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2023 Yo Joe June G.I. Joe Roundtable w/ Lenny and Emily
672 Plays2 years ago
YO JOE! We're back with Emily and Lenny from the G.I. Joe team at Hasbro for a roundtable discussion where Dave asks ONLY questions that were submitted by our followers on social media. Join us along with folks from the Toy Book, HISS Tank, and Gizmodo as we ask questions and get some answers!
Follow Emily, Lenny, and Hasbro on Instagram @morphinomenally_emily, @weatherdominator and @hasbropulse and visit hasbropulse.com for the latest news across the brand!
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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 Summer Activities and Sponsors
00:00:01
Speaker
The summer is here. That means outdoor festivals, comic-cons, and the perfect weather for toy hunts. As the weather heats up and you're out there enjoying yourself, stay hydrated with our show's sponsor, Liquid IV. Liquid IV hydrates two times faster than water alone and three times the electrolytes of traditional sports drinks, and it's easy to use. Just rip open a pouch, pour one of their delicious flavors into a water bottle, and shake it up.
00:00:30
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00:00:56
Speaker
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Podcast Start and Host Introduction
00:01:17
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.
00:01:41
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
Listener Q&A with GI Joe Team
00:01:46
Speaker
What you're about to hear is a GI Joe roundtable. Dave had the opportunity to sit down with Lenny and Emily, of course friends of the pod, and returning guests along with a bunch of other toy bloggers and journalists from around the toy community to talk all things GI Joe.
00:02:02
Speaker
The questions you're about to hear that Dave asks are all submitted from you our listeners and followers So uh, you know when we have opportunities like this We always like to make sure we open the door for our listeners and followers to participate we know getting access to these folks isn't always the easiest thing and
00:02:19
Speaker
So make sure you are following us at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, where we're constantly posting the opportunity to participate in these interviews, these roundtables, and Q&A sessions. So definitely make sure you are following us there at AIC underscore podcast. Now sit back, enjoy, and let's end Yo-Yo June with a fun roundtable.
Dragonfly Project and Airborne Figure Announcement
00:02:45
Speaker
So let's do it. Yo-jo.
00:02:49
Speaker
Yeah. How's everybody doing? It's so nice to see you all. Good. How are you? Doing good. It's a little a little off centered here. Am I OK? Oh, yeah. No, you're beautiful. Oh, thank you. So we're round table style, right? Well, you know, I guess how should we, Fran, you start introduce yourself. Yeah, Fran, introduce yourself. I'm Fran O'Boyle. I run histhink.com under the tag Destro.
00:03:19
Speaker
All right, James, introduce yourself. James Owen, editor in chief of the Floyd book and senior editor of the Pop Insider. And Dave, introduce yourself. I am Dave Weinberg and I am one of the hosts of the Adventures in Collecting podcast. That was fun. I liked that. And then for anybody who doesn't know us, I'm Emily. Nice to meet you. And I'm Woody.
00:03:44
Speaker
design on GI Joe. So maybe we go in that order questions too. That sounds perfect. All right. Andrew from Gizmodo on as well. Andrew, can you introduce yourself? Yeah. Yeah. Hi, I'm the one with the other camera turned on. I'm Andrew. I'm a senior staff reporter at Gizmodo and IO nine. And I've been there for like 13 years now covering toys and gadgets and stuff. So great. Thanks for having me today.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, sorry we missed you. Where it says I'm muted is literally covering your icon. That's my life story. My life story. So if we go in that order, it's Fran, James, Dave, Andrew. And then we wash, rinse, and repeat until we run out of time. Sure. Cool. All right. Go ahead, Fran. Floor is yours. Thanks. Well, I just want to say congratulations for the fully-funded, well, almost fully-funded, Dragonfly. Thank you. I mean, we're good to have you. And that's amazing. You guys did a great job.
00:04:43
Speaker
Biggest question that's floating around right now in regards to that project is when are we going to see the final unlock? Are we going to have to wait? Are we going to see it a little bit early?
00:04:55
Speaker
So great question. We're not quite ready to tell you what it is yet. But if we wanted to kick things off with a little bit of a bang, we do have a character name only reveal for you today. And then we can kind of talk through our thoughts and feelings about that. Is it the one that I asked? Yes, but it's only the first half because we're doing two sessions. So we'll save one for the second half. Okay. And we'll do a recap. Is it the one in, uh,
00:05:21
Speaker
So we are very, very excited to announce that airborne is actually going to be in the GI Jill mainline as a classified figure. So airborne is not going to be locked behind the has lab campaign.
00:05:36
Speaker
So he will be coming as part of our 2024 lineup. Yeah, and he's coming out really good. He's got some samples of him. We've been in production on him for a while now, so I can't wait to reveal him. I actually saw something on him today.
00:05:52
Speaker
I'm like really excited to show him. He's a good, he's a good fig. Yeah. Solid, solid fig. And so just to kind of explain how that logically worked for us. So we wanted to make sure that he felt like such an important character. We wanted to make sure that he wasn't necessarily locked behind a has lab for his first outing. Yeah. Also kind of the way that our development process works is he was in development in the main line way. It's funny, uh, action figures take way longer than a baby to be born. So,
00:06:22
Speaker
Uh, our life cycle of a figure is probably about 15 months or so. And the, uh, kickoff to the has lab. We've only been 20 days in the campaign. We haven't even, you've, you've got, it's funny has labs are weird. We develop reverse development, reverse. So we make a really pretty sculpt before we even start. So basically that's to see if everybody is interested in it. So airborne way long introduction before the has lab even got kicked off. So it just worked out that way.
