(This will be a very long column, so brace yourselves)
It’s the 20th anniversary of Power Rangers, a momentous occasion in the history of franchise which fueled our childhood. When Megaforce showcased all the ranger keys, the writing was on the wall: we’re going to have Gokaiger-esque alumni ranger reunions! It was going to be awesome, as we’ll have people ranging from Tommy Oliver to maybe even RPM crew come back for this milestone.
Yeah, about that last part….
In 1964, Hasbro came up with a brilliant idea: to make an original “doll” to boys and sell the dolls to boys as an “action figure”. The name of the action figure? G.I. Joe. Hasbro laid the groundwork for many companies to take a risk with doing something bold and original that no one’s ever seen before.
Since then, many companies such as Kenner, Mego, and Mattel have tried and have been successful in their own ways by making original Intellectual Properties (or IPs) to the market, Some even continue in their own ways. But over the last 30 or so years now, we’ve been on a steady decline of original ideas, companies becoming more reliant on name recognition than coming up with original ideas which leads me to ask this question:
“where are all the new IP’s?”
After Disney’s shocking 4 Billion dollar buyout of Lucasfilm, rumors are currently flying of a possibility that Disney’s next target could be everyone’s favorite Rhode Island toy maker, Hasbro. So what does this mean to the fans of all their lines? whether it be Transformers, G.I. Joe or even My Little Pony? well, it could be everything or nothing. So let’s break things down a bit, so if the possibility is true, the news won’t be as hard to swallow.
…with Power Morphicon, of all conventions.
But the work’s not done yet. As soon as everyone in Plastic Joint’s schedule gets sync’d, then it’s time to continue podcasts, restore more lost archives, upload whatever we couldn’t get uploaded, etc etc etc!
Stay tuned.
Last Weekend, it was announced by Paramount Pictures that G.I. Joe Retaliation will not make it’s June 30th, 2012 release and will be pushed for a March 29th, 2013 release to focus on bringing the movie to 3D format. So what does this mean for toy collectors? well, it means a lot more then you think.
