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Dwight Stall


jinx723

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We are all worried about the outcome of the 3.75" GI JOEs, I was just wondering how close is Hasbro to actually "killing" the line? Dwight Stall is the mastermind behind the 3.75" line, correct me if I'm wrong, yet his name appears in the credits of the Sigma 6 cartoons, I noticed it on the Sigma Strike dvd. The whole thing with next years JOE Con, Wave 4 is it coming out?, and we've yet to see/hear anything regarding the 25th Anniversary figures. What do you think?

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I wish I could say that I'm optimistic, but with Sigma Six, the Transformers movie, and the lack of new 3.75 figures for most of the year, I'm expecting the worst. I really think the only reason we've gotten anything within the last year is because Hasbro is trying to placate the fans before the line is officially back on "hiatus".

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dwight is a designer for hasbro...not the mastermind.

 

it is out of his hands what happens as fas as the line goes.

 

the people making the calls are the ones looking at the money sheet and seeing that joe has been steadily declining for years. the fans arent supporting it enough and their is not enough new blood in the market for joes to continue.

 

thats the simple truth.

 

also the tformer movie and star wars anniversary have shoved joes to the basement for now.

 

hopefully the 25th ann will open the doors for joe again but as of now the red ink is saying opposite

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you also have to remember that a figure takes about a year to go from concept to production. I think the DTC products were meant for the Rise of the Robots line that never happened. That is why we got a good year of DTC products and that is it.

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the people making the calls are the ones looking at the money sheet and seeing that joe has been steadily declining for years. the fans arent supporting it enough and their is not enough new blood in the market for joes to continue.

 

thats the simple truth.

 

also the tformer movie and star wars anniversary have shoved joes to the basement for now.

 

hopefully the 25th ann will open the doors for joe again but as of now the red ink is saying opposite

 

And I (as well as many others like me) say this is due to an almost total lack of support by Hasbro.

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ahem.. not to mention the 30th annv. of Star Wars, most likely Hasbro's biggest money maker of them all... ;)

From what I understand, STar Wars really doesn't make THAT much money for Hasbro, in relation to how much was forked over for the licenes. That is why we're seeing stuff like Attactix and Star Wars Transformers and the many repaints/repacks, Hasbro is trying to maximize their profit from the line.

BUT, Star Wars is a powerful brand and commands a great deal of pull in the market both general retail and collector realms.

 

 

In regards to Joe, I say we should take what we get. Realistically, Joe wasn't doing too bad (from what I heard, 2004 was a GREAT year for 3.75, but that was offset by the weak 12" market), but Hasbro wanted a smash hit more than anything else.

If the GI Joe brand was declining anywhere, it was in regards to fan interest of the line. To this day, I am amazed at the sheer reluctance of the fandom to any sort of change in the toyline (despte Transformers and STar Wars each going through numerous changes of their own) and that reluctance to accept change probably did more to hurt the collectors than anything Hasbro did or did not do.

 

Sigma Six is our Beast Wars, it is a revamping of the concept to appeal to a NEW generation of kids. It is the groundwork that will, one day, give collectors a good selection of goodies (keep in mind it was some 6 years before predominantly vehicle TFs were pushed, and 8 years before Alternators were released, after the launch of Beast Wars)

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Sigma Six is our Beast Wars, it is a revamping of the concept to appeal to a NEW generation of kids. It is the groundwork that will, one day, give collectors a good selection of goodies (keep in mind it was some 6 years before predominantly vehicle TFs were pushed, and 8 years before Alternators were released, after the launch of Beast Wars)

 

Too bad the TV show kind of makes it more like our RiD... Blechh...

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Sigma Six is our Beast Wars, it is a revamping of the concept to appeal to a NEW generation of kids. It is the groundwork that will, one day, give collectors a good selection of goodies (keep in mind it was some 6 years before predominantly vehicle TFs were pushed, and 8 years before Alternators were released, after the launch of Beast Wars)

 

I respectfully disagree.

 

The 3 3/4" relaunch was mishandled. If It was given a push by Hasbro, and still failed to meet expectations, then I would have to concede. Hasbro put out misproportioned sculpts, Tokna-type vehicles, and did not advertise the line. Sigma Six is someone at Hasbro making his mark on the joe brand (think about the scene in Robocop where Robocop's creator pushes his project after ED-209 kills an exec). I'll laugh if in two years, the Sigma format is abrubtly pulled and something else is put forward. I wonder of the Sigma fans will be as understanding then.

