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The 2025 Holiday Special Feat. The Hasbro G.I. Joe Team!
6 Plays6 minutes ago
Cobra Claws has come to town! We're kicking off the big holiday week with a present under your tree from our friends BMac, Lenny, and Tony from the Hasbro GI Joe Team. Tune to hear all about the Arctic H.I.S.S, answers to YOUR burning questions... and maybe... a reveal?!?!
Follow BMac @bmacatron84, Lenny @weatherdominator, and Tony @thegreattonino on Instagram.
Stay up-to-date w/ the latest from Hasbro at hasbropulse.com
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube
Start creating a podcast today with Zencastr! Learn more.
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:03
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.
00:00:15
Speaker
And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Where we talk toy news, culture and hauls. Along with our journeys as collectors.
00:00:28
Speaker
Now let's see... This decal goes right here... Just like...
The Joy and Community of Collecting
00:00:36
Speaker
Oh! Oh ho ho ho ho!
00:00:39
Speaker
Adventurers in collecting! Greetings from the North Pole, where the elves are busy arguing about which toy lines are getting the biggest restocks this year. Let's just say even I can't keep up with some of these release schedules.
00:00:54
Speaker
Ho ho ho ho ho. I wanted to take a moment before my big night to let you know the magic of collecting is alive and well. I see it every time someone adds a long-awaited figure to their shelf, hunts down that one chase variant, or celebrates a new creator bringing something special into the world.
00:01:17
Speaker
And this year, I've noticed more grown-ups than ever circling items on their wish lists. You're in good company. Half my workshop team has pre-orders pending. Ho ho ho ho ho!
00:01:32
Speaker
So here's to another year of creativity, community, and the joy of finding something that sparks your imagination. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get on a Zoom call with Todd McFarlane about getting some more of those Max Shrek figures.
00:01:49
Speaker
Ho ho ho ho ho! Merry Christmas and happy holidays! ho ho ho
Holiday Celebrations and Instagram Giveaway
00:02:04
Speaker
ho! Hello everybody and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. I would have figured the reindeers would have reindeers reindeer would have moved like a crew team instead of just singularly. They'd all like kind of forward and back at the same time.
00:02:20
Speaker
Figure they you know he's got Santa's got a lot of places to go. They you need to save time. ah Yeah. And I mean, he's got a wherever Santa gets his loops for his custom messages. um It's just, you know, like lo-fi like it was it was cool.
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah, you don't ask questions. But as always, ah for our holiday special, it's always nice to hear from the big guy. I felt like I was in like Neiman Marcus at the Garden State Plaza Mall.
00:02:48
Speaker
So specific. Well, I was like fancy store Christmas music, you know, I guess I guess I was thinking more like vibes. don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I don't know if Neiman Marcus fires up the lo-fi girl to celebrate. i feel like I feel like H&M would have like it wouldn't be as lo-fi. I feel like it'd be closer to clubbier.
00:03:07
Speaker
Okay, fair, fair. Well, Dave, happy holidays. we It is, it is ah as this is airing, this is the week of Christmas. We are yeah we are into the Hanukkah celebration. we are We are gearing up for ah for Christmas week. ah The holidays are are here.
00:03:27
Speaker
i have I have my Clark Griswold Bears hat on, but also because the Bears are awesome and they're my football team, so... You know what? It's American. from I'm not surprised, Dave. um In fact, if I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet tomorrow, I wouldn't be more surprised.
00:03:47
Speaker
Hmm. Not going to tell you what's full right now, but. ah Good, I'm glad. Well, in the spirit of giving, before we we give back to the community here with ah with ah what's going to be an amazing interview, um I promise, so by the way and i'm coming you are going to be very excited about about our interview today. Yes.
00:04:08
Speaker
But in the spirit of giving, Dave. I'm live from the 1966 WPIX YOLOG, by the way. That's where I am today. What a location to be live from.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah. It's good. It's good. um In the spirit of giving, there is still time to enter our giveaway, which ah is live over on Instagram. um And it's a it's a good one. It's a it's a doozy. it's I was going to say it's a doozy, as the kids would say.
00:04:36
Speaker
i don't know if it is that. do the kids still say doozy? They probably, they, I probably something six, seven related, yeah but, um, yeah. So, uh, over on our Instagram at a, I see underscore podcast, uh, go look for a pin to post the 2025 holiday giveaway in a box is live. Um, and you can enter to win everything that you see here on the screen. So some toys from some of our favorite toy, toy lines, uh, that are out there this year.
00:05:07
Speaker
um including something from our our our friends on the Joe team. So something to represent some G.I. Joe classified on here. but ah I know that's something new every time.
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, this this there's a lot. There's a little bit from from a little bit of everything for everybody, some exclusives, and then, um of course, a $100 gift card from our friend D. Blake makes to kind of round out the the box here. You have until the end of the month to enter to win this. So, again, ah go visit us at AIC see underscore podcast on Instagram. Look for that pinned post and and follow the instructions on there to win, and you will get everything in this box. Yeah. Everything that you see here will come to you in a single box.
00:05:51
Speaker
It is... like playing Tetris every year, getting everything, all this stuff in one box. But um yeah, so ah very, very cool opportunity to either jumpstart your collection in maybe something that you normally wouldn't dabble in. You can spread the wealth and hook up some of your friends or relatives that that might be interested in some of this stuff. um If you've got one of those, like, ah what ah like I just know from the office, Yankee Swap.
00:06:23
Speaker
Oh, White Elephant? Yeah. White Elephant? Yeah, if you have if you have a late season White Elephant, because by the time you get this, it'll be January. So full disclosure. Fair enough. you This is kickstarting your year. um But yeah, ah that's kind of it for for the the major um part of housekeeping.
Interview with G.I. Joe Classified Team
00:06:40
Speaker
What else I will say is...
00:06:43
Speaker
We're recording this a little bit in advance, um few few days in advance. So we are in the midst of the Archie tournament as well to crown the toy line of the year. And it has been a crazy tournament so far, to say the least. We have had more votes than we have ever had, um which is amazing. We get like literally thousands of votes each round, which blows my mind. Amazing. um We've had some killer matchups and...
00:07:12
Speaker
by the time this airs, we will probably be, this will probably be the day of the finals as well. If not, if not the day after this airs will be the game.
00:07:24
Speaker
So, um, which means the tower top tens are next. Yeah, yeah, list season, list season. um But speaking of of lists, um our guests are are always on Santa's nice list.
00:07:40
Speaker
ah we ah we have We have talked to the GI Joe team at Hasbro many times. We are very fortunate to have them on with us tonight. Let's welcome back our friends from Hasbro and the, ah the, the leaders of the GI Joe classified team, BMAC, Lenny, and Tony. And I have to say, like, it's so nice to have, to have BMAC back with us on the show. It has been. yeah Yes. Who's back. since We've had a chance to talk to you, man. back
00:08:13
Speaker
it was It was a long year. You know, turns out when you have a second child, you have a lot of responsibilities at home. So a lot of travel, a lot of events, they just don't line up. So Emily super stepped in, helped out. You know, she always gave me the credit. I write those notes in her voice and it's been a great year and went out to Comic-Con quick on my own, showed up late Wednesday, was there for Cold Slither, flew back Friday night because it just wasn't enough time to do work. So like you make things work as you need to, but Glad to be back and excited for what's going to happen in 2026 and show everybody what we've really been cooking because this is the first full year that Lenny, Tony, and I got to plan together. It wasn't something I inherited. so
00:08:49
Speaker
I can't believe you have us on right in the middle of the Yatchies. Wild. this is We're going to be in the final tournament. We're just going to win again. It's an yeah emotional event, dude. It's going to crazy. You've got some heavy hitters in this bracket.
00:09:02
Speaker
It's a major award.
00:09:06
Speaker
It's a major. It's a major, buddy. Yeah, no, it's always I look forward to it. it it's always i look forward to it every year um when we put it together posting that first round of polls is always like the most tedious thing i have to do twice a year because we do it we we do two of these tournaments now we do the archies and then we do the marvel legends march madness in march and that first round of 64 posting 32 consecutive stories like going back and forth like boy this one and this one and this one and this this one but yeah without getting banned or uh Your activity seems to be botted.
00:09:47
Speaker
think Thankfully, I don't have to worry about that anymore. We we crossed over that nice little 10K threshold, so they they let us do a little bit more. i love that. yeah had it taste You had to do me dirty this year. You had to put my two brands that I work on against each other in the first round.
00:10:04
Speaker
So, you know, we just decided I would full on Cobra, let everybody know that I've been a sleeper agent the whole time. It's all GI Joe, but the random draw. i did I did like the the family feud to start. was pretty wild. Yeah, it was great. Like i love my team. Mark and i i super stoked. Everybody loves the Age of the Prime. So it's been a good year, but clearly Joe is my, where my heart is. So sorry guys. When that when that came up, I literally had like a visceral, like, hmm. Do I run the randomizer again and just not tell anybody? But i I have to at least be honest with myself, like process wise to keep it consistent. I was like, that's how it worked out. Is that how you do the you like a randomizer to start it?
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah. So the only the only ah the only seed, the only ah when I do the randomizer last year's winner gets the number one seed. Like, and I just tell the randomizer like this one has to be number one.
00:10:55
Speaker
Oh, I'm master. Okay. um yeah technology the only two the only two rules that we have is the the last year's winner gets the number one seed and then if if any toy line in the first round does not get or gets under 10 percent of the vote in their matchup they get disqualified from the next year oh oh i saw that that that scared me a little bit that was a little scary i saw there's repercussions So, and then you have to, you're forced to take a year off. We, I have only made one, we, we Dave and I collectively made one exception this year, Zombie Sailor Toys. Shout out to Josh. He does an amazing job. He caught the buzzsaw of like all buzzsaws last year. It was either you guys or Marvel Legends in the first round. And I think he got like 5% of the vote.
00:11:46
Speaker
And this year, coming into this year, we had a lot of um toy lines that kind of dropped off the board. Either, you know, they just didn't release anything or folks like Diamond Select that just don't exist anymore. Right. And we needed to bring some toy lines back in. And we both felt that it was like it was necessary to get him back in the tournament. Especially with the amount of stuff he's put out this year. yeah ah You know, I got the Road Warriors.
00:12:12
Speaker
You know, I got those. Mm hmm. so good he is so good i his tajiri is never is never far from me like awesome for me yeah i just he's love it um but yeah so let's guys let's let's hop in we have a lot to cover today yeah uh let's let's hop in with the with the first question here so i mean looking back at we we're talking about 2025
00:12:39
Speaker
what's one decision you guys made this year, you know, as, as kind of a unit, both on the marketing and design side that you're really kind of, especially proud of, you know, and and maybe something that kind of taught you a little something moving forward.
