TNI 2007 GI Joe Con Coverage: The Hasbro Q&A Panel

by Jay Cochran
September 30, 2007
This morning, members of Hasbro's design team for GIJoe are holding a panel to discuss what is in store for Joe fans during the coming year.

On today's panel are John Warden (Designer 3 3/4"), Richard Woodhouse (Designer 3 3/4"), Steve Bono (Designer 8" Line and Fall 2008), Adam Pagano (Art Director 25th Anniversary), Michael Richie (GIJoe Director), and Neal Hoffman (Brand Manager).


We are bringing you live coverage of this panel as it happens, so be sure to refresh your web browser often to check for regular updates.

Comic packs are the first topic up for discussion. Wave 2 will have a lot of new tooling. There will be 2 new Dreadnoks with some re-used parts for the Dreadnoks. The two will be Ripper and Torch. Ripper will have Jaws of Life that will actually open; Torch will have a removable gas tank on his backpack. They tried to stay to the original colors of the figures instead of doing comic colors since these would be the first time they are released. That is the only wave 2 comic pack they are revealing other than to hint Crystal Ball's name.

Larry Hama returns to GIJoe. Starting in wave 3 of the comic packs, Larry Hama will be doing brand-new 22-page exclusive comics. They showed some art of two issues; one with Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow. The story will take place as a add-on to the original Marvel Comics "Silent Issue". Another one they showed was called "All about Fred". The cover showed a bunch of Crimson Guards standing around Cobra Commander; we'll have art up for these later today. These will be upcoming comic packs for wave 3.

Billy and Dr. Venom are on the list for possible mail-away figures. Hasbro is looking for ideas from the fans, so make your voice heard on the message boards.

They continue to state that they are working with Hollywood to try to stay true to the characters of GIJoe for the upcoming movie. Hasbro has street credit after the Transformers movie, so now Hollywood is more open to their input on how the movie should be.

Comic 2-packs will start coming out around April.

The Cobra Trooper from the 5 pack will be released on a single card along with the current Viper Pilot one in wave 2.

They are going to be making more figures so people can get them. They are trying to keep troop builders with the exclusive 5 packs and will try to make one troop builder per wave.

25th Anniversary will continue through next fall. After that, they plan to really gear things up.

Larry Hama, who has joined the panel, was asked if he will be involved in the movie. He answered that nothing is final until the first check clears.

Large vehicle playsets are a possibility with something like a movie. Nothing is planned right now, but as they gain momentum with the movie anything is possible. The Hasbro team really wants the aircraft carrier to come back but right now it's not really possible.

There are no current plans for build-a-figures for GIJoe, but it could be something we see in the future.

It was mentioned that we will be seeing the same type of chest articulation used on Hasbro's Star Wars super-articulated Clone Trooper figures with upcoming 25th Anniversary Joe figures.

Panel ends.
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Comments...

Last 10 comments - ( Read All Posts )
Rama Sha - 2007-10-01 @ 5:25 am
Let me clarify that for you. The question was asked wiill we ever see the Cobra soldier from the 5 pack released as a single card figures and their answer was "we would be stupid not to do that." They clarified that they were indeed talking about the red logo and not the silver. John the designed understood that the silver emblem is the "viper Glider Pilot". What I got from this statment was that there currently aren't plans for a single pack cobra soldier with a red logo but that it made a lot of sense for them to do this in the future.

No. The red logo one will NOT be released with the Viper Pilot one in Wave 2. It will be released in a future wave.

Well that's a load off. I was afraid that it was going to be one of those chase variants that I'd never see. It would have made troop building it hard as hell. Good to hear about that. I hadn't planned on buying the Wave 2 Trooper anyway because of the silver logo and I was really disappointed cause I wanted an army of these guys.

I love Ripper. Great looking figure. Torch needs some work though. Gung Ho's lower arms just aren't working here. I'd rather see them using Shipwreck lower arms. And that vintage thrower ain't cutting it either. I hope they fix that before it hits the pegs. Other then that...he looks great too.

Tazzzman - 2007-10-01 @ 4:18 am

Well, I finally have a chance to chime in on this topic and as always I must say, it is nice to see more product being made. It does not surprise me that we get Noks, but there are others that want the figure in single pack. But if that were the case and we got/get them in single pack, then people would probably post that HASBRO is just putting out more repaints, blah, blah, blah. As the team stated in the rountables, they realize that there is going to be "another SE and SS" and that is why they change the paint aps on the re-issued characters. I am excitted to see that HAMA is back and the art work revealed thus far looks great. I for one want to see what the reception is like when the new comic packs (with new stories) come out to see what direction HASBRO will take on either renewling Devil Due or going with someone new.

