across all of our six inch lines that all of the designers are kind of like, that's our aspiration. And it's fun to do and on Joe it's fun to do too because Hasbro, we own it outright so we can kind of take those liberties and like see a lot of flexibility, a lot of flexibility to pay attention and like Emily and I can read directly what's on that board and go,
00:48:40
Speaker
oh okay a hundred people are saying that maybe i made a mistake or maybe oh we're doing that right so um i think i wanted to change it a little bit i apologize but
00:48:52
Speaker
Yes. It would be really succinct about it. I totally understand because I do do paint masters for toy companies. I've done GI Joe paint masters on some of the 50th anniversary figures. Oh, sweet. And definitely getting stuff toned where it's dark, but not too dark, but not comically light. Yes. And finding that balance within your plastic, because it doesn't matter how I paint it or what you call out a Pantone,
00:49:22
Speaker
What the plastic looks like always changes from what we think. Oh, I torture the guys with this. What happens is we spec a color. Then what happens is the paint master gets created, as you know, and then it goes to the factory. Factory then iterates those colors into the plastic, depending on how it is mixed, depending on the color that is used, depending on like the colors on screen right now are completely different than what it would be in real life.
00:49:48
Speaker
That bugs me when people call out a screen color. I'm like, don't call me out of screen color. No, it doesn't. It's in hand. It's funny. I've been learning that. I got to wait for a really sunny day to spec a color. Like I'm like, I'm not messing with this and this neon light, like is the real color is the sunlight. So.
00:50:06
Speaker
At the end of the day, we'll change a color at when our engineering pilots come in, because we have to. It's got to be right. It really has paid off. The figures are great. Of course, like you, Zartan and Spirit are two of my favorite figures, and they both just look fantastic. They really are magnificent figures. The most exclusive Zartan master of disguise
00:50:36
Speaker
is probably the best GI Joe figure out now. And I have to keep saying that because you guys keep raising that bar figure after figure after figure.
00:50:49
Speaker
But the color call outs on Zartan to make them that comic book Zartan really work. Color change is fun. I opened up mine and of course he was like blue in the box. And then he did, you know, come back to normal. So he defrosted and came back to life.
00:51:09
Speaker
I wanted to, in our panel for PulseCon, I wanted to have like a bowl full of ice water and just like dunk the entire figure in live and watch him turn blue. But we had the sweetest, our like Ron who was like managing us during PulseCon. And I think Ron would have had a heart attack if I like had a giant bowl of water. And I was just like, and here it is. It's like dripping everywhere. So we decided to be nice to Ron.
00:51:37
Speaker
Yeah, but thank you. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. A lot of my other questions have been answered as I'm last on the group here. So I get to kind of like, oh, I can't ask any of those questions now. Something Emily that you brought up was a multi pack. Is that something we can get in the future for these army building because much like Star Wars,
00:52:01
Speaker
multi-packs and army building are something that we need so much. The fans really, really need to have a hundred Vipers behind them for no apparent reason. You know, they, I just got to ask them. You have Emily, we all need to have more than you.
00:52:20
Speaker
Okay. I understand. And I, so we have, we totally know the love of army builders and rest assured we have some very cool things in the pipeline that we think that everybody will be really excited about when it comes to troop building. Um, yeah, that's dope. I feel like that's, uh, yeah, that's a, so within
00:52:43
Speaker
Well, all our timelines are a little off. Soonish. We hear you. We hear you. Soonish. There will be some cool things. That's what people need so they don't just panic like, oh, but I only got 24 Cobra Troopers and I don't have enough officers for that.
00:53:01
Speaker
Don't worry, we'll keep getting troop builders and keep being able to build these armies. I mean, looking at the way these figures are coming out, where Joes are actually outnumbered now by Cobra quite a bit. They are. Yeah, I feel like the troop builders really kind of lean into that, too, because on the Joes, the way that I kind of talk about it when I'm talking to our sales teams is, you know, we all of our figures are like fall into three buckets. So you have your Joes who are all named characters. Then you have your named Cobras.
00:53:29
Speaker
And then you have your truth building cobras. And when I try to explain in terms of like sales forecasting, it's, you know, most people will get probably one or two of the named figures, but who knows how many of the truth builders they'll buy just because you really can have, you know, 24 cobra vipers on your shelf and it'll look super cool. So 24 is such a low number for a show.
