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10-08-2011, 01:15 PM | #1 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Villa Park, IL
Posts: 147
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I've been a G.I. joe fan since a kid in the 80's. After Masters Of The Universe(don't laugh), it was my favorite toy franchise. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of the way Hasbro treats it these days(or any of its franchises to be honest).
They seem to make a new canon at least once a year either in the form of a comic, cartoon, movie, or toyline(although, I'm still not sure if the current Joe toyline even follows any canon other than the ones based on Renegades). They seem to switch the looks, race, sex, & age of their characters on a whim. Hell, in the main Joe books from IDW, Cobra Commander went from being a classic villain to the title of a glorified "red shirt" who is replaced after death. I have no problem with change(I'm one of the few who liked Rise Of Cobra), but can we actually keep a style or canon for more than 6 months? It's one thing to shake the dust off a property in order to attract a new generation of fans(I hate the Bay Transformers movies, but I can't deny they seem to have created a new legion of TF fans), but the way they reboot things so frequently, why bother even getting into the latest era? Just wait a few months and it will be replaced. It seems like Hasbro has little respect for its characters or the property itself. Maybe it's just me, but I just find it really hard to be a Joe fan these days or even get behind the decisions Hasbro either makes on its own or allows to be made by outside parties. Last edited by SMARTASS8; 10-08-2011 at 01:22 PM.. |
10-08-2011, 01:20 PM | #2 |
Cobra necromancer
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Central Wisconsin
Posts: 2,665
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Just ignore the various cannons and make up your own. Adapt the new figures they make to your own cannon. That's what I do.
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10-08-2011, 01:29 PM | #3 |
I.O. SpecOps
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: In a secret underground bunker.
Posts: 4,404
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It's hard to do. ARAH had three different canons(comics, cartoons and filecards). Also after Larry Hama made the concrete connection to Vietnam, there would need to be changes to stay current. Unless G.I. Joe decided to go the generic route like Bravo Team or BBI.
There are also the changes made due to loss of copyright.
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10-08-2011, 01:40 PM | #4 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Hurst, Tx
Posts: 437
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GI Joe is the only toy line I have ever collected where I didnt mind mixing the different lines. I don't collect the old style figures, just the 25th anniversary styled figure (25th, Rise of Cobra, Resolute, Renegades, and 30th) but I dont seperate them into different collections. They all stand together on my shelf.
In the case where I have 2 characters who share a code name (Dial Tone, Breaker, Ripcord) I just consider them different characters who hppened to get the same code name prior to joining the GI Joe team. In the case of the Female Dial-Tone, I am okay with the idea of her being the sister of the original Dial-Tone. As for Breaker, even the older toylines had characters who shared code names (Dusty, Lifeline), so it never bothered me to have multiple characters with the same name. Hell, I even display both the 25th anniversary Dusty and the Pursuit of Cobra Dusty together, with the PoC Dusty intended to be second Dusty that origianlly came with the Night Rhino vehicle in 2000. |
10-08-2011, 02:37 PM | #5 |
Ex-Pharisee
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: 742 Evergreen Terrace
Posts: 12,216
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I collect a little differently than some -- I collect by character, mainly, so it doesn't bother me if there are multiple versions of a character or what-not. But if you were to ask me the "story of GI Joe", I'd point to the Marvel comic run. Even when I was a kid, I watched the cartoon in addition to reading the comics, and I always just saw the cartoon as sort of a quick adventure, but I saw the comic as being the actual canon. So it doesn't bother me too much that they keep switching things up. I really did like the Renegades, and if they'd have chosen to keep that continuity going, I'd been fine with it.
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10-08-2011, 02:54 PM | #6 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Villa Park, IL
Posts: 147
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My issue is less with there being multiple toys of the same character in different styles. My issue is that Hasbro seems to reboot their canons & toylines all too frequently(at least it seems like that to me, but Joe is the only franchise made by Hasbro I have any interest in). In the 80's, while there were differences between the Marvel comic, the Sunbow toon, and the filecard, they were basically the same canon. Now we have Renegades(which I'm assuming is dead), the main IDW comic, and the current toyline(which seems less like an actual canon & more like a collection of unused movie designs, 25th anniversary refreshes, and Renegades designs).