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah. So I think it means that the timing will be great because it means that you'll actually be able to have airborne in your collection before you get the, before the dragon fly will be delivered to your house, which is really cool. So he will basically, he'll be sitting and waiting for his ride, which I think is beautiful. So that is kind of our, our airborne announcement. So kind of circumnavigating lead.
00:07:15
Speaker
Give an answer to something else on that question that's kind of we can't really talk to the unlock just yet. I think closer to if we unlock. Glenda closer to that number we will give the if no I'm very confident that we're gonna. I am based on cautious man. So I know that there have been a lot of people that have been saying you know like I can turn that the campaign is stalling XY and Z.
00:07:38
Speaker
This is the name of the game for every Haslab campaign that there has been with basically the exception of the his tank. So the his was really the exception to the rule. So you get a big spike at the beginning of the campaign, you get little spikes whenever you have more marketing beats. And then at the end, FOMO kicks in and we sold, I think it was 8,000 sky strikers in 12 hours. It was incredible. And I think about 6,000 his tanks in 12 hours.
00:08:03
Speaker
pure somebody on the internet will back check me on that. Yeah, and I think as it progresses, we'll show it at an appropriate time, essentially. Was that helpful? It's better than no answer at all, that's for sure. Love it, okay, great. If we're gonna see it closer to Glenda, that's information, so thank you. Yeah, sure. All right, James, up next. All right, so I will...
00:08:32
Speaker
I just got him. I just finally found him the other day, so he's here now. But yeah, so since we're on the topic has lab, I will go with my has lab question first. I have some other stuff here we can talk about later. What are some of the key learnings that the team is found with back to back has lab successes?
HasLab Campaign Strategies
00:08:56
Speaker
I think that's a lot.
00:08:59
Speaker
Well, there's I mean, there's a lot of things to unpack from we've done three has labs in pretty rapid succession. And I think that it we owe all of our has lab success to both the incredibly dedicated development team here that is has been working so hard on these projects and to
00:09:19
Speaker
all of the amazing GI Joe fans that are backing and supporting these endeavors. And I think that that is really something that motivate, it's like a, uh, it's like a circle, like a cat chasing his tail. So the design team is motivated by how excited they know that all the fans are going to be. And I think a lot of what motivates that for us is storytelling and to us. So like, how can we continue to contribute to the, the story and the lore of GI Joe through
00:09:47
Speaker
establishing these has labs and like how does the the characters that were choosing in the way that we're developing the storylines around.
00:09:55
Speaker
the campaign, like how does that all kind of fit in with the overall GI Joe story? I think that's something that fans have been responding really well to. Yeah. And I think, I think a lot of it is the upfront research that we're doing on the total package. I think, and I think with the his tank, I think from the sky striker, we learned a lot and then the hit, we implemented a lot of that on the his tank. And then from the his tank, we learned some things with the unlocks and like what people responded to. We really pay attention to what people are responding to because we want to make people happy. Yeah. So.
00:10:24
Speaker
We just kind of pay attention to what the parameters are that we're designing and marketing towards and then what people are reacting to and we try to aim for.
00:10:33
Speaker
100 right so I think as you can see a lot of the unlocks are all figures. Yeah, I was a learning right. Yeah Like the total package that you see out of the gate like we tried to make it like a total vehicle out the gate Like we're not hiding anything. Yeah, no accessories behind behind So it's a kind of like figuring out how to like sweeten the deal and incentivize the deal and
00:10:58
Speaker
I think plays a lot into it and a lot of the for development standpoint It's a lot of the upfront development of what it takes because a lot of stuff you guys are seeing like the painted models we don't do that until like Nine months into development. Yeah, so really on a traditional products. Yeah, so we are like really far ahead So we're learning how to truncate all that to show The the community and the consumer a total finished product before we even start the product. Yeah
00:11:28
Speaker
but as true as possible with what the final thing's going to be. So it's a lot of like, how do you show a really, really, really good breadboard or digital model, as well as how do you pay attention to what people are really going to get excited about so that we do have a successful campaign? Because the other day, it's what we're shooting for. We want these things to fund and we want to get all the unlocks because they're super fun because we want to make them like the fact that Ripcord got unlocked so quickly, I get to make all that flight year. I'm so excited about it.
00:11:58
Speaker
Hopefully, we'll get everything to you guys within the 15 month or 20 month cycle that we're on. 16 to 18 for HasLabs. Then I think that it's also been really cool. Our cadence is we do everything digitally, and then usually about two weeks before campaign kickoff, our gray model arrives. Finally, we get to really see what this thing looks like in their life, which means that for the Joe campaigns, we can't speak for necessarily the other campaigns, but it's really important to us.
00:12:28
Speaker
that we launched with those full color digital renders, which, and we always caveat with it's this or something better because we need, we do need to make updates kind of as we go, but minimal updates. But so we have those full color digital renders and then we have that physical gray model so that you can actually imagine how big it will be in your space and how impactful that is. Like that picture of Lenny, like looking at the dragonfly, it's enormous, but it's time.
00:12:53
Speaker
You don't want to make it so wide where it won't fit on a shelf. So part of the learning there too is like we got to pick an item that is going to fit in most people's displays or.
00:13:03
Speaker
Um, like on the top of a bookshelf, but on top of a bookshelf, it's thin enough where it'll kind of fit on a bookshelf or maybe we'll like say, say if we did a bigger vehicle, a wider one, we would try to design something in there where it would fit on most shelves or in a way, finish off through the stand or something like that. So, um, a lot of stuff has to be considered very early with has labs. Cause normally I'm going on a little bit of tangents though. Stop me if I'm going too far. It never goes on tangents. Like.
