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A SDCC 2022 G.I. Joe Panel Recap w/ Emily and Lenny from Hasbro
748 Plays2 years ago
YO JOE! We're back with another roundtable discussion with Emily Bader and Lenny Panzica from Hasbro's G.I. Joe team following their 2022 SDCC panel! Hear answers to some of your questions as well as other toy journalists from The Full Force Podcast, Toy Insider, HISS Tank, Action Figure Insider, Toy Wizards, and more in this more than one-hour-long discussion!
Save $5 off of your Magic Spoon order - visit magicspoon.com/aic and use code AIC at checkout!
Follow Emily @morphinomenally_emily and Lenny @weatherdominator on Instagram
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
Nostalgia with Magic Spoon
00:00:02
Speaker
Dave, remember the feeling of watching Saturday morning cartoons with your favorite bowl of sugary cereal?
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00:00:46
Speaker
spice up your peanut butter cereal by slicing up some fresh banana in it. That's what I did.
Promo Code Announcement
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Speaker
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Speaker
Remember, get your next delicious bowl of guilt-free cereal at magicspoon.com slash AIC, and use the code AIC to save $5. Thank you, Magic Spoon, for sponsoring this episode. 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.
Podcast Introduction
00:01:45
Speaker
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.
00:01:58
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Eric here.
G.I. Joe Preview
00:02:03
Speaker
I just wrapped with the G.I. Joe team on yet again another roundtable, this time recapping their reveals and news coming off of their San Diego Comic Con panel. So what you're about to hear is another hour plus of chatting all things G.I. Joe with our friends Emily Bader and Lenny Panzeca from Hasbro's G.I. Joe team.
00:02:25
Speaker
You'll also hear from some familiar voices like the Full Force Podcast, Action Figure Insider, Toy Wizards, Toy Insider, and His Tank, and more. One correction before we kick into the actual call here. In the throes of covering Comic Con, I relied on a lot of our fellow bloggers on the ground coverage in order to provide coverage on our Instagram page.
00:02:55
Speaker
And in the beginning of the call here, I'm going to mention that I watched Dan's feed, Dan from Action Figure Insider, for the G.I. Joe panel. It was not his feed. I actually watched the Fooshes feed. So I incorrectly credited Dan, and then Dan goes on to say that he wasn't in the panel anyway. So just to give you guys some context, it wasn't Dan, it was Fooshe.
Comic Con Panel Correction
00:03:20
Speaker
I watched Dan's coverage of the Star Wars panel and the Marvel Legends one.
00:03:25
Speaker
You know, I just want to just want to set the record straight, give corrections where possible, you know? Well, with that, I'm going to turn it over to the call and you're going to hear the latest from from Emily and Lenny. Yo, Joe. All right. Hey, guys. What up, dude?
00:03:41
Speaker
So congratulations, awesome San Diego Comic Con. Sorry, I couldn't be there in person to hang, but it was nice getting to watch everyone's live streams. Shouts to, I don't know if Dan is in here, if Mr. Pickett is among us today, but shouts to him for streaming the thing so I could watch it. So thank you, Dan. You're the best. You're welcome.
00:04:06
Speaker
So what we did prior to coming to this is we actually put out a post saying that we were going to have your ears. So I have a couple of questions from our followers. So our first question comes from Earl Whitford on Facebook. One of our followers asks, will the Serpentor PulseCon exclusive be an in-stock order like Zartan was last year or a pre-order come PulseCon?
Serpentor Pre-order Discussion
00:04:35
Speaker
So he will be a pre-order CompulseCon with the hopes that he will be, I mean, everybody knows all of the horrendous supply chain issues that G.I. Joe has faced this year with the hopes that he will be in your hand by end of year or very close to end of year. Awesome. Thank you very much. You betcha. All right. Next up is Fran. Hello Fran. Hey Fran. Hey guys, what's going on?
San Diego Comic Con Success
00:05:03
Speaker
What's up dude?
00:05:04
Speaker
Congratulations on an awesome San Diego. It was a really wonderful slide presentation you guys put on. Thank you. Oh, and look at Fran's Super Seven shirt. Right. How could I not rock that shirt? It's great. We spent a lot of time looking at that Super Seven shirt wall while we were in their booth. It was pretty great. Lenny was so excited about having two choices to choose from for his gem shirts to wear to the panel. It was delightful.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah, most of the clothes sold out like within minutes. I missed the jacket. I didn't even get a second. I think that they're back up now as like a like a real order or at least they were a couple days ago. So I definitely go and double check again. Nice.
Crimson Guard Production Inquiry
00:05:45
Speaker
I guess my question. My first question would be the the red Crimson Guard on the retro retro card. Are they going to be
00:05:54
Speaker
produced more heavier than the main characters because they're an army builder and I think that that red color is going to be more in demand than the box version.
00:06:05
Speaker
Yeah, so in terms of forecasting, I can go back and take a look. Usually we do make more of the troop builders than we do of named characters, just because people do tend to buy whether a handful or if you are extraordinarily dedicated to your craft, I don't know, somewhere between 10 and 30 of them. And so we have seen that the troop builders are kind of a little bit more in demand. So we do try to make sure that there are more of those available for fans.
00:06:32
Speaker
Good, because the Crimson Guard is going to be very popular, especially the brighter red one. I think it's just going to be a very hard figure to get. Hopefully there's enough to go around. Yeah, the cherry red on it is really nice. I actually use my bright red with the silver face as the squad leader with my samples. So I've got like my squad going. In addition to the collection, I can't wait for that.
00:06:55
Speaker
It regards to the packaging. Hold on. Sorry, Fran. One at a time. Okay. Chris, you're up next.
00:07:04
Speaker
Hello guys, good to see you again. I mirror what Eric said at the beginning about what an amazing SDCC, like it was insane. It was like, I was, to be honest, I wasn't expecting loads to be coming out. And then the panel was just like, what was that? So many reveals, it was ridiculous. So thank you, it was amazing. My main question is around, is actually, I think what Fran was going to ask following up
00:07:32
Speaker
I'm kind of glad you got caught off, Fran, sorry. In regards to the packaging, now, like they said, obviously, Crimson Guard Snake, guys, you said in the past that they were going to be the last two Walmart exclusive retro Cardback figures, obviously not counting Cobra Commander and Haslab, but they were going to be like the last two, and then you're going to be kind of switching theme with Walmart. I remember you guys talking about that.
00:07:57
Speaker
So an email went out shortly around the time, in fact right around the time you guys were dropping your panel I think, by Hasbro saying that this is now reiterating some aspects of the plastic non-plastic packaging but they were adding kind of new information about the fact that if it was like
00:08:18
Speaker
ring three three-quarters for example that was keeping the bubble blisters and other packaging that would like necessitate that like a nostalgia feel and things like that so my question there is i feel like the retro car back line came to a close because of the plastic scenario and i might be wrong on that one that was my assumption in any case
00:08:40
Speaker
Is it likely then, are we talking the end of the retro card backs or will you be going back to those another time seeing as you're changing the theme with Walmart if you get what I'm saying? Well, interesting you mentioned that, Chris. I have a pre-prepared statement from our PR team that I will then elaborate on.
00:09:01
Speaker
Thank you for your question, Chris. As you've heard, Hasbro has a goal to eliminate virtually all plastic from new and single-use product packaging by the end of 2022. This comes with some exciting new changes, and as part of the shift away from window boxes, you'll see highly detailed artwork and exciting new imagery on each package.
00:09:18
Speaker
But I think that you'll be happy to hear that our goal does not include packaging for fan collectible products like our three and three quarter inch action figures because we recognize packaging is part of the product experience and typically retained intact for fan display and collections. This includes the GI Joe retro lines. Hasbro with the support of its collaborators is committed to doing what's right for the future of the planet and we are looking forward to having our fans along for the journey.
