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History, Fashion, and G.I. Joes: An Interview with Hasbro's Emily Bader
414 Plays3 years ago
This week, Dave and Erik jump back into the world of Hasbro with associate brand manager, Emily Bader. Find out about what's in store this year for Joes and which action figure is best suited to head into 2022 fashion week! No, we're not kidding.
Follow Emily @morphinomenally_emily on Instagram and visit HasbroPulse.com for all the latest Hasbro news and releases.
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
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 and Hosts
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors.
Guest Introduction: Emily Bader
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:32
Speaker
Hi. Dave, we're back. We are. And you know what? I have a question for you, Dave. Okay. Let's hear this question. Do you know what knowing is? I think I mentioned this on a previous episode. I believe it is half the battle.
00:01:00
Speaker
That's true. That's right. It is half the battle. And do you know what I'm not gonna do? Well, considering that I've already won half the battle, I know that you are not going to bury the lead.
00:01:20
Speaker
That's right, Dave. I am not going to bury the lead. We are back with another guest this week.
Career and Collecting Background
00:01:27
Speaker
And this week, we're excited to jump back into the world of all things Hasbro. After starting with the company in 2019 on the Play School Action Brands, our guest today transitioned to the role of brand manager on Power Rangers, accepted a special mission to work with friend of the pod Lenny on GI Joe,
00:01:47
Speaker
And Breaking News, Dave, is now also a marketer on the Fortnite team. Joining us today on the pod is associate brand manager at Hasbro, Emily Bader, Yojo, and welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. It is our pleasure. And as on that late Breaking News, congratulations on your new hat to wear. Thank you. Yes, congrats.
Diverse Collecting Interests
00:02:14
Speaker
I'm very, very excited about it.
00:02:17
Speaker
So while we already have the interview structured for G.I. Joe and Power Rangers, this just means that we're going to have to have you back on again in the future to do some Fortniting. Perfect. I know a lot about Fortnite now, so I'm really killing it. We clock in quite a few hours. I've learned so much over the past six months. Yeah, Dave, actually, I think you play more than I do now.
00:02:45
Speaker
I think I was I was on earlier. But anyway, before we get into into all of the kind of meat and potatoes of the of the interview here, before we get started, we ask all of our guests as this is a show about collecting. What are you currently collecting, Emily?
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, so I thought I'd kind of let you guys pick which one you wanted me to elaborate on. I came up with, I kind of looked around my house and I was like, all right, and asked me this question.
Cycladic Idols and Their Significance
00:03:13
Speaker
What do I collect? So these are your six options to have me talk a little bit more about. So option number one, Cycladic Idols. Option two, Vintage Pyrex Bowls. Option three, Harry Potter books in foreign languages. Option four, Sea shells and sea glass.
00:03:32
Speaker
Option five, fancy handbags, and option six, cats. Huh. I know, right? Which one are you going to choose? I know that we're talking about toys, so I kind of wanted to throw in something weird at the beginning. Dave, do you have a preference?
00:03:52
Speaker
I mean, if option A isn't coming up at the end, then let's let's talk about it now. Oh, yeah. Any of them can come up at the end. It's your choice. You can pick any of the six to show up now and any of the six to show up at the end. I think I think I got to go with option A only because I don't know what it is. Yeah, I would like to learn more.
00:04:12
Speaker
I love this. Okay, so as a little bit of backstory about me, I did my undergrad at a liberal arts college. And you know, as many of us when we're 18 didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. But my first term I ended up taking two classes that I really liked. One was a sociology class. And one was a class about classical studies, which is basically the study of
00:04:33
Speaker
the ancient world, mine mostly focused on like ancient Greece and ancient Rome. And I ended up getting a, I have degrees in both classical studies and sociology, but Cycladic idols kind of pertain to the classical studies part. So Cycladic idols were these marble statues
00:04:52
Speaker
that were created in the Cyclades, which are this kind of island chain around Greece, from like 3000 to 1000 BCE. Typically out of marble, we think that they were probably also some made out of wood, but there are these
00:05:09
Speaker
So they're kind of like, most of them are standing figures, but they're really simple. It's like kind of an oversized head and a body. And the majority of them that you see are figures that are standing with their legs together and their arms kind of crossed over their chest or stomachs.
00:05:24
Speaker
And the crazy thing is we don't really know what they were for. So they show up everywhere in like grave sites that people have found. They show up in like towns that have been excavated, but nobody is entirely sure what their purpose was. So you see idols that are standing. You see idols that are heart players. You see idols that are seated. You see them with cups.
00:05:47
Speaker
And so for me, it's like this kind of really cool mystery that's about them. But also, fun tidbit, in the Victorian era, they were like really cool house decor. And so a bunch of people went and robbed graves in the Cyclades, took all the Cycladic idols and sold them to rich Victorian people as house decorations. And since then, they've kind of made their way to museums,
00:06:10
Speaker
but we have no idea where their origins are. There's all of these pieces where it's like, oh, this is so cool. If only we knew what grave these were robbed from so that fancy Victorian people could have these in their houses. Anyway, I really like these. They are in museums all over the world. Whenever I travel, I make it a point to go to art museums and see their Cycladic idols. I have maybe five or six replicas of the ones that I've seen. There's a
00:06:37
Speaker
Cycladic Idol Museum in Athens, which is amazing. The Getty Villa in Malibu has a really cool heart player. The Louvre has this giant one that's just ahead. Oh my God, guys, they're so cool. Thank you for allowing me to have a moment of classical studies nerddom.
Home Decor and Personal Style
00:06:54
Speaker
I assume this happens every week?
00:06:59
Speaker
This is awesome. These are cool. Yeah, I'm looking these up right now. Right? And I assume that's what everybody's doing. They're like, and what is this lady talking about? Cycladic idols. They are so cool.
00:07:13
Speaker
I have now gone down the rabbit hole. Uh-huh. You will keep going, too. But it's really important that you know that the first time you see one in a museum, you're going to look at it and go, oh, that's way smaller than I thought it was going to be. Because that is exactly the feeling that I had. I've since gotten over it. But they're like, I think my biggest one is maybe 12 inches. So they're fairly small, so you'd be able to hold them in your hand. So we're looking at 1 18th scale.
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, basically.
00:07:45
Speaker
To put it in toy terms. In toy terms, yeah. Way to bring it back, Eric. And there's some variability about sizing, too. It doesn't have to just be like some of them are a little bigger, some of them are a little smaller, some we just have heads, some we just have bodies. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought these were enormous. Yeah, no. They're not like the giant Easter Island statues. I want them to be, but they're not. But they're still really cool.
00:08:12
Speaker
I just found one of a man sitting. Yeah. And so interestingly, we think that most of them are female forms because of the carving on them, but like some of them might be males. But again, without that context, we don't know. They may have been painted at one point.
00:08:28
Speaker
all of those beautiful, amazing marble statues that exist from antiquity, all of those were painted at one point, because we look at them now, we're like, oh, the white, they're so sophisticated, but they were painted in like garish rainbow colors, which I was always like, oh, these are beautiful. I would have loved to have gone to a temple and been surrounded by serene white marble. No, no, no, they painted that stuff.
00:08:52
Speaker
like they painted it like children having fun at a rainbow party with like finger paints. I mean it was it was dignified they were artisans but like the first time you see one you're just like oh my god what what is this? Man like I this question is has I think it's become my actual favorite question of of the interview every time because we have gotten some
00:09:18
Speaker
some answers. Do I rank up there? Is this one of the weirdest ones you've gotten? This is definitely the weirdest. We haven't even gotten to the what's the weirdest thing you have question yet.
00:09:32
Speaker
We might have played this wrong, Dave. Might have saved this one for the end. No, no. I'll tell you the strangest thing I have. I'll let you stew in this for the entire interview and then we get to the end. I'll tell you the story. It's my bride doll, my broken bride doll.
00:09:51
Speaker
Who I'm pretty sure is haunted and I keep in a place of honor in my home because I think that if I anger her, she'll like bring all sorts of like terrible things down upon me. So think about that until we get to that answer.
00:10:07
Speaker
Dave, would you like to hit her with the final question? Yeah. Oh, man. All right. I have an eclectic, what was the phrase that my
Career Journey and CSR at Hasbro
00:10:19
Speaker
friend used? My decor is very eclectic and it is very representative of all the places that I've traveled and all the different things that I have done in my life.
00:10:28
Speaker
I love that. That's what a collection is supposed to be. Whether it's action figures or cyclatic idols or a box of doll eyes, it's supposed to represent who you are. Hey, she only has two eyes and they are attached to her head, so it's not necessarily. When I was on Power Rangers, they come with all of the extra parts and all of their hands and all of their extra heads. I definitely had a bowl of hands and heads for all my Power Rangers.
00:10:57
Speaker
I have a fishing tackle box that's filled with various appendages. Oh my God, that's so smart because then it's organized. All the left hands, all the right hands, skin color. That's really nice. I might take that idea. That's good. Anything that I can go to the container store for is really up my alley.
