Do Kids still like G.I.Joe?

[Superpowers1980]

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?

 

 

As fun as video games are, that idea you pointed out is disgusting. I don't get kids today, I always enjoyed playing out scenarios my way.

[ARROW]

I think if you take a look at the ROC figures, and compare them to the POC stuff, you'll see that Hasbro is clearly not aiming POC towards kids......as much.

Almost every ROC figure came with a spring-launched-something.

Only 4 figures thus far in the POC line have play features of any kind ( Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow-spring waists, Destro-squirt gun, Skydive-spring wings) and one of them are those monstrous launchers.

 

Now, really...........let's be honest here: who would want Hasbro to go back to the "kid stuff" like those big clunky launchers--because that is how they see kids getting into this??

 

Or would you want the trend in POC to continue......small parts, lots of detail??

If its the latter then kids are not in the equation so much, you (an adult collector) are.

 

I'm going to turn on a bit of blind selfishness and say that I don't care if kids are into Joes or not. I like what POC is doing, I like the direction its taking and I like the LACK of little kid-friendly stuff like spring-powered launchers.

If this sort of trend ends up killing the brand a few years down the road.......and we get some well-detailed figures on that road to ruin--well, that's life.

I'm happy for what I have, and what I can get as long as it stays like this. Pleasing the kiddies isn't something I care much about at all.

[ARROW]

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?

 

Kids get more immediate visceral stimulation from video games than they do playing on their own. Frankly, its more "real" to them, and thus more compelling. That emotional fuel is what drives the whole video game experience and is why action figures just cannot compete with them. There's two generations now that have been brought up with that sort of media conditioning, and most kids in Western nations now lack the ability for imagination play without any media associations.

[xhairs]

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?

 

ur so right man.

 

I think if you take a look at the ROC figures, and compare them to the POC stuff, you'll see that Hasbro is clearly not aiming POC towards kids......as much.

Almost every ROC figure came with a spring-launched-something.

Only 4 figures thus far in the POC line have play features of any kind ( Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow-spring waists, Destro-squirt gun, Skydive-spring wings) and one of them are those monstrous launchers.

 

Now, really...........let's be honest here: who would want Hasbro to go back to the "kid stuff" like those big clunky launchers--because that is how they see kids getting into this??

 

Or would you want the trend in POC to continue......small parts, lots of detail??

If its the latter then kids are not in the equation so much, you (an adult collector) are.

 

I'm going to turn on a bit of blind selfishness and say that I don't care if kids are into Joes or not. I like what POC is doing, I like the direction its taking and I like the LACK of little kid-friendly stuff like spring-powered launchers.

If this sort of trend ends up killing the brand a few years down the road.......and we get some well-detailed figures on that road to ruin--well, that's life.

I'm happy for what I have, and what I can get as long as it stays like this. Pleasing the kiddies isn't something I care much about at all.

 

i hate the gimmicks like the Se/SS have. as long as the figs look good and come with cool gear im good. roc was a fail across the board with a few jems in the line. we need kids to help the line grow. what hasbro needs to do is get rid of the idea that they need duke,se,ss&destro in every wave. also not all adult collectors like the same thing. so we cant always keep the line going i know i cut my spending on joes way down to about 10% of what i was buying when the 25th line was out.

[ARROW]

roc was a fail across the board with a few jems in the line.

I disagree to a point on ROC being a fail. Granted the actual movie related stuff was weak in many spots, but some of those figures are quite good.

Where ROC really shone was in the latter half of it, when they started exploring stuff outside of the movie.

Night Adder, Desert Vipers, the last Ripcord, Ice- Vipers, Charbroil, most of the Arctic figures, City Strike Snake-Eyes, are all very good, I thought.

I like most of the reactive-armour figures, and the accelerator suits, not to mention the Paris Pursuit figures, and hey.....what about the Pit Commando?

I've read a lot of voices saying they like the first Destro in the line too......so I think a body could go thru the line and pick out quite a few figures that work just fine, and that STILL hold up.

For me the big fail was in the vehicles--I only ever willingly bought three from the ROC line ( Night Raven, Mantis and Sharc)and the rest just underwhelmed me.

 

POC seems to have become a natural dove-tail out of ROC, and a logical game-up at the same time.

[spystreak]

I've been fading out of it especially with Renegades being on the air I'm looking towards buying vintage joes only from 1982 to 2004

[Peter]

I think if you take a look at the ROC figures, and compare them to the POC stuff, you'll see that Hasbro is clearly not aiming POC towards kids......as much.

Almost every ROC figure came with a spring-launched-something.

