by generalsjoes | Jul 4, 2012 | 30th Anniversary, Dollar Store, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 2, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Collectors Club, G.I. Joe Convention, G.I. Joe Retaliation Toys, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, G.I. Joe: The Movie, JoeCon 2012, Pursuit of COBRA, Show and Convention Coverage
And no, I’m not talking about bringing home toys. I’m talking about intangible things. Opinions, feelings, impressions, etc…
I felt quite lucky throughout the weekend to be able to spend quite a bit of time with various folks at the Convention. Whether it was speaking with Lanny or Brian from the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club at the Golden Ticket dinner, or speaking to Hasbro at the Charity Casino Night dinner and on the sales floor. I was left with a series of impressions, both good and bad, and I’m not certain folks who weren’t there could grasp that through the convention coverage.
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by generalsjoes | Jul 3, 2012 | 30th Anniversary, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 2, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, G.I. Joe Collectors Club, G.I. Joe Convention, G.I. Joe Retaliation Toys, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: The Movie, JoeCon 2012, Podcasts, Show and Convention Coverage, What's on Joe Mind
Yes, here is Special Edition #16…a very special edition indeed. Back when I hopped on this little internet radio show, it seemed like a very fun way to kill some time and explore the G.I. Joe fandom in different ways, but that’s really all it was. Even as it felt like our bonds were growing closer with each episode and our barriers were coming down, I never really thought the show would necessarily evolve to anything…it was still just four buddies BS’ing about G.I. Joe.
Over the next many months, the show would lose a friend to other commitments, but gain another, and along the way make connections with voice actors, G.I. Joe comic professionals, and even the director of a certain major motion picture to come in March, 2013. Through it all, it was just four guys having fun.
Well, this past weekend these four guys having fun got a very rare opportunity to sit down for a lengthy 25 minute round table discussion with several members of Hasbro’s design and marketing team. The folks directly responsible for those four inch pieces of plastic that decorate your house in such vast numbers. I can’t quite express how cool it was for Hasbro and for Justin Aclin from Hunter PR to make this all happen. In normal circumstances, even having a chance to talk with one person from the Hasbro team would have been amazing. But on Sunday morning, we were fortunate enough to sit down with not one… not two… not even three… we had a great round table discussion with four members of the Hasbro G.I. Joe team.
John Warden, designer mastermind of the G.I. Joe line. Dave Proctor, sculpting manager and the sculptor of one of everyone’s favorite G.I. Joe figures ever, the 30th Anniversary Storm Shadow. Erik Arana, an input designer, and along with Wayne Park, one of the geniuses behind the G.I. Joe: Resolute 7-Packs as well as design elements of the Slaughter’s Marauders and Dreadnoks 7-Packs. Last, but absolutely not least we spoke with Joe Del Regno, the current Marketing Director for the G.I. Joe line.
During this discussion, we covered a wealth of topics including the controversy behind the “Concept Case” as well as how fans can get their voices heard and express their desire to see certain figures come to light. We speak about G.I. Joe: Retaliation, upcoming releases for 2013, and much more. It was a very fun discussion, and was the highlight of the entire weekend for the What’s on Joe Mind team.
Cold Slither came close, but in the end, the Hasbro team won the vote.
This is a very quick episode, only about 25 minutes so even folks who don’t listen to the podcast should check it out and learn some cool things that you may not have known otherwise!
I’m certain I speak from everyone on the What’s on Joe Mind team when I say THANK YOU to John, Dave, Erik, Joe, and Justin for all working so hard together to get us that slot of time and for devoting their precious time to the show. It was extremely exciting for us, and hopefully exciting for the Joe community as well. Check it out on Podbean, or listen via the embedded players below:
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by generalsjoes | Jul 3, 2012 | 30th Anniversary, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Collectors Club, G.I. Joe Convention, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, JoeCon 2012, Show and Convention Coverage
During an exciting round table conversation with Hasbro this morning, the fellas from What’s on Joe Mind and myself got some information about the concept case shown at the G.I. Joe Convention here in New Orleans.
According to G.I. Joe Marketing director Joe Del Regno Hasbro is going to endeavor to list some online polls on GIJoe.Com in order to gauge interest in the figures and concepts shown within the confines of the “vault” here in New Orleans. While we’re not certain on the timeline for this event, I figured the sooner we start identifying these figures, the better. Thankfully, Hasbro made the job considerably easier by providing labels today in order to better organize our thoughts and priorities.
