I was at Wal-Mart with my GF and her kids last night, and her son was getting antsy, so I told her I'd take him to the toys to look around so she could shop in peace. He's quite the Joe fan now, so when I saw they actually had some vehicles and figures, I made sure he saw them. Of course, he was drooling over the Cobra VTOL and the Vamp MkII, but I pointed out the figures, thinking I'd get him one.
All the had on the pegs were the Renegade figures. He hasn't seen Renegade, but watches the '80's series DVDs frequently. First, he saw the Duke figure. "Umm... That's not Duke. Duke has tan and green." "Well, this is a new version." "Boring."
Okay, I can see him not liking Duke, so I see the new CC and point him out. "Oh, another Cobra Commander." Fine, here's the new Snake Eyes. The kid loves ninjas, he's a SE fan, so he'll love it. Wrong. "Ugh. Another Snake Eyes? Seriously? How many Snake Eyes are there now? A thousand? That's all I ever see... Snake Eyes, Snake Eyes, Snake Eyes... Don't they have other guys now?" Needless to say, he didn't get a figure last night. So, it's not just the adults who sometimes get same-figure-itis.

(as an aside, I was looking at the Critiques section one day and he saw some of the figs. Now, every day he asks, "Can we look at that custom place?" He's also a budding customizer and asked if I can put pictures of his customs up if he finishes any.)

Attaboy. You make sure you help him get those customs up. Man oh man if this site existed when I was his age I might actually be a decent customizer by now.

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lol, I will. I actually feel bad, because we were going to have a customizing night Saturday night, but didn't get to. So then yesterday he asked, "Can we do something tomorrow night... Oh, wait, no, we can't... I gotta trick or treat! When can we do custom stuff?" So I promised him Thursday night. Heh, he has a custom he's done that's 'him'. Beach-Head body painted yellow, blue, green, and I think more colors, with an all white BH head. He's the Joe's #1 pilot, driver, marksman, and I forget what else.

You did buy him Renegades Firefly, right? I mean, you wouldn't NOT get him that one...right?

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They didn't have him, so no, I did not get that figure for him. Heh, I had a flashback to when I was a kid looking for new figures, the way he was rifling through the peg (one sad, pitiful peg for him, instead of the glorious rows and rows I had... poor kid) and saying, "Cobra Commander... Another Cobra Commander... Not Duke..." after he decided to go through them himself, thinking I was only showing him the same few figures as a trick or something.

Yep, I hear kids all the time in the toy aisle. They're not exactly happy like Hasbro thinks with tons of Snake Eyes, Duke, Cobra Commander, and Storm Shadow. It can be blamed on Wal-Mart all day long, but at the end of the day, it's the stores that still have these figures sitting on the pegs, and it's what kids see.

But yeah, I hope to see this site go for a while. New people and kids get into customizing the older they get. Seeing sites that do not exclude new members like other sites have a tendency to do, that's just good for everyone all around. I know problems occur here, but that's no different than any place else. The pay out in the long run is worth it.

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Thats funny, I could just see a ten year old kid going to my Walmart:

"These Destro figs have been hanging here since I was eight!"

Heh, after he got home from trick-or-treating last night, he asked if we could work on some customs, so we started on a couple (one for him, one for me). He finished up for the night and asked when we would finish them, then asked, "And are you gonna take pictures for the internet for those guys to look at?" Be prepared for pics of Serpent Slayer this weekend.

I think this does go to show how clueless the stores are when it comes to what they carry. They order these characters because it's all their toy dept. heads can recognize and if they don't sell, it's written off to customer disinterest and the line dropped.

Though given the current toy situation locally I'm becoming worried that some Walmarts might actually eliminate the toy sections totally. Most brands have not restocked in 3 months now at my local store. Hell, I see more new toys at the 6-foot wide toy section at Kroger lately.

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awesome story. I hope my 4 year old still digs doing stuff like that with me as he gets older. He already "paints" some throw away figures with me sometimes. I try to make him use red so that when he's done they'll at least look like zombies/victims if need be for future background fodder. lol

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I remember being yonger and setting limits on my characters, from Luke to Han to Vader to Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. I keep saying the only time I saw the line successfull was when they DIDN't repeat the same characters over and over. Then again I guess trying to tell that to the guys at big H is like spittin' in the wind.

Remember when Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor came out? Sure, He-Man got a few extras in the line later on, but before Kenner decided on every color of Batman possible such things weren't really common and even then they were usually something different.

I don't really count "straight arm vs swivel arm" Joes, though I guess hooded vs helmet CC could count as an early example, but it had a valid basis in the fiction.

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I had opposite experience as a child. I remember watching reruns of sunbow toons and realy wanting Snake Eyes Flint Lady Jay etc and the only one I ever got close to owning was snake eyes and I had to wait years untill the 89 version came out. We didn't have a Tru close so I didn't even know about tiger force versions until much later

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So what does that have to do with the over abondance multiple SE's and SS's? All I was saying was I didn't buy EVERY version of the characters. Not that I didn't buy them at all.

EDIT: Let me put it this way, after you bought 89 SE, did you want to buy 91 Snake Eyes as well? maybe Ninja Force as well, ect, ect.

He may not have been interested in the '91 Snake Eyes, but the kid who missed out on the '89 (and earlier) version(s) probably was.

Of course, rehashing characters made more sense when there was only one wave of Joes a year. With umpteen waves of figures every year, it makes a lot less sense to rehash characters 2,3,4 times a year.

A new version every year or two (or three) isn't so bad. Three versions of the same character every year, isn't so good.

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