That seems more than fair. My perception is that most collectors will pick up a set each of the 5 packs and then buy out the cobra soldier army builders a few seconds after that.

Thanks for the update, G. I had to read it twice. I was worried it was $25 per fig when I read it too quickly. $25 for a set or $6 apiece. Now let's hope they produce enough so that we all can kindly share with our fellow collectors. Thanks big H for a reasonable price-point on a quality product.

On a side not regarding articulation.....my son has a Marvel Spiderman with "midchest" articulation. He is about 5 or 6 inches tall. But his waist also rotates. The waist articulation is not readily evident unless you are trying to turn the whole torso sideways. That is one fantastically articulated figure. If Hasbro has that scaled down to 3.75 for us, I think we will not be disappointed.

Ahem. The 1st 10 figures will be divided into 2 5-packs.

The last 15 will be sold in singles.

As TG noted while chatting, it's pretty retarded that the Cobra Trooper is in stuck in a 5-pack. The Cobra Officer (we assume it's being made) should be in there and the Trooper as a single. HOWEVER, IF Hasbro has the Cobra Viper ready to go, the Viper will most likely be bought up quicker than a Trooper.

They say there are 25 figures, the 25 most popular characters. They name the figures we've already seen for the 5-packs, then they say the single packs are a series of 15 figures -- that makes 25 figures, so if the single packs included the figures we've already seen it would mean there's only 15 characters. So, basically, we're only going to see the characters we already know about in the 5-packs. Fingers crossed for some decent army builders in the 15 singles, with appropriate per-case ratios...

This also implies that we won't be getting a visored Snake Eyes...

G.I. JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO sets

(Approximate retail price of $25.00; Ages: 5 & up; Available: Summer 2007)

Sure to delight fans both new and old, 25th Anniversary Figures are all new sculpts and the most detailed and articulated G.I. JOE figures ever! Hasbro kick-offs the anniversary with the release two special-edition sets, each containing five classic G.I. JOE characters from the A REAL AMERICAN HERO line. Characters include G.I. JOE force’s fearless patriots DUKE, SNAKE EYES, GUNG HO, SCARLET and ROAD BLOCK, as well as their slithery adversaries COBRA COMMANDER, DESTRO, STORM SHADOW, BARONESS and a COBRA TROOPER. Each pack also comes with a sound box in the shape of the G.I. JOE logo that plays the beloved theme from the G.I. JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO animated series.



G.I. JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO single packs

(Approximate retail price of $6.00; Ages 5 & up; Available: Fall 2007)

Each of the fifteen 3-3/4-inch figures – in replica G.I. JOE packaging circa 1982 – will feature new sculpts, enhanced articulation, and a base stand featuring the character’s name.

It was already relesed by Hasbro media that there will be 25 figures. The 1st 10 figures will be available in 2 5-packs. They will be released Summer.

We know that the other 15 will be released later. In this case, Fall. The remaining 15 will be singles.

Luke Ellison made a comment that what if the other 15 are repaints? Was it a joke? Was it sarcasm? Or is that something Hasbro would do just to make us MORE wary of their actions? We are all assuming that the OTHER 15 will be original characters. Hasbro already said that the 25 figures chosen range from 1982-1985. Another way to say this Anticaldo is "circa-'82". Unfortunately, that's cryptic way of putting it.

Let's cut the chase. Hasbro is gonna be putting on the market sellable characters and figures. Despite what the fans think, you can't actually expect characters like Grunt or Steeler to be made. Not when there are far more popular Joes that Hasbro would cater to. It should ALSO be noted that Hasbro will play favorites based on who is designing and sculpting them. There have been instances where designer bias has come into play. That tidbit is actually effecting the S6 line more than 3.75" as far as we know. (It's the explanation of why a new firefighter named Inferno is showing up as opposed to BBQ.)

