Really...who cares about a TOY....
Although anyone man wanting to relieve their childhood can probably get a new G.I. Joe doll with all the stuff at ebay...and you can have your own adventure..
No liberals can prevent you pretending stuff in your own home...

It isn't that its a tough sell. Its that de-Americanizing it doesn't draw any negative press.

Nothing much public will be made of it and parents who remember GI Joe will expect it to be the old GI Joe. So they won't avoid it. They may not notice, but those who do will be ticked but there will be nothing that can be done.

Basically the US market is easy to be taken for granted especially if the negative press would require the press to have any affinity to America.

"They could be supportive and make movies that showed America, our troops, and their mission in a positive light."

Do you mean propaganda?

With your writing skills I am sure you could come up with a great screenplay. I would LOVE to read it.

So... G.I. Joe meets the "Global Test."

John Kerry would be so proud.

Really...who cares about a TOY....

Really...who cares about a NOGO.....

Which not is not surprising from a lefty like nogo. Really...who cares about a FLAG.... Really...who cares about an EMBRYO....

As I read the post, I wondered how long it would take a lefty to come in and denigrate the sentiment of the post. I shouldn't have wondered. nogo didn't disappoint.

It's not just the need to expand the marketing beyond the US borders, it's the desire to send the message that if you fight it must be an international effort. You remember, 'the global test'. 'Cuz we all know, if the Fwench aren't with you, it's not legitimate.

I let my G.I. Joe play with my sister's Barbie. After all, he needed a date ;)

John I beat you to the global test line by thiiiiiis ___________ much. :-)

nogo. I suspect a lot of people care about G.I. Joe, since 1964 hundreds of millions of them have been sold.

But reality doesn't matter does it, not to you. It's more important that you have something you can blather on about.

You know what I find kind of odd? That they worry more about overseas markets than domestic.

It's not like we've had a whole lot of war movies - either pro or con. Perhaps it's because the war in Iraq, expensive as it is, percentage-wise is nowhere near the cost of wars in the past. Perhaps because a lot of folks have deluded themselves into thinking this is an optional war, and not important enough to even pay attention to.

We've come a long way from WW2. And Hollywood's come a long way from Frank Capra's "Why We Fight".

I hate to say it - but the freedoms that we enjoy aren't anywhere near so threatened by fighting the WoT as they would be by not fighting it. We've already seen instances of media being forced to apologize/retract/abase themselves for content that isn't liked by Muslims. (And I have noticed that if Christian groups don't like something, they're told basically "Tough Shit". Could it be a lack of headhacking Christians? Perhaps a dearth of angry mobs? I remember the modest furor over "Last Temptation of Christ" - and Christian groups were basically laughed at. Goes to show there's nothing like a few well-publicized murders to get the proper respect for your beliefs. /sarc)

How long would it be, with a continual low-level threat from the Muslim community about 'inappropriate material' before Hollywood starts self-censoring all content? There's already a trend in the news that if a person's picked up for suspicion, and the person is Muslim, their religion isn't mentioned. But you can be darn sure if someone was picked up for plotting to bomb an abortion clinic, if they were Christian their religion would lead all other data...

Hmmm. All things considered, I guess it's kind of hard to have a war movie when you don't dare describe who the enemy is.

"Really...who cares about a TOY...."

Is it the principle or the toy, nogo? Be a man and say what you mean. No EBAY excuses. Because if you want to start a real riot then substitute the subject of GI Joe with Barbie....

"With your writing skills I am sure you could come up with a great screenplay. I would LOVE to read it."

jp2, I imagine that if Cassy collaborated w/ Paris Hilton, the two of them could craft a GI Joe screenplay that might leave Norma Desmond's Salome script in the dust.

I bet they make Snake-Eyes gay.

FreedomFries, I imagine if you collaborated with jp2, the two of you could come up with a post worthy of publishing at Huff and Puff.

I bet they make Snake-Eyes gay.

Well, of course they will have to. With a macho moniker like that he must be hiding something. He's obviously a closet homosexual. A sub-plot of the movie will be a gay activist group outing him, thus freeing him from the socially imposed and discriminatory shackles.

