Jump to content

Do Kids still like G.I.Joe?


Peter

Recommended Posts

Joe hunting yesterday, I started wondering if G.I.Joe is still something kids like or if it's pretty much for the adult collector these days. I was hoping the movie would spark interest with a new generation, but there are still so many ROC toys on the shelves that the stores couldn't even give away if they wanted to. Walmart and Zellers are the only chains here (Canada, B.C.) that are still bringing in Joe products and that doesn't seem to phase the children or any parents trying to find their kids the new Cobra Commander. I never see any Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow costumes when I hand out candy on Halloween.

 

I mean there are factors to consider, such as the shrinking attention span of children with today's media. I'm in an area where there are a lot of the organic food, anti-war parents. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm not gonna get into a thing on this thread of how I don't exactly agree with organic food. I do think it's okay to get your kids all antiwar, but you do need to teach your kids that a country needs an army to defend the country and those who choose to risk their lives for their country deserve a little respect for that.

 

 

So I'm wondering if it's different in the states and children still have an interest in this stuff? I'm not really counting the children of collectors who sat their kids down in front of their Joe DVDs and conditioned their children to like the show, I'm more wondering if any children are just naturally sparking an interest with this stuff anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would say yes kids still like it, but with some stipulations.

 

Parents like G.I. Joe for their kids, and kids probably enjoy the figures to a degree, BUT I don't think many kids would go out of their way to buy Joes on their own.

 

G.I. Joe STILL perennially sells out at Christmas. Its been a constant for many, many years now ( and a complaint of Hasbro, who'd prefer that Joes sell year-round, instead of just seasonally)

 

Locally to me, we had a lot of Joe stock just before X-mas-stuff that wasn't moving, like vehicles.

Last 3 days before X-mas it all dwindled to nothing.

 

All of it.

Other lines with about as much peg space had some stuff left, but not the Joes.

That stuff wasn't discounted, and alot of certain items--like the vehicles--languished on the shelves for months, so I have a LOT of doubts that it was was snapped up by collectors just a couple of days before X-mas. Me thinks that parents were out looking, spotted a brand they recognized and "trusted" and bought what they saw.

 

And now that restocks are happening.......vehicles are NOT selling again.

I do not know what else could be at work here.

 

ROC is mostly gone here too, except for Zellers which has those "Target exclusives" on for full-price. The only other place to find ROC is at a local comic shop.

Despite the anti-war toys sentiment (which IS evident up here)its not affected the availability of G.I.Joe very much up in Canada. I've seen about 90%+ of the stuff that's come out over the past 15 years up here.

Its up here somewhere.

 

BUT........its not always where kids are going to necessarily find it.

 

Also, the trend looks that G.I. Joe is not being aimed at kids any more. Compare the latest wave of stuff to most of ROC, VvV or SpyTroops. There's a different in terms of fidelity of detail and the increase in numbers of small parts. Previously small parts would be either minimal or non-existent. Stuff like stickers were minimized. Now, they are being emphasized and even increased. That small bullet with Low-Light, those tiny silencers with Snake Eyes........we have never seen that before--not that that degree.

Other toys are not following that trend, mostly because they stringently abide by safety requirements.

Hasbro still does too..........but with their truly kid-aimed lines.

I don't see G.I. Joe as that any more.

 

But traditionally, its still seen as a kids product--which is why we still get colourful Destro's in gaudy get-ups and the like.

So its a mixed answer....a mixed opinion.

It is, and it isn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Joe hunting yesterday, I started wondering if G.I.Joe is still something kids like or if it's pretty much for the adult collector these days. I was hoping the movie would spark interest with a new generation, but there are still so many ROC toys on the shelves that the stores couldn't even give away if they wanted to. Walmart and Zellers are the only chains here (Canada, B.C.) that are still bringing in Joe products and that doesn't seem to phase the children or any parents trying to find their kids the new Cobra Commander. I never see any Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow costumes when I hand out candy on Halloween.

 

I mean there are factors to consider, such as the shrinking attention span of children with today's media. I'm in an area where there are a lot of the organic food, anti-war parents. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm not gonna get into a thing on this thread of how I don't exactly agree with organic food. I do think it's okay to get your kids all antiwar, but you do need to teach your kids that a country needs an army to defend the country and those who choose to risk their lives for their country deserve a little respect for that.

 

 

So I'm wondering if it's different in the states and children still have an interest in this stuff? I'm not really counting the children of collectors who sat their kids down in front of their Joe DVDs and conditioned their children to like the show, I'm more wondering if any children are just naturally sparking an interest with this stuff anymore.

