Last time around we got slammed with exclusive figures & tweaked vehicles. TRU had their single-packed figs (including the sought after Firefly) as well as the 5 packs. Wal-mart had the shelf-warming ninja arena, as well as the two-packs, and the highly wanted battle sets. Finally Target took the lead with the invasion pack, the mini-vehicles, and the Rhino (love that thing). And even then, we had some exclusives that didn't make it to their intended targets, flying off to obscure big box stores that some of us aint never herd of, and then to ebay for tripple the ammount.

I'm wondering if anyones herd of anything for Exclusive Retaliation Figures.... and along with that, your hopes for what you'd like to see make it to pegs/store shelves.

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At this point, I'll be happy if everything shown so far actually shows up in stores.

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Yeah...

Sad that it's gotten to that point, isn't it?

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Sad? Yes and no.

Yes, because some stuff never (or barely) reached the shelves and right now, we're still stuck with the remnants of wave 1 up here while the movie is out and wave 2 and 2.5 have already been available in the States.

No, because what was shown for the next waves is very exciting and I'm very happy with what's coming. I just hope that it'll come as planned.

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I'm also quite excited about what's on the horizon (officially) and optimistic about the possibility of some cool exclusives.

For the former, I'm going to hedge my bets by ordering a case.

For the latter, I guess I'll just have to wait and take my chances.

Like all those figures and vehicles that never appeared on screen yet got sold under the RoC banner? There were some good ones and some stinkers. Maybe we'll get some updates to figures, like Bench Press/Rock n Roll or the Ice Viper. Or get some of the DiC 'toon era figures updated.

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I'm guessing not many, if any, were planned at all, or we'd have had some announced in some capacity.

Of course, the movie's astonishing success might lead stores to ask for exclusive, but given how long toy development usually takes they might end up being rushed product....


Still, fingers crossed real tight the movie's success leads to a spike in toy sales.

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I think this sums it up. The odds of us getting any Retaliation store exclusives are almost certainly nonexistent, at least for now. It might be possible to get some later in the year, but I doubt that too, considering how few retailer exclusives *any* toy line got last Christmas.

If there were any planned we'd have seen them in some form or another, unless Hasbro got really good at keeping secrets. Or whatever was planned never got into any form of production until after the movie delay and we'll see them revealed at JoeCon. But I think if there were any in the works we'd have seen them at Toy Fair.

But since we're speculating... I'd like to see another round of those Target mini-vehicles. An update to the Silver Mirage cycle would be welcome and we know the tooling exists as it was used as a JoeCon exclusive a few years ago. If the P.A.C.R.A.T. tooling all still exists a reissue of each of those with a figure would be awesome. Beyond that I'd like to see another online set of 7-packs. Star Brigade would be pretty sweet. Expensive to do but wicked sweet nonetheless.

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I think we need to consider the history here. ROC merchandise was overproduced, including store exclusives, especially in light of the response to the movie, and it lingered to the point where retailers barely wanted the post-movie product. Remember how hard it was to find POC and 30th product? Remember the intended-for-Target ROC exclusives, and the Sand Serpent plane, that turned up something like a year later -- at Ross?

This time around, I think, everyone was hedging their bets. No exclusives, and a far smaller presence in the toy aisles. While this has made for more limited merchandise, I think it gives a better chance to announced waves coming out, such as 3 and 4, and I also think it gives a better chance for future product beyond the Retaliation movie tie-ins, especially with G.I. Joe's 50th Anniversary next year.

Hopefully the success of the movie is reflected in sales of the toy supplies that do exist, and the retailers start to think, "Okay, maybe G.I. Joe isn't such a stinker after all." Because that's what needs to happen.

These would have to be any kind of store or convention exclusive, but I'd like to see:

5. Cobra Secret Service Agent 3 pack. (Great way to stock up on suit bodies for customs, too!) Include a spare Colton head, too.
4. The raid sequence Joe-who-wasn't-Mouse-but-actually-had-a-few-lines. He had sideburns and a wave of hair on the top of his scalp.
3. Cobra Commander & Destro in sleep paralysis containment suits.
2. Sleazy Prison Director played by Walton Goggins
1. Zartan as The President/The President. With alternate knife-wounded half President/half Zartan head.

While the wave 1 Zartan is a fun figure, a more movie accurate Zartan as the president would've been 100x more awesome.
The Cobra agent that was Zartan's go to guy deserves a figure, he got more screen time than many of the Joes.

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Yeah, the Cobra Secret Service guy would make for a nice figure, especially if it had a Cobra lapel pin

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Aaaaaaaaand turns out it's not, the kickass rappel-gear Red Ninja has been scrapped.

Fan-tucking-fastic.

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A mauler would still be nice..

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