 

Now; where's Viper Hunter to back me up? @smilepunch@

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The 3 3/4" relaunch was mishandled. If It was given a push by Hasbro, and still failed to meet expectations, then I would have to concede. Hasbro put out misproportioned sculpts, Tokna-type vehicles, and did not advertise the line.

Actually, I recall a great number of commercials and push for Joe in 2002 (the CGI commercials, not only the core commercial, but for wave 5), and Valor vs. Venom got a solid push in late 2004 (Thunderwing/wave 4 commercial).

The only thing lacking in Hasbro's modern Joe push was a regular cartoon, something that My Little Pony also lacks despite still going strong (they get yearly DVD movies like Joe was), and the core reason I think TF got any series at all was because they were able to use Takara to get it done cheaply.

 

Joe got its push, it did okay, but lack of support from a certain retailer and internal desire for a "smash hit" gave us Sigma Six. More than anything else, Hasbro wanted to make GI Joe into a "must have" toyline, which is hard to do when Joe was probably the most copied toyline in the market (PTE, Corps, Chap Mei, BBI, all piggybacked Joe's success to some degree). Sigma Six, if nothing else, established a unique look to GI Joe (be it good or bad).

 

And if Sigma Six is ended in two more years, then that gives Sigma Six a life of roughly some 3 and half years, the same life span as the new sculpt 3.75 line.

 

In the end, hindsight is 20/20. I'm sure regardless of how things go with Sigma Six, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and if nothing else, has done more to get GI Joe some much needed market recogniztion as a brand then 3.75 or 12" had done

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I have to agree with Jcast to a certain degree. I do think that Hasbro missed opportunites to give the Joe line the stamina to go the distance, as it were. As far as promotion of the line goes, IMO, Joe was the b@st@rd line of Hasbro's Boys Division. I recall seeing no promo for VvV. There's something to be said for synergy. Having a good toy, a yearly 45 min. toy commercial, and a mediocre comic just won't cut it in the action figure market. Toy/toon/comic/video game/bed sheets/sleeping bags/pajamas/kid shoes/clothing/party favors/books/coloring books/fruit roll-ups - synergy.

 

The ironic thing about how I perceive that Hasbro dropped the ball with not promoting/synergizing the 4"-ers better is that Derryl Depriest was taken off the Joe line to oversee the SW: ROTS line. I'm pretty sure that's when Billy Lagor stepped-up to oversee the Joe line. With the announcement a few months back that Hasbro was taking over the Marvel license, guess who was tapped to oversee the marketing/distribution for Marvel? That's right, Billy Lagor. My question is, if 4" Joes were doing so poorly under Depriest and Lagor that Hasbro had to go in an entirely different direction with the line, how in the h-izz-ell did Depriest get put on the biggest license Hasbro had and Lagor on a license almost as big? Obviously, the work these guys were doing on Joe had some merit in Hasbro's eyes, right? Or was the line in such a bad shape that even the talents of these two toy gurus couldn't revive it?

 

Something else that can factor into the kinds of role-playing that boys do is the kind of toys that parents will buy. I haven't seen anyone mention the notion that, since 2001, parents (moms imparticular) might not be too hip on buying their kid military-themed toys, tanks, jet fighters/bombers, etc. We were all in an uproar when the Sigma 6 line was announced and we saw the first episode of the toon. Sigma 6 is not G.I. Joe. G.I. Joe is a "real, American hero." Two things that Sigma 6 is absolutely trying to not be 1. real and 2. American. Remember the U.N.-esque flag that was flying over the S6 HQ in the toon? A bold contrast to the US flag flying over the HQCCs in all our Joe rooms. Public opinion regarding our country and armed conflict has changed, and IMO, the military-themed toy lines have taken a hit. Sigma 6 is much more sci-fi/fantasy than the re-launched Joe line was. This is probably why Hasbro decided to go with mostly 2-D animation for the S6 toon rather than the more realistic CGI that was used for Spy Troops/VvV movies. Hasbro wants to emphasize the notion that Sigma 6 is not realistic, and therefore welcome toy-buying moms who are weary of toys depicting realistic violence, etc. Some may say that this is a cop-out or that this notion is a figment of the imagination but, I'll ask you this, who bought you your Joes when you were a kid?

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