00:11:22
Speaker
Oh, man. All right, Dave, let's let's head into the let's head into the world of Hasbro here. Yeah. So tell us how you found your way into the toy industry into Hasbro.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah, so I have kind of an unorthodox background for the toy industry. So as I mentioned, liberal arts college, degrees in classical studies and sociology. And so what does a nice West Coast girl do with her liberal arts degree? She works at nonprofits. So I worked in the nonprofit sector for five years. I was the program manager for a program for high school students at the Science Museum in Portland. Worked in marketing at a little boutique theater. And then I found myself at a cat shelter.
00:12:04
Speaker
And I worked on the floor, worked my way up to being in the development and communications office, and got to start doing some marketing things. It was a really small company. I had never really taken a business class before, but I knew that I was really liking what I was doing. And there wasn't really any upward mobility because of how small the company was. So I decided I was going to go to business school. But one of the things that I was really internally struggling about was
00:12:32
Speaker
feeling like I was going to be a sellout in business school because it had always been so important to me to give back to the community and do something that was really going to make an impact on the world. So when I got to school, one of the things that I started, they started having us research companies that we may want to interview with and work for. And so one of the things that I was really looking for was
00:12:54
Speaker
Well, corporate social responsibility statements. I wanted to see everybody's CSRs, and when I was talking to the company, I basically wanted to see if companies were putting their money where their mouth was, or actually following through on these beautiful, elaborate CSR statements on their websites. Hasbro was one of the companies
Internship and Creative Insights at Hasbro
00:13:11
Speaker
that I really felt was actively trying to make a difference through their products.
00:13:16
Speaker
And what they were doing and being able to say like the fact that we all takes a global day of joy In December is one of my favorite days from everybody's favorite days everyone in the company Globally all takes the day off work and goes to volunteer in their community and I just think that that is it's so cool that a company is willing to shut down operations for an entire day and that the goal is to have everybody in the company out volunteering so it's like
00:13:46
Speaker
Like literally everybody like all of the c-suite is out volunteering all of my team is out volunteering and It just it made me feel so good And so that's actually how I ended up choosing Hasbro. So I interned there on the Play School Heroes team Which was a ton of fun and couldn't wait to come back full-time. I
00:14:10
Speaker
So you mentioned Play School there, but before we learn a little bit more about that, the day of giving back that Hasbro does, I love when that comes up every year, especially the way that the social media account covers it.
00:14:25
Speaker
And I remember one year, I think it was when we were starting to kind of work with Steve Evans to come on the show. He's great, yeah. We were actually trying to plan the day to have him come on. And the one day that was on the schedule that we were playing with ended up being that day. And that was kind of our first experience where he was like, well, I can't do that day because of this. And explained what was going on.
00:14:51
Speaker
And then we saw the pictures on social media and everything that you guys were doing. And it really is a really, really cool program that I feel like not a lot of people know about. Hasbro should be very proud to do something like that. It's pretty amazing. And there's this huge kind of emphasis on giving back to your community. So we have all of these opportunities for getting matched with nonprofits in our areas so that our skill sets can help.
00:15:19
Speaker
Um, which is like a non global day of joy thing, but that we can do all year round. You know, one of our benefits is that we can get time every month if we're full time to go and volunteer. Um, which is amazing when we're in person, um, there is, you know,
00:15:35
Speaker
activities that we can go to monthly where we actually get to go as a team and volunteer places. They've been really good about doing virtual events too. But it's one of the things that I just think is so cool that a company that's this big cares that much about making their community a better place. It's amazing.
00:15:53
Speaker
So going back to playschool there, as an intern, you had the opportunity to work with a bunch of different licenses under playschool, since they work with so many different licenses. What were some of the things that you learned in that process?
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah, so for those of you who don't know, the now defunct Play School Heroes brand was the basically preschool action brand. So it was the preschool lines for, I always have to count them on my hands because I forget, for Star Wars, Marvel, Transformers, Power Rangers, and Ghostbusters.
00:16:27
Speaker
And so this was my, this was really like my first corporate work experience, which taught me so many things. But I think one of the really amazing things was that I got to see all of the subtle nuances of how all of these different brands worked. So like what appealed to these consumers didn't necessarily appeal to these consumers. And I was there right as we were kind of transitioning sizes of products. So we had been doing kind of smaller figures.
00:16:58
Speaker
maybe three inch? I wanna say three inch. They were little, little friends. And we're moving to like a five inch and a 10 inch for preschool. And so it was so cool to kind of get to watch the 10 inch were the mega mighties, which are kind of these chunky figures. They were 999, they were great expressions. And we also did ultra mega mighties, which were like slightly fancier ones. I think they were like 12 inches maybe. But they were just like these
00:17:25
Speaker
chunky, great expression that little hands could really get a hold on. They were great for like crash and bash. The colors were amazing. They were all these like really kind of friendly preschool designs where, you know, if you had like a whole wall of them on your shelf, which I definitely did at my desk, it like it made you feel good about having these as your toys. And honestly, like I just thought it was so cool. And so that was really one of my first deep dives. And
00:17:53
Speaker
I think it was really there that one of the things that's really important to me is I love learning and I love asking questions and it was so cool to be around all of these different people with these different skill sets. One of my favorite things was sitting and watching our product designers work.
00:18:10
Speaker
because they could see something in their brains and then it could magically appear on the screen in front of them, which is just not a skill set that I have. I can make you the best stick figure you've ever seen in your life. That's not how my brain works in terms of making ideas happen. It was a really wonderful opportunity for me to get to learn all of the different functions at Hasbro, what everybody's parts were,
00:18:37
Speaker
and the importance of making sure that all of the communication is working between everybody so that everyone's ideas are coming together. And it was an amazing experience. I absolutely loved it. And then we did coffee and ice cream train after lunch. So the team would hang out at lunch.
00:18:54
Speaker
And then at one o'clock we would all start banging our cups and we'd all walk down the hallway to get coffee and ice cream after lunch and then walk back and go to work. And I think about that sometimes when I'm at home by myself working from my home office and at one o'clock go and get ice cream. Sorry, that was a long winded answer, but I learned a lot of things when I was an intern and it was a really great opportunity.
Power Rangers Team Transition
00:19:21
Speaker
It's always so interesting with the core kids lines or even the preschool lines. It's so interesting to see characters and properties translated into those more simple figures, the things that we grew up with playing. Even something like the modern
00:19:46
Speaker
Marvel Legends that Hasbro produces, right? Like they have the Titan series and the, you know, the, the other core kids lines that like attach to the movies and everything. And it always gives me those kind of like old school, like Kenner vibes, you know, they always have like the fun, extra accessories and play features and, you know, all of the things that are, are, you know, taken out for kind of like the collectors or collectible, uh, you know, market, because when you're a kid, you want, you want your,
00:20:13
Speaker
you know, figure to fire a giant foam rocket. You want the storytelling like that. And being able to immerse yourself in that world is so important. And I think also to an extent, you know, we focus on that a lot on the fan focused brands to like we especially with like the heyday that toy photography is having right now.
00:20:31
Speaker
Everybody wants to be able to tell their own unique version of their story with their toys. But I think that it's so amazingly cool to see all of these different interpretations of the same figures because nobody's pictures look the same. Everybody has different ideas of what they want things to look like and how they can bring things to life. It's an amazing artistic expression and it brings everybody it has, but I'm just going to go ahead and speak for the entire company.
00:21:00
Speaker
so much excitement to see how people are interacting with our products and how they're really making them their own. So prior to diving into the trenches with the Joe team, you worked on Power Rangers. How did that opportunity come your way?
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, so I graduated from business school in spring of 2020, which you may remember was at the very start of the pandemic. So you can imagine not a lot of jobs to be had. So I hung around at home. I volunteered with a couple of organizations virtually. I logged like 400 hours in Skyrim. And one day I got a call.
00:21:42
Speaker
from Joe who ended up being my boss saying that he had John Firestone on the Power Rangers team needed to go on paternity leave and they needed some help. And my boss on Play School Heroes had recommended me as somebody who might do well. And so I interviewed and started on the Power Rangers team. So I
00:22:03
Speaker
truly lucked out. Thank you so much, Shannon, for the recommendation. Shannon, who is currently leading up Spidey and Friends and is an amazing human and toy marketer. I'm so lucky to have gotten to learn from her, but I truly, truly lucked out for the opportunity. And it was interesting because the lease on my house was up in New York. I didn't really know what I was going to do.
00:22:27
Speaker
My parents said, come, you know, how long is COVID going to last? Just come back to Oregon for six months. You'll figure it out. So I actually got the job offer right as I was moving back to the West Coast. So I did it all virtually working East Coast hours from the West Coast, which meant I was waking up for meetings at 6 a.m.