At least Hollywood produced the Transformers this year and showed the military in a good light. It felt like a 2½ hour recruitment film for the Air Force. It was great seeing practically the entire inventory and that the Air Force saved the day. As a Soldier said, "The whole thing was action packed and I loved seeing the A-10 'bringing the rain' the way they always came to help us out while I was in Iraq. Some of my fellow Soldiers and I were talking about it's funny that with all the movies out there, it took a movie about alien robots invading the planet to get the military stuff right."

John in Ca:

FreedomFries, I imagine if you collaborated with jp2, the two of you could come up with a post worthy of publishing at Huff and Puff.

Are you sure those two haven't already.

If not i feel reasonably sure they'd both agree with that blithering idiot. And be just as ignorant of how the U.S. Gov and military operates.

marc, Caught that story at LGF's earlier today. Absolutely amazing, isn't it?

Now, if he had called for a military coup against Clinton back in the day, he might have gotten a few takers.

It's too bad that the Hollywood types that distorted G.I. Joe into some type of international commando didn't read Peggy Noonan's latest column on the goodness of US troops - past and present - or thought any of the throughts she expresses. Instead, they have the same mindset that dictates the terorists on "24" can be anything but Muslims or Arabs. Freedom of expression - but don't upset anyone in the "international community."

I hope they make millions at the box office and loose billions at the stores. Lost me as a customer and anyone else i speak to.

Liberals wont be happy till all little boys are wearing pink and sing dumb songs like GIVE PEACE A CHANCE,DOG AND BUTTERFLY,AGE OF AQUARIUS, and want to be a nambdy pambdy wussie like liberacy I mean look at their thing about war toys SCREW CODESISSYPINK

Damn, spurwing, how did you gain access to the secret leftwing playbook? That's supposed to be top-secret stuff!

So I guess conservatives (or whatever you call yourselves) won't be happy until we return to the golden days of yore when the Duke was king and American might was used to spread not democracy, but economic domination over the poor godless savages of the third world. We are reaping the fruits of those policies today in the form of the mulitifaceted terrorist movement and the erosion of our economic strength.

But why stop there? Let's go back to the Middle Ages, when state and church were one and dissent was not tolerated, where scientific progress was heresy and everyone knew their place in the scheme of things. Wouldn't that be a great America?

For the fellow travelers of the far left, the true American hero surrenders to anyone doing battle against the evils of democracy and capitalism; betrays patriots who have volunteered to fight for the rights and liberties of the individual; works tirelessly to silence those who dare to report the truth, and delights in the wholesale destruction of a nation when done in the perfidious name of "the greater good".

But why stop there? Let's go back to the Middle Ages, when state and church were one and dissent was not tolerated, where scientific progress was heresy and everyone knew their place in the scheme of things. Wouldn't that be a great America?

Once again you are mistaken. We are battling an enemy stuck in the 8th century that joins state and church. An enemy that has to use products of our scientific progress to fight us, nothing of their own inventions. For some reason that is the side you've decided to join.

Hopefully, what ever toy company sellsgood ole GI Joe will contracr in China where his penis will be painted with lead paint.

Then Cassy and all the right-wingers and their little brainwashed children will get lead poisoning.

"Nothing is sacred to liberals"

"that is the side you've decided to join."

Paragons of Simplism. They are life-members of
the 'Tidy World-View' sect.

Oddly enough, Semanticleo, you've been a paragon of a simpleton for years.

Brace yourself. I've just read the fall preview of movies from Entertainment Weekly, and the slate of anti-war movies is incredible. Reese Witherspoon plays a woman whose Egyption husband is sent to a secret torture camp in "Rendition." In "The Brave One," Jodi Foster plays a woman whose Arab-looking husband is murdered by rightwingers. There's some horrible looking thing starring Robert Redford and Tom Cruise that is all about the evils of Bush and the Iraq war.

May they all fail at the box office just like every other anti-war movie has failed. May the studios lose so much money they go out of business, may the writers have to work at McDonalds, may the actors have to beg for roles in B list horror movies.

They can make "G.I. Joe," but Americans don't have to see it. They made a Superman movie where he didn't stand for "Truth, Justice and the American Way" and it bombed, too. Idiots.

Oh grow up you whining crybabies. Not everything is about "evil liberals" attacking and hating your version of americana.

Jesus, it's a marketing decision about how to make the most money.

It's called CAPITALISM. So either you're some kind of new age hippy socialists, not wanting private industry to make money, or you're just the usual right wing facist elements, wanting industry to operate in the same fashion Hitler had it.

