The fans have long since complained that we don’t get any real information with these Hasbro Q & A sessions. Well, this latest round is proving that information wrong. Thanks to Toy News International, we finally have confirmation that the G.I. Joe: Renegades toys will be worked into the “Pursuit of Cobra” line and will remain in a realistic style! The exact quote is as follows:
“TNI: The G.I.Joe Pursuit of Cobra line seems to be going over well with collectors. I know at Joe Con this past summer you said that POC would continue for a few months and then you would switch to toys based on the Renegades cartoon. Is there any chance you will continue to do POC alongside Renegades stuff for collectors?
Hasbro: G.I. Joe product inspired by characters and themes from the upcoming G.I. Joe Renegades series on the Hub will be available in Fall 2011. The figures will be offered in the Pursuit of Cobra line and will have the highly-detailed, realistic look of the line.”
I’ll admit right up front…part of me was looking forward to an animation-accurate toyline, and a big part of me was convinced that’s what we were going to get. However, I know a LOT of fans who were against that concept, so for them I’m psyched to hear this. To a degree, I’m psyched myself, too, because while an animation-accurate line would have had at least some appeal to me, I am so in love with the Pursuit of Cobra, that the fact that this “style” is continuing is music to my ears as well.
Another great tidbit came out of The Terror Drome, who finally got the final say on the upcoming Pursuit of Cobra Commando Snake Eyes figure:
“3Q – The Wave 3 Snake Eyes looks amazing! Will there really be two variations released, one commando goggles head, and one visor ninja head? What is the planned distribution ratio? Hopefully a 50/50 or close as possible?
3A – We have an update for you – all carded figures will have both the Commando and Visor heads. There will no longer be variant version on this figure.”
More terrific news, for sure, and another piece of intel that should make collectors smile.
Keep your eyes peeled to GeneralsJoes.com, we’ll have our ear to the ground throughout the weekend to let folks know as more answers come in. Keep on checking the Q & A Page as well, which has already been updated with several fan site submissions!
In response to 3A :
THANK YOU!!!!!!
From the bottom of my heart Hasbro, thank you. For once you are showing some leadership in bucking a horrendous money grabbing trend that has infiltrated all corners of our collector market (multiple covers for comicbooks anyone???).
This is how things should be. Just like with the other PoC figures. If we want to have figures with both heads on display at the same time we will buy two versions. Forcing us to do so by seperating the heads is not fair to people on a limited budget.
I applaud Hasbro for this move.
I also have noted that in answering Justins question about the 25th line they state that fans of the 25th line and the PoC line will be happy with the 30th line. I know it seems like a little thing but for me and many people that feel as I do, the fact that Hasbro seems to at least realize that most of us were more into the 25th and now the PoC lines rather than the RoC line is very reasurring to me. They are starting to pay attention and that makes all the difference to me.
Also saying that the Renegades toys will be part of the PoC line in late 2011? We already know wave 4 will hit late January, so that is pretty much admitting PoC will continue indefinately for now. It also makes it sound like Renegade inspired figures will only be part of the PoC lineup, even in fall, maybe kind of like the cartoons and comics figures in the 25th line???
At any rate, this is a really great day today!!!
Sounds like good news to me too. PoC has been the most overall positive line of the century, imo, although I’d love it if we somehow managed to keep to one figure per character per year, I suppose my wallet is happy I’m not buying all of them.
Totally agreed on all counts!! Finally, a ray of sunshine bringing some new hope back to things after such a long time without.
I don’t get to say this as often as I would REALLY LIKE to, but here it is, so pay attention:
Great job and thumbs up for this news today! Way to go, Hasbro!
Awesome news to hear they are working towards the 30th Anniversary line. Just remember what killed it… multipack repaints… please stay away from that Hasbro. I like the way they are moving out POC. Only four or five figures per new wave but no repaints! Now Hasbro just needs to move away from using the same characters over and over and find the right mix.
Agreed. PoC would be perfect if we weren’t seeing the same guys over and over with only one or two new ones each wave. I’ve already got at least half a dozen totally kick-ass Snake Eyes figures, I really don’t need more.
The upcoming SAW viper destro is a city strike firefly repaint with new legs and head. If you’re gonna do repaints…At least do remolds or something. We don’t want “Gay Pride” Snake Eyes or anything.