00:53:54
Speaker
So maybe 50, 50 if you could get those. But I think that we really taking that into account when we're doing like further line planning of products, our sales teams are taking that into account when they're ordering things to make sure that there's enough of the quantities to go around. We know that the troop builders are being bought in multiples and so we're really trying to take that into account for fans. That's really great. Obviously, Ally Vipers and Bants are starting to show up and people are really excited
00:54:25
Speaker
Yeah. They're so cool. That is such a fantastic figure. It was a figure when it came out, people immediately hated it and then it became the one of the second most loved figures next to bats. Yeah. I loved it when it first came out. Yeah. Same. Right out the gate, man. It's actually the beautiful thing about GI Joe. So generational.
00:54:49
Speaker
Yeah. There's a couple of guys that work there a bit older than me and they're like, what's this shit going? And I'm like, the alley, I took the alley vapor everywhere. I went and then like other guys are like, why aren't you doing this one? I'm like, we're gone. Just calm down and get there. And that's the beauty of being in a company that owns the brand too. It's like everybody knows it and everybody loves it and everybody beats me up. Yeah.
00:55:13
Speaker
But yeah, I think again, it's so generational that it's like, again, I mentioned it earlier. It's like, you can't just do the first 12 to start.
00:55:23
Speaker
A bunch of other people think about the kids who grew up with like renegades and stuff like that. Like they love G.I. Joe, too. That's what we're going to do. We started Savage Savage. Yeah, the claw. We got to do it. It was a great bad guy. Really is. What's that? What are the ponytail figures that Ninja Force? Oh, you like Sansa bar. The the right the neon pink guy. Oh, with the blonde ponytail. I don't remember his name.
00:55:52
Speaker
He was in, like, the 90s. There was a scarlet in that line. Bonsai? Yes! Yeah. Talk about a really practical figure for going out and fighting crime. I'm not sure if it's a root pair, but... Oh, god. That sounds like a terrible, terrible life choice. But, like, to be able to wear, like, bright pink pants, like, there's just something, like,
00:56:14
Speaker
So good. So good. I mean, I rock. Yeah. Well, now you know what my preference is for figures. So like, bring on the 90 beyond. Yeah. But for me to close up, again, thank you guys so much for the work you put on the line. The dedication, Lenny, really shows in the product. Despite fan outrage about every single thing you do, you are doing great work, and we really do appreciate it. Thanks, man. Appreciate that. That means a lot.
00:56:41
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. And it's really, really cool that you guys are, uh, you know, taking people's feedback and recommendations for different characters that they want to see in the line. I just think it's amazing that you're reading the comments that have to be me. He's referring to life. You need any information there? Lightfoot soldier. Right.
00:57:07
Speaker
Did you say ice cream, soldier? Yeah, we're not going to get into it right now. We're not going to make them. You're good. Full disclosure, so I am still learning about the G.I. Joe universe. There's, I mean, you know, so many years of heritage. So Lenny has been so wonderful about pointing me towards things to get to learn about. If any of you have suggestions for episodes, I should be watching comics. I should be reading, like, what are your favorite pieces of the G.I. Joe universe that I should that you can point me towards? I would really appreciate it.
00:57:40
Speaker
Or wherever. Do you guys all know my his tank name at this point? Like, can you just write me on there? An email, whatever you'd like to do. I'd love recommendations.
00:57:51
Speaker
We've been lucky over the years to get quite a bit of really good world building. I would say Max Brooks' Parts and Minds is amazing, and Christo Skage and Anthony Costa's Cobra series is phenomenal. Obviously, the Larry Hama books, you just have to read all those. Yeah, there's plenty for you to dig in on. That's only like 35 years worth of comics, right? It's less than 300 books, unless you count special missions and then it's over 300 books. It's a weekend. There can be dialogue at times. And it's all really well written, too. That's a great idea.
00:58:21
Speaker
unsung hero when it comes to the comic book world, if you ask that. Cool. We do like comics. The cool thing, 40th anniversary of GI Joe Real American Hero obviously is next year, 2022, and hopefully Larry Hama's book will hit number 300 to be the cap on the back of that in December. If any of the books get pushed much more, we might not hit 300 in 2022, but that would be amazing.
00:58:43
Speaker
Yeah, that would be really cool. And we do have, I know that we didn't touch on it a lot during PulseCon, but we will be celebrating the 40th anniversary next year. We've got some really cool things planned. So stay tuned to learn more about those in the next year, which it's crazy. Somebody mentioned a date the other day and they were like, oh yeah, this happened in 2020. I was like, that was so long ago. Was it really that long ago? We've been locked up for two years. Yeah, time has no meaning anymore.
