G.I. Joe Retaliation Figures & Vehicles Released in Canada

[CobraCommander]

So I picked up the HISS tank with CC today and wow was I surprised the figure had zero Joe articulation!? Well not really Zero, but no better than a vintage Star Wars figure, arms, legs and pivot head that's it. Gee wiz thanks Hasbro

[Toy Gremlin]

Originally Posted by CobraCommander

So I picked up the HISS tank with CC today and wow was I surprised the figure had zero Joe articulation!? Well not really Zero, but no better than a vintage Star Wars figure, arms, legs and pivot head that's it. Gee wiz thanks Hasbro

Yeah, really disappointed that Hasbro cheaped out on the vehicle drivers especially with this CC. He kind of looks like a re-imagined battle armour CC, which is pretty cool if it had the proper Joe articulation.

[Napseeker]

How much was the HISS tank though? I'd bet it was relatively cheap (like the Bravo vehicles) compared to prices in year's past. Hasbro did this with the Captain America vehicles too - vehicle was decent, the included figure was 1980s-articulation, just enough for kids to get some play value out of but still want (maybe) to buy the better single-carded figures.

They're aiming the vehicles for kids, making them affordable for the parents to snap them up. Probably a good strategy just because we've seen how poorly the higher-priced RoC vehicles have sold in the past few years. I think Hasbro is aiming to prove to retailers that these vehicles will move off the shelves and not warm until a clearance sale. If they can't do that, then a big chunk of the GI Joe toyline is going to be history... Joe has always been about both figures and the vehicles.

[CobraCommander]

Originally Posted by Napseeker

How much was the HISS tank though?

Yeah the price wasn't too bad $21.xx, I just wish I knew ahead of time that the figure was sub-par, but you can't tell as there figure has no window display on the box. I probably would have held off a bit before buying.

I picked up the single carded Roadblock and CC today, just a heads up on some things I did not notice before opening. The Roadblock fig has some weird gun holder permanently attached in his right hand. Grrr... I thought it was removable, no biggie I just need to sacrifice hands with another figure. Roadblock has no normal weapons, just the huge launcher. Both CC and Roadblock have no ankle/lower leg articulation or double joint at the knee, not a major issue for me but still sucks that they are removing articulation.

So far I'm not impressed by the single carded figs, the box art is terrible it looks like a dollar store design, also I'm not sure why Roadblock has the Arashikage Clan tattoo? Compared to ROC and 30th you no longer get the nice artwork of the figure on the card, you get fewer weapons, no more stands and the figs have less articulation in the lower legs.

[Scrapper6]

Originally Posted by CobraCommander

Yeah the price wasn't too bad $21.xx, I just wish I knew ahead of time that the figure was sub-par, but you can't tell as there figure has no window display on the box. I probably would have held off a bit before buying.

I picked up the single carded Roadblock and CC today, just a heads up on some things I did not notice before opening. The Roadblock fig has some weird gun holder permanently attached in his right hand. Grrr... I thought it was removable, no biggie I just need to sacrifice hands with another figure. Roadblock has no normal weapons, just the huge launcher. Both CC and Roadblock have no ankle/lower leg articulation or double joint at the knee, not a major issue for me but still sucks that they are removing articulation.

So far I'm not impressed by the single carded figs, the box art is terrible it looks like a dollar store design, also I'm not sure why Roadblock has the Arashikage Clan tattoo? Compared to ROC and 30th you no longer get the nice artwork of the figure on the card, you get fewer weapons, no more stands and the figs have less articulation in the lower legs.

The lack of standerd Modern Joe articulation is a really strange and jarring development. Ever since the 25th Anniversary Joes have been articulated at the ankle and featured pretty much fifteen points of articulation. (Elbow, Shoulder, Wrist, Hip, Knee, Knee, Ankle, Head, repeat most of that twice for each limb.)

Now, it's almost as though Hasbro is taking a step back to the older O-Ring Joes articulation wise, we've got the single knee joints again, not double, no articulation in the ankles or wrists, just elbows and shoulders and neck.

They've dropped off the articulation and I can't understand why that is, I mean, from an aesthetic stand point it just smacks of terrible design choice considering that since the Modern Era of Joes started on the 25th Anniversary they've boasted more articulation Than Any Competing Brands from other Manufacturers. However, considering that they are plastic and it is meant to cut down on costs of manufacturing... Well from a buisness stand point it does make a little sense.

