Back in late 2015, HISSTANK sister site TFW2005 broke the news of Hasbro expanding their business in India and establishing a toy manufacturing plant in the aforementioned country as a subsequent outcome from new the business venture.
It so happens that Transformers toys marked as Hasbro India LLP have started to pop up in countries such as Sri Lanka (South Asian Region).
The first batch of items, which arrived yesterday, contains several products from the Transformers Franchise.
The distribution of the toys were formerly under Funskool India, a company which distributed Hasbro items since 1982 and even had their own exclusive variants of G. I. Joe toys (famously knows as Funskool Variants among the G. I. Joe Fan Community). Funskool helped to popularize the G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline in the South Asian Region. The new batch of toys no longer carries the familiar Funskool Sticker, which you can see from our comparison images.
This does feel like an end of an era. When the next line of G. I. Joe toys arrive in the future, it would indeed feel strange for this newsie to see a small yet noticeable change in the packaging.
Official Website of Hasbro India LLP can be found here.
News Post: Hasbro India Begins South Asian Region Distribution Of Hasbro Toys
Better question is if we'll see the India facility actually produce GI Joe toys like what has happened with My Little Pony.
I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a lot of Hasbro production move to India. Other industries already have.
Maybe that's why we got Funskool colored Windmill!
That's a good point ViperLord.
Anyone know or have any idea how popular Funskool GIJoe was at it's height in INdia? I mean were 1,000,000 units sold? Are there die hard Funskool Joe fans in India who grew up collecting GIJOE? Just wondering if there is a market for Joes there like Transformers?
Yeah are they already doing so? I mean Hasbro didn't even make ANY figures in 2017, and the 2016 offerings were a little light. I mean the original 82 wave wasn't much bigger than 2016's output, but they followed up with more the next year in vehicles and playsets. HASBRO did absolutely NOTHING in 2017. Thank god for the Club but still.
One of the issues I feel is impacting Joe is the fact ALL of GI Joe's assets are in China, which is likely impacting Hasbro's reluctance to simply "release stuff", since Joe is costing more to produce than some Transformers stuff which sells better.
I want to see a new generation of wacky Funskool Joes.
I want to see a new generation of any Joes!?! (1/18 scale preferably)
I’d seriously buy “30th Anniversary Complan Commandos” were they available.
Keep reading: Hasbro India Begins South Asian Region Distribution Of Hasbro Toys - Page 2
Not a member yet? Join HissTank Now!