Support us on PATREON: / retroblasting Watch Analog Toys' reaction here: • GI Joe Retro Collectio... Michael gives his take on the announcement of the G.I. Joe Retro Wave from Hasbro. #RetroBlasting #GIJoeRetroWave #Hasbro #GIJoe
@@mgvillanmp478 Whatever the case may be, look at the two Stooges who did the Hasbro Pulse presentation last Friday: the woman is completely clueless and looks like she's reading her text from a teleprompter, uninspired and free of all knowledge about the brand and lore and Mr. Moustache seemed at least drunk. If these are part of the team running the brand for Hasbro, we shouldn't be surprised about anything.
Actually quite the opposite. Show me a Walmart w/ unsold Joes peg warming. I can certainly show you pictures of retro Ghostbusters peg warming & not selling even at $4.87 clearance prices. There are simply not enough old men stuck in the past that will buy enough of the dated retro sculpts to make the lines viable. I challenge anyone to show me EITHER Joe lines piled up on shelves not selling. Especially at Targets. I'll wait.
Hasbro is going to use this to say, “see the 3.75 scale just isn’t viable and the property just isn’t worth perusing” They learn the wrong lessons all the time
or more likely is Hasbro done nothing to try to bring a new fans, if you haven't noticed Gi Joe hasn't had a new cartoon since Renegades. I wil say GI Joe Renegades put a very interesting spin on COBRA, by utilizing a "legitimate" corporation to cover their terrorist activities.
When Michael said "It don't make no sense." with a straight face, I was like "Wow. You KNOW this is bad and infuriating if it has Michael... speaking double negatives!" 😄 And "vomitorium of weapons". Yes indeed! And as far as all of Hasbro's decisions, I have finally come up with a plausible explanation: In the words of Rick James......"Cocaine's a helluva drug!"
If the world has “moved on” then G.I. Joe needs to. I love the 82-94 line - always will. But I feel like it is very much a creature of that time period and aside from Mike Costa’s “Cobra”, years ago now, comic none of the media has been compelling. I don’t know what the Classified line represents but it sure isn’t the G.I. Joe that is at its core a military fantasy. Hasbro needs to figure out a balance between giving something new and fresh to keep kids interested in the property and something that honors what came before. That’s a tight-rope, but G.I. Joe was something that reinvented itself constantly until the 2000’s.
I can answer the first question--Brian Savage (who ran the G.I. Joe Collector's Club) noted a number of years back that Hasbro lost the molds for the original line (or they were damaged). It's one of the reasons the convention sets ended up switching over from o-ring to 25th anniversary style. That being said, it would have been nice if Hasbro developed a new o-ring style (the same way Mattel reproduced a new 5.5" style for MOTU Origins). Sadly, their budget is devoted more toward Star Wars and Transformers than anything we would have like developed for G.I. Joe.
They can recreate the molds from scratch from 3D scans like they did with Star Wars, Ghostbusters, etc - there are bootleggers doing this to fine effect CURRENTLY. This isn't a valid excuse. This is a ZERO RISK CHEAP OUT line. Not bad toys at all, but not the right choice to commemorate the brand.
@@backissue No doubt, but the combination of recreation with needing screws and o-rings would cost money that I am betting they haven't budgeted for this line. They sadly don't care enough about the brand to feed it the investment it needs. Also, unfortunately, the bootlegged o-ring figures are terribly floppy.
Hasbro broke my heart yet again. Fingers crossed we eventually get a 3.75" Vintage collection versions of Joes like they do for Star Wars. Original card backs with modern sculpts that honor the original designs with out "Fortnite-ing" of them. Once again Michael, you are DEAD ON. Why are they not paying you to consult?!?!?!
Either you're kidding, or really ignorant of reality. There are no remaining TRU old stock for them to repackage, besides not being cost effective. And the new reissues are distinctively different than those not only minor variations, but plastic type. it's one thing to point out mega corporations' greed or stupidity, but it hurts your credibility when making such stupid falsehoods. It would cost far more to have already made unsold merchandise sent back to China to be repackaged than to have new ones made. Anyone not just spewing toxicity will realize that.
I think the problem is that the Hasbro executives keep asking Snake Eyes for his opinion but when he doesn't speak up, they go and do what the hell they want!! Great video my friend and much love and support as always.
This must have been that stray dart the one executive threw from over his shoulder behind his back, and the other executives forgot to pull it out of the "ideas" target board when the meeting was over.