00:12:52
Speaker
Oh boy. okay So so lot there's a lot decisions not proud of that's outside of work. you know what i'm saying I'll jump in real quick. And it's more of a Testament to Lenny, but, um,
00:13:09
Speaker
kind of having a little bit more faith in some of original creations and seeding some of that newness into the line, I think has been super fun watching Lenny's brain work. He actually has a clear dome underneath that hat where I can actually watch it work. Yeah, yeah. I can't let a leak out for too long.
00:13:27
Speaker
Yeah, and then seeing, you know, this year we saw a couple releases that were, you know, some of the more original, the Grim Viper. um And then I think one of the bigger hits was the the Ghost Viper. is Anything with the word Viper on the end is going to be, there you go. Look at that. At the ready.
00:13:43
Speaker
At the ready. I think that that that was a huge success. Yeah. um And it it gave, ah you know, it's a confidence boost when you see something like that. Yeah. Hey, people do like the ideas that we're presenting that aren't, you know, 40 years old. So, oh my, look at at the quick swap too. And I mean, and we got to give, we got to give our brand writer, Mark, credit for this too. Like he invented this dire tech thing. So Lenny, you know, really pushed crystal ball, made him cool. Like his goal when he set out was like, I'm going to release crystal ball and he's not going to be the no the most hated character of all time anymore. Right.
00:14:17
Speaker
And then we're just like, well, how much further can we push this? And then we were looking at it and we got our Ghost Viper and Dire Beast and and Mark just kind of created it. And it's growing into something more than we ever thought it could be. And it's super fun to just like play in the world of weird and just let Lenny's mind cook. And everybody's like, what are we going to do? I'm just like, just let Lenny cook. I'll convince the leadership that we're going to sell this toy. Just let him make weird stuff.
00:14:41
Speaker
I would echo what Tony said. i was going to say something silly like, oh, making samurai armor, which is kind of... That's pretty cool, too. on a top That's pretty cool, too. I mean, it's it's awesome. I mean, yeah, samurai armor, right?
00:14:54
Speaker
or or ah But I mean, like, Tony's right. I feel like trusting in... trusting in the process essentially trusting in design and like they having more confidence in ourselves uh i think is it's it's uh yielding it's yielding expansion of the brand is what we wanted to do from the onset of gi classified we wanted to extend we wanted to extend gi joe from its awesome roots to go even further with it and go on even crazier adventures and then get into other offshoots of it and i think
00:15:26
Speaker
With that being said, I think also taking risks with Cobra Law, I think, because I think Cobra Law is really budding into and evolving into something wild. Like we, as a kid, I always felt it was going to be like, it that's it was inspired by particular horror movies and And always knew what it really what what they were trying to do. And I felt like they almost like almost like calmed it down a little bit. So it was to feel... the punches a little bit.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah, they pulled the punches. they add the The color palette, I think, softened it. But I think... Like Tony said, like, just dig it in.
00:16:04
Speaker
Just dig in. Like, you' go you're going to put a texture on something? Make it gross, you know? yeah Like, really really design. Tell the story within the visual the visual context where we make our products. in And i think I think it went a really long way. So, Tony, I think that was – I think I agree, man. That's – I think trusting in the design and trusting in, like, pushing the brand I think is really the decision of the year for G.I. Joe Classified.
00:16:28
Speaker
I think we convinced a lot of people ah that they like Coppola a little bit. some of these figures too and I think they were, you know, again, I get it.
00:16:39
Speaker
I get it It's so weird. yeah You've got an incredible ah you've got these columns of G.I. Joe fans that are, you know, milsim and fantasy and you know just great straight cartoon or or comic fans uh and some people don't like that cobra loss stuff but at the shows and events the conventions all that stuff whenever they come up and they start talking about it it's usually in the positive positive light and say i can't believe you convinced me that i like this stuff so i think it's too in the way we we structured the brand over the five years i think it is now where like it's like you build up to the cop we're not quite at cosmic events yet but like we're in uh we're in the center of the earth is opening up you know what i mean so i think uh i think it's timed right and uh Well, either that was by design or by accident, I will never say. But I think we timed it right now. It's almost like the future is very bright for G.I.
Design Inspirations for Action Figures
00:17:40
Speaker
Joe. Where can we take it? And what homages can we do?
00:17:44
Speaker
What what new stories can we tell? What crazy action figures can we make? What cool mechanisms can we put into our figures? It's kind of ah it's kind of exciting.
00:17:55
Speaker
Well, I mean, it's been cool from our our perspective, right? Like, you know, our first Toy Fair experience was when G.I. Joe Classified got, you know revealed for the first time. So it's like, yeah we've kind of been on this journey as a podcast as Classified has been building and watching you guys.
00:18:11
Speaker
experiment You know, even with ah that like first line, you know, having kind of that more like future tech and then figuring out places to kind of dial that back and sort of bring it back in in some places. And, know, really kind of experiment with carving out your own kind of personal journeys with this. Like, you know, I said it to you guys at at New York Comic Con this year, but like the mole rat for the longest time was my favorite movie.
00:18:36
Speaker
G.I. Joe figure like that's like out of everything that you guys have done because it was gross and weird and like it had a fun story and like we've reached a point with action figures right where they can do proper zombie poses like you can do like the crooked limbs and like make them you know kind of look all like you know jacked up and yeah you know Seeing you take that figure, which was a a new idea, and then ah even evolve that into a new colorway with a new, even grosser head somehow, it makes me... and like you know you You guys mentioned Crystal Ball, and the fact that you you brought in like this translucent Cthulhu aspect of it, right like it does make me excited to see more Cobra Law stuff, because I know, and I think you guys have kind of figured it out too, that... like
00:19:28
Speaker
gross is still cool as hell and grossology you these toy design weird gross pieces like i can just imagine like you know globulous right like he's supposed to be ah just awful like i mean that if you if you saw that half snake man in real life you'd it like just he'd probably smell like would really yeah it would be a very gross experience i think i think a uh As toy designers, toy creators, and I think I speak for the other action figure designers, marketers, engineers, and all that. where it's it's art Toy action figure collecting art collecting, man. right you know and like A lot of us are inspired by...
00:20:13
Speaker
A lot of like action movies, zombie movies. I love trauma movies growing up as a kid. Right. So it's like. Careful, your jersey showing. Oh, yeah. ah Jersey strong. Anyways, I feel like that stuff is going to come out. Right. And like what ah amazing brand.
00:20:33
Speaker
that we get to work on that we can let those influences kind of flow into it and then make those pieces of art that we think other collectors and an art collectors are going to be into.
00:20:43
Speaker
Right. So it's like I was like, yeah what if Cobra is like mining energon? And I had worked on Transformers Prime and I was like, what if we bring dark energon in and what if that connects to some sort of energy that Destra is trying to refine into something? Right. So then from there, we're like, it's Cobra.
00:21:01
Speaker
there's gears gonna break. What happens when the gear breaks when dark energon turns transformers into zombies, it was due to humans. So we kind of like riffed on it like that And that's what's kind of, that's what's so cool about GI Joe. You can kind of like riff on stuff. And that's what Flint Dilley was doing back in the day in the cartoon, like this riffing on cool stuff. And then like, what are what are other people like me gonna also dig as well? And let's let's push it, let's see where it can take it. you know we're not going to like throw out the core essence of the brand ever, but like, how can you just expand on and expound upon like making even cooler stuff? Yeah. The best is like, you guys don't even understand the Easter eggs that have already been laid within some of what happened in 25 for what you're going to see in 26 and even what we're doing into 27. So like as cool as it is, like there is some thought that's going into what's happening here and
00:21:52
Speaker
It's really incredible like how it's all going to line up as we continue to progress the brand over the next few years. ah While we' we're talking, I love the idea of, I was just thinking of that mole rat evolution and just like V10 is just a crystal. as well ah All you know, that was that the head is Tony's design.
00:22:13
Speaker
Tony had been tooling on it and he goes, dude, because I was like, I got to do. i haven't i'm like I don't I was we were talking on teams or something. i was like dude, I got to design this head. don't got any time. He's like, oh, oh, I have a design. And I was like, that's what we're making. yeah What if what if the crystals like just slowly replaced the entire skeleton and eventually you had a crystal skeleton?
00:22:36
Speaker
That's V5. That's V5. Yeah. It's kind of like his organic matter is being overtaken by the crystal, essentially. So what is – it I almost envision that it's like making a um not a pupa, but like a a chrysalis on the inside of him. So yeah something's going to come out of the chrysalis that's in the inside in the flesh on the outside is sheathing the chrysalis on the inside. So it's even more gross. So like what can happen from there? Is it an energon beast? I don't know.
00:23:08
Speaker
We haven't designed that far yet, but hey. You know, you go whatever it is, it's unfigured out. Whatever it is. It sounds painful as all hell. see it's it was It's very grounded but very like fantastic at the same time. That's the idea.
00:23:24
Speaker
Where we can have like a crocodile and a wolf and a giant scorpion. It's the beauty of G.I. Joe. Ghost wolf. those will By the way, this is what it's like when you just let Lenny cook at work. This is why I just let him do what he does. He just talks and comes up with crazy ideas and then they turn into action figures. so It's fun.
00:23:43
Speaker
It's just fun. it Weird, man. Weird, man.
00:23:47
Speaker
So we're we're getting
Arctic Hiss Tank Design Process
00:23:50
Speaker
Arctic. It's that time year. It's getting cold out. And the Arctic hiss marks the first time that you're revisiting a HasLab project. Oh, yeah. Reorder, reoffer it as a made to order item.
00:24:00
Speaker
um So why was now the right time to do this? And how did you get to this version out of the many kind of hiss variants? It's cold out. It is cold out. No, there's way more to it than that. yeah I'll let BMAC take most of this, but I would just say that we knew that we were going to do the snow cat.
00:24:21
Speaker
So we needed to have almost a foil to the snow cat. Right. So we were creating the whole architecture for the line for the year. And it was like, what are we going to introduce? And as you guys know, we kind of pepper in like you're starting to see some desert desert characters,
00:24:36
Speaker
um You're starting to see like like water characters while starting to say we got a lot of water characters, those Arctic characters. Right. So it's like with that little sub story being told, we're like, we need a villain to our heroic vehicle coming out. So that's where the Arctic is tank kind of was like baked into the advent of the snow cat.
00:24:57
Speaker
BMax, there's more to it than that. but yeah no i mean welies Clearly, we looked at a lot of different colors and just had to like figure out what the best reuse option was for this. I think everybody, like when the first HisTank launched, they're like, really? That's it? We're never going to get another HisTank? No, clearly, we we had a plan. There are many other redecos to do, but once we saw support and everybody backed the Snowcat, we knew that there was a market also for people to get their Arcturkiss tanks, and we wanted to get them out there.