00:09:47
Speaker
As you know, we do not comment on future products that are coming out.
00:09:52
Speaker
However, based on that information, you can at least infer what may be possible for future products.
Packaging Changes Discussion
00:09:59
Speaker
What I can tell you is that this news came out too late to impact any of our 2023 products that we have been making. And so we're too far along in packaging to be able to kind of pivot shift things around. So if we continue on with kind of retro blister packaging, you will see that start to come back in 2024.
00:10:22
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you very much. Cool. James, you're out. Howdy.
00:10:32
Speaker
Jumping into sort of the vehicle side of things as a follow up to some of the stuff we talked about on previous roundtables now that you've got a couple of motorcycles in the mix and then this the chariot that's going to be coming with Sir Pentour. Have you found the sweet spot in terms of production and retail and how the arrival of additional vehicles that are certainly well below his tank may play out in the future?
00:11:02
Speaker
Lenny, do you think that there are any vehicles between motorcycles and his tanks? I feel like those are, you know, they're the only two options in the world. The way I look at it, I mean, there's the triple T, which is below a his tank, I would say. And then, I mean, like, I would say two steps below. Oh, there's tons of options. Sorry, I was just kidding, guys. Yeah, yeah, for sure. The sarcasm voice sounds like my regular voice. I think, like, then there's vamps and stuff like that. So I definitely want to get into other scales of vehicles. It's just a matter of
00:11:32
Speaker
What can we do? And we are starting to get into our, can I say what you were starting to get into 24 ideation timing. So now it's the time when we start studying to see what we can actually do at certain price points. And when we start to introduce, I'm losing my voice, what's going on? When we start to introduce new price points and figure things out and new price offerings and all that. So it's all a matter of,
00:11:57
Speaker
What we can do with what we have and what is a viable price point for the collector. Essentially, I think that it's also important to remember that with has labs like
00:12:08
Speaker
HasLabs are the dream iteration of items. Like these are the highest end. We can make them all the bells and whistles. You are not sitting like with your, oh my gosh, with our sky striker samples. You guys are gonna flip at the number of sticker sheets this thing comes with. It is gonna take you forever and you are going to feel like a kid again and you're gonna be so happy. But like his tank does not come with a million decal sheets that you have to sit and apply. It will be gorgeous right out of the box.
00:12:37
Speaker
It has, you know, this has labs are kind of the creme de la creme of projects that we are doing. And so there is also a lot of kind of flexibility of price point. Not all the vehicles that we are going to do are going to be that high end with all those bells and whistles, which I think also opens up kind of a wide world of price points for us. So don't expect just because something was
00:13:02
Speaker
the same scale as a his tank in three and three-quarter inch, but it's going to cost you $300 down the line because it's possible that we're not going to make it that high end of an experience. Also, to add to what Emily's saying too, I think if you look at the three and three-quarter inch all striker to the three and three-quarter inch his tank, they're kind of close in size and that's weird. When you start thinking about when you scale things up for a six-inch line,
00:13:28
Speaker
Um, we're going to add a little more realism, I think to it. So that also opens up opportunities too. Um, so again, that his tank was made to be more bad for what it is. Right. But not be an enormous tank. It's a high speed tank. Right. So we'll play some of that stuff into there. Um, this is a matter of time, I think for us in matter of, uh, business, right.
00:13:52
Speaker
And I think that with the his tank. It was. So I mentioned earlier that a lot of people were like, oh my god, this thing is huge. I didn't realize quite how much of a size difference there was between the original one in this one. But also I think a lot of people were
00:14:07
Speaker
You've seen the renders, you know what the renders look like, but to see it in person and see like how luxe it looked and how nice and how many, all of like the little fiddly, greebly details that the team has put on there is something that really sets it apart from the three and three quarter inch iterations that we've done before. And it's those, those details and kind of really taking it to the next level that we feel makes it basically a luxury dream toy collectible.
00:14:38
Speaker
Cool. Thank you. Yeah. Cool. All right, Daniel, you're up.
Walmart Shipping Concerns
00:14:46
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Thanks for going over the presentation again, too, from Comic Con, because I got shut out of the room. I didn't get to sit and watch the panel. It was an inline crime. So
00:15:02
Speaker
You guys have probably heard the feedback with the Walmart retro lines that Walmart has been shipping them in envelopes and not boxes, and many people are coming damaged. I know you guys cannot dictate how Walmart ships things, so is it possible in the future that you could go with a heavier card stock for the card back that would help preserve it more?
00:15:29
Speaker
So what I will tell you is that we are aware of the shipping problems on the Walmart Cardbacks. Our teams are currently in communication with Walmart to see if there's anything that we can do knowing that there are still future products that are coming out. So the items that are already planned, we've printed all the packaging for all of these. They're locked in at this point.
00:15:52
Speaker
If we decide to bring this line back in the future, we will be using all of this as a learning experience, and all of these will be coming in Psyoc packaging. So they will all come like Legends does on their really nice retro lines, like everybody comes in a box so that yours doesn't show up at your house with the packaging offering. We'll print it on a piece of steel.
00:16:18
Speaker
It'll rip through the mailbox. Perfect. Thanks. All right. And then Chris from Comic Book Resources. You're up. So, Chris. Hey. Thanks for having me here. Lenny, I do want you to know I am also a Butter Pecan fan.
00:16:36
Speaker
Oh, all right. Under underrated flavor. I'm so sorry. We should have asked everybody what their favorite ice cream flavors are. So next round of questions, next round of questions, favorite ice cream is so that we can all get in fights with each other. I'm sorry. Please continue. It's OK. Evelyn, you and I briefly talked on the show floor about the his tank and what a runaway success that was. And I was just curious if the
00:16:59
Speaker
Bombastic response to that has labs had changed how you guys were looking at doing vehicles or future has labs or like how you guys were responding to that success. I mean, of course, there's no way to have a to have a success like that and have it not kind of.
00:17:18
Speaker
change our views on the future, I think. And to be clear, we have so much love for all of the HasLab projects at Hasbro and the teams that work on these projects. These are labors of love, as you can tell. And to have the HIST tank be the fastest funded of all of the HasLabs, nobody expected that. We didn't expect that because it had never happened before. It was unprecedented.
00:17:45
Speaker
And for our fans to kind of rally around us in such a meaningful and kind of loud way was really magical. And I think that we know that there has been a lot of excitement for classified vehicles and that that's something that we really have been kind of ramping up for, ramping up for on the line. But I think that this gives us really great incentive to
00:18:16
Speaker
So ramp up a little bit faster than we may have planned to. I think as the kids say, let's go is what a lot of the design team was like when it did really well. We're like, okay, let's go again. This was fun. Cause I mean, it does pull a lot of resources. Like it was me and another designer working on that thing.
00:18:36
Speaker
And then you have a whole other engineering team working on it. It pulls a lot of resources, but I think when the company sees success like that, we get super excited and it just makes you more excited for the next one. And then it's like, okay, I'll do that again.
00:18:52
Speaker
I'll pull the late-nighters and all that to expand this even further. So I think from a development standpoint, we're pumped. And it means so much to us deeply that it was so well-received, because the amount of work that goes in is intense. And we want this stuff, too. So when it goes that well, it's like, yeah, this is awesome, OK? I'll do that again.
00:19:15
Speaker
And I think that there's always, with Hazlabs, you, there's always this kind of worry of, it didn't matter how convinced we were that the his tank was absolutely the right vehicle to launch with, that we knew people would be really stoked about it. Somewhere in the back of every one of our heads, we went, what if we just wasted the last year of our lives working on this project and quietly killing ourselves to make this happen? And what if fan responses,
00:19:42
Speaker
They really they really need to put the cobra insignia on the front of it. It's a little loud guys like yeah, they have it down a little. If you guys only knew the things we scrutinized on well, I'd say on GI jump particular things we scrutinize on everything and then on a has lab it was like. Well, then has lab team coming in. I was like I'm I have I apologized beforehand.