00:22:47
Speaker
People were very nice. They usually didn't schedule meetings that I had to present at until like 7am my time. So it was kind of them. But working on Power Rangers was amazing. It was my first real introduction to fan product and how passionate our fan bases can be and how enthusiastic and how much they are, how vocal they are about the
00:23:12
Speaker
the products that they want and what they think we're doing well and what they think we could be doing better. And it's so cool to kind of get that feedback in real time about your products and being able to say like, all right, so this worked, this didn't work. What do we want to do next? How can we, how can we make this a better experience for our fans and our consumers? But it's, it was really cool on Power Rangers. One of the big differences between Power Rangers and GI Joe is that Power Rangers are screen accurate versus GI Joe is kind of like this,
00:23:43
Speaker
mishmash of so many different iterations of these characters and then Lenny's like amazing brain of modernizing all of them. And so it was really interesting to be able to say, okay, well, so on this ranger, his shoulder pads actually shoulder pads, they don't have shoulder pads, ignore that.
00:24:01
Speaker
I said that in one of my first Fan First Fridays, the first one I ever did in October. It was a Power Rangers one and it was I think like we revealed maybe an astronomer and she had like this cool body armor on and I called it shoulder pads. And I was like, look at her cool boots. I was talking about like it was a fashion thing.
00:24:22
Speaker
Dancing feet, right? Dancing feet. It was King Sphinx. He had ballet feet because of how great his ankle articulation was. I actually have him sitting on my shelf right now. That's really funny. Everything comes back to Power Rangers, guys. But it's, what was I talking about? Oh my gosh, screen accurate.
00:24:40
Speaker
versus the realizations and different versions. It's been really cool to get to work on brands that are kind of both ways. We're on Power Rangers. We spend a lot of time looking at very grainy still images from 1993 for product.
00:24:57
Speaker
Um, which, and we try, you know, the team is so amazing. Loretto working on Lightning Collection and Jordan working on Kid Product are absolutely slaying it on all of the Power Rangers stuff. I don't know if you guys have seen any of like the Dino Fury stuff that's been coming out, but they're doing great. Yeah, that, that, that core kids, Dino Fury, like, uh, the, the thing with the color changing. Yes. Yeah. I'm a Fury Saber.
00:25:24
Speaker
Like I still am not quite sure how that actually works and as a kid I would, I literally would, my jaw would be on the floor.
00:25:34
Speaker
Yeah, I got to do one of the early test rounds for the chroma fury. So they sent me so I was living on in Oregon. So I get this package that's like an early test model of this thing. And one of my jobs is to figure out, you know, all right, what is this? What does this work on? What does this not work on? So I'm going to the store and I'm buying all of these different textures of things.
00:25:55
Speaker
and all of these different colors and scanning all of them and sending all of these messages to our engineers. I'm like, okay, so it works on this kind of beach ball, but not on this kind of beach ball, or it works on this couch, but it doesn't work on this couch. And I seriously can't believe somebody paid me to do it. It was so cool, and I am wildly thrilled with how the product turned out. It was absolutely amazing. It was definitely, definitely a highlight.
00:26:23
Speaker
Well, I mean, you want to talk baptism by fire. Power Rangers is a, that's a, that's a rough one to start. And you know, full disclosure, like my knowledge of my like breath of Power Rangers knowledge kind of ends when
00:26:38
Speaker
the movie came, that first movie came out, like the one with Ivanoo's in it. With Ivanoo's. Yeah. Your Power Rangers knowledge is from 1993 to like 1995. Pretty much. Okay, perfect. Pretty much. Because that's when I, when I watched it. Like I was the right age. I only knew it from you. Yep. So. Yeah.
00:26:56
Speaker
And I was the right age for it. And then by the time the movie had come out, I was already hop, skipping, and jumping onto something else, the next big fad.
GI Joe Brand Management
00:27:05
Speaker
So when we started doing the blog and the podcast and everything, Power Rangers was one of those properties where it was like, how do we cover this? Because we need to, we want to make sure that we're getting the information out there accurate from
00:27:23
Speaker
from Hasbro. There are a couple of other, we'll keep the other cards hidden, but there are a couple of brands out there that we're not experts in. Part of the joy of this is learning about so much of it. I have a shout out to Friend of the Pod and actually
00:27:44
Speaker
somebody that you know, Dave P. He stood in for us at the G.I. Joe roundtable. He is our Power Rangers go-to. Everybody is a Power Rangers go-to, man. When we have questions, he's the one we go to. He sends me YouTube clips all the time, so that way I have context for the things that I'm talking about.
00:28:08
Speaker
Yeah, we'd be lost without our data, so shouts to Dave. And I think it's one of the things that's also really cool about Power Rangers is that depending on when you were born and what it really depends on like what seasons you watched as a kid, and those are the seasons you have the strongest affinity for. And so you get people like out of left field going like, Turbo's the best Power Rangers season ever, I'll fight you about it.
00:28:32
Speaker
And it's but people are so passionate about what they identify as like their seasons like their nostalgia seasons. And so it was really, really cool to get to see like this fandom that's basically evolved over 30 years, which is bonkers shows been on forever.
00:28:51
Speaker
It was so cool i will admit my heyday was mnpr i very distinctly remember playing power rangers on the playground in first grade. My first crush that i can remember was actually on the pink ranger and i it was so cool to get to work on a brand that i actually remembered from when i was a kid.
00:29:12
Speaker
It was a very fun experience. I don't know if you guys probably didn't have any reason to be watching this, but Loretta and I did a Fan First Friday back in last June for our Pink Power Ranger capsule. Totally watched it. Oh, okay. So at the very, very end for anybody who may have not watched it, I knew that I was moving off the brand and I was like, all right, I'm going to do something ridiculous. So we had just announced a helmet and a morpher and we had a costume.
00:29:40
Speaker
convince them to let me morph into the pink Power Ranger at the end of the segment. And seriously, like a career highlight. I could not believe they let me do that. Amazing. Love it. Yeah, brought me a lot of joy. So so moving moving from Power Rangers on to your your current role. The GI Joe brand is easily one of the most cherished and and storied in in toy history. You know, arguably one of the most important to
00:30:07
Speaker
So what are some of the challenges you and the team face leading a brand like GI Joe into 2022 and beyond? Yeah, I think that one of the very cool things about GI Joe, much like Power Rangers, is that we have all of this history to draw from on the brand.
Haslab Projects and Community Support
00:30:23
Speaker
And you have hundreds and hundreds of established characters who have been in TV shows and movies and comic books.
00:30:30
Speaker
And that there are so many different kind of versions of these characters that exist along the way that sometimes I think we get a little bit bogged down in character selection. We're like, oh my gosh, but there's like a hundred characters that we feel are like a level that we need to include immediately. And how do we kind of pare down and what makes the most sense to include together from like a storytelling perspective?
00:30:50
Speaker
And I have learned so much from the team in the last seven months. I am so lucky. The GI Joe team has been an amazing, amazing team to work with. We all communicate so well. We work so well together. We all ask such good questions. Nobody's ever mean when they have to answer questions. Not that any of the other teams I have ever worked on have been mean about answering questions.
00:31:15
Speaker
But I think about some of my other workplaces that weren't Hasbro and how it never really felt like the team I was on was meshing together and the GI Joe team just meshes, man. And so I think that we have a lot of fun working together and it results in these amazing conversations about where we can evolve the line and
00:31:41
Speaker
it's so cool to get to be kind of one of the shepherds of the brand, and get to help figure out how, you know, like everybody who grew up in the 80s, like real American hero, those three and three quarter inch O-ring figures, like that's their GI Joe. And kids who grew up in the 2000s, you know, had modern era retro, like that's their version of GI Joe, and you have, you know, Renegades, and you have Six Sigma, and you have the live action movies. And so
00:32:08
Speaker
Just like with Power Rangers, depending on where you grew up, you have different nostalgia touch points or some kids may have never watched the TV show but religiously read the comics. And so it's just so cool to have so much amazing history to draw from. And so I think going into 22 and beyond, you know, as we've said, we're.
00:32:27
Speaker
We love getting to kind of deep dive into GI Joe history, but still getting to bring a little bit of that modern edge to it has been really amazing. So how do we respect the history, but you know, bring it into the new millennium, which is a phrase that I haven't said since like 2000. So you're welcome. Y2K. Yep. Oh my gosh. Speaking of Y2K fashion is like really in for spring guys.
00:32:56
Speaker
Just to put it out there. Yeah, I have a feeling that will be a relevant statement shortly Yeah Yeah, so you mentioned the three and three-quarter o-ring Joe's coming back and We saw that reintroduction this past year and a super successful has lab campaign for the sky striker How did you come up with the surprise Cobra takeover in it incentive? how did the team come up with that as as the idea to kind of
00:33:25
Speaker
drive things home. I loved the Cobra takeover. So before I kind of go in on this, anybody who's listening and helped to back the Sky Striker, thank you so much for your support. We literally could not have done it without you. And we are, we're so thankful for this amazing community and really, really excited to bring you all your Sky Strikers to fly them home. They're, they're really cool.
