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Yo Joe June Wrap-Up: A Roundtable Chat with Hasbro's Lenny and Emily
572 Plays3 years ago
YO JOE!!! Or um... COBRAAA-LA-LA-LA!!! After a month of G.I. Joe Celebration and a super successful HasLab launch, this special episode of Adventures in Collecting finds Dave and Erik at a virtual roundtable with their friends Emily and Lenny of Hasbro's G.I. Joe team along with other esteemed members of the toy blogging community. Hear more about the HISS Tank, o-ring figures, and more in this nearly 90 min adventure!
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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
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00:00:00
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Introduction to the Podcast: Adventures in Collecting
00:00:56
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.
00:01:20
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome back to a special edition of the Adventures in Collecting podcast. Dave and I just wrapped with the GI Joe team as part of a roundtable featuring some other really great blogs from around the toy blogging world. What you're about to hear is 90 minutes of GI Joe news and Intel, if you will.
00:01:42
Speaker
You're gonna hear from the folks over at His Tank, Toy Insider, Action Figure Insider, the Full Force Podcast. You're gonna hear a bunch of familiar voices talking to Lenny and Emily, including Dave and myself. So I'm gonna shut up now, and I'm gonna kick it over to the interview. Yo Joe, and enjoy. Yo Joe!
GI Joe Haslab Project Success and Strategies
00:02:12
Speaker
First off, congratulations guys on the Haslab. Oh my goodness. It's like over 10 and a half K at the moment. So yeah, keep that going. You guys must be really happy first and foremost, but I'll get stuck into the questions. So my first question is regarding the development reveals. It's going to be twofold, but obviously I'm not saying like I'm having two questions. It's just a couple of things involved with it.
00:02:40
Speaker
So it's like I said, it's been a heck of a month full of reveals, pre orders, the has lab. I mean, it's ridiculous. You introduce the new development reveals into kind of the process for these events where you kind of tell us that, you know, a couple of characters are coming each week and so on and so forth.
00:02:57
Speaker
We didn't get to on the last one. That was my first part, is when will we find out about that and could it be on this particular roundtable? Obviously, the other thing attached to that is what was the reasoning behind that? Was there a reason you wanted to do these development reveals? Was it to get ahead of leaks, that sort of thing? Go ahead.
00:03:21
Speaker
Yes, sorry. I'm just messaging Lenny on the side to say which characters do we want to tell you about today. Lenny, I sent you a list. You can pick which two you would like to... We told them about everybody but two.
00:03:34
Speaker
Have we been perfect? Those might be the two. Or do you want to pick different ones? Just say two random ones. Well, I mean, hold your horses. We all know it's light for an ice cream soldier. We know it's both of those. We pulled an ice cream soldier from the archives and it's been behind us for the entire month. Yeah, I really like that one. That's what I like to hear. Let me hear three more options for you.
00:04:02
Speaker
Can you send them to all of us? Oh yeah. I know the one to tell you guys so that the community gets off my back. You're never going to get off your back. You want me to do it? Ripper. Oh yes. And then, uh, we're going to do a, a firefly.
00:04:32
Speaker
Okay. Interesting. And I can say that he's brand new, brand new, brand new sculpt, everything new parts and pieces, online yards. But is he lime green? That's the big question.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yes. No, no, no. He's not lying. We're not going to go with that one. Not yet. Like I said, every single GI Joe is on the table. We want to kind of like embody all those old school designs and then reiterate them into the classified world. So even the crazy beach head with the blue mask on, we'll get them eventually. I still have them. We'll get to them. It's just, you know,
00:05:13
Speaker
Matter of time, but I think the firefly. And we can I give details on. Yeah, yeah, the whole thing. You get excited about it. I for the record, I do have that beachhead sitting at my desk at work and I love him.
00:05:30
Speaker
Um, but from a like kind of a pragmatic approach to this, you know, we get really excited about the things that we're working on. And we have such a long development pipeline that as you can tell, Lenny and I are like, not the best at wanting to keep secrets about what we're working on. And maybe we don't always put a picture of them on a birthday cake to tell you exactly, but you think that it's.
00:05:54
Speaker
We know that the GI Joe fan community is so amazingly passionate about all of the projects that we're working on, that we wanted to share some of that joy with you as early as possible and to get you excited because we know that in all of the sessions that we do or whenever we put things up on Instagram, people are always saying, when is so-and-so coming to the classified line? And so to be able to say, OK, you will see these characters next year in the line is really exciting, even if we don't have actual pictures to show you of anything yet.
00:06:25
Speaker
That's awesome. Thank you. And congratulations on a amazing job. It's been a great month. Also, hello, guys, to everyone on the stream. It's good to see you all again. I love these events. And also, a big shout to Emily and Lenny for making me go with them to the cinema to watch the movie. It was amazing. So, guys, I had so much fun. You guys are the best. Thank you so much.
00:06:51
Speaker
And just so that everybody knows, if you do have his tank-centric questions that we have not approached anywhere, I did, I brought a friend with me for the interview. It's so pretty. What are we saying for size comparisons? I really want to start doing a segment that's like other things that are 19 inches long or like this is approximately the same size as. So today's
The His Tank: Design and Community Engagement
00:07:15
Speaker
approximation is French Bulldog. Nice. Kitten for scale?
00:07:20
Speaker
Uh, where is it? You got to put them in the turret or something. I think it's 18. It's 18 and change, but we can't say the change because it changes in enough. And then it's 12 and, and, and change. Hi, it's big. It's big. And I think it's one of those things where when you see it in pictures and you see your figure next to it, you're like, okay. But then when you're like a this thing, it's, uh,
00:07:49
Speaker
The width is probably, I'd say the width is like 10 inches wide, so it fits on a shelf. Don't quote on that. Hey, but that's a great figure that you have the box for. Are you kidding me? This figure's on point. It's amazing. Great figure. Yeah. It'll be a little wider after the add-on that just got unlocked.
00:08:16
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I am so the first I'm not kidding when I say that the first time I saw model videos of this, I cried because we had been working so hard on this for so long. And to see like, you know, that moment where you know that you worked on something and it's going to be amazing that that's the moment that we got to have with that was like two in the morning. Our Asia team sent videos over and I was just like, this is the most beautiful day ever.
00:08:43
Speaker
But discovering all of those little details, even though we helped with all of that creation with our amazing, oh my God, PazLab team, holy smokes, they knocked it out of the park. But Lenny and I have also spent a lot of time looking at this and thinking about the features. And there's something so different from concepting it in your mind and logically knowing what it is to getting to hold the rockets and pull them out to extend them to make them come out. You're like, whoop, this is nice.
00:09:11
Speaker
Alright, guys, we both want to echo Chris's sentiments. I mean, absolutely fantastic launch of this HasLab. I don't think it was possible to have done it any better. Down to the presentation video with Cobra Commander. Just the perfect way to cap off a Yo-Yo June.
00:09:41
Speaker
seriously congratulations it's it's no small feat while we're on that compliment train by the way i just wanted to point out that although we talked about mark from hazlab being the designer for this we actually have two marks from hazlab we have a plethora of marks
00:09:57
Speaker
And our other Mark was our brand writer and he did, he wrote all of the scripts. He wrote all of the e-com copy. He's writing all of the social copy for us. And he spent so much time trying to get into Cobra Commander and Destro's brains to figure out how they would react to this. And so I just wanted to make sure that he got lots of props for that because people have been very, very excited about it. You have enjoyed the Instagram posts as Cobra Commander. That's pretty cool.
00:10:29
Speaker
dangerous headspace to get into. Right? Yeah. Showing up in meetings being, you know, real full of himself. Just kidding. He's like the sweetest guy ever. So the first question is about the his tank. So what were the determining factors that that led you to go with the his tank as this first project? I mean, there are
00:10:51
Speaker
as everyone on this call is intimately familiar with, there are a lot of different vehicles and, you know, and more play sets. Good flag. I mean, we could, like, the options are just really endless. Rolling Thunder, we should be rolling Thunder first. Hey, well listen, now that we have this, the Armadillo better be next. I'm just saying. I think price,
00:11:18
Speaker
um doability iconic um
00:11:24
Speaker
We wanted to trade off because we did a Joe last time and we wanted to do a Cobra this time. We frequently get accused of being very pro Cobra on this team, which we are, but we wanted to make sure that, you know, we were, we were treating both sides. Yeah. Well, the thing with Cobra too is you're going to get iconic vehicles that Hasbro like is created from the ground up, right? So that has tank and all that. So it's like, it's kind of like our, it's a fly, but it's like our TIE fighter.