00:25:24
Speaker
Matt, shooting the galaxy, did a great job with this photo shoot. A lot of props to Mark too for like writing the prompts for it. just like It tells a story, they're battling against the Joes, it really brings the world to life. There's even a picture where it's like running over the bivouac playset, the motor's died here, he's gotta fix it. just like There's all these fun shoots that just happened within this like world and we want everybody to have that opportunity to also you know build that out on their shelf as they see fit.
00:25:52
Speaker
Lenny went to town making this cool Arctic saber-toothed tiger skull head on here to just really kind of give it its own essence too. So just it's a fun fun way to go. And clearly there are other options in the future as they line up and make sense for people that need to build out other collections of his tanks.
00:26:11
Speaker
And Arctic is such a – it's such a – in the essence of G.I. i Joe. I mean like that's they get to Cobra Law going through Arctic, right? yeah So and like – and there's so many mini – there's so many comic books with Arctic settings for Joe. So it's like we kind of felt it was a good fit as well. Also, I just like that colorway. I think it's a really nice pop. I mean like we could have did the red. We could have did the blue with – what's his name? Rip it?
00:26:34
Speaker
Yeah. The driver. um But like – I felt like those are very typical as well, right? Like red, blue. like It's like every typical color way ever done on an action figure. So I think that plays a little into it. More so the story is going to be driving it more, but the color as well as is a touch. And also, remember the Arctic HIST tank, very cool design, but also very minimal.
00:26:54
Speaker
That's why you see like we had like that reticulated snow pattern on the side. um I made that up just now, reticulated snow pattern, but it is like a reticulate. it I was inspired by reticulated pythons and blizzards. Yeah.
00:27:08
Speaker
I don't know how much that's coming across. But yeah, you you need, yeah i mean, you need camouflage when you're in the snow. You do. You got to break it up a little bit, man. You know? and ah and very cool the arctic white The Arctic White vehicle, that you know, it's going to mesh well. So, yeah, absolutely.
00:27:25
Speaker
But yeah bright red rockets on top so people can see you. hey But the polarized red canopy keeps keeps the sun off their eyes. yeah So, you know, the red canopy is important. Got to keep it. that's That's that part, though. It's like that part of fantasy and that part of real, right? Like there's a part of like visual interest you got to keep because it's the toy.
00:27:42
Speaker
um And the same thing BMAC was just saying with the red lens on the on the on the look on the canopy. That's actually for Arctic Snowblind. That's why you know like like snowboard goggles and stuff are usually red because it diffuses the the the white of the snow. So we did a little bit of that on there too. But then again, it's like the old school one had red rockets, right? So we're trying to like keep a hint of that as well. So it's like this balance.
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah. So with made-to-order items, you know I think one of the things that people are still trying to figure out like in the fandom right is the the level of transparency that you get with the HasLab. you know This item costs X amount, and you need to sell Y of them in order to make it a reality.
Balancing Costs and Creativity in Toy Releases
00:28:25
Speaker
So how did you land on kind of the price versus feature set for you know for this Hiss, while also keeping it different from you know from the original HasLab offering?
00:28:38
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of it just comes down to, you know, we're three plus years down the road. Plastic costs more in the States. We're dealing with the wonderful world of tariffs right now. So that's just a lot of unknowns that you have to assess as a business.
00:28:53
Speaker
I think a lot of it, too, was like we just made sure that the pieces that we were keeping versus what we took off the original histank felt. important but like we went with the new updated version for the side panels and then you know the gull wing canopy on it so we weren't giving you those tiers and add-ons that you got to make it your classic one with the first one so we wanted to have those points of differentiation again the rocket system's a little different on the on the gunner turret there the accessories for the basket and the rolled up blanket so there are changes that make it unique and then again the texturing pattern and the the camo make it different so
00:29:28
Speaker
We just had to figure out where things go. and At the end of the day, like we, we are, you know, a big corporation and we just have certain things we have to adhere to when we reuse things.
00:29:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And, um you know, 2025 saw some of the most detailed figures we've seen in the line yet with Pythona, Crystal Ball, who we've seen already today, and Ghost Viper.
00:29:52
Speaker
Talk to us about bringing those characters into the line for the first time and what it took to execute on them. Oh, we kind of talked about it earlier, but I think getting into it was um i really wanted to make crystal ball from like the onset. and Tony and I would talk about it. I'm like, dude, I'm making crystal ball. He's a vampire warlock. He hypnotizes people. he had the lenticular on the shield. But I kind of leaned more. How do you make him cooler? Because I've always felt like the idea of him was like.
00:30:24
Speaker
that's pretty sick like talk about a super powerful character in a world that's kind of grounded reality but a little bit uh sci-fi little fantasy like this guy can hypnotize people like on on the spot yeah so um but you know so i like the idea of him very powerful cobra cobra character right so um we kind of just leaned in and we're like, how can we make them cooler? So we made them a little more gritty looking, the longer coat. um I want originally, i haven't posted it yet, but originally the design, I was given a bunch of rings. He's gonna have like a lot of like, like like looks like they'd been passed down the family. Maybe that's where the power is coming from. However, when we were sculpting it,
00:31:06
Speaker
And then I did a color study on the original on the first sculpt we got. It just was looking like a mess. I'm like in production, this ain't going to come out. Right. So then the idea came across. I'm like, what if I give like a gauntlet and the gauntlet is kind of like part of it. Like we're not saying where the power is coming from. mean, we kind of are dire tech, but like I wanted it to look like he's got relics on him at the same time he's using that dire tech. Then what's powering the dire tech? We'll never tell.
00:31:31
Speaker
um But the idea was how do never tell? um So, ah you know, it was like I wanted to make a character that I always thought was pretty cool as a kid be even cooler. And I felt leaning into the whole warlock.
00:31:47
Speaker
they speak about him in dark corners kind of character. I thought was the kind of way to go with him. um From the dire tech stuff, I can't remember guys, were we like just kind of riffing and like we need, he we were like, he needs units because he's so powerful. That's right. We were just kind of chatting about it and we're like, he needs units. Like he he hypnotizes people.
00:32:08
Speaker
Of course he has units. Why wouldn't he? um And that's where we got into like, what if they're exploiting his dire tech? He's using it in a way where like you can't even it's seamless it's like what it's between fantasy and reality you can't tell but the um the ghost viper is using a way where it's it's a little more like they're spreading it it's more like a miasma that they spread that kind of yeah and they can manipulate that miasma to make themselves look like your fears and that's why they come with all this stuff originally it was going to be a deluxe figure and I was like but dude
00:32:40
Speaker
He needs a ghost wolf. So I don't know what happened. didnt ne like He needed a ghost wolf. So i have to say my my favorite thing to do is to take the Cobra head and put it on crystal ball.
00:32:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's that's my favorite. That's like my go to. It's great because it's it' at s old like Remco kind of like old masters. Yes. uh, vibe to it. Remco, my dude.
00:33:07
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Dropping, dropping rack to it. Yeah, dude. It's awesome. that Good stuff. Right. Uh, that's what I love about those. that's But you can, you can pop and swap those puppies on anything.
00:33:20
Speaker
It's great. and We've been trying to do that this year too, a lot more than often. Let's, lot more often than not. Yes, that's what mean. Yeah. You can pop more heads across the line and like even like the Budo samurai gear will fit most of the ninjas.
00:33:33
Speaker
Most bodies it'll fit unless it's like a little larger body but like for the most part you could put samurai armor on anybody you want. um So again, we want people play with them. Oh, that one's awesome. Yeah, do like that one now. Maybe I prefer that one now. Well, The Wolf makes you think of a 90s vampire movie. You know what mean? Because that's what we were thinking, too. He needed to feel like he goes to clubs. That's why I him the long jacket and the puffy fur around it.
00:33:59
Speaker
He's cool. you know It's crazy. He's cool, dude. I also like that... I don't think I'm ever going to put the regular. He looks like the cover of a metal album. I love it. like Yes. We'll that as much as possible.
00:34:15
Speaker
Pythona's no joke either. i know we were talking about the ball for the past 30 minutes, but Pythona is pretty
Detailing and New Arctic-themed Releases
00:34:23
Speaker
darn good. it's all Do you have that one, Eric? I don't have her i don't ever in hand. Watch out.
00:34:29
Speaker
it Look out. ah This one was awesome. This one got a ton of paint on it too, which was fantastic. We wiped the entire figure. Every piece has paint on it in multiple ops on every figure, every piece.
00:34:44
Speaker
Yeah. that It's insane. And then we went berserk, obviously, with all the accessories. As I pulled up Lenny's deco sheet to start work on this thing, and i was like, all right.
00:34:56
Speaker
We got five clams with this thing.
00:35:02
Speaker
Dude, it's Chowder Fest in Rhode Island. That's right. It chowder fest it was Chowder Fest at New York Comic Con. Yeah, dude. Yeah, but just the amount of stuff that we're we're packing in with these things. Again, just given the that Cobra Law, that that Giger kind of inspiration yeah that I think was in the lore.
00:35:22
Speaker
um Yeah, it's been a pleasure to be able to work on these in such detail. We are. It's been super fun to also work with John Jang on all the artwork on him, too. they all have that consistent look across Cobra Law. It's a lot of fun.
00:35:37
Speaker
Awesome dude. Super fun to chat with. He came through. He actually got brought to Rhode Island Comic Con as a guest of honor. So I was like, you're in the state. You have to come to see HQ. And he just came through. was super polite and nice and just shocked, showed them some of the old paintings in the building from the original or Real American Hero days. And it's just great to work with them. And it really brings those characters to life and gives them their own unique reason of being within the classified line, aside from how awesome the toys are, you know, for those people that do collect and look at the artwork of the entire series, they they align nicely and look together, make a nice little collection.
00:36:12
Speaker
Now, Tony, you've given you've given Lenny crap before about the the deco deco for camo. Oh. What's what's worse, doing doing doing camo deco or doing it doing deco on something like Pythona?
00:36:24
Speaker
ah The camo, for sure. Camo. Like a wash, just to get technical. A wash is like a button in my program. I just throw a bunch of nodes on it and becomes what what we want. So it's a full if it's a full-body wash, we can get crazy. It's a button.
00:36:42
Speaker
But a camo, that's just by hand by hand. Because we also not only are we applying that to the model digitally, but we're also creating the artwork that's going to be printed onto the figure. So it's a more technical thing where this is ah kind of an operational thing that's pretty – not easy for the vendor but it's uh repeatable yeah you also have to create that and and this is a lot more random right not everyone's gonna be the same yeah if you do uh we call it a tampo but it's um when you do that camo it's exact placement of that camo so camo for sure
00:37:22
Speaker
OK. Yeah. Well, we would be remiss, right, if we're talking about these really you know crazy detailed figures and amazing bits of storytelling. um Let's go back to the Arctic Hiss for a moment because you guys have some support coming for more even more support coming for your your Arctic figures. Where is he going?