00:33:51
Speaker
We're still in kind of pre-production, but we will have updates soon on Kind of what next steps are on the sky striker so that we can get backer updates and all of that good stuff Shouts to Carson from 3d Joe's who I know got at least five. Yeah, thanks I would like to see so the real question for Carson is how many is he gonna take out of boxes? I Listen that that man has an incredible museum of
00:34:20
Speaker
There have been times where we've been on round table discussions with him, and I get distracted looking at his feed because I'm trying to figure out what's behind him in a given moment. Oh, now I'm going to have to go look. That sounds amazing. I just got one of the, I feel like it's important to know your history, so I just got one of the collectors books that lists every GI Joe from 1980 to 2000. Nice. My personal goal for myself, I haven't announced this out loud yet, but
00:34:48
Speaker
I would like for somebody to be able to show me one of the pictures from the book and for me to be able to identify which character it is. So that's that's a long term goal. So maybe someday in the future we'll be able to do like some flashcard toy recognition for GI Joes so that I can flex my my super cool GI Joe character knowledge.
00:35:08
Speaker
Oh, man. See, having you and Lenny do that would be hilarious. Oh, my gosh. We'd be... Yes. All right. That'll be good. Maybe we'll do it in a... Yeah. All right. He's gonna... He would do so much better than me. I can't wait. So I will be the underdog in that situation, but we'll have fun. We'll be rooting for you. Sorry, Lenny. Thank you. No, it's... She has so many people rooting for him. Come on to my team.
00:35:35
Speaker
The Cobra hack, we were envisioning, and I think I've mentioned this somewhere before, but we were envisioning it like an episode of Real American Hero. The whole show hinges on the conflict between the Joes and the Cobras.
00:35:55
Speaker
If we have, say the central plot revolves around a sky striker, what is some kooky stuff that Cobra could do to the sky striker? What could be the central plot of this show? And so we're like, what if they steal it? And basically, the idea would be that they're definitely not going to paint the jet, right? They're going to want to make sure that the GI Joes know that they have it. They want to taunt them with it. So we came up with the idea of instead of doing a total redeco, I'm imagining
00:36:23
Speaker
In a Cobra hangar, you have the Cobra Grounds crew guys, right? And they're like graffiti spraying Cobras on this Sky Striker. Easily the best decal in that sticker set for the Cobra stickers is the No Joe sticker. I died. I was like, this is phenomenally good. And so that's basically coming up with kind of the plot of an imagined episode of Real American Hero is how we came up with the Cobra hack.
00:36:54
Speaker
well it was brilliant and i mean the delivery on it to the the voice actor that you guys got to do that the cobra voice was just just shrill
00:37:03
Speaker
shrill enough to be perfect. Yeah, absolutely perfect. And that was totally a secret weapon of John Warden, who ended up being friends with Frank Todaro, which was amazing. And it just absolutely worked out in the best way possible. Yeah. And you know what, it's one of those things where like, you know,
00:37:30
Speaker
Sure, like the extra figures and everything definitely, you know, added value, you know, as, as, you know, unlock, not even as an unlockable really as a bonus, right. Added added value, but also I'm sure for many.
00:37:44
Speaker
put people in a position where they're like, well, now I need two of these. Exactly. Because now you're really going to choose between having a GI Joe Sky Striker and a Cobra Sky Striker. And now you have enough figures where really you could have so many different kind of figure loadouts of who's flying. I'm not going to say that that wasn't something that ran through my mind.
00:38:08
Speaker
I mean, hey, it's at the at the end of the day. I mean, I am a marketer like it's a job like I wouldn't really be doing my job if I didn't think that kind of stuff through. But thank you to everybody who upped your skyscraper orders when we announced the Cobra takeover. I really appreciate it. Listen, we've we've had we've had Ryan Ting on the show before.
00:38:27
Speaker
And he's the biggest proponent of buy two, one on card, one loose. So, you know, Ryan is absolutely amazing. It's, so it's my figures worth two and one and that's just, you know, you need two. Yeah. So now basically what you end up needing is like, how many figures did we end up with? Seven, I think you just need seven. Um, it is, it's my personal policy at Hasbro that I am, I support all of the has labs that the teams do because I know how much work goes into these.
00:38:58
Speaker
and how much effort people have blood, sweat and tears metaphorically on the blood, probably not on the tears. But to get to that point where we can put them out in front of people and say, hey guys, we have something really cool that is going to blow your mind. It's so important to me to kind of
00:39:16
Speaker
Create this pan Hasbro camaraderie and really like show the teams that I am supporting them Which I think is great definitely my so excited for my proton pack I was just gonna say that that that's one that uh, I know Dave is looking forward to Personally, I'm I'm I'm looking forward to my razor
GI Joe Figure Reveals and Strategy
00:39:37
Speaker
crest. Oh, yeah that was so the razor crest was I think right in a period that
00:39:45
Speaker
right before I started buying all the Hazlabs. So I missed out on the Razor Crest. So I will live vicariously through you. Oh, there will be lots of pictures because the three and three quarter inch Star Wars, that's... Yeah, that's your jam. My bread and butter. Perfect.
00:40:00
Speaker
got the Neutrona wand for my girlfriend, like the Christmas that that came out. And I was like, all right, here it is. We got to do this now. Yeah. I mean, if you already have the wand, that's like half the setup. So it would be criminal to not do it. I'm very excited to see the whole thing in action. And for those of you who don't have your Neutrona wands Hasbro Pulse plug, they just went back up for pre-order on hasbropulse.com. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:40:33
Speaker
And now, back to the show.
00:40:36
Speaker
moving from the three and three quarter inch O-ring figures to the classified line, something that reinvigorated my love for G.I. Joe, frankly. Dave was the G.I. Joe collector when we were kids. I mostly played with his G.I. Joe's once he had kind of moved off of them. But the classified line is really what kind of drew me in. And it won the second place in our first annual Archie Awards. So everyone who voted,
00:41:05
Speaker
the final match-up came down between G.I. Joe Classified and Marvel Legends. We're totally honored to have made it that far in the competition and to be considered second best to Marvel Legends, which is an astonishingly amazing toy line. So thank you guys. And if you want to send me a certificate, I will hang it prominently in our Hasbro offices.
00:41:27
Speaker
We're working on getting the trophy made for next year. Oh my gosh. Well, now I really want it. Some kind of trophy situation happening. We're working on it. Can it be like a repurposed soccer team trophy? Because I feel like that would be really nice. We have some ideas. I'm going to leave it at that. I love it. OK, perfect. Can't wait to find out.
00:41:49
Speaker
But you're coming in hot off of the brand's first Fan First Friday of 2022. And you had a ton of reveals, including some really, really sought after fan favorites like Stalker, Tomax, and Zamit. There we go. That's how it is.
00:42:08
Speaker
And you revealed them a little bit differently than you have in the past. So tell us a little bit about how this year's announcements will be coming to fans. Yeah. So first off, I want to say thank you so much to everybody who tuned in for our first Fan First Friday. And both Lenny and I were overwhelmed with the amount of incredibly kind messages that we were getting from people thanking us for our transparency and for kind of our
00:42:34
Speaker
what we're doing on the brand and all the figures. And so thank you to everybody who's kind of sticking with us during this. And for all of your kind words, we had to turn our Instagram notifications off because we were getting so many of them, which sounds like a humble brag. And now that the words have come out of my mouth, it feels a little braggy, but it was totally blown away. Thank you.
00:42:54
Speaker
Deserve it. You are in that one. Very kind of you. So basically, this Fan First Friday set up the cadence for us to expect for the rest of the year. So like we mentioned, the world is still a crazy place. There's still supply chain issues. There are so many delays with manufacturing with those supply chain issues. And so we're really, really excited to be able to roll out this new cadence to expect. And so what this set up was really
00:43:23
Speaker
kind of the first touch points on our products because we are we get really excited when we're designing stuff and we really want to share them with you as soon as possible because the odds of us accidentally leaking something just by getting excited and talking about it like increase exponentially the closer we get to actually launching things and which I know you guys like actually wouldn't mind but I minded a little bit because I have all these things planned out
00:43:48
Speaker
So the first reveals now will actually be those kind of standing figure-only digital renders that don't include accessories, don't include packaging, not really talking about where these items are existing within the line. But we want to show you what we've been working on. I'm going to show you the characters. We want to show you their outfits. And small things may end up changing between when you see the digital renders and when you get final products.
00:44:15
Speaker
But we're so excited to be able to kind of share them with you early and give you a little bit of a look behind our design process, which is really kind of what this is. So then the next touch point, so at a later date after those reveals, all of the items that we are revealing will be pre-ordered. This is not going to be like one of those, the kind of bat and alley viper situation where we revealed everything and then kind of the pre-orders were up to different companies on how they wanted to do that.
