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Hey everyone, Gary here with a rare post.  Which I am sure will be a hot topic of discussion for today and into the short term future (most Joe fans have short attention spans), dozens and dozens of the online Joe fandom who camped out HTS found that Slaughter is a hot commodity – the HARD way.  At approximately 11:30a EST, the good sarge popped up on HTS and went from IN STOCK to OUT OF STOCK about as quick as it took you to read this sentence.  While other Hasbro SDCC items flux between the two states, Sarge’s status has remained unchanged since.  Yes, there are no Sarges today…
Ah, just another Monday after SDCC, eh?  I guess not.  In a first since SDCC ’07, the typical morning-after rush went over with the proverbial thud and sent panicked Joe fans looking for the nearest shower rod to hang themselves.  While several community members called into HTS and reported their findings back, one thing is for sure, not a single Slaughter sold on the HTS site today.  Fatigued panic turned into fatigued rage.  Look, I don’t know who to blame here, but I do feel your pain.  Luckily, for a handful of collectors, the GIJCC managed to score a small lot of them and offered them up to the community at a small, but reasonable profit.  For the rest who were shutout, the secondary markets became a necessary evil.  The highest auction at the time of this writing went for a whopping $129.95 for a set while a single figure hovers around the $50 neighborhood with the variants fetching a little more.
What can I say?  This obviously did not go according to past scripts.  I gotta believe there are more out there, certainly the USA deco, and will make their way onto HTS.  If not, well…I guess the good news is that Hasbro hit a home run on a time honored character and there are many more fans out there than we take notice of.  Whether it is because of the wrestling influence or people just tiring of other lines and liking the sculpting and articulation of Joe, more people in the hobby can be a blessing and a curse all-at-the-same-time.  The bad news is that now future SDCC Monday’s will always start off in conversation: “Hey, do you remember those handful of guys who stayed up all night only to get teased by an image and a red OUT OF STOCK sign?”
Keep the faith fans…keep the faith.