I recently took a bit of a break from Joe. I wasn't posting, customizing, or doing much of anything related to the hobby. The Renegades fiasco, poor distribution of POC/30th, and ultimately Retaliation's delay caused me to burn out on Joe and step back for a bit. Looking at the hobby now with rested eyes, I have a few thoughts I'd like to share.

The support for Retaliation is lacking. What I see is a lack of any figures in stores, whether they're 'good' or not. Distribution, which should not be an issue for a movie line, is just as bad as it was during 30th. Stock is not being replenished and selling out, it's just not there. The line itself, using a lot of recast parts, obviously didn't have a ton of effort sunk into it.

So where are Joe collectors going for figures? The Club. I do not support the Club for reasons I won't get into here, but I won't deny that they design some very nice figures. I would not mind owning most of them. They do their job providing collectors something unique and special. My issue is that these figures are currently the shining stars of the ENTIRE Joe brand, and are only available to diehard adult fans willing to cough up a significant fee. The whole situation smacks of the DTC fiasco, which was already proven not to be a viable long-term strategy.

If the Club figures existed as a supplement to an already robust selection of mainstream figures, fine. But when the Club figures are the ONLY game in town besides a handful of Channing Tatums and Dwayne Johnsons gathering dust in Target, something is seriously wrong.

POC/30th produced some of the best figures I have ever seen. The Tomahawk is coming back. We know Hasbro is capable of great things. The DG figures are a good idea, albeit marred by bad character selection. I do want to see the brand succeed. Yet after so many continued missteps since 2002, and the declining market for military figures, I wonder how it possibly can. I won't sit here and type what I think Hasbro should do, that's thier business. I'm just a consumer. If I can obtain good figures, I will buy them. If not, I will continue messing with my existing collection.


tl;dr - The Club can not, and should not, carry the entire brand.

I agree 100%. Lack of distribution is currently driving me from collecting GI Joe. The Club figures are very nice indeed, but I can neither afford, nor do I care to spend over $30 per figure to collect all the Club offerings. I just got the latest Club magazine which shows the next wave of Hasbro figures with Blind Master and a few other new figures. It's a shame I'll probably never see them in a store near me. As hard as it is for a brand to survive amidst all the competition these days, it really doesn't help to alienate die hard fans with so little access to product. I really worry that we are seeing the slow death of GI Joe. I was very optimistic after the convention with all the talk about the Tomahawk and promises of increased distribution, but all that hype has fallen flat on its face. So far its nothing but empty shelves in my town and preorder promises online. Maybe it will improve in the next year. At this point, I will settle for slightly higher prices at BBTS or Smalljoes, but Hasbro could have sold me more if I could get it at true retail price.

_________________

With the movie line, I don't know if it was that Hasbro expected it to totally bomb or what. We should at the very least be up to the 3rd wave. Instead most stores in my are have been getting endless shipments of wave 1. Those should have long been gone. While the move was still going strong, most of these items did sell out locally a few times. Now they are gathering dust. If/when Hasbro finally decides to start shipping wave 3, any store still with all of these wave 1 figures will not get new stuff until their current stock is gone. So that mean even when wave 3 is out, it still will not ship to a lot of place. And the final stuff will also be delayed.

If it were done right, we would be seeing wave 3 regularly now. Once the movie hits dvd. we should see the final stuff in support of the movie. Around October or November, the Tomahawk should hit in time for Christmas. But yeah, I don't know. I still haven't found the repaints of the Dollar General figures either...

_________________

I've actually mostly had no trouble finding what I want from Retaliation toys. Usually at TRU. My local-most Target seems to keep getting wave 1 over and over, but other area Targets have had subsequent waves. I don't make it to Wal-Mart very often. Wave three was supposed to be out in May but was delayed a few months to ramp up more production in direct response to the success of the movie and early waves, according to Hasbro in Indy. So, in some cases it seems like they have their stuff together, though it feels like Target has had a lot of wave 1 in their distribution center still.

_________________

It's a frustrating time, to be sure. Makes me appreciate the "Joe-Renascence" of a few years ago. Now, with limited Joe products finding their way to the shelves, and the "secondary" lines that were wonderful custom fodder (Star Wars, Marvel, etc) either drying up or losing articulation, I'm forced to wonder about where I want to go with customizing. I have a TON of fodder to burn through, thanks to past few years, but finding random new pieces for inspiration has always been an important part of the process to me.

I too, disagree with how I understand the Club to be run and how they handle exclusive figures, but yeah... with everything else drying up, they've got some of the most appealing out there right now. I can't justify the price, so I start to think I'll just customize my own versions of their offerings. And that worked fine up 'till I started getting asked about commissioned figures, and when I had to sit down and calculate what one of my customs was worth (as far as time and materials) I realized the Club figures WEREN'T out of the question in price range on a figure by figure basis, they're just a hassle to obtain and too much of an investment at any given time. I know a simple online store where you could buy what you wanted as it becomes available would be over run with scalpers and we'd be back in the same boat of overpaying for the items we're actually interested in, but I think there's GOT to be another way than just as con exclusive sets or subscribing to a full set of figures when there are some that are as horrible as the good ones are great.

But, I know that these things are only frustrations and seem like the end of the world because how much was available just a few years ago.

Also, I think it's inspiring how some customizers are handling the drought. Just off the top of my head, sgcaper's Myster Inc. figures shows there's plenty of ground to cover with the parts that are already out there, while Jin satome's recent Cobra mutants show what you can do with "junk" from the clearance aisle and a little imagination.

_________________

Retaliation's first wave, like most first waves we've seen in the recent years, seems to have been over produced and blocks the pegs for newer and more interesting figures.