Next time, maybe think before you type, as this was a rather pathetic attack and only shows your misunderstanding of how the world works and your pettiness and hatred towards people who actually do more good for america than all republicans ever have put together. We're talking about the exporting of american culture. It's all we've got left thanks to daddy's boy and years of republican government stagnation.

So I guess conservatives (or whatever you call yourselves) won't be happy until we return to the golden days of yore when the Duke was king and American might was used to spread not democracy, but economic domination over the poor godless savages of the third world. We are reaping the fruits of those policies today in the form of the mulitifaceted terrorist movement and the erosion of our economic strength.

"But why stop there? Let's go back to the Middle Ages, when state and church were one and dissent was not tolerated, where scientific progress was heresy and everyone knew their place in the scheme of things. Wouldn't that be a great America?"

18. Posted by groucho

Wow, Groucho.. Now there's a post grounded in reality..

Friggin' dope..

So I guess conservatives (or whatever you call yourselves) won't be happy until we return to the golden days of yore when the Duke was king and American might was used to spread not democracy, but economic domination over the poor godless savages of the third world. We are reaping the fruits of those policies today in the form of the mulitifaceted terrorist movement and the erosion of our economic strength.

"But why stop there? Let's go back to the Middle Ages, when state and church were one and dissent was not tolerated, where scientific progress was heresy and everyone knew their place in the scheme of things. Wouldn't that be a great America?"

18. Posted by groucho

Wow, Groucho.. Now there's a post grounded in reality..

Friggin' dope..

26. Posted by lowmal

Perhaps right wingers have denied reality for so long you don't seem to know what it is even when it lands you guys on your asses anymore. ( last election results and the next ones coming )

You're conservative by very nature. You want the clocks turned back to "when it was safe". Yet you've always lost the fight. Always failed at stopping any advance we progressives have ever made.

It's why you don't own slaves anymore.

No liberals can prevent you pretending stuff in your own home...

Give them time...

"It's why you don't own slaves anymore."

I know you want to believe that, but it was Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, that issued the Emancipation Proclamation. And you know who murdered him? An actor. History does have a way of repeating itself, at least metaphorically.

"Nothing is sacred to liberals. Nothing patriotic or American is worth preserving."

You see, Cassy, it's absolutes such as these that you like to hurl about that make you an unserious pundit and a conservative apparatchik. Think of the liberals you know personally in your life and who you may even call a friend, and then tell me that these platitudes apply to them. Do you think that there haven't been liberal soldiers who paid the ultimate price fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan? And the unreflective and intentionally hurtful smears you throw out there against liberals come from the way G.I. Joe, a kid's toy, is being packaged and marketed for a Hollywood movie? Sheesh! You know, a reflective person might think that perhaps the folks making this movie aren't necessarily liberals. Perhaps they're really nothing more than conservative businesspeople who see a global marketplace for making a lot of money by internationalizing this character. I'd like to know where you got your information that the people associated with this rebranding of G.I. Joe are, in fact, liberals.

And what do you say about that element of the rightwing business community that lobbies for most-favored nation trading status for China? What about businesses run by conservatives who outsource their production to the Chinese or to Mexico or to India? What do you have to say about their patriotism and whether they think American jobs are worth preserving?

Please do a little bit more thinking before you attempt to belittle liberals in such knee-jerk, absolute, and thoughtless ways.

Considering the political and sociological stances of 90% of the actors, directors, and producers in Hollywood, is it any great suprise that the movies they create echo those sentiments?

It has always been a great source of amusement for me to see those "celebrities" spewing on about how America is evil, how screwed up the country is, this, that, and the other... and then turning around and living large on the products of that "evil" - capitalism, materialism, celebrity-worship, etc. They thrive on publicity, and making this travesty of a "GI Joe" movie will only aid that problem, as this thread is demonstrating.

I still have my GI Joe(early 60,s). And nogo,your just an ass!

Sweet mother of...

You think a concept as simple as GI Joe couldn't be screwed up, even by brain-dead Hollyweird. Guess not!

I mean, come on, its a simple three-step plan to making a *good* GI Joe movie:

1) Hire Michael Bay to direct
2) Throw pile of money at him
3) Profit!