00:37:41
Speaker
I don't know. i like Lenny is getting that. Is he getting the There goes Chowder test. He did the Michael Scott. He went to go get it at the warehouse. Hold on. Let me get it in frame.
00:37:54
Speaker
Oh, my God. How is this even going to work? Hold on a second. You guys see it? Perfect. Just hold it like a cat. I'm going to cover my living room because I've got action figures everywhere. And gator skulls.
00:38:06
Speaker
And gator skulls. So here it is in all of its glory. This thing has been to it's been to China. It's been to Brazil. It's been to ah where else did we show? New York. London, New York.
00:38:19
Speaker
we you know where it they are You know where it takes the most damage, though? Photography. Yeah. When Matt gets it, it's like, oh, no, Matt has it. I'm surprised Maul didn't come back in 20 pieces.
00:38:31
Speaker
But I will say this. His his shots are so good, I will forgive him. Yeah, shouts to shouts to shooting the galaxy. Yeah, Matt's the man. on instagram Matt's great. Corey's great. Those those guys do magic with ah with our products. It will not have this white in here, this Matt.
00:38:48
Speaker
This is Matt. Matt added a little flavor on that one. Yeah, so as you can see, the reticulated blizzard. I should name that. Anyways, but so you can see here. So in the final, it's going to be a little more – we're trying to get a more polarized look in.
00:39:02
Speaker
So you'll be able to see a little bit into it better trying to do this. Man, I got to give credit to these reviewers online who like do stuff like with like look on the camera at the same time. Not easy.
00:39:14
Speaker
Not easy. Not easy. Can do some ASMR too? Not easy.
00:39:22
Speaker
so
00:39:25
Speaker
And of course it's on the glowing doors on it. Oh no. maybe its but I promise. I promise it's not broken. as As he mentions is his massive meat hooks. my min mom Actually, to that regard, it's been everywhere and it is broken. But hey, I didn't do that. But you can see here the driver's side.
00:39:46
Speaker
and Tony will fix it. I'll fix it for you. It's pretty awesome. We're really excited about it. Um... don't if it comes across the photographs, but we but went to see we put C-clips all across. can put weapons across.
00:40:00
Speaker
It can hold weapons in the basket. Something else, too. If you don't want the bag on, you can take the bag off. full Bag on, bag off. Bag on, bag off. Same thing with the with the but the basket as well. So you there is a little bit a level of customization with it as well. And then also...
00:40:21
Speaker
This will come off as well. Wow. so so if you but So if you buy three or four of them, you can have kitted out different ways when you take picture of your army of of Arctic hiss tanks. Absolutely. And we we kind of like made this. This is like a a coupling piece so that you can put other types of weapons on there from the line. So it's going to be pretty cool. So you can mix and match if you want to. I'm trying to think the other thing to show everybody. Oh, you'll it'll be able to take all the armaments or the armor essentially from the...
00:40:50
Speaker
original his tank as well so if you want to put the ground air missiles on the side you can it'll still fit it'll still function i'll show you guys so the mechanism is still going to be there it's awesome does it have the toe hitch in the back too still of course yeah yeah so we kept we kept pretty much ah the bones because a lot of stuff is the bones right see electronics and stuff like that that starts getting a little hairy yeah um As you can see, there still flips down, still has to flip down. Again, this model is a painted model, so it's actually starting to lose its paint. So I got to say, for being across the world, it's doing pretty good. Yeah, they'll look pretty great. Yeah. yeah
00:41:27
Speaker
I mean, it lost the door, but hey, yeah Joe, go to the battle. Not final product. and I promise I didn't do that. These come off as well.
00:41:38
Speaker
amazing can see you there nice so pretty cool oh yeah we did we did give them some support though right like we couldn't just say hey icebergs coming and hey here's some snow serpents and if anybody was crafty on black friday i know they were on on clearance so hopefully some people were able to stock up for next winter get ready for those snow shoots but we couldn't only give you a couple characters in the has labs and the his tanks so you know we debuted uh this week we have our joe troop builder so this is our arctic uh steel core trooper super fun here uh lenny just cooking again per usual doing fun arctic things
00:42:22
Speaker
Love the alternate head on that with the yeah breath the breather on the one side. What's going on the snow? I don't know. Maybe things are getting wild. Maybe things are getting poisonous. Call me crazy.
00:42:33
Speaker
Maybe he's going back into that cave that turned snake eyes, hands pink. We don't know. You know, he has options. So maybe that's where they're there. Maybe that's what they're supporting. Maybe we got call him. Can I say maybe one more time?
00:42:44
Speaker
maybe Maybe. Maybe you should. Maybe. maybe Maybe. Mayhaps. But because we gave you so many Joes. you will. but because we gave you so many Joes with the snowcat, clearly Cobra needed some more support.
00:42:59
Speaker
So we had to go the opposite way. So this is a a one versus two pack, right? So Arctic Saw Viper, like this is straight out of... or don't know and the wolf head will fit on top of his helmet so it kind of makes him look like a chieftain of the saw vipers which is unreal kind the vibe we're going with and ah we were was messing around with we just had a you know we had been our figures and i was like yo we gotta he needs more he needs more and it fits it fit great i'm like put in the box yeah just pull yeah pull that pull that collar off yeah and you put that puppy on back over yeah yeah i'm not gonna lie at my my desk in the office i have a sarge figure wearing that wolf headdress riding a snowboard on the top of my cube wall it's everybody comes by and she's like what is that i'm like i don't know ridiculous is what it is it's awesome to look at
00:43:47
Speaker
i wanted I want to use it more often. I always, whenever I'm kit bashing, I'm like, oh what if I used we used a wolf? I forgot that it's for a bigger character because it it came with Snowjob, who was a puffier jacket. And I'm like, oh, I can't use it because he's a little bigger than everybody else. So we had the opportunity here. And like BMAC putting it on Sarge, you you know, you got a wolf pelt. Use it, you know? Yeah. That's the unwritten rule of Wolfgang's. If you have Wolfgang, you have to. You use it. would you use
00:44:18
Speaker
I like how he's got like his armor is like fresh out of the running man, too. like it's got a It's got weird 80s slash that new Total Recall movie vibe. yeah It's weird. It's in this like weird realm of 80s, mid-2015 sci-fi movie. I love it. He's a great colorway for this character.
00:44:41
Speaker
pops nothing's no and and look at the cod piece too on him it's just that's where i got the running man from yeah see yeah he is ready he is ready for anything and then bmac there's one more in this uh there is so this is so fun um a new viper character here from the mind of lenny too right the drift viper So how do you take a night viper but make it so you know it doesn't grow up only in the darkness and can't see in the blinding light of snow? So we have a drift viper and like if this dude was hiding in a snow drift, you're never going to see it. You're just dead. like You're just absolutely going to get obliterated by this guy. So they they train in the the craziness of the snow. Cobra just drops them in the Arctic somewhere and says, figure it out and comes back to them 10 years later and turns them into a troop unit.
00:45:29
Speaker
You know, the idea, too, of calling them Drift Vipers, like Snow Drifts, right? So, like, you're not essentially because we're like, call them Blizzard Viper, but I think, eh. And we're like, we've got to play with something a little more a little more kind of playing to the shadows of. And some a lot of snow battles, when you think of them in movies, are usually daytime battles. So, like, maybe what else could you could obscure him? So, Snow Drifts, essentially, we're playing with. So, I'm into it. I think it works.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I'm getting some serious ah Metal Gear solid vibes from from this figure. Big, big time, big time. Like I could see, which would also be it now that I'm thinking about an awesome crossover, if the Joe has ever needed Snake for anything. well so this The actor's voice is so iconic.
00:46:11
Speaker
Metal Metal Gear. Remember, he would always like kind of growl everything. David Hader. It's like us, David Hader. Yeah, that's not. Another thing about this mold, too. It was black and green. We had I wanted to do something completely different.
00:46:25
Speaker
Right. What is the complete opposite? Of course, white. Right. So we have Drift Vyper. Yeah. And it's it's funny because usually you don't I shouldn't say funny. That's the right word. It's interesting because usually things that are white and gray are usually more kind of like heroic colorways. yeah like You know, like you're not very intimidating. But both of these Cobra additions, you know, because of just kind of some subtle choices, like the way that the.
00:46:51
Speaker
the um the red it's the red, the red, the red pops of red, but also yeah the way that their heads are like the, the eyepiece that's on the drift Viper here. And then of course, you know, the wolf pelt and that kind of like wide yeah um eyepiece across the top, like makes these characters very menacing. I don't know it is.
00:47:12
Speaker
Robotron. Like, yeah. Yeah.
00:47:16
Speaker
It's also got like a did did the bug bad guys and co like I remember them being bug dudes because when he would kill them with a glaive, they would break open and like that little creature would come out. Wasn't like a gray like chiton chiton chiton armor or whatever it was. i dont or am I remembering it the way I want to remember it? You know what? Whatever whatever is making that brain do the things that your brain is doing. Keep keep doing whatever you're doing. All right. It's not like it's enough. hot It's like if you catch that red, like you're probably probably too late. You're catching the saw.
00:47:57
Speaker
you're getting you're getting you're You're getting fear if you see the red. And then just to reiterate so dude that anybody didn't see these when we revealed them with Hasbro Pulse, this will be a three-pack, two Cobra versus one Joe. Be available for pre-order in 2026 sometime. We're still working that out. we We're still working on the models. These are all the wonderful paint masters and digital renders. Tony pulled this stuff off for us super fast. Lenny pulled this pack together super fast. We had an item we needed to fill and we knew we wanted to keep building out the Arctic world. So keep an eye out for that. We'll make sure everybody knows it's not going to be a stealth drop. We'll get you the like 48 hours, 72 hour, you know, availability like, hey, this is going up on pulse at this date. Could be around Toy Fair time.
00:48:40
Speaker
Unsure, but we'll we'll make sure you know. A nice early preview. Love that. Love that. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:48:55
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 Promotion
00:49:03
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:49:24
Speaker
That's
00:49:30
Speaker
And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:49:36
Speaker
And now, back to the show. um so back to some of the other things that you guys did kind of firsts for 2025 um with mind bender being offered on a retro card after previously being you know that con exclusive this maybe opens the door for you guys to revisit some of the other heavy hitters that have been con or show exclusives oh is there some figures you'd like well
Exclusive Figures and Re-releases
00:50:00
Speaker
i mean you know sir penter could probably go back out there at some point but um you know those those were also event exclusives so like you know between the hiss which we discussed kind of at length already and and also you know um like i mentioned mind bender when do you guys determine it's the right time to reintroduce uh releases like that time yeah time is part of it um
00:50:29
Speaker
Ability to execute it, because a lot goes into these things from an executional standpoint that we can't talk about here, but do inhibit us from releasing them more often and when people request them. Because a lot of times when people are like, why are they releasing? It's like, I get it, buddy. I want to release re-release it, too.
