So now that the flood of news has slowed to a simmer since yesterday afternoon, I figured it was time to sit back and see exactly what was revealed yesterday and break down what really stood out to me and what rose to the top.
This will be somewhat of a mixed bag, because as many folks have already witnessed, there is a lot of “carry forward” product here, which obviously is pretty cool in some respects, but not something that’s going to crack my Top 10 list.
After the jump I’ll break down my opinions.
10 – G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Cobra Night Landing w/ Cobra Eel
The Night Landing at this point has almost become a running joke since it’s been solicited a couple of different times and still has not managed a single release yet, but something tells me the third time will be the charm. While the black version with the great black and red Cobra Eel is a really great look, the classic blue raft with traditionally colored Eel is the highlight here, very reminiscent of the vintage, with an apparent rebuild (via the Concept Case) of Cobra’s first underwater trooper.
9 – G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Lady Jaye
The G.I. Joe Collectors Club released a version of this for the convention in 2013, but it was slightly different than this version, and this version looks to fix some of the faults of that one, plus is extremely vintage true. I’m hoping the head can be swapped out for the 25th Anniversary Boxed Set version to get a really nice cartoon/comic accurate version of the character.
8 – G.I. Joe Kre-O Zartan
One of the main baddies that was missing from the G.I. Joe Kre-O line is now an apparent mini figure release destined for 2014 and that’s great news! Even cooler is that he’s not packaged with an elaborate boxed set (unlike many of his high ranking Cobra compatriots) and the last original Dreadnok Torch is also making his presence known this year.
7 – G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary HEAT Viper
One of the highlights of the concept case for me was the inclusion of the Crimson Guard Immortal and HEAT Viper, which were both favorite late 80s/early 90s army builders for me in my younger years. HEAT Viper especially really looked awesomely vintage and uses some terrific base parts as well. This is a great looking update.
6 – G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary VAMP MK II w/ Flint
I mean, come on, let’s face it.. I think everyone knows how great this Flint is, considering he came in 1st in the Concept Case survey I ran here on GeneralsJoes shortly after the 2012 Convention in New Orleans. As cool as Flint is, the updated VAMP MK II matches it, being an awesome old school vehicle with the terrific modern 25th Anniversary tooling. If this truly is an SDCC exclusive, I think some folks will be disappointed, but hopefully it ends up in more mainstream release.
5 – G.I. Joe Kre-O Nemesis Enforcer
Are you kidding me?! Are you freaking kidding me? This little guy is the best mini figure Kre-On ever and I will strike down any who oppose me.
4 – G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Destro
When this figure showed his ugly, angular face at JoeCon last year, the entirety of the G.I. Joe fans in attendance simultaneously lost their minds. With a distinctly familiar, card-accurate head sculpt, and an amazingly sculpted stature, this is truly the “ultimate” Destro that is reminiscent of his vintage version and almost like seeing his Mike Vosberg drawn visage step off the Marvel Comics page, mixed with the collar and broad shoulders of the animated version. Win-win!
3 – G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Leatherneck
See Destro above, only Hasbro managed to re-use a lot of tooling. With G.I. Joe: Retaliation Ultimate Roadblock as a base, they put a fantastic new head sculpt and new vest on the figure, and suddenly a drastically absent key member of the G.I. Joe team is present and accounted for in style! Now, of course, you realize, we NEED a better Wet Suit. Make it happen, Hasbro!
2 – G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary Cobra Snow Wolf w/ Ice Viper
This absolutely floored me in a few different ways. First of all, I don’t think anyone even knew that this tooling was out there and existed, but apparently it did, and here it is! The Snow Wolf is one of my favorite Cobra vehicles, and as a kid, I really loved the ninja elements of the Ice Viper (you know back when Ninjas in G.I. Joe were cool). This updated Ice Viper even has the thigh pads for his sais, a unique helmet, and some great parts. I’m not especially sold on the Rise of Cobra forearms, though I have to say. What’s up with that?
1 – G.I. Joe Kre-O Terror Drome
As excited as I am for the 50th Anniversary announcement and all of the great concept stuff being release for that, I can’t get over how incredibly awesome this Kre-O Terror Drome is. Spectacularly vintage accurate with a great scale Skyhawk, and SIX Kre-Ons, including General Hawk, Xamot, Gung Ho, Mainframe, an apparent Cobra Officer, and of course the highlight mini figure, Serpentor with his Air Chariot!