Yeah, the incredible amount of repaints is just really verrrry unnecessary at best and absurd at even a reasonable level. The great thing about PoC, so far, is the number of new characters being introduced alongside completely new versions of old characters, like Spirit Iron-knife and Zartan. Sure, they are new, but at the same time, there is a significant enough resemblance or connection to the original guys to make them different, yet recognizably fun. This is more like how it was back in the day, when we got original Stalker and then way later, we got Arctic Kayak Stalker. Different, but same.
The crazy number of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadows and Dukes and Destros we’ve been getting is just too many, too soon for most of us out there, I think. Seriously, I don’t think we needed THREE Snake Eyes in the first year of PoC. Oh, did I say three in the first year? I meant three in the first 3 months of PoC and TWO Storm Shadows, and TWO Dukes, and TWO Destros, now I’m just waiting for us to get a Cobra Commander figure…and NO, the sad rerelease of the terrible RoC version doesn’t count for me. THAT is NOT Cobra Commander… well, not to me anyway.
The really great thing about the way Hasbro did figure waves back in the day, was that we got LOTS of new guys and very, VERY, VERRRRRY few repaints of the same characters, much less new versions of them except once in a blue moon. At least for a few years there anyway. So, we really don’t need a dozen SE’s or SS’s in a line, much less one or two in every wave. FAR too many. Take some of these great molds they have and hire some people with IMAGINATION to create some NEW guys if they insist on reusing the same molds time and time again. I understand Hasbro wants to get the most bang for their buck, but SO DO WE!! So, I don’t have a problem with Hasbro reusing their molds, but at LEAST give us some new guys out of them, rather than 50 freaking SE/SS/CC/Duke/Destros etc., one here and there is plenty really.
A good example of this would be making a good Dial-Tone from existing parts and giving fans what we want, then later they could offer us a PoC version of him that looks very different in many respects. Another example would be the torso for the Butterfly Knife SE version 75 or whatever, that was also used for the 25th Alley Viper and Hard Master. Why not give us a Lifeline from it, as well? Not too difficult I think. 25th Stalker body, apply new paints, some different paratrooper gear and “Thunder” head from the RoC Panther (one option really), and give us classic Ripcord (or just use the head from the secret Ripcord in the Assault on Cobra Island boxed set), that would be another option. Or even better, give us a comic 2-pack again, and this time give us something fun, like Ripcord/Zartan who can swap identities to inflitrate Cobra Island and the PITT respectively.
Lots of possibilities to work with, really, so I sincerely hope that Hasbro takes the time to actually listen to us and do something that they haven’t done for us in a really LOOOOOONG time, with the PoC line. …Give us more NEW characters and fewer repaints of established and existing ones that have a bazillion versions already. Sure they’re popular guys, but geez, space them out so we don’t get more than one SE/SS a year or something. More than that is just too many, and when it happens, those guys need to be the pinnacle of their own coolness, not “Tornado Kick-standard Commando-Ninja-Guy-Snake Eyes” or something equally lame.
Look at the upcoming Destro. He wasn’t even on the card yet, and when fans saw the first sneak pics of the PoC line with him in it, the first thing said was, don’t care for him as Destro, got plenty of him and better versions, but boy-oh-boy will he make a swell heavy gunner type soldier, such as a SAW Viper. I felt exactly the same way about him and absolutely HATE the so-called Arctic Destro out already. He looks more like a lame@$$ Batman villain, like a half thought out Mr. Freeze.
All-in-all though, I am very happy with PoC as a line, which is something I couldn’t say since the 25th series started (minus the insane number of repaints, of course). I look forward to seeing what they have planned, and hopefully they won’t offer us too much disappointment, though I am certain we won’t be thrilled with everything.
With all the talk of Renegades being part of the PoC line on nearly every Q&A I still wanted unmistakable confirmation and finally found it in the Q&A of TheFwoosh.com :
2) The Pursuit of Cobra line has proved to be quite popular with pegs being cleared out quickly forcing stores to often restock multiple times in a single week. Is there any hope of this line continuing beyond the presently known four waves?
Yes, we do plan on continuing this line.
NOW, I’m happy 🙂
Now this is excellent news! I must also correct an omission from earlier when I posted on this topic:
Kudos to Hasbro for finally realizing that the variant SE with two different heads was a really BAD idea and instead, going the route of Zartan and Dusty, and Firefly, etc., with ONE version having the head swap option vs. having to try and track down two versions of him…if we MUST have a third version this series so far. Thanks for that at least, Hasbro!