Only 4 figures thus far in the POC line have play features of any kind ( Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow-spring waists, Destro-squirt gun, Skydive-spring wings) and one of them are those monstrous launchers.

 

Now, really...........let's be honest here: who would want Hasbro to go back to the "kid stuff" like those big clunky launchers--because that is how they see kids getting into this??

 

Or would you want the trend in POC to continue......small parts, lots of detail??

If its the latter then kids are not in the equation so much, you (an adult collector) are.

 

I'm going to turn on a bit of blind selfishness and say that I don't care if kids are into Joes or not. I like what POC is doing, I like the direction its taking and I like the LACK of little kid-friendly stuff like spring-powered launchers.

If this sort of trend ends up killing the brand a few years down the road.......and we get some well-detailed figures on that road to ruin--well, that's life.

I'm happy for what I have, and what I can get as long as it stays like this. Pleasing the kiddies isn't something I care much about at all.

 

Why not have both? POC is clearly aimed towards the adult collectors, but why not make a second line or select figures that would appeal to children too?

 

I really wish kids had something like the G.I.Joe we grew up with in the 80s because today's kid shows (although some are really damn funny) really teach none of the morals or values that G.I.Joe taught our generation. Yes yes, I know it's the parents' job to raise the children, but let's face it; a lot of parents rely on tv to raise their kids.

 

I think a lot of the earlier comments about the lack of character variety in today's show is a big factor. I loved how each episode of G.I. Joe could feature any one of the hundred Joes as the main character, it really kept the show interesting when I was a child. Today, it's all Duke as the main character and Snake Eyes getting more screen time than he should because he's the most marketable. Don't get me wrong, Snake Eyes is one of my favourite characters ever, but he should be that guy in the background, the guy you barely see because there's all that mystery(he was barely in the original show!), that's what caught my attention. Instead, like all the other background Badasses, he is over used and becomes tiresome (also see Wolverine and Raphael). Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is they just don't have the right formula these days. I think they should consider studying the old show. They may even get the next generation into G.I. Joe.

 

 

 

regarding the ROC toyline, I am one of the first to hate the ROC movie (seriously, Duke fired a missile at a car KNOWING that Snake Eyes was underneath it. There's entertaining and then there's just beyond stupid) but I do admit ROC was a good toy line. The problem is that I HATE having figures on my shelf that remind me of the horror known as Rise of Cobra, so other than Leatherneck, I haven't bought very many ROC figures at all.

 

And it's true, kids are way too into video games. I have little cousins and all they do is play video games. WHERE THE HELL IS THE IMAGINATION IN THAT?! No wonder kids are so fat these days. A little off topic, but it's also a real shame that these just aren't the days where you can let kids run around in the neighbourhood.

[CaptainTriumph]

I still disagree on this being the video game generation. I consider my generation as the first video game generation.

 

Arcades and coin-ops were all through my childhood along with my Colecovision at home.

 

That being said, I'm still an athlete and have a great imagination.

 

On a side note, I got 3 more Alley Vipers today!!!

[Peter]

I still disagree on this being the video game generation. I consider my generation as the first video game generation.

 

Arcades and coin-ops were all through my childhood along with my Colecovision at home.

 

That being said, I'm still an athlete and have a great imagination.

 

On a side note, I got 3 more Alley Vipers today!!!

 

The thing is, all kids do these days is play video games. I was born in 85 and played video games like crazy, but I still went out biking and tadpole collecting when I was a lad. These days, I always see a kid with a PSP or gameboy in their hands. I remember being at my siblings' graduation last year and there were some poorly behaved children behind me. Instead of the mother teaching them to pay attention, she shoved a video PSP in their faces. It was some truly pathetic parenting. We were the first video game generation, but we had lives outside of video games as well. Today's generation is a bit different. You have to admit that there is a stronger obsession with Call of duty, Grand Theft Auto, etc. than we had with the new Mario or Super Star Wars (true classics)

 

Congrats on the Alley Vipers! What's your count at? I'm waiting for a bunch of shock troopers in the mail as I type.

[xhairs]

yes we had video games back when i was a kid. i rember playing saga in my room but i also went out and played with my friends. if not just goofing off playing joes/tf/xman in the back yrds or playing army lol. now kids are in to sex, drugs,video games and cell phones. this is a tech age for kids. they all want to grow up way to fast.

 

hasbro did try to get kids in with poc with the SE,SS gimmick but kids dont want those kind of gimmicks anymore. kids dont read comic books so they only have the tv or video games to go off for toys. thats why TF and SW are doing so well as the toys look like the movies or toons also both of them have 2-3 lines going at the same time.