00:13:31
Speaker
The gray model, a lot of times for a regular vehicle on any toy line, we see a gray model and then we make adjustments to that. And then we go back to the CAD and then we adjust that and we make sure that everything is right with Hazlabs because of truncated schedule and we need to get it to people. We're doing it on the fly and while people are watching us. Yeah. So the stakes are high. Yeah.
00:13:56
Speaker
Wonderful and they kind of thrive under the pressure. Yeah, which is you know, you could say you make diamonds. Yeah, you can say that I will say that and the reason why Lenny was looking sideways is if somebody could let us know when we have five minutes left of this session We actually have a we'll give everybody on this call and then on the next call an early look at our painted model that just came in and
00:14:18
Speaker
Um, it has been off in the photo studio, so we will have some really, really beautiful diorama pictures. So there's a lot of sand on it. It was in a sand. I'm not happy. Um, so, uh, so just keep that in mind when you're seeing it, but the pictures that will come out, we'll try to truncate our answers a little bit so we can get to that stuff too. So, all right. Okay. Thank you. That was a great answer. Great. I'm glad it was recorded because that would have
Preorder Process and Availability Concerns
00:14:41
Speaker
been a lot of typing. Yeah. We have that impact on. Yeah. We can go on.
00:14:48
Speaker
All right, Dave, what's your first question? OK, so I'm just going to a different kind of set of preorders. The Cobra Eel preorder sold through pretty quickly. Are there going to be more made available?
00:15:03
Speaker
So basically the way that pre-orders kind of work is there is a limited quantity of the entire kind of batch of items that are made that are released for pre-order. So when we actually get to shipping on those, more of those quantities should be released on them.
00:15:20
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah. I got, I got freaked out too. I think, and, and we had been the whole time. We were like, these are going to be really popular. And so, so yes, there should be some, and that kind of goes for, for all pre-orders with the exception of convention exclusives is traditionally how that works. So you get your initial pre-orders in, um, and then there's usually at least some quantities that are released afterwards. Sweet. If that's helpful, that seems like the kind of answer that we want, right? Yeah, totally. Thank you.
00:15:49
Speaker
You're welcome, excellent. Okay, Andrew, first question, please and thank you.
00:15:54
Speaker
When it comes to supersizing a pretty iconic 80s toy, particularly from a property like G.I. Joe that was known for its toy line and its animated series, how much inspiration do you draw from the original Dragonfly toy and how much inspiration is drawn from how it appears across various episodes of the animated series, which would always bring in new features or new functionality you wouldn't see in the toy in the 80s. I'm just curious what the balance is there when you're designing and modernizing a toy like this.
00:16:23
Speaker
So it's interesting unclassified We are going for our own look Comparatively to the 80s line, but we are as you guys can tell we're pulling a lot from the 80s I mean, yeah real American hero. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, so but We actually pulled my dragonfly of my dragonfly toy and we looked at the we looked at the proportions and we looked at the the gate of the
00:16:49
Speaker
Of of the skis on the bottom of the skiffs in the bottom look at the angle that it like kind of like the the angle of its aggression essentially of how like the line or the silhouette is we really focus on the silhouette.
00:17:01
Speaker
And then with the dragonfly in particular, at first we were going to try to keep it more angular, like the original toy, where it's like, it's very like cut. You can tell the designer back and they cut it out of foam, maybe kit bash together old toys and stuff like that. So we try to stay in the realm of the spirit of what the original toy was. And a lot of classified is pulled from real American hero toy line. So we look at the toy first, then we update the toy, not the cartoon, and then
00:17:29
Speaker
So with the Dragonfly, we did some drawings, did some quick sketches, and we even went to be a little more smooth, so looking a little more modern, but it actually was looking too sci-fi.
00:17:42
Speaker
So then we kind of met in the middle, essentially, and we looked at real assault helicopters and how they are designed and how their rip popper bits are put in. So what we're trying to do from a toy standpoint is keep the silhouette and keep the vibe. But from what classified brings in is that bit of realism in detail that we couldn't mold in the eighties. So what we're doing is we're adding that realism, we're adding the detailing, we're adding the popper bits, we're adding the scribe lines that we couldn't get before. So I don't think there's really a percentage
00:18:11
Speaker
It's more of like a vibe. And as you guys can see with some of the images with some of the color on it, Mark added all this really cool blackout paint for glare because some helicopters have that on there and some military vehicles have the blackout on the roof so there's no glare. So we added a lot of details like that because we do want to put the classified spin on it that pushes it into the little bit more extreme feel than what the Real American Hero line had. And there were some,
00:18:42
Speaker
vehicles and figures, but in classified, we have a particular aggression to the look. We wanted to get it there, but at the same time, it needs to feel like the classic dragonfly. Kind of like we did the his tank. His tank, we elongated the nose. We made the angle a little more aggressive. The treads are a little longer. You guys remember the old his tank was a little more boxy. Trying to make it, for lack of a better word, more sexy in its feel.
00:19:05
Speaker
And I feel like that's kind of the approach that's really taken with everything in classified
GI Joe Design Philosophy
00:19:09
Speaker
series. You know, we have the retro version and then all the way on the other end, you have like a really super futuristic sci-fi version. And I feel like everything that we have found that fans have really loved is somewhere in the middle of that. Yeah. Which I think it's funny in meetings we've been, we've been doing our like, what's next? What's the future in our future planning for the line?
00:19:30
Speaker
And it's like, we, one of the things we try to look at is if we're, if we are a production design, a design house, doing it for a movie, like what would we do? Like how would, how would we realize it? Like a production designer, essentially. And it's super fun to do with the toy know-how that Hasbro's had, especially on action figures for the past.