All this comes down to is this. Don't expect the Cobra Trooper to be single carded and don't expect to try and build him easily. YOu can hope, but expecting will just be a let-down. Especially if a Viper is made.

Plain English Translation

5 Joes in one big pack
5 Cobras in one big pack

The rest are all in singles.

Ta da, that simple.

I gotta be honest. I'm hating 99% of what I have seen so far. But I'll buy it anyway. I'm looking forward to the two 5 packs and especially the 15 single packs. I'm hoping for many Viper and BAT army building posibilities! And with 15 figures availible as single packs, I think the odds are pretty good that I will get my army builder wish!

Thanks for the info G! :cool:

Dave

And if they put out gray Eels (reminiscent of v.1) with advanced articulation, that too would be army built. (I usually just go with one or two figures and try to share the wealth with others. I must admit I had 3 CG's and 4 IG's back in the day. I thought that was out of control.)

This time around I will control my purchases to "small squad" building rather than "army" building.

Thanks for reiterating eveything. I read this far too hastily during lunch.

More Joes than Cabra's
 

I think we're likely to get more Joes than Cobra in the final 15 figures. Back in those years the Joe to Cobra ratio was at least 3 to 2. I think we'll maybe get a Zartan, Firefly, Viper, CG and maybe and Eel or Mindbender. I'm guessing the rest will be Joes.

I have to say I'm finding it difficult to be enthusiastic about what we have seen so far. The same old characters that have been done a dozen times, with qestionable articulation (and some unnatural proportions too). When I get one in my hands, I'll decide if the rest are worth wasting my hard-earned on. Until then they are of only mild interest to me. :rolleyes:
When the Joe line launched in '82/83, the characters were all new, and that's what I'd like to see now for the anniversary; some fresh faces to take us forward into the new millennium. If you follow a realistic timeline, Stalker, Snake Eyes, etc would all be into their late fifties by now. How many Snake Eyes figures does the line need? If it was a set of 25 new characters I'd be frantic with anticipation.

In 1982, the world was a lot less politically correct, and everybody was on board against terrorism - But Hasbro still would not have made "G.I.Joe - It's purpose, to kill a lot of evil dudes who took hostages in or near Iran..." Today, bad people mask their terrorism and blur lines that are not as clearly delineated. But if the governments of the world refuse to draw clear lines, I would highly doubt Hasbro would pull the trigger and give us villains of today. And frankly, I don't want things that "real" in my Joe-verse. I want a brief respite from the dark world we all live in. (Oops, got a little philosophical...)

But I do agree, fresh faces might help, as long as they try to keep the theme/genre nostalgic in some way. A small team of counter-terrorism against a cell of truly evil people. "G.I.Joe - A new strike force to counter a new threat!"

That might sell...?! Maybe. But I suppose we will take what we can get.

Barrel Roll was in the comic, and played a pretty major role...

I like getting new characters to keep the Joe-verse moving and developing -- and new characters can still be Joes or Cobras done in the spirit of the line (just look at the Plague, Barrel Roll, etc), new wouldn't have to mean real-world politics-style anti-terrorism.

But for a toy release to mark 25 years of RAH GI Joe, I think it makes perfect sense to focus on the characters that helped make it last that long. As much as we fervently hope for Joe toys to continue, by its very nature an anniversary is a time to reflect on something's history more than reinvigorating it for the future. That said, an all-new sculpting style is a pretty odd way to go!

Hear, hear!

I was about to post the same thing, Stormer, but you beat me to it. I love new characters. I use a lot of the new-sculpt new characters from 2002-2004 quite frequently. But for a 25th anniversary set, it's only natural that you would re-visit the most popular characters of the past (even if many of them have been done to death). In my opinion, and I say this as someone who's just as tired of Snake-Eyes after Snake-Eyes as the rest of you, I would've been disappointed if the 25th anniversary of this iteration of G.I. Joe [/i]wasn't[/i] celebrated by bringing us new versions of old classics.

