By saving on manufacturing costs they're able to keep the price down on those vehicles. The vehicle drivers have always been a bonus anyway. You shouldn't let a bad driver affect whether or not you want to buy a vehicle you want. Most kids wont care about the reduced articulation. They'll just shove that figure into the vehicle and play.

I'm going to buy the ninja VAMP and put articulated non-ninja figures in it. Same goes for the Lanard-ish Ghost Hawk II, articulated pilots are plentiful in the modern line to pick from.

I will be shocked if the movie vehicles don't cost as much or more (most likely more) than their equivalent 30th anniversary counterparts that come with fully articulated figures. They may be keeping costs down, but I doubt that will get passed on to us.

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You're probably right that the prices won't drop, but Hasbro's goal with the articulation changes is to keep from having to raise them.

you know I'd be fine with 15 dollar figures, as long as they are "perfect" snake eyes V54 good example of perfect to me. in fact they could re use a lot of the 30th/poc parts new heads and gear nice clean paint aps, slap a 15 dollar tag on them and give me a wide selection of characters and I'd be down.

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Perhaps, but that means nothing if kids and parents aren't willing to do the same, which is what really matters. Hasbro can't afford to take that chance. Also, yeah, the whole point of cutting costs is so that they don't have to raise the prices. There are plenty of other really great figures to put in those vehicles instead anyway.

I'm not willing. I think even the $11 that CVS and Walgreens charge is out of my budget. I don't even like buying the actual $15 figures and those are much larger. I'd rather see a cut in accessories than pay more. These figures have 2 hands, maybe 1 or 2 holsters, maybe a spot for a knife, and a backpack hole. Stuff like SE 54, Snow Job and such don't really need 3 figures' worth of accessories, when some of the 25th offerings didn't have all that. Call me weird, but just enough accessories that a figure can hold, and no more, is fine.

But even at that I'm still not interested in anything but Cobra Commander and the blue Hiss with CC. Nothing else in the line is demanding I buy it on my current budget.

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as far as keeping costs down... both my targets raised the price of single cards to 10.99 each.

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Well then I hope toys start selling so poorly that stores can't break even on them. Maybe if the toy industry is choked so bad it can't thrive, people will start realizing that these high prices are a bad thing. I'm not paying $11 for that Cobra Commander.

Not that I hold much hope of toy companies or retail stores learning anything, they haven't learned in 15 years of doing this.

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One of the downsides to this is that before prices drop, articulation, accessories and quality will drop. Then prices may drop but none of the other things will return. Although I guess this isn't too bad if you are a big fan of the figures that can be picked up at Dollar Stores/Big Lots.
Compared to Hasbro's other lines I think Joes have the best mix of articulation, quality, accessories and price. The line isn't perfect, but they do seem to get around to fixing the issues (diaper crotch, Duke arms, etc.) eventually. While I understand why it is happening, I'm still not pleased that the articulation is going down on some of the figures.
There are some upcoming figures from the new movie line I would like to get but mostly to use to make customs (except that new Zartan...so far he looks good to me as is) and I doubt I'll be army building (unless those lotto numbers are right...lol).

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Honestly, at retail, anything over $10 and I'm out. I've passed up on a lot of $8.99, $9.99 figures in the last year. For $10 it has to be something I really REALLY want.

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Something we have to consider about the movie toys cost is the licensing fee Hasbro has to pay to Paramount. Yes Hasbro owns the property but they have to pay Paramount to produce the movie designs. The movie licensing fee was a good part of why the ROC figures were priced so high in comparison to the 25th figures that came before. And I'm sure the articulation and accessory cuts are part of Hasbro's plan to keep figures under $10 and still turn a profit. (the movie figure license is also the reason we didn't get that Tatum Duke head on the Jungle Duke figure or the movie Zartan head on the POC Zartan, the license most likely ran out before those figures were due to hit shelves)

I would hope we'll see a return to the POC articulation model for whatever comes after the movie line but if the movie figures sell with less articulation then that will prove the point to Hasbro and they'll continue making figures with less articulation.

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Cutting out the spring loaded weapons would also save on the cost to produce the figures.
Is Hasbro able to tell which figures sell better than others? My concern is that if the new movie figures don't sell well overall then Hasbro could think the line has reached its limit and cancel it out cut it back significantly. However if they can tell that certain figures sell better than others it might give them the information and direction they need to proceed with future waves.
From what I've seen of the Toy Fair pictures, the main figures I'll be picking up are the ninjas that have all the standard articulation as well as the improved ankle articulation. If these figures outsell the others significantly then it might let Hasbro know that the style of articulation those figures have is what the market wants (or it may tell them they need to make more Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadows and generic ninjas).
Ultimately though the future of the line rest in the hands (and wallets) of parents. If I were a parent and thinking of buying these figures for my kid it would depend on how the kid treats their other toys. If the kid is prone to breaking and/or losing their toys, I would be hesitant to drop 7-10 dollars on a single action figure when there are cheaper alternatives just a few pegs over.

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This. I'll probably cherry pick the line but $11 a piece is too much for me to be a completist. I'm slightly worried that we haven't seen any preorders online yet. I don't know what that means. I'm not at the point of diminishing returns quite yet, but I think I can see it.

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yeah $10 a figure is alot and weapons don't matter to much to me as long as they have a few accessories. I'm gonna have to be picky on what I buy