I feel like I'm the only person on the internet who is excited about this line of figures. I like the modern Joes. I have collected the modern Joes since 2007, and I am glad to get a chance to buy some more. I agree that the figures not aligning to the card art was a miss, and that there were better modern representations of Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow that they have selected. But over all, I am just thrilled that more Joe stuff is going to be on the shelves, at a price point that is affordable, and in a format that can appeal to both collectors and kids. We can bitch about o-rings and not using 35 year old molds all day long, but if we want this property to continue (in 1:18 scale!) then we need to make room for newer stuff. Yo Joe!
Marauders is the best. I've had a great time assembling my own unique characters for GI Joe and Cobra 'sub-teams' over the last few years...they provide a tremendous GI Joe experience.
Mike. What an awesome channel. The time and effort you put into me reliving my totally 80s childhood is awesome. Totally uncanny how you capture all the same thoughts and ideas I had as we must be nearly the same age. I was born in 75. My first toy at Christmas I can remember was Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter. I caught the bug then and I never recovered. Lol. Thanks so much. I watch your channel for hours before realizing I need to go and be a grown up again!!!! Cheers, pal
I get the feeling that this was an aborted test run of a new G.I. Joe line and was released, either to tie in with the new Snake Eyes movie, ( which has been delayed ) or just to test the reaction from dealers and fans!
These are definitely meant to tie into the movie, at least the character selection for the first wave is. That's probably why they chose to use the visor head on Snake Eyes, and the long sleeves on Storm Shadow.
Did you not realise there's a Snake Eyes movie dropping as soon as theatres reopen? It's NOT about trademarks as internet trolls speculate, as they still have comics. It's about priming the audience for the movie while trying to reactivate the older collectors w/ quick reissues via Walmart exclusives. And since the retro line is a single store line, they aren't going to spend money on new tooling or expenses. unlike w/ the Classified, which are all new tooling, regardless of what one thinks of their designs. Ultimately they are a business in the business to make money (often as easily as possible) by selling to as many as possible, & not trying to cater to a handful of fanmen who still dreams of 1960's 12" Joes being re-released at their original $2.29 price. BTW, they got stuck w/ millions of dollars worth of unsold Timeless Collection reissues, so they are super wary of reissuing O-ring retros even if they had access to the molds.
@@TadashiYee I didn't know they still made comics for G.I. Joe. Interesting info. ------- I don't think speculating about trademark issues qualifies as a thing internet trolls usually do. It's not spamming or harassing people.
GI Joe is largely based on nostalgia, and a lot of people who grew up with GI Joe were hoping for the o-ring Joes because when Hasbro said “retro”, everyone expected the toys they saw back in the 80s. Sure toys are mostly for kids, but toys are also about playability, and sometimes there is such a thing as too much articulation, because figures become too wobbly and can’t stand properly. The O-ring Joes have, IMO, a great balance of articulation and sturdiness, which makes them really great toys to actually play with, as opposed to just make cool poses. There’s also the issue of where the articulation is. The O-ring Joes didn’t have chest articulation, which I am totally fine with, but the modern Joes have this strange chest articulation right under the beasts/pecks that make the figures look like they’re wearing bras. That’s a situation where articulation spoils the figure for me. There’s also really strange proportions for some of the modern figures where the top of the legs stick way out past the hips… the o-ring Joes always seemed proportioned. If Hasbro was smart, they would make both modern and vintage Joes, cause going by eBay prices on O-ring Joes, there is huge demand and not nearly enough supply.
Hi, great and honest review as always, I just wanted to say as I've already commented to Tony at analog toys, throughout this pandemic we have found ourselves in, between you and analog toys, you have reignited my passion for vintage toys, and I thank you whole heartedly for that 👍👍👍
This is the third release of the single carded figures. SE was first released with the Pursuit of Cobra line that followed the first live action movie. SS was originally part of the assortment based on the short-lived Renegades cartoon. The Baroness was part of the second Cobra 25th 5 pack. This is the first time the figure has been single carded. As you mentioned, they were all released in the TRU 50th Anniversary line.
It all makes sense when the Hasbro lady said "Go Joe" instead of "Yo Joe" in last week's Hasbro video Guess we will be seeing these "retro" figures soon at your nearest Dollar General store. lol
I'm not a GI Joe collector but I watched your entire video because it shows how well informed and how great collector you are. Thanks for this video as a fellow collector!
hell, yeah!. Clutch and VAMP. Stalker was my first figure way back in the '80's. and Clutch and VAMP was my first vehicle. Completely agree with your first set of 6.