But then, I love all of what we've seen so far (save Destro), so maybe I'm a bit biased.

Stormer's right. The 25th Anniversary is basically a "Classics" line. You want new faces and ideas, that's what Joe Vs Cobra, Spy Troops and Valor vs Venom as well as Sigma6 did/tried.

But just for the fun of it, let's try this out.
List of new characters.

2002. JvC.
Dart. Showed up in the DD comic, had bad war experience, had nitemares, never seen again. Fact is, Hasbro lost the rights to a whole bunch of names. Roadblock and Spirit are the best known. Because of the loss of rights, Heavy Duty was used in the place of Roadblock and Dart was created for Spirit. Keep in mind that Scarlet became Agent Scarlet for JvC and Hawk became Gen. Tomahawk for a time. The change in titling the chars is a rights issue.

Cobra CLAWS. I think they showed up in the comic for a panel or two.

Cobra NeoViper. Showed up in the DD comic twice. First time, they were in formation. 2nd time, they got their butts handed to them by Destro. Probably Hasbro's attempt to create a new iconic generic trooper (like the Trooper and Viper) but the mix of gorilla arm and t-crotch most likely killed it's chance to be ultra-ultra cool. The rainbow of colors might have not helped too.

Cobra NeoViper Commander. All troops need leadership. lol. No support in comic or cartoon form.

2003 Spy Troops
Agent Faces. This was, iirc, the era where if a Joe dies in a comic, he's supposed to stay dead. That was ok'd by Hasbro. There was NEVER a list of who could be killed but it was more like, "can I kill so-and-so off" and Hasbro would say either, "yes" or "no". Agent Faces, in other words, was the replacement for Chuckles. I don't remember if he got comic time, but Spy Troops favored him as did Hasbro. *rolls eyes*

Crosshair. A tiny bit part in the DD comic. No time in the cartoons. IIRC, the LowLight name had been lost so Crosshair was created.

Depth Charge. Showed up in comic (iirc), no movies.

Kamakura. Liberal use in the comic and cartoon. DD's creation, Hasbro loves ninja, DD created a winner in Hasbro's eyes. The fans are so-so about the green power ranger.

Rampage. No time in comic or movies.

Red Spot. I don't remember if he showed up in the comic, but sure not in the movies. Replacement for both Flash and Sci-Fi. Nobody understands why Sci-Fi simply wasn't brought into the fold. Unless Red Spot falls under "new character".

Sgt. Hacker. I don't recall him in the comic and no use in the movies. Hacking must be all the rage. Nobody knows why he was made.

Switch Gears. I don't recall if he was in the comic and had no use in the movies. However, he is an excellent candidate to roll in the Patriot Grizzley for the traditionalist types that can't see Wild Bill in a tank. Like me.

Widescope. Short time in the comic, no movie time. Hasbro lost the rights to Shockwave.

Barrel Roll. Time in the comic, none in the movie. The real dynamic is that he has a sister on the team and a brother who has gone bad.

Blackout. Time in the comic, none in the movie. See above.

Burnout. No time in comic or movie. Hasbro says, "Let's create a new 'nok and make people mad for not doing Buzzer!!!"

Claws Commander. Shows up for a couple frames in the comic, no time in movie. Hasbro says, "We love gorilla arms!"

Coil. May have shown up in comic, no show in movies.

Heavy Water. May have shown up in comic, no show in movies. Someone at Hasbro was pregant. *shrug*

Overkill. Short appearance in comic, lotsa love in VvV. Was this an ARAH character?

Pit Viper. No appearance in comic or movie.

Sand Viper. No apperance in comic or movie.

Scalpel. Showed up in DD comic, no movies. Fans wanted a Cobra medic.

2004 Valor vs Venom

Link Talbot. NO time in comic, made for movie.

Hard Drive. No time in comic or movie.

Hi-Tech. No time in comic, loved in movie. Both HD and HT take place of Mainframe.