00:19:47
Speaker
40, 60 years. So yeah, I think that. Yeah, that was a good answer. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Brian, second question, please. And thank you. The very important one, because I know it's the classified piece that I've been waiting for the most. So is there an update when we'll actually be shipped or his tanks? When are we going to get those in hand?
00:20:14
Speaker
Should be still fall. So we are we're on track. I think beginning fall. Yeah, early fall. I would say depending on how you define fall. Yeah, so so October ish November ish. Yeah, we're still we're still on time. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to I don't want to say a month, but it's early fall. Yeah. As you guys saw I put on Instagram. I showed what Cobra Commander looks like our figures are there in a good spot. So but a little inside baseball when you make a has lab, you're making a wave of figures.
00:20:48
Speaker
But it's like, for the most part, it's like doing a very complicated wave, right? Cause you have this, you have the, you have the vehicle that's complicated. So they, everything, everything has to pass QC. Everything has to pass QA. Everything has to function well. Everything has to be operational. Like they say, if there's a defect in the figure.
00:21:08
Speaker
It will delay the rest of everything so again we can say early fall but the figures are coming out really good so we're in a good spot on there and the tanks looking really good from what i've seen so far so we're on track and i think that it's really important to us that. It is you know as with learnings from the sky striker we have really taken a lot of.
00:21:28
Speaker
taking a lot of leaps and bounds forward to make sure that what you get is the best possible product that you can. Cross your eyes on Dr. T's. Exactly. We know that there were. I'd rather wait and have it perfect than have it, you know, get it three, four weeks, two months ahead of time and it not be perfect. So. Yeah. Exactly. And it's kind of our stance on ass labs too. We're just all excited to get that in hand. You know, that's an important piece.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah, me too. I keep on telling my mom it's going to be the centerpiece at Christmas. Oh yeah, that'd be really nice. I like that idea. And it passed. Yep. Put some flowers in the turn. Gorgeous. Love it. Fabulous. Thanks Fran. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:22:20
Speaker
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00:25:27
Speaker
All right, I'm gonna go with the more business end of things now and ask, do you have any updates to how GI Joe is being handled at retail, specifically kind of the split between the mass retail and the specialty market and what the outlook is for growing that in 2024? Good question. So I feel like we have gotten positive feedback from all of our retail partners about the success of classified dairies,
00:25:57
Speaker
really, really complimentary for us because it is, you know, a six inch action figure line among many of the six inch action figure lines that exist in the world. And there isn't really like current entertainment that it's supportive. So it kind of, it kind of exists from our imaginations, which is beautiful and really exciting. And there's something that it's tapping into. I think whether for you, it is the characters, whether it's the detail of the figures, whether it's all the stuff that they come with for the world building.
00:26:27
Speaker
There is something that is connecting with fans that we are truly, truly humbled by. And that it's also connecting with retailers, which is lovely and flattering and we are delighted by. I think that it, and this is going to sound a little conceited to say out loud, but everybody wants more classified. And so we're trying to figure out how we can satisfy all of the retail needs while making sure that
00:26:54
Speaker
we're fulfilling everything that consumers need while making sure that like we don't flood the market and there's like you're not going to get hit with like sixty pre-orders that are all shipping to you. Which would be terrible and so we.
00:27:07
Speaker
We're kind of coming up on the tail end of, remember all the supply chain issues and we didn't have new product on shelf for six months. Ah, good times. That was fun. So essentially what we kind of ended up doing with that is all of the product that was supposed to be on shelf for spray of 2023.
00:27:24
Speaker
shifted to fall of 2023. Everything that was supposed to be fall 23 product shifted to spring of 24. And then everything that was supposed to be spring 24 and everything for fall 24 moved to fall 24. So there, there is going to be quite a bit of product that hits shelves in fall of 24, but we really wanted to make sure that, you know, we weren't short changing any of our fans on those items.
00:27:49
Speaker
because we do really believe in all those figures. We didn't want any of them to be cut. So there will be some more coming out. I think that we're just trying to figure out what makes the most sense from a cadence perspective and trying to spread out our pre-orders a little bit more. So basically the way that things work, if you have products that are shelf setting at like one of the big box retailers, let's say, there are four times a year that you really have to hit for products to set on shelf.
00:28:19
Speaker
And so I'm sure people have noticed that there are those four times a year when they do toy shelf resets, and then a lot of your pre-orders may ship during those time periods. So we're trying to figure out, you know, if for those cadences, what does it mean for us if we have, you know, 10 items that are shipping out at each one of those deadlines? Like what kind of like consumer experience is that? That was a little bit of a roundabout answer, but was that, did you find that acceptable?
00:28:47
Speaker
Yes, you can tell when I switch between the toy book hat and the flop inside your hat. All good. That was a very businessy question. Thank you. Good business. All right, Dave, you're up. Question about accessories. So we had heard that accessories packs are on the table from previous roundtables. Are we any closer to seeing those become a reality? Not.
00:29:15
Speaker
Yeah, not yet. We're trying to figure out what comes next in world building for classified. Yeah. And to my answer earlier, like we're in our figuring out 25 and beyond. So I'm ready. I love that. Yes. Why is nobody voting for ice cream soldiers? We all need ice cream soldiers. I saw that in some comments. Was it just me commenting on it? No, it was somebody else.
00:29:46
Speaker
We are looking at to see how to expand the line. So within the next couple of years, you may see it. We can't speak to future products because. And all that, but we are thinking about how else we can expand the universe of, and as a kid, I always thought weapons packs and on all sorts of lines was really cool. Super seven is doing that really cool weapons pack too. So.
