My son is 3 years old and despite being too young for LEGO, since seeing the LEGO movie, I have needed to buy some smaller sets and get some figures for him to play with. I do have to glue them together so he doesn't take them apart and lose everything, which is ironic being that the LEGO movie started this interest for him, I guess you have to have seen the movie to get that, but anyway.....back to my point.

I have bought GI Joe KREO figures for him, I have bought Transformers KREO figures, I have bought Star Wars LEGO figures, and Batman LEGO figures. Since seeing the LEGO movie, I have since had to purchase the LEGO Batman Movie and all the LEGO Star Wars episodes available to watch on Apple TV. Now, all of these toys are placed in the same bin and he is able to pick and choose what he wants, invariably, he picks Star Wars or Batman LEGO. He never touches the GI Joe or Transformers KRE-O on his own. For a 3 year old to be so steered by TV shows aimed at him is amazing to see in action. I honestly did not realize how powerful it is. It makes me wonder why I haven't heard even a whisper of a KRE-O GI Joe show. As much as I as an adult want to see more shows like Resolute, I think a KRE-O show would be an amazing step for GI Joe as a brand. Even if the show was silly or very light on actual battle scenes, at least it would be out there and getting exposure again. I guess I see that as being a kind of rebuild from the ground up scenario. Maybe I'm way off, but I would love to be able to buy some KRE-O GI Joe shows for my son to watch and then watch him grow to love the characters like I did as a boy.

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If people don't take GI Joe too seriously, which they invariably will, a Kre-O GI Joe series could be kind of cutsie. When Firefly blows the living crap out of something, all the little brickparts can fly all over.

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Yeah, I mean, the Star Wars LEGO shows are full of stuff like that. I actually don't mind watching them. In the Empire Strikes Out there is a scene where Darth Maul is singing like an opera singer. I laugh at that every time I see it. And there are other scenes that are entertaining even for an adult. Of course, you have to be able to accept Darth Maul and Darth Vader existing simultaneously and some other things, but who cares, it's getting kids into Star Wars which is good, clean, fun.

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A self parody might work.
Make it cute for the kids while maintaining a second degree for the those who grew up with the brand. Could be a fun way to push the Kre-o sets while maintaining the brand alive.
Perhaps make a few reference to the old PSAs and 12" Joes once in a while. I don't know if it would have any longevity on TV though. Perhaps it would work better in the form of little clips or online videos.

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Star Wars only has like 6- 20 minute shows, so it definitely would not have to be a weekly show or a full season worth of material. With kids today watching Netflix and AppleTV more regularly, I think there is ample opportunity to make something like that work. My son just watches the same ones over and over. I think 5 or 6 twenty minute episodes would do the trick. Stream them on Netflix and make them available for purchase on iTunes. It could be really cool.

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No! Joe has to be serious! With big guns! And pouches! And...

Whoa, almost went '90's there. I think some sort of Kre-o cartoons could be awesome, and I don't even like Kre-o. Just make it self-referential and slapsticky and kids would be all over it, and adults, too.

As a kid, cartoons for me were imagination fuel. It gave me ideas and excitement about toylines and definitely fueled my want for toys and desire to play with them. Not investing in a show for your line is just silly unless you think it's not worth the money. Aaaand I think we've seen that Hasbro isn't gonna do that. On the other hand, the next 5 years of My Little Pony are planned out. That is a success purely because of the show, and shows the importance of having one.

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Phineas and Ferb (On Disney) make all kinds of references that really, only guys your age could "get." I get them because my parents (Dad is 57) raised me on that kind of stuff.

They had a Halloween episode where the dad, who's played by Richard O'Brian, is watching a horror movie. He makes the remark "Well this isn't much of a horror movie, where are the Rock 'n' Roll music numbers?" A direct reference to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which he starred in many years prior*.

Point being, no kid is going to get that, but its funny on a different level for them, as opposed to the level of humor for people like us. I think it would work exceptionally well for a modern day GI Joe cartoon.

*Here is a crappy video of the scene from youtube:

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I think the writers of kids shows and movies put those jokes that only adults get to help the parents make it through the day and perhaps to keep their own sanity.

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I would agree. My daughter was watching Barbie: My life in the Dreamhouse (or something like that), and in one of the scenes, Barbie pulls out her medallion necklace, screws it to the end of a pole, then holds it up to the sunlight in order to find something in her ridiculous closet.

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I think Renegades would have gone over a lot better as a toy line AND TV show, if they could have gotten the timing right.

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Spiderman, Optimus Prime, R2D2, Alvin the Chipmunk, others, all have their personalities and voices. Things that can be, I guess, emulated, and that launch point can really lead to more play? There's nothing for a younger person that's saturated across the brand that really stands out for GIJoe for figures, I see that in my world. I can see where maybe Transformers are less than picked among those building toys, too, they have that "less human" aspect to them. I realize the age being younger, but would Transformers be chosen more if a Transformers movie was viewed?

My son watches transformers and knows the characters, but I think he sees the Lego toys alive on screen and it makes a huge difference

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3 is about when my son started getting into Lego video games on the Wii. By the time he was 4-5 he was completing them on his own without help. The cross platform attack by Lego is huge.

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It's just the short sightedness of Hasbro. It was required back in the 80s to have a show on tv. Now it's a MUST to have a show on. If you don't and you just put stuff out there to sell, it will not. It's like that with anything, you can't just "build it and they will come". It just doesn't work that way, but Hasbro has been trying to play that game. Or let other people do all the push and they just sell the toys.

It's going to take a big change in the mindset of the higher ups at Hasbro to accomplish anything. There have been several full on fans working at Hasbro with lots more ideas than we have named over the years and even they get shot down. The only thing that will make the CEOs have a new outlook is to see the money they make start dropping. So far they have been able to keep their other products going and haven't worried about GIJoe.

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