Hasbro Celebrates 50 Years of G.I. Joe . . . by killing the line?

18 thoughts on “Hasbro Celebrates 50 Years of G.I. Joe . . . by killing the line?”

1. Absurd!

2. Those movies were so, so long in gestating I’m not surprised. And the toys haven’t been exactly at the top of any big box store buyer’s list. They basically completely screwed retail by delaying the 2nd movie for so long- the merch was on clearance before the movie even came out. And buyers have long memories when failures happen at that level. The GI JOE product has been great for the last six years, we’ve gotten amazing figures, and the last 4 or so years have been some of the best 3.75″ figures of all time. But with the high prices, poor performance of both movie lines, and the 25th anniversary reissues, I could see retailers backing away from ordering any product this year, and I could see Hasbro (who wants to be a movie/entertainment company really, really badly) backing away as well… thus ending the line.

3. While I thought Retaliation itself did fairly well at the box office (375 on a 130 budget), delaying that movie just killed off any good buzz and goodwill that film had. It hurt license holders, retailers, and ultimately Hasbro.

   Every time G.I. Joe gets some really good buzz, Hasbro cancels it. Renegades? Canceled to make room for the movie (which then got delayed). Great lines like the 30th anniversary set and Renegades? Canceled for movie product. Resolute? That did pretty well with fans and Hasbro did nothing else with it to make sure everything tied in with POC.

4. So will Hasbro just be all about Transformers and the Marvel Universe now?

   I’m reminded of when “To do the unspeakable and be forgotten” became :”To do the impossible and make it look easy”.

   Or to paraphrase something Snake-Eyes once told a younger relative: “When you become a G.I. Joe, don’t expect to be appreciated.”

5. It boggles my mind that Transformers can exist, apparently easily, as an ongoing property and yet Hasbro can’t figure out how to keep selling G.I. Joe. Even with all the challenges in the market it shouldn’t be that difficult to sell army guys.

6. I’m thinking that Hasbro needs to revive Sigma 6 again. Still Joe, less military for parents turned off by that, lots of possibilities. The style seems to be pretty prevalent in lines like Batman Power Attack, Total Heroes, and Hasbro’s Marvel smashups.

   I really just want Sigma 6 back.

7. This is hardly surprising. Hasbro celebrated Joe’s 30th anniversary the same way.

8. Give it 5-10 years and Joe will be back on the shelves. either the same or possibly reinvented somehow.

9. It didn’t help that you just couldn’t find anything gi joe product, except clearanced movie stuff, anywhere in the heartland. There are entire waves that I never saw from POC (which was awesome).
   Then they put all their resources into the delayed 2nd film, which was an awful movie. I can’t imagine kids wanting to see it & even less wanting toys from it.
   This reminds me of MOTU, which they claim doesn’t sell well enough for retail. Why then can transformers, which are generally very expensive & rarely for kids, continue to thrive?
   I think both joe & motu goes back to both 1. Poor availably & 2. Awful, awful, awful case assortments. Need proof? 2002 MOTU was killed by Jungle He-Mans & Spinblade Skeletors

10. After reading nine laborious pages of discussion on the issue, I really don’t believe the line is dead. Think of it as “on hiatus.” There’s no new product to promote, and no new movie to promote, so there’s no reason for Hasbro to show up.

    (As for the whole “it’s the 50th anniversary!” angle, let’s face it, it’s NOT the 50th anniversary. How many years out of those 50 were 12″ toys being sold? So it’s been effectively dead 35 years, and “alive” for an intermittent 15.)

    I don’t have any numbers, but having been in charge of pricing at one of FL’s largest Targets during the Joe’s first two movie runs, I can tell you neither line did particularly well. Especially when compared to how some of the younger lines were doing (Bakugan comes to mind).

11. @Barbecue17: I would LOVE, LOVE to see Sigma Six back on shelves. I was all about them until the line stopped. They were some of the best Joe toys ever made from the 60’s to today. The later AT influenced ones were even better. But, they were overall a huge, huge failure at retail. So I doubt they’d go back to that line unless as exclusives or subscription or something expensive and collector-focused, and only if Joe fandom really, really pushed them to.

    @Matthew M: Transformers has been pretty kid and current media-focused, since the 1st movie came out.

    1. I know tformers are “for kids” but how many 35 year olds couldn’t transform them, let alone 5 year olds?

12. IDW is still producing G.I. Joe comics, right?

13. First they kill off Optimus Prime. Now this? Next time I see Hasbro I’m backhanding them in the face for us all.

14. I’d say it’s not so terrible as to say that it’s the end of the line, but it’s not so ludicrous to think that they are going to shelve the property for a couple of years to let it regroup and come along with something else. Maybe it’s time to move away from ARAH and turn it into something else. It is a terrible shame that they couldn’t put out a modest run of 12″ figures for it though, or a box set with a 12″, 3 3/4″ and a Sigma 6 of Joe Colton or something similar as a tribute. It’s a brand that coined the term action figure and it made Hassenfeld Brothers a household name.

15. There will be 50th anniversary TRU exclusives at the 3 3/4″ scale, right?

16. GOOD! Good Riddance! We don’t need them! They haven’t been original since 1976. Buying rights to toy lines they didn’t create, Copying Star Wars figures etc.. Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!!

    1. Huh?

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