With a movie line that has variants of the same few characters in the first two waves, I'm not surprised that store aren't ordering like crazy. Pegs are still filled with many Snake Eyes, Roadblocks and Dukes from the first assortment. I doubt buyers see a difference between Commando Snake Eyes and Duel Snake Eyes.

Stores probably remember how many clearances it took to clear the Rise of Cobra toys, so the buyers must be more shy this time.
Again, the lack of media presence except for the movie, makes GI Joe a tough brand to move with the kids.
Time shall tell, but isn't wave 3 with many "Ultimates" supposed to come out soon with more figures coming out later this summer? Let's hope that distribution won't fail us.

I like what was released so far.
Aside from the lame stiff drivers, the Retaliation line is pretty awesome. I don't even mind some of the single hinged knee figures. They're fun figures.

_________________

I finally found a Battle Kata Roadblock just now while running an errand. It was at a TRU express at the mall. Just him and a pair of wave 1 SE's. I never thought I would have trouble locating a Retaliation Roadblock, but it took me a while to find this one.

_________________

Same thing that happened with Indy, Iron Man, Cap and every movie line Hasbro has produced for the past few years. Overdo a main character (I mean look at how easy it is to find Iron Man in avengers still) and sprinkle in a few minor characters at a ratio of 3 to one. This hasn't worked in any situation, no line has made this model work and yet Hasbro still gives it to us.

The lacking articulation figures in IM3 and Spidey just underscore the problem. Yesterday I saw a kid and his mom in the isle and she said "Here's Iron Man" he ran over and you could plainly hear the "AWWW MAN! These can't move." He added he'd buy an avengers one but he has it, he wanted one from the new movie but it doesn't "work." So much for kids not wanting articulation.

SW is gettting BAD, promises of "We'll get those figs we didn't get out to you last year to you this year." are driving the hardcore's out. Black Series is just rehashes for the most part with the exception of two. The 6 inch series would have been great 5 years ago, now it seems like it might be too late. This is Hasbro's big cash cow.

Lego overtook Hasbro in sales, also not a good sign. So much for being the "#1 boy toy company" Of course Lego actually listens to it's fanbase and embraces adult collectors. Notice how the Lego section has grown even though the toy lanes have shrunk overall?

Course someone will say I'm nuts, Like two years ago when I said something needed to change with Distro or there would be problems in a few years. I just don't care. I will continue to speak my mind one way or another.

I think for the corner of the hobby specific to Joe Customs, this is where the focus should be. I can honestly say I'm not even a little bit frustrated at the moment. Is there an excitement that comes from seeing new stuff on the shelves? Sure. But the few new things out there are still pretty easily had online, if you keep trying.

That said, I'm excited more than anything. For about 2 years there, I seemed to spend more time tracking down the next big thing - whatever that was - to use as parts of a custom, than I did actually customizing. I have a ton of fodder built up now, which I am finally starting to utilize, because I have finally caught a break from the time wasted toy hunting. And it's not like the fodder is stagnant. Sure some of the 25th stuff has "spoiled" so to speak, but the overwhelming majority of pieces I have saved up remain relevant. And if that runs out, I can resupply it through strategically placed ebay purchases, etc...

It also lets me (or I guess gives me reason to) innovate, and keep trying to make new kinds of figures from non action figure parts. I felt creatively suppressed for a spell, and already I am in a groove of feeling like I have a reason to get right back at it again.

So I hear what you are saying, and I don't discount it. But to you (speaking to Dan here), let the true collectors worry about retail draughts. We have work to do Now go make some customs.

_________________

Deth of the line.

There - I said it.

Actually, and this kills me,

I love seeing these bonehead production and distribution issues, and see the line persist anyway. If anything tells you about the longevity of the line, it's that it's still going after all the crap that came out with the Retaliation changes - and not just pulling the figures back after early release, not just killing off the characters that the toys are meant to be (no need in my collection for dead duke and mouse) but also eliminating the Rock's gimmick that they had built a number of toys around.

This was an amazingly poor coordination between the moviemakers and Hasbro, and if I were them I would be very put out about it. In this day and age you are taking a huge hit on your properties if you can't get film, lifestyle and toy tie ins out the door at the same time. I know that a Christmas release of the DVD will help the toys sell, but really this was catastrophic in terms of a marketing and distribution failure. Because now, the toys mean less than the movies to them, and the toy section is taking second seat to the IP development group.

And yet the line is still not dead. If this can't kill it, what will?



- R

_________________

I would also point to the late 90s, which was a really fun time to be a Joe collector, and there was basically no product on the shelves at all.

_________________

Or the 2000 - 2005 era when what did come back was all demented, deformed and t-crotched. I bought the Spy Troops man. Spy Troops.

hasbro owes me...

- R

_________________

What if the movies were never made? Would GI Joe be better off? The 30th and Renegades lines were awesome in my opinion with much more interesting possibilities as far as toys and figures. Would Renegades have survived as a show without the focus on the movie? I'm not sure how sales compare between the movie lines and the 30th/Renegades lines, but I know which ones I liked better, and it wasn't the movie lines.

_________________

Spytroops was a fun gimmick. I wish they did something like that again.

_________________

Us, when we stop buying figures and vehicles because we're either too old or dead.

GIJoe is a big brand because it became a huge phenomenon for two whole generations.
There was the original 12" GI Joe which spawned the first fans. In the 60's the razor and razor blade system made it a very popular toy. It was everywhere. You could get a figure and a whole bunch of gear and weapons.

ARAH brought us into the game 15 years later. In the 80's you couldn't go anywhere from school to the park without finding someone who was into GI Joe. You could move to another town, start in a new school and make friends just because you were into GI Joe.

What's next? Where's the new incarnation that'll be strong and popular enough to bring new blood and make GI Joe the most popular toys for boys once again?

_________________