 

 

I was at Toy r us I think 2 Christmas' ago, the one right after the movie came out, and I there were a few parents buying their kids Joes, I helped them out, showed them the difference between Cobra and GI Joe and even pointed out some harder find figures that I wanted but let them buy. I think getting children involved in collecting can only help. If you happen to see (especially the Grandparents) in that isle looking confused walk up and help them out, it only benefits us adult collectors in the long run. Hasbro has said many many times that adult collector are the minority when it come to Joe or possibly they said action figures in general.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well i havent seen a kid buy a joe when i go hunting in a long time.i do see them buy TF and SW figs all the time. i think it the parents that buy them if anything. they want TF or SW clone war toys. joe is at about 80-20 to collectors to kids.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my limited experience and from what few occasions I could use as an on sight example of witnessing what a child is picking out in the toy aisle, it's usually been Wrestling figures. Very RARE to see a child begging a parent for G.I.Joe toys or for Star Wars toys and not even any number of these movie line action figures that clog the pegs, like Iron Man or Spiderman and so on. If I see a small boy and his father together, the child is usually instructing the Father on which wrestling figure he wants for the $10 his grandparents gave them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ironically, the last time I saw kids excited about G.I. Joe was back when the 25th Anniversary stuff was out. I did see a high-school-age young man digging through a peg of POC stuff not long ago. But if you want hard data or real observations, I've none to give.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of good points. It is sad that POC doesn't seem to be really targeted towards kids, but at least we're getting some really Badass figures. I do hope that a majority of Hasbro's Joe sales are coming from kids.

 

Really cool that you helped some parents out, Boothj. I remember I actually managed to get a date from a girl trying to find a gift for her little cousin at a Toys R Us once ;) but the helping people out part was nice too.

 

Yeah, Star Wars and Transformers are the ones I'm seeing sold at stores, carried around, and worn on kids' shirts. Haven't seen any WWF, but I could believe it.

 

It may have to do with the fact that Star Wars and Transformers have managed to come out with much more entertaining shows/movies in the past decade or so. G.I. Joe hasn't really been able to come out with anything that great since the original series. ROC was just silly, even from the eyes of a child.

 

Renegades really underestimates children today. I caught the pilot and was not impressed. The art is lazy (sorry, I believe the designer passed recently and I don't mean to be disrespectful) and the plot is very flat and simple. The original series was incredibly unrealistic, but it had a complexity that caught a kid's attention. The art design, colours, and costumes were also great incentives for children. Not to mention, a big reason G.I.Joe comes number two for me (right after BatMan) is because it taught kids a lot about teamwork, morals, and leadership. All things that I just can't see Renegades doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok so it seems that we can agree that the number of kids that buy joes is very small. now why do we think this is?

 

i think it is cuse joe has not had any media for so long unlike SW&TF. then the bad movie and new toon ir bad reboots. also joe needs to have a vido game out like Tf & sw does.

 

so what are your thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok so it seems that we can agree that the number of kids that buy joes is very small. now why do we think this is?

 

i think it is cuse joe has not had any media for so long unlike SW&TF. then the bad movie and new toon ir bad reboots. also joe needs to have a vido game out like Tf & sw does.

 

so what are your thoughts?

 

GIJOE just doesn't reach kids. Its not very compelling in terms of its premise, just good army guys against bad terrorist guys.

TF offers robots that change from one thing to another, against evil robots that do the same.

SW offers offers sword and sorcery in a sci-fi setting, with really wild character designs and crazy vehicles.

 

GIJOE offers mostly conventional stuff: trucks, copters, planes etc---although futuristic, its all perhaps TOO grounded.

 

Really does ANY GIJOE weapon compare to a lightsaber? Nah, I don't think so....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently took my son to a Bday party, asked the mom what her son was into, "GI Joe and other Army guys" I was excited and wanted to give him a box full of my old stuff, cause all the other kids always want Bakugan crap and/or TF/Sw stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok so it seems that we can agree that the number of kids that buy joes is very small. now why do we think this is?

 

i think it is cuse joe has not had any media for so long unlike SW&TF. then the bad movie and new toon ir bad reboots. also joe needs to have a vido game out like Tf & sw does.

 

so what are your thoughts?

 

Actually,there was a G.I. Jo video game. It was for the movie and I've seen a DS version. Don't know if they did for PS3 or XBox 360.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok so it seems that we can agree that the number of kids that buy joes is very small. now why do we think this is?

 

i think it is cuse joe has not had any media for so long unlike SW&TF. then the bad movie and new toon ir bad reboots. also joe needs to have a vido game out like Tf & sw does.