Whos directing COBRA COMMANDER or DESTRO? or maybe ZARTAN

Here's part of what's wrong.
A lot of you youngsters see GI Joe as Cobra Commander, Destro or even Sgt. Slaughter, for god's sake.
Those aren't GI Joes. Those are shrunken, 4 inch, multi national, non-partisan pseudo soldiers. Perfect for fighting 80s style non- denominational faceless bad guys with unidentifiable pseudo guns.

Real GI Joes were foot tall American soldiers, sailors and Marines with copies of real guns, grenades and combat equipment. Real Joes fought real bad guys like Russians, Germans & Japs.

The long slide towards turning Joe into a pussy started with the Adventure Team Joes, a fuzzy haired, bearded homo looking character that had "exciting" adventures like finding a mummy or some such crap. Not killing mummies, finding mummies.
From there he just got smaller and smaller, just like the balls of the people running the country.

In a real GI Joe movie, Joe would hunt down Osama and bring his head back to Washington in a bag.

Anything else is just typical Hollywood liberal feelgood crap.

I bet they make Snake-Eyes gay.

I always harbored suspicions about Quick Kick, myself.

G.I. Joe was the "real American hero" in the 1980s, and I played with them just like everybody else. My favorite toys, if I recall, were the Tomahawk helicopter and the HAVOC. Fond, fond memories.

But seriously, folks:

Get over yourselves.

We're not looking at "political correctness" here so much as "market correctness." Bottom line is that to make a blockbuster movie, you gotta shell out a lot of cash. And if you're going to shell out a lot of cash, you want to make back that cash. Preferably in spades.

And in today's movie market, a large chunk of your revenues come from overseas, not from US audiences. Take a peak, for example, at this Money retrospective on 2004's movies:

Looking back on 2004, there's one trend worth noting: Overseas audiences and DVD buyers are now critical drivers of movie profits. Both consumer types came to the rescue this year of a number of blockbuster wannabes that bombed at the domestic box office.

So ... if they want to make sure this movie makes money, the producers have to appeal to an international market. And with America's stock down right now (rightly or wrongly), that means de-Americanizing an icon so it's palatable to a foreign audience that will pay money to see it.

But, this is the YouTube era, folks. You want to do a GI Joe movie that keeps to American values? Simple. First, get rid of GI Joe because IP lawyers are the most fearsome creatures on the planet. Second, write your script. Third, raise some venture capital. Fourth, get your talent, crew and equipment together. Fifth, shoot and edit the thing. Sixth, upload it to iFilm.

In case you haven't noticed, the costs of production go down every year, though, oddly, the cost of movie popcorn keeps going up. If you don't like what Hollywood's putting out, then make your own damned movie.

--|PW|--

"But why stop there? Let's go back to the Middle Ages, when state and church were one and dissent was not tolerated, where scientific progress was heresy and everyone knew their place in the scheme of things."

Amazingly enough, that was a perfect description of the very thing we're fighting against.

"So... if they want to make sure this movie makes money, the producers have to appeal to an international market."

Really? Strange that 'Transformers' was unashamedly pro-US-military, and it did even better overseas than it did at home.

And seeing as how it was Hasbro & Paramount involved in that one, and that it was just this year, that really makes any claim on their part of 'we had to change GI Joe because we were afraid of foreign markets' ring really hollow in these ears. I mean, just a couple months ago they received proof positive that they *didn't* have* to remove the US military from an 80s kids franchise movie remake to make it sell overseas. Cripes, there was more US military in the movie than there ever was in the TV show, and that only made people like it more.

Well, first, you'll have to pardon me -- I closed off Transformers as soon as I heard Bumblebee was a Camaro.

I took a look -- and Transformers does appear to have an impressive worldwide gross, but I offer two distinctions:

First, while the US military enjoys a heroic role, the main protagonists -- that is, the headliners -- are a group of robots from another planet. (Are they illegal aliens? Did somebody check their passports?)

Second, the Transformers have the cultural origins not in America, but in Japan.

--|PW|--

Neither of your objections applies.

According to your thesis, Paramount & Hasbro /had/ to change GI Joe to remove all the heroic American military stuff, because otherwise it wouldn't sell overseas.

And yet we have a movie with heroic American military stuff all over it, and it sold overseas. Just this year. Licensed by Hasbro & distributed by Paramount.

Quibbling about 'they're not the headliners' or 'the robots are from Japan' does not change the point that *the heroic American military guys were still in the movie*. And yet, their presence did not turn off foreign audiences.