Ninja Trooper. No time in comic or movie. Hasbro had considered doing a ninja spinoff.

Coil Crusher. No time in comic, in movie. Made for the movie.

Electric Eel. See above.

Neuortoxin. Time in comic, no movie. Made for theme.

RazorClaw. No comic, time in movie. Made for theme.

Snow Wolf. No comic, time in movie. Made for Theme.

Swamp Rat. No comic or movie. Made for theme.

Ven Max. No comic, time in movie. Made for theme.

Rollbar. No comic or movie.

Ghost Bear. No comic or movie.

2005 VvV

Bombstrike. No time in comic or movie. See Barrel Roll.

Slash. No time in comic, time in movie.

Shadow Strike. No time in comic or movie. Made for ninja theme.

Tiger Claw. No time in comic or movie. Made for ninja theme.

2005 DTC

Major Barrage. No time in comic or movie.

Cannonball. No time in comic or movie.

Medi Viper. May have shown up in DD comic, no time in movie. Fans wanted Cobra medic.

So Lehsreh isn't getting jiggy w/ 'new' chars that don't have history and whatnot. Keep in mind, the toys were usually made first and Larry Hama was FORCED to use the toys in the comic. Hama had NO wish to create or use Serpentor but at that time, the comic was Hasbro's toy ad.

As for the cartoon, that became a popularity game. The only way to move forward with the line was to create new ideas and chars.

Can DD use these chars in their stories? Of course they can, but they choose not to because DD wants to do things THEIR way. They are telling THEIR stories just as all of us doing dios tell OUR stories. Difference is, you aren't PAYING for dios. DD is just as much as a popularity game and as the guys have said, everyone has to play nice in the sandbox.

Sure, some new chars sucked rocks but liking at the list, there's a lot of good ones too. Hasbro creates 'em, the filecards are usually considered canon and hey, most of us don't NEED the comic or cartoon to enjoy 'em.

Hear Hear, Sonne is totally right. It's TOYS yo, in the end of things, the comics and the cartoons are just icing on the cake. It's all about the Toys, and dang nab it, I love em, as I think we all do. We should be happy that hasbro even acknowledges Joes still, and we're getting some sweet revamps of our classic chars, and there have been some bitchin new figs lately. All hail the big H Machine.

Ummm, this happened in 2000 when the collector's line came out, look at Roadblock and Baroness having different names. Some other company came along and trademarked thier names out from underthem. As for background, make your own dude. Look at the Interrogator. Everyone LOVES him, we all use him in our dios and we know SWEET JACK about him.

This was pretty well known info from (probably) 1998-2002. There were very few JOe discussion boards but when DD opened their's up in 2001, a lot of guys were there. And a lot of stuff came to light. When Brian Savage Peterson jumped ship and created SavageSoundoffs.com, a lot of people jumped ship. Savage eventually left and SS became JBL. Then it went to Ring of Collectors and then it went back to it's own entity as JoeBattlelines.

Now here's the kicker. EEJ and Justin have explained this to me many times but I'm not sure how much I can remember accurately.

There are rights (copyrights) for all sorts of names.

The concept of Spirit, let's say, needs rights to
1. The Name
2. The likeness of the character in toy form.
3. the likeness of the character in print form.
4. the likeness of the character in cartoon/onscreen visual form.

You lose one of those and things can get messy. Someone like Hawk lost his names to Lanard (in fact, I believe Lanard grabbed all the names they could as quickly as possible cuz they are Walmart's army soldier toy division). There is, most likely, a HAWK figure under their toyline, Corps. So for JvC, Hasbro used General Tomahawk. Later on, it became General Abernathy. A lot of the characters suddenly had "-" around their codenames. That's how Hasbro got around a lot of the problems. Look for Hawk over on Yojoe.com and see how far you get. And then look up General Abernathy.