Okay why has nobody talked about how messed up the cardbacks are? The formatting is wrong with the omission of the white border and the incorrect name placement on the front, the bubbles are far too tall, the file card placement is incorrect and the most insulting inaccuracy is the removal of "A REAL AMERICAN HERO"
Professionally Unprofessional, Given current political climate, they CHOSE not to refer to Cobra as a terrorist organization & dropped the American Hero tagline to be more international per the movie universe. Stalker's name was dropped because of negative connotation. Just as how an American cigarette company will not refer to their products as "fags", although that's what the British traditionally called them. Even during AHAH era, they made running changes for politically correct reasons like removing Zartan's bi-polar descriptive. More often than not, there's real life reasons why things ate changed (although some don't like changed). Like how the retro GB cards have a running change & REMOVED the "Who are you gonna call?" line on cards because Universal owns that phrase & wanted royalties & since its a throwaway Walmart one-off, they rather make a running card change than pay.
The first three character choices make perfect sense when you look at the Snake Eyes movie and its main characters. They just wanted to promote for the movie
What incredible timing on this video. I've been watching old live streams of GI Joe on hasbro's channel and it got me into collecting the 25th anniversary GI Joe action figures. I've already bought around 9 in the last 2 weeks. I was really impressed by the retro card backs which were sweet. But the figures themselves were definitely updated. They look cool as hell but I was hoping for the more retro look. I mean they aren't even close to the originals.
Great video! I thought that those were the same figures released just a few years ago as TRU exclusives but nobody on the G.I. Joe groups I belong to was mentioning that.
I’d like to add that hasbro actually made perfect recreations of snake eyes and storm shadow in the retaliation line up back in 2013. They were dubbed “ultimate”. I was shocked that hasbro didn’t reissue those for the retro line.
My theory: Hasbro hands off its older IPs to their noob mangers to get their feet wet. The product decisions appear to be made by someone that doesn’t understand the brand and its relationship to potential customers.
I don't think so. They finally fixed the AEW Striker mold, restoring the rollcage back to it's original design for the first time since it was modified in the 90s. That's not a decision that was made by someone who hasn't done their research.
You are spot on as usual. I left similar sentiments on the Hasbro Pulse comment thread. It's insulting and even more puzzling. They already set the precedent for "retro" with other lines. 80's kids like me without $1000 dollars for an original card back Snake Eyes were giddy with anticipation for the roll-out of this line. They mixed two versions of the same fig. and put it on a cardback that doesn't match in anyway!!! WTH!? What were they thinking? I've never been so disappointed in all my years as a collector.
Great video sir. I just saw Analog Toys video and the both of you hit the nail right on the head about this situation. It seems as if Hasbro is pissing alot of people off. And I do agree that they're trying to insult our intelligence as if we don't know the difference between "RETRO" and this crap they're putting out. Thank you for being spot on and putting this video out.👌🏿👌🏿
Since this line was released in APRIL of 2020, I have seen ONE (1) item on the shelf A FANG GYROCOPTER. That's it. Up here in Canada,you are more likely to see Sasquatch ordering at Burger King than actually find ANY G.I. Joe retro. The Hasbro Canada website doesn't even mention the line . It's like they want the line to fail.
Well,it is now Dec 28 and the same Walmart had 12 figures....finally!! Your choices were Stalker,Cobra trooper and nothing else. I find it hard to believe that a case of figures contains an "assortment" of 2 figures. This is proof that Hasbro still has SEVERE distribution problems !!
Matt is right Hasbro executives do not care about their products, they reissue original GI Joe vehicles and include those new figures which are not compatible for the vehicles the only thing Hasbro executives know how to is charge collectors high prices.
"Exclusive". I'm pretty much sick of that word. I'm not let down, nor am I angry. My expectations weren't high, and I had a feeling it was going to be 25th /50th stuff. Thanks for your take Micheal.
excellent vid! 👍🏼 i was cringing and laughing as you were whipping out better figure choices. 🤣 u are right, they just rolled out the last crap and gave 10% effort
Michael I think Your incredible and Thank You for this video. Again a good warning for all of us not to buy into Hasbro's weird ways of doing. Glad someone is giving us fans a good heads up.