00:59:12
Speaker
We should be able to get through those comics in no time then. It'd be easy. Yeah, perfect. Can I ask one question about the Python Viper quickly before we go? Does it come with the scarf or not? Because I haven't seen any pictures with the scarf yet.
00:59:28
Speaker
I had a brain fart and I thought it did for a second, but it did not. So we ended up having so as with all figures and all toy lines, it's kind of a give and take with some things. And so it was the bat only comes with one head, the
00:59:44
Speaker
Python patrol bat only comes with one head and one chest piece. And the, was it the Viper doesn't come with its scarf? It doesn't come with the scarf that the main line does. And I mean, you know, we like to give a little bit of difference between the main line and the exclusives, but the, the deco differences between the Python patrol line, those excluding those small items allowed us to really get the quality of deco that we wanted on those figures that we thought that you would really appreciate. So consider it like,
01:00:14
Speaker
those are fun bonus mainline items and then there's also encouragement to buy the exclusive python patrol versions for the super dope decko yeah i think it's some the way to think about it's like i'm gonna say it so it's a halloween way like i have a hundred jelly beans that i can use on the python patrol viper i exceeded my hundred jelly beans
01:00:37
Speaker
So some things have to get cut. And the same thing that we said for the bats as well. It's like, well, if it's going to be Python patrol, it needs things. And what does it not need? Well, it needs everything they ask me. But I work for a corporation and we have to do a certain thing. And sometimes if it needs everything, it doesn't fit in the box. And we have to make the box bigger. It's a lot. That's the work part. Yeah.
01:01:04
Speaker
I wanted to sneak in one more thing about O-rings. So, Lydia, I love your point about staying faithful to the designs of 40 years ago, but still modifying to make them improvements based on the technology of today. One of the consistent complaints about ARAH sculpts is that sometimes the heads didn't have as much detail, the faces didn't have as much expression as some of the later heads, and people see that when they look at ARAH. They're like, I love them, but the faces could use a little more detail.
01:01:33
Speaker
There's been a gentleman on Facebook, Derek Roush, that has been doing cartoon remakes of the ARAH O-ring figures. And these have cartoon inspired head sculpts. These are ball joint and they are swappable. These are normal 1982 to 1994 ARAH figures, just with new sculpts for the heads. And these are cartoon accurate, so you get a more serious duke.
01:01:58
Speaker
You get Lady J with the hat off with their hair messed up, which I love. You get the snake eyes with the three visor slits and then the two kind of like nose things. So anyway, I thought these were brilliant and I wanted to just throw this out there as a possibility with your O-ring figures going forward that are 95% faithful. Perhaps you could throw in an alternate head like Jinx with her headscarf off
01:02:21
Speaker
Because in the movie, for example, Jinx, you saw her face 90% of the time she was on camera. So those types of things that are nods that give us alternate heads, Lady J with a hat and without a hat, you already did that for classified. I love that you did that for classified. You could do the same thing for O-ring, Lady J, for example. It's interesting. It depends on the play, right? Because we talked about that. Like, that was when we were deciding to do O-ring. It's like, OK, how much do we keep? How much do we not? And I think part of our design philosophy on O-ring is like,
01:02:50
Speaker
A lot of us had these figures, but a lot of us didn't hold on to them. So it's like, how do we get these back into people's hands? So the idea was like, let's recreate them pretty verbatim.
01:03:00
Speaker
However, that doesn't mean that there's not room for improvement as the line expands, just like they did back in the day, throughout the 20-year spans of 30-quarters line. So I think there is room for that. I just want to be mindful of the community and what the expectations are. Because I, for one, am a designer, and I love updates. I love adjusting things. I love more functionality. But I've got to be cognizant of the community at large.
01:03:29
Speaker
Yes, that's awesome. It'd be like a bonus, you know, I think you still would need the original faithful design, but like a bonus head that adds something. Yeah, I think there's probably room for it, but we just got a they're brand new right now nobody has me. So it's kind of like, I'm curious, it's just like with the first wave of classified like, like a sponge, I took those comments and
01:03:50
Speaker
And, you know, we learned and I think the same thing will happen again. And then we'll find some improvements like we're already doing improvements like the C grips like Chris and I are talking right now it's like, Oh, maybe if the C grip was more like complete secret will have better holding of weapons and stuff like that. So definitely yes. And from a design aesthetic standpoint, I want to see where people's heads are at. And I think when we'll start seeing
01:04:12
Speaker
evolution, because I feel like you got to be careful to be so nostalgic and so true, because sometimes things get stale. Yeah, for sure. You tell the same story, you know, the people start going like, all right.
