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

[Jer]

. I think maybe (though I really have not more than glanced through it) the comic was more following on that, vs the cartoon took things in a more fantastical almost super hero direction. I mean, the early G.I. Joe didn't even have stuff like 'Cobra', it was just about realistic army soldiers. I remember the ones I had were equipped with very detailed hand guns, rifles, holsters, uniforms, packs, boots, helmets, radios, etc. that were basically very authentic looking. There were tents, a vehicle of some sort, foot lockers, etc. It was almost more 'army life' vs combat and action.

The 80s GI Joe revamp was done by Larry Hama at Marvel comics - Marvel was pitching themselves as what we'd call an IP development company or something along those lines these days. Hasbro came to Marvel and said they wanted to revamp GI Joe and make it into an action figure line to compete with Star Wars, Hama dusted off an old pitch he had for a Nick Fury SHIELD series, reworked his SHIELD pitch into the new GI JOE organization and Hydra into Cobra and off they went. This allowed Hasbro to create a slew of unique characters with different "gimmicks" and uniforms for their action figure line, as well as a ton of fantastic vehicles, bases, and other toys within that setting.

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).

 

[Parmandur]

I think the key to rebooting it is to not focus on kids at all, target older fans that grew up with it and ramp up the fan service, any young adults it snags are gravy.

I mean, if Hasbro has learned anything over the past 20 years, it's that you can bring in adults with quality programming aimed at kids.

And I really, really hope they make quality programming aimed at kids, as a parent. If I were a shareholder, that would go double, since this is a toy company.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

But adults and children want different things. Youngest ones can't understand complex plots with lots of details, and adults don't enjoy too simple stories. When a family-friendly movie works is because it has comedy and/or action.

And today a famous franchise is not enough. This is not only about money and time, but to hire staff with talent and knowing what the client wants really. Hollywood had tried to produce blockbusters based in "old glories" and not always it happened. Do you remember the action-live movie of "Jem and the Holograms"? And "Snake Eyes" hasn't been a superhit.

I bought some G.I.Joe comics when I was a teenage.

 

[bedir than]

but they will settle for more smart investments in WotC.

Hiring, office space, technical knowledge, etc have all dramatically expanded in the past two years.

 

[Campbell]

On GI Joes:

Our culture has just changed. I do not think there really is any room for a children's cartoon built around a military unit that would have mainstream appeal in the United States, much less an international market. Warfighting (especially glorifying it) is just not seen as appropriate material for kids in our modern society.

 

[billd91]

What was this 'broader cachet'? I grew up in the '60s, and even had some G.I. Joe stuff (we made our own parachutes for ours and hurled them off of high buildings and such, lit them on fire, etc.). I remember we also had a plastic Jeep they could ride in (not one that was canonical Joe equipment, but it worked). I don't recall any context outside of being male, American, and at least in the 60's white, soldier dudes.

It was still at a time when military service of some sort was a widely held social expectation and GIs a more romantic ideal - they were the heroes of WWII, after all. My father and almost all of my uncles served in some capacity (from active to reserves) in the 1950s and into the early 1960s. Plus, they were right on the heels of Kennedy and his "ask not what your country can do for you..." that inspired a lot of young men to volunteer and get sent to Vietnam. That whole milieu was largely blown away by the disillusionment of Vietnam but you can see it in the experiences of the late Silent Generation cohort.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today the society is too different, and also the technology in the battlefield, for example the remote-control drones. And the international market has other point of view about "the real american hero". Now the children play Fortnite, Call of Duty and others. And today Commander Cobra was too ridiculous next to real characters as Sadam Husseim or Bin Laden, or bad guys from videogames, or villains from James Bond's movies.

Cobra had got a lot of vehicles and weapons. Weren't found by the police any time? And the colors, really horrible. You use them in a Battle Royal videogame and it is as asking with screams to be the fist to be shooted.

Other point is Hasbro shouldn't launch new lines if this can be a potential rival of others. For example Visionaries was forgotten next to Transformers and G.I.Joe. And it has to be something not-easy to be imitated by others. And they can't sell toys of a sci-fi franchise if they are too busy with Star Wars, one of the rockstars of the licences, and the superheroes by Marvel or DC. And the licences have got a time limit. They can't sell again actions figures of Conan the barbarian (cartoon for children).

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

It was still at a time when military service of some sort was a widely held social expectation and GIs a more romantic ideal - they were the heroes of WWII, after all. My father and almost all of my uncles served in some capacity (from active to reserves) in the 1950s and into the early 1960s. Plus, they were right on the heels of Kennedy and his "ask not what your country can do for you..." that inspired a lot of young men to volunteer and get sent to Vietnam. That whole milieu was largely blown away by the disillusionment of Vietnam but you can see it in the experiences of the late Silent Generation cohort.

OK, yeah, I agree on that, the military was a much more significant part of society, and yes, kids looked at it in more of a romantic, or heroic, kind of light. I mean, when I was a kid WWII was only 20 years previous. Nobody in my close family happened to be the right age to serve, though I guess some of my parent's uncles were. In any case, you would surely know and be close to people who fought there, or in Korea. 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. So, in that sense maybe something like G.I. Joe had a bit wider audience back then, though I think it was always a fairly niche toy. I mean, our LEGO was about 10x more popular than the Joes, that and wooden building blocks.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

D&D is doing OK

I think this undersells it pretty dramatically. We're all used to MtG being the golden goose and DnD being funded by it, but I think if you look at the growth, the amazon rankings for the PHB still, etc, the picture is pretty clear that DnD is doing well enough that it could keep another property afloat, if need be.

 

[Steampunkette]

And, again, the investment company trying to buy WotC to line their own pockets continues to massage the numbers in order to con people into thinking Hasbro is "Harming" WotC in some way or another.

WotC is 70% of Hasbro's Value because most of what Hasbro does outside of WotC is Licensed materials they don't own.
WotC made $1.29 billion in 2021 compared to Hasbro's total $5.47 billion ($4.18 billion over and above WotC)
And WotC's market value for trading stocks fluctuates between about $80 and $120 depending on when release windows happen.