might be going to Joe-con

[Dominic]

One of the guests will be the guy who developed "Transformers" back in the day.

Any questions we should be asking him?

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

Budiansky? Or someone else? This is actually of more concern than you'd think. Especially since we know Budiansky barely remembers a bunch of stuff.

[Dominic]

Bob Prupis

http://www.gijoecon.com/ri2010/con10guest5.cfm

We are unlikely to get a chance like this again. Help me out.

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

It does sound like an opportunity...if there were anything in particular we would like to know. After all, Budiansky, Furman and the cartoon writers are responsible for the bulk of the TF fiction, and nothing was developed in-house until '86--and we don't know how much involvement the guy had with the brand at that point.

Brief research shows that he was one of the marketing guys, primarily. He was also one of the guys who went out and found the non-Takara guys like Jetfire and Roadbuster. As much as I'd like some more vague information on those toys and their discovery, there's a lot of factors working against it--the fact that these are obscure toys from 25 years ago, the fact that he might not remember much about them or the process, and, perhaps this is me being overly cautious, but it's not a TF convention, and we know how unruly those Joe fans can get...

On the other hand, he's also been to at least one Botcon apparently, so I don't think it's unlikely for him to show up at another down the road.

[Dominic]

I could ask a general question about how involved he was in developing the IP behind "GI Joe" and "Transformers". Remember, Hasbro was the first company to really integrate that into the product and its marketing. "Micronauts" had a comic. But, the packagine was pretty vague. "GI Joe" and "Transformers" had character profiles on the packaging. "He-Man" had comics packaged with the toys. But, that license was shopped around.

The IP for TF and Joe were essentially farmed out to Marvel, and (aside from some early TF), kept apart from Marvel.


Or:

"We all know how hyper realistic and true to life "GI Joe" is at ever level. Did you or Larry Hama ever know any veterans who suffered the kinds of crotch breakage so common on old Joe figures? And, why would that breakage apply to their pants, rather than just their anatomy?"

"Will you go back to making o-ring style Joes again? Why did Hasbro stop making them in the first place?"

"Are there any efforts planned to educate today's collectors about the history of the line, and thus bring back to glory days? It is true that most of us are adults. But, the Cold War was long enough ago that even some adult fans never really lived it. The best parts of GI Joe were all before 1987, and some of the younger fans, (just finishing college now), do not know about it. And, of course, the few children who buy Joes are bedazzled with vile betrayals of the line, like the movie. What are you doing about this?"


Dom
-needs to get that out of his system before going to the convention.

[JediTricks]

I don't think it's good manners to go to a GI Joe convention and ask Transformers questions. But, here are some thoughts that could cross that barrier respectfully...

You could ask about the meandering creation of Transformers from the GI Joe line. GI Joe begot Combat Joe in Asia which begot Henshin Cyborg which begot Microman which begot both Diaclone and Microchange which were brought to America and turned into Transformers.

You could ask about how he felt at the time about the legal changes in the early '80s regarding toys and cartoons which lead to ARAH and Transformers. I would wonder if they saw it on the horizon and were excited, or thought they might get in trouble anyway, stuff like that.

You could ask him how he feels about vehicles carrying the ARAH line so well in the '80s, and without a really good source of new, fun, and "more for your money" vehicles like those how the line has floundered by comparison. As a side question, you could ask if it was planned that the vehicles and playsets of the ARAH line were always meant to be a good value so kids would then buy more figures to go with them, and how Hasbro has avoided that tactic since the '90s and most of the figure lines have had short shelf lives because of it. And was Transformers being made up largely of vehicles but having none to co-sell other figures to a boon or a bane to that process.

I'm obsessing.

[Dominic]

I definitely do not want to go in asking TF questions, unless I happen to find myself in conversation with him later.

JT hit the nail on the head with the sort of questions I was looking for.

And, I promise not to scare him as much as I scared Herb Trimpe. (At Boston Comicon, I nearly lunged across a table in an attempt to hug the man. He was......a bit afraid. What? What? Fuck you. Like you would not have reacted the same way to one of the guys who did early work on TF.)


Dom
-what?!?!?!?!?

[Onslaught Six]

You could ask him how he feels about vehicles carrying the ARAH line so well in the '80s, and without a really good source of new, fun, and "more for your money" vehicles like those how the line has floundered by comparison. As a side question, you could ask if it was planned that the vehicles and playsets of the ARAH line were always meant to be a good value so kids would then buy more figures to go with them, and how Hasbro has avoided that tactic since the '90s and most of the figure lines have had short shelf lives because of it. And was Transformers being made up largely of vehicles but having none to co-sell other figures to a boon or a bane to that process.

It's funny that you mention this, because I have 'always' found Joe vehicles very very lacking. They don't...do anything, for the money I paid for them. I bought several from the 25th line, primarily to get the figure that came with them. And they just weren't good.

[Dominic]

Many of the 25A vehicles are based on more anemice offerings from yesteryear.

I rather like the flight pod and AWE Striker though.

Serpentor's chariot and the HISS tank are improved considerably when they have appropriately scaled figures. (The 25A figures are about 20% bigger than the old figures.)

Dom

[JediTricks]

It's funny that you mention this, because I have 'always' found Joe vehicles very very lacking. They don't...do anything, for the money I paid for them. I bought several from the 25th line, primarily to get the figure that came with them. And they just weren't good.

You young people make me sick. Your imaginations have been eroded away to nothing, which is what brought us the dreadful '90s GI Joe lines that had to "do something" like shoot nerf missiles. What Joe vehicles did you experience that you are referring to specifically? I quite like the 25th line's Water Moccasin, for example.