00:20:06
Speaker
It's like we kind of scrutinize everything so sorry, but then they enjoy they did too, right? Cause it's as was baby. So we were just like, let's do this. And it's different on licenser brands like, you know, Star Wars and Marvel, because they have licensers that get to scrutinize and say like, no, no, actually in this Dr. Strange comic from 30 years ago, this would, it needs to be a slightly different color purple on him. Don't you think?
00:20:30
Speaker
And so not having that on our team, we have to be the ones that really have a least scrutinized. Oh, look, guys, this is the third cat that I've had come and hang out with me today. I am incredibly popular. This is Gretchen Potato. She is my little little lady. She is beautiful, but not particularly bright. She spends a lot of time staring at walls. Come on, Gretchen. Oh, nope. All right. She's going to stay. And so I think that it was
00:20:58
Speaker
It was really nice kind of having that positive reinforcement, I guess. And as Lenny was saying, it really made all of that hard work worth it. Cool. All right. Jeremy, your question. Hi, guys. Sorry, no video today. My camera's not working. No judgment. My favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip. Good choice.
00:21:28
Speaker
And I was, I was very sad not to get to see you guys
Missing Comic Con Experience
00:21:31
Speaker
at San Diego. It looked like you guys had a great setup, but I actually tested positive for COVID about 24 hours before I got on my airplane. So I had the higher trip. Yeah. And we really appreciate that you weren't there to give us COVID. So thank you for that.
00:21:47
Speaker
I actually wanted to ask about the collaboration and the relationship you guys have with Super 7.
Super 7 Collaboration Discussion
00:21:54
Speaker
It was really cool to see you interacting and posting about the Cobra Recruitment Center and the t-shirts and everything. How closely do you work with them on the products that they put out and what reaction figures have you guys enjoyed the most that they put out so far?
00:22:17
Speaker
I think it's so it's been really fun. So one of the, I was just talking with somebody about one of the kind of casualties about working remotely in that you just don't get to like casually chat with people as much as when you would have in-person meetings with them.
00:22:33
Speaker
And so we haven't really gotten to, to like talk one on one with the super seven team until we got to Comic Con. And so we got to make a ton of like our, our licensing team does, but we don't usually on the brand team.
00:22:48
Speaker
And so it was really fun at Comic Con to get to know them and get to hang out. And they were really excited to kind of talk to us about stuff and we were really excited to talk to them about stuff. And so it's like we kind of belong to this tiny little world of people who are like making officially licensed GI Joe toys.
00:23:04
Speaker
And usually we just get, like, Lenny and I get to talk to each other about it, which like, oh my God, our poor flight attendant, who is fabulous on the flight, every time he walked by, he would say, are you guys still talking to each other? It was like a five and a half hour. And it turns out that was a huge Flint fan. Yeah, he was. We mentioned we work on GI Joe and he goes, Flint was my favorite character. And he went the whole thing about it was awesome. Oh, right. His name was Clint. And so he was like, it's basically like we had the same name growing up. So hi, Flint, if you're watching, we remember you. It was a lovely flight.
00:23:35
Speaker
But, so it was really cool to kind of get to, I guess, bond with the Super 7 team at Comic-Con. It was delightful. And so we're, we're always, we get really excited about G.I. Joe stuff. And so we thought that it was, I mean, it's lovely that now we get to kind of hang out and rep the good work that they're doing and nobody else is really doing high-end G.I. Joe apparel right now. And so to be able to like talk about it was really awesome.
00:24:02
Speaker
I think too, from a, like, I love the worst line. It's like, it's awesome. I just love how ridiculous it is. And just talking with them about their design philosophy was so cool from like a designer to a designer standpoint. And I would say from that, from the reaction line, I think to one part of your question, I would say, I like the blue snake eyes. I haven't picked them up yet, but I got to grab them.
00:24:33
Speaker
the Cobra Commander with the red collar but there's a pretty nice iteration that we're doing with that. I have that guy. But they're doing some cool stuff and they're doing it from like almost like a, it's a place of love you can tell. Like when chatting with them to reaffirm that. So yeah. And I was really excited when we were at the
00:24:54
Speaker
at the Recruitment Center, I picked up two of the Glow Patrol figures that they did for Comic-Con. Oh yeah, they're awesome. I'm really excited to get to play with those. They're, again, in my suitcase full of Comic-Con stuff, so when they arrive, I'll let you guys know, but at least from a holding them and packaging. It was really fun, and I like things that are different from what
00:25:13
Speaker
we can do or what I know it's easily feasible for us to do. So that was really fun. And I love the really gigantic oversized figures that they're doing, because from a feasibility standpoint, that's a HasLab project. And
00:25:30
Speaker
we would do a really limited run on them and it would be really kind of unfeasible for us and so to see somebody who is able to do that is really really cool and it was um the cat from lightyear is his name socks am i remembering that right the packaging for that it was a cat carrier like it was absolutely gorgeous and so i think getting to
00:25:54
Speaker
You get to kind of nerd out about things like that because I know sitting in all of the packaging review meetings, how much of a gigantic pain it probably was to make that package happen. And so I think you kind of have a different, like a different set of appreciation for it, which was, it's really fun. Emily, I have a very charming, candid picture of you and Brian Flynn nerding out about GI Joe after my panel. Oh, do you? Oh my gosh, I would love to see that. That's really fun. I post that on my Instagram after this is over. Thank you.
00:26:24
Speaker
It was really fun to get to meet him. It was lovely. Cool. And then I think we're on Brett. What up, Brett?
Dr. Mindbender QR Code Sale
00:26:34
Speaker
Hey, Brett. Hey, how you doing? So the exclusive was handled in a very different way this year, you know, obviously with the QR code. What, well, one, how do you think that went? And then two, like,
00:26:48
Speaker
lessons were learned from going that method. And before you answer, the answer is mint chocolate chip as well, but specifically Baskin-Robbins mint chocolate chip. Very specific. Very specific. This is good. Will you eat mint chocolate chip at other ice cream places or only at Baskin-Robbins? I will do it at other places, but I just think that's the best version. I love it. Professor Waffles joining us again.
00:27:17
Speaker
so distracted by the Baskin-Rabbins. In terms of the QR code, we feel like it went well because our primary goal of doing the QR code was to make sure that people were not waiting in ridiculously long lines to get product. We didn't have a ton of time to run around and go and find product other places.
00:27:46
Speaker
But the times that I wanted to go out and find it was just lines and lines of people. So that was one of the things we were avoiding. But we also wanted to make sure that regardless of what day you arrived at the convention, that you had an equal opportunity in the morning to make sure that you were getting that product. And so from that perspective,
00:28:04
Speaker
Great success. It turns out that everybody really likes Dr. Mindbender and his convention exclusive in a way that I think kind of blew us away in terms of the quantity that we sold. So I think learning for next year is definitely to look at kind of again. So we are we made three times the quantity of Dr. Mindbender as we made of Color Changing Zara Tan last year. And
00:28:30
Speaker
We were like, oh yeah, it'll be totally fine. It's going to be okay. It was not, guys. It sold out so fast. Thank you, by the way. I'm going to make a readout for these convention exclusives. Yeah. I think that using that as another learning in every iteration of a GI Joe figure is another learning opportunity for us. The brand is still so little that it's a good learning for next year as well.
00:28:58
Speaker
Guess we're making more of these now, which is also a little bit bonkers. There's usually kind of a cap for the highest of the action figures that we sell at conventions. And we will now be beyond that, which is, I mean, also exciting. And thank you for the lovely compliment, but now we know. So we'll make more of them next year. And knowing is half the battle. Ah, there we go. Here all day. Literally, it's my house. Here all day.