00:11:54
Speaker
in one way. So it's like, it's kind of got brand recognition, like everybody knows the headlights, everybody knows that silhouette. And that kind of played a lot into the design too. So my role was more like a licensor on this. So it was like this weird kind of like, not weird, but really cool experience to work with people who got embraced the brand. But it was like, we, it's classified. So we're walking this line of like, how much do you upgrade? How much do you not like, in particular, the going doors, like we have very,
00:12:22
Speaker
very long conversation. And I liked them. You guys notice I like change. But then at the same time, like, what do other people like change? But I think from like, we had to keep it iconic looking to the point earlier. So design standpoint, the choices come from all those things I just mentioned earlier. And then because it's classified, what do you do to it to
00:12:48
Speaker
may get classified but not alienate or or change so much with people it's like that's not a his thing. And for though I feel like I can say this because I'll be the one who gets in trouble if I say it but for those of you who may not care for change you'll probably really like unlock number two that will be revealed relatively soon. Noodle on that one um but
00:13:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think that it's been so much fun to kind of watch this come to life and that it is truly an iconic vehicle. And as Lenny said, it is very ownably G.I. Joe. We wanted to go out with something that you couldn't. There's no way that you're going to find like a non IP or a non-branded version of this that's out there somewhere. This is not a generic tank. This is a
00:13:40
Speaker
And so I think that that was really fun for us to get to say this is something that nobody has, which has been amazing. I mean, I have one that's sitting on my kitchen table, but you know. Can we mention some of the candidates that didn't make it or is there too much information? No, I would not say the candidates that didn't make it because then they'll, we'll give away the game.
00:14:06
Speaker
Oh, that's true. But I appreciate you. But I will say one of the things that we are considering is, as we mentioned in terms of width of this thing, we want to make sure that the vehicles that we are growing to classified scale are reasonable for you to have in your homes. I've commented, I love people's enthusiasm for USS flags. I really do.
00:14:29
Speaker
A classified flag. We did some numbers. It would be like 20 feet long and I could stand inside of it. That is not reasonable. That is like a tiny house. Yeah. We earned the numbers on a, on a basic one, like not basic, an original one and like to inflation, like not even, not even current inflation, not even this crazy world we live in. Before that we had run some numbers on it and it's like, it's not 1983 anymore.
00:14:56
Speaker
Like it doesn't have any current QA standards. We'd have to redesign it from the ground up to make sure that if you stepped in the middle of it, the whole thing wouldn't collapse on it. Yeah, which could also be fun. But so I think there's.
00:15:10
Speaker
There are elements of realism that we are looking for with our choices. And it's not just necessarily a, it's not like this is exactly two times bigger than the original his. Oh, I could actually, I have a hiss three on my bookshelf. I can go get them and show them to you side by side so we can actually see what the three quarter one looks like.
00:15:30
Speaker
It's interesting the his tank scale. It's actually not doubled. It's, it's a little more than double. I know that it sounds weird cause the three and three quarter inch figures to then go up to a six inch scale, but Duke is 6.3 inches tall. So that's our base figure height for males.
00:15:46
Speaker
And then the his tank drivers, like I mentioned to you guys, when we were designing them, I was like, I wanted to be a big dude because of some of the stuff we were reading that like they're brawlers. So they're actually, they're actually about the size of bazooka. Bazooka is like six, five and change. So it fits bigger than that. So if it's, I don't don't, I'm not going to say who it fits, but because I'm not sure what the answer is, but it does fit bigger characters than bazooka.
00:16:10
Speaker
And we wanted to make sure that you had the opportunity to really have anybody driving it that you wanted to. Yep, but it won't fit everybody, but it will fit larger care.
00:16:21
Speaker
And I think, too, that one of the things that's interesting about this, because prior to the launch of any kind of Hazlab, and obviously the discussion of vehicles, has been forefront since the launch of the line. I know a lot of people were saying, like, oh, a his tank, that could potentially fly at retail. And I think now that we're seeing how big a his tank would actually be, it gives us collectors a frame of reference of, OK, so this is too big for retail.
00:16:49
Speaker
So, you know, now we know in, you know, kind of in the GI Joe cannon and the existing, you know, vehicles, we know the ones that are smaller, how they kind of could potentially fit into, you know, future situations. We're studying it too, right? It's like classified, if we make a classified vehicle that is scaled and priced, but not built, right. That's not a classified vehicle.
00:17:14
Speaker
Right. So that the his tank, it's built, right? Like GI Joseph always been built, right? Yeah. I remember the sandwich from back in the day, but even that was done in a engineering, intelligent way to keep the cost right. But at the same time make the quality high. So we want to maintain that. It's kind of like part of the grand tenants. So we don't want to just like make something dumb down. So we can get it for a price. I feel like that's not the right thing to do. We should make a high quality product rather than a
00:17:42
Speaker
you know like dumbed down vehicle if you would and i think even there's two in my mind
00:17:51
Speaker
G Hydro products are, and I mean, many, many other toys are too, designed very purposefully, where there are reasons why each of these things are kind of done. But in my mind, the difference between like, say a HasLab and say, maybe a cheaper vehicle that you would be able to buy at mass is that HasLab, they're really collector pieces. They are beautiful, they are dream items, and odds are you are not going to be driving your $299.99,
00:18:17
Speaker
his tank up and down your driveway because you want to play with it in the dirt not usually what you do with i mean i want to speak for yourself i mean allen accepted challenge accepted but i think that there's you know i'll be playing with justin's 299 his tank in the mud come on over anything i think that there is
00:18:41
Speaker
There's, to me, there is a difference between like what are higher end collectors items like the his tank and what are things that are made for kind of crash and bash play. And I mean, this would stand up to crash and bash play. I just don't know if you want to spend this much money on it and then run it into walls or let your children run it into walls. You can run it into walls. No judgment for what you like to do with your toys in your spare time. You can do whatever you would like.
Pricing and Affordability in GI Joe Series
00:19:12
Speaker
Dustin, that's it for our first question. All right, 30 minutes later, I'm on to the next person. Sorry. That's OK. Let's see. On this list over here, Jaren, you are next. Hello, Jaren, with the new thing, Joes.
00:19:26
Speaker
It's great to finally get with you guys. It's been phenomenal to see how you have kind of joined the brand and ushered in a new era of Joe. It's been phenomenal. I guess going along with the HasLab, this being the first Joe HasLab, I know that the HasLab team has been very busy doing other things. It's been the first classified, sorry, HasLab.
00:19:48
Speaker
Do you guys go into it with a price point in mind and think, OK, well, how packed in can we get? How how many things can we do with this price point in mind? Or do you go into it with a let's design this crazy cool thing and we'll work out numbers and kind of go from there? Yeah, I think that we went into this with a little bit of both as a mindset. So, you know, the like when the unicorn came out and when the sale barge came out, like those were
00:20:17
Speaker
enormous items with huge price tags, but those lines had established collectors who, there were items that weren't necessarily that high a price point, but they had kind of tested the waters to see like, okay, these Transformers collectors, Star Wars collectors will buy those two, $300 items if they are dream items. We've classified series because we are such a baby line. We don't have anything like that, guys.
