thats just it, those are the answers I got from BOTH department heads.

it seems that The G.I.joe brand manager wants to take Joes in another direction (which would seem to make sence with the starscream exclusive, skystriker publicity) and the TF brand manager seems to not be interested,.. Like Toy Nutz said.

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You know, I never understood the hate for Duke. I watched the cartoons as a kid and read the comics. I never thought he was boring. Sure, he was no Snake Eyes and for that I am very thankful because there is a character I am sick of.

Why is Duke boring? Seriously, I didn't see him that was a kid and I don't see him that way now. If anything I always thought he was more realistic then guys like Quick Kick, oad Block or Gung Ho.

If you asked me as a kid who I thought was boring I would have said guys like Main Frame. The really ironic thing is I'm an I.T, guy (16 years now) and I still think Main Frame is boring. Hell, look at this years Joe Canuck set. We had a guy in their called Traceroute. I was the guy who name him both his code name and real name and with Ryan and Loop we came up with the whole counter cyber intelligence angle, so it's not like I hate computer guys. But I still think Main Frame is boring. Best thing about him was he and Zarana fell for each other IMO.

It's not like I'm going to get Duke tattooed on me or anything like that. I'm indifferent to the character. I just don't see why he gets so much negative heat.

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I'm going to have to disagree with you on this point. To me it seems Joe peaked with PoC and is now in decline once again. Let's look at the offerings coming up:
The Renegades figures are not that great. They are more cartoony, less detailed, more generic, and quite frankly, bland. And they don't look overtly military at all. Oh, and of course its just more Duke, Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes, etc. There are a couple of exceptions (Law and Firefly look interesting) but overall, these are several notches below the PoC figures in terms of creativity, craftsmanship, realism, imagination and 'Joe flavor.'
As for the 30th anniversary, I can't get excited or interested for the same reasons I was never into 25th stuff. They are giving us the exact same figure designs with very minor differences. Look at Sci-Fi or Lifeline or Airtight. I've had these exact same figures sitting on my shelf for 30 years, so no thanks Hasbro.
It looks like I will be buying very few figures for the remainder of this year. Aside from Quinn and Data Viper I don't see much I want to add to my collection.

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The comics and cartoon takes on the characters are completely different.... MainFrame is in the current issues of Joe and looks like he's taking on Firefly next issue... no Zarana love there.. and Duke isn't the leader in the comics as he was in the cartoons.. in the cartoons he was basically Snake-Eyes in that ALL women fell for him and he couldn't do anything wrong.... same with the movie... I think thats where the hate for Duke comes from...

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personally.. i hated duke because he was the typical 80's cookie cutter Blond haired, blue eyed hero. a character that really didnt require any imagination to him. You could almost interchange him with Matt Trakker, He-Man, Matt Masterson and you couldn't tell the difference. That's why Flint seemed to be more interesting, ad he had a bit more depth to him than Duke.
(not to mention, for this great leader of the joes, he always seemed to get himself captured in the cartoon)

Duke didn't get interesting to me until the Deaths in the marvel comics run, where he cried at the loss of soldiers under his command, which showed depth in the character at losing his composure, and in the devils due run, where all those years of military and black ops, he started to fray at the edges, but still showed more badassery in his pinkey finger than any of the joes.
A perfect example of Devils due Duke would be the Seargent character Aaron Ekhard played recently in Battle Los Angeles.

Mainframe 'unbored' himself in the comics when it was revealed that not only was he a Viet nam Vet, but had combat skills that were better than Dusty's.

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Really and truly, I hate Duke simply because they already had the perfect character to really and actually lead the team, Hawk, and they pushed him to the side in favor of Boring McBlanderson, all while throwing military protocol out the window by having an enlisted guy throwing orders around to officers. That idiocy was always more unbelievable to me than any amount of Capt GridIrons and his football grenades or BioVipers or BuzzBoards or...

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Good. More for me.

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I love the look of the Renegades figures. Granted, not many of them will be used as they are supposed to be. Duke looks like good BSAA fodder, and most of the others are awesome Zombie apocolypse survivour lookin' types. I'm gonna get loads. Wish they were making Ren. Destro though.

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Hmm, good point. Where are we going to find arms with biceps as big as his head though?

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Yeah, I'm thinking the Renegades are going to be mostly fodder for me too. I can already see a bunch of MW3 customs from Duke, and Scarlett will help flesh out some female customs I'm working on. Ripcord I'm getting just so I can give his helmet to Real-Ripcord. I had such high hopes for CI Ripcord after seeing Para-Viper, and then H screws us.
Storm Shadow is never going to wear his long-hair head.

Retail's upside down. Clearance stores like Ross or Big Lots are supposed to help us by getting rid of product that's clogging shelves. Instead, for whatever damned reason, retail is holding onto product with a death grip (my Wal-Mart still has RoC product at regular price) and new product, not old shelf warmers is going straight to clearance stores. No one is winning.



Absolutely! Some of the product being designed is clearly made by people who secretly want to take these toys, go out in the backyard and relive their childhood. Just little details like the "kung fu grip" icon on Quick Kick's shirt aren't things we've ever asked for or brought up, they're brought up by fans, but fans that work for Hasbro. They're pouring details and winks and nods into stupendous product, and we just never see it at retail.

Heck yes KOP. Couldn't agree more.

Was looking forward to a RZA sculpt for his Camouflage Samurai custom from Ghost Dog.

I can just imagine the Rock case variant now with the elevated eyebrow. LOL.

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