Click the Read the Rest of the Story link below to see the run down of figures with their identification. The photos will all be presented in the same order as the names for easy ID.
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by generalsjoes | Jul 1, 2012 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Convention, G.I. Joe Retaliation Toys, G.I. Joe Toys, JoeCon 2012, Show and Convention Coverage
As I hinted yesterday, there were indeed a pair of figures put out on display, but quickly pulled back from Hasbro, who evidently did not want them revealed as of yet.
Not really certain what the full story is, just that there are evidently upcoming Roadblock and Flint figures that look pretty incredible. No information was revealed on timeline for release or format, but I suspect they will be part of the main single pack line in 2013.
Check out some images below, with big thanks to Kenny on Twitter.
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by generalsjoes | Jul 1, 2012 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 2, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, G.I. Joe Collectors Club, G.I. Joe Convention, G.I. Joe: The Movie, JoeCon 2012, Show and Convention Coverage
This coverage of the behind-the-scenes look at G.I. Joe: Retaliation hadn’t gone live yet just because there wasn’t really any “breaking news” so to speak, just some awesome glimpses of the production art, weapons, and costumes of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film.
Logan Lubera, a Hasbro representative, spent four months essentially embedded with Paramount, providing consulting, approval, and negotiation every single step of the way. From weapon design to costume design, to action set pieces, Logan had a hand in many of the elements of the Retaliation motion picture. He actually designed the entire Battle Kata weapons system, initially as something that could be used for role play in the toyline, but it actually ended up being included in the film itself! This was something Logan was especially proud of.
Throughout the entirety of the film, their main desire was to bring G.I. Joe back down to Earth. Make it much more gritty and realistic military action film, drawing back the super hero “shiny armor” elements. Focus much more tightly on quick-paced, character themed action and much less on huge spectacle and special effects.
There are many vehicles injected into the film, more than what we’ve seen in trailers and footage so far, and a lot of character-based nods to the fans as well. As many folks have suspected, Jinx was given the yellow mountain fighting suit to separate her a bit from the Red Ninjas and also as an homage to Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.
As with many of the panels, you can read all of my aggregated Live Tweets on my Twitter Feed to get more insight and information.
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by generalsjoes | Jul 1, 2012 | 30th Anniversary, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Collectors Club, G.I. Joe Convention, G.I. Joe Extreme, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, JoeCon 2012, Show and Convention Coverage
Good morning! I apologize about the delay in coverage for this as the Convention quickly turned into a whirlwind yesterday afternoon and evening. The Collectors’ Club roundtable kicked off yesterday afternoon and much was discussed.
Brian apologized for what happened with the credit card system and revealed some details about how the third party software vendor and service provider could have done some things better. There were programming errors in the web form they provided and no security package installed within the application as there should have been. He did took full responsibility for what occurred, and informed us that he used a famous security analyst to uncover the issue and ensure that the new software package had all of the required security.
They discussed quite a bit about the package design for the carded Footloose and the Convention exclusive items, breaking down the numerous paint applications required for each figure. Also discussed was the upcoming Membership Incentive figures. For 2013, they are as follows:
- 12″ Comrade of Action – an undercover Adventure Team agent in Russia
- 4″ Iceberg! Borrowing elements from the classic version, but attempting a more modern twist. No figure picture was shown, but details were revealed.
Speaking a bit on the Figure Subscription Service as well, and showing off those figures at the front of the hall. They are still testing the software platform for the store, and are hoping to get it online and rolled out shortly. Still aren’t revealing 100% concrete pricing structure yet, as costs have changed in the manufacturing process over the past 8 months. The figures for the FSS are essentially a “pre-order” where they will solicit the subscription, and then produce figures based on the demand from the orders.
They also announced… FIGURE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE WAVE 2!
Hoping to get that launched, again, based on demand, after Wave 1 has settled somewhat, and even have three figures lined up for it:
- Dragonsky
- Big Bear
- Night Force Lt. Falcon
A mock up picture was shown of Dragonsky, but not for the other two. Big Bear will come with his trusty hat and a new head sculpt, while Lt. Falcon will be similar to the canceled 25th Anniversary Night Force version only with the new sculpted head from the Marauders 7-pack.
Again, I know this posting is late, but keep in mind I do a lot of Live Tweeting and up-to-the-minute news updates from my Twitter Feed. Check out the images from the presentation below.
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