 

so what are your thoughts?

 

Maybe we need to ask what it is that attracted us to Joes?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok so it seems that we can agree that the number of kids that buy joes is very small. now why do we think this is?

 

i think it is cuse joe has not had any media for so long unlike SW&TF. then the bad movie and new toon ir bad reboots. also joe needs to have a vido game out like Tf & sw does.

 

so what are your thoughts?

 

GIJOE just doesn't reach kids. Its not very compelling in terms of its premise, just good army guys against bad terrorist guys.

TF offers robots that change from one thing to another, against evil robots that do the same.

SW offers offers sword and sorcery in a sci-fi setting, with really wild character designs and crazy vehicles.

 

GIJOE offers mostly conventional stuff: trucks, copters, planes etc---although futuristic, its all perhaps TOO grounded.

 

Really does ANY GIJOE weapon compare to a lightsaber? Nah, I don't think so....

 

 

I agree with this to an extent... the only thing that GiJoe has ever really had to help it compete with the other lines were the characters. When I was a kid, it was the vast variety of characters and unique personalities/specialties/gear/costumes/etc that each GiJoe figure had that made them by far the most interesting toyline to me.

 

With Starwars there were only a handful of characters that mattered at all, seriously... less than 10 that you could even consider, and then a bunch of troopers.. and it was never very fun for me to play starwars because the stories were limited to what was already done in the movies and whatnot... and how many times could Luke and Han face the Empire and have it come out a different way?

 

Transformers didn't capture my interest because they were kinda just fun to transform.. but they were all very similar robots in my opinion. They didn't have very diverse characteristics and they didn't have unique gear/features...

 

 

But when I was a kid with hundreds of different Joe characters, each with their own styles and attributes.. and all the different vehicles.. man, I was never bored.

 

 

I haven't played with a Joe since I was about 12/13... but they aren't the same now. The movie really crapped all over what GiJoe should be... POC is doing a bit of a better job, the characters are looking different again and they are coming with cool gear.. but it may be too late without the support of any kind of media.

 

I haven't seen a kid buy a GiJoe for a long time.. but they always look at Transformers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whats funny for me is that I only had a few G.I.Joe figures as a kid(But I watched the cartoon and collected the comic books).

 

I was all over collecting Transformers.

 

Now as an adult, I perfer G.I.Joe and just really can't get into Transformers at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok so it seems that we can agree that the number of kids that buy joes is very small. now why do we think this is?

 

i think it is cuse joe has not had any media for so long unlike SW&TF. then the bad movie and new toon ir bad reboots. also joe needs to have a vido game out like Tf & sw does.

 

so what are your thoughts?

 

GIJOE just doesn't reach kids. Its not very compelling in terms of its premise, just good army guys against bad terrorist guys.

TF offers robots that change from one thing to another, against evil robots that do the same.

SW offers offers sword and sorcery in a sci-fi setting, with really wild character designs and crazy vehicles.

 

GIJOE offers mostly conventional stuff: trucks, copters, planes etc---although futuristic, its all perhaps TOO grounded.

 

Really does ANY GIJOE weapon compare to a lightsaber? Nah, I don't think so....

 

 

I agree with this to an extent... the only thing that GiJoe has ever really had to help it compete with the other lines were the characters. When I was a kid, it was the vast variety of characters and unique personalities/specialties/gear/costumes/etc that each GiJoe figure had that made them by far the most interesting toyline to me.

 

With Starwars there were only a handful of characters that mattered at all, seriously... less than 10 that you could even consider, and then a bunch of troopers.. and it was never very fun for me to play starwars because the stories were limited to what was already done in the movies and whatnot... and how many times could Luke and Han face the Empire and have it come out a different way?

 

Transformers didn't capture my interest because they were kinda just fun to transform.. but they were all very similar robots in my opinion. They didn't have very diverse characteristics and they didn't have unique gear/features...

 

 

But when I was a kid with hundreds of different Joe characters, each with their own styles and attributes.. and all the different vehicles.. man, I was never bored.

 

 

I haven't played with a Joe since I was about 12/13... but they aren't the same now. The movie really crapped all over what GiJoe should be... POC is doing a bit of a better job, the characters are looking different again and they are coming with cool gear.. but it may be too late without the support of any kind of media.

 

I haven't seen a kid buy a GiJoe for a long time.. but they always look at Transformers

 

i hear ya man thats why i love joe. your right the movie did crap all over what joe was and now renegades is just doing the same thing as the movie did. i have a feeling that soon joe will be a collector only line. where we the fans keep it alive. some walmarts are not even carrying the line any more. so toy fair better have some killer stuff to show us and that gets kids back in to the line.

