IGN.com has blown the lid off the new upcoming G.I. Joe: Classified 6″ line this morning, revealing first looks at Scarlett and Roadblock, as well as official images of Snake Eyes which was leaked earlier this week.
Simply put – I’m ecstatic.
I can already anticipate a flurry of complaints about the figures not being 100% authentic to the vintage designs, but I gotta say, I love this direction. Taking inspiration from the classics, but with some great updates, these figures look collector friendly and fun.
Hasbro Pulse has currently listed the pre-order for Snake Eyes and according to IGN, both Scarlett and Roadblock will be available for pre-order tomorrow.
Also, Hasbro Pulse has a great video up looking at the process behind the design of Snake Eyes and his packaging and it’s chock full of awesome detail.
Don’t look now, but 2020 is off to a great G.I. Joe start, and I’m sure there will be a lot more fun stuff to see tomorrow at Toy Fair!
I gotta say, it feels good to type those words. It seems like a very long time since there was something G.I. Joe-wise to look forward to at Toy Fair, but this year promises to turn that all around.
You’ll notice that the main page of GeneralsJoesReborn has undergone a minor facelift as we work towards the Hasbro Collector’s Event next Saturday. The countdown clock you see above expires at 1:30pm, which is when the Hasbro Collectors Event begins, but please keep in mind, the latest show room images may not be posted until later that evening.
While I am not able to travel to New York next weekend myself, Chris from The Full Force will be there in my stead, representing both GeneralsJoes and The Full Force podcast, so you know we’ll get some fantastic photo and video coverage live from NYC as soon as humanly possible. You’ll want to be sure to follow:
I expect to see some news about the G.I. Joe: Classified six inch line, the anticipated Snake Eyes movie line(s), and perhaps even more. While Jazwares news likely will not hit alongside the Hasbro stuff on Saturday, I’m sure more of that intel will be available throughout the weekend and into the following week as the official Toy Fair kicks off.
Regardless of what we see, the anticipation itself is a breath of fresh air and I find myself extremely excited to await the reports from the presentation and the showroom tour next weekend.
Good stuff coming in a week, and fantastic stuff coming for 2020, look forward to sharing it all with you!
The word is out and HasCon will continue! I know I speak for lots of folks when I say that the first inaugural HasCon was a roaring success. I had a blast in September when I went and greatly look forward to more to come.
Hasbro has announced the next HasCon, but there will be a little ways to wait, as the next date has been set for September 6th through the 9th… 2019.
The timing makes sense in a way, after all, there are several trade show/fan conventions that run every two years rather than annually and considering the coordination it took to get all of those exciting brands together in one place, I can see why this is an event that might happen only every two years.
The best thing is that it’s happening, and I’m already planning on how to get me and my family in Providence for September, 2019… it’s sure to be a great time!
It’s coming up quick. The latest G.I. Joe regional show in Des Moines, Iowa is coming up November 4th, 2017, and there are a bunch of great updates to share leading up to it!
November 4th at the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center in Des Moines, Iowa, the show always promises to be a blast, and with its exclusive minimalist posters and what is apparently a set of great exclusives shaping up, this is one year you won’t want to miss.
As a great compliment to the ongoing G.I. Joe Convention, several regional shows have cropped up, and one of the best has been Assembly Required in Des Moines, Iowa.
Dates for this year’s show have been announced, and expect it to be November 4th, 2017. With great vendors, informative panels and a gathering of awesome fellow G.I. Joe fans, this is a show I’ve hoped to attend several times, but have not been able to make it work.
Don’t make the same mistake I have, circle the date on your calendar, and keep watching the Codename: Iowa Facebook Page for updates!
Both Christopher and Carson went above and beyond documenting the experience in video and image form, and have a lot better detail there than I’m providing below. This is just my own take on the experience.
On paper, it looked like kind of a crazy idea. The coordination, the early mornings, the blood, sweat, and tears.
Oh, I’m not talking about HasCon itself. I’m talking about my plans for HasCon weekend. Deciding to forego the VIP treatment this year (going by some peer reactions, this was a significant lack of judgement on my part) I elected instead to make HasCon a day trip. Grab a ticket, cruise down to Rhode Island for the day, have some fun.
Then they decided to bring James White from the New England Patriots, and my daughter caught wind of it, and those plans went out the window. She had to see him on Sunday, and I had to see my friends on Saturday, so I decided on back-to-back road trips of nearly 3 hours each way.
I don’t regret one second of it. If anything, I regret not bringing my second daughter along for the ride.
As we near the end of Fun Publication’s license for the G.I. Joe Convention (with Botcon already come and gone) Hasbro had elected to take over some of the convention reigns themselves, putting together a combination con involving all of their various brands. HasCon as it was dubbed was immediately greeted by mixed reactions (my own included). But as more and more of my friends expressed their interest in attending, I decided I’d go along for the ride.