00:30:09
Speaker
There's some, I think there's potential. We just got to see how we would offer. We always want to make something feel like a full offering. So, um, stay tuned, I think is the answer, unfortunately. And I think that there's so many cool things that we, that we can do with world building. And that is part of the, the joy of GI Joe is that there are so few toys that when you think about them, sometimes you think about the play sets and the vehicles first before you think of the individual figures. Yeah. Well, GI Joe is figure.
00:30:39
Speaker
weapons, vehicles, and play sets. It was designed to be a toy. It's the greatest toy line ever, if you ask me. It's unbiased. And I'm not talking about classified. I'm just talking about GI Joe General. It's designed to be for toys. Almost 60 years of history are designed for... Fully encompassing. So I think Weapons Pack is definitely something on the table. We're planning for the future and stay tuned. Yeah. All right. Thank you. All right. Andrew, you're up.
00:31:09
Speaker
So this is almost an extension of your last answer, but you know, looking at the past few years of Haslab projects and seeing what has succeeded and what has failed. I mean, G.I. Joe projects have a pretty great track record so far.
Timeless Appeal of GI Joe
00:31:21
Speaker
Why do you think that is? Why do you think G.I. Joe and the toys still resonate so many years later and are still so popular among collectors? I think there's a. The first thing that comes to mind is like the for that last answer is give G.I. Joe is a fully encompassing world.
00:31:37
Speaker
Like there's iconic vehicles that are literally vehicles of characters if you ask me The characters all serve an archetype and those archetypes are timeless whether you're a rifleman or you're like a sci-fi wielding Android, right? Yeah sci-fi wielding Android, but you know or like a flash Gordon looking villain with like like a helmet on and you happen to have an arms dealer that's kind of royal and
00:32:03
Speaker
Like all of the characters fit an archetype. And if you look at modern video games, a lot of those archetypes like two ninjas not getting along and stuff like that, they are tropes. And I think GI Joe pioneer a lot of those tropes and they're beautiful because they're trophy. And I think that's what is helping GI Joe a lot is that like, it kind of resonates no matter what generation of Joe you grew up with. Like my father-in-law was the 12th Joe.
00:32:34
Speaker
You know, it's like, yes, we do. Yeah. Um, but like, and then, but you then talk to my brother and my brother's like, you gotta remake this character. And it's like, there's a, there's a different.
00:32:43
Speaker
It's hit on all these different levels. But I think you were a 90s kid or 2000s kid and they always had a a art. They always kept archetypal. And I think that's what makes them strong. And even in the vehicles, like a jet is awesome no matter what jet it is or a tank or or or like some sort of submarine or or an amphibious vehicle, things like that are rad. So I think that's what it is at the end of the day. I think we also have the advantage of
00:33:11
Speaker
This is a new toy line. You haven't been able to get GI Joe in six inch figures before. This line is less than five years old. And so the, I do want to give a shout out to everybody at the company that has worked on has labs, whether or not their campaigns have succeeded because they are an incredible amount of work goes into these and they are kind of all consuming for our lives in the lead up to, in the campaign, in the fulfillment of, for the development.
00:33:38
Speaker
And so I think that it's, it's an incredible accomplishment, but that we do have, there is that element of newness where one of our advantages is that we didn't burn through, wasn't the right way to phrase it, but we hadn't, the line hadn't been
00:33:55
Speaker
large enough to get to some of these outside of a has lab format like this is new and it's novel and it's something that you've never seen before. I also think they complete the collection. Yeah, right. Like you're going to have a military sci-fi toy line. You kind of need your tanks and your jets.
00:34:17
Speaker
In your helicopters to kind of set the mood especially for setting the mood on your shelf like I like to set the mood on my Set the mood on my collection shelves but like I like to make sure that it feels like the vibe because you're trying to you're going for that vibe in your collection room or wherever you keep your Your collectible. So I think they're almost like centerpieces. Yeah, and it's how we kind of handle them, too So I think that helps out. Yeah Cool. Thank you. All right
00:34:44
Speaker
Um, and just for a time check, how long do we have for this session? We are here till 11 30. Well, PT my time, which is going to say that's like a really long time away. Um, that was like eight hours from now. Uh, so great. So we have another 22 minutes. Sorry. We'll try to be quick with the answers. I know you guys have questions. Sorry. All right. Next round Fran, you're up. So the dread knocks have been listed.
00:35:10
Speaker
As name only reveal for some time now, I was hoping that we were going to see them in Yojo June. Is that still a possibility? We're going to see renders for those figures? So we actually didn't do any other render reveals for Yojo June, but stay tuned because we will be doing some render reveals at San Diego Comic Con.
00:35:31
Speaker
So the GIGO panel will return to San Diego Comic-Con this year. We will be doing more name-only reveals, digital reveals, and we will be launching a couple of non-convention-exclusive pre-orders. Sweet. And then there will be more in the lead-up to San Diego Comic-Con, just in case you're like, wow, there have been a lot of classified figures this month. Great news. More coming in July.
00:35:54
Speaker
Just in case you were like, gosh, I miss them already. We have more to show. And there's more than we're launching tomorrow. Oh, that's right. Yeah. So we're wrapping up Yo-Yo June tomorrow. Um, so we have more figures that are launching, um, special guests for our show for tomorrow. Um, so that should be fun too. Yeah. Emily has to pull me out of my day to day to like present the product. So I forget when the, the, um, when things go live, when things go live, cause I'm just,
00:36:24
Speaker
I'm in it. You know, that's why he keeps me around. I get to keep us on track. Remember all the dates. Remember where the pre-orders are launching. That's why she says the pre-order dates and all that. I will talk about that once.