00:29:27
Speaker
All right, Scott, your question. Scott. Hi, Scott. Hey, guys. Thank you again for doing one of these roundtables with us. It's always a pleasure to talk to you guys remotely and those of us that got to see you at the show. It was really good to hang out in person.
00:29:47
Speaker
Um, I missed part of the beginning of this. I was on another meeting. I'm very sorry about that. I don't know if you guys spilled the beans about anything, uh, in that first 30 minutes. Um, so what you missed, we did a recap of the comic con presentation. I was there for that. Yep. Okay. And, oh, right. You were there in person. We got to meet Scott person guys. Um,
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah, Scott also came during presents, so everybody else stepped their game up. Just kidding, you don't have to bribe us for things. It's not that Scott was bribing us for things. Wow, this got really bad. It really works. So Scott, first things first, we are asking everybody what their favorite ice cream flavor is so that we can all fight about it. Okay, my favorite flavor of ice cream is ice cream. Yeah, there we go. No, no, no discrimination at all. Okay. You should never be discriminatory. Never.
00:30:39
Speaker
I just don't deal with that. I accept all ice creams as they are and we'll eat them happily. Thank you very much. Fabulous. And then feel free to ask whatever your first question is and we'll let you know if we already answered it or I'll just answer it again for fun. No problem. One of my things was with the size of the his tank as a Haslab project, were you concerned that
00:31:02
Speaker
you were taking a product that you probably could have sold at mass retail. Should you have done something even bigger for that Hazlab project that would not go to retail where the his tank, you probably could have sold that to specialty retailers, you know, Entertainment Earth, Big Bad Toy Store that would carry that as a regular product, you know, maybe Walmart and Target would not put it in their stores. But as an online item, I think that still could have sold
00:31:28
Speaker
very well. What about was it when you were doing your meetings, do we do a MOBA because we know we're not going to release something this big in mass market audiences and this means it's going to be a has lab. Because in some ways I feel by letting loose the his tank, you really do lose that opportunity to sell that tank
00:31:51
Speaker
to mass retail to a wider audience because it's obviously, you know, really, really hot. And then in that mass retail version, it would be, uh, you know, certainly when it come with all the bells and whistles, I mean, four great figures in that thing is amazing. Um, just that was one of my
00:32:11
Speaker
Thinking about the Haslab project itself and the size of the vehicle, do you feel that you lost out giving us a his tank instead of something bigger that you know you wouldn't make down the road? So I'll answer from a logistics perspective and then I'll let, let me answer from a feelings perspective. Um, cause that's usually, so from a, from a logistics perspective, our toy specialty retailers are becoming increasingly specific.
00:32:52
Speaker
may help them increase their forecast is how big, what are the packaging dimensions of this thing that I am going to have to ship? And the his tank already exceeds those expect those, those packaging dimensions. And so what we're seeing now is more than it has three, uh, unicorns over in a corner, you know, it makes a big stack.
00:33:05
Speaker
about the size of our packaging that they are happy with.
00:33:13
Speaker
Yes, I mean, oh, they would not want to ship Unicrons either. So one of the things that has kind of come out of all of the shipping crises that we've been having and the increases in cost is they are paying more attention to what those packaging dimensions are. And they are doing a little bit more pushback against things to say, can we get that into a smaller package so that it's cheaper for us to ship? So items that like,
00:33:39
Speaker
Um, say we're doing a sword for something and the sword doesn't come apart. Now, all of a sudden you have this three foot long box that they're trying to ship, which is yeah. Like, uh, let's say a Power Rangers sword doesn't come apart because it has gorgeous, beautiful electronics. I don't know if anybody else just got their shipping notification for that, but I sure did.
00:34:01
Speaker
I ordered mine from Pulse a couple months ago. Since I'm not on the Power Rangers team anymore, I don't get my free samples, but I definitely worked on that product so you know I was going to buy one.
00:34:11
Speaker
Um, so, so like that power sword now is technically an oversized box. Yeah. They're kind of pushing back against that. So step one, step two, brick and mortar would never ever take a box size this big anymore. Those, those days are long gone guys. Um, as much as we would love to have that, it's a, it's a high price point item. You can't fit very many of them on the shelf. They basically have to take shelves out because it's such a
00:34:38
Speaker
big box wait and like wait until you see we just had.
00:34:42
Speaker
the Marvel guys started getting like Galactus samples in and I saw how big like one of those shipping boxes is. And it's not just the size of the interior box. It's, you know, we want to make sure that those you're paying a ton of money for this stuff. We want to make sure that those boxes get to you looking real pretty. So it's, you know, the layers around that box to make sure that it gets to you, which increases the whole size and increases the weight. So.
00:35:08
Speaker
From that perspective, all of those things. I do think that there is room in the future to do, what we did talk about earlier was kind of the opportunity to do non-Haslab level vehicles in that the his tank is really, we think of it as like the creme de la creme, the highest echelon of GI Joe vehicles right now. Waffles, really?
00:35:33
Speaker
It's just like having a real, a real cat. It has all of like the bells and whistles on it. It is, you know, there's tampos at the wazoo. You're not getting a lot of decal sheets. It's, it's the highest end of all of the finishes. But what that means is that there's a lot of room between that and say, basically what the O-ring equivalent of a
00:35:53
Speaker
of a classified vehicle would be. Maybe there is some consumer assembly acquired. Maybe there is more decals that you get to put on yourself. Maybe there are different sizes that we get to work with. There's different scales that we get to encounter. That was always part of the fun of GI Joe was putting the stuff together, putting decals on, maybe weathering it or just getting it dirty to make it look more realistic.
GI Joe HasLab Project Success
00:36:18
Speaker
I definitely think that's lost in a lot of the toys now because the way that manufacturing was for GI Joe is not done anymore. Like that's simply not done. You receive a fully assembled toy or a partially assembled where it's really A to B. There's no longer figuring out like a model kit, you know.
00:36:40
Speaker
That was a philosophy born out of I think when I first started maybe 15, 16 years ago, it was like play out of box was kind of I think was the terminology we're using where we wanted it, especially for kids, when you get it out of the box, there's play. I grew up to be a designer. So I have a little bit of a different standpoint when it comes to that, like I want to kind of build it like, yeah, yeah, the stinger. There's some there's a fun to it. There's an activity to it, especially like now that I have a kiddo, I kind of want to start doing that with her.
00:37:11
Speaker
Um, so no, um, yeah, I think I kind of went on a little bit of an off the rail a little bit, but
00:37:18
Speaker
Well, no, I mean, that was part of GI Joe was building your your your vehicle, putting those decals on or go to your friend's house and he doesn't put decals on his stuff. And you're like, what are you some kind of animal on here? This is great. Yeah. And I think I think that's like I was saying to the guys earlier, it's part of kind of figuring it all out going into the into the future years of like what we're going to do and how we're going to do it.
00:37:47
Speaker
And when the his tank is worth everything we're selling it to you for. It's undervalued. It's under priced. We're giving stuff away. So to think about another vehicle instead of the his tank, we looked at options. I can't say what options we looked at because that would lead kind of like. Oh, I do have something that I can say in that with
00:38:15
Speaker
With HasLabs and with Dream Projects, it was really important to us that we led with something that was undeniably identifiably G.I.
His Tank Feature Decision
00:38:26
Speaker
Joe and that his tanks only exist in the G.I. Joe universe. Mobats are based off of real tanks.
00:38:32
Speaker
And so for us, we really wanted to lead with something that you saw and you went, oh my God, that's a GI Joe vehicle, not a, oh my God, is that GI Joe? Or did somebody like buy that at a hobby store and customize it to look more like it did in the GI Joe universe? Sorry. That's fantastic. That's a really, really good way to why we got a his tank and not a mobile.