00:20:43
Speaker
So this was something that was totally new to us. So we wanted to make sure that Ford classified we weren't going out of like Our first our first foray into this was not like a $500 $600 like gigantic spectacular sort of thing. We wanted to keep it a little bit more reasonable and especially considering that his tanks are first and foremost true builder vehicles, we didn't want it to be
00:21:07
Speaker
It is expensive, I will admit, but it's not prohibitively expensive. It's not like saying one of these will be $1,000, but if you want your army, it's really going to be $5,000, you know? And so I think that keeping that kind of price point in mind, we were able to kind of think about what size vehicles we'd be able to scale up at that price point to make them
00:21:31
Speaker
to be able to make them in a way that felt purposeful and beautiful and detailed. We didn't want to half-ass anything, I guess, for lack of a better term. Sorry, Wendy, for saying that. But I think that we wanted to make sure that we were proud of the work that we were doing and that we felt good about this and that we thought that all of you in the Joe community would also feel good about this. Does that seem okay, Lenny? It seems right on the money.
00:21:58
Speaker
That was phenomenal. Thank you. Also, I want to call out that ladder inlaid on the side. The red ladder is beautiful. Absolutely. One of my favorite pieces. I know it's something small, but that little touch with the contrast, absolutely amazing. There is a ladder on both sides. Perfect. Even better. Part of that design came from, I forget the type of helicopters they were looking at as inspiration, but it was kind of like, you know, the guys got to get in and out. And when we were working together,
00:22:26
Speaker
It was like the goal. So the reason why I was like, you know what? Yes, the goal was we're doing to go indoors because we, when we talk about classified, when we put the greeble and all that on them, we're like, what do they use as a soldier or as a military or a scientist, whatever their role is. And we thought about the same thing with the his tank jivers, like.
00:22:46
Speaker
they got to get in and out of that thing. So do they have to open the canopy every time or maybe there's a quicker way to get into it. And that's, and then also Mark was very like, there's a lot of this empty space.
00:22:58
Speaker
He said, what is this empty space for? Right. And he's like, I'm like, well, I mean, I think it was just a design element they did back in the day. And he's like, we got to use that empty space. And because again, because I kept on telling make it real, make it feel like it's real. And he goes, OK, well, if it was real and probably a ladder on the sides of the bag and get it in and out, he's not going to climb up on the treads. So Mark basically built that design out of that. He actually something to note, we're going to be putting like textures and mold etching on that, too. So it feels a little less
00:23:27
Speaker
So there'll probably be like a texture to it at the end of the day. So really cool. Thank you. Cool. All right, Fran, I'm going to call on you next because your outlet is called his tank. So I just feel like you shot, but you probably should have been first, but you're out Fran. Hey, what's going on guys? Thanks for having the, having me in the meeting. Congratulations. You know, the fans are going crazy. We're loving it. Um,
00:23:55
Speaker
There's been a lot of like, you know, clarification questions floating around about the Ron Brudette figure.
00:24:02
Speaker
Everybody wants to know whether that will be included with each purchase or you just get one. Just the clarification of that. Great question. So, you will get as many Ron Rudak figures as you have purchased tanks. So, each tank order will come with a his tank driver and now a Ron Rudak Cobra his tactician figure. We know that pictures of Ron's polar studies were posted on his tank. Thanks.
00:24:29
Speaker
Oh, they were cool. Yeah. We love them. We think that they're really fun. They were published in one of Dan's books, so pretty well known in the community if you've looked through those books, but we will be posting those on
00:24:43
Speaker
Social, let's say by next Monday.
Fan Involvement in Design Choices
00:24:48
Speaker
We'll give ourselves a little Ron's report. So not mine. No, Ron's were posted, not Lenny's. So on our social channel will be Lenny's versions of Ron's color studies made into classified figures. Everybody can get to see what those look like. So we gave everybody two figures with the tank for 300 is what it really boils down to.
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And so what you'll see is with the, sorry, I'm just getting so many messages on the side. So what you'll end up seeing is those six different color studies. And then after the campaign finishes, we will all take a vote. So everybody who has backed a HIST tank will get to take a vote and pick which one you think should be made into the figure. And then the figure that wins the vote will be made into the actual classified figure.
00:25:38
Speaker
Okay, great. I just, I think everybody was just curious whether you're just getting one figure with, you know, if you ordered five, you only got one or if you ordered five, you actually got one with each thing. Yes, that's a great clarification. And so the way that we're going to do it is basically everything is going to come in a gigantic box and they will be packed in with each individual box.
00:26:00
Speaker
And then, oh, what was I going to say? And it does not matter when you back in the campaign now, because we have already hit funding. So everybody who backs over the entire course of the campaign will get the figure. So basically, base offering now is the two figures and the 10. Plus, you get the cool unlock one mounted side rocker.
00:26:22
Speaker
Is Ron Roodat doing the art for just the box of the figure or is he doing the art for the entire his paint?
00:26:30
Speaker
So he will be doing the box for specifically the Cobra has tactician box. So like the individual figure box. So one of the things that we wanted to do because we know that a lot of GI Joe collectors have popped their boxes out, whether it's artwork spine out or number spine out, we really wanted to make sure that you would be able to kind of capture the extra specialness of the campaign by having all of the figures come in boxes.
00:26:57
Speaker
They will, so they will be individually numbered in the classified theory sequence. They will be a, one of the figures in the box will be a special number in the classified theory sequence to encourage people to acquire, if they are completionists, they will be sad if they miss out on this figure.
00:27:20
Speaker
Thank you, I have a lot more questions, but I'm sure someone else wants to go and get back to me in a couple of minutes. Yeah, hopefully we'll get to everybody at least twice. Let's go with Jeremy. Hey guys, just want to say congratulations again like everybody else did. Going back to the tactician figure, I actually wanted to ask about that. How did you guys settle on making that an exclusive week-long window? How involved?
00:27:50
Speaker
was Ron in like choosing that figure. And do you think that offering that weak incentive really lit the fire in her people to get it funded as fast as possible and make sure they get that figure? Um, yes, yes, I do. I mean, if there's, you know, if you have seven weeks to back something and you think here's all, Oh, I mean, well, I could back it on day 44, but then I only get one figure in a tank or I could back it.
00:28:19
Speaker
Now it still won't charge my credit card until the very end of the campaign and I get two figures. I mean, it worked out pretty well for us. Wouldn't you think? Um, so I think that it was, it was about trying to find something that we thought would be a compelling offering, something that would be unique and interesting. We approached Ron, um, to see if he would be willing to work with us on the project kind of after the direct had been decided.
00:28:44
Speaker
Um, but he is, he's so sweet. It's so much fun to hear him talk, tell stories about what designing on the line was like back in the day. Or we had, um, we brought in a bunch of classified figures with us and was like, okay, I designed this one and this one and this one and this one and this one. Oh, and like 175 other characters that you know and love at X, Y, and Z. So he's, he's an absolute encyclopedia of GI Joe knowledge. And we are so lucky that we get to work with him. Got anything else, Lenny?
00:29:15
Speaker
Uh, I'm thinking about time. I'm sorry. If you feel like I covered it, I apologize. I think you did. I think you did. Um, yeah, it was, it was like I said in the stream. Uh, I think for me, it's just like a personal thing. Like this, this dude literally like designed all the jobs I played with like between the run of when I was a kid and like, you know, growing up in like when I was 18.
00:29:40
Speaker
24 years old in school and stuff. I didn't know who Ron Rudolph was. And then when I got more into it and became a designer, I'm like, Holy crap. And then I get to meet him. It was kind of like, I don't get starstruck. Cause I feel like it's weird to do to people, but it was a little like starstruck talking to him. Right. Cause I'm like, this guy literally like unbeknownst to him, inspired somebody to want to do this for a living.
00:30:03
Speaker
Right. So it was like, it was kind of, it was to, uh, something how Emily would say it was precious. It was a precious moment and it was awesome. It was very cool. So for me, it was more of a good personal thing. It was like, wow, like this, this is the guy that like made me want to do this thing. So it was cool. Awesome. All right. And then, uh, next up, uh, Matt, if you're ready.
00:30:27
Speaker
I am. Hey guys, thanks so much. And yeah, like everyone said, congrats. It's pretty awesome to have it already funded and already in the stretch goals this quickly. And it was kind of talked about a little bit earlier about.
