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Hasbro Press Event 2003
 By Adam Pawlus
Photography by Mike Sullenger
(PAWTUCKET, R.I., March 12, 2003) For those who have never been in this snowy climate, or the snow in general,
it’s a place chock full of things like Dunkin Donuts and natives that give
directions by landmarks that no longer exist. If ever anybody told you to get
lost, this is the easiest place to do it. For the savage snowy land such as
this, there was a real sense of desire to help, but if you’re at all confused
about directions, don’t leave home without a map or a native of your own.
The turnout for the event was, not surprisingly, mostly Star Wars sites with a
few magazines, GI Joe pages, and TransFormers sites in attendance as well. It
was great to meet up with some of my favorite webmasters, and there were a few I
didn’t have the chance to speak to. All in all, good times.
HASBRO
Hasbro itself was full of cubes, showrooms, factories, and everything you’d
like to see in a toy company. From rapid prototyping to media relations, it all
happens here. As you can see in our photos, there’s a ton of great stuff here.
The show itself focused on male action toy brands, but we did get a quick peek
at a few other things.
Most interesting was a large “Happy 50th Birthday, Mr. Potato Head” card on
display near the showroom. On it, whimsical line drawings of the spud’s eyes,
feet, and other body parts were included. It turns out the ubiquitous Hasbro
smile on its logo is, in fact, the smile of Mr. Potato Head!
GOODIES
Hasbro, in what a real surprise, gifted the press with a huge sack of plastic.
While the contents varied, here’s what we got It’s possible others were
given away as well, but we didn’t take an inventory… so here goes:
GI Joe Fan Club Newsletter
GI Joe Exclusive Clear Zartan (Bagged)
GI Joe CD-Rom Figure (Exclusive?, one of six
currently at Toys “R” Us)
GI Joe MicroMachines Tank
Star Wars: Unleashed Darth Vader (Redux) or Princess
Leia
Stikfas Military Figure (Green or Black)
TransFormers: War Within #1
TransFormers: Armada Supercon (Optimus Prime,
Smokescreen, etc.)
Zoids ZBuilders
DISNEY
In their development studious were a number of prototypes, from painted-up first
shots of Ephant Mon (about 1.5” taller) to unpainted Tinkerbell and Treasure
Planet prototypes. While the box office for this film doesn’t bode well for
these toys to see release, it is notable that such things are in the early
stages of production. Shown were a Long John Silver head, a ship, and what I
believe to have been one of the crew. Nothing for their Disney brands could be
seen in their showroom.
GI Joe
Surely, this is a great year for Joes. A 40th Anniversary product is on the way
for 2004, but what, we don’t know. The Joe sites will be providing the best
coverage, but here’s some highlights.
Action Features in the Large Scale Trying to make a toy work for both kids and
collectors seems to be the main focus, bringing in action features for kids from
the days of old and modern military styling translated to plastic and fabric.
Oooooh, Navy SEALs!
The focus on 12” seems to have shifted to this particular range of the armed
forces, with lots of different figures and accessories.
Vehicles
A 1/6.5 scale humvee is coming for about $90. Word from Hasbro that their
initial prototype was so authentic that no revisions needed to be made for its
approval. New Jeeps are in the works as well.
12” Joe vs. Cobra
New figures are being designed to appeal to more than just kids. A particularly
spiffy packaged sample of the Cobra CLAWS was on display, which should be the
first of many such figures.
12” Snake-Eyes vs. Storm Shadow
Coming in at $20, this set includes two figures that look excellent as well as a
45-minute DVD featuring a computer generated “Spy Troops: The Movie.” I
believe this is the first exclusive-to-toy animation for Joes since Sgt. Savage.
The trailer looked like it included elements from the toy commercials as well as
new footage. This set is due in October. Fans of Ninja toys—those of you with
good taste—you’re in for a big treat here.
That 80’s Figure
A number of previously missing tools have been discovered which will result in
the release of additional product. Repainted GI Joe and Cobra
figures will be popping up for years to come, coming in things like the Python
Patrol pack and elsewhere.
Troops
Like with Star Wars, GI Joe will continue to release troop sets. The BAT Pack
was shown in person, but of course wasn’t news to anybody.
Wal-Mart Exclusive
A GI Joe vs. Cobra assortment was listed as a Wal-Mart exclusive that appears to
be just repaints of 1980s figures. I was unable to ask further questions.
More
Apparently the 40th Anniversary piece, as well as more new product, will be
unveiled at upcoming conventions.
Licensing
Palisades is releasing a Zartan statue, a Hawk bust, and a convention exclusive
Baroness bust. (Insert joke about Baroness’s bust here.) Dreams & Visions,
a company which I’ve never heard of, is producing some things which the
presenter did not make clear despite what appeared to be an attempt to do so.
For more on licensing, see our Hasbro Licensing report.
TRANSFORMERS
Now three lines: the G1 exclusives, Armada, and Universe.
G1
Tracks, Red Alert, Hoist, and Inferno have been added to the Toys “R” Us
exclusives list. A 20th Anniversary Exclusive piece of some description will be
announced later this year, as the line turns 20 in 2004.
