Hasbro Brand Team Discuss G.I. Joe Classified Series And Whether The Toys Will Follow The Film And Comics

G.I. Joe has been in the pop culture zeitgeist for almost 60 years. The brand has expanded from toys to television, film and beyond. At San Diego Comic-Con 2023, we spoke to the team behind the GI Joe Classified series over at Hasbro to discuss the latest news and reveals with regards to the action figures.

We spoke with Emily Bader, Manager: Global Brand Marketing (Fan Brands), John Warden, Director of Product Design, and Tony Colella, Associate Manager Model Development. They all shared what fans can expect in the future from the brand. They even discussed the recent developments in the movies and comics with crossovers with another popular Hasbro franchise.

Gary Catig: You guys had a packed house today and I wasn’t able to get in. Were there anymore announcements besides Tripwire, the Steel Corps Troopers and the HISS Fire Team?

John Warden: No one knows it better than Emily.

Emily Bader: I’m going to run through the whole list of the show. We started off with some name only reveals. We’ve got Jinx, we’ve got Torch, we’ve got the SMS with the Technoviper, we’ve got a Retro Duke and Scarlet, which will be on our card backs. A now thicker card back in the main line. Then we had our all-new VAMP with Clutch.

Then we did some digital render reveals. We’ve got some Python Patrol. We’ve got Copperhead and Cobra Officer. Then we got Buzzer, we got Ripper, we got Hawk, we got Helix, we got…

Warden: Shockwave.

Bader: Shockwave. Then we have our Crimson Strike Team, which will be our PulseCon exclusive three-pack. Then at the very end, we went, “Surprise!” And we showed off digital renders of both the SMS and the VAMP. And then we now have images in hand…We have figures in hand of the Crimson Strike Team in the case. And as a special post panel reveal for funsies, Mutt and Junkyard are in the case to view. More details about their pre-order coming soon.

Catig: This might be a question for Tony because it’s on the technical side. A lot of you figures resemble the originals from back in the day and then you modernize their look for the six-inch line. What is the process like in the conversion or is it something brand new when you create new molds for these figures.

Tony Colella: That’s the secret sauce from our lead designer Lenny [Panzica]. He’s the mastermind behind this whole brand. He’s heavily inspired by all generations of the GI Joe line. We understand the popularity of the O-ring looks, but it needs a little bit more sophistication. A little bit more update to the gear. I know when he’s in the process of designing these things, he’s looking at current tech, current specs for all the gear that they have. He’s really trying to push the boundaries of taking those classic looks that we love, and then pushing it just a little bit further. Then a little bit further than that. He’s always trying to stretch the boundaries on what these looks look like.

Bader: I think one of the beautiful things about GI Joe is if you look at the history of the toy line, about every 10 years, GI Joe completely reinvents itself. 10, 15 years. I think that is beautiful because it really is a toy brand that is reflective of what’s going on in whatever era of entertainment we are in for the line. To me, Classified is this beautiful, what is the word I used earlier? Amalgamation.

Warden: Yeah, that’s a good one.

Bader: It’s like a melting pot of all of the previous versions of GI Joe plus whatever is going on the team can think of.

Warden: Yeah, it’s also often times a reflection of what’s happening in pop culture. GI Joe has always been very current. If you think about the Dreadnoks, came out right during a very famous post-apocalyptic move of the 1980s.

Bader: We’re with it!

Warden:: Yeah. I think when you look at Classified today, there are a lot more female operatives in there. We’ve got lots of really cool specialized gear that uses high tech equipment. The roles may be the same, but the gear and technology is upgraded. But we want to, like Tony put so eloquently, we don’t want to lose sight of the original character, but also you don’t want to be so slavish to the original that you miss out on an opportunity to invent something awesome.

Catig: Doing shows like San Diego Comic-Con, you get to interact with fans either at panels or here at the booth. I know some of their input gets you thinking about what future products are. What other factors influence which figures you produce next? GI Joe has such a large roster to choose from.

Warden: Honestly, when we look across the breadth of the line, we’re inspired very much by the cross-functional awesome nature of our team. We have an incredible team that are all GI Joe fans, but they are also experts in what they do.

A big thing too that influences they types of characters that we choose is our tooling library itself. As we create a new character, Tony and Lenny are always thinking about new ways we can paint the character, swap out pieces, combine things, or create things that are going to have multiple uses or lasting uses. And then, also if it’s a character so unique and so important, making room for it in a line so that we’re able to deliver the characters that fans and kids want at a reasonable valuable as well.

Catig: Just one last question and I know you might not be able to answer it. It’s been planned in the process. This summer, based off of the film and the comics, there was a big reveal regarding the brand. Will that influence what types of products you’ll be doing in the future?

Bader: We can’t really comment on anything that may be happening in the future on the brand, but of course we are excited to see whatever may happen for the future of GI Joe. We are, knowing what you’re hinting at, we have been doing a really cool 3 3/4″ scale O-ring collabs with the Transformers team. So we have at least a couple more of those planned in the pipe line. We have our Dreadnok Thunder Machine that just came out and is currently available for pre-order that we absolutely love. Zarana was my very first O-ring figure.

Warden: I think the other thing you’re speaking to too is GI Joe and Transformers really do have a long legacy of living together. There was an incredible comic book run over the years. Team members Lenny and I both have serve a good amount of time on the Transformers brand. There’s a lot of love for them. It’s certainly one of those things that we’d love to look at. We’re waiting to see what happens to the aligned entertainment. We’re looking forward to any and all opportunities to bring these brands to life in new ways.