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under G.I. Joe Movie

We have received a word that Academy Awards nominee Joel Whist has come aboard G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes as its Visual Effects Supervisor.

This is a big news considering his outstanding work on Man Of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, War For The Planet Of The Apes, The BFG, and Watchmen.

It is indeed nice to see the production behind the next G.I. Joe movie is pulling out all the stops to deliver a good movie for the audience.

Principal photography of G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes is just a month away and we will hear more info as we get close to the October 15th filming date.

You can check out a bio video of Mr. Whist’s work, below:

 

under G.I. Joe Movie

Claire Gilchrist, Vice President of Hasbro Consumer Products – Asia Pacific, recently visited India to implement new initiatives in the region. Several local media outlets received the opportunity to discuss future plans of the company.

Hasbro will focus on re-introducing the G.I. Joe brand to India after its massive popularity back in the 80s.

The upcoming toyline will revolve around the theatrical release of G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes. Along with the Joe toys, Hasbro is hoping to quadruple the footing in India with other toys such as Micro Machines, Pound Puppies etc.

Hasbro is looking for a TV and a Digital initiative for G.I. Joe as well. While we currently do not have any info regarding the TV initiative, the digital initiative in question is most likely the upcoming mobile game by D3 Go.

Ms. Gilchrist also stated that they have setup several factories in India to manufacture toys based on Hasbro brands and is also the Number 1 toy exporter of the country.

She also addressed the current relationship with Funskool:

“Hasbro has been in India for over 30 years. Our business was looked after for us by our agents. It was mainly done by Funskool, who is our agent and distributer for toys and games. Also, because of the importance of India as a market for growth and expansion, a few years ago the board of directors decided to go direct. So in April 2017, we opened Hasbro India and we started to make a team with whom we went direct to the retailers in India. We still maintain a relationship with Funskool, but it is on a small scale. The business has had fantastic growth. It has grown to almost 10 times in the last couple of years. We felt the time was absolutely perfect to then build on the toy and game business and also now to expand and extend brands into consumer products, into promotions and location based entertainment which is run by the consumer products organisation.”

We thank AdGully and MediaNews4U for the exclusive interview info.

under G.I. Joe Movie

Actor Henry Golding has started his training for the upcoming G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes live action movie.

Mr. Golding has posted two images from the training session on his official Instagram page with a caption featuring a snake emoji.

The photos seems to feature some sort of a sword training with several trainers.

Filming is set to begin on October 15th in Vancouver, Canada.

under G.I. Joe Movie

Concept artist Sunil Pant has updated his LinkedIn profile with a new entry titled G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes.

Mr. Pant is mostly known for his work on Netflix’ Lost In Space series as well as Amazon’s highly acclaimed series The Man in the High Castle.

Very much like Andrew Li (the Art Director for the movie), Sunil Pant also specializes in futuristic vehicles and backdrops. His work on The Man in the High Castle alone screams Cobra.

We’ve highlighted some of his artwork from his official website, after the jump.

under G.I. Joe Movie

Martial artist and action star Iko Uwais is currently in discussions to join the cast of G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes as the Hard Master.

Since breaking out with the acclaimed Raid films, this Indonesian star has popped up in several high-profile Hollywood movies, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mark Wahlberg’s Mile 22 among them. He last appeared as the villain in this summer’s Stuber opposite Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani.

You can check out Mr. Uwais in action via a video clip from The Raid 2:

 

under Compatible Military Toys, Photo Shoots

118 Building Extreme 17

Extreme Sets have been making cardboard based pop up dioramas for a couple years now, branching out from their wrestling roots and giving us environments to fit all our action figure themes. Most of these have been at the 1/12 scale, working with Marvel Legends, NECA, Star Wars Black Series and the like. Today that changes with the introduction of two new 1/18 scale sets. The Building 3.0 and the Deranged Alley 2.0. Building 3.0 is new, it just dropped in the 1/12 scale. The Deranged Alley 2.0 is a remix of one of their most popular sets, I’ve used it a lot for Marvel Legends and DC figures over on Toyark (Hit that link to see the 1/12 sets in action). Both of these now work with 3.75 / 4 / 1/18 scale. Prior to today, the only other one from Extreme Sets was the Command Station, which was cool but a little sci-fi. These new ones allow for some real world displays and photographing options.

Both sets feature the same modular display system Extreme Sets is known for – cardboard panels that tab together and can be reconfigured to your liking. You can create cornered street scenes or wrap them around into a building. The Building 3.0 set also comes with a roof if you choose to go building style. The Alley comes with flooring as well, and you can buy additional ground packs in the 1/12 scale to supplement that, or use with the Building set.

All in all they are great ways to get some spice into your G.I. Joe toy photography or display areas. We’ve run the sets for some pics to show what they can do and how they can be used, read on to check out over 55 HD images after the break! The 1/18 scale sets are in stock and shipping now at Extreme Sets. If you use code TOYARK at checkout, you’ll get 15% off your order!

Command Station (1/18)
Deranged Alley 2.0 (1/18)
Building 3.0 (1/18)

[Read more…]

under G.I. Joe Movie

A word we received indicates that industry expert Andrea Brown has joined the casting department of G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes. To be specific, Mrs. Brown will act as the Extras Casting Director for the movie.

Most fans may not have heard of her but she comes with a 30+ years of experience and bringing in extras for some of the major movies including the mutant army of Magneto from the X-Men franchise. In other words… a troop builder.

If you are interested in working as an extra for Snake Eyes, you can drop your profile at BCF Casting. The process is completely free and you don’t have to pay any commission or charges. Mind you, you need to be in Vancouver, Canada to be eligible.

Additionally, we can confirm that Kimani Ray Smith will indeed be the stunt coordinator of the movie. We received his confirmation along with this news regarding Andrea Brown.

[Read more…]

under G.I. Joe Cartoons

Hasbro acquiring eOne; the owner of Peppa Pig and The Walking Dead, among other things, was one of the biggest business news to come out last week. During Hasbro’s special Investor & Press Meeting, the toy giant stated that they are in active discussions with eOne to bring new initiatives based on several Hasbro brand to the television.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Hasbro stated that one such property is G.I. Joe.

We currently do not know any additional info regarding the said initiative other than the fact that Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons and G.I. Joe is included among the several brands, but this is an exciting news nevertheless.

You can check out the statement at 2:38 mark onward, from the video posted at Yahoo Finance.

under Other

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner spoke to CNBC and Yahoo Finance yesterday, regarding the future of the company. Among the discussion points was the mitigation and contingency plan for the eventual US tariff increase to be imposed to toys manufactured in China.

As a temporary solution Hasbro is planning to pass-on the price increase to the customer and therefore safeguading the retailers.

“We’re having conversations with our retailers and of course we will pass along those costs.”

The company hopes to “effectively pass on those costs” by mitigating the margin internally. But “ultimately, [they] will be borne by the consumer over time.”

In long term, Hasbro is planning to make changes to the products to reduce the cost.

“With time, you can redesign and redevelop your product lines with those tariffs in mind…“

Hasbro is taking action to shift as much production out of China to other countries as possible ahead of this holiday season. About 67% of Hasbro’s merchandise is now sourced from China, down from 90% a few years back and 75% or so entering 2019. By the end of 2020, Goldner expects to have only 50% of Hasbro’s inventory reliant on China.

However, the toy giant is not planning to raise toy prices for the 2019 Holiday Season.

“We certainly want to ensure that we’re not raising prices on products right before the holidays. We would hope we would continue to have a productive dialogue and find other solutions to the situation.”

Increased tariffs will effect from December 15th onward.