Along with the interviews I just posted, the cast members from G.I. Joe: Retaliation also posed and had some pictures taken of them and their action figure representations. Hasbro has provided those images and you can see them mirrored below.
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While many of us low level fan sites were ushered out of the city after the exciting event on Saturday, the “big boys” are still lurking around talking to cast members from G.I. Joe: Retaliation. ComingSoon.net was among those sites, and they’ve posted a few video interviews on SuperHeroHype.com! Check out the interviews below and some interesting snippets from each.
Thanks much to Ghost Man for the heads up.
Also try to ignore the ComingSoon dude who calls the film G.I. Joe: Retribution. Good thing they let those guys get the good interviews and not us folks who don’t know what we’re doing, huh?
Jon Chu
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Lorenzo DiBonaventura
DJ Cotrona and Adrianne Palicki
I haven’t tossed a metric ton of Toy Fair images up yet, but I filled out the action figure waves with correct information and new photos based on what I got during Toy Fair. I hope to supplement the vehicle and 3 Pack sections at some point, too, but that’s for a later time.
Check out the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Toy SuperPage for the new info!
Hold on to your seats, Joe fans!
With the 2012 Toy Fair wrapping up today for Hasbro, many big name media outlets and Hollywood folks were walking through the Hasbro showroom. You had to know that some interviews would take place, and Mike Ryan from Huffington Post got a big one!
He took a few minutes to talk with G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon Chu, who dropped some serious plot nuggets that are sure to open some eyes. I won’t regurgitate the entire interview here, but I do want to touch on a few things:
“Joseph Gordon-Levitt is not in this movie. Under the mask, is this the same character that Levitt played?
No. [Smiling] But we figured out a way that’s pretty nice. And you get the Cobra Commander that you’ve always wanted. Or, to me, what I always wanted: a bad-ass villain. He’s one of the most iconic villains ever. I’m even following him on Twitter — he’s so funny.”
Woah. You read it there, folks. The Cobra Commander we see in G.I. Joe: Retaliation is not the same guy from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. So the scene where we think Storm Shadow is “rescuing” him… maybe that’s not what’s happening there. Very interesting.
The next bit of knowledge brought a big smile to my face as well:
“And we may see Destro?
[Smiling] You may see a little glimpse of Destro. We’ll have to see. Speaking of the comic book, I love “Silent Interlude.” It’s one of my favorite. Obviously that changed everything for Joe. We do a little homage in our movie to “Silent Interlude.” I’m very excited for the fans to see what we do with that.”
So, a little glimpse of Destro and an homage to Silent Interlude. Hmmm…
Any way, the interview is a fantastic read. Everyone needs to check it out. Lots of great illumination about the mindset behind the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film, a much larger focus on gritty action and bullets over lasers, and a story that Mr. Chu says is much more “comic” themed than the Rise of Cobra. Check it out right here.
It was immediately obvious when I approached Derryl DePriest and began speaking that they knew articulation was an issue that was going to arise today. Between Mr. DePriest and designer John Warden, there were a lot of articulation questions flying around, and as many of us suspected, it all boils down to cost.
Yes, of course there are costs associated with new tooling for figures that are 5 points of articulation, but as explained from Mr. DePriest, it’s more than just the new tooling. Manufacturing costs for figures with that many joints and movement points are extremely expensive above and beyond the tooled parts, so even using existing tooling was cost prohibitive in most cases.
They weighed this fact with the idea that many of these vehicles were being geared for children, who would do little more than slam the figure in the cockpit and drive it around, and the decision was made…if they had to cut articulation, the drivers were the best place to do it. It is a constant battle between quality of the product and the costs that can be absorbed creating that product, and in a year when they are trying to build the brand back up, they have to be extremely prudent.
John Warden also brought up some interesting discussion points in regard to costs of vehicle production. As a fandom, we’ve been complaining pretty heavily about vehicle size, and they’ve taken that into consideration. By reducing articulation and reducing costs associated with the vehicles, they can balance things out and end up producing vehicles that are a bit larger than we might be used to. The Ghost Hawk II is a perfect example. This vehicle was surprisingly large I thought when I was in the showroom, and I honestly didn’t think Hasbro would be able to make it the size I would have wanted, but they did, and some of that is due to costs saved with reduced articulation.
So even though it seems to many of us that the trade off isn’t worth while, we are getting a somewhat larger vehicle, and some other very nicely designed vehicles to go along with it. Mr. Warden confirmed that the heads of the driver figures are totally swappable to normal figures and he even name dropped Rock n Roll as being an inspiration for the Clutch figure. It sounded to me like there was much careful consideration and financial analysis done, short term and long term, and the articulation changes are going to save money, which could mean better things in the future. I’m not happy with the way the driver figures look, but the vehicles are excellent, by and large, and the toyline is very nice as well.
As for the single pack figures…John Warden also confirmed that some of those figures have reduced articulation, but as I deduced on a recent episode of What’s on Joe Mind, it’s due to form and function. Articulation is given on an “as needed” basis, so generic troopers might not get the full range of motion, but the ninjas do. Another example was that the first release of Roadblock won’t have double knees or ankles, but the Wave 2 “Battle Kata” version will, because he’s got more training.
Cutting articulation is not something anyone wants. Not the fans and not the Hasbro designers. But financial justifications seemed to warrant it in this case. Don’t worry about it overtaking the line, that is not a concern.