00:44:43
Speaker
This will be a structured pre-order for each of the items. And so at the next kind of, the next event touch point or the next, whenever it's time for these items to be pre-ordered, I should say, we will do kind of a traditional pre-order with them. So we'll have the figures in hand. We'll have all of their accessories. We'll have those beautiful diorama shots. We'll have the packaging. We'll have the classified series artist collection artwork to talk about. We'll talk about retailer distribution and dates and prices.
00:45:11
Speaker
and kind of all of that good stuff at that event, at which point we will open pre-orders. As I mentioned last week, oh my gosh, time flies, is that we kind of expect with the supply chain issues to have a little bit longer lead times with those for getting those pre-orders fulfilled and the likelihood that you'll have like
00:45:31
Speaker
Overlapping preorders over the course of the year will be higher, but that we are doing everything in our power to get stuff to you guys as soon as humanly possible. We know you're excited, we are excited, and we cannot wait for you to see what we've been working on.
00:45:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, all of that is awesome. I personally, I love seeing those digital renders first, especially I know, I know they're, and I think rightfully so. There are some people who have gripes. They don't want to preorder something that's just digital render. They want to be able to kind of see, you know, at least like a final prototype, something in hand before they click the preorder button. Totally understand. Like that is, to me, at least it's, I think it's a valid gripe.
00:46:12
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, but I love seeing the digital renders, especially after speaking, you know, with somebody like like we had, you know, when we had Tony on the pod, because we're getting to see that end of the work, you know, that part of the creation process and, you know, showing off another artist on the team's, you know, role, like a lot of times that gets completely skipped over. Yeah.
00:46:32
Speaker
I think for fans and collectors, it's like a special feature. I'm dating myself, special feature on a DVD, right? Yeah, that's a great way to think about it. You get to see this extra step leading to the thing that you will eventually pre-order and the thing that you'll eventually get to see. I think that this is the best of both worlds because you get the digital renders that Tony has so lovingly put together for us, which
00:46:58
Speaker
Shout out to Tony, he is on all of my brands with me that I have ever been on. And I'm sure that he is sick and tired of seeing me in meetings, but he is always so wonderful. He is one of my favorite people to get to work with. So hi, Tony, I'm sure you're listening.
00:47:14
Speaker
Thank you for everything. But then, so you get the digital kind of preview, but then you actually get the actual pre-order, or you will get to see things in hand. You'll get to see the diorama shots with the physical figures in them. You'll get to see what all the packaging looks like.
Innovative Figure Design
00:47:29
Speaker
So you'll get to kind of see that whole package. But it's like, we've been thinking of it as kind of like the teaser, the teaser. Yeah, I was going to say, it's like the teaser the year before the movie comes out. Yes, exactly.
00:47:41
Speaker
We're really excited about it and it was really wonderful to see all the positive feedback and that it's really important to me that I know there have been some issues with distribution on this brand in the past, but that we are really working hard to make sure that that is not a problem.
00:48:02
Speaker
So many of these figures, we promise that there'll be plenty of pre-order opportunities for them. We promise if you pre-order, there will be figures available for you, but that it's going to be one of those, as I had mentioned before, a trickle instead of like a huge hit of figures for a lot of these. And so I know that the spirit storm shadow wave has started to kind of trickle out for some places and that we promise that there will be more of those figures, but that it's just going to take a while.
00:48:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think collectors are starting to get a little bit more used to that because it's not something that's unique to GI Joe at this point. It's a new normal almost, which is not something that we ever thought we'd be saying, but the world is different than when we were selling action figures a year ago or two years ago or five years ago. It is a very kind of different ball game.
00:48:53
Speaker
Unfortunately, it's a butterfly effect. Exactly. The small pieces that are missing are affecting way more than just the toy industry, but those things impact everything. Everything is delayed. Everything has a longer lead time. But again, I think
00:49:15
Speaker
as long as we can all get our toilet paper at a steady pace, if we should be all right. Let's prioritize the toilet paper, shall we? I feel like that's really what's most important here. I'm just very pumped about the twins being at Tomax and Zamut. They were two of my favorite figures when I was younger, when those came out on the original line. Yes, brother. Yeah.
00:49:43
Speaker
The very first episode, so full disclosure on this, I don't remember if I mentioned this at the round table, but I did not watch GI Joe growing up. The first time that I ever watched a cartoon related to GI Joe was the community episode that they did, GI Jeff.
00:49:58
Speaker
that was a GI Joe spoof. And so I went back and watched it again after I started working on the brand. I was like, oh my God, this is so much funnier this time around because for those of you who haven't watched it, the whole premise is that the lead character of Community is going through a midlife crisis. He's turning 40. And so they turn into a GI Joe cartoon. And basically what happens at the very beginning of the episode is the Joes are fighting against the Cobras. I don't remember if it was
00:50:28
Speaker
Destro or Zartan or somebody but GI Jeff ends up shooting them and it actually like you know when real American hero nobody ever gets hurt nobody unless you're a bat, but that's okay because you're a robot.
00:50:41
Speaker
but it actually killed him. And so the whole rest of the episode is basically this tribunal about how nobody's supposed to be able to die in this universe and how it's a safe space. And so they end up, the real Joes and the real Cobras end up teaming up against the GI Jeff community team. And it's way funnier now that I know what's going on in the brand. I thought it was funny the first time, but it's downright hilarious now.
00:51:09
Speaker
And so at the, when the teams team up, they go, Yo, Joe, bruh. And so every time I go, Yo, Joe, I'm always like, no, no, no, don't say Yo, Joe, bruh, you're gonna embarrass yourself. So that's my, that's my plug to go back and watch that old episode of community. Yeah, I that needs some revisiting. Yeah, it's, I think that it's
00:51:33
Speaker
I know that it got kind of mixed reviews when it came out, but I think it's hilarious. That's peak humor for pop culture right there for GI Joe right now. It poked fun of us in a way that I think is really wonderful, that we as a brand are in a place where we're like, yeah, we can make fun of that. This is really great. Anyway. You named the crocodile.
00:51:57
Speaker
That's it right there. That was all Lenny. Lenny's responsible for Fiona. Lenny is responsible for Fiona being called Fiona and for the babies, what are they, El Diablo and the other one has a very normal name. I love that big New Jersey man so much.
00:52:19
Speaker
Yep. And Fiona is one of the first figures like every once in a while, when you're what you're looking at figures for things, you just kind of stop after you know, you've you guys have seen a lot of action figures. And every once in a while you just kind of stop and you go, Oh my god, that's amazing.
00:52:40
Speaker
And it's something that you've never seen before or it's something that's new or there's some new technique. I had that same feeling the first time I walked into the model shop and saw the shark from the Fortnite line. And I was like, Oh my God, that's amazing. But that
00:52:58
Speaker
That is the exact reaction I had the first time I saw Fiona. 12 inches long, just like hanging out. I was like, oh my God, this is an amazing thing that we have created. And I think that that's a really magical moment because when you're kind of working on things day in and day out, you're like, are people really gonna like this? But the reaction that we saw at a croc master in Fiona was out of this world. And basically the consensus is that it's Fiona with a bonus croc master. Like Fiona steals the show.
00:53:27
Speaker
So full disclosure when I was talking with Lenny prior to that, you know way prior to that announcement and you know, we were we were just talking offline and You know going over some of the characters that like, you know We we love from the original line and I you know He totally did not give anything away like he was he was a steel trap but I mentioned how awesome a croc master figure would be in in you know, the
00:53:51
Speaker
the classified line. And I didn't even mention a crocodile. I was just thinking like the deco and like the way that, you know, the kind of modernization, like how awesome Croc Master would be. And when you guys announced that, I like gasped because I was like my favorite GI Joe. It's happening. And then I was like, well, look at that crocodile. I literally
00:54:13
Speaker
Come was like yeah croc master would live I want to see the crocodile because When when you guys put out the the snake eyes and timber to say timber. Yeah, it's it was the same thing It was like oh cool my this wolf comes with a free guys figure cool bonus Because really cool wolf with a bonus wolf head like yeah, cuz cuz we don't see
00:54:35
Speaker
Articulated animals like that like in in any really in in I mean, I guess like three and three-quarter inch Star Wars like has had some some really cool like beasts and Aliens and animals, but like they're they're out of this world, right? Like there are these super fictional crazy alien monster things We don't get like 112 scale animals and and really cool things is that it's a
00:55:03
Speaker
they're so kind of relatable that I'm a really big proponent of mixing your action figures. I do not think that you need to keep brands separate. Like the weirder the combinations of things, the happier I am. But like Timber, Wolf, Fiona, Crocodile, so easy to mix with other brands and really kind of add that to like your dioramas to your shelf setups.
00:55:27
Speaker
And I think that that's also one of the really wonderful things that we've been doing in the line is so many things are not necessarily like hyper specific to GI Joe.
