There was a lot of anxiety on the forums of late as a lot of rather credible expertise was lent to the idea that there would be both nothing to show at Toy Fair this year and that the brand would be classified with the dreaded word, 'hiatus' until the release of the third film installment. Then, just over a week before Toy Fair the Associated Press ran a story about the 50th Anniversary of GI Joe which included one little snippet from Hasbro:
Hasbro said it intends to announce details of its 50th anniversary plans during this year's fair in New York on Feb. 16-19.
Even the above revelation was met with a great deal of skepticism and naysaying. Some reasons for the skepticism was the lack of display space listed for GI Joe in Hasbro's booth and the recent downgrade from Joebeing one of Hasbro's seven most important strategic brands. While some picked up on the promise of the optimistic message, others still speculated there would be nothing shown or declared cravenly that the only announcement would be "Death of the Line".
Joe fans can be a forlorn bunch.
Of course, this negativity is not entirely without cause. Over the past year it has been reported that fewer Walmart stores have been willing to carry the brand compared to those that had stocked pegs for the 30th Anniversary and Pursuit of Cobra lines from just a couple years before -even with a big-budget movie supporting the toys for 2013. Target completely clearanced them out over the summer and restocking even became sparse at Walgreens. Toys R Us usually remains dedicated to the brand, but reports are that they haven't been restocking either. The two Toys R Us stores near me are clogged full of wave one Roadblocks and the crummy Retaliation Alpha bikes. I think Darryl DePriest of Hasbro commented at one point that later waves of Retaliation were produced in plentiful quantities, but up to this point the only way collectors have been able to reliably acquire waves 3.5 and 4 has been through pre-order or through paying inflated market rates on the Internet. Because of this, some of the fandom has felt that they've been lied to (me myself, I think we'll see more of these later waves at retail once the earlier Retaliation waves have cleared I as believe Toys R Us is holding it's stock until then)
Anyways, it turns out Hasbro has some interim plans for GI Joe before the next film cycle to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the GI Joe brand which it announced on Saturday at Toy Fair 2014. The best synopsis I've found was done courtesy of GeneralsJoes.com, - G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary – What it is and where it comes from. Give it a read!
Joe fans can be a forlorn bunch.
Of course, this negativity is not entirely without cause. Over the past year it has been reported that fewer Walmart stores have been willing to carry the brand compared to those that had stocked pegs for the 30th Anniversary and Pursuit of Cobra lines from just a couple years before -even with a big-budget movie supporting the toys for 2013. Target completely clearanced them out over the summer and restocking even became sparse at Walgreens. Toys R Us usually remains dedicated to the brand, but reports are that they haven't been restocking either. The two Toys R Us stores near me are clogged full of wave one Roadblocks and the crummy Retaliation Alpha bikes. I think Darryl DePriest of Hasbro commented at one point that later waves of Retaliation were produced in plentiful quantities, but up to this point the only way collectors have been able to reliably acquire waves 3.5 and 4 has been through pre-order or through paying inflated market rates on the Internet. Because of this, some of the fandom has felt that they've been lied to (me myself, I think we'll see more of these later waves at retail once the earlier Retaliation waves have cleared I as believe Toys R Us is holding it's stock until then)
Anyways, it turns out Hasbro has some interim plans for GI Joe before the next film cycle to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the GI Joe brand which it announced on Saturday at Toy Fair 2014. The best synopsis I've found was done courtesy of GeneralsJoes.com, - G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary – What it is and where it comes from. Give it a read!