So, no, its not just about the benjamins.

I am continually amazed at where you people look for conspiracies. First off, a sizeable majority of studio excutives are conservatives. (They all have MBAs for Christsakes) Secondly they are in this business to make as much money as possible. Which is why hollwood puts out movies for morons as opposed to thought provoking films.

If those exectuvives thought, making G.I. Joe about Iraq, where the American millitary comes in saves the day, and brings freedom to the middle east, would make more money they would do it in a heartbeat. They just think that because world opinion of America is at maybe the lowest point it has ever been, a change is in order.

With action films in particular, Hollywood looks to foreign markets for revenues (action movies are not as reliant on dialogue and are instead spectacles, so they translate better) G.I. Joe is an action movie, so the goal is make a movie marketable around the world.

If studio excutives let the movie sing a "real american hero" The film would be dead in europe and many other parts of the world.

Transformers is not nearly so overt Chuckg and the movie sucked. As this movie will no matter how they do it.

My advice, go watch a good movie instead. I would suggest Once the Champ, or even the Bourne movie if you need your testostrone.

Now if it were "Jihad Joe," or "Jihad 'Mo," getting a PC makeover, then Nogo and other Leftards would be really upset. They would demand a retraction, or start a riot.

Don't forget "Action Force", GI Joe's spin-off international team in the mid-80s, which included, if I recall, a Frenchman and an Aussie. The theme song went "International heroes, Action Force is there!"

Seriously, for all the flak liberals get about being supposedly sensitive to any slight, you guys take the cake. What a bunch of hand-wringing panty waists. It's people like you all that think that a bunch of cave-dwelling illiterates from the 12th century can bring the most powerful country to its knees and are willing to sacrifice your liberties and let cameras monitor you every move on every street. A package left out in the open or flour spilt in a parking lot is now enough to drive law enforcement officials to think terrorists are attacking due to hysteria such as this. Hollywood is about dollars first and foremost and this was a marketing decision!! Its a comic book and was all made up in the first place. Heck, make a patriotic pro-military movie if you all think the market is lacking. I thought you were all supposed to believe in how the wheels of capitalism operate. I guess not.

lol I'm sorry. I just can't stop laughing at the idea of Brussels hosting any kind of military that would have influence anywhere in the world.

What country on earth would cower before the might of Brussels?

Burkina Faso? The Marshall Islands? Lichtenstein perhaps? Maybe they can engage the Dominican Republic in a pitched battle here and there to show their combat mettle. Trying for the entire island of Hispaniola would be a bit too much for them to chew on right now. Best to aim low.

Two words: "market opportunity"

"First off, a sizeable majority of studio excutives are conservatives. (They all have MBAs for Christsakes)"

The rest of your objections are just repeats of the points I've already argued against more than once, and why bother repeating myself? But I had to take a moment out to laugh at this one.

So, having an MBA automatically makes you a conservative now? That is hilariously sloppy thinking.

Dude, Hollywood is one of the most liberal environments in the world. Your trying to portray it as some kind of conservative bedrock is a bigger fantasy than Lord of the Rings.

Reese Witherspoon plays a woman whose Egyption husband is sent to a secret torture camp in "Rendition."

I might actually pay to see a movie where the female lead wears a burlap bag over her head every time she goes outside. To keep the neighbors from gang-raping her, of course.

YO JOE

\"The rest of your objections are just repeats of the points I\'ve already argued against more than once, and why bother repeating myself? But I had to take a moment out to laugh at this one.\"

No More sloppy than your claim (without proof or evidence of an kind) that hollywood is liberal. I stated my opinion based on my own experiences (that a pretty fair amount of MBAs are conservative) I know lots by the way. Y

ou stated Your claim based on your perceprtions (you certainly didn\'t manage to come up with a poll of studio excutives) perceptions based on celbrities who don\'t make those sorts of decsions regarding a movie.

So stop with the slopp thinking you are making yourself look bad.

When G.I. Joe was at it peak in the 1980s (Reagan era) its cartoon series and comics were marketed in the UK. The theme song was changed from "great American hero" to "international hero" so the Brits could identify with the group. I believe the same was true for the toys sold in Latin America. I suppose it is too offensive for the Joes to be a NATO unit, so does Brussels mean the softer, gentler EU? But what is more appalling is that the "enemy" is Scottish! What threats to world peace and order come from Scotland? No Islamic terrorists, or Russian mafia or Latin drug cartels, let alone Chinese warlords. You can't stand up for America, but apparently you can't stand against any real threats either.