As if this isn’t enough, JoeBattleLines representative BreauxShow reveals that the Firebat actually fits in the launch pad and it raises and lowers to boot! Wowzers.
Folks and readers have already somewhat rubbed my nose in the fact that I was off base when I assumed that there wouldn’t be much (if anything) to see at Toy Fair this year, but believe me, I’ve never been more happy to be mistaken. The product revealed (especially for Kre-O) was mind blowingly awesome, and while I would have liked to have seen a bit more ingenuity and creativity with the 50th Anniversary stuff, there’s some terrific concept work that’s finally getting released.
Hasbro, you guys.
Hasbro, you guys suck.
Thats a stupid thing to say considering it was hard for them to even put this stuff out
Hard? What was so hard about it? They’re a multi-national toy company. They’ve been doing this for 50 years. Yet they keep acting like this is their first go around.
Apparently geeks really are that out of touch. What “sev” was referring to is the fact that there isn’t much of a business case for a G.I. Joe toyline right now. If the kids aren’t interested in a toy, it’s awfully hard for a toy company to justify producing it.
People can’t buy what they aren’t selling. Go read this years corporate presentation Hasbro did for Toy Fair. Out of 221 pages, there is 1 Joe logo on page 84. And last year WITH a movie coming Joe only had 4 mentions in 149 pages. They don’t seem to be trying very hard to sell it.
Nobody is interested in buying something that’s not there. The shelves sold out of the new Joes within a week of them getting there and stayed empty for 8 months. Why? Because stores said, “Geez, those went quick, I better not order anymore. Constantly restocking shelves is hard work.” Not likely. Of the over 60 retail locations that have sold the Joe brand you know how many Retaliation Wave 4 cases I’ve found? 3. And those were gone before the weekend was up. So tell me again, are they selling out cause nobody is interested?
You’re making the case that there is insufficient supply to meet demand. Do you have data on that or just the hypothetical above? At least in Seattle Target, WalMart & TRU are still swamped with Retaliation Wave 1. Fred Meyers is a NW chain similar to Target and you can currently get the figures from a massive bin at either end of the toy aisle for $4.00 each. And they are not selling. At all.
I think the word you’re looking for is anecdotal not hypothetical. And yes, my data is anecdotal, as is yours. I can’t speak for your location, but I haven’t seen a Joe figure at Ross or TJ Maxx in almost 2 years. So saying they don’t sell, then are clearanced off to discount chains to make space doesn’t work. Pointing out that a few stores have a bunch of wave 1 stuff they’re getting rid of only furthers my original point. Hasbro keeps acting like they have no idea what the market wants or what they’re doing. Those aren’t selling because we all got a bunch of those in 2012. Or did you forget? I mean, regardless of whether we’re talking Collectors or Kids, how many club-fist Roadblocks does anybody need? They were packing those 2-1 to the army builders in that case. The Red Ninjas and Joe Troopers sold out. Again, give us something new to buy and it’ll get bought. Good product isn’t languishing on shelves.
So the action figure market is shrinking? That explains all the Spiderman, Iron Man, Capt America/Avengers, Ninja Turtle, Star Wars, WWE, and Transformers we aren’t seeing either. Oh wait, I take that back. The shelves are overflowing with them. There are 2 main points to selling anything: Find a demand and fill it or create a demand. They’re doing neither. You know when the last Joe Toy Commercial was? 2009. They own a TV channel that had a GI Joe cartoon and they didn’t even try to sell toys on it. Look, as a fan and collector of the Joe brand I feel very lucky we’re getting anything at all. Go through the investor packet
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/HAS/2964901606x0x726027/71567f07-770e-4bc6-bfd9-49ac801993ca/HAS%20Investor%20Update%20at%20NYC%20Toy%20Fair_021414_FINAL.pdf
What I get out of that thing is Transformers, My Little Pony, Nerf, Marvel, Star Wars and Magic the Gathering. So if there is no demand why does 1/2 their game plan involve action figures? What is clear is that Hasbro doesn’t much care about the Joe brand. Now the designers and guys close to it really do care and are trying to get us cool stuff. I really do appreciate that. But the main corporation just doesn’t care anymore. They have a 3-tier approach to selling Transformers on page 144. What’s their plan for Joe? um, wait…there’s a plan? They didn’t have any samples ready for Toy Fair, and if you blinked while flipping through that pdf you’ll miss the lone Joe logo at the bottom of page 84. Which BTW, doesn’t even mention the 50th Anniversary.
