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05-19-2011, 12:09 PM | #21 |
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Just some random ideas that could make it appealing for kids.
1. Completely new cast that appeals to their world in 2011. 2. Basic articulation that appeals to play, instead of posing. 3. More molded on accessories instead of multiple pieces. 4. Attractive pricepoint. That was the purpose of the scale so characters can go against one another. 5. Playset. A couple months ago I theorized an idea for making playset affordable. I'll share later. 6. Multimedia connection. Is it beyond the realm of possibility to have a gi Joe site setup that is moderated and run like Facebook for giJoe? Instead of kids having their own pages, each Joe character has their own with missions, games, contests, etc. |
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05-19-2011, 12:17 PM | #22 |
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The problem with comics is they've moved away from kids completely (gi Joe). They just entertained by the complicated super hero plots that deal with issues like divorce and complicated discussions of nationalism.
It's not a viable marketing option when kids aren't looking for them. Video games is what is needed. |
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05-19-2011, 12:23 PM | #23 |
Hisstank.Com General
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Location: San Francisco Bay Area
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Mattel has been ignoring articulation with the majority of their lines (The 4" and the animated DC figures, the new movie figures) and those lines didn't prove to be very popular. Transformers on the other hand are full of little bits and pieces and a lot of them are very fragile, and yet they are the #1 action figure. Look at the 80's, GI Joe was the most articulated toy you could buy, and it was top dog.
I do think that the old Joes were more fun to move around and definitely felt sturdier, but I think the real issue is that kids today just don't have any connection to Joe, and so they don't sell as well. |
05-19-2011, 12:28 PM | #24 |
Sith Assassin Droid
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Roanoke, Virginia
Posts: 9,173
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Quote:
Just some random ideas that could make it appealing for kids.
1. Completely new cast that appeals to their world in 2011. 2. Basic articulation that appeals to play, instead of posing. 3. More molded on accessories instead of multiple pieces. 4. Attractive pricepoint. That was the purpose of the scale so characters can go against one another. 5. Playset. A couple months ago I theorized an idea for making playset affordable. I'll share later. 6. Multimedia connection. Is it beyond the realm of possibility to have a gi Joe site setup that is moderated and run like Facebook for giJoe? Instead of kids having their own pages, each Joe character has their own with missions, games, contests, etc. 1. Agreed, keep the codenames if you must, but make them distinctly new people, with new file names, new personalities, etc. 2. Disagree, articulation is what made joe the king back then. They don't need less articulation, just smarter articulation. You can make a well articulated figure more durable, if you avoid flimsy cut placement, use a more durable plastic, etc. 3. Agreed, or just avoid molded on weapons, mold on pouches though, armor could be incorporated into the sculpt instead of making removable vests, etc. 4. Agreed, an attractive pricepoint only helps the line across the board. Moms want to pay less for toys, so do collectors, so do kids with limited allowances. 5. Eh, im neutral here. when i was a kid i didn't have the Terrordrome or any other big playsets. i made mine out of cardboard boxes and styrofoam packing inserts. My nephews do the same thing. I don't think playsets are mandatory for a line to prosper. If done well though, with a good price point, it can really help. 6. Agreed, When we were coming up, joe was commercials, a daily cartoon, comic books. He went with me to school on the front of my lunch box, on my backpack, on t-shirts. i had JOE notebooks, a pencil pouch (with pencils, a sharpener,etc). You couldn't get away from the line, so it was always there, fresh on your mind. Now, if you don't actively seek out the joe stuff, you'd hardly know it was there. They need to manage the property better, stop splintering it into different "continuities", and give it more media exposure. period. because the average american has a shorter attention span now, and out of sight is out of mind. |
05-19-2011, 12:40 PM | #25 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: May 2007
Location: England
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Quote:
The bare necessity for an action figure that will appeal to kids is (I would assume) that their hands can grip their guns well enough that the gun don't keep falling out of their hands.
The fact that my TR can't even hold his own stupid gun half the time turned me off from buying any more of the new toys. And I'm just posing him in my living room. I'd have even less patience for this if I were 10 years old, or 6. Quote:
Articulation has nothing to do with it. When I was a kid my friends and I didn't like figures that were static (Star Wars figures). GiJoe could do a ton of stuff and that drove us towards that line.
However the biggest thing is the figures have to be fun and by Fun I mean they have to have things to interact with. Playsets, comics, cartoons, etc that all support the toy line. The biggest mistake to date with the cartoon and comic (except for Hama) is that you could not find a correlation between the imagery in the media with what is on the shelf. That has to happen. Quote:
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5. Eh, im neutral here. when i was a kid i didn't have the Terrordrome or any other big playsets. i made mine out of cardboard boxes and styrofoam packing inserts. My nephews do the same thing. I don't think playsets are mandatory for a line to prosper. If done well though, with a good price point, it can really help.
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05-19-2011, 12:51 PM | #26 |
Artillery Gunner
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Indiana
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I'm sure age is a factor as well. My oldest boy didn't show real interest until he was about 8. Now that he is 11 he is more into the articulation and detail of action figures.
However, he got an X-box last year and his interest is leaning more towards video games now. Which if you think about it, most kids are getting into video games at this age or younger. I'm sure if he had to choose one or the other the X-box would win over the action figures. |
05-19-2011, 01:06 PM | #27 |
The Budget Collector
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Beverly Hills Adjacent
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Part of what makes LEGO cool is it is so functional and sturdy. The little minifigs have limited articulation, but just enough to add a sense of "life" to them. And of course they are designed for kitbashing, etc. Hasbro has been coming up with all these redesigns for action figures ever since they upgraded the elbows in 83 or whatever. The classic LEGO minifig has been designed exactly the same way for over 30 years now.
