So, Joe fans got the words they were fearing via online retailers yesterday as reports emerged from all over the ‘net that G.I. Joe: Retaliation orders from Wave 2 and forward would not be fulfilled this year. According to reports from online retailers, the same product will be made available in early 2013.
CRAP.
Now before everyone rushes in and says “Oh, cool, now they can push out some more 30th Anniversary stuff! Oh, cool, now they can fix all the crappy articulation!”
Ummmm… no. I would not expect anything like that. Any toys, even ones where tooling already exists, takes far too long to produce to just be “thrown out there” within the next few months. There is way more planning, coordination, and production required than we probably think. They can’t just toss one of those Kwinn test shots in a magic machine and suddenly have 20,000 available to ship to retailers.
Same goes for articulation. “Fixing” articulation would require significant retooling, and would essentially be creating the line again from scratch. Hasbro has already invested too much money in the current figures, and already has way too short a time frame in order to make any wholesale changes to the figures as they stand.
On the good side, JoeCon is just four short weeks away, so hopefully we can all get our questions answered there. And there will be a LOT of questions, I’m sure.
I do not envy the Hasbro guys who have to work Joe Con this year. I really don’t. Then again, maybe the voice of guys who actually attend Con is less annoyingly shrill and self-centered than the loud plurality of the online fandom. One can only hope.
Having Retaliation product pushed back also pushes back any hopes of a line like POC to emerge out of the ashes of stagnant movie pegs. It’s going to be a long wait. Reminds me of the waiting period we had after the DTC line. Hopefully we don’t have to deal with Hasbro execs “trying something new” after Retaliation…
Sigma 6 2.0 baby!
Heck yeah! I’d be all about that!
” They can’t just toss one of those Kwinn test shots in a magic machine and suddenly have 20,000 available to ship to retailers.”
What?! Hasbro isn’t staffed by the Keebler elves? Dammit– what’s next? No Santa Claus? No Tooth Fairy?
I think we’d all be astonished at the numbers of collectors that actually think there’s some “machine machine” that just instantly creates 20,000 figures, and that the articulation can be “fixed” on all the existing toys being held-back.
The only possible bright-spot this summer is that there may be chances those “discount” Joe figures end up in more stores than originally planned.
I hate to say something bad about a site sponsor, but BBTS putting Wave 3 up for pre-order yesterday was a really scummy move on their part – especially as I got two “Waves 2 and 3 are pushed back” messages immediately thereafter from other online retailers.
i ordered a wv 2 snake eyes….im curious to see it BBTS keeps that bastard on pre-order until march, or if they cancel completely.
In the not-so distant past I had the final round of PoC figures on order from them for many months before the order was filled. So why not?
Remember when being a Joe fan wasn’t such a pain in the ass? I miss those days…
I wonder if their is at least potential for paint changes, I am not even dreaming of anything else, but it would be nice to at least see Flint in Tan rather than green, slightly more movie accurate.
Ohhhhhh Figure Subscription Service….. I have some money for you! Where are you?? LOL
damn fine question to be certain. id like to see that around august or sept.
Yeah, the Club’s basically the big winners out of all of this.
Still wish they’d offer a non-card option, though….
I’d expect it to be cancelled completely – BBTS can’t know what the new cases will be.
believe me…..i dont expect that order to be filled. i really ordered just to satisfy my sick curiosity. frankly, i would not be the least bit surprised if they keep it on pre-order as if it were mere weeks out. come march, if i still have it pre-ordered, theyll charge me and ship as if it were a run-of-the-mill preorder.
Well, maybe what we can expect is some different case assortments? Like how about a GI Joe Trooper only case? Make that available online or something between now and then. Or are they not allowed to sell more Retaliation toys until the movie launches? We have nothing else to spend our money on till then. Either do that or create several more Dollar General waves ( *cough* Crimson Shadow Guard *cough*)
I’m not at all surprised, just disappointed. The Joe pegs will probably disappear altogether once this wave of product is gone until February of next year. If Hasbro wanted to do something they could shuffle forward the Night Viper and CG figures since they are likely already in production, but even that might not be feasible.
“Probably disappear”? I haven’t seen any Joe product at ANY of the local Wal-Marts (there are five within easy driving distance) for months. Was just at my local Fred Meyer today hoping for a little Joe lovin’ and there was exactly ONE Renegades Cobra Commander at 50% off dangling on a peg… and that’s been there for a month. *Sigh*
I really wonder how big the “launch” will be next year after this fiasco. Will TRU do the main display or will the Retaliation toys get a few pegs in the action figure aisle? Like many people have said, most movie lines are hitting clearance within a few months of the movie release with the exception of TF. What then? I usually don’t do this but I predict a Joe drought next year regardless if the movie line is successful or not.
If produced already, maybe they’ll smell like a warehouse basement.
Well they have one year to fix the drivers’ articulation.
They can also make movie accurate Cobra Troopers. They have the parts already.
None of my Targets ever got past the Renegades waves. I wonder if Target still has those in the warehouses somewhere?
Probably places like Ross, TJX, & Tuesday Morning will get them.
How about getting the FSS figures to retailers? 😉
I hope you don’t seriously expect any massive changes like what you suggest for the drivers. Did you not read Justin’s post? He clearly spells out that any such expectations or pretty ridiculous.
Just means no new joes for me for awhile so i can focus on other toys
There are other toys besides GI Joe??????
I hadn’t noticed…..
One Ring To Rule Them…
Hhahahaha good one!
I just wish we’d get the rest of the 30th wave up here… :/ I want my Sci-Fi!
i still think will have some type of product for christmas, even if the reissue last year stuff again
This means we can have the 30th Anniversary stuff that never hit shelves, right? Right…?
Yeah I didn’t think so
What about pushing figures from later waves forward to occupy shelf space?
Night-Viper, Black Ninja, Cyber-Ninja and Crimson Guard among others aren’t in the film proper but are still planned for release, so why not push them ahead in waves to keep Joe on shelves?
I wonder if this means waves 2-5 will all be released at the same time. I hope this means the last wave doesn’t get shorted like they usually do when retailers overorder the early waves. How is this going to affect what they show at Toy Fair 2013. Will they bother to show non-movie toys with the movie about a month away? How is the brand going to make any money without toys on the shelves this Christmas?
It’s not going to happen but if the stores and Hasbro filled the gap by putting out all the stuff that never hit stores anywhere around here due to the broken distribution model, that would be excellent.