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After months of negotiations and even after a government investigation, Hasbro has finally acquired Entertainment One (eOne for short) for a whopping US$ 3.8 Billion.

The new company (dubbed as ‘One Hasbro‘) will produce entertainment content based on Hasbro properties such as Transformers, Power Rangers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony and many others.

“We are excited about what we can do together and see tremendous opportunity for shareholder value creation through this acquisition,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro chairman and chief executive officer. “Our businesses are highly complementary with substantial synergies and a great cultural fit. The addition of eOne accelerates our blueprint strategy by expanding our brand portfolio with eOne’s beloved global preschool brands, adding proven TV and film expertise, and creating additional opportunities for long-term profitable growth. We are pleased to welcome the incredibly talented eOne team to our Company.”

You can check out the full Press Release, after the jump.

[Read more…]

under G.I. Joe Movie

It has been a roller-coaster ride. Various script ideas, cast changes, crew changes, director changes, delays, contingencies and many more. But finally, finally a 3rd G.I. Joe live action movie is being made and the filming starts today.

Directed by Robert Schwentke, G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes principal photography is set to take place from mid-October to early-December in Vancouver, Canada. Starring popular heartthrob Henry Golding as the titular character, the story for this new movie is written by Evan Spiliotopoulos with Bruce Lee films in mind.

The plot is rumored to be as follows (Warning: Possible Spoilers):

“When we meet this new, younger Snake Eyes, it’ll be as a street fighter in Peru. Driven by the desire to avenge the death of his father, Snake Eyes is apparently a man on the move until he ends up in Japan, where he and his best friend, Tommy, aka Storm Shadow, will begin their training with the Arashikage Clan. The film will see at least 3 of the clan’s legendary masters as they train Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow as Hard Master, Soft Master and Blind Master are all set to appear. Also present at the Arashikage compound is the film’s female lead, Akita. In comic continuity, Junko Akita was an apprentice and lover of Storm Shadow; here she is the head of security and will be a love interest for Snake Eyes.”

“Of course if it’s a GI Joe movie, Cobra must somehow be present and in this instance their presence is made manifest in what appears to be a character created for the film: Kenta. Kenta is revealed to Storm Shadow’s brother who has long since left his family, the Arashikage, and joined with a rival ninja clan, the Kurayami. It is Kenta who attempts to lure Snake Eyes away from the Arashikage and into a terrorist plot being devised by Cobra. We won’t delve too deeply into spoiler territory here, but we can see what side of things Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow will take and this film certainly seems to set the stage for one of the great comic book rivalries.”

Joining hands with Mr. Golding are Andrew Koji (Storm Shadow), Iko Uwais (Hard Master), Ursula Corbero (The Baroness), Samara Weaving (Scarlett), Takehiro Hira (Kenta?), and Haruka Abe (Junko Akita?).

Hasbro, Skydance and MGM will co-produce the movie, along with Paramount Pictures and Grackle Bird Productions.

As stated above, filming of G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes (under the working title ‘Grackle Bird’) will take place from October 15th to December 6th for an October 16th, 2020 release.

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.

under G.I. Joe Movie

Hasbro is currently accepting applications for their Hong Kong division (a.k.a Hasbro Far East) to manufacture G.I. Joe toys along with other action brands. This is a good news for the Joe fans due to the fact that it has been years since we received official toys from Hasbro.

Two openings are currently available:

  1. Project Engineer (12-Month Contract)
  2. Associate Project Manager (12-Month Contract)

Main Tasks:

  • Project Engineer: Develop medium to high complexity toys from mechanical items to electronic featured figures.
  • Associate Project Manager: Assist Manager Project Management to manage resources and identify, monitor and mitigate risks; and to ensure projects are executed and completed on time, within budget and within scope.

List Of Products (applicable for both):

  • G.I. Joe
  • Transformers
  • Power Rangers
  • Beyblade
  • Zoids
  • Star Wars
  • Marvel

You can apply for the positions through the links provided above.

under Compatible Military Toys

The Lord of Chaos. The Planet Eater. The Chaos Bringer. Unicron stands alone as the most menacing figure in Transformers lore, capable of devouring entire worlds and civilizations. He debuted in the 1986 film Transformers: The Movie and his insatiable appetite nearly brought the entire universe to its knees.

But his legacy transcends both space and time.

Transformers fans may be mere humans, inhabiting a miniscule planet hardly worth consuming, but they are some of the most passionate fans out there. That’s why HASLAB, the Hasbro Pulse crowdsourcing platform, is the place to awaken such a massive project.

Introducing the first ever Transformers HASLAB project: Transformers War For Cybertron Unicron.

Join us in a historic opportunity to celebrate the legendary Unicron with a figure whose features, detail, and scale are worthy of his gigantic legacy.

This campaign will move into production when it reaches its minimum goal of 8,000 backers. All support must be received by 11:59 PM EST on August 31, 2019. If the campaign is successful your payment method will be charged on August 31, 2019. Orders are estimated to ship in early 2021.

under G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary

Please, show your support by signing and sharing a petition to Hasbro to draft Mark Weber for the Senior Manager – Global Brand Development and Marketing for GI Joe and Micronauts position for which Hasbro is currently recruiting.

Mark Weber was the former brand manager at Hasbro for GI Joe and gave us a lot of great figures like Stiletto, Sightline (Gary Goggles-Head tribute,) the Renegades Roadblock (in the SDCC IDW set,) and many more! Here’s what Mark has has to say about all this…

I’d love the chance to work on G.I. Joe again – I was disappointed to have so few items and such a small tooling budget to work with during my time on the brand. I’m proud of what I did (Sightline, Shooter, Tombstone, female Cobra Officer, Stiletto) given the limitations of the time.

I went back to school to earn my MBA – most brand managers have one and it’s sort of the price of admission. I survived without one while I was at McFarlane Toys and Hasbro based on hard work, creative ideas and toy insights, but it’s hard to get back in without one.

Let’s let Hasbro know that we want only the best for GI Joe and remind them that Mark Weber is the man for the job! Yo Joe!!

under Featured Auctions, G.I. Joe Movie, G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra

A new eBay listing has show up for a G.I. Joe POC Holy Grail. The unreleased Pursuit of Cobra Rescue Mech prototype with the orange hat Alpine. This may be the last time you ever see this item up for sale in your lifetime.

You can view the eBay Auction here: POC Arctic Alpine with Rescue Mech

under G.I. Joe Movie

Over the weekend, producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura spoke to /Film and asked him about the upcoming Snake Eyes spin-off film. Will Ray Park take on the role of Snake Eyes again?

“Probably not, because we are going to the origin story,” Di Bonaventura said. “As you know in the comic book, you saw his face. And it is, I’ll say, the formation of a hero. So you’ve got to see somebody and it can’t be Ray’s age, unfortunately.”

Not sure if this means a “Veitnam styled” Snake Eyes or young in training style story. Stay tuned as more details unfold.