00:50:47
Speaker
But there are other... forces that are stopping us from using that particular mold or allocating the funds to do that. That's the most designer answer I can give you. don't know if BMAC wants to elaborate. Yeah, I mean, mark it's also like a reason for being, right? Like we want people to be excited. We made our mind bender. It was a con exclusive. There were some updates that we could make to make him more classic. So like he was a perfect fit for the retro card back line. And it just made sense. It had been enough time.
00:51:16
Speaker
but there's a lot of new fans, like as as weird as that is to say, like this line keeps growing year over year and it's expanding in both directions in terms of age. Like there's those of us who were in, in the eighties and nineties that love it.
00:51:27
Speaker
But also we're starting to see that like some parents are now starting to bring their kids in generationally and they're getting them in, or they're just walking down and seeing that Islander at Walmart. And they're just like, this is the coolest action figure I've ever seen. I want this. It has green glowing wolf in it. So like they're just buying it to get into it. Right. yeah,
00:51:44
Speaker
I think it's just a matter of like, we we understand that there are people who are joining now and they might have missed out. and They don't want to go spend x number of dollars for six times what the figure costs when it first came out to just get it to their shelf. So we can give you a different version of that character.
00:52:00
Speaker
That makes sense with a reason of being depending on just how it aligns. So like Mindbender is great because everybody loves him and he's just... I don't know, a crazy dentist turned cobra doctor. Jack's doctor. Yeah, he clearly goes to the gym twice a day.
00:52:15
Speaker
So just a lot of lot of fun. So I would say yes, things are on the table. They will make their appearances as it makes sense. I mean, you're even seeing it thanks um Already with next ja Crazy legs coming out getting that classic redo. Sorry, I'm like, I'm like, I'm just fussing around with figures on my, on my desk. That was great. And it fits them perfectly, dude.
00:52:41
Speaker
That's the right. And here's the big announcement. That's the next retro card. um yeah it's not just to be clear got him good all right that was that was a great match i didn't mean to do that while you were explaining oh you're good that was great that's so fun looking but yes short answer is yes we look at them when they make sense they they will make a reappearance They'll always be different from their first offering, kind of the same as the HasLab. Like, we will give it a different reason for being.
00:53:15
Speaker
oh yeah But they will they will show back up. And in time, we could eventually do reruns. You know, 10-year anniversary of Classified. Maybe it's time to rerun the convention-exclusive Serpentor in the super awesome box. Like, that could happen.
00:53:29
Speaker
don't know. We got another five years before I have to figure that out. So I'm not going to promise anything. But it could happen. Never say never. always say anything is possible. Well, it's like the most generic marketing answer when you get all these interviews. They're just like, can you do this? Anything's possible. And they just move on to next question, clearly. So what's the next one, right?
00:53:50
Speaker
Yeah. um yeah but The next one, um the Steelcore Modular Defense Post release continues the line's ability to world build at 112. Now that you've dipped your toes in that water, what's the next step when it comes to play sets?
00:54:06
Speaker
I more focused ones because they're all they're they're designed to be modular, right? Like we designed them to be like if you need walls, if you need to like platforms on your shelves, essentially because you flip them backwards and then you put one on the inside and one on the top and you have like and then they get stacked on top of each other. yeah So we were trying to make something that was very.
00:54:27
Speaker
collector in mind play set in space in mind play set but i would really like to get into like place that that is sculpted for the moment you know what mean like i i love what star wars does with the um the vintage line in the 118 scale stuff where like those places just look so cool yeah um and i'm like how could we get something like that going on joe because there's so many cool environments i mean like you want to see military figures doing cool military stuff in military play sets right so it's like how can we get that going um and the same thing like like mindbenders lab what would that look like you know what mean like and how can we execute that and like but if we i feel like modular is awesome and we're going to continue to do modular stuff and the opportunity arises but i'd love to do stuff that was not modular so that we can really focus on the sculpture
00:55:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. some Something like a, like a bat repair station would be cool too. ah be ah that one awesome That's a great idea. Yeah. like ah somebody Write that down. i was going to say almost like, um it's so funny. what What made me think of that was when, when NECA did the, um the like Frankenstein, the monsterizer, right? reco monsterizer And they did the monsterizer in one 10th scale. And I was actually, you know, like,
00:55:48
Speaker
putting a picture together, I i think it was actually ah for the snake armor that I was when I was when I was taking a picture. But I was thinking like, oh, wouldn't it be cool if I had like an operating table for a bat?
00:55:59
Speaker
Yeah. and And it comes with like new new arm attachments and like you could kind of customize one of your bats and like that would be a cool like like you said, like in the moment play set that wouldn't be.
00:56:12
Speaker
Enormous, you know, that's the one that's the whole problem. It's like because I got figure out like, what are you making? How big is it going to be? What's the price that's connected to that? Because like B-Mac was saying, plastic is expensive. So it's like you've got to kind of like weigh all that stuff out. And then the end of the can it look cool? And is it a useful utility for you to use within your collection where you're going to get that and not 25 Cobra Troopers? You know what I mean? So it's like it's like it's a tradeoffs.
00:56:44
Speaker
um and seeing what will be successful at the end of the day. And, you know, sometimes we're going to hit, sometimes we're not going to hit. We're trying to hit every time, trying to get a home run every time. um But so essentially it's just it's an evaluation process. But I think long story short, i would love to make more sculpted things that are dedicated. Like the bags came out awesome with the trench viper.
00:57:03
Speaker
I love those bags. It's like such a silly thing, but I'm like, these sandbags are awesome. Like, how did this come out so good? I feel like there's a good, like, Five Guys collab, too. It's just, like, sacks of potatoes or something. Isn't that the craziest thing when you go to Five Guys? That's crazy. With little bags of potatoes everywhere. And the peanut oil. So if you have a peanut allergy, you just instantly die when you walk in the door. You can't go through the door. Oh, my God. Don't do that. If you have peanut oil, don't go to Five Guys. Or the peanut shell dust or anything. Who's that? People just cracking peanut shells, like, at the tables.
00:57:40
Speaker
oh that's right there's no sign on the door is there it's like there is i there okay i never think you will die if you come in yeah i think they have to because they're just people are just peanuts are in the air people are just straight up eating peanuts while they're waiting for a burger like a ship new cobra villain is born that day it should be called peanut roadhouse right
00:58:04
Speaker
five guys with peanuts yeah i'm in oh wait a minute That's the new seating. I feel like they could take all those bags. Oh, yeah.
00:58:14
Speaker
You know? yeah just sit on be you sit You sit on the potato bags. derick have the They have a flood. They're all set. You know? Well, it's like it's like those it's like there's seafood restaurants where they just roll the paper on the table and you just you you dump your shell. off oils yeah Oh, a place by Tony that they bring it out and the bag is filled with hot air.
00:58:35
Speaker
yeah And seafood. There's also seafood in there. yeah it seafood But it's like it's the seafood hot air is the bag and you pop the bag, you rip it open. And it's just like this wet, steamy mess of mollusks and crustaceans. Yeah, where that I want that. It's Cobra Law in a bag. It's a Cobra Laws. That's the name of the restaurant. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect.
00:59:02
Speaker
yeah well speaking of bringing things to life like uh like cobra law in a bag um you guys brought a piece of gi joe to life in 2025 like literally uh called slither dave's gas got the shirt on we we got to see them in new york it was amazing um we had we had we were there hell yeah yeah we had we had a ripper on the show ah That was awesome. Which was great. great um But tell us, BMAC, how did that come together? and um And is it something we're going to see more of in the country?
00:59:37
Speaker
That story is crazy all in of itself. So I literally get brought over to the Joe line. So it was kind of split between Emily and i She was managing the Pulse items I was doing mainline because I still had a ton of Transformers work. And she was doing some other stuff like finishing up some stuff with Rangers and whatnot.
00:59:52
Speaker
And she happened to be out on vacation. And I had to like make a call in the moment about this Pulse item that just wasn't going to happen. It was going to be a... externally licensed thing and the contract wasn't getting done and it just like just wasn't coming together and i was like all right we got to pivot we need a comic-con exclusive i have this thing i've been talking to this record label friend of mine for years he has a buddy who literally already wrote 10 songs for cold slither we need to make this cold slither set and lenny's like i'm not making four dudes in spandex for comic-con like it's just not happening that's well caveat cool caveat it was a money thing not a spandex thing
01:00:29
Speaker
And it was just like, it was just funny. And i was like, oh, I think this could come together. And then like, it just all started to take shape. Lenny figured out how to pull it together. Our graphic team got super behind it and made that entire insane packaging.
01:00:43
Speaker
Huge shout out to our franchise team at the time. It was Michael. He took the idea and ran with it and got all the contracts done. Marie on our our music team was able to also help out with that. And then it just turned into something all of its own. Clearly, if you've talked to anybody from the band, they are all huge GI Joe fans. Ross is like an absolute toy maniac nut yeah who did like the Ballad of Buzzard video that's on stage at the time. That's all him. he went out with his buddy and he's like, hey, you got to hold this camera while I play with this toy and like turn it into a music video. Right. So it's just like everybody, Gus is insane, like super cool. Like we'll tell you the whole story about how Optimus Prime was essentially his dad growing up and just like how much all of this means to him. And just like, he's the one who actually had the songs ready for Gerardo and RPM and everything for like 10 years. They had this album like thought out and written. And it was just super great to bring it all together. And then we got to double down and do it again in New York with everybody. And then like Kelly, who's running GI Joe franchise now was able to pull that off and bring it together.
01:01:42
Speaker
The guys harassing everybody during the panel at New York Comic Con because they were the boy of the year was so on point and just like, they're all great and it's just fun. And I absolutely want to do more stuff like this. Frank Todaro, voice in Cobra Commander on the album and all the animations, like...
01:02:00
Speaker
you know, rest in peace, Chris Lada, but Frank is a close second, as best as it could be. And he and just embodies it. And like, he's always willing to jump in and help out. He did the, the snow cat. Thank you video. Turned it in like 12 hours for us. I gave him a rough idea of a script, woke up to a recording and our team put it together to get it out. There's just getting fun of him in New York was a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's awesome.
01:02:21
Speaker
It's a, it's a, lot it's a lot of passion. Everybody's willing to go the extra mile to make something really awesome happen in regards to this. And they're, it was up to me i was like let's do more there's there's talk of like how do you progress cold slither into their next album like is it from kill them all to master of puppets are we going from master of puppets to ride the lightning like i have where i want to go but like what's gonna what's gonna work out so there's more to come there is more to come um we'll see all right Yeah, what what a good time. i yeah that Like so much fun with the ads and the PSAs in the middle and all. Oh my God, yeah. The multimedia was so good.