00:30:39
Speaker
going in with a mindset of trying to find a balance between iconic and a price point and trying to find scale and all those things. As far as price point goes, because it is kind of a popular topic with what people can afford, and was there something like a particular item on the tank or in its development that you kind of
00:31:02
Speaker
had to kind of refine and change up kind of due to that price like maybe you had you know wants to to make it bigger or different uh expand it and you kind of just had to rain those in because you you had that particular mindset in mind like you were trying to keep it at a certain price yes how specifically can there was something in it that we like no uh it's
00:31:28
Speaker
there's so i will be i'll be purposefully vague about this but but we had originally designed we would have had to charge like 600 for um it was it was like it was decked out to the nines it was um it was uh very fun um but that being said i think that it was really important to us that we did keep that in a kind of more reasonable
00:31:55
Speaker
costing cost place for this kind of first as lab for GI Joe. And that now that we know that there is there's more appetite for vehicles like this, there's also opportunities to do smaller vehicles for the land is opportunity to do bigger vehicles for the line.
Future Opportunities and Evolution of GI Joe
00:32:11
Speaker
And so I think that this is really having this as basically proof to take to
00:32:16
Speaker
leaders at Hasbro to say like, look man, like that's obviously how I would talk to somebody high up at Hasbro. Look at what we did on this is I think it's a huge credit to the GI Joe community for making this happen and I think will directly result in us having a lot more leeway to do other projects like this in the future. Yeah, I think to add
00:32:41
Speaker
from not telling you what we did, but to say where the philosophy went, it was what are people going to do with it, right? So it's like we had a lot of conversations like what are you going to do with
00:32:55
Speaker
this large vehicle because this is not Apple's apples with Galactus and the Sentinels. Like we know what you're going to do with that, like posing and playing and all that, right? So it's like, what are you going to do with this guy? So then that helped us determine the final feature set. If that, if that helps kind of give where our brains were at, we're like, well, it doesn't need this, but it needs this. And we do fun lab testing on, on projects like this. So we do bring fans in and say like, Hey, what
00:33:24
Speaker
If we did a project like this, how would you rank these features? What would you be most excited about? What in this list would not necessarily appeal to you? And so that kind of combined with what we were seeing in development helped to inform, ultimately, what the feature set of the vehicle was. Awesome. Thank you, guys. Yeah, thank you. Hey, folks. How are you doing? Thanks very much for inviting me to the show.
00:33:47
Speaker
Again, as everybody else has said, congratulations on the success of the HasLab. It's been pretty amazing to watch. Not just how quickly it funded, but that it was the quickest to fund. It's a credit to you guys. So I think I kind of want to touch on something that, Lenny, you sort of brought up earlier in this conversation and actually connects a little bit to your
00:34:07
Speaker
your comments about releasing a Firefly figure. And sort of as the line has evolved into what it is now, there's obviously been sort of an aesthetic shift in GIDO classified, where we're looking more towards the vintage designs and a little bit further away from some of the modern elements that it started with. And I think, obviously, I think that's the right choice because, you know, that has kind of coincided with the surge in popularity and success of things like the SysTank HasLab.
00:34:33
Speaker
But do you envision that there's a very scenario when you might revisit some of those more modern elements? And, you know, thinking of the Firefly, I was really a big fan of that original Firefly release. But, you know, it sounds like maybe you guys are going back to the well on that a little bit. But do you think there's ever an avenue where some of those modern elements might, again, make a return? I mean, from my personal perspective, I absolutely fell in love with that modern storm shadow that was revealed on GIJoe.com.
00:34:57
Speaker
and it never ended up coming to light. So just kind of curious about from a design perspective, if you see an avenue to bring any of those elements back into it.
00:35:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So one thing with the more classic look, we were celebrating the 40th anniversary. So we were kind of peeling it back a little bit with the tech. So it was like the 40th anniversary was rolling in. So it was like, OK, let's design a little closer to the original design. We definitely want to continue to push the design, go back a little bit to push the designs a little bit further, but ground them a little bit more. And the original kickoff of GI Joe classified
00:35:33
Speaker
We were in the mindset of trying to grab a new consumer as well, so they're getting into a younger consumer base, as with the high-tech details and stuff like that. Also, we were playing with missions. We knew we didn't want to start off with super classic designs because the mission at hand was dealing with Destro and this new tech, and we were kind of creating a narrative.
00:35:54
Speaker
So I think going in to 22, whatever year we're in, because our schedules are all wacky, we went more classic because of the fourth anniversary. I think we're going to stay more rooted. I'm not going to say that we're going to be 100% classic, match the amount of pins or details on an old school figure, but 100% drawing more from the old school figure than we did in the past.
00:36:23
Speaker
um you know like there's certain types of way pants are worn like the way somebody wears pants today as they wore them like 40 years ago that we're going to take a consideration like would you like so stuff like that will be probably most likely modernized not in all cases though because certain characters like
00:36:43
Speaker
certain characters can't touch, like Mindbender. I think Mindbender's a really good example. Like, couldn't touch Mindbender. Like, we actually did. We did one update to Mindbender where we put a little bit of tech on his monocle. And we did that because from a engineering standpoint, we needed to create a better peg for purchase on the face. So by making a more kind of like squared out kind of like tech piece, we were able to make a squared out piece on his face, which then connected it to the head.
00:37:18
Speaker
I think a long story short really is. As long as you didn't touch the codpiece, Lenny, that's the main thing. It's pristine. Do you not touch the codpiece, Lenny? I think the point I'm trying to make is we definitely are harkening more grounded. We definitely want to push it a little bit because I think the brand deserves that. I think the brand deserves to have design and not just iterating what was done the past, it's being inspired by it. I feel like the line has always done that.
00:37:39
Speaker
and it's discreet enough where it doesn't really mess with that old school feel.
00:37:45
Speaker
Like when I was a kid, all the different iterations of all the different characters, and then every time a new designer touched it, they put so much more.
00:37:53
Speaker
Not that so much more, but they were inspired by those before, so they pushed it to another place. And I think that's what gives it so much life. We don't get stuck in one aesthetic. We keep on going. However classified, we know that there's a lot of love for some of these old school aesthetics, so we need to keep them. But at the same time, we're learning as we read comments and
00:38:18
Speaker
read a lot of criticism, how to get it there. We're going to miss sometimes, but we're really trying to swing for the fence every time. I feel like I'm rambling at this point, but yes and no. We are going to push, but we are going to stick around a little bit more. Makes sense. I think that there's, as Lenny was mentioning, it's
00:38:40
Speaker
It's a constant evolution on GI Joe. We are not the same, exactly the same brand as we were in the sixties or the eighties or the nineties or even 10 years ago. And I think that that is one of the really beautiful things about GI Joe is that it kind of is a reflection of whatever the modern lens is, which is a more futuristic version of a modern lens. Yes, it is a fashion brand.
00:39:03
Speaker
which all I want are like two packs for GI Joe figures. I want them to come with bare feet and I want to have like 20 different pairs of shoes that they can wear. So that's the dream. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:39:22
Speaker
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00:40:13
Speaker
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00:40:22
Speaker
And now, back to the show. Hey, joining the congrats party. Just echoing what Albin said before. It's been an awesome going on about 36 hours now. Kicking in on this his thing. So I'm going to skip over most of that. Though on the pro Cobra note, Emily, I was going to ask, you know, the mailer box you guys sent us had the Baroness.
00:40:49
Speaker
front and center had a Cobra commander on the left, but only had Scarlett on the front. Then you go his tank 40th anniversary, but all about Cobra. So we do like Cobra. Not going to lie. We won't, we won't lie to you at this point. We do really like Cobra guys. They're crazy. They have amazing stuff. It's a villain thing, but so let's veer off
Packaging Innovations and Feedback
00:41:13
Speaker
it. Let's veer off of the hiss for a second. And, uh,
00:41:16
Speaker
Kind of continue a conversation that we've had earlier this year, um, about the ongoing rollout of the plastic free packaging. And the reason I'm going into this is because we know from our readership at boy book and pop insider, the stuff we've already posted about plastic free packaging has become evergreen. So many people are interested in this. And, uh, earlier this month, I was actually at the Astra marketplace and academy.