But even so, when a kid recieves a Pursuit of Cobra or 30th Anniversary figure, and then they get one of the cool new Retaliation figures... Just no, I can't even begin to describe how dissapointed that kid will be.

Thank God the Ninjas aren't like that, they still have the standard joints, my Red Ninja is after all a repaint of Renegades Storm Shadow. (I think)

But again, WHY are there no proper accessories? If you give a ninja some swords, he should at least include a backpack/scabbard to put the swords in so the kids won't lose them. Instead he's either forced to hold his swords for all time or stick them in the spare accessories bag from PoC/30th days and get them lost amongs the shuffle.

The packaging is just GOD AWFUL, it is worse than RoC Packaging by a Country Mile. At least RoC Cards had some type of Movie-Fied File Card. These new Joes only have... "The Red Ninja is an evil Cobra Agent who does Ninja Stuff for Cobra." (Not quoted exactly, but that's basically what it boils down to.)

And taking away the figure stands is a real bone head move, I mean if it's to cut costs on plastic, well I've got news for you Hasbro. You see those jumbo sized missile launchers and things you've included to gimmickify the toys for the kiddies? You see them? They're the same damn cost to make as a figure stand, probably more expensive even since they have moving spring loaded parts!

Joe Packaging has to have some kind of standards, even the Dollar Store Joes have an excuse for poor packaging. As your main movie line packaging you should at least be investing in something a bit better than the plain ordinary samey type stuff. Design wise, all of the figures have the same packaging, it's all uniform. Perhaps that might be good in some statistic somewhere, but when you see Retaliation next to something like... Transformers Prime with their impressive, stand out packaging designs and individual card art figures. Which do you think the kid is going to choose?

I do have to admit though, I'd really love to see someone make a scaled down, non-firing version of the snake's head staff Cobra Commander comes with, I've always been a sucker for CC's with snake's head staffs.

[Napseeker]

These are good points, but I can answer some of them: the reason why there are no stands but they will spend the money on big, spring-loaded weapons is kids... supposedly kids want these dumb gimmicky weapons. Stands are for collectors, so is articulation, so are filecards... these are the things that Hasbro associates as "collector wants" not kid wants.

Kids want the splashy packaging, the mini-firing weapon, the basic action figure that won't break too easily (due to super articulation)... at least that must be the Hasbro mindset as to how to satisfy the kids. So obviously if their money is limited, then they will drop the stands.

Folks need to understand that movie years are NOT good times for collectors... but supposedly great for kids. Non-movie years are when we collectors get the GOOD stuff like Pursuit of Cobra/30th anniversary. So in that regard, you almost have to PRAY that GI Joe Retaliation becomes the next mega-money losing "John Carter" for the studios and Hasbro is forced back into making us happy and not the kiddies. Given how well this latest movie is being mangled, we may be back to good times sooner than we all think.

[lars573]

What your describing is GI-Joe's death. As making collectors happy=retail death.

Also kids don't care about articulation. They like bright colours and gimmick weapons.

[robsonspen]

get these crap figs while they last, habro to recall figs

http://www.hisstank.com/gi-joe-news/...-hasbro-11391/

[Scrapper6]

Originally Posted by Napseeker

These are good points, but I can answer some of them: the reason why there are no stands but they will spend the money on big, spring-loaded weapons is kids... supposedly kids want these dumb gimmicky weapons. Stands are for collectors, so is articulation, so are filecards... these are the things that Hasbro associates as "collector wants" not kid wants.

Kids want the splashy packaging, the mini-firing weapon, the basic action figure that won't break too easily (due to super articulation)... at least that must be the Hasbro mindset as to how to satisfy the kids. So obviously if their money is limited, then they will drop the stands.

Folks need to understand that movie years are NOT good times for collectors... but supposedly great for kids. Non-movie years are when we collectors get the GOOD stuff like Pursuit of Cobra/30th anniversary. So in that regard, you almost have to PRAY that GI Joe Retaliation becomes the next mega-money losing "John Carter" for the studios and Hasbro is forced back into making us happy and not the kiddies. Given how well this latest movie is being mangled, we may be back to good times sooner than we all think.

I'm sorry, but since when has G.I.Joe NOT Had figure stands? When I was a kid collecting Joes I always had figure stands with mine, and I loved using them to get my Joes in action poses when I wasn't playing with them, because other wise... Well "Some Poses May Require Hand Support" No kid wants to sit there for three hours holding Snake Eyes, or Storm Shadow in a crane kick pose or what have you when he wants to display his figures. Plus with those bulky, top heavy, kid friend missile launchers the figures NEED stands to be able to hold them and use them.