00:36:34
Speaker
No, I'll crumble. I'll just talk about the toy. We did a D&D one once, and Kevin, who was on it, I was like, so Kevin, what time does the pre-order launch it? He's like 1.30. I'm like, oh, so close. We're alive, and we couldn't cut it off. Oh, no. That was great. I loved it. You should do it from always. Yeah, so, yes, I love it. We'll show them soon. And I'm excited to show them, because we're really far along on them, too. Yeah. So they're pretty crazy looking, so.
00:37:00
Speaker
and I think that we're really excited for San Diego this year and more to kind of come in with the Hasbro activation will be on that but I think it'll be a lot of fun. Looking forward to it. Cool all right James you're up.
Upcoming Hasbro Announcements
00:37:16
Speaker
All right um looking ahead a couple months here there is some stuff swirling with the 100 years of Hasbro. Anything GI Joe intersecting
00:37:28
Speaker
Solid question. Wait until San Diego Comic Con to learn more about the Hasbro 100 celebration. Alright. It's an answer. It's not the answer you wanted, but it is an answer. There's something about it in the October issue of the toy boat, but. Oh OK, excellent, that's good to know too. Alright Dave, you're up.
00:37:56
Speaker
So question about the O-ring figures. There's been no news whatsoever on the O-ring, sorry, there's been no news on the O-ring line since the successful Sky Striker Haslab and then the Sunbow Pack. Is it safe to say that the three and three quarter figures are at rest for now? Yes.
00:38:20
Speaker
Um, so let's say that they are, they are at rest for now. There are new O-ring figures. So the. They're at rest for now. They're at rest for now. Um, that's not a hard answer to give. It's a hard answer to give. So there were a lot of things that ended up kind of happening behind the scenes, um, that prevented us from moving forward with our O-ring products for 2023.
00:38:46
Speaker
So at the time that we announced that they were coming back in full force, that was truly what we were on our way to accomplishing. We had figures, they were in development. We were thrilled about what the relaunch was going to be, but unfortunately there were just some things that were happening that- We had to rework our strategy. Yes, we had to rework our strategy. So hopefully we'll be able to give more updates on that in the future. But for now, that line is at rest. Okay, thank you.
00:39:17
Speaker
All right, Andrew, you're up. Um, you know, I think if you were to poll kind of, uh, kids who grew up at GI Joe and then said, you know, what one vehicle would you like to see come to has lab? Obviously, you know, the obvious answer is going to be a logistically impossible 600 scale us as flag, but from the old ladies, pardon me, it would be 80 feet if it was one 12 scale. That's practical. If you're making it, if you're making a real, uh, aircraft carrier, if you're making a,
00:39:46
Speaker
flag, it wouldn't be 80 feet long, be like 25. Sorry, anybody cut you off? Sure. No, I would still make room for both. But is there, are there vehicles from the original 80s line that kind of like the top of your list, I would love to see get the classified series treatment one day. Can I say things that I want to do? Yes. So the caveat to this list is it is Lenny's favorite things. It is no way, shape or form indicative of future products that will be coming out in the line. It's just things that Lenny is excited about. I don't think it's possible.
00:40:16
Speaker
I said just bang right into it. I want to be defiant. I want to do the defiant would be bigger than this one. I would want to do. Rolling Thunder would be sick, but I think it'd be too big.
00:40:30
Speaker
uh, a Mamba actually. I'd love to do a Mamba. They'd be pretty rad. It'd be weird. Um, what was that submarine that had the like fizzy stuff that would go up and down? That's small. That's a submarine would probably be like this, but I forget that the Barracuda, I love the Barracuda as a kid. Nevermind. That one's feasible. Sorry. The whale, the whale I think would be awesome. And I'd love to try to figure out to make like a rubber tube on the bottom of it to be the, uh, for the hydroplaning that it used to do. Um, or even like,
00:41:00
Speaker
I always get the name wrong of it, but it's like the battle station that's in the water. Let me just forget the name of it. Somebody on the internet will tell us about it. Yeah, they'll tell me how wrong I am and how, you know. But it's like a battle, a battle station would be cool. The bivouacs, but I don't think the bivouac and the, and the guard station actually have to be a has lab. I think they're in a good size. The one that I would love to make a tomahawk.
00:41:28
Speaker
We talked about, let's say we talked about the Tomahawk before we talked about the dragonfly and the Tomahawk. Think about how big the Tomahawk is compared to the dragonfly. And then when you see the dragonfly, it's like that Tomahawk would be a beast. It carries like, I think it carried 10 figures. I have one at home and they could carry it because it had the seating in the back and then it carried two pilots. So it's so good with the camo and we figured, Oh, sorry. I'm getting, I get it. I get a little excited. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think those are the ones I'd want to like,
00:41:58
Speaker
reach for. I think the mambo would be crazy looking or and I think it'd be remiss to not say the rattler. I think the rattler would be wild eagle. Come on, you know, like a night raven in six inch scale. That would be big night raven roughly the same size as the sky striker, which would be like four feet long. I don't think I don't know. I think we can get it for a good size. We
00:42:21
Speaker
I've looked at something and trying to scale it out. Maybe that's something where we pull the scale down a little bit so that we could get it there. That was one of the Christmas presents that was we still believe we still believe in Santa Claus. But my dad that year was like he's very Brooklyn, the Italian guy, right? He goes, Betty, with my mom's name, give him.
