| (February 20, 2005) What Happened? - Well I keep saying I'm coming back to the page and I still don't do it. So what happened? I just end up doing other things and complaining on other boards so I forget to put my thoughts here. One thing that keeps turning me away is that I do all this by raw html coding. It's take a minute longer than it could to do the easy stuff. So what I'm planing out is redesigning everything so that I have it a a wysiwyg format. You the site builders that you just type, drag and drop, then let the coding do it's own thing. That will help me to just pick up and type as if writing to a blog then. Not only that but I'm designing a lot of customs I'll be posting soon too. - Joe |
| (February 20, 2005) Sigma Six - Yesterday it was announced that a new G.I.Joe line was coming out. This line is called G.I.Joe: Sigma Six. You can read that press release here. These are 8" stylistic figures that have very hard, sharp edges and anime-like in looks. There will be a new cartoon series that starts this coming September on the 10th. The series will be on Fox in their FoxBox segment. While this may sound like a great idea, the 12" line of figures have been canceled. The 3 3/4" figures are said to be on hold. Figure sales had been said to be up this past year and at Christmas for G.I.Joe. You can view some of Hasbro's filings here and press releases to see some actual figures. The only reported true loss is Beyblades. Other reports were word of mouth and info gathered that had been heard at various events and other means. So you can't really say dropping a selling product, pissing off all the fans, then expect to sell an all new line is a smart idea. Are you familar with the Hasbro property called Xevoz? This was a property that was combining Stifa and a game system that wasn't too bad of an idea. I even picked up some of the items. The problem is, this license did fail and is currently clearancing in stores that carry them. Hasbro did the usual on trying to push these in by just putting it out there and throw a few commercials on the air. Now that is has failed, this is almost exactly what this new G.I.Joe looks like. Don't believe me? I put a little image together just to show how much alike they are:
 Fans pretty well across the board are not in favor of this. Sure there are those that say they'll give it a chance. Most of them are on the Ring of Collector board. That's pretty much the board though that you can expect to find a piece of paper with G.I.Joe slapped on it being talked up as "amazing and the bestest thing ever", hehe. They do have news and info, so don't count them out. Other than that, everywhere else you go you find maybe 2 out of 15 that will say they either like the new figures or that they'll at least give them a chance. That's a low number once you start doing the math. Far too low of a number to count on for support. The kids supporting the line, maybe. I mean I don't know at this point. They might but this is something we'll have to wait and see. I sort of feel they won't though. Most companies are making a shift to 4" scale while Hasbro is deciding to increase the scale? Doesn't make sense. Plus the anime craze is starting to level out. While Hasbro did release a press release for upcoming Valor vs Venom, it doesn't go past Spring. There is also a report on Steel Brigade about one of the comic 3 packs being pushed back until this fall. My thoughts are that if any 3 3/4" product comes out it will be special releases such as the comic 3 packs. The Valor vs Venom statment of being on hiatus, I just don't see a company claiming sales are down then just bring the line back out after they've launched something else. If/when this new stuff fails... maybe they'll decided to get back to where they left of. Maybe. The following are links to the various sources for news and info used in this commentary today:
Figures.com Toy Fair Coverage - Joe |
| (February 21, 2005) So what about the unreleased stuff? - With the news of Sigma Six, there's quite a bit of unreleased stuff still to go. So will we see it? This list of unreleased items is part from what's displayed at CobraIsland's forum, but it is also bits and pieces that have shown up all over the net. Some items actually have been shown on Hasbro's site and a few others were shown at cons. I thought I'd provide this list in my commentary so it was more accessable than laying around on a forum. I know there's some fans out there that just hate dealing with "rabid fans". I'm a member of several of these lists, and I know I can get pretty over board on the subject. So anyways, here's the list and a few tidbits that follow:
Duke, Destro, Roadblock
Road Rebel Tank with Tunnel Rat
Quick Strike with Sgt Bazooka
ROCC with Long Haul
G.I. Joe 3.75" Crimson Guard: Xamot
VENOM STRIKER With FIREFLY Figure
Kamakura with Ninja Lightning Cycle
* Special thanks to Phillip Donnelly for notifying me about the Venom Chamber, Crimson Guard sets, and Desert Coyote.
"Fan's Choice #2-- Spirit, Cover Girl, and Hannibal-- is rumored to have been phased out or altered as part of the 2005 Joe restructuring. It may be a two-pack or delayed, we don't really know for sure as of this review. We'll keep you posted."
http://www.toydirectory.com/monthly - Joe |
| (February 22, 2005) The Devils Due Relaunch gets a name - As we already know, issue #43 is it for the ongoing series of Devils Due G.I.Joe. Newsarama made a post about an issue #0 coming out this June for $.25. Click the link below for more on this subject: - Joe |
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