01:03:01
Speaker
and And just Gus's, it's very clear that Gus's knowledge goes deep because the stuff that's going on in those songs, like if you actually, like outside the music being very good, like yeah yeah they put on an amazing show. The songs are genuinely enjoyable, but like the storylines in each individual song, like he, he knows Zartan better than I think most people do.
01:03:24
Speaker
think he became Zartan. Mm-hmm. while writing it. And then when he performs it, he really embodies him. And I was talking to Gus about like he was creating the um the voice effect essentially to do the the double chorus on it to like make him sound like Zartan essentially. So like dude embodied it. It's ah it's ah it's it's passion. The whole project is passion and it shows and it's paying off. So it's it's itself it's exciting to see that happen for for another medium of art. Right. So
01:03:55
Speaker
And like the whole, I said, there's a lot of Easter eggs we've laid in with the toy. There's Easter eggs with the album too, that are leading to things in 2026, if you're paying attention, that you'll see. And it's a lot of fun and just excited to be able to like, kind of, I don't know, get people thinking about things in a different way than they probably would.
01:04:15
Speaker
I'm hoping one of those Easter eggs is fatal. oh some swamping Some swamping. Dude, this is a toy show. You're talking about life and death? My goodness. Speaking of skills. It also seemed like so much fun was being had on stage. like yeah Yeah, those guys truly love it.
01:04:40
Speaker
They love it. You guys came back after the show, too, and those guys just... They can't get enough. After the first show, they talked our ear off about G.I. Joe. We're like, yeah yeah yeah, yeah. And then the second show, like, yeah, G.I. Joe. joe It was awesome.
01:04:59
Speaker
It's nice to have that that, you know, passion in a different media that I've got zero musical talent.
Future Plans and Q&A with G.I. Joe Team
01:05:07
Speaker
That might surprise you guys. out of find Zero. You know, well, listen, you can sing. a lot of every Everybody can sing. It's just a question of whether anyone else likes it.
01:05:20
Speaker
That's that's very true. But to to listen to them, use their media to tell that story was just super cool. Yeah. Well, with that, it's time to head into our Q&A. So ah we knew you guys were coming on and boy, did we get some questions. oh So um we've got some we've got some questions ah for for you guys to to answer here. So this could be a record to like if it. Yeah, a lot of submissions. So I will just address kind of like the anytime we we do this.
01:05:54
Speaker
It always happens. We got tons of questions of when is this character coming? Why haven't you made this character yet? We will not be asking those questions because we value your time. um We want to make them.
01:06:06
Speaker
Yes. That's anything possible. If we haven't room revealed it yet, we will. We want to. We're getting there. So um let's just jump right in here. not wearing this hat as a hint. The Bears literally are just a good football team. And a team that I root for. um shouts to Shouts to this dude at New York Comic Con every year, by the way, for giving this out. The campaign is amazing. Tony told him, he's like, you know, we can't we can never make it because you'll stop giving a swag.
01:06:33
Speaker
At Fridge Fandom. Here, I'll plug him. I want more Fridge Fandom. Does really doesn't work. Yeah. um So, yeah, first first question, Dave, do you want to do you want to start us off here?
01:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, sure. From from one day to another at Super Dave 817 days to another. Yes. um How will the legacy line was that's the um that's the fix writers that squeeze one thing leads to another is the fix. Oh, I don't know, man. I just don't. How will the legacy line grow moving forward?
01:07:11
Speaker
um that question could take us into so many directions i think yeah i think we want to get into real life heroes so how can we celebrate real life heroes um whether they're military whether they're servicemen members whether there are our police force firemen, first responders, first responders. So we want to get into a lot of that stuff and really celebrate people who basically take care of us. Right. So um take that as you will, but we'll get we'll well we'll expand upon it in that direction, essentially.
01:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, there's also like a lot of potential reuse, right? Like we know that, yeah, we nailed the black firefighter outfit in this first year. But like, we got a lot of people like, hey, my fire department wears the tan. oh tan wents Like, how do I get that? Or my, my fire department wears the safety green with the reflective lines. Like, when's that one coming? And we hear you. And there's so many options and we want to support everybody. And like the line has the opportunity to do that. There's a lot of environmental stuff we can get into with them as well. So yeah.
01:08:20
Speaker
Maybe there's a hint there for something for next year. Here's a little juice. Here's a little juice. o The first deco sheet was a tan fireman. That was worth a squeeze. Yeah.
01:08:33
Speaker
That juice. go Yeah. But black is more metal. did look cooler. We did a couple of five black. Yeah.
01:08:42
Speaker
right, let's go right into the next one here. So we've got at Great Lakes Hot Rod 2015 asks, are we any closer to getting accessory packs like we had in 3.75 inch line?
01:08:56
Speaker
I'll just say, yes, we're we're actively looking at how to do that in a way that makes sense. We understand there's a lot of 3P product out there that works within all of Action figure world in our 112 scale but yes we are we are trying to figure out how do we make new what can we reuse how do we get you a stack of stands for people who want that official gi joe stand i know that was something i always wanted to buy ah a bunch of back when i was a kid because you lose them consistently those are the mines i always lost mine or i'd like having the different colors in the same like
01:09:35
Speaker
but a backpack oh yeah ne and they meant different things i was telling stories so i won't say how soon but i will say yes that we are we are closer than we've ever been and it's something we look at love that awesome at chiller perfectionist asks can we get snow job on a retro card since his only other release was an exclusive
01:10:05
Speaker
It's a good question. Again, anything's possible. and Anything's possible. Oh, should we hit him with the Emily? We cannot speak to future product or characters. have to leave one of them in, and I picked my favorite job. We got the snow theme right going on. I realized yeah that's why that was there. i was like, he loves snow job, and we're talking a lot about snow. Maybe we're talking a lot about snow.
01:10:30
Speaker
like I guess we could we could say that and we know it's in high demand. We know wasn't exclusive. We know that it's been a while since it got released. Yeah, we know, we know. and we Yeah, exactly.
01:10:42
Speaker
so we do So we do want to get there. You could maybe say we know. I think they know. i think they know that you know. You know that you know you know know. And you know that they know that you know. Yeah. And we all know that you know that they know.
01:10:56
Speaker
Sick. And know maybe we know now. Yeah. And knowing. knowing that guys Is hell. Yes. Oh, damn it. Missed it. um and I was setting it up So this is always this is always interesting. You G.I. Joe has such this kind of like wide array of of an ocean of, you know, kind of ah content to pull from. So four at 4-4-D2 asks, are Adventure Team Joes something that's on the table?
01:11:34
Speaker
We've talked about them. We've talked about them. We have.
01:11:40
Speaker
it's ah It's a fun like little subsection of Joe. And like you can see we're slowly trying to get to collections where we can, and it makes sense. We do bring up Adventure Team.
01:11:51
Speaker
Mark, our brand writer, all the time is like, we should get Adventure Team out there. Just do this is here. It's like, OK, got it, got it. We'll do it. So yes, we're looking at it. We we want to honor, like clearly we did the 60th anniversary in 2024, did those four action soldiers. Now it's continuing on in legacy.
01:12:12
Speaker
there's There could be a home for Adventure Team when the time is right and it makes sense for how the brand needs to progress. yeah And if you look at that old product and you see all the animals and things like that, you know that gets Lenny.
01:12:26
Speaker
nice nice so Look, he's cooking already. you can see him If you're looking, you're not cooking. right so damn Damn. Careful. didn't wind up getting the saw. That's Chef Roblox.
01:12:43
Speaker
ah That polar bear is now my favorite polar bear since my other favorite polar bear plays in Baltimore now. so no Oh. Why don't you make me sad, Dave? I don't know. Our next question comes from at Nelson McDougal.
01:13:01
Speaker
ah Why was the boot slash ankle rotation left off of the Saw Viper, Blowtorch, and Syfy? I will say it was left off of two of the three of those figures. Syfy has it.
01:13:16
Speaker
ah It's hidden really well on Syfy. It's actually underneath his a silver armor. And if you look at saw Viper and blowtorch, a lot of piece on those characters. Sometimes you're going some hard decisions.
01:13:34
Speaker
There we go. Design decision. There we go. So at fuller figures asks in 2025, Joe classified dipped into the palatoy territory.
01:13:47
Speaker
earl Are there plans for more of this? that was so loud. Oh, the dip? Yeah. The dip came out loud. I said, so loud. i was a loud dick about loud it's a i actually found it It was to the point where I was like, did I say palatoy wrong?
01:14:03
Speaker
yeah I was shocked. Slightly scared. No, no. For some reason, it just yeah it's it sucked up the dip. Yeah, it was. hand You the back row that time. Yeah.
01:14:16
Speaker
you were performing for the back row that time you there There you go. B-Mac, did you get the question? I got distracted. Yeah, no. It's like, are we tapping into more of those regional characters in classified? And is it possible? ah Yeah, yeah. and Anything's possible. The entire history of Joe is on the table.
01:14:38
Speaker
Clearly. yeah think we're we're hearing... from a lot of people, you know, we went to CCXP while the HISTank and Emily did, the rest of us didn't. But, ah you know, they, Brazil clearly had its own market. Fun School in India had its own market. Japan changed some things too. There's a lot of just awesome characters out there that we can tap into. And as we continue to develop the tooling line, anything's possible. Like there are more characters that get out there and where it makes sense for the story and the content that we're trying to build for that year.
01:15:11
Speaker
we'll tap into it. And like, we have a ton of nerds on this team, I think is the best way to put it, that care about the lore of this brand. And we had all things that as kids that we love that we wanted to bring back out. And we're slowly getting there and doing it while also creating the new. So like, we have to find that balance as we continue to progress GI Joe and keep it going so we can get to 2030. So I have that five year, have to re-release Serpentor for its 10 year anniversary. deal Right. So there's just some, that's some of the,
01:15:41
Speaker
more fun pieces of collecting is finding out some of those regional distribution and manufactured pieces that I never saw as a kid. And yeah when you see them you know later on in life and collecting and finding something new for something that's you know, 40 plus years and just from the 80s, 80s timeline. um It's just super cool to find all those small, but not small, but pieces that i never saw before and would love to bring that to yeah classified and mainline.
01:16:13
Speaker
I mean, it's kind of like old man Outback. Like we live with old man Outback. I mean, we're paying attention to that stuff. And i think our rules that figure rules it does i love that figure that that's the that's the superior outback uh the two of them um 100 i think i agree with you uh think if that's any indication to put into does echo what bmac was saying yeah if it's cool We're going to get it in there. You know what you know like we we Like Tony said, like you find you're finding stuff like old later in life. it's like what? And then like he's he wasn't even Old Man Outback. He had like a completely different name. Cannot remember for the life of me right now. um But like...