As always you cannot please everyone, so I have to say, if you do not like it, don't buy it

Mr Creed - 2007-10-01 @ 1:28 am

I must say im glad to see Torch and Ripper, but me personally(even with marvel legends) im never a fan of reusing sculpts of characters that you will be posing together in a group you know, Ripper and Buzzer use pretty much the exact same sculpt, except different heads and upper torso, when you pose them together, i dont know...they are too similar, nothing to really differentiate themselves..it annoys me that everytime i will look at Ripper all i will see is Buzzer you know...they could have just gave him somebody elses arms and legs instead of Buzzers

Torch looks great..i may have to paint those sculpted Gung Ho arm bands black or something, but other than that im liking him

Im probably just going to use my VvV Ripper, he blends in nicely with the 25th figures, same with Zarana, until we actually get her

BrotherShane - 2007-10-01 @ 1:11 am

Torch and Ripper look great, although what's the deal with the reused Gung-Ho arms with flesh colored arm bands??? Let's hope that fix that before they're released. I too, would prefer them on single cards to go with Buzzer.

SPC AIRBORNE - 2007-10-01 @ 12:33 am
- The Cobra Trooper from the 5 pack will be released on a single card along with the current Viper Pilot one in wave 2.

What does that mean? That the Red Logo version is going to be some kinda super rare chase like the Black Timber....or that a Red Logo Trooper will be released latter on?

No. The red logo one will NOT be released with the Viper Pilot one in Wave 2. It will be released in a future wave.

CLAM34 - 2007-10-01 @ 12:23 am
Love the figures but not a fan they are going to be in a two pack. Please, Please, Please I want all the figures in single carded figures... love the retro look.

I second that!

'

I definitely agree. I hate that these two NOKS are wasted on a comic pack. I want them single carded.

the comic packs should be for other versions of characters already released in the single packs.. repaints etc... or for figures that never appeared on single packs

I want Torch and Ripper in single packs, up on my wall next to Buzzer

cmderinchief - 2007-10-01 @ 12:19 am

DR. VENOM!!!!

KamenDreda - 2007-10-01 @ 12:18 am
Great stuff. Great.

Only thing that's worrying me is that Torch's torch (duh) has that molded-on plastic cable, just like the vintage figure. I hope they go with a bendable black cable, just like Ripper has.

Same worry applies to Flash.

Any info on this?

These were my exact thoughts over here yojoe.com just minutes ago. This is a big deal to me.

No info though as you can see from the images, the cable on Torch got broke when one of the designers was trying to put the pin in the hole of the backpack and the pin part snapped off, so that might have been a wake up call to em to change it right there. Also they made it very clear this weekend that they are reading your comments, complaints, suggestions ect ect on the boards, so knock you self out with giving your feedback on here. You all might even want to start a thread titled something like comments for Hasbro (Just keep the comments polite and productive).

Well good and bad news for you on Hasbro reading your comments here. Of the 4 guys I really got to speak to from the Hasbro team, none of them had heard of TNI. They look mostly at the more joe focused boards. So unless there are other people on the Hasbro team that come here, I don't think TNI is a frequent spot for them unfortunatly.

But on a more positive note I told Michael, one of the marketing guys, all about TNI and he actually wrote down "Toy News International" in his little note book he was carrying around with him. So at the very least if he goes back and looks at his notebook, he has our site written down. I also talked TNI up with Adam Pagano and Steve Bono. Don't know if they will actually look here but at least they know about us now! I tried guys! I realy did!

JayC - 2007-09-30 @ 11:38 pm
Great stuff. Great.

Only thing that's worrying me is that Torch's torch (duh) has that molded-on plastic cable, just like the vintage figure. I hope they go with a bendable black cable, just like Ripper has.

Same worry applies to Flash.

Any info on this?

These were my exact thoughts over here yojoe.com just minutes ago. This is a big deal to me.

No info though as you can see from the images, the cable on Torch got broke when one of the designers was trying to put the pin in the hole of the backpack and the pin part snapped off, so that might have been a wake up call to em to change it right there. Also they made it very clear this weekend that they are reading your comments, complaints, suggestions ect ect on the boards, so knock you self out with giving your feedback on here. You all might even want to start a thread titled something like comments for Hasbro (Just keep the comments polite and productive).

kingmoredred - 2007-09-30 @ 10:45 pm

really loving the dreadnoks i guess they got all the first ones out of the way now they can do the ones from arise serpentor arise zandar,zarana,monkey wrench, and thasher with the thunder machine this whould be a nice updated vehicle.

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