What I’m saying is, consumer interest is there, corporate interest is not. Which leads us back to the original post:
“Yoda1212•
Hasbro, you guys suck.”
OB1Knobby~
I get it. You want more Joe toys and it’s frustrating that they aren’t there. You’re disappointed in the current offering — I am too! It’s the internet and thing can come across more confrontational that they are meant. I’m not defending Hasbro because I’m excited by a shrinking supply of awesome figures. I’m just not sure what saying they suck and demanding more figures will accomplish if the problem is low demand (as opposed to your preferred theory which is inadequate supply).
I meant hypothetical because it read as a “this is what I believe” vs. this is what I’ve seen. I’m glad you’ve clarified that it’s anecdotal. That’s good because you go on to make the point I was trying to make (maybe unclearly): that I don’t see any actual data to support the idea that there isn’t enough supply to equal demand. In fairness, I don’t see any real data to support the converse: that there is no demand. So you could be right and your experience could be representative of the market. But my assertion that the toy market is shrinking isn’t a belief. It’s actually a recognized and measurable trend in the industry attributed to age compression and cannibalization from the gaming segment. Here is wiki invests overview of Hasbro’s challenges http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Hasbro_(HAS). And that is from *2010*. when the supply was greater. So the shrinking market began well before the drop in supply. That usually indicates are drop i demand. Also this: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/are-toy-makers-battling-over-shrinking-market-2013-12-03-7107135// And I’m glad you brought up those other brands. They are not all “overflowing”. Star Wars and the non-Movie Marvel lines have been significantly scaled back in volume and in quality: fewer waves, fewer units and less overall articulation on average.
That brings up the shareholder report you linked to. It’s interesting, as much as those things are, for what it says and doesn’t say. First page 48, 212-219 make it clear that Hasbro’s profit margins are coming from cost cutting and opening new markets. Not from “same store sales” so to speak. That’s why you are seeing larger waves but fewer new waves — new figures cost money and increase costs and they are looking to sell the same item to *more* people, not more items to the same person. This strategy is explained by the references to “considered consumption” and “polarization” on pages 46-56 explains. They’re basically saying “people is broke, spending less on toys and being more selective”.
Basically the rest of the report lays out their belief that games are what the kids want (not coincidentally these tend to have lower costs) and doubling down on supporting brands based on media presence. Which explains why the Star Wars, GIJoe & Marvel Universe/Infinite lines are being scaled back but Cap, Iron Man and Transformers seem everywhere — because they are aligning their pushes to movie releases(slide 46). Not insignificantly if I’m reading the report correctly Transformers is the outlier and appears to be growing regardless of whether there is a movie tie in — I suspect that Hasbro would explain this as media presence on TV and games.
My suspicion is that your response will be that Hasbro sucks because they aren’t doing anything to support GIJoe with media. I don’t disagree but I can see where they may be looking at Marvel’s constant movie schedule and the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows and be deciding to wait and see if that can sustain sales over the long haul vs. a peak & valley strategy.
Again the fan in me gets it! Why can’t GIJoe be the focus line. But I can see why they wouldn’t want to put all their eggs in that basket.
Here’s a link that dispells the “supply” theory pretty conclusively by showing industry and Hasbro’s cross tab in a neat graph. http://seekingalpha.com/article/1823342-whats-the-direction-for-hasbros-action-figure-program
I’m not sure you gave me the right link or are reading that article right. That first chart was about Hasbro’s market share in the action figure market and the overall declining sales. And the rest of it was about having movies to support action figures and how that doesn’t really effect sales all that much. Interesting read, thanks for the link. But it had nothing to do with my supply theory. We would need numbers from Hasbro showing production numbers compared to sales numbers. However, he did make a killer point that makes me want to send that page to Hasbro execs.