01:16:56
Speaker
Why wouldn't you? It kind of adds a layer to the story and classified is like its its own telling of all that stuff. So how do we bring it to our line and make it all meld together and tell a cohesive tale? We're very inspired by generations. Generations is an amazing job of that. So like we're kind of doing the same thing. and And the passion that the fans of those regions that those were delivered to is through the roof. So would love to make them even happier than they already are. So, yeah.
01:17:26
Speaker
Dave, do you want to take, don't take the next one too? Okay. um So if it's fight, um oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, you got it. and That was loud. Thank you.
01:17:42
Speaker
I'm sorry in advance. At neward. Debt. Cortigen. Yeah. Sure, we'll go with that. That's how I would have said Noir de Cordigan.
01:17:54
Speaker
Bless you. Asks, um if fighting for... I was like, it was almost Nardwar, but like, if fighting for freedom over land, sea, and air, if that's what we're doing, where are our water vehicles?
Challenges and Strategy in G.I. Joe Production
01:18:11
Speaker
Ooh, the hydrofoil? The water moccasin? Moccasin? Moccasin? The shark? Ah, oh... The Barracuda? Where are they? I don't know. Where are they? In the water. we would They're in the marina.
01:18:30
Speaker
um You know, time. Just takes time to get this stuff. You know, there's some staples. um Going through the staples currently. um Some of those are staples as well. We understand that. Don't get mad that didn't call them staples.
01:18:42
Speaker
um You know, it's just a matter of getting there. I have one in particular that I really want to make. um But, you know, and that's ah ah that's a little bit more juice. There are ones and figures and things that we really want to make. And like sometimes we'll be halfway down production on them. And then if you're a term kill, kill your darlings, we have to kill them sometimes.
01:19:04
Speaker
So it's like you do all this work. It's just one thing that you know is going to work. And for some reason, something strategically. You can't do it. So you have to stop all that work. Stop, stop, start kind of thing. So like, you know, we'll get there.
01:19:17
Speaker
There's so many moving pieces when dealing with a brand this big and distribution this wide. And. ah It's just, you know, again, i repeat myself a million times, but me and Lenny and BMAC want to make everything.
01:19:32
Speaker
We really do want to make everything, even stuff that's maybe not as cool and trying. and That's the design challenge, right, is trying to make that cool. So we want to get there.
01:19:43
Speaker
The problems of the water vehicles are cool. So why do you keep killing the air skiff then? Why do why do you keep killing it? Why have you killed it so many times? He's in the files. He's in the files. He's in the files. It's also like, again, it goes back to that cohesive story that I keep saying, right? Like it'd be disjointed to give you one random boat.
01:20:04
Speaker
just plopped in the ear somewhere. And then all of a sudden you have this one sided shelf. It's, you know, it's a devil ray or it's the shark and it's just there. And it's just like, okay, well, where's the, where's the Cobra or the Joe foil to this.
01:20:17
Speaker
And it just like vehicles we're hearing too. We're like, we're listening. Like, yeah, they take up a lot of space at this scale. And, you know, everybody has limited shelf space. So we're trying to just make sure that we're being mindful as we do it. It makes sense.
01:20:31
Speaker
Certain things like a hydrofoil, it's going to be big. Like, If you look at the original ah Real American Hero box and then you just look at that and you're like, yeah, i'm going to go get that in Classified. It's going to be bigger than a His Tank. So well you got a shelf for water for a giant boat?
01:20:48
Speaker
If there's one person on this interview that knows how to tenaciously fight for a water-based vehicle toy and knows how to get it to where it fits in eventually...
01:21:02
Speaker
And that toy happens to be called Sea Spray. B-Mac is the one that knows how to get it done. Sometimes it just takes time. A mini-bot to Deluxe is a little smaller than a Hydrofoil. But yes, it did.
01:21:15
Speaker
I accomplished the two things I needed to do on Transformers in my time on the brand. And that was make Sea Spray become a Deluxe and turn the Thunder Machine into Soundwave. I did those two things. And that was like what I set out to do when I joined the team. It's awesome.
01:21:28
Speaker
But yeah. I want the hammerhead. That thing's out of control. Well, our last question. So we do have we have a a hotline and no one ever uses it enough. But but it does exist. um It's kind of got been loaded so big. it's Really funny. But um yeah ah so somebody actually na did use the word the hotline. So here we go.
01:21:55
Speaker
so um here we go I just hope this doesn't cost me any money. i feel like I'm calling Lee Marshall on WCW Saturday night. Hey, guys, we'll appreciate this.
01:22:08
Speaker
It's Moody from Matoik on a Mood. Wanted to chime in. Congrats on the wonderful year you guys had, as well as adventures in collecting. Terrific series of podcasts and social media.
01:22:21
Speaker
right. How big is that spreadsheet that you guys have in determining what the next G.I. Joe classified wave is or what figures are coming out. It's got to be massive to scan across all forms of Joe media with past cartoons, not only a real American hero, but everything else later.
01:22:42
Speaker
In addition to the wide span comics and the modern era and O-ring toys, it's got to be massive, right? What goes into making those decisions? I'd love to know.
01:22:52
Speaker
Cheers and happy holidays. Moody. See you later. Bye. Happy holidays. Hey, happy holidays. Yeah, man. um A lot goes into that. I would say the spreadsheet is not huge. It's different every year.
01:23:06
Speaker
um We have our list on our computers, and I think we go back to old spreadsheets, essentially, to to kind of be like, oh, we didn't get to that one, essentially. Or it's kind of like, what are we celebrating for the year, too?
01:23:22
Speaker
Like, what? part of the trying to not telegraph things here. And I can, I can, you know, like what, what part of the brand are we celebrating? What, what era are we celebrating? What figures have we not gotten to, what figures excite us?
01:23:40
Speaker
Um, what figures should we bring in? What newness should we bring in? It's a kind of a ah cauldron of bubbling ideas that kind of has it solidifies. And then we go back in and we change it again.
01:23:52
Speaker
No, a lot goes into like how we design our waves too, right? like co Joe and Cobra Balance, um you'll see starting next year, you've seen the first wave, there's only five characters now, right?
01:24:04
Speaker
We doubled up on a troop builder because we know you're going to want to buy multiples of those. So like we're bringing that consistency now to the brand as we look at the year and making sure that we're giving fans what they want and they don't have to...
01:24:17
Speaker
Wait for the next case to come out. There's a lot of carry forwards from the first wave. Like you're not seeing snake eyes on shelf through the whole year. You're getting in, you're getting out. And like when that wave is gone, you're getting five new characters. And like, that's how we're going to consistently keep doing mainline.
01:24:31
Speaker
um There's also a lot of new next year, like within Mainline, I'll just be honest, there are two all new characters that you know nothing about. We haven't name dropped or anything yet. Again, letting letting Lenny just kind of cook. So we have a new Joe, we have a new Cobra, super fun. And they're just going to tell fun new stories that are setting up again other Easter eggs for future stuff as we continue to get there. So...
01:24:56
Speaker
There's a lot that goes into it. Looking at all the errors, there's a lot of stuff to get to too. And like, you know, there's a lot of different things we can take learnings from around the company. Like, do we want to have some screen accurate stuff at some point, kind of like studio series? Yeah, we can look at that. Um,
01:25:10
Speaker
clearly everybody here i think thinks resolute is one of the best pieces of joe content ever is classified slightly stylized from it sure but can we do like actual resolute destro at some point yeah like let's let's get to that point it's just a matter of when can we do it because that movie is incredible and i think there's a lot to tap into there so like We're looking at all of it, moments in time that make sense as we plan things, but we're also balancing the waves in terms of like finishing the original 13. Hey, were we know we're this deep into 84. Let's tap into 87. Oh, we're in the 90s now. We're doing some Ninja Force stuff. like Heck yeah, you are. Where is that going to go? Slice and dice, baby.
01:25:54
Speaker
You a dice kid or a slice kid? So neither. Ninja Force Snake Eyes is my Snake Eyes. Oh, with the bright blue and the black? It's a nice one. And that Destro, too.
01:26:08
Speaker
That Ninja Force era Destro with the bright orange collar. collar Yep. I don't remember Ninja Force. they did it We did a Ninja Force Destro? I don't know if timing think it was around that time. I don't think he was on the Ninja Force card. it was just that era. With the giant disc launcher?
01:26:23
Speaker
Oh, yes. that one did yes and he and they had a yeah I just remember the bright orange bright orange collar instead of red. Yes, that one's that was also one of my... two That was my Destro. I missed out on the OG as a kid. Ninja Force, I would say, we were our age is prime Ninja Force.
01:26:42
Speaker
prime like we they were we were like laser targeted, I think by Bazygian. It was it was Storm Shadow for me. Ninja for. Yeah. shadowja storm shadows and I love that Storm Shadow. Yeah.
01:26:53
Speaker
And I think so wasn't there a Ninja for Zanzibar, too? That was like, and they did. um There was like a there's a storm shadow knockoff with oranges on it.
01:27:06
Speaker
Zanzibar, don't think but there was somebody with it was Dojo. Dojo had rooted hair like Zanzibar. maybe Dojo. That's who it was. Dojo. yep Yes. yeah Ninja Force Dojo. That was that's the one.
01:27:18
Speaker
Yeah. And Zartan, of course. And of course, Zartan. Awesome. Yeah. right green pants What doesn't say ninja like a guy in bright green pants and a bright orange mohawk? Orange eye makeup. and Perfect. I already so see i already changed everything else. yeah that was That was the crossover for me and Eric at that point, because I was like, you know, getting into like 11, 12, 13, and Eric was perfectly like, all right, I will take over your collection.
01:27:46
Speaker
Yep. And these Joes are mine now. You clearly took his flag, right? You just inherited his flag and just continued the legacy on? No. I never had that. flag ah my One of my friends did. And that's still the other thing that, like, that thing was, like, eighty s computer. Like, it took up a whole room. Like, you can imagine...
01:28:07
Speaker
yes a whole and a perfect And a perfect transition. Because for a lot of people, that is their grail item. And yeah this brings the end to the end of our Q&A section. We have a fun little holiday-themed question for you guys this year.
01:28:22
Speaker
So if each of you could wake up with one G.I. Joe item under your tree this year for Christmas, it can be something that exists and something that you never had, like a flag. Or it could be something that, like... It could be one of each or it could be both oh that that you would love that you would love to see ah made.
01:28:44
Speaker
But what for each of you, what would that item be?
01:28:48
Speaker
Good question. I mean, I never personally had a flag. My cousin did have one, so I got to play with it. But this does mark my 41st Christmas of not having a USS flag under the tree, because I guarantee you my wife did not order me one.
