The Toy Files Podcast
w/ cohost Kirk Bozigian
Vinnie D'Alleva
Vinnie D'Alleva, former VP of Marketing at Hasbro, is an avid fan and supporter of G.I. Joe – both before and after he worked at Hasbro! While Marketing Director on the brand, he considered himself very fortunate to have worked with some of the best designers, artists, engineers and sales people in the company and to have had the chance to work on several notable initiatives such as Battle Corps, Ninja Force, D.E.F., Eco-Warriors, Mega-Marines, Star Brigade, Masterpiece Collection, and Hall Of Fame. He worked on the brand a total of 8 years and was even turned into one of the venerable villains of Cobra (both in toy and real-life form), the nefarious Cesspool!
He continues to work within both the toy and baby industries, collects comic books and action figures of many types and is an avid movie fan. He maintains that Hasbro was one of the best places he’s ever worked at!
David Kunitz
David Kunitz, former Vice President of Design for Boys Toys at Hasbro, studied Industrial Design and Technical Illustration at Purdue University and started his toy career with Hasbro in 1984. The first toy project given to him was Transformers. Almost immediately after that, he was assigned to design and build G.I. Joe vehicles. Early toys included the Cobra Stun, L.C.V. Recon Sled, Triple 'T', and the Cobra Hydro-Sled. Although David worked on many vehicles for the G.I. Joe brand from 1984 to 1994, his favorite was the Defiant Space Shuttle.
When G.I. Joe moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, David started working in the Playskool division. In 1995, he left Hasbro to go to Tyco Toy Inc. as Director of Advanced Concepts. Following this, he transferred over to Mattel to be the Director of Matchbox. David returned to Hasbro in 2000 to lead the boys effort in design for Hasbro Direct. Hasbro Direct was responsible for the return of 3 ¾ GI*Joe as a Toys “R” Us exclusive. David then moved onto the main boys toys team at Hasbro to lead brands such as, Star Wars, Marvel, G.I. Joe, Transformers, etc.
David left Hasbro in 2012 and has opened his own consulting and freelance business for toy companies that are in need of support. In addition to playing with toys, David is enjoying his family, fishing, woodworking, keeping bees, blacksmithing and living in Rhode Island.
Kurt Groen
Kurt Groen joined the G.I. Joe Design Team in January 1989 and in his first day on the job he was assigned his first G.I. Joe project – designing Vapor, the Cobra Hurricane Pilot.
Kurt designed and developed all sizes of G.I. Joe, from the 3 ¾” to the 12” Hall of Fame and Classic Collection, including Sgt. Savage and G.I. Joe Extreme. Kurt worked on numerous other popular Hasbro toy lines including Jurassic Park, Starting Line Up, Winner’s Circle, WWE (WWF), Tonka, Playskool, and Dinosaurs to name a few. After Hasbro moved on from toy design to product development in sporting goods where he works today.