00:41:43
Speaker
which is all of the independent toy stores, some of which are stocking classified along with other Hasbro six inch products. And retailers were specifically asking about the plastic free initiatives. And what I'm curious about is has there been any feedback to you guys over the past couple of months that has sort of evolved into any inline changes
00:42:11
Speaker
looking forward as you're building out your plastic free model based on consumer concern because retailers seem very concerned about having to retrain their customers. But on the flip side, there's also an added bonus, which it seems like a lot of e-tailers are interested in having packages without the windows on them. How has it evolved since we last spoke two, three months ago?
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think that with all things that is kind of a continuing evolution of learning and processes on all of the brands and that on one of the things that we think that it's an amazing opportunity for on GI Joe is to get to try something new and to really have that. We love the really cool classified series artwork that our team has been creating, getting to highlight
00:43:05
Speaker
so many artists, and I know that I've said this again, but, you know, having that many artists with that many different art styles really kind of gets to highlight the diversity of the G.I. Joe universe. And so for me, I love getting to see more of that on art and then or more of that on package. And then you actually get to see the full poster instead of kind of the cutout that used to be on the side of the path. I think it's also interesting from a layout perspective in that it was a challenge to us. We wanted to figure out how to turn
00:43:34
Speaker
this change into something that consumers would be excited about. And so that was kind of our logic behind doing, we have the weapons cash boxes now that all of our accessories come in. So that you end up with these boxes that have everybody's name and everybody's numbers and they change color for the factions. And that becomes kind of a bonus with that. We've been printing all of that tissue paper with the logos to make it more of kind of a special unboxing experience.
00:44:01
Speaker
So I think that continuing kind of down those learnings to figure out what people are responding well to, what people are not responding as well to, that we could potentially implement any kind of changes on in the future.
00:44:14
Speaker
Everybody again, congratulations on you know, not only the success of the his tank but your debut on the silver screen Recently, that's very it was Not gonna lie. That was a really really weird moment for us. So we went Chris was in our theater with us and so there were maybe 15 people that we knew from work plus Chris and like
00:44:38
Speaker
Maybe six people sitting kind of behind our group and Lenny and I walked into the theater halfway through when our video was on and everybody who worked with us.
00:44:51
Speaker
So they all whipped their phones out, right? And then we also, I was looking around and everybody behind them who I did not know also whipped their phones out. And it was a really weird moment. And then one of our photographer Matt texted us and he was like, Hey guys, this just showed up on a GI Joe fan group on Facebook. And it was a picture of me and Lenny standing in the movie theater that somebody we didn't know had taken.
00:45:14
Speaker
And it was Fred, our sculptor was there, one of Corey's sculptors that he manages was there, so I'm hoping it was Fred. Yeah, Fred really hoped it would go before. It was one of the other really wonderful people that we ended up meeting later that evening, but holy smokes was that a weird experience for me. That's awesome. I'm sorry, I totally interrupted you, please continue, I was very excited.
00:45:38
Speaker
No, no, that's great. I love it. So, you know, I think we're we're a little more than three years into the the has lab experience and we have seen some that have moved forward and some that have not.
Collaboration and Team Efforts in Haslab Projects
00:45:53
Speaker
As you guys are putting together a program like this, what are the learnings you've had from the other ones? How much of that creation comes from you guys? How much of it comes from the HasLab teams? And just what are the learnings that you have from success or failure of other ones that you guys wanted to make sure we're baked into this so it would be as successful as possible?
00:46:23
Speaker
It's interesting this time around because the hiss and some of the ones coming up are the first HasLabs to not be done by each brand team. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Emily, it's kind of born out of like HasLabs take a lot of work. Like the sky striker, even though it is like a replica creation, it does have updates and it has a lot of engineering that has to happen.
00:46:47
Speaker
And it was all cooling. So it wasn't like we were just pulling 40-year-old tools and like polishing them and calling you today. So the engineer and I at the time, it took, I would say from a resource standpoint of our time, it might've started taking close to 50% of our time. And a classified figure takes a lot of love. So I think the company from a whole saw that. It was like the resource spend is actually, it's gonna damper
00:47:15
Speaker
some of the some of the brand teams threshold. I'm the only designer on GI Joe. So like if my time gets taken away from a from a special project, it's a lot and then a special project that they run the risk of not make we run the risk of not making these things. So it could have been 50% of my time spent not
00:47:36
Speaker
followed through on. So I think that was a, it's almost like a project management thing where they're like, we need to do something about this so it works out. But then I think because of our work on other hazards, I've worked on Unicron.
00:47:47
Speaker
I worked on the style striker. Uh, I worked on this one and I feel like I had my toes and other ones cause just, you know, being around. Um, but, um, we learned, I learned a lot from a design standpoint of this reading comments and then reading comments from other teams and stuff. Cause if you didn't notice anything about Emily and I were obsessed with our jobs. So seeing what the other brands are doing and stuff like that to kind of take that in like a sponge and then learn. And then from experience learned from other campaigns that we have done ourselves, um,
00:48:17
Speaker
I think we applied it here and it was really cool that the team could focus on making the thing and we can be like, hey, this is the problems we ran into or some of the pitfalls that we want to help you avoid so that you don't have to deal with that so you can focus on the thing. Because what's important here is the product. I'm a workaholic, but
00:48:45
Speaker
Like, so for me, I'm a product, product, product, product, product, but at the end of the day, like people's time is important too, right? So it's like the fact that the way it played out, the way it did, we've learned a lot and we've learned how to manage that, like people resourcing and then some of the, um, I want to say issues that can come up on a product that might not even happen. And it could like really damage, uh, productivity of other products. I think that it also that speak to kind of the commitment of Hasbro to the HasLab process.
00:49:15
Speaker
And how excited we get that we do want to have basically a team that is dedicated to working on these larger scale projects so that they can be done. They can be done thoughtfully and they can be done thoroughly. And like Lenny said, these take a ton of time. And if you're trying to also manage an entire product line, it becomes a lot. And so having a team that is really focusing on these and other special projects is, I mean, it's really special to be able to be part of that. Yeah.
00:49:44
Speaker
And there's animatronic items at Hasbro that that's the designer's project. Right. That's how much work goes into some of these single items. Right. If you look at like, um, consumer product industry, like it does a team of designers work on one item. So it's definitely having a HasLab team come in and like focus it, like it's, it's huge from a resource management standpoint. I bet. Yeah.
00:50:10
Speaker
But that was a boring answer, but that's fine. Cool. All right, Brett, your turn. Thank you. I'll repeat what everyone says is congrats on the fantastic launch. Um, kind of similar to what the, the last question is, is can you go into maybe some of the details as to like what some of those specific lessons you've learned from the past as labs and the other would be is, you know, it's, it's a different team, but is the process.
00:50:40
Speaker
different in developing the products? In terms of so maybe Lenny, I'll do lesson and you'll do process. In one of the lessons that we have learned is to really kind of take on the GI Joe team personally is to really
00:50:58
Speaker
Take a look with a fine to home about making sure that the items that we are doing our dream items. So moving forward. We want these to be items that you can't necessarily go out and buy on eBay that maybe have not been re released before that
00:51:17
Speaker
These are truly special things that are unique opportunities that when you see it, you go, oh my God, I can't not have that. Because the number of comments that we saw where people finally saw this his tank model, and they all went, oh my God, I wasn't going to buy that, but I can't not buy that, that is exactly the feeling that we are trying to give everybody who sees these Ads Lab projects. That's gonna be my lesson learned, learning for process.
00:51:43
Speaker
Process wise, I think in general, it was different here too, because like I mentioned, like it wasn't us that was doing the, I mean, it did the figure, but it wasn't me that was doing the design work of the his tank itself.
00:51:57
Speaker
also different. We actually, we designed a his tank about three years ago. Uh, we were like, I want to make a his tank. And I was like, I asked him a director time. Like, I do his tank. And he's like, yeah, dude, make it his tank. We sweet. So we did one and it just, there was no plans. You ask him in that voice.