 

what they need to do is get a good toon/video game that kids will like. also has its own line that looks like clone war toys ie looks like the toon. give us a line for the the 25th, poc and so on. then maybe kids will get in to our line. that will never happen as hasbro love to reboot the line every yr. what worked in the 80s was that it didnt get rebooted it just kept growing. TF did the same thing and that was great.

 

now you have SE,Duke,Destro,CC&SS all over the place. just like TF has prime &Bumble bee, as the main guys. there is no new guys to look forward to as you know u will see those 5 guys all the time. they need to get all of us on the same boat and behind a joe that we can respect and enjoy. this reboot crap needs to stop. look at the last 5yrs the top 2 toy lines where 25th and S6 that lasted 2+yrs while the rest last a yr to 6 mos. how can kids stick with a line that is always changing. sw has it right Tf is getting back there the thing that made that line great is a killer live action movies. also they kept alot of things the same from toon to toon beside beat wars but that did show the G1 prime and the arc.

 

also look at the waves the number of figs is getting smaller and smaller. it was 6 a wave and now down to 3 or 4 a wave. in those 3 or 4 u have a SE,duke,destro&SS in almost every wave. ok in poc they have had 3SS, 3destros, 5SE & 3dukes, 33 figs total that includes vehicle drivers. and it has only been out for less then a yr. those 4 charters combine for 14 of the 33 figs. thats almost 1/2 of the line right there with those guys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whats funny for me is that I only had a few G.I.Joe figures as a kid(But I watched the cartoon and collected the comic books).

 

I was all over collecting Transformers.

 

Now as an adult, I perfer G.I.Joe and just really can't get into Transformers at all.

 

 

Yeah, even as a young adult (and still to this day as an even OLDER adult) I can get into G.I.Joe like I was still a kid, but I never did understand the hype over Transformers? It just always seemed dumb to me and I was never a big Tonka truck kid anyway, and if I had anything in the sandbox, when I was a kid, it was my G.I.Joes or little green army men. I liked the Star Wars movies, but the toys were crap compared to G.I.Joe, so even when I started collecting ARAH, I didn't pay any attention to the SW line and like I alreadt stated, transforming trucks and airplanes was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard of, but the kids sure the hell liked them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were exposed in a different era. Growing up in the post Vietnam, pre fall of the Berlin Wall ColdWar era

of the 80s was the perfect tsunami of culture for an adolescent to think GIJoe was the greatest thing ever.

 

Kids aren't really exposed to it like we were.

 

Yes, there was a movie, but it sucked, and kids' attention would be grabbed by much more compelling films.

Yes, there were video games based on the film, but again, they were uninspiring crappy games. There are much more compelling games vying for kids attention. Seriously, I played the ROC game on XBox and I though it was made in 1994.

 

Yes, there are action figures, but both Wal-Mart and TRU have really apalling choices and the display footage alotted to GIJOE is virtually nil. In fact, I think my TRU has two...TWO Arctic Destros on the pegs, and a couple of the small vehicles. And thats it. I mean just an embarrassing selection. And WalMart's shelf space is actually smaller for Joes than it is for the cheap Action Force or whatever its called knockoff figures that are next to them. Compare to the 80s when Joe had entire aisles devoted to it. And the prices are very discouraging just like every other action figure out there. $7 is just too high for tiny 3 3/4 figures.

 

Yes, there's a cool new cartoon (or I'm told it's cool. I don't have cable to watch it) but besides diehard fans, who know where to look to watch it amongst the 500 channels that kids have to choose from? Its certainly not like the 80s when GiJoe was the reason to race home from school in the afternoons.

 

Yes, there are still Joe comicbooks, but they are $3.99 an issue, and if you've seen the sales numbers on them from Diamond, they rarely reach more than 6,000 to 7,000 copies. I mean think about that. How will kids ever be exposed to something that there is only 6,000 of in existence? The original GiJOE comic from the 80s was the HIGHEST selling comic book when it started. It outsold X-Men.

 

 

There's just too much other product vying for the attention of kids who have a short enough attention span as it is. Parents who were fans absolutely steer their kids towards the stuff they liked as children. I'm totally guilty of that several times over. My kids love Star Wars. They love SuperFriends. They love Transformers. But I don't think kids would gravitate towards Joe on their own without nudges from their parents who are already fans.

I think the figures and vehicles can still spark the imagination and let kids make up their own adventures in a way that a lot of current toylines can't because they feed kids a very specific storyline. But kids don't know its there.