While I missed Friday, from everything I heard, the G.I. Joe panels were informative, interesting, and fun, a deep, introspective dive into the history of the world’s first action figure. Certainly a lot of the discussion focused on the Real American Hero side of things, Hasbro pulled out all of the stops with actually recreating some of the old prototype vehicles and restoring many items for display. Alan Hassenfeld himself was on site during the dinner to give a rousing speech, with the always present and always enthusiastic Derryl DePriest carrying the torch as well. By all accounts they were both fantastic. If you missed Friday like I did, you absolutely must go check The Full Force on Facebook, as the stalwart Chris McLeod managed to capture the majority of it on video.
I showed up on Saturday, shortly before noon, and the place was slamming. It was wall-to-wall people waiting in line for autographs by David Ortiz, or playing along with a DJ, having a blast in the HasCade, or enjoying the G.I. Joe history lesson courtesy of Dan Klingensmith and an entire cadre of design legends from the hallowed halls of Hasbro. I gravitated towards the G.I. Joe display of course and ran into some great friends there from 3D Joes and the Flag Points podcast, Dan K. himself, as well as members of the G.I. Joe Discussion Group on Facebook. Less than thirty minutes into my arrival and it was like old homes day, especially for this old man who had missed the past two JoeCons in a row.
After chatting the guys up for a few minutes, I was swept into the main exhibit hall which was simply astounding. Every single Hasbro brand was represented there from Transformers to Nerf to My Little Pony and Magic: The Gathering. Disney Princesses, Star Wars, the whole ball of wax.
Well, except for G.I. Joe, which maintained its position on guard outside the front door. If anything, though its placement gave it more visibility, not less.
Each section of boys toys goodness was crammed with new and old toys, fantastic, elaborate diorama displays and a bunch of great Hasbro designers to talk with. I was able to play catch up with John Warden (though I kept missing Bobby Vala in the Marvel booth) and the enthusiasm with which they talked about their craft and the product lines they work on was infectious. Moving from booth to booth (dodging the 15 foot tall Bumblebee dancing around) was an experience in glorious sensory overload. HasCon is like JoeCon + Botcon x 10 squared. It was really amazing.
But the audience was manageable. It was large, but not TOO LARGE if you get my meaning. Things rarely got to San Diego ComicCon shoulder-to-shoulder level, but on Saturday there was a constant stream and presence of people, but it never quite reached overwhelming status.
As a collector, though, once you pulled yourself away from the Boys Toys alley, things got even cooler, especially for those of us parents in the room. Sprawling out throughout the rest of the exhibit hall was booths upon booths of fun, colorful, interactive demonstrations of Hasbro’s core brands. Stuff like My Little Pony (full make up stations), Littlest Pet Shop (you could customize your own pet, or win free pets by spinning a hamster wheel), Baby Alive (changing stations, feeding stations, the whole nine yards), Nerf (shooting ranges and Dude Perfect trick shots), and even a Troll section where you could get your hair done up like one of those crazy plastic dolls that actually have names and a mythology now.
I’m so old.
There were kids and families. Everywhere. Just as it should be. Boys and girls of all ages being exposed to Hasbro brands, discovering just how cool the various Nerf weapons or the latest Beyblades were. Getting smacked in the face with a whipped cream pie or sprayed by a toilet (don’t ask)… it was a tradeshow, a family fun day, and a full blown fan convention all wrapped up in a single package.
And it all worked.
Upon my return trip on Sunday, with my 12 year old in tow (who was thrilled to meet and get her picture taken with James White) the crowds were smaller and more scattered, making the floor more manageable. She was able to play at the various game stations and although she was ‘way too old, dad’ for Baby Alive or My Little Pony, she eagerly traveled the floor with her little passport to collect all the stamps and get her free water bottle. She customized her own Littlest Pet Shop and won a couple of free ones to bring home to her sister. All that plus enough free Play-Doh to choke a stable of horses.
Sure, there were hiccups as there always are the first year around, but overall the experience was exceptionally smooth. Busy, but not packed. Lots to do and see, but not sensory overload. Just enough great stuff happening at regular intervals, but not so much that you felt like you were going to miss something.
I’m not sure HasCon will become a regular thing, I can’t even imagine the coordination it took to bring it all together. But I hope it does. And if it does, I’ll be there next year. I may even bring the whole family.
Dan, Derryl, the G.I. Joe legends, and everyone involved deserves some serious props for what it took to pull this off. Yes, the best part (as always) was seeing all my friends and hanging with great people, but the Convention itself was a blast, and something I can see myself attending every year, and even better, something I can bring the family to as well.