“I think that while consumers still like the movies, they have grown a
little tired of seeing variations of the same toy themes year after
year.”
Right link, I was only linking for the graph (not saying I disagree with the variation argument though). Comparing the segment wide numbers with Hasbros (and as market share) does allow us to see that the trend is true in aggregate.
You make extremely critical point though — aggregate data is a great view of the overall health of figures. But you’re right, it’s not therefore true of specific brands.
Like you I’d much rather have some more specific data as well — not just total production numbers but also but unique figures per line compared to sales. I’d also like to see how sales numbers are impacted by time of year and also timing.
Honestly I am not sure that even Hasbro has that data. One thing I am pretty fascinated by is how little data retail runs off of from a buying/sales POV.
And I don’t now, I kind of like this train of thought more than “Hasbro” sucks 🙂
Well man, I gotta say, I do really appreciate having a thoughtful, intelligent, and engaging conversation with someone on the internet for once.
And thanks again for that Seeking Alpha link. It seems whenever these kinds of discussions come up people point to a lack of media being the culprit. But those stats show it has nothing to do with anything. Which honestly is a bit of an eye opener for me. It seems counter-intuitive. But eh, what are you gonna do?
Well, video games have been eating away at toy sales for the last 25 years. Thanks Nintendo! So that’s no surprise there. But my main complaint is a total lack of support of the brand. Media doesn’t enter into it. Cause like I said, they had a TV channel, a TV show, and a movie. But what happened when those hit the home market? Nothing. There weren’t toys on the shelf when the Retaliation DVD hit. They had months to plan that out. But there were no tie-ins, no sales, no commercials. Joe isn’t alone. They dropped the ball on Thor: Dark World too. That got near zero support. Some people might even be surprised there were any toys. I’m ok with fewer waves and fewer new figures. And believe me, my wallet is too. The 18 scheduled for 2014 are half of anything in the modern era(last 7 years). It harkens back to the good ol’ days when you’d get 15-20 guys in a year. As opposed to 186 we got at retail in 2009. Which sort of defends the sell fewer figures to more people over more figures to less people plan.
So, I’m getting the feeling that we’ve strayed from the point. All those articles you’ve referenced are cool(thanks for the research). But we’re not talking about action figures sales, Hasbro’s portion of those sales, the decline of those sales or the reasons for those declines in the market. We’re talking about the GI Joe Brand share of those declining sales 😉 It’s easy to say “Well, action figures aren’t selling so since Joe is the original action figure it must be his fault.” or “Joe is old and kids don’t care” When I walk down one aisle in any of my TRU stores the first third is Iron Man. Next third is other misc Marvel. The last bit is Spiderman. All stuffed to the brim. Next aisle is 50% Star Wars, 40% Transformers. Leaving Joe with 2 pegs and a row of Eaglehawk and a row of HISS tanks. Not even close to a fair share. I’ve seen kids walk thru a store and say “Look mom Spiderman! Ooo Snake Eyes.” Often times I hear that in different languages. The brand has recognition, but the man doesn’t care.
I know Joe isn’t their money maker. And hell, maybe the
only reason we get anything at all is because it’s someones little pet project. Like science departments in Universities. Football brings in the big bucks, but all the professors studying micro-biology get their electron microscope funded. Doesn’t mean we should get the short end of the stick every time.
Now, it’s quite possible that the original poster was only doing what I’m sure we’ve all done at one point. For instance, when I saw the news that these were all going to be TRU Exclusives I let out a deep sigh and said “ugh, hasbro, you suck”. And now we’ve all blown this out of proportion, lol.
Hasbro doesn’t control how much shelf/peg space a store gives them. If you only see two rows of pegs for Joe stuff, then that’s all that store wants to give them.
You don’t get it man. The pegs were empty. They got three cases of Wave 3 and sold out within 2-3 weeks. Then those pegs sat empty for 4 months. Then they got 1 case of Wave 4. Why would they leave pegs empty if they didn’t want any more? And why would they only order 1 new case when they just sold out of 3? They wouldn’t. That line of logic makes no sense at all.
