Super Joe Unlimited brings back an iconic 70s toy line

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Super Joe Unlimited is a partnership between White Elephant Toys and Steve Stovall. June 17, 2022 — The Super Joe toy line is getting a second chance to wow Gen-X kids in this wonderful updating of the characters and concepts. This exciting new partnership brings all-new and overdue Super Joe products to the Military and…

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[rche]

wow - this looks really fun. Is this with the OK of Hasbro; like the convention 12" Joe stuffs?

[KingKickass1983]

I'm down.

[sprytel]

wow - this looks really fun. Is this with the OK of Hasbro; like the convention 12" Joe stuffs?

Yeah, I'm really excited by the announcement... as a kid, I loved my Super Joe figures as much or more than I did Mego... but I am very puzzled how this is possible without direct involvement from Hasbro. Surely they still own the IP?

[PNGwynne]

I'm excited to see how this progresses. I've dealt with Steve and Jason before as collectors, they're good guys. I like the creativity and quality I see so far--great new logo.

Hopefully these figures last longer that Super-Joe or Estrela ligatures .

[CrimsonGhost]

I don’t know if a Darkon type figure will be offered, but I sure hope so! I only ever had Joe and never did find a Darkon!!

[Werewolf]

I think the sculpts look great. But doesn't Hasbro still own the IP? I remember the GI JOE collector club had an exclusive Super Joe and Darkon not too long ago. Even if a few TMs lapsed wouldn't Hasbro still own the IP and character likenesses?

[PNGwynne]

^You're correct about the collector club; I have those. But who knows? IMO Hasbro cares very little for GI Joe except RAH.

[palitoy]

Hasbro seems to have dropped a bunch of IPs that shock me, like Action Force.

[Werewolf]

Hasbro seems to have dropped a bunch of IPs that shock me, like Action Force.

That was a stink storm on hisstank. Former Hasbro employee was basically TM squating and got TMs for Steel Brigrade and Action Force. From what I understand Hasbro still owns the Action Force IP but the TM lapsed for the US. They still have the TM in the UK. The new owner of the Action Force TM only owns the name and none of the characters.

[Werewolf]

This reminds me just very recently an indy company tried to do a retro fantasy line using Mattel's prototype designs, names and TMs. They even called it Lords of Power which was going to be MOTU's original name. It was all pretty gutsy. Doesn't sound like Mattel was too pleased about the use of their IP and TMs and they had to change them.

[Liu Bei]

This reminds me just very recently an indy company tried to do a retro fantasy line using Mattel's prototype designs, names and TMs. They even called it Lords of Power which was going to be MOTU's original name. It was all pretty gutsy. Doesn't sound like Mattel was too pleased about the use of their IP and TMs and they had to change them.

The problem with these megacorps like Disney is that while they would lose in court some of these lapsed copyright / trademark issues, no company has the finances it would take to challenge their high-powered lawyers in a court case that would likely drag on for years.

A recent example was the plagiarism case involving CBS and their blatant ripoff of an indy developer's computer game Tardigrades. I won't get into the nitty gritty of it, but CBS basically threatened to ruin the developer by counter-suing if he took them to court, and then when he did, blew him out of the water with high priced lawyers who argued that the ideas they'd stolen were done so under fair use.

[The Bat]

I gotta say these are pretty, and some good people are behind it. Congrats guys!

[Nostalgiabuff]

looks awesome. looking forward to seeing the finished products

[tatsunokofan]

Has anyone here tried going to their website? It doesn't seem to work for me, and I just want to make sure I'm going to the correct place.

http://www.superjoeunlimited.com/

James