00:52:13
Speaker
That's how I talk. I'm talking to you in a business field right now. We had gone through a lot of what we thought would be cool and all that sort of thing. This is a little different animal where we've always had it as a dream. With that in mind, having had some background of actually doing a design study,
00:52:38
Speaker
working with another team to do it. It was really cool actually because it was like I could take a step back a little bit and like kind of like see the forest for the trees. Is that how that term goes? And kind of see where a designer is kind of like doing the whole process and then coming in as the the classified GI Joe expert to kind of be like okay so here's where we can go when we can't go and then learning where to kind of let things happen for a little bit and then
00:53:06
Speaker
from a critical eye, see what the consumer needs. And that's a lot of time from a design standpoint, how we kind of approach things. It's like what is needed by the consumer and then what is going to benefit the brand. So keep making this cool stuff.
00:53:22
Speaker
Um, so it was interesting. It was, it was a very cool, um, collaborative process, really. Like we keep on calling us, it's like the happy family. Like we really, we, I love that team. I'm like, can you make all my vehicles? I was in his jobs earlier. Um, but I hope that answers it, but I think it was a lot of like collaboration and then always kind of putting the needs of the consumer in mind when we made design decisions. Um, so. Yeah.
00:53:54
Speaker
Cool. All right. Last one on the first pass is Scott. Hey, guys. Again, I can't say enough about the His Tank Has Lab project. One, it's a dream come true to see such a big vehicle get reimagined.
00:54:16
Speaker
But how amazingly it looks and the fact that you guys hit literally your first stretch goal, hey, let's get 8,000. You didn't mean 8,000 tonight, but we took it so seriously. We made it happen. It really blows me out of the water how well it was received.
00:54:36
Speaker
makes me even more giddy thinking, well, if we could fully fund that in a day, what will you give us next? What are your thought processes? Well, they seem to be very hungry. How hungry? Well, we're completely funded and we've already opened a stretch goal.
00:54:57
Speaker
I mean, that's I'm sure that wasn't quite expected for the day. You guys, we got a week. We can hit this in a week, but to hit it in an amount of hours before the sun went down is got to be something spectacular to feel on your side.
00:55:13
Speaker
Emily, I think I'll let you feel a lot of this, but I think something to note, we really approach this modestly. We wanted to make a vehicle that was obtainable for the collector, consumer, and it fulfilled a need. I think I mentioned in the stream, I was like, this starts building the world. Our whole goal was to make the classified GI Joe world.
00:55:36
Speaker
and if you play with it or if it's just on your shelf as a set piece, it's an instant set piece. Especially when you turn it around, you can put troops inside of it and all that. But between the price point, its features, all the details, which led to the needs of the consumer, we wanted to make a fair product that was quality. That's where the price point and all the features and all that sink together.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah, but that's the caveat to think about when we're making stuff and what we could make in the future. So Emily, you want to add on to that? I think that was good. Yeah, unless there's anything else specific that we'd like to know. Sorry.
00:56:18
Speaker
Well, I mean, I for one, with it being a has that project, it means you have to back it to get it. You're not going to get it any other way, which then leads us to a lot of like sadness that we won't get a crimson hissing. And of course that's on a lot of our grail lists for collectors, but the fact that we have a black one and well, we should certainly would love to have a red one to go with black one.
00:56:47
Speaker
You know, just throwing it out there. So what I will say is that you want this piss tank again. That doesn't necessarily mean that you will never see any other iterations of piss tanks in the future.
00:57:05
Speaker
I just bought you a cat toy. Give me your address. You just got a cat toy. I would think that, you know, never say there have been so many different iterations of different G.I. Joe products and that everybody depending on, you know, when you started playing with G.I. Joe, you have a different instinct that you fell in love with. It was the one that you were playing with. And so we really do want to kind of continue appealing to as many of those different groups as possible.
00:57:29
Speaker
So just because we are doing a black one for the Hazlab does not mean that you will not eventually see other colorways potentially in the future. Don't quote me on that. The septic tank is coming is what you're saying. Yes. The septic tank is coming. I love Battle Warriors. What a phenomenal line of just weird products. We had a long conversation about that, by the way. The whole like, there are a lot of types of his tanks. And it like was a long, it was like,
00:57:57
Speaker
I can't say much, but it was a very long conversation back and forth, because it was like, you have to consider that. Like, you know, so I won't say more, but it was a long conversation. Scott, are you excited about his tank right now? Sorry? Yes, I am actually. I'm driving my own his tank currently.
00:58:19
Speaker
It's secondhand, I bought it from a dreadnought with a handshake deal, but yes. The lights don't work either. No, no. Secondhand Hiss is a really good band name.
00:58:35
Speaker
Yes! I'm in if you're in, Lenny. I'm glad to hear about two more figures that we have coming along in the pipeline. Dreadnock, Ripper, of course, we're really happy with Zartan that we've gotten. I just keep buying it. I don't care how many Zartans you throw at me, I'm going to keep buying that guy.
00:59:02
Speaker
But to get an additional Dreadnought now, and here it's Ripper. I can't wait to tell Neil Ross that he's finally getting his classified figure. They're very important to the world, right? So, Dreadnought, I love Dreadnought. Just out of interest, with the development reveals, are we allowed to say that now, or do you guys plan to drop that information in a different way?
00:59:31
Speaker
Oh, I mean, we'll probably end up posting it on social eventually, but you guys are welcome to say it. That's fine. Thank you very much. Right now there's a fury of thumbs on Twitter.
Community and Fan Engagement
00:59:46
Speaker
I'm really almost at a loss because so many other people have already said like some of the great things that I wanted to say about this project.
00:59:55
Speaker
With it being a troop builder, do you think that was one of the reasons for the success of the Hazlab, his tank? Because a lot of guys that I know were like, yeah, I bought two, three, five tanks. They really went all in with numbers per Hazlab that we probably haven't seen since Sentinel.
01:00:18
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely do because we do see, and I think that at the beginning of the line, we may have underestimated the GI Joe community's dedication to fruit building because holy smokes, like I see like armies of alley vipers and bats and ninjas, and it's so cool to see what is basically like this collection that people have put together. So I do think that that factored in because
01:00:46
Speaker
It's something that we thought was really special and we wanted to get to bring that in a bigger scale too. A fan sent me a picture of 20 bats stacked and he said, halfway done. It's like, my dude, my dude, my wife would kill me if I bought that many things in one shot. I mean, every paycheck or something. You gotta be sly about it, you know?
01:01:15
Speaker
I personally know more people than I have fingers that have hundreds of bats and alley vipers and vipers and Cobra soldiers, hundreds. And they're flattering to see it. Like it's like we, as a team, like we put a lot into it to see that it's like, and see that it's bringing joy to a lot of people. Like that's, it's the best like payback for like the work we do. It's really cool.
01:01:38
Speaker
All right, everyone, not to jump in here, but we are running low on time, and I'd love to get people a chance to ask another question as fast as we can. So I'm going to start at the top again, and Chris, do you want to ask a quick question?
01:01:52
Speaker
I'm multitasking and trying to get information out at the same time as doing, yes, I would love to ask another question. Thank you very much, Dustin. Okay, so coming back a little, well, we've kind of talked a lot about the Haslab, so I might push that off a little bit for this other question.
01:02:08
Speaker
I know we've had so much product showing off and up for pre-order over the last month, and this just sounds really greedy, but what will the frequency of live events look like for the rest of the year? Because I'm thinking Yo-Yo July, Yo-Jawgust, September September, Yo-Yo October Guard, Yo-Yo Vemba, and of course Yo-Ho Hojo Christmas.
01:02:31
Speaker
That way you can be doing live events every week for the rest of the year. Round of applause for Chris on that one. Round of applause. Round of applause. Well done. You just blasted out a bunch of dad puns. That's what I did.
01:02:46
Speaker
Well, I think that, so you'll definitely see us on air a little bit less after a Yo-Yo June. Please keep in mind that, you know, when we get compared to the fan lines on Star Wars and Marvel and Transformers, our line is a lot smaller than theirs is. And there is definitely an expectation that when you see us, we will be pre-ordering and revealing some kind of new product.
01:03:06
Speaker
And we just, our line isn't big enough yet to be able to do that with that much frequency, which I mean, we're excited for it to eventually get to that point, but unfortunately it's not quite there. So we will be doing, we'll be at least doing some kind of live streaming events during Comic-Con next month.