That has nothing to do with what I posted. You were complaining about your store giving Iron Man and Marvel and Transformers and other stuff lots of shelf/peg space and GIJoe very little and I was telling you why. If it were up to Hasbro, they would all have equal space and no peg would be empty for long. Unfortunately, it’s not up to them. It’s up to the stores to determine what they stock and how much of it they stock. Hasbro doesn’t just ship stuff out to stores and say “Here, stock this stuff and sell it”. Stores order what they want and get what they order. Do you work at that store? If not, then you have no way of knowing what and how much they do or don’t order to begin with. It may LOOK to you like they got 3 cases of wave 3 and 1 of wave 4 but that doesn’t mean that’s actually what happened.
Hard because retailers aren’t interested. The fact that this stuff is a TRU exclusive tells you that. If retailers had any interest in Joes, you’d be seeing them on the shelves/pegs. The fact that retailers eliminated their space for Joes at the same time that new product was shipping shows that.
Not true. Most of the stores around me left those pegs open for a couple months. But as other manufacturers and brands shipped more they got tired of wasted empty space. Because if new product WAS shipping, they would have been getting it. Justin reported that Hasbro admitted to a production strategy of over shipping RoC and under shipping Ret trying to gauge the market with a Goldilocks plan of getting it just right for the third movie.
What’s funny to me is that both of the original posts were equally over simplified. Albeit on the opposite sides. But the original posters aren’t the ones defending their points.
That just means we’re more interesting people willing to engage in actual discussions, right?
You are going to get no argument from me on distribution strategy issues other than adding that retail stores are part of the problem too — their buyers aren’t knowledgeable, they overstock some regions and understock others and they don’t track unit sales at a level that would really help Hasbro target it’s production.
At the time they were empty there wasn’t any product shipping. It wasn’t until retailers had given up that product had started shipping again. By that point it was too late.
I’ll never understand this idea that Hasbro doesn’t care about Joe or that they want Joe to fail. That’s just stupid thinking. It’s like saying they hate money. Face facts. Joe just isn’t a big seller right now and retailers just don’t have enough faith in it to give it a chance. If they could, Hasbro would love to sell tons of Joe product to whomever would buy it, but they can’t do that if no store wants to sell it. Apparently TRU is the only one willing to play ball so the line ends up being exclusive to them until that changes. That’s just the way it is. It’s not because Hasbro doesn’t care or because they want Joe to fail or whatever other nonsense people want to come up with.
Wait a minute. Are you seriously arguing that after stores sold out, there wasn’t product shipping to fill those spots and so they gave those spots away before product started shipping again? Is that what you’re saying? Cause THAT’S MY WHOLE DAMN POINT!!!! Hasbro couldn’t get product to the people, so the people stopped buying it. I actually think it may have been a manufacturing problem because there weren’t any new Star Wars or Marvel shipping either. The only problem was there was still crap versions of both of those on the shelves warming the pegs. But for Joe there was no one there to hold the spot. So they gave the spot away. However, since they’ve made no mention of manufacturing difficulties and I have no evidence of it, I can only speculate that they aren’t focused on these brands(go read this years investor packet to see what brands they are focused on).
Second. NOBODY said Hasbro WANTS Joe to fail. That is stupid. And you suggesting that anybody thinks that, despite the fact that Michael and I just spent paragraph after paragraph and statistic after statistic discussing selling trends and strategy, is also stupid. And for you to suggest that after a store SOLD OUT of product they didn’t think it warranted ordering more is ludicrous. You know how one loses faith in something? When it doesn’t follow through or fails you in some way. So who is to blame for stores losing faith in the Joe brand? They sold out. So saying it wasn’t a big seller is just straight up false. They gave it a chance. Where did it fail? With you? With me? With the Walmart Corporate buyers? Or from the source?
And you tell me why on the 50th Anniversary of the brand that put this company on the map that in a 221 page investor report that they only mention Joe once as a logo at the bottom of page 84? Because it’s so important to them right? I’m not going over that again. If you’re going to continue to participate in this debate, please read all the supplied material.
You can keep kissing Hasbro’s butt and hope that they’ll grace you with their love. I, however, expect people to do their best and will constantly strive and push them to do just that. Unfortunately that involves pointing out the mistakes. That way they can fix them.
