What for ?

[skinny]

while that's certainly true, I have to wonder what kind of appeal a character from 1986 has to a little boy in 2013

I would say the same appeal that characters like Tarzan, Star Trek, Lone Ranger, Zorro, and Flash Gordon had for some of us. A good story and a good character is just that. I liked all those things and so did our parents. Then those kids that grew up with those things, were the ones making cartoons and movies and toys. Its cyclical. It is why you are hearing 80's songs on tv commercials now.
I bought one pack out of curiosity to see what I would get. There are certain characters I would seek out too if they come out with another wave. They are easy to collect. You can trade them like we used to trade cards.
They also make a neat little decoration for the dashboard of a car, on top of a computer, or in a china cabinet.
Say someone knows a joe fan and wants to get them a gift? These are perfect for that. No worries about giving them something they already have, and it is entertaining too. You have no idea what you are going to get. For that price I don't mind a surprise.

[Kronz]

I know about iconic imagery and recycling pop culture. I just don't think Low Light is a good example of an enduring icon.

[skinny]

Perhaps not Low light by himself but as part of a larger team. There are newer characters in the Micro Force line too. A lot of them. Remember everybody is somebody's favorite.

[Kronz]

Well I am all for generating interest in GI Joe in kids, don't get me wrong. And Low Light is amazing, but as an isolated example he is what I would consider very obscure to the average person. I don't know really, this kind of product just seems silly. But then, I threw away the micro figure pack-ins as a kid too.

[Geek-Viper]

while that's certainly true, I have to wonder what kind of appeal a character from 1986 has to a little boy in 2013

A TON!!! I love these little things. I've said it in other posts, I'm actually building a Chess Set out of them. And at about $1-1.50 each it's an easy buy. But inevitably you get spares. So I'm giving them to a 5-year-old friend of the family and he loves them too! He knows all the guys and is marking off which ones he wants and can't wait for me to send more his way. I've had one store already run out and have to restock the blind bags. I was trying to sort out a couple blind bags in a store while at the end of the aisle there were some 12-13 year olds doing the same thing for a different line.

So to the question of "What's the point?" One could ask that same thing about any of it. Why did they make 12" Firefighters last year? Why did they make 30th anniversary figures of Sci-Fi? Why are they making Lego Knock-offs? Why were they making figures without any media on the market? Why? Money, that's why. Every line has these little blind bag collectible things. HALO, Power Rangers, Star Wars, Squinkies, Marvel, DC, you name it(except TMNT, but just give it a couple months). So Joe is actually slow to join in. And combining the layoffs with this line doesn't make sense. They laid those people off long before this even hit. They had no idea if it would make money or not. You don't fire people before you find out if you can make money. You let them go after you find out you're NOT making money. And if they had 550 people working on this, they have bigger problems than little rubber Joes.