Again, I don't think Hasbro needs to keep everything the way it was in the 80's(although that was obviously the most popular Joe has ever been since the 60's), but I'd like some uniformity. I also dislike the way they casually go back & forth between Roadblock & Heavy Duty like they are interchangeable due to being big & black(if you can't use a name, rename the character or put them on hold until you can), allow IDW to kill off the franchise's main villain(I feel franchises are made on how good their villain is; making Cobra Commander just a title really weakens Joe if that idea goes farther than just the comics), and switching the sex & race of a character. I feel Mattel could learn a lot from Hasbro in how to get their franchies out there(look at all the movies, comics, & cartoons they have let alone their own cable channel), but I feel Mattel, sometimes to a fault, treats their franchies with a great deal more respect than Hasbro does. |
10-08-2011, 05:10 PM | #7 |
O-Ring Overmaster
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: A state of melancholy...
Posts: 249
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The canon issue in GI Joe, particularly in the comics, has caused me to stop collecting the comics, that is anything outside of the original Marvel continuity. It's annoying trying to constantly keep straight all the various changes made...
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10-08-2011, 05:48 PM | #8 |
I LIVE!
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Altus, OK
Posts: 6,087
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Quote:
My issue is that Hasbro seems to reboot their canons & toylines all too frequently(at least it seems like that to me, but Joe is the only franchise made by Hasbro I have any interest in). In the 80's, while there were differences between the Marvel comic, the Sunbow toon, and the filecard, they were basically the same canon. Now we have Renegades(which I'm assuming is dead), the main IDW comic, and the current toyline.
Today, comics are truely negligible to impact on the brand. Joe comics sell around 10-14K units in a given month. Hasbro sells more Joe TOYS in a given month than IDW sells comics. But again, I argue about the "constant" reboots. Fundamentally, GI Joe is about a team of military operatives (lead by Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Beachhead, and a few other specialists) against a group called Cobra (lead by Cobra Commander with his ninja Storm Shadow, Baroness, Destro and Zartan, with Firefly in there). Regardless the detail or whatever coat of paint Hasbro has slapped on the toys, the concept has been pretty much unchanged, and a majority of the same characters used, going on for 10 years. Again, the consistency is gone, but that is true of almost ALL mass market brands at the moment (compare Transformers: you have the movie and toys, Prime (which does NOT have toys out at the moment), Generations, and the IDW G1 series which doesn't always use Classic/Generations designs, and frequently has NEW ones. Or Star Wars whose Clone Wars show and cartoon vary from the comics, which have almost no support from the toyline). And it is also worth noting some of the issue stated above are just as much reflective of the brand's weak performance all around. Joe was a powerhouse in the mid-80s. Now it is struggling to stay on retail shelves. Quote:
but I feel Mattel, sometimes to a fault, treats their franchies with a great deal more respect than Hasbro does.
Mattel seemingly favors collectors because after all their eff ups, they can't GET some of these lines (specifically MOTU) back to retail where the real money is. If Mattel could ditch Matty Collector and sell all that stuff at retail for comparative cost, they would do so in an INSTANT.
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10-08-2011, 05:54 PM | #9 |
Jungle Warfare Soldier
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,498
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I think hasBLOW is doing all this for a big reason.
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10-08-2011, 06:03 PM | #10 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Poughkeepsie, NY.
Posts: 2,258
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This is why........
"Well that didn't get the kids into GI Joe so lets try this......nope that didn't work either. Ok how about doing this.....nope that was even worse. Wait what if we do this.....nope that was about the same etc......" I think until they hit whatever it is that’s going to get kids into GI Joe again they are going to just keep tinkering and changing and trying new things. Although this certainly doesn't account for changing names and race of characters. I don't know why the hell they do that. |
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