There must be something about those O-rings. They just don't want to go there for some reason. The vehicles aren't that bad. There have been a lot of iterations of Cobra Commander. I would have selected Cobra Officer, Baroness and Storm Shadow for the three Cobra choices. But I completely agree on many of your points. VAMP would have been a better vehicle choice for sure.
Earlier this year, I started buying up some of the vintage ARAH GI Joe figures, but decided to hit the pause button on that when I heard rumors of Hasbro making "retro" GI Joe figures. I thought that maybe I could collect something that was very close to the original figures at a fraction of the price (without having to constantly worry about rusted screws and dry-rotted O-rings). After seeing these modern figures being passed off as "retro", I'm just going to go back to collecting 1980s Joes. This has even put me off collecting any more of Hasbro's new 6" GI Joe line, with all their video game weapons. If Hasbro is going to put zero effort into their modern GI Joe releases, then I see no reason to give them my money.
i did the same thing. I stopped buying vintage in anticipation of this new retro line. but was so mad when they decided to release modern figures. I even looked into making my own I watched a few videos because hasbro sucks.
@@dean4125 A couple of tricks I've used for knee and hip joints are to open the leg up and put a tiny piece of tissue paper around the area to create more friction. Another way that can be used that I got from tightening up Transformers balljoints is clear nail polish. A tiny bit around the joint area will thicken up the peg so the knees are no longer loose.
There are some updates to these toys, so they are worth getting, especially for fans who missed out on them before. The HISS driver sculpt has been improved, and this is the first time since the original 1983 release that the black HISS tank has been made available, with the classic red Cobra stickers.
One thing to contemplate is the potential for diluting the current vintage collectors market. Bringing back the exact molds and card art is easy -- dealing with enraged collectors might be something entirely different. I am sure they could have done subtle differentations, however. And that's where the lack of effort here really hits hard. That said, I have a feeling the cost of building a modern figure versus an o-ring is substantially lower and that plays into this as well. I am definitely buying the vehicles and replacing the bubble packs with the original o-ring figures since I have minty ones that will look great in them. I can't wait to see these in the store. I can't wait to open the vehicles up on Christmas morning like I did 35 years ago. It will be great for dads/moms who used to get these back in the day to watch their kids open it up on Christmas or Hanukkah. I understand both sides of this. It just boggles my mind that in this day and age of manufacturing agility they cannot scale like the did 35 years ago. What the heck is up with that?
All the systems are glitching and almost NOBODY seems capable of thinking clearly anymore . 2020 was absolutely an exponential increase in the broken thing some refer to as society . So , very much agree .
Calling it retro collection i think is where they messed up. This is more like the vintage Collection star wars which is the 3.75in black series on vintage card, which is basically what hasbro did here for gi joe. This should maybe be called gi joe vintage collection and come out with what you describe and call that the retro lile they did with star wars
Yeah, I think there what they were going for. The character selection ties in with the Snake Eyes movie, which has Baroness and Storm Shadow in prominent supporting roles.
I don't often agree but this is so spot on. I literally thought this was a joke when the pictures came out. For a first modern "retro wave", I'd just swap in a cobra trooper instead of Destro--save Destro for wave 2? The only positive I've heard is "they'll make good custom fodder."....and yeah.. I might buy that Storm Shadow since I skipped the first time around.
You tell 'em! I have been stirring the pot on various Joe Facebook pages, unknowingly mirroring your sentiments. The best thing about stirring the pot is licking the spoon!! Not to reiterate, and beat a dead horse...too late, lol! I am about to say the most horrible thing ever said by a toy geek: "Years ago, I heard a rumor," about the original ARAH line. It goes like this: Hasbro, due to GI Joe's international product division, sent "a lot" of the original ARAH molds they had "overseas" with no real intention of getting them back. Some came back, but almost all of the large vehicle and playset molds either didn't survive coming back from Hong Kong, or were left in the factories due to the cost of shipping them stateside. It seems the only vehicles received during 25th Anniversary and forward were Hasbro vehicles Palitoy had made during the Action Force era and the vehicles Hasbro made Python Patrol and Tiger Force, with a few new molds (single seat Skystriker 💩 and Tomahawk 😁" Just passes me off!!!!
