G. I. Joe

[Mithrandier]

A G. I. Joe License would sell like hotcakes..............very hot and tastey hotcakes..........with real homemade maple syrup...........

[creature4000]

As long as they resembled the first cartoon I'm in!!

a Firefly fig with all the gear!

Zartan and his Dreadnaughts!!!!!

Snakeyes, Tunnel Rat, Duke!

[creature4000]

This needed to be moved to the top...

The list is huge anything will do!

[Shai]

bump...........

[denger4000]

meh, also, I doubt Hasbro would ever give the rights away.

[IrishJedi]

They let Takara make the high-end "Masterpiece" Transformers stuff.

[Sir Tristram]

meh, also, I doubt Hasbro would ever give the rights away.

That's what I thought at firs too, but Palisades had the license and doesn't Gentle Giant have it now as well?
That Baroness statue with SoundWave's Panther looks so cool!

[Vader AL]

GI mother f'ng Joe!!!

[IrishJedi]

Imagine PF figures of Destro, Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes, Flint, etc... :rock

Or, better yet, imagine AH! inspired maquettes of the Baroness, Scarlett, Lady Jaye and Cover Girl. :drool

[bagelsncheesey]

Give us GI Joe stuff, pleaaaaase? You'd have my money.

[Buttmunch]

I'm not sure if I could see this happen. I'd LOVE it to, but I'm not sure. Habro has the rights for 12"ers. Those don't see particularly well (why Sideshow was able to lease the Star Wars license from them), but it is the Original scale of the original GI Joe. I'd love to see a 12" Cobra Commander with both masks!

[Mithrandier]

bump------------with the 25th anniversary hitting and all the little guys going so good and with the movie, come on..................

[Bardoon]

They let Takara make the high-end "Masterpiece" Transformers stuff.

Transformers is unique in that it is a jointly-operated property between both Hasbro AND Takara...a partnership that began in the 80's. I'm not clear on who really owns the property but I do know it was Hasbro who purchased Takara's DIACLONE line (the predecessor to TFs) and rebranded it as TRANSFORMERS, creating the original G1 mythology, characters, etc. Obviously Takara operates Transformers in the Asian markets while Hasbro operates Transformers in the Western markets.

Anything that either company makes regarding the TF figures I believe is instantly open to the other to release in their respected market...pending whatever policies or whatever they have.

[piccolodaimaoh]

Transformers is unique in that it is a jointly-operated property between both Hasbro AND Takara...a partnership that began in the 80's. I'm not clear on who really owns the property but I do know it was Hasbro who purchased Takara's DIACLONE line (the predecessor to TFs) and rebranded it as TRANSFORMERS, creating the original G1 mythology, characters, etc. Obviously Takara operates Transformers in the Asian markets while Hasbro operates Transformers in the Western markets.

Anything that either company makes regarding the TF figures I believe is instantly open to the other to release in their respected market...pending whatever policies or whatever they have.

I am surprised and dumb-founded by how little people know about Takara. There was one board member, name with held to protect the innocent, who asked if Takara was a part of Hot Toys!
Here is a brief history of Takara's impact on American action figures. The success of G.I.Joe in the 60's caused Hasbro to try and branch out to other countries by licensing the figures to toy companies, Takara being the one in Japan.
They made military based figures but decided to transition the military line into a more sci-fi property so in the late 60's/early 70's Takara came out with Henshin Cyborg, clear plastic figures that had interchangeable body parts and had more futuristic clothing sets.
The line had initial success but ultimately it was decided to scrap the 1/6 scale and move to 3 3/4 inch figures they called Microman, or Micronauts in America. This was the first toy line of the 3 3/4 scale to be successful. The success of the 3 3/4 scale Micronauts is one of the reasons Kenner decided to make their Star Wars figures this size. The other obvious reason that worked for Microman and Star Wars was that with the smaller scale the figures could have vehicles.
The story of Microman was that they were aliens from another planet waging war on earth, kind of like Autobots vs Decepticons, or Cybertron vs Destron. The only difference was that the Micromen were only 3 3/4 inches tall, so they could hide during the day and wage war at night. The scale proved so popular that Hasbro adopted it for their re-launch of G.I.Joe in 1982.
By 1982 Takara had gone a different direction with Microman. They decided to scale down the figures and have them ride in a child's toy, namely cars and jets. The vehicles had seets that the small drivers could ride in, and when they went to fight the vehicles could transform into robots with the Micromen at the helm. They called this new series Diaclone.
By 1982-83 Hasbro still had the line of communication open with their Japanese cousin Takara and decided to bring them to America. Hasbro also had ties with Marvel Comics so they had them right up an amazing back story were aliens from another planet wage war against each other secretly. But instead of being small cyborg men who fought in secret, they became giant robots in disguise who continued their civil war on Earth. Diaclone became Transformers. Transformers was so popular here that they tried the same Diaclone line again as Transformers in Japan and it was a hit in Japan. All of the Transformers figures in Asia are made in the same factory, just put in different boxes and shipped accordingly. I think they do the same thing for the American market.
I hope this helps to inform the masses of the identity and importance of this Japanese company called Takara.

[Mithrandier]

Ask and you shall recieve.
It looks like the 12 figures.
But I do hope that they get into the PF's, comiquettes, dioramas and polystone types.

With the license up in the air for the comic book, hopefully Marvel gets it and then we can add Joe to the Marvel area.

Plus, with the live action movie, hopefully they are made up good and we can get some good out of it.

Hey Dusty, who were you in the commercial??????

[Buttmunch]

Well I must admit I am shocked. Glad to see Hasbro is wising up and listening to collectors for a change. Their 1:6 stuff obviously doesn't sell well do to the poor mass market effects on the line and the increasing amount of quality 1:6 figures out there. Glad they partnered up with Sideshow again to lease off a license.

Now I just hope these aren't as pricey as Star Wars. No likeness (or Lucas fees) should help lower costs.

[IrishJedi]

Now I just hope these aren't as pricey as Star Wars. No likeness (or Lucas fees) should help lower costs.

I predict this line (and others) may finally put an end to the "it's the Lucas licensing fees" excuse.

:monkey1

[Ktjn]

You know, I said this directly to matt falls (I think it was him) during the spook chat, and he said it would be a dream. So you can thank me now :D ;)

[Mista305]

I hope they do some cool premium formats..would love to have a destro with real chrome head and a zartan with color changing skin!!