Here's hoping Toy Fair can resurrect our hope!
I wouldn't expect much or ANYTHING GIJOE at Toyfair. Or at the NYCC a month later.
There MIGHT be something solid announced at Joe con.
This is what the toy industry insiders I know have relayed to me:
No-one is interested in GIJOE.
That has to sink in for a minute.
Apparently, Hasbro has laid out all kinds of plans and exclusives for the 50th, and all the major retailers have sniffed at them. Rejected them cold.
There might be ONE retailer interested in A exclusive......singular, in both respects.
You can blame Paramount, for delaying the movie.......which really screwed things up. Retailers were left with all kinds of stock leftover, and little of it was moving, and because of that, they are not interested in anything new beyond their last orders for Retaliation stuff. The sell-through period for merch attached to the movie and DVD is still in effect for most of 2014, so retailers are not interested in supporting a separate promotion that is not movie-related.
That it's the brand's 50th anniversary means NOTHING to them.
It sells so little, holds so little shelf space that if GIJOE went away, no-one would notice. Or care.
Except GIJOE collectors and fans, and we amount to the fly on the elephant's ass---to famously quote a former GIJOE brand manager.
Action figure brands in the industry are all in disarray. Marvel toys are NOT selling and Iron Man 2 toys were massively over-produced and ordered. Many retailers still have huge amounts in their systems when the third Iron Man movie came out......and Hasbro had promised them that all the IM, Captain America and Thor toys they were choking on would sell when Avengers came out.
That didn't happen.
And the retailers called Hasbro on it.
Consequently, anything else that ANYONE else is offering the stores gets a wary eyeball looking at it. It's affected the entire industry. Movie tie-ins mean nothing any more......the consumer-base just isn't interested in them, and retailers have been burned too many times. The days of old with a massive toy brand launch for a movie.......are dead and gone now.
Okay, so with all that in mind.......I am the lone voice, probably the only voice you have heard anything from yet on this matter.
Don't take my word for it.
I am not an insider, I am just a messenger.
My source is a long-time on-line acquaintance who is an insider, and his comments ( which I have relayed) cane be found on a Facebook group set up by fans to discuss Hasbro toys). I can direct the curious to the actual group if anyone wishes. You can then contact the fellow personally to verify or satisfy his bonafides.
Otherwise, what to do??
Wait a month for Toy Fair in February--it happens around Valentine's day. Actually previews should slip the week just prior. If ANYTHING is coming, it'll appear then. Hasbro may be playing this very close to the vest......( we hope), and MAY have something to roll out then. There may be a retailer, or retailers interested in carrying stuff. Might still happen.
If it does NOT happen at Toy Fair, then don't expect anything at NYCC. And Joe Con will be the last swing at bat for a while.
After that, GIJOE movies 3&4 WILL be made.....unless 3 tanks horribly. SOME toys will roll out in concert with the movies, but if there's no reveal at Toy Fair then GIJOE is done as a perennial line for the foreseeable future. It'll be an event line, coinciding with movies ( or TV shows) only.
The only other hope here is for the Collector club to continue with its semi-kitbashed product.
That is all there is.