00:38:57
Speaker
And then I would also add to like the his tank. Yeah, it's enormous. People are good. It's enormous. Think about a mobile now think about his tank. Right. And then also his tank size about 10 and a half, 11 inches wide, maybe 12 with all the bells and whistles on it. So if you angle that put that on your shelf, it's going to fit.
00:39:16
Speaker
So that was part of it too. We're like, we needed to fit as well in your shelf collection and set your stage. Cause now we're getting into things that are going to start setting that GI Joe universe off on your shelf or your collection. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, I mean, obviously one of the things you guys followed up with guys, I'm going to, I'm going to move this one along cause we're, we're spending a lot of time. So we're going to get another way through. Don't worry, Scott, pick this one back up. Uh, Jaren, can you, your, your question.
00:39:45
Speaker
Hello. Hey, Superman ice cream is my favorite. That's to me. What is Superman ice cream? You haven't had Superman? It's like it's blue, it's blue, yellow, and red, and it just tastes like happiness. At least to me. It's melted kent, isn't it? It is, actually. Yeah, they're running low on the supply. Henry Cavill's. I'm very curious now. I'm definitely not googling Superman ice cream while you're talking to me.
00:40:14
Speaker
No worries. So the return of retro card backs and then also the implementation of QR code technology. Have you guys put any thought into maybe merging those two and giving some sort of file card system? You know, I've got a seven and a nine year old every time I get a new GI Joe. It's, oh, what's that? Who's he? What's his name? What's he do? What's this? And so I just thought maybe if that was something you guys had put thought into down the line of some sort of
00:40:45
Speaker
extended file card system.
Digital File Cards Discussion
00:40:47
Speaker
I like technology and I like file cards. We have absolutely been putting thought into that. We are starting to see that rollout on some of our other Hasbro brands that are being kind of used as test and learns for that. And then we are going to be looking at that technology and seeing how we can adopt it on GI Joe. It's a lot of work for our writing team to make sure that we can get all that information.
00:41:14
Speaker
because we want to make sure that it is translatable. And so all of our friends around the globe can have access to that same information.
00:41:23
Speaker
QR codes will need to scan and then the information will need to be able to be translated so you can pick your language. So it's a huge amount of work, but it is ultimately one of our goals to be able to include with our figures because we do feel like it is, it's one of the things that you kind of miss on classified. And while we have the iconography system, it's not necessarily the same as being able to read that flash, that file card. And it's not necessarily the same when we have to do it in 5L on the back of our cards either.
00:41:52
Speaker
because you missed so much of that information. It's a good middle ground, but I think that in the future, there will be ways that we are looking at that we can improve upon that technology. Awesome. Let me just say, if you can... Wow, wow, Jay. Sorry. I got it. You've lost your chops. You're good, man. What's up?
00:42:16
Speaker
I was just gonna say, if you can, maybe include those photos, because you guys do such a good job on those photos and it tells a story, that would be a really cool implementation into that file card system. We're a little too proud of our diorama photos and how beautiful they are. So any chance that we have to show those off is, we're definitely gonna take. I really loved, for those of you who have seen pictures of the case, we had little acrylic photo pictures that we were able to include with our display.
00:42:45
Speaker
that I think we'll do more of next year. The only original intention was to switch the pictures out every day. And it turns out Lenny and I were just too tired to do anything. So they stayed the same the whole time. But next time, we'll have more. We had to graciously ask the fans to be our bouncers while we opened things up. So it was pretty crazy. Cool. All right. And then, Rob, you are last. Then we'll start back at the top with Eric. Whatever, Rob. Hi. How are you? Good.
00:43:16
Speaker
My question was, now that the figure assortment has now jumped from three to five, and we don't have to worry about necessarily just getting those core characters in, is there a possibility that we might see versions of characters that may have been done already, but maybe in some kind of environmental specialty, like in Arctic Duke or Desert Snake Eyes?
00:43:42
Speaker
you know like what's done with past lines like pursuit of cobra yeah yeah i'm super inspired by pursuit of cobra i love that line and john is a great line and i think there's a lot of badass re there.
00:43:58
Speaker
that i think we need to tap into and that's what we try to do in classified rate and i think totally we can't talk to what characters we're going to do in the future but i'm totally inspired by me that's why i love gi joe it's all the missions and all the crazy like it's design i think i went on diatribe about this before it's like it's fashion design it's character design and like
00:44:17
Speaker
the characters are known for their iconic looks but then you can push them into being in a different gear because they got to go underwater or they got to go in the desert so or maybe they have to do a sci-fi mission so uh yeah i think there's definitely potential for that and i'd love to do it great um eric back to the top
00:44:40
Speaker
All right, so our next question comes from our follower at eddie.ills, and he asks, as the line evolves, have you considered including swappable hands with future releases? Things like fists, saluting hands, pointing, or martial arts hands would be awesome.
00:44:56
Speaker
Um, I've said this before and I want to, but it's kind of like we have to measure what we can afford when the price offering. So GI Joe's have a lot of secondary parts. They have a lot of weapons. They have a lot of tools. So it just matters on the character, right? So it's like.
00:45:15
Speaker
If I can afford it, I'm definitely going to do it. If I can't afford it, I can't do it. Unfortunately, there are rules that I have to follow from my work standpoint, but if I could, I would. You do start to see those come in with Sarge because he comes with a ton of different hand options. I think that as we're leaning into some of our more deluxe price points, you do have the opportunity to have a
00:45:45
Speaker
a greater accessory count than maybe you would at the $24.99 level, which gives Lenny a little bit more flexibility and room to play with. But I think that, I mean, the Sarge hands are amazing. I love the one where you can tell it looks like he means business.
00:46:01
Speaker
Also, I would say this too. I have drawers. These are all my sample drawers and my competitor product drawers, but I just have a little hands and blast effects, right? So I think it's a matter of
00:46:19
Speaker
Do you do it all the time? Do you do it a little bit? And then they're swappable throughout the line. So it's a little more healthy of a product offering across the brand. I don't want to homogenize it. Everybody gets hands or everybody gets side arms or everybody gets so words like, you know, and plus the lines young. So I'm still building up accessory count and I'm still building up the tooling library. So I think it's possible in the future, but to Emily's point and my feelings point on the feelings. Yeah.
00:46:47
Speaker
Rob and Eric, we missed your ice creams. Oh, uh, ice cream. Um, so mine's going to be, if, if, Lenny, if, if you think you feel old, uh, my favorite ice cream is rum raisin. Rum raisin. All right. I have what you can't see right off screen is I have a jar of candy that has all fused into one giant piece of candy. That's just like inedible. It's sitting just off screen.
00:47:15
Speaker
All right, and Rob, what was yours? My favorite is cookies and cream, but it's gotta be made with real Oreos. Ooh, very good, yep. You, my friend, you, my friend, know have good taste. You have good taste. It's a staple, cookies and cream is a staple. Oh, yeah. And then afterwards, we will have a tangential conversation about the glory that is lolly and pups the candy store, but I'll save that for once we're done and everybody's asked their questions.
00:47:45
Speaker
All right, Fran, you're back up. So my favorite ice cream is Ben and Jerry's New York Super Chunk. Cool. What is it in New York Super Chunk? It's got white chocolate. It's got dark chocolate chunks. It's got peanuts. And it's like a dark chocolate ice cream. Delicious. It's power. It's power ice cream. Like chocolate. I'm sorry, Dustin, did you just claim that your favorite ice cream is daiquiri ice?
00:48:14
Speaker
Possibly. And it's really good. It's super good. Is it? I think so. I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's unique. So I wanted to share it. I think it's good. I feel like I haven't had that in a really long time. And so what I wonder now, I hate it as a kid, but what I'm wondering is if it tastes like a margarita. And now if I am a lady of refined taste, if I would actually enjoy it now instead of being like, why doesn't this taste like vanilla ice cream?
