Hasbro Re-releases

[The Girl]

Not exactly confirmable, but interesting...


I worked for Hasbro for a while, specifically with GI Joe and Star Wars figurines. During my time there I learned that Hasbro does NOT keep an archive of past toys. No warehouse, no expanse of shelves and containers, nothing. What do they have? A tiny dingey basement where they keep all of the toys they buy on ebay when they need to reboot a series.
Yes, that's right, whenever you see a "Top 10 GI Joe Re-release!" or "Best of past Star Wars figures!" there's no magical place where they go to dust off the old master molds. Nope! They hit ebay and the GI Joe forums, buy up the old toys, re-sculpt, re-cast, repaint based on the old figures, and then re-release them.
I couldn't believe it when I found out.


Conversation on Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1kfoy5/what_is_a_dirty_little_or_big_secret_about_an/cbotcng)

[Wolfshade]

Doesn't sound the most efficient way of doing things to be honest...

[eldargal]

Can't say I'm surprised, next comment adds some more to it though:

work at Hasbro currently, and this is not ENTIRELY true. They do have a small basement at headquarters, but they also have a large warehouse storage space off site where much of their past product is stored. They DO NOT, however, have an official archive of ANYTHING. And when I say anything, I mean ANYTHING. Merchandise, prototypes, print materials, historical documents, etc etc. I'm actually working on the team that is trying to make that happen. The explanation I've received (since I'm very much perplexed by this as well) is that there's never been anyone specifically in charge of making that happen. When this monumental task has been taken on in the past by employees, things either get busy or there's another organizational change within the company, and as a priority, it just falls by the wayside.

[Bigred]

I'm always shocked by this kind of thing.

I remember reading through the GW vs CHS testimony and GW said there is 1 small room where they try to keep 1 copy of their important products, but is is very incomplete.

I guess I like to think that somehow everything is still there to one day be able to be reproduced. But apparently a lot of our beloved toys and miniatures are indeed collectors items - never to be recast again.

[Wolfshade]

I think with a lot of these things that go on to have great longevity is that you never expect them to do this, so you never think of trying to document everything.

[Psychosplodge]

It does sound interesting in the sense that somebody the size of hasbro doesn't routinely do this, how can they have expected it from a company that started in a bedroom?

[eldargal]

I'm always shocked by this kind of thing.

I remember reading through the GW vs CHS testimony and GW said there is 1 small room where they try to keep 1 copy of their important products, but is is very incomplete.

I guess I like to think that somehow everything is still there to one day be able to be reproduced. But apparently a lot of our beloved toys and miniatures are indeed collectors items - never to be recast again.
I know for a fact at one point GW were actively looking for a copy of their chicken sized Imperial Dragon to try and take new moulds from.

[Gotthammer]

I used to be quite into the Joe collection scene (don't judge me!) and when they started doing the reissues around 2002 they communicated that many of the old molds were in storage, but damaged, and others had been leased to south American manufacturers and the like and were lost that way.
I can't really fault Hasbro for not keeping old stuff, the nostalgia remake market is quite unprecedented.

[Wildeybeast]

I'm not surprised. It takes money, effort and foresight to keep hold of stuff, something most businesses do not have an excess of. It is a well known price of folklore that GW 'lost' Warhammer Quest when moving to the current HQ. that Sadi they must keep some old stuff lying about. They had a stall out in Bugmans not that long ago selling off random old stuff. I forgot what exactly, but there was definitely a copy of digganob on sale.

[Psychosplodge]

If you ever see an underhive scum with bolt pistols get it i'll reimburse you :D

[Wildeybeast]

Will do. I suspect it was a one clearance of some junk they found in a cupboard, but I'll let folk know if I ever see anything like that again.