What would be the point of hyping a brand that retailers have no interest in? That’s the whole point of Toy Fair afterall. People seem to have forgotten that. Toy Fair exists for the retailers, not us. So if retailers aren’t interested in Joes, there’s no point in harping on them. You wouldn’t go try talking to someone about broccoli if they didn’t want broccoli would you? This isn’t a new thing either. The problem didn’t just show up with the release of Retaliation. Retailers had started to give up on the line back during Pursuit of Cobra. Neither of the Wal-Marts here stocked Joes at all after RoC until Retaliation. And even then they didn’t give the Retaliation figures much space and were in no hurry to restock when the product was available. Yeah, the product they did have sold out. Eventually. After putting stuff on clearance.
And yes, there are people the think Hasbro wants Joe to fail. They’re all over the place and it seems to be what you’ve suggested. The fact that you have to be insulting to try and support your arguments only weakens them. Joe is just not a big seller and hasn’t been for a while.
OK, I think we’re about done here. Yes, people try to sell you broccoli all the time. In fact, the First Lady Of The United States Of America has tried to sell us all on broccoli. The point of hyping a brand that people seem to not want is to get them to want it. It’s called selling. THAT’S what Toy Fair is all about. Toy companies coming out and saying “Look at this! We have a product that people want to buy from you!” Not, “Here’s a preview of the stuff you’re going to order anyway.” Every toy company is there to sell their product. Find a demand and fill it, or create a demand. Clearly they didn’t fill the demand that’s there, and by your account they’re not trying to create one for a product you claim no one wants.
Nobody has to sell anyone on buying gasoline. Most everybody is buying it already. What you have to sell them on is hybrid/electric cars. That way they’ll be interested in buying it. It sounds like you’ve never been in sales, or have possibly never talked with a salesman for a great length. Salesmen constantly say “Hey, you’re already buying these great products of ours. We think you should try this other one. It’s proven to be popular with customers like yours.” All I’m saying, and have been from the beginning, is it’s not hard. You keep claiming that TRU being an exclusive retailer is conducive of the fact that nobody wants to sell Joe. Not true. It’s not evidence of anything other than a team up of two companies. For all we know that was a TRU salesman that sold Hasbro on the idea that they wanted to be THE place for people to come to for Joe’s 50th birthday. What you’re suggesting is that no other retailer on the planet wants anything to do with it. That seems highly improbable.
Alright fine, I’ll concede that there are probably people that think Hasbro is wanting Joe to fail. I’ve never met one, but sure, it’s possible. What I was trying to say was nobody here, in this discussion, has said that. And despite the fact that I agreed with you that the idea that a company would want a product to fail was stupid, and I even tried time and time again to say that I wasn’t one of them, you keep putting me in that camp. You must live in a very black/white world. Just because you don’t care if something succeeds, doesn’t mean you’re routing for it to fail. For instance, I really didn’t care if the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl this year. But I wasn’t routing against them. So maybe the suits at Hasbro just figure they don’t have to sell Joe cause “Heck, it’s GI Joe! It sells itself. Don’t worry about it, let’s focus on My Little Pony and Nerf!” Ask any middle child if they felt their family didn’t care because the focus was on other siblings. I’m sure they care about all their brands. But if you don’t show it, we don’t know it.
Now, I’m not exactly sure what part of what I said that you found insulting. So I’m going to have to guess. But let me remind you, I had a perfectly civil conversation with Mr. Michael Pruitt that never got to that point. I much prefer having engaging and thought provoking debates with people. In fact, I even thanked him for that. You were the one that started using words like “stupid thinking” and “nonsense”. So if you don’t like people calling you or your ideas stupid, perhaps you shouldn’t lead the conversation in that direction.
Now, what’s really frustrating about talking to you is that we seem to be agreeing about the same coin. We’re just yelling at each other about what side is more important, heads or tails. All I’m really asking is for heads to try a little harder ;). But ultimately neither of us has any influence on how it’ll land. I would love to keep discussing this with you, but it’s a two-way street my friend. And right now it seems all you want to do is make sure I hear you. Your final sentence proves that. I invite you to go up precisely 13 replies above this one. My third paragraph already addressed your point, two days ago. So if you’re not going to pay any attention to what I’m saying, I just want you to know…I hear you, you’re right, you win.
You are dead on point with everything you’ve said.
The thing is, no matter what the reports say and what speculators say or whatever, you can always tell what’s going on by a companies actions.