01:03:24
Speaker
So I think that that will probably be one of the touch points. And then you'll probably see us on something before then, because we'll talk about the Has Lab at some point, I would think. Let us get through this weekend first. You guys went a lot faster on this project than we thought. So we thought we'd have a little bit more time. So we're scrambling on the back end. But in the best way possible, please allow me to complain that you funded this too fast. And I needed a little bit more time to write social copy or get social copy.
01:03:52
Speaker
So you'll definitely see us at Comic-Con, likely for a couple of things in the fall at least, we'll have some touch points. So more information on that. Thank you so much. That's awesome. Cool. Justin, do you want to ask a second question? Sure, I'd love to. So you mentioned kind of, as you were talking about the Hazlab piss a little bit, which ties into some other questions that I had about story. You mentioned this is kind of unveiling the GI Joe world, so to speak, is there going to be an opportunity that we can
01:04:22
Speaker
read or visualize what this new GI Joe classified world is? Will there be story elements that are woven in any other media and any other formats beyond just some snippets on some packages here and there, especially the Cobra Island exclusives? Just curious kind of how that story is going to be told visually. Currently no plans on that, but we are always looking for kind of new ways to expand the brand and expand the story. So potentially stay tuned on that in the future. Our photography, I think,
01:04:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's really the photography. It's really the photography that we're doing it through, right? So it's like we're creating a love letter to GI Joe, since you would classify it. So through the photography, we create like a little narrative, like with Duke getting captured over Island and stuff like that. Cool. All right. And, uh, don't worry. Y'all you're not going to be in the same exact order as the first time around. Eric, I know you were second last time, so I'm going to pass it to you for your next question, but don't freak out if you're not in the same exact order as the first way through.
01:05:23
Speaker
So we've got a question from our followers and from our listeners that's been pretty much the consistent question that they've asked. The Joe team has many victories against logistic hardships since the launch of the classified line. Do you guys see a light at the end of the tunnel for any US-based shipping delays?
01:05:47
Speaker
I think so.
Logistics and Event Planning
01:05:49
Speaker
Well, we're, let me rephrase that shipping issues are still going to definitely be a thing, but what many people saw in the last couple of days is people started getting shipping notifications on proc master in Fiona on storm shadow on spirit on the corporate officer. And so we are starting to see after a what we will be happy to acknowledge as a
01:06:09
Speaker
I mean, we're not happy to acknowledge any of it, but we will acknowledge a very long drought of GI Joe figures. And so now what you are seeing is basically their work
01:06:18
Speaker
six months of product delays. So these were figures that in a perfect world would have come out in February guys, like absolutely bonkers. But what that means is that now we have figures that would have come out in April that are kind of going to be shifting to more of an October timeframe of this year. And so what you, there will not be another six months of no product like we saw in the spring. Now basically we're just backfilling fall with all of the spring products that was supposed to come out earlier this year.
01:06:48
Speaker
So again,
01:06:49
Speaker
We thank all of you for sticking with us. We want to emphasize we are not sitting on giant piles of GI Joe products, like Braggins, Garden, guarding like case pack boxes of figures. We are, we're shipping things out as fast as we can. Ultimately, it is up to retailers in order to distribute those as to their policies, but that we are working with everybody to move as fast as humanly possible and get figures into your hands. That's why we make toys. We want you to get to experience that happiness and that joy of playing with those figures.
01:07:19
Speaker
So again, thank you for sticking with us. We hope everybody gets a Crockmaster soon. Cool. Fran, you are up. All right, I have tons of questions. I'm going to try to make them real easy for you to answer.
01:07:38
Speaker
Regarding the his tank, once we crushed the four goals, cause we're going to, it's going to the moon. Are you guys adding extra goals? And I would like to suggest the Baroness from number 75, the blue tuned double blue tone Baroness. It's probably out of the budget, but maybe it's a figure you can stick in there in the future. I cannot comment on this at this current time.
01:08:02
Speaker
Uh, there are currently no plans to add additional tiers, but we are, we're always looking to see how we can potentially improve campaign. Okay. My other question is about San Diego comic-con is Sergeant Slaughter going to be available for purchase there and will the his tank be on display? The his tank will be on display. Sergeant Slaughter will be going up for pre-order at comic-con. So he will not be available to purchase that on site. No, we will, uh,
01:08:32
Speaker
Whitney, am I allowed to comment on this? Yeah. Great. We will not be selling products on site this year in the Hasbro Pulse School.
01:08:41
Speaker
So because of supply chain issues, we will be, the majority of our items I believe will be pre-orders, but also like it's such a schlep to have to try to get all this stuff home guys, have it ordered online and have it shipped to your house. And then it'll just magically, you know, show up and you'll be fine. No more ticket line to get online. Exactly. Go to shipping to send it home. Gotta love San Diego though. It's beautiful. I enjoy going out there and I love meeting the team and seeing things in person. It's just great.
01:09:09
Speaker
Yeah, well, Emily and I will be there, so we'll be showing off the tank. We'll probably be here that I missed, but next year I'll definitely be out there. And not to speak for the other brands, but is that just GI Joe that's not going to have anything for sale or is no Hasbro going to have anything for sale at Comic Con? We are not doing a purchasing booth for Hasbro at Comic Con this year, so it will all be online through Hasbro Pulse. Yes, and just to add, you'll be able to purchase, yeah, but it'll just be all online.
01:09:42
Speaker
Thanks, Whitney. I've got one last question for the His Tank Ads Lab. Are the weapons racks removable? Can you take that out to add the figure for more room, get the figure in there? So currently in the model, it is. And we were looking at, so originally the build of the back was going to be the weapon rack was going to be on the far wall.
01:10:05
Speaker
and we were going to put two jump seats but what ended up happening was because of the scales of the figures we actually used a bat because a bat's like a good big but not too big figure form and it ended up being very cramped inside and it was kind of becoming cattywombus to get the figures in and out of the his tank so then it was rearranged to put the um
01:10:28
Speaker
the rack on the side, it may be for engineering reasons removable. Because I think it'll be easier, one, for people to put their weapons in and then pop it back in there. Because otherwise, taking your big old muffin hands, looking at me, and putting your accessories in there. So we don't have an answer yet. Is there a space for two seats, though, Lenny?
01:10:49
Speaker
Um, actually no, because of the turret cup. Oh, cool. Right. Right. You wouldn't be able to get them in and out. It's, it's, it fits the one figure comfortably. If we were to put more in there, would it get messy? Mark tried though. Very, very hard, but it got, it got wonky. Thank you very much. I have more questions, but I know other people have them. So thank you very much for letting me ask a few questions. Cool. Thank you. Uh, James, you're up.
01:11:20
Speaker
Uh, follow up on, uh, something about the has lab program now that you guys have found this like kind of sweet spot with the price and features and everything that you can get going. And Emily, you mentioned some smaller. Vehicles potentially, um, is what kind of potential is there for Hasbro to kind of increase the frequency?
01:11:42
Speaker
of Haslab for smaller projects, for smaller items. Is that something looking ahead that might be possible where it's not like a huge bank breaking project, but if you are doing smaller ones, you could get more of them more frequently.
01:12:01
Speaker
So that's an interesting question. So one of the things that we were thinking about in terms of Hazlabs is there's really kind of two different ways to do Hazlabs. So you have like your Galactus or your Razor Crest that are these one really big, exciting thing. And then you have kind of like a little fiddly bit unlocked that go with it. Or you have these items that are more kind of collection assortment. And so that's really how we were viewing the Sky Striker was as more of a collection it came with.
01:12:29
Speaker
Geez, 7.0 ring figures, is that what we were up to? It came with the stand, it came with the vehicles, it came with all of the stuff. And so it wasn't just necessarily like when I'm carrying this his tank gray model around right now, it is a giant tank and one dude. When I would carry my Sky Striker around, it was a Sky Striker plane and a giant bag of all of the accessories that it came with because I couldn't possibly hold it all in my hands. And so I think that it's an interesting,
01:12:58
Speaker
way to kind of look at you know what necessarily makes up a collection has lab versus what kind of smaller things could we just do individually on their own.