01:04:24
Speaker
It'd be cool to see some of the other movie characters done in O-ring too. I would love to see it. Yes! Big lob. Python-a. Let's do it. Let's do it. Because you know the big lob that we got is just using Mercer's head sculpt and I can't help but see Mercer in blackface and that's not acceptable for big lob. We need a real big lob that looks like the movie character. I think it's just, again, that's like Emily said earlier, Jack Joe is brand new again. Yeah. So he's got to go.
01:04:48
Speaker
2022 is going to be huge. You guys are killing it right now, man. Hopefully. Hopefully. We're trying. Hopefully. Yeah. Thank you guys very much. Really appreciate what you're doing. Any additional questions? We have a little time if anyone did have one more question. I have 25 more questions. We should just go one at a time. Give everybody a chance.
01:05:09
Speaker
I think we covered a lot today, so this is great. If anyone does have any follow up questions, feel free to email me or Lawrence and we'll happily run them by the team. And also, I mean, Joe, we we're literally going to just go dig in the archives in 20 minutes. So if anybody has like, yeah, we have some time for anybody has anything else. OK, so since Chris and I have already asked a bonus question, why don't we give everybody else a chance? And if you guys pass on that, Chris and I know have other questions.
01:05:35
Speaker
I would just like to ask about more deluxe figures. Now that we have deluxe figures with vehicles and deluxe figures with animals, do we have the ability to get deluxe figures with other stuff? I really like the deluxe figure box that we're doing with Power Rangers and now we're doing with with GI Joe.
01:05:58
Speaker
A figure with some extra accessories, a little bit of higher price point, but well worth the value. Are we going to see more down that line? Maybe.
01:06:09
Speaker
with us going, eh? Yeah, your poker face is horrible, Emily. I know, it's really, really bad. We are, so we also love being able to do figures that come with more things that it really kind of leans into that storytelling world. So I'm gonna say maybe with an eh, and then tell you how much I love the Purantis head figure that Power Rangers just premiered. It is. Oh, it's so nice.
01:06:35
Speaker
The Piranhas had is, I have one sitting on my desk because I was still on the team when we were doing the development for it. And it is so cool. His little fish nunchuck situation. There's something about a brand that like really rocks its kaiju origins and monsters that you get on Power Rangers are just friggin out of this world. Like why would you have a pumpkin monster that speaks only in like rap one liners? It was 1992.
01:07:05
Speaker
It's beautiful, and I feel like it works so well for them. So I'm so impressed with the team and everything that they've put together. Not to direct away from G.I. Joe, but you know, give a little love. You know, Lenny, these figures would look really good with snake armor.
01:07:20
Speaker
Yes, yes. Piggyback on that, the build a figure concept with a let's make it figures that we all want this. So what if we did a five figure set of just the dreadnocks, but you had an arm, arm, leg, leg and torso for the snake and you got all your dreadnocks and you got a snake all in one five figure set. From a design standpoint, I believe in full playability out of the box. I like want things to be like
01:07:48
Speaker
you get them, play. And when with a G.I. Joe, and it comes from my background on like Transformers again, we're like very, I was on a lot of kid stuff. And it's like,
01:07:56
Speaker
I want to create a world of play for a kid, collector, whoever you are. And I think that's what's beautiful about GIGO between the vehicles, like the bivouacs, like stuff like that, like the weapon upgrade sets and stuff like that, the snake armor. So it's like... Snake armor is just such a classic. It's so ridiculous. It's so good. And I've been playing Fallout like crazy, so I've been wearing all my power armors. But I think that being said, I think there's definitely room. It's just a matter of
01:08:26
Speaker
business opportunity and where it fits and how we can do it because I am handling this line as if I'm creating a world again and it's such a privilege and awesome opportunity so hell yeah we want to make crazy stuff. A snake armor would be a great deluxe box set so would a pack rat set you know stuff like that. Yeah so we're probably in the same mindset as you guys it's just a matter of like
01:08:50
Speaker
how and when and resource. And like we said with the vintage figures, it's like, where am I putting my jelly beans? So that all plays an account and it's going to take time.