1975 Girl BrickLink Reference Catalog - Minifig old001 No arms! No moving parts other than the head. Kind of boring, but it worked for the mid-70's. My FIRST Lego set with figs was a police station that had 4 of these type of police figures. 1978 Plain Police BrickLink Reference Catalog - Minifig pln051 Now we have the standard Mini-Fig - with plain torso and no accoutrements. What you CANNOT see, and what's not pictured on Bricklink is the studs on the leg pieces, which are slightly different if I recall correctly. Now the posts have grooves in them, which they did not have in the 1970's. Other than that the only major change in the design of Lego mini-figs has been the decorations and the accoutrements. The old "smiley" face was pretty much by itself until 1989, now of course there are simply tons of them. The early sticker decorations were replaced with Tampos by the early 80's. Back ON topic: My 4 year old daughter LOVES to play with Daddy's action figures, and would gladly do so if she were allowed to more often. She loves my Joes and whatever else 1/18th I have on display - so much that I've actually taken them OFF display waiting for a time when I can afford more display cases. And when given her own action figures, she plays with them along with her own toys (Duplo, Thomas Trains, Fisher Price Little People, and MLP)
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05-19-2011, 01:19 PM | #28 |
Gunslinger
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: MidWorld
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My eight year old told me that GI Joe is for old people. That all the kids she knows only like Transformers, Bakugan, and Clone Wars. She has no interest in my figures although she has been known to collect all the critters from the original line (Freedom, Junkyard, Serpentor's snake, etc) and play with them for hours.
Strangely enough, the only toys of mine she's ever asked me for were my Indy Jones figures. She'll put my paltry collection together and stuff the Narnia Castle full of the extra artifacts that came with the IJ figures. Hiding them for Indy and Marion to discover. Other than that, it's all about her Nintendo DS.
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05-19-2011, 01:48 PM | #29 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 11,379
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1) Is great articulation in figures turning some kids off from Joe?
I think so. Heck I'm kind of turned off by the articulation of the new Capt. America figure I bought. I think, though, it's more a matter of the design of the joints. If the joints are hard to manipulate, don't stay in place when you play with them, are soft and weak, then it will turn kids off. I think Hasbro needs to evaluate joint design and come up with something better or go back to an older design that worked well in the past. 2) Is lack of Giant Playsets and Vehicles like we had in the 80's turning them off? Not sure about that. I never really had a lot of gaint playsets. My room served as my playset. Under the bed was my Hoth base. My dresser was a mountain fortress. I don't think kids really need a lot of playsets to have fun with their figures and vehicles. 3) Is the "adult" demand for better articulation hurting Hasbro's sales overall because they can't get the kids involved? Perhaps. I can see how a kid wanting to play with their figures would have trouble because the figures aren't as robust. They are good for posing and displaying, but if you move them around they flop all over the place, things fall off, etc. 4) Is the "Clearance Price" attitude of "adults" which has resulted in poor sales of large vehicles hurting Hasbro because they are having a harder time getting kids involved with Joe. I think it's more a matter of the economy and the high priced toy being a real luxury and not so much "I can afford it, but I simply want to get a better deal on clearance so I'll wait." If the economy was doing better and more people had money to burn they would buy more large toys at regular price for X-mas and birthdays. If you look at the BMF which really retails for $150-$180, that's a lot of medium vehicles and figures that could buy. There's a finite dollar amount people will spend each year on toys. I think over saturation of the market and people's money being divided among too many toys and toy lines is hurting the sales of big vehicles which only a die hard fan of the theme would buy. Space is another issue. Once you get a few big vehicles that's about it for a long time unless you sale it or get rid of it, so the expectation needs to be different. I would think that the really high priced toys are more icing on the cake and it's not expected to drive the bulk of the sales for a toy line. I think not having a big vehicle to play with doesn't turn a kid off to a toy line. 5) Is this why Mattel and other companies have not articulated thier figures better? It's kind of what I was thinking. Although I think there is a happy medium somewhere. I really don't think going back to vintage Kenner Star Wars articulation is the way to go. LOL! Remember GI Joe in the 80's set themselves apart from the competition because of their better articulation. |
05-19-2011, 02:47 PM | #30 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,586
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Quote:
Well, not ENTIRELY accurate, the ORIGINAL Mini-Figure released in 1975 was vastly different than the current model - which was more-or less set in place in 1978...check it out:
1975 Girl BrickLink Reference Catalog - Minifig old001 No arms! No moving parts other than the head. Kind of boring, but it worked for the mid-70's. My FIRST Lego set with figs was a police station that had 4 of these type of police figures. 1978 Plain Police BrickLink Reference Catalog - Minifig pln051 Now we have the standard Mini-Fig - with plain torso and no accoutrements. What you CANNOT see, and what's not pictured on Bricklink is the studs on the leg pieces, which are slightly different if I recall correctly. Now the posts have grooves in them, which they did not have in the 1970's. Other than that the only major change in the design of Lego mini-figs has been the decorations and the accoutrements. The old "smiley" face was pretty much by itself until 1989, now of course there are simply tons of them. The early sticker decorations were replaced with Tampos by the early 80's. And my point about what makes the classic fig so successful IMO is its simplicity, flexibility, durability, and "accesorizability" - which was supposed to be on topic in its own way. Last edited by Stormgard; 05-19-2011 at 03:03 PM.. |
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