 

 

But here's a positive story. I was rummaging around in my storage unit for some stuff and came across a box that had some ValorVsVenom figures that a buddy had shipped to me a long time ago. He didn't want them anymore. My son who is turning eight next week has never really been exposed to Joe, but he was very interested in playing with the Joe figures with all their weapons and backpacks and armor. So I just gave him the entire box to take back to his mother's house. At some point I'll break out the ShoutFactory complete box set and let them watch it. And then let hem read the vintage Comics (which is the only true history of GiJoe) but even if he likes it, I doubt it will affect him like it did us when we were in the zeitgeist of the 80s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were exposed in a different era. Growing up in the post Vietnam, pre fall of the Berlin Wall ColdWar era

of the 80s was the perfect tsunami of culture for an adolescent to think GIJoe was the greatest thing ever.

 

Kids aren't really exposed to it like we were.

 

Yes, there was a movie, but it sucked, and kids' attention would be grabbed by much more compelling films.

Yes, there were video games based on the film, but again, they were uninspiring crappy games. There are much more compelling games vying for kids attention. Seriously, I played the ROC game on XBox and I though it was made in 1994.

 

Yes, there are action figures, but both Wal-Mart and TRU have really apalling choices and the display footage alotted to GIJOE is virtually nil. In fact, I think my TRU has two...TWO Arctic Destros on the pegs, and a couple of the small vehicles. And thats it. I mean just an embarrassing selection. And WalMart's shelf space is actually smaller for Joes than it is for the cheap Action Force or whatever its called knockoff figures that are next to them. Compare to the 80s when Joe had entire aisles devoted to it. And the prices are very discouraging just like every other action figure out there. $7 is just too high for tiny 3 3/4 figures.

 

Yes, there's a cool new cartoon (or I'm told it's cool. I don't have cable to watch it) but besides diehard fans, who know where to look to watch it amongst the 500 channels that kids have to choose from? Its certainly not like the 80s when GiJoe was the reason to race home from school in the afternoons.

 

Yes, there are still Joe comicbooks, but they are $3.99 an issue, and if you've seen the sales numbers on them from Diamond, they rarely reach more than 6,000 to 7,000 copies. I mean think about that. How will kids ever be exposed to something that there is only 6,000 of in existence? The original GiJOE comic from the 80s was the HIGHEST selling comic book when it started. It outsold X-Men.

 

 

There's just too much other product vying for the attention of kids who have a short enough attention span as it is. Parents who were fans absolutely steer their kids towards the stuff they liked as children. I'm totally guilty of that several times over. My kids love Star Wars. They love SuperFriends. They love Transformers. But I don't think kids would gravitate towards Joe on their own without nudges from their parents who are already fans.

I think the figures and vehicles can still spark the imagination and let kids make up their own adventures in a way that a lot of current toylines can't because they feed kids a very specific storyline. But kids don't know its there.

 

 

But here's a positive story. I was rummaging around in my storage unit for some stuff and came across a box that had some ValorVsVenom figures that a buddy had shipped to me a long time ago. He didn't want them anymore. My son who is turning eight next week has never really been exposed to Joe, but he was very interested in playing with the Joe figures with all their weapons and backpacks and armor. So I just gave him the entire box to take back to his mother's house. At some point I'll break out the ShoutFactory complete box set and let them watch it. And then let hem read the vintage Comics (which is the only true history of GiJoe) but even if he likes it, I doubt it will affect him like it did us when we were in the zeitgeist of the 80s.

 

 

very well put my man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the biggest thing that distracts todays kids (attention) away from G.I.Joe, is the video games. Kids today are not forced to use their imaginations as much as they once were. Why round up a handful of your favorite action figures and head for the backyard, when all they have to do is fire up the video game player and blast some baddies for themselves in almost real-like fashion?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Find Action Figures on Ebay

×
×
  • Create New...
Sign Up For The TNI Newsletter And Have The News Delivered To You!


Entertainment News International (ENI) is the #1 popular culture network for adult fans all around the world.
Get the scoop on all the popular comics, games, movies, toys, and more every day!

Contact and Support

Advertising | Submit News | Contact ENI | Privacy Policy

©Entertainment News International - All images, trademarks, logos, video, brands and images used on this website are registered trademarks of their respective companies and owners. All Rights Reserved. Data has been shared for news reporting purposes only. All content sourced by fans, online websites, and or other fan community sources. Entertainment News International is not responsible for reporting errors, inaccuracies, omissions, and or other liablities related to news shared here. We do our best to keep tabs on infringements. If some of your content was shared by accident. Contact us about any infringements right away - CLICK HERE