00:42:41
Speaker
give him the G.I. Joe item. And he came out and he gave my brother and I the night raid and my brain melted. It's my favorite jet in G.I. Joe. I'd love to do a night raven. But I'm getting a little too personal. But I think those kind of items as I just listed off a list of 10 things. But I think that there's also conversations to be had around kind of that scaling down of what is what's more important, making sure that we are as accurate as humanly possible to the three and a quarter inch product.
00:43:09
Speaker
which if scaled up means it would be unfeasible to do a six inch scale or do we do a new six inch scale version that is slightly smaller but you know actually means that you might be able to bring some of those products to life. Yeah and I don't know how much chatter it would make if we even pose the question maybe in the articles maybe there'll be comments but like what if we made a new vehicle.
00:43:31
Speaker
Like what if it was a new vehicle that was very gi joe with the fans be receptive to that i would love to figure out how to get. Make data on that like how do we see with like hey what if we made a brand new type of tank or type of jet that like fits within the classified scale.
00:43:47
Speaker
Um, would people be receptive of that too? Cause it'd be super fun to like, just get into the leads. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's another question that's going to happen. Is there an idea to, because you know, this classified series is kind of not necessarily a complete duplication of the 80 series, but is there any idea in terms of bringing a new IP vehicle into the fold? We'd love to. I mean, when we first, um, so before classified came out, uh, myself and another designer, we were ideating what GI Joe could look like.
00:44:16
Speaker
So, um, some of the, we were coming up with some crazy vehicles. We were going everywhere from classic GI Joe to a little more zany GI Joe. Um, and we were looking at like how to, one of the vehicles that was reinventing the Rhino and what we could do with that, but we really pushed it far. Uh, we came up with vehicles that were like, have helicopters detaching from them, getting a little more, yeah, getting a little more nineties with it. Um, so yeah, we did a lot of ideation. We even got like.
00:44:44
Speaker
I think we did like a rock and roll, like, like a surf van kind of thing too, but then it opened up instead of it being surfboards. It's like machine guns come out. Um, so we were looking at stuff like that a little too zany at the end of the day. Um, but yeah, we'd love to bring new stuff to the line. The coil is a new vehicle. So Baroness is coil, which is like this kind of like a rhino version of a motorcycle. Um,
00:45:09
Speaker
Or not right now, but like it's like it's supposed to be like a heavy motorcycle. I can like break through walls and stuff. So yeah, we definitely want to. It's just a matter of feeling out. What do people want? I mean, we got to kind of we got to weigh that like.
00:45:21
Speaker
when to give something new, when to give something that's based in history kind of deal. So that Baroness and coil pack was the first GI Joe classified figure that I picked up before I started working on the line sweet and the snake that she comes with that fits on her arm brings me great joy. Still, I had this vision that she was like this sorceress and she had this like robot snake that she could command and to shoot lasers out of. It's even better instead of acid or setting poison. It was shooting lasers because
00:45:47
Speaker
I know it had this like intent, I don't know, sci-fi craziness to it. Sorry. Now we're rambling. I apologize. So we have six more minutes if we want to do a last speed round and see where we end up before we think about the answer. We'll be quick about the answers. We'll be decisive and definitive. All right, Fran, go lightning round. Well, this is going to be a hard question, but the AAA
00:46:11
Speaker
G.I. Joe video game. Is there any information that will be available coming out for that? Because I think that is going to have a huge, gigantic impact on the marketing for G.I. Joe and getting it out to new people. I think it's huge potential. So just there's so good information out there. It hasn't been really available. So we agree. We can't say anything. Stay tuned for more details soon because we're so technically that falls under a different team than us. So we are specifically the
00:46:41
Speaker
team and then there is a like a franchise team that's specifically working on that. So we don't want to step on anybody's toes by saying anything we should. So let's zip around another franchise. I think of another question that we can answer. We'll zip around for some more so we can get more questions answered for you guys, but we can't answer that one, but we agree. Yeah, we'll be sick. Yeah. So James. All right, so. Wasn't about thing this month. Yeah, Joe teased in Transformers as
00:47:11
Speaker
evident by the new film coming out. We've seen the three and three quarter collabs six inch something happening there.
00:47:21
Speaker
Great news. We also can't comment on that, but we're excited about what may or may not happen in the future. We have seen the movie. We'd love to do something, but we can't. We can't speak to the future products. These are not the answers to give away. No, these are not. I'm so sorry. No, these are the perfect speed round questions for the end. Dave, what's up? What do you got? All right. Give us one more that we can say we can't answer about.
00:47:43
Speaker
Don't know if this will fit in like that, but like the Sergeant Slaughter release from last year, is there any opportunity in the future for figures to compact with more alternate hands like fists or saluting hands? Yes. Great news. That was an easy one. I'm on it. Stay tuned for the future. Getting yelled at constantly, yes. Great. That was an easy one. Awesome, but thank you. Speed round. Andrew's tapped out. I'm happy to pass to someone else. Hot dog. Who has another speed round? Fran, you want to try again?
00:48:13
Speaker
Um, just I don't really have much you guys went over so so many things.
00:48:19
Speaker
Quite honest with you. We were comprehensive. We were comprehensive. Anybody else? We still have like two more questions or two more minutes. We sped through those real quick. Oh, you're supposed to show them. Oh, yeah, no, I scheduled that into the time block. So it's like three more minutes. Okay. No, no, we don't swear on this. This is wholesome, fame, entertainment. And they loop it with like a... Oh, brat. I mean, they would... I've been asking them to do that. Anyway, sorry, Fran. You were saying... A numchuck figure. That's been out there. That's been floating around that we're going to get numchuck. Is that something you guys can speak on?
