Hasbro Q & A: 2009 round 3 - Answers

[Rockshield]

Here are the answers we received for this round of questions....


JOHIO: 1. The Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen movie is clearly marketed to younger children based on the large number of toys specifically marketed to kids, and the advertisment spots on cartoon channels, yet the movie with its crude sexual humor is extremely inappropriate for our children. Was there any concern about keeping the G.I. Joe movie "family friendly" so we can bring our kids, or should we expect the same level of crude sexual "humor" as T2?

Hasbro: Hasbro encourages parents and caregivers to be involved in all aspects of their children's development, including play and entertainment. The G.I. Joe movie is rated PG-13, ultimately a parent or caregiver knows his or her child best and is best equipped to make decisions on what forms of play and entertainment are most appropriate for his or her child. Being a 45 year old brand, GI Joe has fans of many ages (similar to Transformers) and we hope that the movie will be enjoyable for many age groups. Hasbro encourages parents and caregivers to acknowledge the rating and read reviews ahead of time to determine if it is appropriate for their child to see. We offer many forms of entertainment for kids to enjoy the GI Joe brand such as toys, publishing and apparel in addition to the live action movie - so if a parent decides the their child is too young to see the movie, there are many other ways to engage in the GI Joe fantasy. Many recent PG-13 movies such as Iron Man and Transformers have been able to have both successful movies and great kid toy lines.


JOHIO: 2. In the last round of the Q and A, an answer from Hasbro stated "Hasbro prefers to reveal product at key times like Toy Fair, Comic-Con, and JoeCon with the final deco and packaging."

The 3 3/4 scale GI Joe collecting community has grown up as a part of internet culture, and as such are used to a constant update of content available at the click of a mouse. (Even that colloquialism is quickly growing dated) When real content isn't provided, fan speculation rapidly fills the gap, often leading to unfavorable opinions on Hasbro or GI Joe related products (See the Reaction to this year's Con set for recent proof).

If the Communications Department at Hasbro is anything like the one at the company I work for, there is probably a desire to find a way to utilize alternative media outlets provided by social media such as Twitter or Facebook. I guess what I'm getting at is why rely on vestages of old and out-dated buisness practices? Would you not get better results from keeping a monthly buzz going about your products, rather than 3 big over-dosed loads per year seperated by 3 equaly big periods of rampant fan speculation and rumor-mongering?

Hasbro: This is a regularly discussed topic at Hasbro. On one hand we want to find a way to make key events special with product reveals.but we do want to get fans the most up to date info and stop rumors and speculation.
We're always looking to keep information flowing to the fan community and try to do so as regularly as possible - such as with these Q+A's. At the current time, with the team focused on and devoting their time to developing the best toy lines possible we're not able to address fans' concerns via Facebook or Twitter in a significant way. Available time and
resources direct us towards this Q+A format as the best way to address as much as we can in addition to attending key events. We could definitely spend all day talking about GI Joe, but need to use most of our time developing it!


JOHIO: 3. Will the DiC Joe Cartoon, the G.I. Joe Extreme Cartoon, Sgt Savage episode, or the Sigma 6 cartoon be included with the huge cartoon DVD set that is coming out, or will it just be sunbow? If it is just Sunbow, when can we expect to be able to see these priceless pieces of Joe history on DVD?

Hasbro: The DVD release will be Sunbow only and make a debut at Comic-Con this year.


LINKS TO OTHER SITES Q & A
ArashikageClan
cooltoyreview
HissTank
joecanuck
joecustoms
joereloaded
kastorskorner
TNI
yojoe

[gogorobo]

wow......i applaud Hasbro for a lengthy non-answer to that first question, kudos

[Dragongravy]

you know i could almost hear them stutter trying to answer that. wow what an "oh shit! i cant believe they went there!" answer lol.

[Dragongravy]

i have a great follow up to question 2's answer, if these q and a's are for communication with the fans hows come we never get straight answers and corporate double speak?