Well what do you know?
Turns out we survived the past nine months without a G.I. Joe film, and as I look at my calendar, we are nearing the 6 week mark until G.I. Joe: Retaliation launches in 3D in the United States. See it again for the first time!
I will admit I was a bit taken aback at Toy Fair this year, with a visible and palpable lack of promotion for the upcoming film. Last year and in 2009 there were movie stars, front-page stories, movie clips…the whole ball of wax. G.I. Joe was front and damned center.
This year, the G.I. Joe presentation at Toy Fair felt tacked on to the Kre-O presentation, and besides some words of encouragement from Derryl DePriest, the film felt like more of an afterthought than the main promotional push. Instead of walls of figures and vehicles, we got seven new figures and a single new vehicle.
Now this is not meant to be a reflection on the toys themselves… from all appearances this will be a fantastic year for toys. The ultimate film versions of Duke, Flint, Roadblock and Firefly all look incredible. Wonderfully accurate old school versions of Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander, and Snake Eyes. Budo, Data-Viper and KWINN! And hey, I didn’t even mention the Tomahawk Eaglehawk. Very good stuff coming this year. But I won’t lie. The atmosphere was not as fired up and national coverage as it was in years past. I realize a lot of that has to do with the film delay, but when the coronation of a Pony princess on an animated cartoon gets more mainstream pub than a multi-million dollar Hollywood production? Damn right I’m going to say something about that.
Whether or not you agree with how G.I. Joe: Retaliation was treated at Toy Fair, though, the fact remains that it’s a new year and we have a ton of great looking product to look forward to. The film is hitting in just over six weeks and by all accounts looks to be awesome. We are on the verge of a potential tipping point in the G.I. Joe brand right now, and GeneralsJoes is riding that train all the way. As we lead up to the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film over the next six weeks, expect loads of content. Editorials, figure reviews, vehicle reviews, comic reviews, and heck… perhaps even a dio-story chapter or two. No promises. 😉
The movie is coming. The new toys are coming. The comic is getting revitalized. There’s a lot to look forward to over the next six weeks, hope you all are joining me for the ride.
Really no reason for Paramount to spend money paying the actors to be at Toy Fair. It would just be a lot of been there, done that for the press, and that would definitely be the focal point of everything written about it. The marketing machine is picking up steam, though. Saw a Retaliation spot just last night during The Walking Dead.
Also, Twilight Sparkle’s coronation is a BFD! 😉
I like to think of Retaliation as G.I. Joe’s present to me for my 40th birthday. (Just two days later.)
It takes the sting of the age away somewhat.
There was no need to do a push at Toy Fair. Retailers have already ordered the movie product. In fact, some has been sitting in their warehouses for some time. I always see Toy Fair as the time to push things retailers haven’t seen yet, such as Star Wars Black and Iron Man 3.
I’m cautiously optimistic about this new movie. I just hope I can get some friends to come along to see it. The people I saw the first one with — more casual fans from back in the day — hated it so much, I don’t know if I can convince them! 🙂
The new figures that were shown are awesome looking but I will admit there doesn’t seem to be a lot of “volume” when you have a major movie coming out. I’m fine with fewer numbers of awesome figures but I can understand why some will say that Hasbro isn’t behind the property.
‘Road to Retaliation’ I can hear AC/DC’s ‘Highway to hell’ when I read that:) Really looking forward to the movie and these figures and a certain helicopter! and a possibly dio story…I will keep my fingers crossed. Meanwhile anything I can do to help with that (just throwing it out there) let me know;)
Hell yeah, let’s do this shit.
Think this will be a 6 year old “ok” movie? Or too intense for 6 year old?