GI Joe 40th Anniversary Plans
00:55:38
Speaker
And that there is a lot of, you know, like the the accessories that we include in figures, like those look great with any six inch figures that you're you're working with. And so I think that there's a lot of compatibility across the line, which is really nice.
00:55:53
Speaker
And I think too, for many people, it opens up the door, right? Because it shows like, oh, well, you know, they successfully did a 112 scale Wolf. And, you know, this is Hasbro and, you know, it's an owned Hasbro product. And like, think about like cross teams, like how, you know, the engineering that's now done for a Wolf body, how that can impact other lines, how it can impact additional
00:56:18
Speaker
four-legged creatures in the G.I. Joe line because there's characters like Law and Order and so many other dog and animal friends. It was a very cool moment and we're excited for more beasties for sure. The other baby's name is George. I just remembered El Diablo and George. George. George. Lenny. Lenny's the best.
00:56:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's really, really cool to get to work on this stuff. And you're right, it's something that nobody else is really doing for animals right now. And I think that it's really cool that we get to be one of those brands that kind of brings that to your collections. And I think Croc Master, I still haven't seen Final Samples yet.
00:57:10
Speaker
an engineering prototype, but I cannot wait to get final samples in of Croc Master. They're going to be amazing. Then I can't wait to see people start getting them. It's one thing to see me on a big screen saying, it's a 12-inch crocodile. Look at how amazing this is. You can squish your belly. It's squishy.
00:57:31
Speaker
But it's like a totally different ballgame. If you have it in your hands, you're like, Oh my god, this is amazing. Like, I want people to have that same reaction that I had the first time that I saw that figure. And like Croc Master, don't get me wrong, Croc Master is a dope action figure. But if you put Croc Master and Fiona next to each other, just for sheer like, I have never seen this before, you are going to gravitate to Fiona.
00:57:56
Speaker
90% of the time. So one of the other things we saw at the event was some of the retro-inspired classified figures for the 40th anniversary.
00:58:06
Speaker
Will there be more announced for the anniversary and when can we expect to hear more? Well gosh, we have a lot of really amazing anniversary kind of programs planned And so I mentioned kind of briefly in the last fan first Friday We are going to be doing our big 40th anniversary kickoff event at the end of February We should be able to announce that date really soon but kind of
00:58:31
Speaker
Everybody should
Action Figure Fashion Trends Game
00:58:32
Speaker
get stoked. We're doing some really cool stuff. And it's not just Hasbro product, which is really fun. So we're really bringing in our entire brand activation. So it's kind of a well-rounded event, which will be very, very fun and excited for everybody to get to learn more. I know that that's really mysterious, but I think that everybody, trust me, you'll be pleased. What I can say is there will be
00:58:58
Speaker
Product reveals and there will be product pre-orders that activate that day Awesome. Yep. So we do have some questions from you know in our Q&A from our Our the members of our audience and some of our followers on Instagram and whatnot however before we get there we have a short game to play with you and
00:59:18
Speaker
So we know that you have an eye for fashion it's something that you you've mentioned already that you like to call out on on figures and characters you know as you're kind of. Describing them and showing them off and revealing them so we thought we would play a quick round of this or that the action figure fashion edition.
00:59:37
Speaker
So in this game, Dave and I will go back and forth and we'll give you a choice of two characters. And you are going to tell us which character has the better look headed into spring 22. I can't wait. Very excited. I hope there's some Y2K fashion choices in there since that's what I know about. Oh, we've got some violently colored figures. Hey, Bold is in for this season. So that may work out for them. They could be the winners.
01:00:07
Speaker
All right, Dave, do you want to do you want to go with the first one here? Yeah, I could start. So our first one is Goldar or Pudgy Pig. Oh, OK. So.
01:00:20
Speaker
Fringe is really kind of king going into 22, so there's kind of a lot of movement. And personally, I think that Pudgy's kind of weird gladiator hat situation is a little more evocative of a fringe, especially like in a bold color. Goldar's wings are really nice, but kind of a darker tone. That bold isn't really popping the way that I'd like. So I'm gonna go with Pudgy for bold color choice and fringe-like gladiator hat situation.
01:00:49
Speaker
Your next one is... I was not expecting that answer and I'm... Was that like way more thoughtful than you thought it was gonna be? Yes, and I need a moment to recover. Alright, so your next one is Destro or Profit Director Destro.
01:01:12
Speaker
I'm not gonna lie, Profit Director Destro is one of my favorite action figures that I've ever seen. And there is no way that a flaming pile of money is out of style. Or like, is that cheetah? Is it leopard? It's definitely a dead cat cape. And as much as I am against the killing of cats, I'm gonna assume that it was a leopard and or cheetah that died of natural causes and was made into his cape. And so I'm gonna go with Flaming Pile of Money, Profit Director Destro.
01:01:43
Speaker
Alright, Power Rangers in space, or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
01:01:50
Speaker
So interestingly, one of the trends that we're seeing for the spring is actually a, and I know bear with me guys, the combination of like space age and athleisure. And you may be asking yourself, what is she talking about? But if you Google it, it's actually kind of a really interesting combination. So you get kind of the cool kind of alien like outer space situation combined with like the kind of clothes you'd want to hang out and work from home in. So I'm gonna go in space for their on point
01:02:19
Speaker
use of both being in space and wearing spandex suits, which I think technically counts as athleisure. Count it. So we're headed back to the GI Joes for the next one. Two ladies of the GI Joe team, Scarlet or Lady J.
01:02:37
Speaker
I'm going to give this one to LJ because green is one of the real colors of Sprink. So you're going to see kind of bold pops of green in shoes, especially accessories and even full outfits. So Lady J is definitely on trend with that bold green look. All right. The best fashionable pet companion, Fiona or Timber?
01:03:02
Speaker
So to me, timber feels very winter. Timber is like, I'm going to curl up with my pet wolf in front of my fireplace and read a good book. But Fiona, Fiona says Florida. Fiona says optimism, sunshine, which I think is really what we need heading into spring. It's been a long winter. Let's kind of celebrate with that.
01:03:23
Speaker
feeling of optimism and being outside, which is really an ironic thing for me to be saying about a figure that comes with a meat hook to hold your crocodile's mouth open with. But I'm gonna go Fiona. Next up is Rita Repulsa or Astronoma.
01:03:40
Speaker
So this one I'm torn between because they both are really representative of two big trends right now. So oversized Rita Repulsa is actually doing great with this kind of caftan mumu situation that she's got going on. And if you kind of look at the coloring,
01:03:55
Speaker
feather color kind of vibe is actually a little bit of that green tone and a bold color. So really she has the green accessory and the oversized. Astronema, 1980s are making a big comeback right now. So we're seeing a lot of the kind of the opulence of the 20s and the 80s coming back in two different ways. Remember how I was talking about fringe with pudgy? So you see the fringe coming in from the 20s and you see kind of the neon colors and like the just over the topness of the 80s because
01:04:24
Speaker
Everyone's been wearing sweatpants for two years. We want to feel a little fancy. And Astronema's wig collection is one of the strongest hair games in the Power Rangers universe. And so I think for just sheer amazing hairstyle situation, I'm going to go with the 1980s and give it to Astronema. Dave, you're up next. We have Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow.
01:04:47
Speaker
So interestingly, one of the big trends, you know how I've been talking about, you know, bold, white, bold colors, a lot of neons, a lot of like those kind of vibrant greens, other trend kind of going in the opposite direction is kind of an all monochromatic white look. So we're really feeling this kind of evocative bridal sense. So like a lot of lace, we're seeing a lot of the
01:05:09
Speaker
Kind of the handcrafted techniques coming back, quilting, embroidery kind of crochet as chunky knits. And so while Storm Shadow isn't exactly in a chunky knit ensemble, he definitely isn't all white, which is a little evocative of that bridal trend. So I think I'm going to give it to Storm. Wow. All right. Storm Shadow gets it for a bridal trend.
01:05:33
Speaker
So somewhere someone is really angry and I'm. And I'd like to hear them in the comments. Yes, please. All right. Our last one. And this is actually my favorite of the bunch. I cannot wait because there is so much going on with both of these figures that is just bananas, like bananas choices. The alley viper or the
01:06:00
Speaker
or the, I need goggles for my helmet, Cobra Island Viper. So both of them are really kind of working a couple of the trends. So we're seeing a lot of kind of big accessories, kind of a go big or go home. I never noticed the goggles for my helmet. Oh, it's the best. It's really good. All right.
01:06:29
Speaker
Get it together, Emily. That's beautiful. I literally, I had never noticed that before. I'm never going to look at that figure the same. All right. Amazing. I'm sure it's for, you know, when you, when you raise your helmet up, you want to make sure that your eyes are still covered because it's like a secret identity sort of situation. Sometimes the glare is just that bad. It's just really bad, guys. So, Ali Viper is...
01:06:55
Speaker
Ally Viper is really kind of rocking that bold color trend. When the Ally Viper is going out, the Ally Viper wants to be seen. The Ally Viper is not hiding in the background. This is a loud, bold fashion statement to draw fire away from the named Cobra characters and allow them to escape.