 

do we want toys to like that clone wars toys no we at least not all of us lol. they need to have 2 lines going 1 for kids and 1 for us. sort of like DTC and S6 the prob that made it fail was that the DTC line had no exposure to the public ie kids. so they only had S6 to buy. they need to have both lines going with the same amount of exposure. to let the kids buy what they want and we buy what we want and maybe we all would buy from both lines. that will never happen cuse hasbro backed the wrong horse with roc. also hasbro thinks joe cant be profitable to run 2lines hell they are lucky 1 line is selling as how they are handling it. it used to be 6 figs a wave and now we are down to 3 or 4 a wave.

[Rollo Tomassi]

While I agree with VH that kids are distracted by video games vs actionfigure roleplay, if someone were to put out a bitchin' sandbox style game like Assassin's Creed or Batman:Arkham Asylum that was Snake-Eyes invading Cobra Island, I would be all over that. Berating the entirety of videogaming is like saying The Godfather and Hottie and the Nottie are equally atrocious because they are both films.

[CaptainTriumph]

I still disagree on this being the video game generation. I consider my generation as the first video game generation.

 

Arcades and coin-ops were all through my childhood along with my Colecovision at home.

 

That being said, I'm still an athlete and have a great imagination.

 

On a side note, I got 3 more Alley Vipers today!!!

 

The thing is, all kids do these days is play video games. I was born in 85 and played video games like crazy, but I still went out biking and tadpole collecting when I was a lad. These days, I always see a kid with a PSP or gameboy in their hands. I remember being at my siblings' graduation last year and there were some poorly behaved children behind me. Instead of the mother teaching them to pay attention, she shoved a video PSP in their faces. It was some truly pathetic parenting. We were the first video game generation, but we had lives outside of video games as well. Today's generation is a bit different. You have to admit that there is a stronger obsession with Call of duty, Grand Theft Auto, etc. than we had with the new Mario or Super Star Wars (true classics)

 

Congrats on the Alley Vipers! What's your count at? I'm waiting for a bunch of shock troopers in the mail as I type.

I'm up to 7 Alley Vipers. I have only found 1 Shock Trooper so far.

[Peter]

Aside from ROC, has anyone seen any commercials for G.I. Joe figures? I don't recall ever seeing any and I still watch Saturday morning cartoons (the few entertaining ones that are still out there).

 

It really doesn't make sense that Hasbro wouldn't advertise for Joes on TV, especially during Renegades. There are still commercials for Transformers and Star Wars. I don't recall seeing a G.I. Joe commercial since the early 90s (with the exception of ROC), and when I was a kid, I would want almost any toy that I saw advertised on TV. Especially the ones where a vehicle would be shown driving down a dirt path and crashing through some sort of wall of blocks. You know the ones I'm talking about!

[Toiletmonkey1]

I would want almost any toy that I saw advertised on TV. Especially the ones where a vehicle would be shown driving down a dirt path and crashing through some sort of wall of blocks. You know the ones I'm talking about!

 

I think that was every commercial! LOL that and a wall of plastic cups. givin the choice kids will choose video games over action figures every time the wierd thing is. its like they come out of the womb like that now. i tried to get my son interested in action figure since the day he was born. but the second i put him in front of the lap top,its like he knew what to do. now he surfs and plays online games all by himself? (i watch him so he doesnt look at porn and stuff!) but he took to it like he's been doing it forever? he even learned how to rename all my files "wishbone" or "Bolt" cause he loves Dogs? ya know that movie WALL-e with the fat people with big heads floating around on wheelchairs i think were getting closer to that all the time.

 

TM

[Buzzchuck KJ]

I still disagree on this being the video game generation. I consider my generation as the first video game generation.

 

Arcades and coin-ops were all through my childhood along with my Colecovision at home.

 

That being said, I'm still an athlete and have a great imagination.

 

On a side note, I got 3 more Alley Vipers today!!!

 

Yeah, but when you played video games as a kid they didn't seem real. Mario and Sonic were great, but 8 bit doesn't have the same effects on you as 3D, HD, Big Screen video Games that kids play today. There is a big difference between Duck Hunt and 2010 First Person Shooters.

[Dragonrider1227]

Well, I once saw a kid wearing one of those RoC T-Shirts. It seems to me that kids do still like it, but it's not the dominate force it once was.

 

On a side note, does anyone else think we all sound like a bunch of old men sitting on porches going "You durn kids today don't known nuttin'!"? XD

[Buzzchuck KJ]

Speaking of ROC Shirts. I work at a 4th-12th Grade School (I teach the High School Kids) There is a 5th grader with a ROC Snake-Eyes Backpack, There was one 4th grade Snake-Eyes and one 4th grade Storm Shadow on Halloween. I also have a ROC Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow Poster in my room.

