That’s right. GI jOE is gone. Go ahead. Try entering every possible variation of the search word “gijoe” in the hasbro toy shop website’s search window. You can do so until your knuckles turn blue—and you’d still come up with “item not found.” We tried gijoe, g.i. joe, g i joe…nothing worked. Indeed, if you’ve been shopping for GI jOEs (in any scale) anywhere lately, online or in stores, hoping to score something new and cool to celebrate the brand’s 50th anniversary, then you’ve undoubtedly already encountered aisles of empty sku slots on toys ‘r us shelves and blank webpages online. Store displays have been taken down and removed from public view. Other than the $300+ sideshow figures and the annual exclusives offered by the club, only a handful of 12″ and 3.75″ gijoe brand figures remain. Shockingly, 50 years after his creation— GI jOE has disappeared from retail outlets—with zero indication he’ll be back anytime soon.
What’s Does the Future Hold for GI jOE?
Frankly, we’re not encouraged. It’s as if Hasbro has simply dropped their most famous brand and walked away. Yes, we all saw the Legos movie and yes, we know the toys are very popular with kids. We’re glad of that. But surely there’s still room on store shelves for an alternative to primary-colored, interlocking building blocks. Or has the world changed so much that there’s no room left in the hearts and minds of young boys and girls for what was recently voted as the “World’s Most Popular Toy?” (See story HERE: http://www.childrensmuseum.org/GI-Joe%C2%AE-is-the-Big-5-0) And please don’t tell us that today’s children are so engrossed with smart phones and video games that use of their creative frontal lobes is out of the question. That would simply break our hearts!
Fans of the venerable GI jOE brand were due FAR better treatment than they received (from Hasbro) in 2014. As Joe’s 50th Anniversary nears its end, we’re still struggling to understand WHY they’ve been ignored by the company so blatantly, and without explanation or apology. We asked Hasbro for a statement, a sentence, a sound bite—ANYTHING—regarding the shocking disappearance of GI JOE in 2014 and have (as of today) received no answer.
Curious what other Joeheads might be thinking, we perused the fan boards in search of opinions and first found collector and fan, Jason Bienvenu, who offered up a this observation on the GI JOE Discussion Facebook page:
“I’m pretty sure whoever is in charge of the action figure department (at Hasbro) does not like the 3.75″ scale and has done their best to phase it out and dumb it down into the Happy Meal-quality toys we have now…”
Ernie King offered a little more prophetic view about the 50-year life of GI jOE, saying:
‘GI jOE will only really live on in the hearts of collectors…like all of us here.”
Finally, collector Michael Ryan was the most proactive and optimistic, when he said:
“GI jOE is taking a time out, Transformers did it in 1992, Ninja Turtles has done it before, He-Man is in time out more often than not. This is just your chance to hit up eBay and collect the older toys you missed, or get into something new!”
Bottom Line:
GI jOE is no longer listed on Hasbro’s own website. That’s a cold, hard fact fans now have to accept. While the brand may only be taking a “time out,” as Mr. Ryan postulates, to others, this looks like yet another nail in our hero’s 1:6 scale coffin. Sadly, it’s hard to imagine Hasbro resurrecting the line any time soon. When and if another movie is released, we might expect some more half-hearted, barely poseable figures at Walmart.* But for the forseeable future. GI JOE may have to, as Mr. King stated, “live on in the hearts of collectors.” And live on he will. Go, JOE!
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I.M.O. I SUSPECT THAT INTEREST FOR MILITARY ACTION FIGURES ARE LOW.
NOW ONLY COTSWOLD COLLECTIBLE'S ~ THE ELITE BRIGADE, EBAY FINDS, SMALL COTTAGE INDUSTRY CUSTOMIZING WILL SUSTAIN GI JOE ENTHUSIASTS.
TODAY'S KIDS MAY NOT BE AS INTERESTED IN GI JOE AS WE WERE/ARE. SUPER HEROES AND ELECTRONIC GAMES SEEMS TO BE THEIR AREA OF INTEREST. IT MAY BE THAT GI JOE IS ON HOLD AGAIN AS IT WAS MENTIONED ABOVE, BUT IF IT COMES DOWN TO A FINANCIAL DECISION FOR HASBRO, GUESS WHAT THEIR BOTTOM LINE IS,...
GI jOE HAS TO GO.
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* The above article referred to the 2013 Hasbro 12-inch figures Roadblock, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Amazon.com reviews included these comments:
"This hunk of plastic is a disgrace to carry the name of GI jOE. What a sorry waste of plastic."
"Just hard shiny plastic, only the hip joints and shoulder joints and head move."
"GI jOE turns 50 this year and this is the best Hasbro came up with. Not only is this an insult to GI jOE but to all the people who have stood by GI jOE ,supporting Hasbro all these years."
Some of the figures were still linked on the Walmart Online site.