01:09:09
Speaker
I guess I have a comment, a question. Comment first, it's awesome that you guys made all of the box artwork available as posters. Is there plans to maybe do like an art book that could, you know, also dovetail into like Lenny was saying, maybe like some novel type stuff where we learn more about the classified series in the world that they live in. And
01:09:34
Speaker
Oh no, the other part was just about the O-ring figures, never mind. So to answer the stuff about the Artist Series, I love the Artist Series and I feel like it is such a wonderful way to set GI Joe apart from some of the other brands at Hasbro.
01:09:50
Speaker
We have this amazing kind of graphic design team that works to really find artists. And so our artists are this really cool combination of artists that kind of reach out to us because they are G.I. Joe fans. And they're like, I really want to be involved in this. And artists that really like we seek out because we like their art style and that
01:10:10
Speaker
we are trying really hard to make sure that our artists are a representation of our line, which is at its core, GI Joe is a very diverse group of people either coming together for good or for evil to get stuff done. And that we want kind of the artist to be a representation of that character universe. And so, you know, we try hard to make sure that our artists are matches in terms of, you know, like what kind of style we think would work for characters.
01:10:37
Speaker
the places that the characters are from, we may try to find artists from there for female figures, making sure that we have female artists, but really kind of coming together and bringing that kind of GI Joe diversity is really is really important to us. Yes. I know that there had been I don't remember if it was a comment that came in from someone here or that I had seen somewhere else, but the the commitment to diversity and inclusion to us in the line is really important.
01:11:03
Speaker
We want to make sure that we are putting forth, you know, an accurate reflection of this very diverse group of people who come together. So you will continue. I mean, the line is already diverse. You will continue to see more of that in the future. In terms of art series, I know that our franchise team has big plans for it in the future. I won't overstep and divulge what any of those may be, but safe to say that art series is not going anywhere and that there will be many more things about it in the future.
01:11:33
Speaker
And our artists keep, we've seen some of the artwork for the upcoming waves that we haven't gotten boxes for yet and they look good. Yeah. How fast will like the, when, when the box art comes in and the figures are released, how fast will you guys be releasing that artwork to purchase?
01:11:55
Speaker
Oh, that's a good idea. I would assume it would be pretty close to like pre-order time. I would say that, I mean, in my personal opinion, it would be artwork is fair game to purchase as soon as it's revealed on box. I would assume be the cadence. You got to ask Amanda. We'll ask our franchise human for you.
Artistry and Collaborations
01:12:14
Speaker
I need the bat.
01:12:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, very badly. I mean, following the pulse concadence, this was all available to purchase as soon as we revealed the preorder. So I would think that that would be. Yeah, I would imagine we would want to get it close to when you guys see it. Oh, yeah. I'll build a higher.
01:12:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's just it's so cool. Like, and to be able to look at everything. And I mean, I loved working with Tom Whelan on Power Rangers and his Zartan artwork. For those of you who don't have your Master of Disguise Zartan in box yet being able to like, can I see our whole conference table is just full of products with like a note on the back that says don't show back because it's just
01:12:56
Speaker
and labels, which is really funny. So we could find leaks that way by the way. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Don't show back question mark. But being able to actually spin this and have that's so cool. And it's so cool. And it feels I feel like Tom Whelan was the perfect artist for this box. And I mean, the dreadnoughs logo.
01:13:17
Speaker
Amazing. I interviewed Tom the other day. He's going to be on the weekly on Friday as well. So yeah, he's amazing. Talk about the artwork in detail. Stunning. He's such a nice guy. And he's such a nerd. His office is full of figures. It's full of my books. You can tell he is in it to win it. We're nerds, man. And I think it's really cool to be able to kind of fall into it a little bit.
01:13:47
Speaker
And being able to recreate an update and then stay to the nostalgic. There's this level of artistry and business that's going on with G.I. Joe right now, which we're all, everybody on the team is super appreciative to be a part of, like, Cecil, our graphic, I guess, director on that stuff. He is like in heaven because he gets to work with all these amazing people. It brings a richness to the line. And we want to hopefully it's coming through to everybody.
01:14:13
Speaker
And I think on the point that we're all nerds, it's so interesting. We're all nerds, but we're all different kinds of nerds. So you'll find things that we have in common, but it's so cool because everybody kind of brings their different background and interests.
01:14:29
Speaker
Into things so like I I'm sure that legal will be upset with me for saying this but I am on a I'm on a DC Comics kick right now. And I've just discovered I missed comics for like a long time evidently, so I just read like 10 years worth of Harley Quinn comics all at once.