00:48:43
Speaker
It's a little sour. It's a little sour, but you know what, Dustin, I will give this a shot for you. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah. So the has left his tank Cobra commanders that going to have a back metal face and is like, what's the situation with back metal throughout the line? Cause everybody wants a Destro like that.
00:49:06
Speaker
You could not do Destro's head as it currently is. We'd have to remake it because in PVC, PVC would chip, all the back metalization would come off of it. It is very much a possibility on Cobra Commander. I just am studying it right now to see what we can do. It is in my plan. However, I'm not confirming that right now. I would very much like it to do that because it's Cobra Commander.
00:49:35
Speaker
Cobra Commander's mask. Yeah, that's a great touch. I'd really love to see it. It would be so dope, especially because the six inches is much larger. The 33 quarters is cool, but it's so small. It's a little peanut. Like, you know what I mean? Like, right? We got to get it down there like that. I mean, it's just it's it's the iconic version of the character too. You always
00:49:56
Speaker
Yeah. I think, I think it's again, it's like materials and the next opportunity and if we can afford it and like, it's just like, it's all that stuff.
00:50:10
Speaker
I mean, there are many options. It's just the back meddling has to be done to non PVC parts and all of our heads are PVC currently because of the details. However, Cobra Commander's head is a dome. So, you know, we just got to study it. And again, I can't confirm it in here because it's so early in production. So. Thanks. I have the same wants as you guys.
Sponsor Mention: Chubsy Wubsy Toys
00:50:38
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.
00:50:55
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. All right, Chris, full force.
00:51:16
Speaker
Thanks for shouting. What's your favorite ice cream? That's amazing. My favorite ice cream is, I kind of go back and forth between fish food. Have you ever had fish food before? I love that. Oh, it's so good. But then also, I know it's already been mentioned that mint choc, I'm such a fan of mint choc chip.
00:51:36
Speaker
I would not have expected mint chocolate chip to be the runaway ice cream flavor of the summer. When I was a kid, my dad told me it came from the moon, so I loved it.
00:51:49
Speaker
That's fabulous. He was lying to you, buddy, I hope. Sorry, ask your question. I don't have any questions, anyone? No. OK, so Sipentor, what an amazing reveal that was. Incredible figure looking at the cherry as well. Fantastic. Just beautiful work on that all round. My question is kind of a design standpoint here, Lenny. You've gone with two cows or two cow options.
00:52:17
Speaker
Um, the kind of like the kind of class, or I wouldn't say, well, I don't really know what it is, but effectively on the vintage version where it kind of plugs in the back. And this kind of new kind of style, which I'm guessing is that, was that from like a let's update it and make it kind of classified style to give people options of display. Yeah, it's exactly what it was. Um, we were designing it and the original design, I did the classified Cal first. And cause I wanted to make it look like a real,
00:52:44
Speaker
Cobra head, I think the one thing that used to irk me about as a little I would love reptiles as a kid and dinosaurs and stuff. So when I had my surf contour, I was like, that's not a real Cobra head. So I now that I had the opportunity to make him I was like, we're making this thing look real. So in the original design, I hadn't connected it to the back of his body and stuff like that. And when we got the first round of sculpts, and I was like,
00:53:10
Speaker
We need to do the old school one too because we need to have that option here i feel like we may upset some people again because this is where we're going to be able to get sir pentor in all of his glory so we added it at sculpture phase it wasn't in online.
00:53:25
Speaker
no i am like it wasn't my sculpting but it's just in the middle of doing sculpting put it dawned on me and i was like right probably should put the classic cow in there also because it hinders articulation um it's kind of got like the i don't know if i could say the batman cow thing where he
00:53:41
Speaker
moves but he looks badass because it's all encompassing. So the classified-ish one, the one that's like an actual snake head, it links to the back as well as clicking on the top of the head. Can I show how it connects, guys? I have one here. Is that okay? Yeah, that's fine. Everyone's nodding their heads. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, I say it's okay. Everyone's nodding their heads. This one doesn't have his head on top, which is the funniest thing in the world.
00:54:11
Speaker
Robocop. Blockhead. So actually, maybe I'll take off his cape just to show you guys how the cape comes off. This is an earlier samples where the cape is black. When we do early samples, it's not the final production colors for fabrics. Just rip it, mate. Just rip it off. So you'll see that it's key.
00:54:34
Speaker
Oh, I see. Yeah. So what happens with the, uh, the cow is that it stops him from moving side to side, which is also when we've reviewed sculpt inputs and all that, we kind of go over like my brain mush of what I put on paper to be like, well, what's going to work? What's not going to work. What's going to go in what mold, whatever. And, uh, we're like, we need to give them the old school cow for multiple reasons and it'll have better articulation on it. But if you want that ceremonial straight up, just snake head, that's what the classified one is for.
00:55:04
Speaker
Brilliant. Thank you so much for that. Really appreciate it. Cool. Uh, James. Uh, first off the ice cream question for me would be peanut butter cup, probably Cedar Crest or Tillamook. Tillamook is always the correct decision on ice cream. Quite, quite creamy. Are you a web poster? Now I live in Illinois. You can get Tillamook ice cream in Illinois now. We do. Yes.
00:55:34
Speaker
Well, so for those of you who don't know, Tillamook Ice Cream comes from the Tillamook Creamery, which is in Tillamook, Oregon, which is approximately 40 minutes south of where I spent my COVID lock down here in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Is this one massive reveal of Ice Cream Soldier, by the way? Is this what we're getting? Are we getting classified Ice Cream Soldier? We're never getting Ice Cream Soldier. You are never getting him. No, but don't say that I love Ice Cream Soldier.
00:56:02
Speaker
Telling you we're starting a rumor. We're starting a rumor today. Important question on the peanut butter. Do you like it with actual chunks of peanuts in it or do you want it to be a smooth peanut butter experience?
00:56:15
Speaker
the smooth peanut butter experience, but with a ribbony type of effect. Ooh, okay. That's very nice. All right. Smooth peanut butter experience was one of your early bands, wasn't it James? It was indeed. I can't say the other names on here because take the conversation in a very, very long direction. I spend a lot of time saying, when we say something really stupid, we go, that would be our
00:56:39
Speaker
really good band. Yeah. The 90s were a very strange time and I legitimately was in one band with a questionable name that I it's going to be important that you let us know what that name is offline because other than another time. Perfect. I love it. All right. We'll owe you a drink and then we get to know that. No, we'll owe you some some Tillamook and then we'll get your band name. I'm so sorry. Please, please continue with your question.
00:57:07
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm going to go I'm going to go with the off the wall fun one here that might not have a real answer. But we're seeing on both the the kid toy side of the business and on the collector side, a huge uptick in interest for seasonal toys. And we're seeing some of it out of Hasbro with the Halloween and Christmas Star Wars. So is G.I. Joe at all on the table to get seasonal themed offerings in the years ahead?
00:57:35
Speaker
Can I just say that I love those seasonal themed offerings? I think that they are just stupid cute. Um, so for me, a personal desire standpoint, nothing's off the table for GI Joe. And I would really like to do a line of, I don't know, GI Joe's and Halloween costumes or GI Joe's in like stupid, ugly holiday sweaters. Um, I got a couple of years ago, I still get, Oh, sorry. Did I get too excited?
00:58:03
Speaker
I said Duke in a holiday sweater would be a star. Oh, that would be great. Looking all severe and like in his cute sweater, you know, with a bear on it or something. I would like, I think Destro sweater needs to be profit director Destro and it needs to be a picture of him on his sweater with his pilot, like the border, you know, like the, the borders on holiday sweaters, money, claiming money. Um, so I think that all of that is,
00:58:33
Speaker
Fabulous. I don't think that anything is necessarily off the table. I think that those items are absolutely hilarious. But if you, if you happen to miss the holiday, you kind of have to wait for the next one to come around. So it requires a little bit of timing finesse on our part. But again, as the line expands, I don't think anything's off the bit. All righty. Sorry, Lenny. Sounds like we're making sweater figures. No, I'm joking.