The only group that can do a canonized history would be Hasbro itself. You want history, read the filecards and make the history up yourself. People like to think that Hama's universe is canon but he's even said it interviews that he's telling the story of what he thinks GI Joe is. And the fact that it catered to SE and Scar and CC in the end, that was his story.

In the 80s, did any of us NEED the comic or cartoon to push a figure to want it? Not usually. I had Falcon and Tunnel Rat before I ever saw them in the movie and they were my fave. Flash was my 1st fave Joe in 82 and the comic had nothing to do with that.

BTW, I believe the Steel Brigade was created during the late ARAH days.

And to REALLY mess with your mind, you DO know that some of the Joes are named after real people, right? And I don't mean The Fridge and Sgt. Slaughter. Like, some of the biggest fans in the GI Joe club had figures. Perhaps the name David Lane is known? He's aka Surefire.

Actually, I was trying to point out that people who could swing their wait (ie; the hardcore fans aka the Steel Brigade) had toys made of them. You wonder why articulated wrists weren't the norm?

That's the only reason Hasbro make any Joe toy...to make a profit, pure and simple. I know it makes sense to reproduce classic figures for an anniversary set, but I just can not get excited about Snake Eyes v.64, or CC v.51, or Destro v.33, etc. As stated, I would love some new characters, but I would also be happier if they redid some of the more obscure figures that have only had one or two incarnations.

80% of the toons in the 80's were half hour long commercials, look at He-Man, Thundercats, you name it....even Jem for frig's sakes. However...those toys were bad-ass. I miss my Lion-o figure with the light up eyes....

i heard that the price was going to be $6.00 for one single pack and $25 for 5 of them just thought i'd let everyone know this :)

It's kind of getting to its own topic, but I just wanted to chip in on the new characters outside the toys thing... A few from Sonneilon's list did make it into the comics, I'm sure - didn't a few Joes including Snake Eyes and/or Falcon go up against some Sand Vipers and the newly-cyborg Overkill? And Burnout had a few non-speaking appearances in some Dreadnok group shots, as did con-exclusives Crusher and Demolisher (or at least the one with Sagat's head).

I'd add VvV Croc Master to the list as he's stated as being a new claimant to the name on his FC (and is appearing alongside some Jungle Vipers in next month's America's Elite #21), and the ROCC driver Long Range is a different guy to the Thunderclap driver (think Sky Patrol Airborne). He's not been in the DDP continued-universe series but as far as I was aware it's meant to be the same basic Long Range as the Sigma Six guy.

Overkill from Spy Troops onwards I would not count as the RAH character because the Talking Battle Commander's filecard is vastly different, saying he was a prototype for a new BAT series but cost too much to mass-produce; no mention of cyborg parts. And there's the pedantic matter that the RAH one was "Overkill" and the rest have been "Over Kill"...! :P

Medi-Viper is interesting in that we saw the troop at the end of the Marvel run but it took over a decade for a figure to show -- classing them as a new character would mean including Kwinn and the other comic pack Oktober Guard characters who'd not been figures before...

Oh, it's all so convoluted! Is it any wonder that for the anniversary Hasbro probably just went to the local colleges & bars, asked random people to name some GI Joe characters, then took the most-given 25 names to make the "most popular characters" into new figures!?

thats the truth. well for the most part. if you have the G.I. Joe seasons on dvd you can watch the extras. the thing the writers said they liked the most was the fact that hasbro never said " were coming out with this figure, so you have to do a 30 min show on him/her". i think they were smart enough to know that no matter who they had on the cartoon, it would only help sell figures, if you went to pick up shipwreck and you saw someone cooler, you would buy them too. and god knows i agree with you on snake eyes outrider. im sure everyone has saw me write a 100 times of how he was my fave character at first and now i think im at the edge of being anti-snake eyes. as far as the new characters go, i dont think i said it right when i said i didnt like them. i mean that is what i said, but what i mean is that i want new characters more like shipwreck, lowlight, bazooka, outback, or letherneck. i guess what im looking for in new joes are some gritty types. give them some facial hair and make them mean and dirty. the pretty boys like barrel row are great for customs but id like to see some new joes who look battle worn.

