I wish my stores have the problem.

Yeah, it's not really happening around here, or anywhere I travel to either. Consider yourself lucky, all I've seen from the new wave is one SnakeEyes at Target and five SE at one of the Wal-Marts. Nothing anywhere else.

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I think part of the problem is that up until the viper hit, all the troop builders had the same mold. Having 9 army builders with the same body probably hurt sales a bit. I know I havent picked up any more army builders since we got first looks at the Viper and BAT. Gotta leave room for the other troops.

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Then you had people who tried to army build the trooper from the cobra 5 pack.

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Well, the viper is so craptastic that when I finally found two of them, I left one hanging. Jeez louise, what a letdown. This whole wave has made me extremely angry. The blueshirts, rainbow hued though they are, are Astronimical Units better than these astonishingly cheap looking and poorly executed vipers. I have probably bought a thousand figures new over the last two years, as I army build in a fashion just this side of hoarding, but unless they release a "fixed" viper, I shan't buy another one.

I think there are a myriad of reasons for this. However, the first and foremost reason is that the average Joe buyer has drastically changed since the Anniversary came around. Before, the average buyer was a hardcore fan. For them, armies were the norm. Now, though, the average buyer isn't a hardcore Joe fan as much as they are a general toy fan. As such, army building multiples of the same figure lacks the cachet for them that it holds for Joe fans. These new guys (who are making up the bulk of the figure sales) just want one of each figure and then move on the next wave. For them, an army builder is no different than any other figure.

On top of that, you have heavy army building burnout in the established Joe community. Let's face it, if you've been buying retail Joes since 2002 and only bought 2 of each army builder, you have a HUGE Cobra army these days. Once you get over 100 or so army builders, the law of diminishing returns sets in and you have less incentive to keep buying any figure just because it's an army builder. As such, I think you're seeing collectors become more choosy and those who do army build do only with figures they really like. Beyond that, many collectors have also redefined their army building limits. While you will still find some people who will buy dozens of any given figure, more collectors who have been around a while are more content with smaller numbers of even the best figures.

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I'm with the others that don't seem to have this "problem". The only figures I see are the repacked 5 packs wave and a smattering of Buzzers and Serpentors. No warming troop builders to speak of around here.

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Gotta agree with Mike – army builder burnout. Been collecting since 82 – when in the early 2000s rolled around and I could get all the army builders I wanted, it was great. Then I bought a ton of what Hasbro put out. Now I'm just tired. I don't need all the CGs and Blueshirts I once did.

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I think you summed up my whole case. While I have at least one of every 25tha that I have seen. I just don't care to army build them, even when Target marked down the Cobra troops to 2.50. I only bought them to give to my children I just have my one. I went wild back in the day, at least 12 of every special troop, customized troops, the trooper 6 pack and the Viper 6 pack wich I was waiting on from the start. Money is not an issure for me at this point I make over 150% than I made just 3 years ago. Another is I'm finaly set Iv'e been working on my joehouse for about 7 months now.

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Couldn't have said it better myself. I was going to army build up a nice sized Cobra Army and got as far as a squad of 5 troopers and an officer, a squad of 5 Nightwatch and an officer, a few jet-pack guys, a few CGs with removable helmets and a few of what I call Bludd Vipers (Scarface with the jet-pack guy head instead of the scarred head....Major Bludd's personal unit) and that is going to be it. I was going to build a squad of Python troopers but now I'll just be getting one to add to the Oddball squad (also including the Stinger Driver and the 2 troopers from the 2 Cobra 5 packs...in my 25th Joeverse they are like the Troops from Twisted Toyfare Theater). I did also get 1 HISS Driver for the 1 HISS I'll get and 1 Televiper that will come with the vehicle pack. Any new Cobras from now on will be special characters like Major Bludd and Firefly or ones that can be made into a special character with a custom head (like the upcoming CC made from the CG body).
Thankfully I'm done on the Joe side since I have all the original 13 that have been made so far either in hand or on order (Clutch and Steeler). May get a few more depending on the character and/or the body design and potential.
I hate that I'm having to cut back (Star Wars has been dropped, Indy along with DC and Marvel 3.75 figures will probably never get started in my collection and the 25th Joes are about done for me) but keeping a roof with working utlities over my head and food on the table are more important.

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I think mike hit it pretty close, but I think some other factors have hit as well.

Looking at star wars, the clone army builder craze is dead as well (Some would say "Finally") However it appears that even newer troops are not "army built" I think its a combination of economy, praticality, space, and basicly not having the desire for a huge army anymore.

Indy Figures while haveing army builders still have enough German and Russain soldiers that the adverage fan isn't sweating those figures too much. Again it appears to be part of the same phenominon.

It could be that there is just too much happening right now as well (It seems every week another trip tooses out a bunch of money whereas it used to be once a month). Thus the market is staturated.

I know of only a few people who collect Joes exclusively and even they are holding back on the army building for similar reasons stated above. Those who collect multiple lines are useually economic and space reasons.

Personally it is the space. I could probably afford to army build a bit but really there is no need for me too with all the different versions I have in my cabnets.

I've got a nice squad of blueshirt troopers of various flavors (about 25 including officers, air troopers, Stinger drivers etc) and 10 CGs including 1 removable helmet and that's all I really want of those. I plan on a nice 5 man squad of Vipers, Snow Serpents and B.A.T.s and 2 or 3 HISS Drivers. The rest like the Python Officer and Tele-viper will just be specialty officers. I don't need a huge army of these figures and if I pick up any more than this it will be for custom fodder.

I think the initial hype about the 25th Anniversary has died down and the speculators have moved on to the next "hot" thing. That combined with Hasbro releasing army builders in refresher cases beyond their initial wave I think has reached a nice saturation point for the market. Just enough are coming out to satisfy demand overall.

I also think the armybuilder collectors picked up the majority of their armies when the figures were initially released and are now waiting for the next figure to come out.

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I hit the point where I thought my collection was complete at the end of last year.

I'm still picking up some of the army-builders, but when I was a kid, I stuck to the army-building rule of threes, and from now on that's probably where I'm gonna stand as a cap - and have on my future 25th pre-orders.

I would like those Headhunters Stormtroopers and B.A.T.s (+3), but I haven't gotten the gumption to pony up on a Master Collector Convention set yet (although they're all very appealing).

I only really ever crazy army-built 6-pack blue-shirts and '85 CGs, but those are special cases for me (and probably everybody) 'cause they can stand in as any Cobra Army, I think. Any other army-builder of note in my collection is 7 or less.

I'm leaving the 25th B.A.T.s for folks who really want them.