UNIVERSE
Hasbro has launched this subset to remake toys from G2 and beyond for kids and
collectors alike. Old figures in new colors include:
From Beast Wars:
Dinobot with Terrorsaur
Optimus Primal
Triceratops with Ankylosaurus (Beast Wars Neo
repaints, Wal-Mart exclusive)
Fuzors Silverbolt
TransMetals 2 Tigerhawk
TransMetals 2 Iguanus
More to be announced.
The Scouge and Bludgeon figures that were Toys “R” Us exclusives in Japan
will be exclusive to Kay-Bee in the USA. No signs of the Buildbots in yellow or
the G2 Stealth Bomber remake were shown, and unfortunately, I didn’t ask
ARMADA
Apparently combining is Hasbro’s new motto. “Cool leader combos,” as they
called them, are a major focus for the Autobots and Decepticons this year. For
example, the “Powerlinx Optimus Prime” repaint can be combined with Overload
and Jetfire in both robot and vehicle modes to create, as they say, “cool
leader combos.” Mega/Galvatron can be combined with Tidal Wave as well.
Unicron was unveiled and friends, it is gorgeous. Huge, chock full of features,
and just spiffy to see, this is surely the TransFormer of the year. According to
Hasbro, it’s the second largest toy in the line after Fortress Maximus.
Target exclusive sets with Minicon packs were shown. Jetfire will come with the
space team, and Galvatron will be packed with a team I didn’t take the time to
identify.
LICENSING
Palisades will release four statues in 2004, in addition to Hard Hero’s nine
new busts and three statues of their own, some of which have been previewed
elsewhere. (Like Ravage.) While Neca was mentioned, no new product was listed.
A PlayStation 2 Armada game is in development for 2004 from Infogrames.
HASBRO PUBLISHING COMICS
3.2 million comics based on Hasbro properties in 2002. Following this are, of
course, more for 2003. 50 new issues of TransFormers material are on tap for the
year spanning six series, and the Joe team will find new adventures throughout
three series and 40 new issues.
BOOKS
UK megapublisher DK will be producing a sticker collection much like they have
done for Star Wars and other properties, and 88 MPH Studios has two art books in
the works. The first, the oft-delayed Genesis book, is due in the coming months
and the other will be a 20th Anniversary production.
A how-to-draw GI Joe and TransFormer book is on tap for early 2004, and visual
dictionaries were listed among dozens of possible licensing options they seem to
be currently pursuing.
ZOIDS
As a long time lover of the Tomy brand from my childhood (as well as offshoots
Robostrux, Zoids2, TechnoZoids, and the Japanese Zoids toys) I found this
particularly interesting even though the presentation was crushed by the other
brands shown at this event.
Several new pieces are being brought over from Japan and it appears development
will continue on the “action figure” sets. “Holotech” repaints of
previously made sets will continue to be produced, with War Shark coming in the
near future. New control mechanisms are on the way as well, but in my hurried
state I didn’t really get a good grasp on what this was to be.
According to their presentation, 16 assortments containing 82 items will be
released in 2003. I assume this means 83 unique items. This presentation
yielded little meat and consisted mostly of marketing terms that just didn’t
really tell us much of anything.
MICROMACHINES
After continued success in the UK, the brand is attempting to be revived on
North American shores once again. Super Van City of days old will be reborn as a
Super Stunt city and new playsets are being made with a focus on connectability.
While the micro scale has more or less exited the US market after the onslaught
of Mighty Max, Star Trek Innerspace, and countless similar lines, Hasbro seems
to believe that we’re about due for more mini men. While no word of new
licensed MicroMachines was made, it seems that this is something they will
consider for the future. It seems unlikely anything was shown that will appear
to collectors.
STIKFAS
New product was shown in person but nothing was revealed that hasn’t been seen
elsewhere.
The Dragon with Beta Female will include both tan and black pieces for the
exposed flesh, giving customizers a lot of extra parts to work with.
The robot and teddy bear feature quite a few interesting interchangeable parts
and more articulation than you can shake a stick at. This looks to be an
excellent piece.
Even more parts were made available with the Delta Boy, which is designed in a
scale meant to represent a 10-year-old. He includes skis, a skateboard, a
Razor-style scooter, roller blades, a helmet and tons of other parts sure to
appeal to the extreme sports crowd or, at least, to serve as custom fodder.
More product will be shown at Wizard World and Comic Con International. Lastly,
a new advertisement featuring the Samurai kit will be published starting this
April.
WIZARDS OF THE COAST
With a small booth featuring Pokemon, Simpsons, Star Wars, and very few other
things, Hasbro didn’t seem to draw any real attention to their role-playing
brand. With nobody at the booth to hand out what appeared to be press kits, we
have nothing to report at this time.
OTHER
No other brands were represented, which was a little surprising. Playskool had
nothing, not even their delightful Go-Bot TransFormers, and even though girl and
infant toys aren’t the bread and butter of the toy press corps it would have
been nice to see them.
Additional details may be posted to our coverage over the next few days. Your
friendly neighborhood writer-man has a headache and is feeling a wee bit woozy,
so watch this space and, of course, Q&A and our news page for more.
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