1) ADVENTURE TEAM MARCUS: Jim Beard is a longtime fan of the classic 12-inch G.I. JOE toys, and his vision comes alive in his own Kindle Worlds story – “G.I. JOE Adventure Team – Mystery of the Sunken Tomb.”
2) COBRA BLACKJACK: Troy Osgood has written four G.I. JOE stories on Kindle Worlds, and his entry hails from his story - “G.I. JOE : Brainstorm.”
3) STILETTO: Bill Nedrow introduces us to this character in his third book “G.I. JOE: Body Count.”
4) COBRA WHISPER: Justin Bell’s new character makes her debut in his very first book “The Price of Peace – Snake Bite.”Looks like we have a winner. I'm pretty happy with the results.
(link)
But I'm getting ahead of myself. A new movie is a long, looooooooooooooong way off and all those worries are a moot point until then. It's OK though, I still love Joe, I have a solid collection, I'll keep on representing!
Amen!
As for Joe returning, I think if Hasbro can just take the movie thing off the table entirely, they can rebuild Joe again, just like they did in 2002. The Joe line actually did better back then with just a comic book series and a couple of CGI straight-to-DVDs than it did with a major motion picture!
We are sure as far from anything new Joe related since almost 20 years ago. Not to knock the Joe Club and what they do for collectors, but it's not bringing in new fans and not doing anything to help broaden the brand either. It's there to support an existing fan base.
The market is just a very different place and with nothing other than Fan Fiction ( lets be truthful, even the comics are Fan Fiction at the moment) and it's how Joe is gonna stay. Hasbro just hasn't found any other way to market it right now. We are at least two years away from a movie and there is no place for Joe on TV right now. The toys are a hard thing to market because you have to market both the good guys and bad guys. Other toy lines are either Fantasy enough or Sci Fi, where Joe is mostly Military with those other elements thrown in. Any other military toy line markets the soldiers, not who they are fighting, Just look at how they had to market the 25th Anniverary line. They had to completely drop the words "terrorist" from Cobra because of the world we live in today, you wouldn't want kids to become attached to the bad guys or give them personalities that kids might end up liking. It's almost like the old Hollywood rules of the bad guy has to pay for his crimes by the end of the show. So your stuck. They either have to completely rebrand Joe as something else (which turns off the old fan base) or let it slide along until they can think of what to do.
I'm hoping for the return of single packs...
That is my knee jerk hope as well until I consider how much they would charge for one.
This is a cool enough idea I guess. I'll read through these guys more closely and put in a vote. Hopefully we'll see one next year at TRU packaged with a reissued figure with a paint job ranging anywhere from mediocre to bad.
Eh....sorry for all the negativity.
G.I. Joe has fallen so far that we are now talking about merchandising FAN FICTION. I can forgive a little negativity.
GI Joe is in a sorry state, that is for sure. I do still believe that we will see it at mass retail again.....someday. But as I alluded to above, at what cost to the customer? Giving him the proper articulation and accessories (which has always been a GI Joe staple) will apparently require the customer to pay $13-$15 per figure judging by what I see of other lines of the same scale these days. I forgive 5 poa Star Wars and have even bought some recently, but I have a different standard for Joe. I know that probably sounds weird to a lot of people....
But I'm getting ahead of myself. A new movie is a long, looooooooooooooong way off and all those worries are a moot point until then. It's OK though, I still love Joe, I have a solid collection, I'll keep on representing!
I'm hoping for the return of single packs...
That is my knee jerk hope as well until I consider how much they would charge for one.
This is a cool enough idea I guess. I'll read through these guys more closely and put in a vote. Hopefully we'll see one next year at TRU packaged with a reissued figure with a paint job ranging anywhere from mediocre to bad.
Eh....sorry for all the negativity.
G.I. Joe has fallen so far that we are now talking about merchandising FAN FICTION. I can forgive a little negativity.
I'm hoping for the return of single packs...
That is my knee jerk hope as well until I consider how much they would charge for one.
This is a cool enough idea I guess. I'll read through these guys more closely and put in a vote. Hopefully we'll see one next year at TRU packaged with a reissued figure with a paint job ranging anywhere from mediocre to bad.
Eh....sorry for all the negativity.
I'm hoping for the return of single packs... but I bet Jay is right and we get 2packs and the winner here gets teamed up with someone in the book they come from with a tiny blurb or sticker on it about Kindle Worlds.
I've only read Bill Nedrow's books because he's a personal friend of mine(half way through his recent book where Stiletto appears in right now). Where I'm at in his story, not much has happened with her, but I'm told there is a cool twist at the end that makes her interesting and ties the story together. I do plan on reading Justin's because at the Kindle World's panel, his story and way of selling it, caught my interest. But I agree, the character seems bland, like a female Snake Eyes, I think we've had enough "snake eyes" characters). No offense to Troy, but I didn't get a good idea of what his books were about. All I got was his stories as a kid, mashed up and put on paper... that and reading on the forums/facebook, it seems like he went back and edited some of the books to include the character, which is weird if you ask me, one guy that seemed like a big fan kept on insisting he didn't even remember Blackjack and Troy later said he went back and revised the story and added him.
I'm not an original Joe guy and didn't grow up with the 12" or the AT figures, I had a couple my uncle handed down to me, but I still never collected them. I did read a part of Jim's book because he sold me on the idea in his club magazine article... so I'll give it a chance(when the time comes and I get through my backlog of books).
I am probably not going to make friends with this post but I have to be honest and no offense to the creators of these characters, (I have not read any of the actual Kindel storeies these guys have appeared in so maybe they are more interesting then what is described here), but based on these drawings and breif bios listed, they all sound kind of boring and/or rehashed from existing characters to me. I voted for Blackjack becuase from a bio perspective sounded the most original and interesting, though from a visual perspective doesn't strike me as very interesting looking Cobra oprative. Stiletto looks like is heavily influenced by Marvel's Psylock especially with the design. Whisper sounds like a female Storm Shadow and looks like Scarlett who stole one of Beachheads masks and Marus looks like every other Adventure Team member I have ever seen, and seems kind of out of place for a Joe Vs Cobra line.
GPM, with no movie on the foreseeable horizon I would not anticipate much for 2016 beyond another round of TRU exclusives that will likely consist of repaints and rehashed toys.
I like this and have already voted, The cool thing is that Hasbro is saying there will be a line in 2016, I just want to know what kind of line.
#TeamStiletto all the way!!!
I hope so too, here's hoping they can do more of the Kindle worlds characters if there is enough interest.