-Hasbro didn’t really support Retaliation like they should’ve.
The result was a lack luster release with less than 9 figures that actually resembled their movie counterpart.
If anyone needs proof, just go back and look at the reception and support ROC got back in 09.
Also look at how poorly they handled the 50th annv even compared to the 30th.
9 releases?
That’s all?
Also,
-Don Levine dies and there’s nothing but a mention of it. No commemorative figure. No tribute. Nothing.
This guy was vital to the creation of this brand we all love and he was barely recognized in his passing.
And people try to say shit like “No one wants G.I.JOE to fail.”
-No new cartoons, videogames, or even a sub-line to get fans excited.
As you even mentioned, no commercials since, incidentally, 2009 the year both Resolute and ROC came out.
Joe product has been getting more and more scarce as it got better…Remember POC.
By the time RET came out retailers were probably tired of the poor distribution and the waves of peg warmers. Not to mention the horribly ill timed move of pulling the RET line because of the delayed film.
And on top of all that…kids don’t buy these anymore.
WE DO!!!
We were kids when this started and now we have the scratch to create and maintain collections.
HASBRO knows this and still, they try to sell to the kids.
Dumb.
Not smart marketing at all.
So all in all, they DO want the line to fail because now other lines are bringing in the money the JOEs once did.
And as we all know, it’s all about the money.
Thanks man! I watched those vids and I’m with you on most points(especially that Joe is military super heroes and your Con thoughts). Although, just to be nitpicky, I think Crimson Asp’s name is in reference to her hair color and not her outfit. After all we don’t call her Scarlett cause she wears a bright red sweater, lol.
Anyway, now that I have some of these in hand it got me to thinking. One point we all kept missing(myself included) was what ACTUALLY happened at Toy Fair.
Most of the arguments were about Hasbro not being able to sell Joe to the stores. However, they didn’t sell the 50th line to the stores. They didn’t come out and say “Hey! Check out our new 50th Anniversary G.I. Joes!” then a couple days later nobody bit on the line and they announced “Um, yeah…so we finally got Toys R Us to agree to sell these.” That’s not at all what happened.
What DID happen was Hasbro came out and said “Look at these TOYS R US EXCLUSIVE 50th G.I. Joe figures!” That means they already had this deal done before Toy Fair started. And it ain’t just something they hammered out the night before in the hotel bar. These kind of deals take time. Remember back at SDCC 2013 when DePriest said they were working on something special? http://forums.yojoe.com/news/122701-sdcc-2013-comic-con-interview-derryl-depriest.html There you go. An exclusive deal with TRU to be the only chain selling Joe in 2014.
Which also explains the lack of Retaliation distribution. The last wave ONLY came out at TRU. Sure, some people found them at a discount chain. But they had damaged packaging. And I got a bunch of wave 3 stuff at Tuesday Morning and ROSS. Most of the figures I got at TM were damaged and ROSS was Target clearing their shelves cause nothing new was coming. So that was just Hasbro emptying their warehouse.
Plus we’ve also just heard this year that Sideshow isn’t making any more Joe stuff. Was that because of some crappy deal Hasbro made with TRU? I don’t know. I guess people can give me the same excuses about the Joe line not selling. But when you see they’re offering 25+ Star Wars figures and 6 Joe it brings me back to my argument “can’t buy what you’re not selling”. I’ve got all the ones available. Now what? I guess I spend my money elsewhere.
I’m happy we were wrong about this. The Cobra Wolf is my number one pick, since I had it as a kid, and I could never track down an unbroken sample.
Lets hope for a second wave. Can I get a Mamba?!
My #1 is another chance to get the Low-Light that was raved about but hard to find.
A CG Immortal would be an awesome fig.
I am slightly annoyed that if you want a complete Drome you will need to buy the Firebat separate. Plus, the Drome is the only way you will get Xamot.
Justin, there is nothing unique about that Ice Viper helmet. It’s a Resolute Trooper helmet. But I’m with you on the RoC arms. What the hell?
I’m not thrilled about the Kre-O since Series 1 was impossible to find around me, and I therefore I passed on buying everything else. The “blind” bags and crappy distribution caused this line to be stillborn for me – too bad, because they look pretty fun.