Toy Fair 2013 Hasbro Showroom Photos

It's been said that Hasbro needed to inject some life into G.I. Joe so that future generations could enjoy it for years to come. The 3-D conversion of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, coupled with its star-studded cast gives the brand global exposure and some much needed excitement. We spoke with Hasbro’s marketing team about their 2013 plans for G.I. Joe and discussed what they envisioned for the brand moving forward.

Figures

• The second wave of G.I. Joe: Retaliation figures is now on shelves at retail.
• Wave two Firefly and Snake Eyes will be repacked in future waves because Hasbro recognizes they’re highly desired and difficult to find at retail.
• Wave three's new figures are Duke, Flint, Roadblock, Budo, Firefly Snake Eyes (based on Sunbow animated character) Storm Shadow (based on Sunbow animated character), Cobra Commander (based on Sunbow animated character and includes switch-out masked and unmasked heads), Data-Viper and Kwinn. Many of the figures are dubbed ultimate as they’re the most definitive versions of the characters to date.
• Wave four is a remix of hard to find figures from the first three waves.
• Three new 12-inch figures--referred to as two-ups--were shown and include Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and Roadblock. The sculpts look great, but the figures are limited to 5-points of articulation and are not intended to compete with Hot Toys / Sideshow.

Vehicles

• The Night Landing Craft with Eel and Ninja Combat Cruiser will be released in future waves because they have been difficult to find.
• The Tomahawk is now known as the Eagle Hawk and is completely re-tooled. The winch is new, the cockpit has been updated to accommodate for the larger sized 25th-style figures and the blades can be pinned back individually to give you space on your shelf to display it. Lift-Ticket will be included and the MSRP is $39.99

Et Cetera

• A second season of G.I. Joe: Renegades was discussed and planned. When the plans didn't pan out, ideas were also discussed to find a way to close some of the story lines in Renegades with a new series that ties into G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Ultimately all plans for an animated series were put on hold and an animated series is not in development at this time. Despite some reports that G.I. Joe: Renegades performed well, it was never among the HUB’s popular shows. Hasbro felt Renegades was disconnected from the G.I. Joe brand story and their goal moving forward is to ensure all media ties into a single, unified story.
• A Renegades Roadblock was considered, but never went beyond concept design because the figures size would eat into the tooling budget and wasn't feasible because the series was under-performing. The Coyote shown at G.I. JoeCon 2012 is also off the table.