WotC Filing: Wizards of the Coast makes up roughly 70% of Hasbro's value

[MGibster]

The G.I.Joe franchise in 2022 can't be like in 1989. Today +7 children have got a different point of view because the experencie with shooter videogames teachs us the "one-man-army" is not possible in the real life. If you play a strategy videogame you know what happens when you have spent your supplies, and Cobra is always losing a lot of money and troops. How to say it softly? Children can realise Cobra is too ridiculous compared with Bin Laden and other people from real life. And today the wat toys has got a bad reputation in lots of homes, not only against G.I.Joe

Are we talking about the same children who think a show featuring a ten year old boy who wanders around the country without parental supervision, captures exotic animals, and trains them to merciless combat one another in an arena before thousands of spectators isn't too ridiculous a premise?

They did introduce Joes of Color and whatnot at some point. Honestly, back in those days I think they were more marketed as kind of cool detailed toys that had lots of equipment and whatnot, and kind of appealed more to a fascination with guns and 'army stuff' vs really testosterone-soaked action.

GI Joe followed the marketing strategy that worked well for Barbie. You sell the basic doll and then make a killing on the accessories including weapons, vehicles, and new outfits. Did I say doll? Sorry, GI Joe is an action figure. Boys don't play with dolls. Seriously, Hasbro directed their employees to never refer to GI Joe as a doll.

IMO one problem with any reboot of GI Joe in this day and age is that it has to compete with Marvel - the GI Joe action figure/comic book/cartoon line is a very Marvel comics product. And so how do you do it in such a way that it doesn't look like a Marvel "rip-off"? (Also it's American-centeredness makes a problem as well - we're in an International market nowadays for pop culture items. But trying to turn something so originally tied up with the US military into an international product leads to its own issues).

I think its Americanness (wow, spellchecker says that's a word) is a big problem so far as the international market is concerned. For the first GI Joe movie, they tried marketing it in Europe as an international team. I don't know how that works with a team called GI Joe.

By 1980 things had changed A LOT, Vietnam took the shine off the whole 'military industrial complex' and the idea of fighting wars being anything but nasty and ugly. Plus the military went all-volunteer. Today, outside of areas around bases, you just don't find the military is really a part of things to the same degree.

But keep in mind that GI Joe was revived in the early 1980s during a time when the US Army had quite a serious morale problem. The cartoon was released in 1985, and that same year the nation got to see the body of Steelworker 2nd Class Robert Stethem of the United States Navy lying on the tarmac of the airport in Beirut after Hezbollah terrorist tortured and murdered him. Even back in the 80s, people knew terrorism was ugly.

I think the romantic ideal of a GI is Ukraine now, not American at all. A Ukrainian GI Joe would sell like Hot cakes, I hate to say it, but it would, folks like a arse kicking underdog.

I think GI is inexorably tied to American soldiers and nobody thinks of Ukrainians that way. That'd be like thinking of a US soldier as a Tommy.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today toy soldiers aren't wellcome by parents who buy for their children, but if these are linked with sci-fi franchises (Star Wars, Fortnite, Halo..) because they are more ideologically neutral. Even toys about WWII may become politically correct now. Parents would rather to buy toys about fantasy, or police vs criminals.

G.I.Joe is too linked to American army to be sold in the international market. And today even the most patriot citizens untrust their goverment. And parodies could be used to promote the opposite point of view. And to use real countries as antagonists is dangerous. Do remember today we can't talk about the Japanese empire for the second world war. The villains have to be 100% fictional. And Cobra as terrorist group is relatively harmless with all those vehicles, weapons and troops when real terrorists can cause more suffering with less amount of money.

There is other option, G.I.Joe in crossovers with other franchises, not only decepticons (evil transformers) but other titles as inhumanoids. This could be perfect if Hasbro wants its own version of Resident Evil + Doom Eternal monsters. Or a new crossover G.I.Joe x Street Fighters again.

Does anybody remember action man and dr X? and M.A.S.K?

* I wouldn't too suprised if Hasbro acquired Games Workshop, but we know Warhammer 40.000 could be too grimmdark for the preteen market. My worst fear is that type of speculative fiction forgets a very important lesson: if we want a better tomorrow we have to defend the respect for the human dignity. If it happens, we could bet for a reboot of W40K.

* Of course Pokemon franchise shouldn't abuse the suspension of disbelief about children allowed to enter alone into wild zones where they could suffer attacks by predators and to catch and control creatures whose powers could cause a forest fire.

* D&D is popular now among different reasons because players can do a lot of interactive actions in a videogame aren't possible, and they can create their own stories with total freedom.

 

[Zardnaar]

Nah, Finkel's both blue and black.
View attachment 154940

This was the chase rare on release from that set. I saw an early Psychatog deck and said that card was better online and got laughed at.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have not watched the first two, but She-Ra is not traditional fan service, by a long shot.

She-Ra is good, but it is aimed at a modern young audience, not fans of the original.

Which seems like the sensible thing to do with a D&D cartoon as well.

 

[see]

Yeah, these investors need to really learn the lesson "This too shall pass".

Hasbro, it appears, does understand that, instead of assuming that a given property's boom will last forever and a current bust means a property is worthless.

 

[MGibster]

She-Ra is good, but it is aimed at a modern young audience, not fans of the original.

Which seems like the sensible thing to do with a D&D cartoon as well.

That approach is working out for the D&D game line, so I would have to agree.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

That approach is working out for the D&D game line, so I would have to agree.

But it's not working out for the He-man, She-ra franchise at all, which is a disaster right now.

 

[Staffan]

But it's not working out for the He-man, She-ra franchise at all, which is a disaster right now.

The She-Ra TV series was by all accounts a massive success. I don't know how it's working out for the toys, but the series was amazing.

Not that it's relevant for Hasbro, since the toy rights for He-Man and She-Ra likely resides with Mattel.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The She-Ra TV series was by all accounts a massive success. I don't know how it's working out for the toys, but the series was amazing.

Not that it's relevant for Hasbro, since the toy rights for He-Man and She-Ra likely resides with Mattel.

It was more then He-man side that went wrong.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It was more then He-man side that went wrong.

The Kevin Smith version was good. It was just too adult for the kids, and too modern for the more conservative grognards. Which is why it would be a mistake for WotC to target an adult audience with it's D&D cartoon.