"No More sloppy than your claim (without proof or evidence of an kind) that hollywood is liberal."

Mixti, are you really having this argument right now? Is this really your contention? That hollywood is somehow dominated by conservative movie producers with MBAs?

And you're accusing other people of having sloppy thinking??

How about this for a first person reference. My brother lives in Culver city and two of his major accounts are are Sony/Tristar pictures and Paramount films. I think he's spent months at each place collectively because they have him out there each week for something or other that they want to change. The number of conservatives he has met in the 5 years working with both companies can be counted on one hand.

Does that suffice? Or is that still 'slopp thinking' because you know some conservatives with MBAs?

Hmmmmmm,

Well, perhaps Hasbro can include a pink bra and panty set to go with his powder blue helmet. That would make the Euro-leftist image they want complete.

Give him a special "fox-hole buddy" with a French name who always insists on surrendering so he doesn't have to clean his weapon.

Finally, make a special "John Kerry" edition that gets a paper cut, receives a medal, then leaves his shipmates behind to run for an EU minister's office.

Hasbro? Sounds more like "has been".

Respects,

Why couldn't they make a multinational force of GI Joes, from countries like US, UK, Australia, Canada, Poland, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Romania, South Korea, and Mongolia, and have them fight Al-Qaeda, "a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world."
http://www.joeheadquarters.com/lyricsseason1.shtml

I liked Transformers a lot, because it was very well crafted and entertaining. Although they were just Robots, I thought the writers made them very human and likable, with a great sense of humor. The action, although a lot of it digital, was very exciting. Another really good adult "kiddie" film is Spiderman I & II. (The ride at Universal Orlando is the bomb!)

I've not decided on this new G.I. Joe flick. At least they didn't call him Global Warming Integrated Yackety-Schmakety...etc.

"G.I. Joe"?

We got us a real live nut on our hands here.

You do realize that instead of playing with the doll, you could have enlisted? From what I understand, enlistments aren't even close to replacement levels, so I'm sure you'd be accepted with open arms.

Well, maybe if you lost a little weight.

Been there, done that, got the DD-214. Do you smug liberal children ever get tired of trying to play the 'chickenhawk' bullshit on people who have already done their hitch?

"On the one hand we have a smart guy like myself who thinks the studios would sell their grandmothers into slavery to increase revenue, and a dumb guy like yourself, who believes, that in a conspiracy to make America look bad,..."

Blah, Blah, Blah. "Me smart, you dumb." Whatever.

No one said it's a conspiracy. Conspiracies are bought and owned, mostly by liberals.

You said yourself they "would sell their grandmothers into slavery to increase revenue". So it's your concession now (since you "sort of" backtracked on your earlier silliness) that they would gleefully take an American childhood icon and twist it into something that has simply never existed - for money. But would you go so far as to admit that they're using politics to do it? Because that's exactly what they're doing.

I really don't much care myself. I don't think there's much of anyone in the world who doesn't know who G.I. Joe really is. Ain't it a shame that they couldn't find a heroic icon from somewhere other than America though?

To me, a movie is just a movie. It's the ones like Munich that get under my skin. That people actually watch such movies and walk away with sympathy for terrorists is what bugs me. I'll save my anger for such "documentaries" as Moore puts out as well.

Sorry for the double posting. Some sort of glitch that wouldn't show it.

Thank God there we have Republicans to worry about the serious security issues of our time.

Hey ChuckG, I was in the National Guard that got out in 2000. I guess I would be an easier target. I can call myself a post-modern chickenhawk since I wasn't active duty, didn't serve during the conflict and support the war.

I'd like to be offended too, but the market for Hollywood movies outside the US is simply too big to ignore. And, unlike the toy, the movie can't be easily rebranded for each local market.

Did you know that GI Joe was basically the same as Action Man sold in the UK? I understand what you're saying about patriotism, etc., but really the GI Joe toy had his name changed so that he could sell in other countries. This is basically the same thing.

g.i. joe is an American icon. how can you sell out to your country in a time of war. forget about the monetary gain and think about the morale of the country. no g.i. joe isn't going to change the world but people like paramount arn't helping the situation of constant turmoil in our country