01:14:45
Speaker
This is such a good use of my time. It is. It was a great use of my time. But it's so cool to kind of see influences come in and how that later gets interpreted into action figures that are associated with lines and being able to do what other, being able to see what other brands are doing and how they're interpreting that, I think is so cool. Like I am constantly, whenever I go to the store, I'm always walking up and down the toy aisles because I want to see what other brands are doing.
01:15:13
Speaker
Because I think if we don't know what's happening with other brands, we're not in the loop on things. And I think that that's hard. That's the fashion design of the business. And that's what J.I.J.O. has always been. We would be doing a disservice to any of our brands to only pull reference from the brand internally. It's like, I think artists don't do that. It's a combination of, right?
01:15:39
Speaker
And I think that those implementers work their way into the brand in different ways as well, which I think is really nice. And we all, so we all come from all of these really interesting, different backgrounds. Like I, my original job was I worked at a cat shelter and then I went to business school and now I market toys. Like that's so cool. But I mean, to have thought that I would ever, like my job would be to play with toys, like, okay, okay, it has to Emily. Why don't you go scoop that cat box so that this cat can get adopted.
01:16:08
Speaker
I've been loving watching Lenny play with the toys this whole conversation. He's having so much fun right now. Awesome. I feel bad when I'm in meetings at my desk here. I have an eye guy that sits on my desk and I'm like constantly futzing with him. I don't know if he's a
01:16:26
Speaker
available on shelf yet? I feel like he probably is. I mean, we reveal them. I just don't know if anybody else has them in hand. But he makes this amazing ratcheting noise when you're twisting his legs and his arms around. And I just cannot stop playing with him. He is the ultimate fidget boy for me. And he looks horrifying. So I mean, that really helps all the unmeetings with people who have not worked on Power Rangers before. And they'll be like, excuse me, what is that thing that you're playing with? And why is it triggering my, what's it called, tryptophobia?
01:16:55
Speaker
the thing where you're afraid of all the different circles next to each other. I feel really bad because occasionally people will be on meetings and be like, please put that thing away. It's horrifying.
01:17:06
Speaker
Hey, Lenny, I wanted to show you one more.
Redesign Process of Scarlet Figure
01:17:09
Speaker
This is O-ring Scarlet, and she's got an articulate ponytail. So that's on a swivel kind of joint. So just to awake your imagination about maybe including alternate heads that are cartoon specific. Swivel ponytail. Planting the seeds.
01:17:27
Speaker
That's crazy. My brain is now doing things. She is so beautiful. Because let's be honest, the original scarlet figure is not attractive. The card art was beautiful. The original figure, due to the mold limitations, the hair had to be tight to the head. It's not a good looking figure. Yeah. So I think that, again, it's like when we get there, it's like.
01:17:46
Speaker
And that's part of the design process too. It's like, who do we do next? And it's like, well, this character is considered for updates. So maybe we should hold off. And I think that's where a lot of the other Joe's that you haven't seen yet. It's like, I'm kind of considering them for updates. Like I'm like, Oh, we can do this to that. But then I go, I draw every single GI Joe input.
01:18:08
Speaker
and I will do it like a year in advance and then I'll go back to it and I'll look at it and I'll be like oh what was it doing and I'm like oh that's too far oh that's not far enough so it's like it's and that's the beauty of having the brand in term like we can do that and I think we can we can kind of
01:18:27
Speaker
we can stop and drink our coffee for a second and feel it out of what needs to be updated. And I think that kind of thinking can be applied to the O-rings too. So now it's like, let's do the research. Again, I'm an artist at heart. That's beautiful head sculpt. You just showed me, so I'm like, oh.
Rare Action Figure Designs
01:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, so it's like you can see some like back in the day. There's a ran a running change, right? Yes. Yeah, they sculpt their head three times. Yep. The one with the earrings is one of the shortest production. We're working on pre-production at 3D Joe's right now. We just got a memo that showed the running change and we haven't announced this to the community yet. There's only 50,000 of those mint on cards Iran is with earrings out there.
01:19:09
Speaker
And if you think back in 1986, they were making about a million of each figure, that's probably one of the single most rare card figure specimens to get out there.
