Of all the things to start a line like that with? Maybe they're saving a MOBAT or Mauler for the next Haslab.
I think even Hasbro was a bit surprised at the success of the HasLab vehicles, and that’s what is giving rise to GI Joe, effectively, getting a Titan caliber product category. I think that price point (and vehicles like the Thunder Machine, Snowcat, Slugger, Water Mocassin, STUN, Wolf, etc) hits a LOT of the major icons of the vehicle line.
But I think tanks (at least ones measuring up to the quality of the existing line up) definitely bumps the price above $200.
I like the selections, though. The Dreadnoks have always been a popular subset, and by next fall (at the earliest), Hasbro will have hit most of the core Noks and the Thunder Machine helps tie them all together. The Snowcat is one of the few “distinctly GI Joe original” designs from the line’s peak. Like the HISS, the Snowcat doesn’t have a real world analog and is a distinct “heroic GI Joe” vehicle. By 2025, we’ll probably also have Alpine and a few “winter ops” redeco/retool figures to supplement Snow Job and the two Cobra offerings.
I was trying to think which Joe vehicles they could do that are "iconic" to me.
They've done the Joe Cycle, Vamp, Trouble Bubble...
The Fang copter, Cobra Glider and That white cobra Robot Armor were big with me as a kid.
And like Everything else I can think of that means something to me are too big for retail at Classified Scale:
Skystriker, Rattler, Nightraven, Eaglehawk Copter, Hovercraft, Love the Battleforce 2000 jet, the Battle Platform...
And then the Nuts stuff. I had the mobile command center, and the terror drome and the shuttle complex and the Flagg as a kid but none of those are ever happening for Classified.
-ZacWilliam, vehicles were very important for Joe so I'm a little surprised to find it's the small ones and the bases that I tend to actually care about in retrospect.
Eh, I Feel much the same. The smaller vehicles were always easier to play with, and the best mid-sized stuff were the ones that ”played well” with multiple figures. Same was true of play sets, as they offered fuel for scenarios and incorporated venues for multiple figures. As nice as the big stuff was, I found many of them were more cumbersome to play with than they were often worth.
With all the focus on vehicles, I hope Hasbro doesn’t forget the “scenario sets” like the old Battlefield accessories or Battlestations.
Something else It’s Chad remarked on was the return of “modern construction” 4 inch GI Joe figures. HIS information was along the lines of Pursuit of Cobra/50th type product line either as a Fan Channel offering or a Subscription Service.
I’m not a fan of ANY of that. To me, it’s retreading the same missteps we saw just a few years ago with Retro 4”. I don’t feel the 4” Joe market is in a position to support the range of products being directed to it, and among the GI Joe fandom, Classified has clearly become a dominant element.
My gut feeling is that Hasbro is going to basically “start over”, meaning we’ll get redos of the same characters we’ve gotten plenty of in that scale, at a premium pricing. Star Wars might have enough collector momentum to support 6 and 3.75” collector lines, but I don’t feel GI Joe does. At TVC pricing ($15+), the notoriously cheap Joe fandom is going to be reluctant to support any initiative like that. Especially with HIYA and Super7 offering products in a similar price AND scale. I just don’t see enough of a market to support ALL of that ON TOP of Classified.
I’d much rather see Hasbro put its focus into a nice little kids line like the Epic Hero initiative. If Jazwares can release a 4”, super articulated action figure with a couple accessories for $10 under Fortnite, surely Hasbro can do something similar with GI Joe. Who knows, though. Maybe THAT is what Hasbro is working on and someone got confused, since the Marvel Epic Hero figures do, indeed, use modern construction techniques. Just not to the extreme that was seen back during 2010.