00:59:02
Speaker
I'm also imagining like an oversized cardigan situation for some reason with like a menorah on the back of it. That's what it needs to be. I could see scarlet in one of those corded sweaters. They're really thick ones with the like, you know, it's an oversized skull. Anyway, that would be great. And then maybe we do like a little light of menorah on the back of it. I'd be here for it. Or a bad dreidel joke. Ooh, bad dreidel jokes.
00:59:31
Speaker
All right, Daniel, you're up. All right, my friend and former Hasbro employee Josh Izzo wants me to ask you, what is the long term plan for O-ring figure releases?
Future O-ring Figure Plans
00:59:45
Speaker
Are they only on Hasbro Pulse? Two packs? What's the deal?
00:59:51
Speaker
Great news or great question. So we can't comment on upcoming figures and unfortunately we can't mention anything about O-ring figures right now. But come back to us in a couple of months and we'll see if we have any more news on that. They hired Josh for me. He and I worked on some concepts when I first started working at Hasbro. Okay. And then we need your ice cream flavor and your dog's name.
01:00:17
Speaker
Uh, my dog is Roxy and ice cream flavor. During COVID I discovered, uh, an ice cream flavor. I think it's from dryers called cookie cobblestone. Oh man. It has, you know, like cookies and cream and like chocolate chip and just all sorts of stuff in it. And it doesn't last long in my home. Oh my. Well, that sounds delightful. Yeah, it's real nice. Perfect. Thank you.
01:00:48
Speaker
All right. Chris from CBR. All right. So the Venn diagram of CBR readers and wrestling fans is actually a circle. So I'm obligated to ask you about Sergeant Slaughter, a figure that we have not stopped talking about since it was announced. I'm just curious. It's got, you were talking about, it has a lot of accessories within a lot of hands. There's some really cool stuff like the mini slaughter and stuff like that. I just wonder if we just get some insight into
01:01:18
Speaker
So how it came about coming up with those accessories and designing it, maybe if there was anything you didn't include that was on the table that you really regret missing out on. So I was reading the side comments to a pizza rat. So one of the things that I can say that was not included as long as Lenny doesn't kill me is that Sarge himself has asked that if we ever do another iteration of this figure to include a saluting hand.
01:01:43
Speaker
because he had people actually come up to him at conventions and say, you know, what your figure really needs is a saluting hand because they're using some of the other hands and it doesn't quite work as well. So that's at least on Sarge's wish list for future accessories.
01:02:00
Speaker
Yep. And I, the reason why is because we can only do a certain amount of them from a tool standpoint. I actually was going to throw more in there, but then my engineer time is like, no. So I had to take, I had to make some hard decisions. Oh, there is a rat there. Hi, little rat. Hi. That's the pizza rat from my dad. Is that what I remember? Am I close?
01:02:25
Speaker
Oh, you're muted, bud. I think the accessory that I wanted to put in there that I had a concept board face was an itty-ditty bag. I wanted to give him a duffle bag and then he was going to put you in an itty-ditty bag. What is he saying? That's what I wanted. But then the bag was an itty-bitty-ditty bag. There it is.
01:02:49
Speaker
Cause also he like, he's got the, he's got it over shoulder and stuff. And he's looking awesome when he shows up and he like yells at everybody looking awesome, but I couldn't do it. That's it. Perfect. All right. Jeremy. Um, so as far as like deluxe releases of figures ago, um, is that something that's gonna like, you know, dr. Mindbender and then, um,
01:03:17
Speaker
Zartan and the line kicking off with Snake Eyes. Are those going to stick more to being like Pulse exclusives and something that we're not going to see in stores like the versions that come with more and more access character specific accessories? Is that going to stick exclusively or is that going to go maybe onto a store shelf at some point?
01:03:36
Speaker
So the super high-end items that we're doing for like convention exclusives that have like the really special packaging, those will stay convention exclusive. And I believe for the time being, now that we have Hasbro Pulse, the instruction is that those will basically be sold through Hasbro Pulse as convention exclusives. That being said, we are looking into figuring out how we can get kind of more of those
01:04:03
Speaker
Like the snake eyes and timbers and croc master and Fiona's and kind of the sergeant slaughters of the world on to actual brick and mortar shelves.
01:04:16
Speaker
and seeing what kind of expansions we'll be able to do. I think that now we have, it's been a pretty tight line. And so I think now we have a little bit of room now that we know that our consumers are perhaps less super price sensitive than we may have thought that they would be. If the offering justifies the value, that I think that there's a little bit more room that we can start playing with that and expanding the line. So keep an eye out for that in the future.
01:04:51
Speaker
Cool, Brad. So with the success of the Sargent Slaughter, have you been thinking about some of the other characters that kind of fell into that space of the outside, maybe real life people being brought in? Hint, hint, Fridge Perry. A couple others like that. You knew about it.
01:05:13
Speaker
What's that? We muse about it. Cause it's fun to think about like people as GI Joes. I mean, it's probably what they did back in the day when Sarge came into the fold, but we definitely like not joke joke, but half serious about it a lot. Cause there's a lot of like really cool people and celebrities. I know me being a kid, I think of action heroes. Yeah. But you didn't finish your question. I'm sorry. I just, I jumped on that. I apologize.
01:05:39
Speaker
No, I mean that's really the question of like, you know, have you, and there was other characters that came out, there was other figures released, you know, Bridge Perry probably being the big one. You know, have you gone back and kind of like thought through, you know, hey, Sergeant Slaughter's gone that big. What would it take me to get some of these other ones back?
01:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think, you know, we talk about it a lot. We talk about, you know, getting ones back into the line that were there and then talking about getting new people into the line that could enhance it. I don't know how much more we can get into on that. I feel like that's not all that we can say at this point, but that we're, as Lenny was saying, we're musing, we're trying to start having some conversations and seeing who else may want to come play with us on the G.I. Joe line.
01:06:32
Speaker
All right, Scott. All right, I'm back. Hey, Scott, important to start off with was like close to your rats name.
01:06:47
Speaker
Here's the thing, that's Abby is the pizza rat, but this is actually Huey. Huey is the moose. Yeah, this is one of the new rats. He's my current office rat today. I love it. Huey, I'm so sorry that I thought that you were Abby. My apologies. He's colored just like Abby. So, you know, unless you really know, it's, you know, to anyone else, same rat.
01:07:16
Speaker
Thank you for your forgiveness. No offense to it whatsoever.
01:07:22
Speaker
Um, so, uh, something I wanted to bring up as we got out there with Mindbender. And obviously Mindbender was an incredible success as an event exclusive, the QR codes, and then your online distribution, I thought worked really well. And everyone I know basically got a Mindbender, you know, and that wasn't the case with Zartan.
01:07:48
Speaker
And we have on record that three times the amount of Zartan's we got produces Mindbender and Mindbender still sold out with demand on top of that. You said that, is there going to be a second run of Mindbender or is that version of Mindbender done? So,
01:08:10
Speaker
We are seeing if there is any potential to maybe do another run of Mindbender. We are making no promises at this point. We know that this is super successful. On our figures that are that successful that we hear that there's that much demand for, we usually try to see if there's any possibility of doing another run on figures.
01:08:32
Speaker
What I can tell you is that for the last year, there has been basically a moratorium on doing reruns. It's not moratorium, is that the right word? Anyway, somebody will tell me if it's not. But basically we have been doing no reruns on any GI Joe figures because we are, our supply chain issues have been so bad that we want to make sure that we're getting the new figures out before we give you more of the old figures. And so that's one of the ways that we have been trying to kind of
01:09:04
Speaker
speed up our production capacity to the best of our abilities. So I make no promises, but we are looking to see if it's a possibility. And then we cannot comment on if there will be any future versions of Mindbender or Serpentor released. Okay. So is that a, can you give me a solid schmaby?