01:19:18
Speaker
Basically, what you say in Lenny is that you have to include all three head skulls with Zorana when you do that. Right. Well, it's interesting because it's like the ball joint on the head. Is that better for production? Right. Maybe not. But then at the same time, are you alienating a group of people that want it to be? This should be a capsule in time. So it's like, again, that's these are these are those parts of design that are difficult where it's like,
01:19:45
Speaker
Or are you combating the shady parts of the community that will try to sell these as vintage? And since you've slightly updated them, they won't be as easy of a mark to sell as original. And I mean, they'll also have the updated date on their tush. Once you have them in hand, you'll be like, excuse me. Excuse me.
Packaging Design Challenges
01:20:06
Speaker
Yeah. Look at the balance on that figure with no stand under it. Yeah. Can he be posing in the box like that? Yeah, super practical.
01:20:18
Speaker
I think there's some kind of legal law that doesn't allow them to hold weapons in their hands when they pose them. Is that accurate?
01:20:29
Speaker
Emily, Lenny, do you know? Well, at least our internal rule is if we have, if they're holding weapons and we're taking pictures of them, the weapon should not be pointed at the camera, so they should be pointed off to the side, but I'm not, I don't know. What about packaging? Oh, in pack. In the package could it be posed with the weapon. It's depth of box. It's depth of box, yeah. So we have a particular depth of box that we have to fill and we can't vary from it. So if we did that, we'd have to do the box would be like this deep. Gotcha.
01:20:58
Speaker
Yeah, there was a PulseCon exclusive.
01:21:05
Speaker
Lord Drakon that we did that was in this huge box, but like he was posed out in the box. And I mean, the box didn't technically need to be as big as it was. It just looks really sweet on shelf. But I mean, he's he takes up a lot more room because he is posed out with his stuff. So that that is one of the complications for these guys. It's a great diorama box, the dress. Yeah.
01:21:29
Speaker
Yeah, he's a very cool figure. I love that he comes with the battle-damaged Power Rangers helmets. I'm just like, yes. Sweet. I'm not even a Power Rangers guy. And I was like, that guy's a bad ass.
Future Design Possibilities
01:21:39
Speaker
Yeah. That's an experience opening. When that came in. Sorry, we're like this conversation at this point. Like, please, fire off. I think we have time for one last question. If, Dave or Brett, you had one young sneak in before we wrap up. I think we kind of went through
01:21:59
Speaker
everything. I was gonna touch on just kind of the deluxe side as well when it comes to different animals. Talking about, of course, the other lines and the sneaking in of a bilda figure. I know this line
01:22:14
Speaker
really is looking to build a story and kind of build an adventure. So I was wondering if there's any kind of accessories or anything that you're looking to add towards going into these new adventures, new missions going forward. Oh yeah, like a life-size mast device. That sounds really practical. It'd be throughout like three years of building.
01:22:38
Speaker
So one of the things that I really love are the old accessory packs that were available for the O-ring Joes that got you the extra accessories. So I always thought that those were really cool and a great way to be able to add to storytelling. Well, yeah, that's one thing that's pretty modular, too. The figures are extremely modular so that you can play. When I was a kid, I used to pull my Joes apart, put them back together, different loadouts. And that's where John's line was, too, where it's like, that's something we've always
01:23:05
Speaker
kept true to the line. That's why GI Joes have a hole in their back. They're supposed to wear backpacks. So I think that being said, I think there's got to be a way that we can work that in for everybody so that they can do that. My biggest goal is to get kids playing with these things.
01:23:22
Speaker
And I think they are. It says four plus in the box. But at that being said, it's like you've got to get things in there for everybody to play with. And like they still can. A kid's toy can still look badass. Yeah. Like there's no reason why. Fiona, look at her little teethies. She's wonderful. She's amazing. Everybody's going to love Fiona. Her belly's squishy. Another tip about Fiona. She started out. She started out at 16 inches long. Wow.
01:23:48
Speaker
She didn't fit in the box. She was enormous.
Evolution of Accessory Packs
01:23:51
Speaker
Like I said, the boxes are uniform. You have to go in the same box as the timber and snake eyes. So he had to adjust her a little bit. Plus, that's kind of like an epic dinosaur scale of crocodile. She also comes with her tail is pre-bent so that she fits in the package. Awesome.
01:24:09
Speaker
Yeah, there's a there's a bit of a on the accessory tip. There's a bit of a cottage industry that's popped up around providing us classified collectors with some of the vintage inspired accessories that were not included with the new classified versions. So like a mod does for roadblock, for example, a backpack with the ammo pack that pops off of it and the tripod kind of thing.
