Joe Con 2013 Recap

On Saturday I attended the Hasbro panel.  Some of the key highlights I picked up were: The Night landing release will be in August or later and only 1/2 will have Cobra Logo because of an error at the factory. Wave 3 is coming late July early August. The Eagle Hawk is an entirely new tooling using a 3D scan of the ARAH version and the interior of Eagle Hawk will be fully skinned and detailed. Door guns are interchangeable to Roadblock’s 50 caliber guns. Hard points on Eagle Hawk integrate with the figure rappelling features in 3pk and Ultimate Roadblock etc.

Series 2 of Micro Force is on hold. Kreo is red hot and staying a TRU exclusive, new products in the fall. Hasbro is going deep into all Kreo, and video games are a definite option. Jonathan Price as POTUS is needed and should be a go.  I was impressed about how passionate both the product managers John and Daryl were, these guys clearly are fans of the brand and are doing the best they can put out a quality product.

We attended the panel with Mary McDonald Lewis (Lady J) and Bill Ratner (Flint) for a while and although we had to leave part way through, I really enjoyed seeing them together. I had been lucky enough to hear both of them on Flag Points and they were giving a very similar talk. I also want to say how friendly and engaging they both were throughout the convention, my son and I had a chance to interact with Bill several times personally and he seemed like such a nice guy who was genuinely having a good time. One night they were both coming off an elevator and I told my son, “Flint and Lady J just held the elevator for us” and Bill turned around smiling and yelled YO JOE! AWESOME!

I also really enjoyed Kirk Bozigian and Larry Hama’s panel about the creation of GI Joe, Kirk is a very dynamic speaker and is extremely passionate about the brand. It was very interesting to see the two of them interact and give a shared history. I also attended Kirk’s talk the next day about his “diabolical” 20 point plan to launch a toy line. There are pictures of the slides online that really break down a lot of the thinking behind all of the details we loved and love about the ARAH line such as Flagg Points, catalogs, figure lists, self assembly, DTC, etc.

I also had the pleasure of meeting him briefly after the talk and he was giving out challenge cards with the motto “Attack, Attack, Attack” on them.  I instantly recognized this as the motto for the 34th Infantry Division, the unit I spent most of my Army NG service with.  A huge reason I was interested in the military an eventually joined the Army was GI Joe, which was largely brought to me by Kirk.  Talk about a serendipitous moment!  Getting to meet Kirk was hands down my favorite part of the convention.

On the other hand my son’s favorite was the costumers. There were so many people dressed up and every single one was friendly and happy to take pictures with my son, I thanked them all profusely. We met some great people and saw some awesome costumes including: Snake Eyes & Scarlett (our favorites), Snow Serpent, Heavy Duty, Viper, Jinx and tons of Cobra Troopers.  One booth, Roma Collectibles, even had what I assume were paid actors posing as the Baroness and Keel Hull, they were also giving out a lot free stuff my son loved.

The event I was least interested in previously was the Saturday night dinner/casino night, but I ended up going with my son and we actually had a great time.  After a nice dinner we ended up playing bingo all night and had a blast.  I lucked out and won a 25th Conquest and the very nice guy sitting next to us gave my son the Python Patrol Conquest he had won.

By the time we got back to the casino, no one would cash us out as the dealers were all closing up, but a very nice guy gave my son his voucher and told him, he would have a good chance of winning something in the kid’s auction.  He said he does it every year because a lot of people pool their winnings and you will never out bid them.  He was spot on and my son was thrilled to win a small Kreo set.

The costume contest followed and as I have read elsewhere, it seemed to be more of a popularity contest than a costume contest, but it was still a great time and no one seemed to mind.  One contestant was hilarious and was throwing out fake cash which my son still seems to think has some value.  Overall it was a really fun night and probably the most consistently fun thing we did all weekend.