Get a load of this, Leshreh. People didn't want gritty Joes! I know, it sounds unreal but DD tried that with Reloaded and it bombed! Reloaded was also a redux of GI Joe, trying to start it over, which didn't quite work. GI Joe the comic sells around 20k. There's probably less than a thousand on the Joe boards combined. It's those OTHER guys who made Reloaded fail. (well, DD too, but uh, you get the idea. lol)

The game is, if you make a toy, it needs an outlet. 3.75" Joe simply didn't do well these last few years due to lack of cartoon and lack of marketing. Imagine if Hasbro pushed GI Joe as hard as the guys who did Pokemon back in 98? So the problem now is, EVEN if Joe is in B&M, how are they gonna market these to the non-internet kids? We already know that the online Joe thing didn't quite pan out (the collector base was not enough to make it 'successful').

Let's keep in mind that there are 15 OTHER figures to show up. We know Hasbro's TOP 10 and most likely that is THE CORE. You almost can't question it if this is considered a CLASSICS line by most people. (And if they punk us and repaint people, WE have every right to be pissed off. Cobra Officer the exception, of course.)

There is no reason why Shipwreck, LowLight (he was 85, right?) and Leatherneck (85 also? Or 86?) wouldn't be made. Hasbro cut the date at 1985, that's already been stated by them. Hasbro knows that people will recognize a duder like Duke or Snake Eyes or Cobra Commander before Leatherneck and LowLight, no matter HOW cool the latter two are. Personally, I'd like them to push till 87 so Falcon and Tunnel Rat could be made.

25th Joe pics from ToyFair!!!
 

Check out Justin's great shots.

Take another look at 'em. Uhmmmmm, I'll keep my mouth shut since all I saw so far was Gung Ho w/ ankles.

Good GAWD the Baroness has looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong legs.

I do think Scarlett looks really good...

And Cobra Commander looks constipated.

Destro's peanut head...guh... And the Commander looks like his helmet's more than a little snug, too

It's weird; for the most part I like them and as 3.75" action figures they look like they might be really good, but as GI Joes it feels like a little too much of a departure. I'm very interested to see them alongside old-sculpt Joes. And, um, old-new-sculpt Joes...

Man. I'm lost for words. I had my doubts before, but these pics have confirmed my worst fears. This 25th stuff looks C-R-A-P. Very, very disappointing. :( R.I.P. 3 3/4" Joe.

I asked about sculpting eras over on the JBL and all EEJ could give me was...

Classic sculpt.

Nu Skulpt.

Anniversary Design Sculpt (AD). But yeah, I have no idea what to call the 2002-2005 figures.

I've got to admit that at the VERY FIRST SECOND I saw them, I thought 'ouch', then I looked at the posts on JBL and they 'sort of' grew on me. Now with these pics I am just really, really disappointed.......... :(
I'll still pick them up, if not to just 'have them'-using them is going to be a stretch. Except for the Cobra Soldier. His sculpt I can work with, since I never 'built up' any kind of an 'army' with them previously. :rolleyes:
As for the rest of 'em......................................let's just say that I have to place an order for O-Rings, screws & bust out my nail polish to 're-apply' Scarlett's hair when it fades again. As a matter of fact, my current line is making appointments for 'MAKEUP'!!!!!!!!! (please tell me SOMEBODY get's that last part?!?!?)

damn i dont like them , too much articulation

yeah, you know thats bad to say, but honestly i think they would have been better with less articulation (im just spelling the way you did, dont really know myself,lol). just add more detail. still, i think we all want them.

25th figures
 

They look different than the original photos. Another example of poor execution on Hasbro's part. Yuck