00:48:46
Speaker
We cannot comment on future figure releases, but if I were you, I'd sure hang out and figure out what pre-orders are launching tomorrow. You want to show them the helicopter earlier? I got one more. Yeah, what's up, buddy? So with plastic packaging making its return, will we continue to see the retro carded releases at Walmart or other retailers?
00:49:13
Speaker
Great news. We can't really comment on upcoming figure releases, but we really like that line. And we think that it's really important that it's perhaps available to more people and that we continue to kind of push the characters that are included perhaps in a line like that. If maybe that was something I wanted to keep doing in the future. How's that? Thank you. That works.
00:49:41
Speaker
James, you got one last one before we grab our baby. Yeah, just random thing. The old exclusives, the Srepentor and the Doctor Mindbender, are those going to become available again or are they just going to forever be sold? They were Comic Con and Pulse Con exclusives, so they were single runs. So we actually can't rerun those items. So that was that was it for them, which.
00:50:04
Speaker
We're glad that so many people liked them. Yeah, it was. We did. I believe by the end, because we can you say a number? No, we can't say a number, but we ended up doing four times more of each of so we did the same number.
00:50:21
Speaker
We assume people want both of them and it was four times as many as we did for Sartan the year before for pulse gone. Yeah, and I would ask you the question out there. So items like that, especially like Dr. Mindbender characters that have been in mainline and all that.
00:50:36
Speaker
And this is not like we were going to, we will do it, but it would be interesting to get feedback to be like, would you guys want to see those in other iterations, carways, different offerings, things like that. It wouldn't necessarily come with the same pack. Yeah. It wouldn't be what they were. You would definitely offer it in a new refresh, essentially. So it'd be great to see if the fans want to see that stuff refreshed in a different way. Same mold. Absolutely. But out mind bender with the Cobra symbol on the key, that's enough to change up the air loom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool.
00:51:05
Speaker
Awesome. All right. Show them the dragonfly. It's a little dusty because our photographer gets silly with it. Wait until you see the pictures though. They are absolutely gorgeous. I think that you're really going to like them when they... How should I bring it out? Do you want a hand? Do you want a hand? I think I'm going to take them off the... Yup. Do you want me to give me a hand? I got them. You got them? You guys see? Here, I'll hold them up. Oh yes.
00:51:35
Speaker
Yeah. So the button, I don't know if you guys can see the button so well on the videos, but that's the button that activates all the lights. I think you can kind of see them in there. The gels are not final. They're going to be separate of each other. He'll have a gunner gel. We call them gels cause it's, um, it illuminates and makes the graphic in there. I think it's a,
00:51:53
Speaker
It's like a, a term for like video editing, but anyway, so the screens on both will be different. Um, you guys saw most of the, uh, has lab video. We're showing you how they work. Oh, and here's a very early look at one of them. Um, actually I'm going to hold this open. Yeah. Oh yeah. They, they know about these. No, they haven't seen the actual figures. Well, you get the guys see that you guys, there you go. And wild bill in there. Can you guys see it? I don't want to bust the model. We got to be careful with this.
00:52:24
Speaker
But just to clarify, the troop builder that's in the front seat is part of the steel core pack that's going to be coming out soon. Yeah. And then if you want to turn back towards me, you guys can see inside the flip down inside the gunner stations at the machine guns are in there as well. The rounds that goes looking really cool.
00:52:43
Speaker
I'm still making it'll probably get touched up again before we show it to the public because it'll certainly get dusted. Yeah. Our photographer, the scene you're going to see them when we do reveal is beautiful. Can I tell them what kind of scene? Yeah, it's a desert scene. So there's a lot of dust on the model right now because there's a lot of dust flowing around. He was using the compressed air to make explosions and stuff like that. Matt.
00:53:06
Speaker
The, we have three mats on the team. So Matt C had a blast doing it and it shows, but the items coming out. He doesn't enjoy photographing our items. He's been stuck on GI Joe photography for like a month at this point. He's having a great time. So if you guys can see this little pop riveting we were talking about, like a lot of aviation was like thousands of pop rivets all over the thing. Um,
00:53:29
Speaker
So let me know if you're getting dizzy, if I'm going to surround too much, but we're pretty excited about it. Um, so photos should be out sometime in the next week and a half or so. They come back from being edited. Um, but they're beautiful. We're thrilled. It's, it's really nice. It's also like, it's enormous. Um, I'm going to take it. All right. So that was your sneak peek. I hope that this was, you felt like this was worthwhile. And does anybody have any follow up questions after they've seen our, uh, our friend?
00:53:59
Speaker
Do I just set it down flat on the table, Lenny? Yeah. We're going to have to do it again. Yeah, we're going to get it. OK. No follow ups going one. It doesn't have a mechanism like on the side, like the old one has been the propellers, right? It does. So there's a mechanism. It's a secondary part that goes on the bottom of the wing on the side. It's a winch. So you can hook the winch onto figures and something else that maybe you guys can add in in the description of it.
00:54:25
Speaker
is with the Glenda figure, we're including a harness that'll fit male and female figures so that that harness gets connected to the winch that comes from the helicopter so you can suspend character, you can suspend figures up and down and it should be able to winch them up and down. So pretty cool. Awesome. All right. Thank you everybody for joining us. It was lovely to see you all and we really, really appreciate you taking the time to hang out.
00:54:54
Speaker
Thank you for your time. That was awesome. That was a lot of fun. Thanks guys very much. Have a great afternoon. Bye everybody. Take care everybody. Bye. 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.
00:55:20
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.
00:55:43
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. 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.