Gotta agree, GI Joe should keep to itself. I thought it was stupid when Transformers appeared in the comics, it just didn't work.

A good idea for a convention set could be unreleased characters. Dr. Burkhart, CIA agent Anderson, Shooter, Billy (though I'm not a fan), Dr. Venom, CG Appel, Generals Ryan, Hollingsworth, Austin, Flagg & Admiral Dyson. That's just getting started, there's plenty that can be done without resorting to other toy lines.

I would say MASK is quite a crossover because under Hasbro's thinking, MASK is a part of GI Joe (then again, so was STreetfighter). It was said somewhere that the ROCC and RHINO are considered part of the MASK technology (the concept of 2-1 vehicles). The whole Transformers thing, I never got into even if was considered a HIT by the comic fans.

I would find an unreleased figure set interesting but con sets always have some sort of story behind them, right? I already posted my thoughts on a PLAGUE set (that would be 2 thumbs up).



Do we know if the con set will be ARAH or Bastard Era sculpts? I think there's more possibilities if they used the JvC-DTC era molds.




And would someone please answer me this. How many con sets were made last year and what was their price?

Oh... what about a "Jugglers" set (I hope i got the name right). I think that would be cool.

Where was this stated? And by old writers? you mean marvel writers that had nothing to do with DD? Makes sense they would make light of the other company when they take over the story no?

I don't see how they make fast cash by killing off a character - that means less merchandise in the end, if they really were that cash oriented wouldn't they bring in more main characters instead of making the team smaller? (Like Hasbro/Marvel did in the good ol' days).

I think he means former Devils Due writers. They make fast cash by killing off a character because people buy it too see how they die. Marvel advertised the death of Battle Force 2000 on the cover of the issue they got blown up in.

Still, doesn't seem to me like a smart strategy to earn money.
And truth be told, I didn't even know about the death of Battle Force 2000 so it seems even more far fetched.

If you follow the entire DD series you will see that they tried to cut the team down from the first issue. And not just by killing characters off. Something just feels wrong about that statement.
Oh well. Until I get a confirmation from the writer of the issue where Lady Jaye was killed (via an interview in a magazine or similar) then I probably won't believe them trying to make money off killing off characters which could potentially rack in more money in merchandise. It just seems to counter productive especially for a franchise such as Gijoe which relies on toy sales as well as the comics.

Killing a character in the comics doesn't affect the toy line. Hasbro has released new Lady Jaye figures since her DD death.

I remember reading the letters pages in the Marvel comics when they started killing characters and some readers complaining that their figures were no good anymore since they were killed off. Never understood that.

http://gijoe.wikia.com/wiki/Image:GJ_MC113.jpg

In the box it asks "THE DEATH OF BATTLEFORCE 2000?" they put that there too draw attention too the customer so they go "Whoa Battle Force 2000 might die? I gotta see this"

It's not like killing a character prevents a new toy being made. In fact they've made a Doc, 3 Breakers, 3 Flashes among other characters who were killed off in the comics.

Haradrel, Brandon Jerwa revealed a LOT of information. THings keep on changing at Hasbro.

WHEN Chuckles and Lady Jaye were killed, the comic fans were pretty ticked. Jerwa was shocked. HE pitched the Special Missions Chuckles story and that's how he pretty much got on board. Next thing he knew, he was killing Chuckles off in that Cobra War2 storyline. Jerwa was VERY upset by that whole thing.

Then the concept of the "Hasbro has a list of characters that could be killed." THis was the infamous BLACK LIST that only the writers and Josh Blaylock knew about.

THIS LIST was later squashed by, irrc, Brandon Jerwa. There was NO list BUT because Hasbro checked the scripts of comic, they would/could decide who could/should/would be killed. There was a time, as you all might remember, that if a character was killed in the comic, then Hasbro would follow suit and NOT make a toy for them. (It was suggested that if they do Lady Jaye, they could do it as a flashback story. Just like Mainframe, Flash, Chuckles, etc.)

It is NO secret that the death of Lady Jaye was just a ploy to sell more GI Joe comics. That is ALL it was. It had nothing to do with making Flint a different man. (That was just an end result.)

Now, the concept of making a smaller team (ie; America's Elite) came from the fact that the current book was failing in EVERY aspect. From the writer(s) to the art to the direction it was going to even, ahem, Blaylock's handling of the franchise. America's Elite, just like, Reloaded was a way to try and relaunch the GI Joe title. Blaylock came out and said, years ago, part of the reason for making a smaller team was to make it more like a video game. So many FPS games were based on just a few characters. The writers just wrote it as Congress not giving the Joes enough money, they needed to be smaller, etc.

All this information was told on the JBL. Years ago, the JBL actually had 'guest star' chats. From Josh Blaylock to Brandon Jerwa to even a few bigger stars. No, they couldn't get Sgt. Slaughter, but they tried VERY hard.


THIS is why I say you guys are funny. If you understood the politics and whatnot BEHIND why things were in the Joe comic, you might not favor the Red Shadows. But from what I read on the JBL, the WW3 was what GI Joe needed to get it back on track but that had more to do with making things end and getting it out of the boring routine it was going thru.

AND, I believe the 'killing of' concept is something the Big 2 did ALL the time to draw readers in. I can't speak on if it works. BUT some of us might remember when Jason Todd died in Batman. DC had the whole reader call-in and etc. Superman died. Batman got his back broken. Who KNOWS what happened in the X-Men to get people jiggy with them.


Battleforce2000 was killed in 1 very fast swoop and was NOT very graphic. Seeing as how it was Hama writing, he prolly hated them as much as hated Serpentor. BUT yet, Hama went ninja happy due to Hasbro's insistence.

For the record, notice which company has the GI Joe license now. If only you guys knew the fights behind THAT one. ;)