That was kind of my reaction when this news floated across the Internet this morning, courtesy of HissTank member Master Chief. His eagle eyes dug into some SKU listings of G.I. Joe product, which I am mirroring below:
786245 Movie 3.75″ figures $9.99
788551 Movie Delta Vehicle $21.99
786216 Ninja Showdown Set $24.99
786253 Ninja Mask $9.99
786274 Movie Alpha Vehicle $13.99
788535 Blade of Justice $16.99
788640 10″ Kata Battler $21.99
788713 Movie Bravo Vehicle $15.99
788772 Snake Eyes Ninja Set $27.99
788802 Battle Kata Weapon $15.99
863851 Ninja Chucks $9.99
867591 Ninja Command Blaster $29.99828516 Micro Force Blind Bag $3.99
828613 Micro Force Starter Set $7.99Now for the interesting items (all are Hasbro items):
655875 Ninja Army Special Ops $3.99
913370 Special Ops Starter Pack $4.99
835442 Special Ops Vehicles $24.99
913230 Special Ops Tomahawk $42.99
As Master Chief says, a lot of this is stuff that we already know, but what is this “Special Ops” stuff? Sure, it’s the name of the online Facebook game, but I’m not sure that particular corner of the G.I. Joe marketing bracket has really been lucrative enough to garner it’s own branch of toys.
Based on price point above it almost seems like some of these pieces are gaming related. They don’t appear to be Micro Force, since there’s a separate listing above for Micro Force already. A low price point on the Ninja Army and the Starter Pack is very interesting… although perhaps the Starter Pack and the Starter Set could be considered different?
Of course what’s drawing the most attention (as it should) is that listing for a Special Ops Tomahawk. That certainly sent the G.I. Joe world on its ear today, understandably so. The Joe design team has mentioned a few times that another classic vehicle was being planned for this year, similarly to the Skystriker, but I’m not sure anyone would have guessed the Tomahawk was a possible subject. I know I wouldn’t have. The tooling and expense required for a vehicle like that doesn’t seem feasible under a reasonable MSRP. But, really, we’ve seen G.I. Joe reuse names a ton over the years…this could be something entirely unrelated.
Regardless of what it is, things are certainly looking a little more exciting for Toy Fair next week. You can bet I’ll be in attendance to get all of the pics and information that I can!
Thanks again to Master Chief on HissTank for sparking this interesting speculation!
Yay! I love a movie year!
I’m with you. I was in USA on 2007 and 2008, and found almost nothing of Joe stuff on the pegs, I went back on 2009 and it was like a flashback of my childhood: tons of carded figures and vehicles on almost every store I checked. Last year I found only PoC Duke and 2 skystrikers…
Don’t be playing with my heart like that.
floored, and excited for Toy Fair.
Ninja Chucks? Finally I get my own figures, and they’re NINJAS!!!!!
Night Attack Chopper without sounds and some neat figure-centric spatial reconfiguration?
Special Ops Tomahawk $42.99, maybe it could be THE Tomahawk…., man, with a few modern updates…, ahhh, man, too cool if it were….
Either of those options would be more than welcome with me.
Would the Sigma Six mission scale be out of the question/ guessing for “special ops” re-branding?
Given the low price point for toys r us and the use of the term “starter set”, my initial guess would be a smaller scale. But then the price of the vehicles is on par with 1/18th scale vehicles. Maybe these are the troop builder and ninja figures from last years concept case, like the NOMAD Warrior, Echo faction and Raven’s Wing?
As far as the Tomahawk listing goes, a modern 1/18th scale MH60 style chopper would be awesome. I’ll believe it when I see it, though.
There’s no way you’d get an actual 1/18 scale MH60 for that price.
Another thought – they could use the Howler prototype we’ve seen in the past as a base, set it up with tilt rotors like an Osprey, put a transparent canopy on the cockpit, and open up the sides and call it a Tomahawk.
Not a terrible idea either. At least I don’t think so.
Is that like the Resolute Tomahawk?
I think a lot of people assume that we will get a faithful update of the original. I think it may turn out to be a smaller scale version.
it may, but it sure seems expensive for that scale.
I don’t have high hopes that this actually a re-release of the original Tomahawk. But if it was, you don’t think it could be done for that $43 price point? The Skystriker was completely re-tooled and is similar in size. Considering the Tomahawk doesn’t have the internal mechanical functions that the Skystriker does, I think a Tomahawk is possible at that price. Just my 2 cents.
I remember reading that the tooling for the Tomahawk was gone. As much as I’d love for this to be a faithful update I’m with a lot of you being skeptical because of the pricepoint. And we’ve seen the name “Tomahawk” tossed around a lot by Hasbro, including it as a name for our beloved General.