01:28:59
Speaker
um But. I think for me, like I never had a Mamba as a kid and I absolutely loved that vehicle maba because I had the Tomahawk and I was just always mad that I never had the Mamba to like fight against it. And I love the Tomahawk or Eagle Hawk as it's called now. Right.
01:29:15
Speaker
Like loved playing with that toy, loved lip ticket. It was just a fun thing. So I think, I think a Mamba would be the thing. Like if I opened that up under the tree on Christmas morning, I'd be really stoked.
01:29:28
Speaker
That's a great one. I'm going a little more attainable just because I know my wife is going to watch this podcast.
01:29:38
Speaker
Tony! yeah ah I'm going to go headman Because I never had him. You never had Headman? No. Oh, I'm sorry. And his Headhunters, obviously. Headhunters. If I can get greedy.
01:29:53
Speaker
You can be greedy. by bennet You're you're on the nice list. You're allowed. Oh, thank God. first First time for everything. But there's that's attainable. I think my wife, who's watching the show, maybe you maybe the ears are at the door right now. don't know.
01:30:07
Speaker
um but uh that's that's where i would go head man because that was just so weird with the little he's so good yeah hat and the pinstripe and the drugs i mean but i just love that joe and cobra came together to tool this guy up and what a unique squad and everything
01:30:36
Speaker
I'm going to say the Defiant. oh Okay, my word. Because it's arguably more plastic than the flag, which is crazy to think about. ah It was an epic toy. The kid down the block had it. and i remember being like in awe of it because it was like as big as us.
01:30:53
Speaker
um and it's it's it's The mechanism alone, it would like rear up, it would open up, and you can go into the spaceship itself. you can it's It's a play set and a vehicle same time. um I don't want to be greedy too, Tony.
01:31:07
Speaker
and i want Well, now I want a defiant. You want a defiant? Well, hey. And you get a defiant. And you get a defiant. Stick under your chair, Lenny. I'll have some lunatics to go with that defiant.
01:31:24
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. yeah Yeah, see? That's what I want. see i what um What if I flip it back on you? Fellas. Yeah, what are guys? Eric and Dave, if I may be so bold.
01:31:37
Speaker
I mean, i I have removed myself from from like retro buying at this point. There's just too much like new stuff out here. That's a smart that you haven't stolen from Dave. Got it. That I have not stolen from Dave. or got it For me, it would be between two things. And I kind of tipped my tipped my hand already by saying that the Ninja Force Snake Eyes is like my snake eyes like I would love I.
01:32:06
Speaker
i I know it is just a matter of time. Like, like you guys said, anything is possible. Um, but it would either be that, or it would be honestly the, uh, the Thunder Machine, you know, the dread, the core dread knocks team is so close to being completed.
01:32:22
Speaker
Um, you know at least like the the main members, right? Not the extended Dreadnoughts family, but ah yeah, the Thunder Machines, without that one piece that even though I said I'm not going to buy any more larger vehicles because I am out of space, that would be the one where I'm like, yeah, I'm to have to get that.
01:32:41
Speaker
so Eric, I thought you were going to, I thought you were going once again ask for the apron and the the chef's hat. Yeah. These guys know that already. I don't want to beat up online. Speaking of the Dreadnought team, we need a Dreadhead Cletus, right? In the line. Like, just need to make Cletus.
01:33:00
Speaker
Yes, Cletus. I just like to watch Lenny laugh every time I bring it up. Like, it's a joke. Cletus. Every time he's like, we need Dreadnought. Agent faces is what we need to make. No, we're never... It's not a Dreadnought, but we've got to make Agent Faces.
01:33:11
Speaker
we We tell our design director it's never happening, so it's just funny. No no agent faces. I get Cletus before we get agent faces. But but yes, to Dave's point, Chef Roadblock, who's now recently featured it on the cover of a new G.I. Joe comic on top of his food truck. I love that i absolutely love Chef Roadblock. I like that Roadblock's coming in hot.
01:33:33
Speaker
that minute hot Can we get like, while we're talking about that, like huge shout out to Robert Kirkman and Josh Williamson and oh my god Tom Riley and everybody else that's working on all those books, Ben Abernathy, just like awesome partners, super fun to work with. They're all passionate. I think sometimes they know more about our brand than we do.
01:33:53
Speaker
And they just, they go hard, they go deep. And like every time, like, you know, typically Lenny gets to do a little sit down with Josh for Yojo June. And just like, there's an hour and a half of conversation that nobody ever gets to see. And it's just the three of us like nerding out about this is what we're doing for the next two years. And you're like, uh-huh, uh-huh. This is great. So like huge thanks to those guys and the partnership and just everything across Energon Universe and like Kobra Law being part of Void Rivals now and just like,
01:34:18
Speaker
They're really architect something exciting for this brand and all of these brands and Hasbro in general. So, you know, think that's the best Christmas gift to me is that I just have this stack of comics that I'm still super behind on, even though i'm reading future scripts and just like great, great team and partners to work with. So yeah, Chef Roadblock was super excited. when We saw that piece of artwork come over internally.
01:34:42
Speaker
sure dave dave what about what about you what's your what's your thing so like all all my favorite characters have been made pretty much already like that i played with a lot when i was a kid like yeah up to and including like breaker was my first oh juy i'll never forget because i always used to think he looked like my dad
01:35:03
Speaker
Breaker looks like that with a beard. Yeah. Yeah. that's true um So like i for me, what's left are the oddballs. So like like fridge, the triple T, like um dress uniform gung ho.
01:35:19
Speaker
oh yeah that's a great one yeah like that's a great one those those were the figures where i was like you the weird like mail away ones where i i was like i had them my friends didn't so i thought that was like cool made me cool it did now but like yeah it still makes you cool they still are yeah yeah because i think it wasn't dress uniform gung-ho mail away i think he was yeah yeah he was So for the longest time, that was the only gung ho that I played with. I didn't. That was the only one I had. You didn't know he was a shirtless man with a baby blue outfit on.
01:35:57
Speaker
Yeah, i didn't know with the vest. Like I 100 percent knew that's what he was. But like I had the cool one. no yeah Yeah. Yeah. Well, they're both the cool one. But we all know the cooler one, the shirtless one.
01:36:09
Speaker
I'm joking. Well, that one's ready to go. The he the dress dress uniform would always be like my diplomatic guy. and ye Oh, yeah, that makes sense. yep i I had the black bandana green ones tiger stripe vest one. That's the one I had. Did he come with an American flag, that one?
01:36:27
Speaker
He did. Yeah. That one's awesome. I mean, I loved him. He was great. Well, the last thing that ah that we're going to ask you guys before before we let you off the hook here and ah and and give you guys one one one more chance to plug the Arctic Hiss, we kind of have a tradition when we have you guys on that um either Lenny mistakenly reveals Roadpig as a figure that's coming, or have...
01:36:53
Speaker
or you have or you have some sort of ah name only reveal. So I just wanted to see if if by any chance, if ah if if you guys had a little gift to put under the tree to to close us out here.
01:37:07
Speaker
so So it's the holiday season and you seem to have a lot of love for for Ninja Force. So why don't we just like say there's more Ninja Force coming than just Zartan in 2026.
01:37:20
Speaker
And I'll drop a little bit of a weirdly known name and I won't give anything else away to it, but let's just say Shebang is going to make an appearance in 2026. Because all good ninjas come from East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Go look up the bio. It makes me laugh every time I read it. I'm just like, it's the next town over from where I live. but it's where all like the rich or upper class of Rhode Island kind of settled. And I don't think I can ever see a ninja. and nin clearly ninjas They live next door to Asian faces. Tiger-themed ninjas. they can afford They can afford that ninja training there. yes That's what it is. guy he was fine Studying abroad. Yes.
Pre-order Information and Social Media
01:38:00
Speaker
Well, awesome, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much for, you know, for spending the time with us for for making the holiday special here at Adventures in Collecting. Before we we sign off and let you guys go, remind our listeners, our followers, one, where can they get their Arctic hiss and where can they stay up to date on all things G.I. Joe Classified?
01:38:20
Speaker
perfect um Hasrallpulse.com, open pre-order for your Arcticis. Again, remembering that if you pre-order it now, you're not paying for it until it ships later next year. So you have to pre-budget that next year money. You don't have to fret about this year's Christmas, but you know make sure you get in, secure that pre-order, get it in now so we make sure we make enough for everybody that wants to get them.
01:38:40
Speaker
um Super excited again hazard pulse calm for everybody else that's listening around the world. I know that APAC is getting up and running right now. So there's a few retailers there. Iron Studios is our partner down in Brazil, that's pre ordering it for us. And then I think they're might be a couple other things outside of Pulse in Europe possibly that are doing. I'm still getting all of the information, but get those orders in so we can make sure we get those quantities you have until the new year. I think it's the Friday of the 4th once the year starts is when the backer window ends for that.
01:39:15
Speaker
In terms of news, at GI Joe on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, although X, I guess it is, and I'm not sure how active we are on there. But you can also follow all of us on social media. So mine's at bmccatron84 on Instagram.
01:39:30
Speaker
um Weather Dominator. At The Great Tony Ngo. think I got that one right that time. We'll make sure that we put we'll make sure we put all the links, that all the tags in the bottom. So you guys can just click and follow. But um yeah, definitely make sure you follow these guys. If you're not doing it already, once the reveals come, come out, there's always some cool behind the scenes, some art and renders and how ah all the, the, the sausages made um gets, gets shown off on Instagram and it's, it's amazing. So yeah,
01:40:06
Speaker
Yeah, guys, thank you so much for for joining us and and have have a a wonderful holiday. And I guess ah what better way to sign us off than with ah should we do a Yojo or Cobra?
01:40:20
Speaker
Well, I guess there's two ways, but we have to pick which ones. but I know which way I lean, but you know, that's let's do Cobra. I'm a sleeper. Oh, I like that. We're trying to, we're trying to, we're trying to, trying to get an Arctic kiss here. Let's do it. Is that why we're going to Cobra? because it's holiday season. Yeah. Cobra claws. That's right. Yeah. So let's do Cobra on three, on three, a Cobra. Okay. It's like, it's pretty late at night, but like, yeah.
01:40:50
Speaker
Oh, that's right. People are sleeping in our houses. So yeah. Yeah. Now, one, two, three. Go!
01:41:03
Speaker
Thank you for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review this podcast wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Learn more about him in the show notes.
01:41:16
Speaker
Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Danes. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Adventures in Collecting and on Twitter at AIC underscore podcast.
01:41:29
Speaker
Stop by and say hi. Show us your hauls and photos. Tell us your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it on a future episode.
01:41:41
Speaker
try this at home void where prohibited and some assembly required each sold separately not a flying toy consult a physician if your toy run exceeds more than four hours
01:41:49
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablaoui. 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.