01:24:30
Speaker
If you guys do accessory packs, I would love, honor, thank, and cherish you for thinking about including some of the ARAH style accessories. Yeah. Chris is showing off his Lightfoot classified 3D prints. Is that right? Look at Brad. Yeah, that's really cool. Would you buy them online and print them out kind of deal? A friend of mine actually just made this for me as a present. So yeah, it's really, really cute. You made a little, the mind detector drone as well.
01:24:56
Speaker
Keep that friend around. Yeah, Joe too. And I think it's the thing that back in the day, the designers were having fun with.
Creative Freedom and Modern Tech
01:25:04
Speaker
Whereas like, what are cool things? Like, and that's something I like, like Zara came with the monkey ball.
01:25:10
Speaker
Like he made a deal with those wishes. And Monkey Paws, that's two wishes he has, it's three more left. So it's like the designers back in the day were doing fun stuff like that on the figures as well. So we would like to do that again going forward. So you'll see wacky things and it's because there's design in everything. And it's like we're trying to like, what does a minesweeper drone look like today?
01:25:34
Speaker
What does a, uh, I'm trying to say things without giving anything away, but what does, uh, what a cool things today, like dark or robots and stuff like that. What does that look like in our line to do verbatim things is fun.
01:25:50
Speaker
But then to do things that are pulled from our reality and our universe that we're all living in is really cool too. So then that's where that blend is happening. And I think that's what spirit represents really well. And there's like a mix. And there have been so many technological advances since, you know, the 1980s. And how do we incorporate those so that our designs can still have that kind of like cool over a futuristic vibe to them without people being like, yeah, but that like technology actually exists now. So that's not super exciting anymore.
01:26:18
Speaker
Oh, is that a fax machine that Cobra's using? Maybe we upgrade that. I don't know. A fax viper sounds incredible.
Humorous Design Concepts
01:26:27
Speaker
A fax viper. I want Cobra admin. I want the entire team. He sits in Raptor's office, right? Extend to them surprises. Done. That'd be amazing.
01:26:47
Speaker
Our admins Lynn and Tammy are some of our favorite people ever. They are like the kindest anything to any of us need. I was like, Lynn, Tammy, please help me.
01:26:56
Speaker
were helpless little babies without them. So, well, yeah, they could be converse. And again, sorry for being so conversational. Oh, that's great. We love it. But we're here for it. The Boston Dynamics Robot Dog. They just mounted Gatling guns on that thing. So that is a war weapon now. We knew it was coming. All in our mud and junkyard was actually originally. That is such a Jurassic Park thing to do, though, isn't it? Like, everyone knows it's a bad idea, but it's happening anyway. Let me sneak this in here. Let me sneak this in here.
01:27:26
Speaker
Seriously button junkyard was originally a cobra concept that's why he's got the grimace on his face and he's a really good dude he was originally cobra so what if you made a cobra figure that's the get cobra guy with this canine and instead of a dog it's the robot dog from boston dynamics with guns mounted on it so it's still like future tech kind of stuff but you know harkening back to old designs i mean are you ever gonna use it in the future i don't know
01:27:49
Speaker
And no, no, no. Well, I'm sorry. I feel you. No, I know we can't we can't discuss things that are upcoming. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Well, it's not upcoming, but we didn't like I said, like, I'm just always drawing jokes. Like my wife said, can you please stop? Like, will you watch the movie? Because I do everything on an iPad. And like, she's like, please, like, like, you know, I'm like, no, I'm making my fingers. But so but like, yeah, we're always coming up with stuff like that. And I feel like I'm a sci fi nerd. My favorite movie now, like, it's always
01:28:19
Speaker
I love that Dune was done right. Dune is amazing. Yeah, so it's like those influences, I want to make them fall into the line, but then again, we're also held by
01:28:31
Speaker
what is right
Balancing Nostalgia with Innovation
01:28:32
Speaker
for G.I. Joe, what is hitting the nostalgic points here, what is pushing the line forward. So, you know, we'll do it where we can and we'll have fun and we'll make sure that it's not taking away from something else that we need to do. Yeah. Right. Oh, we're late for the HasLab meeting. Oh, crap. Yeah. Thanks. This has been so much fun. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. We really, really appreciate it.
01:28:55
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it.
Conclusion and Engagement Call
01:29:02
Speaker
Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:29:11
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:29:35
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.
01:30:04
Speaker
you