01:07:19
Speaker
Corral and Viper, also bold fashion statement, those red accessories on point for this season, that overabundance of accessories, including the goggles for his helmet, on trend for this season. You know what? I may declare this one a tie. I'm not sure I can choose who is rocking this trend better. So for our final, this is a tie.
Fan Questions and Product Diversity
01:07:44
Speaker
Oh, man.
01:07:45
Speaker
I just, you get the round of applause. Thank you for taking us down to the plastic red carpet. Thank you, thank you. I would love to do this again sometime. That was a lot of fun. Somewhere, Joan Rivers is laughing at all of this and that's just making me very happy. You interpreted the trends wrong. I just like how he has
01:08:11
Speaker
goggles for his helmet. He does! His accessory game is on point, guys. We cannot do by that. And it's again, it's just one of those, it's one of those dumb attention and details like the original figure had goggles on top of his helmet. And the classified figure had, I just... Well, you gotta stay consistent to the original, right?
01:08:36
Speaker
Oh my goodness. It's so much fun getting to kind of pick and choose what are the like what are the important details to us like what stands out on those figures and what we really want to make sure translates to their kind of updated classified version. Glorious. Yeah, pretty amazing. Now it's time for our Q&A.
01:08:59
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.
01:09:15
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. And for Q&A we put out a question or a post on our Instagram and Twitter.
01:09:38
Speaker
Asking if anyone in the community had any questions for you, and we have a couple. Dave, I'm going to take the first one. I'm going to skip to the end. I'm going to skip to the last one. We're going to do that one first. At Gator Don 03, I just realized it's a play on words. Gator Don 03. Yup, sure is. Gator Don 03 states, please make sure Emily knows that I'd pay upfront for a Hazlab USS flag. That is all.
01:10:08
Speaker
Thanks, GatorDawn3. I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future. All right, Dave, next one. At wildmercy1 asks, is there a deliberate balance between the Cobra team and Joe team members when determining waves slash assortments?
01:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think that you know, we're all about the storytelling and we want there to be a good balance of you having kind of to simplify good guys and bad guys to play with in your action figure sets. I much like Steve Evans, I'm a big proponent of taking your toys out of boxes and playing with them. And so it is our hope and I mean, please don't take this the wrong way if this isn't isn't your jam. But it's our hope that you're you know, actually taking these products out of the boxes and having them hang out together and
01:10:56
Speaker
posing them and playing with them and enjoying them. And we really want to make sure that you get representation of the way that we think about it is basically the GI Joes
01:11:09
Speaker
and you have the named Cobra figures and the Cobra troop builders. And so making sure that there's balance there and that there's really a lot of fun interpretive stories that you can do that if your kids are playing with them, if you are a kid who is playing with them, that really anybody can enjoy. At brings toys to work asks,
01:11:34
Speaker
Would the G.I. Joe team ever consider doing a fan, poll, or vote for deciding on a future classified figures creation?
01:11:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think we definitely would. It's one of my favorite things when we're doing videos and we ask in the comments like, all right, what kind of figures do you guys want to see next? Know that we actually go back and we read all the comments there. We see what you're saying. And so we definitely are kind of looking at what fan sentiment is and what you're excited about. But I think that that could be definitely something cool in the future.
01:12:05
Speaker
I need to make a bunch of burner accounts and just comment shipwreck a bunch of times. There you go. Duly noted. But now I know that it's all going to be you. Or do you? It's a solid mystery. Good question. Yeah, just when I thought you let the cat out of the bag, he didn't.
01:12:28
Speaker
Um, so at Jersey Maniac Collector asks, has the team thought about doing five or six figure waves like Marvel Legends and the Black Series?
01:12:38
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. We would love to be able to do five or six figure waves like Marvel Legends or the Black Series. You know what Marvel Legends and the Black Series have that we don't yet? An established timeline of being a brand. Guys, this brand came back in 2020. That was two years ago. So we have every intention of continuing to grow the brand and expand it. And someday we would love to be able to do five or six figure waves like Legends and Black Series.
01:13:04
Speaker
the number of products that they're able to put out and have their fan collectors be so excited about all of them is amazing. And we really hope that we can get there as a brand someday. But right now we are a baby brand that is growing, that we're excited about. But I think that we're probably still a little bit off from doing the big five or six figure waves. And your final question for Q&A comes from at X, the human factor X. And they ask,
01:13:34
Speaker
I would love to see more green shirts and cobra troopers in the O-ring line, especially male and female variants with different skin tones. Are those things that are being considered at this point?
01:13:44
Speaker
So let me start off by kind of addressing part of this. So I am a huge proponent for adding additional diversity to the line. I think that there's, and that comes into account a lot of the times when we're doing our character selection, we wanna make sure that we are representing to the best of our abilities as many different groups of people as humanly possible. So you'll definitely see that coming into play more with our 2020 line and our 2023 line. And we were really excited about some of the things that we have planned. I think you guys will be really excited too.
01:14:13
Speaker
Those kinds of things are absolutely being considered. We want to make sure that everybody is represented in both classified series and O-rings. And I think that the ways in which we are figuring out how to accomplish that will be really great for our collectors to see. But that, you know, everybody deserves toys, even if it's something as silly as a troop builder that's an O-ring figure.
01:14:39
Speaker
that look like them that they can see themselves in. The first time I picked up one of the scarlet figures from the first figures that I had and she had freckles. Oh my gosh, I don't remember the last time that I had a doll with freckles. I actually do remember the last time it was an American girl doll that my mom had custom ordered with freckles so that I had a doll that looked like me. And I know that that's a very small piece.
01:15:03
Speaker
But it was that moment of, I see myself in this. And I think that that is something that is so important, especially for kids who are growing up to be able to see themselves reflected in toys and to see themselves reflected as, you know, I am normal. I am, you know, there are other people in the world that are like me and I am, you know, I am perfectly perfect the way that I am. It's so important. It's also important when we're adults, especially important when we're kids.
01:15:31
Speaker
Um, and so definitely a look to start seeing some, some additional kind of diversity, um, within the GI Joe line going forward. And to add onto that, like GI Joe is an extremely diverse brand. It is one of my favorite things about it is that it is
01:15:48
Speaker
But the GI Joe and Cobra teams are these mixes of people from all around the world who are coming together. And there's no there's no magic in the GI Joe universe like there is in Power Rangers, right? Like these aren't people who have magic powers bestowed upon them by a floating head in a tube not to distort on or anything.
01:16:08
Speaker
These people in this universe are very, very good at what they do. They are incredibly smart. They are incredibly skilled. They worked really hard. And so I think that there's a really amazing message here where
01:16:21
Speaker
It's all of these very smart, very talented people who are coming together from all over the world to work together to accomplish goals, whether that is world domination if you're a Cobra or to prevent Cobra from dominating the world if you're a Joe. But I think that it's so cool to see, there's nobody who gets told, no, you can't be a Joe because you came from here or this is what you look like. No, that's not how it works.
01:16:49
Speaker
And I think that that care was especially evident the way that you guys handled the, uh, the release of, of spirit and freedom, um, you know, getting taboo involved and making, you know, the necessary changes so that his character didn't, um, you know, forward, uh, you know, stereotypes and, and, you know, his, his background and his history and his specialties, like they all made sense and everything was kind of reconfigured in order to, to be more, uh, you know,
01:17:19
Speaker
respectful to the character's background and to the tribes that he represents. So kudos to that. It's awesome to see that kind of stuff. And it was so interesting listening to Taboo talk about what spirit meant to him when he was a kid and he got to see this native figure and that to him it was a big deal.
01:17:39
Speaker
And I think it a lot of people feel like that about when they see figures that are representative of themselves or communities of things that they identify with and how heartbreaking it is to see that and then have like, you know, the biography be kind of a stereotype or there to be things that are like a mismatch, a kind of a mishmash of different cultures that don't necessarily go together because
01:18:04
Speaker
maybe at the time there weren't resources to figure out exactly how to isolate these things. We did a lot of stuff before the internet. But I think that we're in such a wonderful place now where we have the resources, we are a globally connected world. And if there's something that you don't know, there's always somebody that you can ask. And we can make things better and we can make things better and more inclusive experiences for people. And I think that that is
01:18:34
Speaker
It's something very small that I think that we can, I mean, I'm not going to solve the world's issues by making our GI Joe figures from the 1980s more inclusive and more respectful of cultures, but I think that it can make a big difference to some people and that's really wonderful to get to be part of. Sorry, that's my diversity and inclusion spiel. No, it's super important.