[Toiletmonkey1]

Well, I once saw a kid wearing one of those RoC T-Shirts. It seems to me that kids do still like it, but it's not the dominate force it once was.

 

On a side note, does anyone else think we all sound like a bunch of old men sitting on porches going "You durn kids today don't known nuttin'!"? XD

 

 

LOL! yes we do, nothing is ever going to be as good as the things that came befor it. i think every generation feels that way, we think how was pulling a tin can on a string funner then playin with gijoe figures? and kids today think how it playing with little plastic men funner then a video game, and there kids will say how is a video game funner then flyin around on jet packs or whatever the next thing is holodeck? blueray VR? but ill tell ya i sound more and more like my old man every year!

 

TM

[Toiletmonkey1]

Speaking of ROC Shirts. I work at a 4th-12th Grade School (I teach the High School Kids) There is a 5th grader with a ROC Snake-Eyes Backpack, There was one 4th grade Snake-Eyes and one 4th grade Storm Shadow on Halloween. I also have a ROC Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow Poster in my room.

 

 

Buzz i bet your one of those cool teachers all the kids like? am i right? w/a SE SS poster you would have been my hero!

 

TM

[Buzzchuck KJ]

Speaking of ROC Shirts. I work at a 4th-12th Grade School (I teach the High School Kids) There is a 5th grader with a ROC Snake-Eyes Backpack, There was one 4th grade Snake-Eyes and one 4th grade Storm Shadow on Halloween. I also have a ROC Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow Poster in my room.

 

 

Buzz i bet your one of those cool teachers all the kids like? am i right? w/a SE SS poster you would have been my hero!

 

TM

 

Hs ha, yeah. It's funny how I'm a cool teacher for flying my geek flag. When as a student I was just a nerd. You also wouldn't believe how many times I've had a kid point to the Darth Vader Action Figure case that sits on a shelf in my classroom and say "My Dad has one of those. It opens up and hold figures right?" I've attached two of my cardboard and masking tape Halloween costumes that I made for school.

[Peter]

Speaking of ROC Shirts. I work at a 4th-12th Grade School (I teach the High School Kids) There is a 5th grader with a ROC Snake-Eyes Backpack, There was one 4th grade Snake-Eyes and one 4th grade Storm Shadow on Halloween. I also have a ROC Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow Poster in my room.

 

 

Buzz i bet your one of those cool teachers all the kids like? am i right? w/a SE SS poster you would have been my hero!

 

TM

 

Hs ha, yeah. It's funny how I'm a cool teacher for flying my geek flag. When as a student I was just a nerd. You also wouldn't believe how many times I've had a kid point to the Darth Vader Action Figure case that sits on a shelf in my classroom and say "My Dad has one of those. It opens up and hold figures right?" I've attached two of my cardboard and masking tape Halloween costumes that I made for school.

 

Really cool, Buzzchuck. Seriously.

 

I'm pretty impressed by the costumes too. Must have been hard getting around in the school though!

[Peter]

ya know that movie WALL-e with the fat people with big heads floating around on wheelchairs i think were getting closer to that all the time.

 

TM

 

Sadly, I can really see that happening one day. I just hope I don't live to see it myself.

[blueconvoy]

Ok I have 2 kids that collect G.I. Joes. I noticed that they would ask me for the stuff before the movie and after the movie line. During the whole movie Line stuff they seemed upset or let down by most of the toys. They would pick up a few here and there. They never got Cobra Commander. In the Latest Line they have picked up every figure we can find. With the new line what seems to be the problem is finding them. Walmart always has the same guys over and over. Kmart doesn't carry them. HeB (a Local Supermarket) has them but they run $2 more. They like the new Show but rather watch the old stuff. My younger son says its because the characters look "Stupid and dopey" Except for Snake Eyes who he says Looks cool. As for me I like transformers. But like one Poster said above I am starting to lose interest. I started with the new Movie figures. I understand the movies are made to reintroduce kids to the toys but the toys in my opinion bite. So maybe its the Movies and its crappy merchandise that are causing the Love for our toy lines to die a little.

[CaptainTriumph]

I still disagree on this being the video game generation. I consider my generation as the first video game generation.

 

Arcades and coin-ops were all through my childhood along with my Colecovision at home.

 

That being said, I'm still an athlete and have a great imagination.

 

On a side note, I got 3 more Alley Vipers today!!!

 

Yeah, but when you played video games as a kid they didn't seem real. Mario and Sonic were great, but 8 bit doesn't have the same effects on you as 3D, HD, Big Screen video Games that kids play today. There is a big difference between Duck Hunt and 2010 First Person Shooters.

I would agree with that.