01:13:08
Speaker
And I think that that is something that is definitely, we are still kind of exploring as a company for how the difference between those two things works and what fans will feel is really exciting and a good value proposition for them. Because we really want to make sure that you all feel like this is something worth investing in. We want you to get excited about it.
01:13:31
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
01:13:47
Speaker
Visit them in person at 106 Main Street in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y.com. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you. Yeah, I'm back. How and when do we find out about the remaining stretch goals?
01:14:15
Speaker
solid question after we unlock them. So as we go through, we will be basically updating the website and social with information about those new unlocks. I know we hit one this morning. We're a little bit behind schedule. Our wonderful social human was preoccupied with another project for this morning. So he is working on getting those up. So they will work on him for end of day. How does that sound?
01:14:43
Speaker
You're not going to, you're not going to just whisper it in our ear. No, I will not because he'll be very disappointed in me. So, um, but I think that you'll be excited when you see them. But the plan is, so we're not going to like, if we hit 14,000 backers tomorrow or whatever, we're not going to make you wait four weeks for the last unlocked year. Like that would just be mean. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Matt, you are up. If you have another question.
01:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, just a quick one. One, I just want to say that cattywampus should be used more often in everyday vernacular. It is a fantastic word. Two, you know, in my particular storyline, if you will, Sergeant Slaughter is totally going to steal his tank. So if I so want to put him in it, does he fit, even if I had to remove a hat?
01:15:34
Speaker
Do I, like, if I have to remove a hat, I just want to make sure he fits. So the story can play out properly. I'm pretty sure he does, because slaughter and roadblock are similar heights. Perfect. So, yeah. That's me. Yes. I don't think it was hat on, though. Oh, okay. That's cool. We can totally take off the hat. Respect the tank. Yeah. All right, Jeremy, if you have another question.
01:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, in the video, you two superstars appeared in at the screenings. You guys mentioned that by the end, I think you said the end of 2023, there's going to be 100 classified GI Joe figures. Does that mean that we're going to see a big uptick, maybe not before the end of the year, but starting in 2023 in more quarterly releases or
01:16:26
Speaker
Does that mean that we're just going to get like bigger since we're getting six figures per wave now? It's just going to add up quicker.
01:16:33
Speaker
Uh, a little bit of both as a clarifier, five figures per wave on class. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure nobody was disappointed, but it's, it's a little bit of both. So it'll both add up quicker, but also there are just more figures as the, as we kind of, uh, age, I guess, as, as the line gets a little bit older, we keep, uh, people are responding really positively to the line. And so we are being given.
01:16:58
Speaker
to make our line bigger and bigger, which is amazing. And so it's, I think that it's really exciting that it'll be kind of a combo of both, but more figures just overall, I guess. And it's not necessarily that there will only be a hundred figures by the end of 2020, but that sometime in 2023, we will be hitting the hundredth classified figure. Okay. And lastly, is there any way you could just kind of whisper what the box numbers will be on the his tank driver and the,
01:17:26
Speaker
the other figure? No. Yeah. I bet you might be able to guess. It's something that will make you say, Oh, she crafty. Okay. All right, Brett, you're up. Hey, you. So obviously, the his tank is a hit. I think you
01:17:48
Speaker
Everyone should be probably pretty happy with how quickly it hit its goal and the enthusiastic response. Are you already maybe rethinking things or taking that feedback in and kind of being like, oh, this actually opens up a lot because it's gone so well?
01:18:04
Speaker
I'm so sorry. Can you repeat the first part of that sentence again? Yeah.
Impact and Success of the HasLab Project
01:18:08
Speaker
So basically, I mean, since the history has done so well, uh, in the day it's been out, I mean, are you already maybe like reevaluating or rethinking future plans based off of like that feedback that it's, it's clearly a wanted, uh, project and, and people are digging the has lab.
01:18:27
Speaker
I think that it's, so it's been really interesting because we know that classified series is a hit and a lot of people, I mean Hasbro also knows that classified series is a hit, but this is a really definitive data point that we can take to senior leaders at Hasbro and go.
01:18:43
Speaker
Look man, we've been telling you that everybody loves classified series, but did you just see what this team did and what this community did? Because oh my goodness, this is untapped potential and we should really just be given free reign to do literally whatever we want.
01:18:59
Speaker
They'll never let us do that but I think that it is really nice to have that data point to be able to say we set records with officially we have a I jumped the gun yesterday I said that it was but I mean I had a guess but the pulse team has officially vetted that it is the fastest funded has lab of all time and so to be able to take that to our leadership teams and say that
01:19:21
Speaker
I think is, it's an amazing statistic for us because it says appetite is here. We need to continue doing things like this and we need to continue pushing the envelope on what we can do on GI Joe, which is amazing. They were going to let us do it anyway, but this will just be like, they'll be extra excited about it now. Well, it creates, it creates internal PR at any company, right? Like when there's a success, you learn from those successes. It's like you learn from your losses. So I think as we see this success, I think,
01:19:51
Speaker
People internally start feeling the buzz, you know. All right, so. I mean, once again, thank you guys for inviting me. It's phenomenal to get to be here with all these awesome, incredible people that are involved in this community.
Personal Reflections and Future Plans
01:20:07
Speaker
Before I ask the question, let me just say I am a convert of the classified line. So thank you guys for what you've done. I was not a Joe fan until that 00 Snake Eyes came out and fell in love and then have followed the line since then. So thank you.
01:20:23
Speaker
The other co-host of our show has been a Joe fan for his life so it's been a really fun adventure getting to learn and you guys have been doing a phenomenal job. So with the success of bringing back O-rings kind of going back seeing the stinger released and announced with the success of the O-rings are there any plans to revisit four inch modern scale or even we've got the 60th anniversary of 12 inch coming up are there any
01:20:50
Speaker
plans to maybe branch out and hit even the specialty figure in those scales? Come back to me on that one. We're still trying to figure out exactly what we're doing up the line in terms of future kind of things that we'll be able to celebrate. Come back to me on that.
01:21:13
Speaker
That was, I'm sorry, I don't have a better answer at this point, but eventually I will have a better answer for that. It's fine. We'll get your fashion brand, but you know, if you, if we can get that 12 inch, then you can get your shoes. Then you get your little outfit. One of my big dreams when I was on Power Rangers was I wanted an astronomer doll that had all of the different wigs that you could put on her. And I felt like that would have been a really solid use of Power Rangers time and money. Um, but we figured out wigs on GI Joe. So, so yeah.
01:21:40
Speaker
Lady J was perfect with her different swappable hair and head so even if it's unclassified we can get it working.
01:21:48
Speaker
But with the O-ring line, Lenny, and obviously it started really strong with the Haslab Sky Striker, the releases have been quite minimal, like, you know, not as many releases. Are you guys looking at maybe increasing the release on the O-ring line at all? Because I'm thinking, like, I kind of want to get to, like, you know, Python or, you know, unreleased kind of stuff, like Ninja Commandos and things like that.
01:22:14
Speaker
We're still trying to figure out the release cadence for O-ring. That will be another one that we'll come back to you on. No worries. I just wanted to make sure I put it out there. All right. On that note.
01:22:24
Speaker
Thank you, everybody, so much for hanging out with us. We really, really appreciate it. And again, really want to say thank you again to everybody in the community who has backed the his tank. Like this is a, it is a truly record setting moment for Habs Labs at Hasbro and the GI Joke community. And so we are so, so, so thankful to be part of a team that gets to make products for
01:22:48
Speaker
such amazing fans. And this truly, truly has been a multiple team effort to make this really come to life. And we think that all of you are going to be really, really excited. Yeah, the funding, you guys definitely made the funding moment less like, you know, when you watch some movies and NASA's like counting down for the
01:23:06
Speaker
rocket to go up and then the rocket goes up and there might be a problem. And then everybody's feeling like, oh my God, what have we done? You made it feel like, oh my God, what have we done? Thank you and thank the community. It's been awesome.
Closing Remarks
01:23:23
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. 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.
01:23:39
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.
01:24:03
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.
01:24:35
Speaker
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01:25:05
Speaker
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