It sucks to admit it, but for Hasbro, GI Joe is just another house brand among many others.
They don't really know what to do with it and how to market a military line anymore without being bothered by associations and enraged soccer moms so they put it aside in favor of what they see as more profitable brands.
At the end of the day, they don't care about which brands brings in the dough as long as it keeps on coming in. The numbers then dictate where they put their efforts.

Star Wars, Transformers, the Ponies and the Marvel lines are very popular and practically sell themselves so why bother with a toy line that needs so much work to bring it back to it's former glory.
We see the line as being very badly handled, they probably see the cost of two movies, a cartoon, a video game and a brand that still didn't take off, so instead of correcting the situation, they simply canned it.
The 50th anniversary will be celebrated with unreleased and rebranded products from the last movie and that's it.

_________________

Yep, the best toys in the corporate world is footballs, jump rope, Frisbees, bikes, etc. Things that never go out of fashion. Next would be the big wheels, moon shoes, and other things of that sort that can come and go with the times. Then you would have the average toylines. The goal is usually to get at least a few years off the lines. If they get that, they are successful. GIJoe got well over that and then some.

To get the product where we would want it, it would require licensing it out. Look at Sideshow with the 12" figures. The club pretty much has the 4" line cornered. So rather than Hasbro, we would either have to have someone possibly out bid the club or turn to the club and try to push them toward running things more towards what we would hope. Either way we are talking lots of money.

_________________

I bet the toyline would've had a better chance of succeeding if it had actually been on the shelves.

_________________

So we are basically all in agreement that cartoons are 20-30 minute toy commercials?
While I appreciate Joe trying to stay relevant to we adults with disposable incomes I have always felt it was a shame that my cousins and nephews don't have a chance to experience and come to love their own versions of Joe. Laugh at Sigma Six all you want but if timed right it would have done so well..

Even a television show ala rescue heroes would be cool!

_________________