Hi Michael. I started following your channel just this week, your passion for toys makes everyone else around (including The Toys That Made Us) look like amateurs. I found you thanks to your two part documentary / analysis on Hasbro's Star Wars action figure history triggered by the Rogue One line, I agree with you on most points and you certainly gave me a lot to think about. I believe Hasbro has turned lazy and it's managed by headless chickens, but fans are to blame too because they're happy buying overpriced crap (guilty!). Yesterday I was surprised to find this wave of Retro Joes figures (there were no vehicles) at my local Wal-Mart and I bought them. This morning I told myself "RetroBlasting must have a video about this" and I was right. I agree with you, once again, on Hasbro laziness, but here are my two cents. First, I'm from Mexico, where I never saw Joes at retail ever again since i was a child. I tried to buy that Toys'R Us Stormshadow/Snake Eyes two pack but the price was insane. So finding these figures yesterday was amazing. Second, the price. I got each one of them for only ten bucks. Last year before christmas I got a Vintage Collection K-2SO for nineteen bucks, which were hard to pay, since he only came with a miserable gun, but I really wanted that figure since it was announced. Why Hasbro charges double for figures with no added value is beyond my comprehension. I mean, these Joes come with over ten accessories and a stand base. I just love that, and I felt it was a fair price. Did I mentioned there were lots of them?, I even had a chance to take two, three and four samples of each to compare and get the ones with the best paint apps (or the less sloppy ones). The day I found that K-2SO he was the single one in an empty shelf, fortunately the card was in good shape though. I certainly have no complaints about this Joes, they have their peint issues but they're over all solid figures with play value at a fair price. I guess what I wanted to say about this move from Hasbro is that, what you guys In the U.S. find as a step back it's sometimes a blessing for collectors around the globe. Finding them, choosing them, paying for them brought me back at least a decade back were I go on tours along my local super markets and toy stores hunting for the Star Wars figures I wanted and they were always there, tons of them and at a fair price. As always your opinions are constructive, interesting and fun to watch. You have a subscriber for life in here. Hope you read all of this. If so, thank you! Greetings from Mexico.
I mean, you're right and all but i do like the 25th figures best. I just wish more new releases from the line would happen but yeah, no, it's not retro and it's not the right figures for retro but i personally prefer these to retro. All your points are completely valid and on point, thanks...
Great video! Two years later they are burning MTG and D&D to the ground. I would love 40th anniversary figs that are legit remakes for Joe and Transformers.
I sometime ago came across one of these "Retro Cardbacks" at my local Walmart. And while it was cool to see the Snake-Eyes one, I think an improvement would've been to repaint the cardback character to resemble the figure its selling. I can actually see this working for Hasbro, but they should've made the card art resemble the figure they are selling.
3:33 I have an answer: G.I. Joe doesn’t sell nearly as well as any of those things (besides Ghostbusters, that was out of left field). Most of the GI Joe fandom is those fans from the 80s; more people haven’t joined in. Compare that to Transformers, which has a wide array of age groups and a high demand from all of them for those vintage toys. And I don’t say that as an adult whose only perspective is store shelves. I am a teen, and as a child, it was widely thought that GI Joe was kind of lame (that wasn’t too long ago).
While I agree that GI Joe is not as popular as Transformers, that line has more name recognition than most of the stuff on shelves and pegs right now. Sure, kids may think that GI Joe is lame but they've had almost zero attachment to the line because it was abandoned by Hasbro. There has been a form of Transformers figure or media in circulation for at least the last 15 years. Kids aren't hard to manipulate, if they see a cartoon or movie along with figures for that cartoon or movie, they want it. Hasbro is to blame for the demise of GI Joe. If they truly wanted it to work, it would be just as popular as any other brand they own.
I still have my moc classic figures, with an afa graded snake eyes. O rings still intact. They could pop any time, but that's ok. Its proudly on display to remind me of that golden era of make believe which will always carry through adulthood and pass on to future generation..
I have the g1 reissue hotrod, Optimus prime and Kenner ghostbusters and I love them. I’m 27 and this makes it easier for me to grab these classic toys that I have fallen in love with as I discovered the retro shows. I’m just not hooked on gi joe so this doesn’t bother me so much because I wanna going to grab them anyway. Also really stoked to grab the motu origins because I like the fusion of classic look and modern articulation
I remember when Hasbro re-released GI Joe back in I wanna say the early 00's and that was cool! Popular and main characters and a little Gi Joe logo that played the theme song.. this seems random no Duke? No Cobra Commander? More like, GI No..