01:09:23
Speaker
Maybe. College, maybe. I can deal with that. Okay, perfect. What is our production numbers comparatively to Zartan to Serpentor? We know Mindbender is a factor of three. Currently, same number of Mindbender and Serpentors have been produced. That means that he's going to be much more harder to get because as amazing of a figure Mindbender is,
01:09:52
Speaker
Everybody wants a serpent door with air chair yet. And I think that the, so the, the thought process behind, well, so we wanted to do the same amount with the kind of assumption on our part that if you wanted one, you'd want the other so that you have the match set. So that was the thinking behind doing the same number of both of them so that, you know, everybody could get a match set if they want it. Um,
01:10:14
Speaker
The Sir Pentor has such a higher price point than Mindbender does just because of the bear chariot. So if Sir Pentor is the runaway success that we think he's going to be, maybe a solid shmaybe on that for seeing if maybe we can produce some additional quantities, but it's very nice to feel like people want our figures. It's a nice compliment.
Production Numbers Inquiry
01:10:43
Speaker
Yeah. I, uh, I definitely think, you know, double mind bender production for sopent or would have been more in line with the demand of that iconic of a figure, much less we're getting an air chariot with them. So air cherry. It's amazing. I have, I have a four air chariots next to me actually. Cause I was trying to get the gold, right?
01:11:07
Speaker
Oh, you don't have to flex, man. We understand you got the good stuff. I'm not flexing. That thing was all right. It was brutal. Beautiful now. Now size comparison. I know some of us did see it at comic con, but comparatively from that to the Ram cycle, uh, what's more plastic, the air cherry or plastic. Lenny, I may have some too. If you want me to go grab them.
01:11:37
Speaker
Let me get it with the 50 Cal on Okay, well that is
01:11:49
Speaker
Oh, that's my head for, for context. Yeah, but not everybody knows how big your head is. Oh, that's driving a huge head. Both of them kind of like this up to the camera, like a, Oh, you know what? We need a figure, figure next to them. There you go. One second. Kickstand down. Please make sure it's a figure that we have released. I know that's exactly what I'm doing. Oh,
01:12:17
Speaker
All right, buddy. Yeah, leave Ice Cream Soldier to the side. Let him down for now. For now, we want to see Ice Cream Soldier later. That may not be the best example. No, I think that's good. That's fantastic. I mean, this is probably online already now that we've seen it. I hear all of the camera snaps. Let me go like this. Oh, that's so awesome. Can you put your camera back a tiny bit? Let me go. There you go.
01:12:51
Speaker
I mean, that's really fantastic to have what was the original sculpt, but then the cobra is so much more modern. Yeah, yeah, that really blends it in, you know? Well, hey, guys, I'm going to jump in here. We only have five minutes left. I want to make sure we've got another question. No problem. Jared, take it away.
Accessory Packs Possibility
01:13:17
Speaker
OK, so really quickly, I know you'd mentioned all the different pieces and accessories and really building the mold count up and things like that. Is there any plan to release accessory packs at a later date similar to how we had in the O-ring run and other runs? So it's definitely something that we are intrigued by. We know the success that it was for the O-ring figures back in the day, and we always love having additional accessories.
01:13:43
Speaker
So really it kind of comes down to feasibility and where we think it'll land and what we think we can make happen. So it's definitely something that we're looking into for the future. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. And then Rob. Hi. I was wondering, are you, are there any,
01:14:08
Speaker
considerations on characters that are maybe outside that traditional classic real American hero era. You know, we got Kamakura coming from Amazon, but, you know, could we be, you know, we open to like characters like, you know, even that were toys originally like Bomb Strike or Blackout or things like that.
01:14:26
Speaker
Oh, Rob, we're open to everyone. Yeah, 100 percent. You know, like we only say it's the new line line, but it's kind of true where you got to get to the staples. I want to I want to I even want to get some new characters into I think the line could use it in a lot of ways. So accent pieces and stuff like that. So absolutely. It's just a matter again. It's time.
01:14:52
Speaker
Cool. Uh, we have three minutes left. Eric, do you have another question from your fans? Eric, before you, oh no, sorry. We'll let you go ahead and then we'll, we'll close out. Okay. Um, yeah, one more. So one more question. Um,
01:15:07
Speaker
So at bring toys to work asks, with so many characters to choose from, and you guys implementing kind of a fan vote element with the his tank with Ron Rudett's figure, are there any plans to implement fan votes in the future to maybe say like, here are five characters we're thinking of, you guys vote on the one that gets produced next?
01:15:34
Speaker
Sure. I think that there's, I think that those are really fun when they're done. The hard part about those is that our development cycle is so long that from like the time that you vote until the time you get the figure ends up being a really long time, which from a PR perspective is not super great because people are like, we voted for it. We want it in our hands right now.
01:15:54
Speaker
So I think that part of that is development challenge, but I certainly wouldn't rule that out. I know that other brands have been able to do that as well. And so I do think that the his tank kind of opens up an opportunity for us with that. And then we have gotten some questions about when that fan vote is going to happen for the his tank. And so it is going to happen after the backing period has closed, because we want to make sure that everybody who backs the his tank is able to vote.
01:16:21
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, in terms of the waiting thing, I think if there's anything that we've all learned as collectors over the past couple of years is like, you know, to quote Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part, but, you know, I think we're all getting used to a longer lead time on things these days. So, you know, if that's, I think, I think if given the opportunity, like, Hey, you know, you may have to wait, you know, a year plus for this, but like, you know, doing something like a, like a fan vote, you know, might be a, you know, a crowd pleaser. Yeah.
01:16:51
Speaker
That's great. Thank you. And you know, we really appreciate everybody's continued patience and
01:16:55
Speaker
You know, the six month grout of GI Joe should finally be over. I know Croc Master and Fiona's are sitting on shelf right now. I've gotten a lot of really excited notes from people who are like, oh my God, I just stumbled onto this in Walmart. What a day. So hopefully that will be a little bit more of our future as well, which is great. And so we just wanted to say thank you guys for coming. We really appreciate it. And to cap things off, we wanted to do another two of our character name leaks.
01:17:24
Speaker
from our 2023 line. So, oh, I'm so sorry that people aren't excited about this. So, first up is going to be Ranged by First. Wow. That's awesome. I have been waiting to do it. Wow. And Lenny's design for them is, without a trace of irony, I will say, hella dope. And Big Ben.
01:17:55
Speaker
And what? Big Ben. Big Ben. That's for you, Chris. Thank you. Oh my goodness. I can't even write it now. I'm so excited. Alright, so Rain Cypress and Big Ben are both coming to the line in 2020. So hang on. You did Tiger Force Outback and Big Ben.
Arcade Fun with Chris
01:18:18
Speaker
Man, this is great. You're just literally making figures. This is because you literally went in the arcade the other day.
01:18:25
Speaker
Oh, gosh, that's amazing. Just to clarify, this plan was in place before we ran into Chris and went to the arcade, just like, just in case anybody is. Yeah.
01:18:37
Speaker
There is a very adorable video of Chris and Lenny and Cory our sculptor and B Mac from the Transformers team on a life size, hungry, hungry hippo machine where you actually have to sit on the hippos and do this to get them to eat.
01:18:57
Speaker
He smoked them. It was embarrassing for everybody else involved. I was meatheading that thing too, though. I was like, I'm going to put a drop in and I didn't get shit.
Gratitude and Credits
01:19:07
Speaker
We'll have to get that video. I think Emily has it. Yeah, we'll put it at the end of this video at the end. Gorgeous. Thank you guys for everything. This has been brilliant. And thanks to everyone as well. It's great to see you all again, guys. Really appreciate it.
01:19:24
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.
01:19:40
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.
Creative Commons License
01:20:04
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation, executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.