01:18:58
Speaker
And Dave, I forget who said it to us, but somebody in the comments, maybe a friend of ours, I don't recall who and I'm disappointed that I forgot, but they said to us, you have to remember, every toy is somebody's first toy. That's beautiful. I love that. And especially when it comes to something that's in a situation where like,
01:19:24
Speaker
a kid with a Native American background, maybe that spirit figure is gonna be his first toy. Can you imagine the impact that that has? And yeah, in the scale of global problems and everything that's going on in the world, that one little victory, though, is gonna make that kid so happy. And that's something that I feel like we're always trying to remind people, especially when a figure is
01:19:54
Speaker
a common figure is re-released and it's a repaint or a repackage. That figure isn't for everybody, but it is going to be somebody's first action figure. And that's something that we have to keep reminding ourselves. These are toys and they do make an impact.
01:20:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's there for everyone and you know, it's it's good for everyone to be represented by them. You know, that's that's the goal, right? Yeah. And I think that it's also I mean, that's that's a beautiful sentiment, but that it also like kind of on the other side of that is it's entirely possible that the first time some someone who isn't a Native American is going to have an interaction with Native culture.
01:20:39
Speaker
is through a spirit action figure and maybe reading the biography and seeing what kind of clothes he's wearing. And so I mean, I did, I read a ton when I was younger. And so for me, reading was a lot of my, you know, it was right when the internet was kicking off, dating myself. But that was a lot of my introduction to other cultures was reading. And I mean, I had no idea of double checking to make sure that the things I was reading in books were accurate.
01:21:09
Speaker
Um, but that now we live, but I mean like that could totally be somebody's first introduction to a culture and how cool to be able to update things so that they would potentially have a better understanding of, of other people. Like that's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. Oh guys, this is so nice. What a weepy note to end
Final Questions on Collections
01:21:33
Speaker
on. Well, we're gonna, we're gonna,
01:21:36
Speaker
go back to something that we talked about at the beginning of the episode. To end this episode, we're going to bookend it. Dave. As promised. Would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask our final question? I sure would. Our final question that we ask to all of our guests, what is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? It can be one of each or both.
01:22:03
Speaker
All right, I promised I'd tell you the story of my creepy bride doll. All right, so imagine if you will.
01:22:09
Speaker
A world before COVID, actually a world right before COVID in which Emily and her friend take a little trip to Italy, like the same week as the COVID outbreak. So imagine if you will, we're walking around in Venice and we want to get some souvenirs for our friends back in New York. And so we think and we know that one of our friends has a liking for creepy porcelain dolls.
01:22:35
Speaker
If you're ever into Venice, you know that Venice has a lot of creepy porcelain dolls, but being graduate students, we were cheap. We wanted to make sure we weren't paying a lot of money for a creepy porcelain doll. So I'd been to Venice before. I'd stayed in an apartment. I kind of remembered the area I was in, and there was a little antique store kind of close to where I had stayed. I remembered there being some dolls there. I said, all right, let's go. We'll go and we'll see if we can find any dolls.
01:23:01
Speaker
to go to the antique store, there are two boxes. There's one that's like five euros, there's one that's 10 euros, five euro dolls, definitely. And so we're digging through the dolls and we see kind of a
01:23:14
Speaker
a bride doll, at which point I go, oh, this is interesting. I wonder if our friend would like this bride doll. It's also important to note that on this trip, it was my divorce celebration trip. So instead of getting married, I got divorced or split up from my ex, and I went on this trip to Italy when I was supposed to be getting married. So we're like, all right, it's fate. Look, we're going to bring this creepy bride doll back to our friend Mike. Everything will be great.
01:23:41
Speaker
So I noticed as I picked up this doll that her head was on backwards, right? So I was like, oh, that's bad juju. So I go to twist her head back around, not remembering that vintage porcelain dolls are a little on the fragile side. And so I get her head back around just in time to watch both of her legs fall off.
01:24:02
Speaker
So I catch one of her legs, the other leg hits the ground and shatters. So this very nice man comes out and I'm speaking to him in like broken fragmented Italian. I know a little bit of French, so I'm throwing some French in there. My friend Jasmine, no Spanish, we're like trying to cobble together a romance language apology to this man. I try paying him, no, no, no. He takes the remnants of this broken doll back behind the counter and he just kind of hangs his head sadly.
01:24:32
Speaker
doesn't come back out. So we're like, okay, do we leave money? Do we leave? So we left and walked away. And we're like, all right, we'll go find a doll somewhere else. That was mortifying. We're never going back there again, right? And so I'm not sure what went through our heads. We'd been drinking a lot of wine. And for some reason, the next day we thought, let's go back to that store. I bet you won't remember us.
01:25:01
Speaker
dressed in and I mean, like we travel light, we were basically wearing exactly the same clothing. I had like this floral print scarf on both days and bright red lipstick and we were like these, you know, Americans in the middle of Italy, right? So we go back in the next day so pleased with ourselves like flying under the radar. Such idiots. So, so wonderful. And we find this other really creepy doll in the five euro doll box.
01:25:27
Speaker
which is this kind of Harlequin baby doll that's kind of has like fluff, kind of a fluffy stuffy situation going on. So of course the same guy working at the store, right? So we go up to the grassy, pray I go, give him his five euros, walk out. And as we're walking out, he goes, scoozy. I'm like,
01:25:47
Speaker
Oh God, does he remember me? So he comes out, he holds, he puts something in my hands and holds his hands on top of them and then leaves. And I look and it's the broken pieces of the bride doll that I had broken the day before. So she's in three pieces now. So it's her head, which is completely separate from her body, her torso with her arms attached and the one leg that didn't break.
01:26:12
Speaker
And he just he left with this in my hands. I'm just like, Oh my god, don't like that. So, so my friend Jasmine is like, what are we going to do with this? I'm like, we're gonna protect this doll with our lives. That's what we're gonna do. So the doll had like a place of honor in my bag coming back to the US.
01:26:34
Speaker
She has moved houses with me twice. She is always in the RV when we're driving across the country to move. I feel like this doll is a representation of if I am ever going to fall in love again, if I am going to die alone. The doll has a place of honor sitting on my shelves of precious travel memories.
01:26:55
Speaker
so that I can see her every day and be reminded that she is an important part of my home. And so she sits with her head kind of propped on and her leg laying across the lap of her little wedding dress. And that's the story of my haunted bride doll. What'd you guys think? Terrifying. Was that where you thought I was going to go with that? No. No, no one ever thinks of this. We got where we needed to, though.
01:27:26
Speaker
So, so Dave and I watch a lot of horror movies and tell you, let me tell you, I immediately got Annabelle. Oh yeah. Lots of, lots of horror movies start that way, Emily. Oh yeah, intimately familiar. A forlorn, a forlorn.
01:27:39
Speaker
older person hands you a doll and then just walks away and doesn't let you not take it. That's usually not a good sign. Do not let this doll out. One of my goals is actually to use my newfound friends in the toy industry to actually make her another leg and string her back together. I feel like it's
01:28:04
Speaker
part of my atonement in life to give this doll. And like, she's not very big. Like, don't imagine her as like, you know, kind of a bigger doll. She's like maybe six or seven inches. So she was really compact with all of her parts not attached to her. But she is truly one of the creepiest things I own. This is a job for Lenny. Lenny could do this. Lenny could do this. Tony could probably do this. Corey could probably do this. Oh, no. I could come together.
01:28:33
Speaker
No, I take that back. This is a job for Cory. Yeah. This is 100% a job for Cory because he's also a necromancer. And if something were to happen, that would be the person that you want in your Cory. You'd be able to shut it down. And what I'm really hoping, like the one leg that remains is I think it's like a porcelain with like kind of a cute little white flat shoe situation. And I really like the other leg to be like a cool cyborg leg. I feel like she deserves an upgrade. Oh my god. Please don't give this doll any superhuman abilities.
01:29:05
Speaker
Thank you for listening to my creepy bride doll story. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my chest now that she knows that the world knows about her story and that also if something weird happens to me and it's not explainable by like normal goings-ons, check the bride doll. Noted.
01:29:28
Speaker
So in order for us to be able to keep tabs on you and make sure that you don't just disappear, hashtag check the bride doll. Oh my god. So how about I will post a picture of her to my Instagram so that you can see her.
01:29:41
Speaker
Perfect segue. Where can we find you on the internet, Emily? Perfect.
Conclusion and Community Engagement
01:29:45
Speaker
I am more phenomenally Emily on Instagram. Feel free to follow me and see any kind of fun GI Joe hijinks. If you send me, if you were a toy collector or a photographer and you send me one of your stories or your posts, I will always repost it to my account on stories or
01:30:06
Speaker
like it and comment because I feel like you know we all need to be really supporting each other in this time and it's so cool to be welcomed into this community and I just really appreciate everybody.
01:30:17
Speaker
Well, Emily, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. This was amazing. We had a blast. We hope you had a good time as well. And there's a lot of things to be excited for for GI Joe and beyond this year. So we'll be sure to keep our eyes peeled for all the good stuff. Yeah, we will see you in late February. I cannot wait.
01:30:44
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.
01:31:01
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.
01:31:25
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.