Now, about Retaliation's packaging... What the Slag is 'Spalshy' about it? That packing isn't splashy, nor is it kid friendly, it's not undulating with bright colors or anything. It's a bland, sort of big explosion behind the figure (if memory serves) with The Rock and Snake-Eyes' heads on above the character. I see nothing splashy about it.

As for File Cards, ok, so take them off the back of the cards if you must. But what's wrong with leaving out an insert? Something that would include the File Card style of old even if it's just on a flimsy piece of paper? They've done it for all the multi-language countries. I'm fairly certain File Cards are more popular with Kids than you might think NS, I know when I was a kid I loved the detailed biography and character information you got from the File Cards/Tech Spec cards of the TFs/Joes. I can't imagine that children have changed so much in the past thirty years that they'd prefer to have some pathetic attempt at a write up to tell them why they should buy this cool looking ninja, or creepy looking multi-headed Zartan with 'Glowing Eyes'. (What's up with that anyway? Zartan's eyes don't 'Glow' in the movie... Or at least those brief scenes we've seen of him in the trailer sure didn't seem to indicate that.)

The big missile launchers and stuff don't bother me that much, I mean they didn't bug my during RoC and they aren't going to bother me during Retaliation. I am a collector who understands this sort of mentality.

Articulation wise is still a big dissapointment for me. You keep saying that kids today don't care for the joints out the wazoo of the Joes, that they'll buy them anyway regardless. If Hasbro had some hard data from focus groups or something to back this up, and I'm talking REAL focus groups that asked Joe Fans that are kids, not just random little boys off the street who might not even be into Joes or Action Figures, that question then I'd understand the move. But if that were the case, don't bullshit the fans by telling us it's a cost cutting measure when you've got honking great big chunks of plastic sitting next to the figures in packaging that launch missles. All the costs they save from axing articulation just went out the window by including those gimmicky weapons.

They've cut back on decent accessories and articulation for this Movie line simply because they can, plain and simple. They don't care if the kids lose the weapons because they can't store them on their figures anymore, they don't care if the kids wanted their Joes to keep the same level of articulation they were used to from RoC/PoC/30th, and they don't care if kids care about those things who like Joes because of them. They sure as hell don't care that a kid who likes Joes is going to be into it because his father was into it as a child, hell even as a kid my Joe Drivers were unique and had all the same basic articulation as the single card figures. If they really wanted to cut out the articulation on the drivers, I think I would have preffered if they just axed the drivers, like they did in the 90's when I was collecting ARAH.

You can argue that a Movie Year is 'Crap' for collectors because they have to please the kiddies all you want. I have never seen this phenomena you speak of! With The Transformers Movies I always saw great figures, with kid oriented stuff selling right along-side them, Speed Stars, Robot Powered Machines, Robot Heroes, stuff like that. And with Rise of Cobra they sure didn't half-ass anything. The reason why the RoC Toyline did so poorly wasn't because of the super articulated figures, it wasn't because they came with figure stands, it was because the movie did not strike like lightning the same way as Transformers did.

The movie, while I still find enjoyable, is a convoluted mess of a storyline at times with a basic romance plot that the kids don't give a damn about, and an actor who hadn't even cut his teeth yet on any roles that would help him not come off as wooden as he did. Couple that with a plot that works great on the small screen, but not so much on the large screen and a half-arsed attempt at an origin for Cobra Commander, well of course the kids were going to skip the toys. Although the fact that it was a Movie Toyline and they over-ordered Wave One at Retail may have also contributed to this disaster.

But hey, if Hasbro wants to try a new business plan and see it waste away Joes to nothing in the hearts of kids and collectors alike, let them learn the harshness of reality. G.I.Joe is NOT Star Wars, they can't just slap a twelve year old mold into new packaging and expect the kiddies to buy it. It doesn't have the same level of clout that Star Wars has to pull something like that.

[Robimus]

Originally Posted by Napseeker

Folks need to understand that movie years are NOT good times for collectors...

So you weren't collecting many of those pesky ROTS figures?

While I get what your saying I can't say that I agree. Movie years are the years when collectors actually get to see things at mass retail.

As great as POC or the 30th Anniversary line may have been spotty distribution makes me feel like they really are not the victory they may appear to be.