Here waves came either a month or two late. Sometimes not at all. Waves 2 & 4 were skipped at first only to come after Wave 3 and 5. Waves after 4 appeared to be entirely just one case. You had to be there during the week they arrived you'd get nothing. I got wave 5 because I got lucky and hit the stores during the right week. Only trace of wave 6 I saw since was release was 1 Torpedo figure at target. Saw wave 7 for a brief week (minus the Viper and Hiss Driver). Wave 9 is suppose to be the current one. I've even seen it or wave 8 yet. An ebay reach by zip code shows that current waves have arrived in towns 100+ miles away. Even the local scalpers on ebay don't have wave 8 or 9.

I've read about Hasbro and retailers blaming each other. This shoddy distribution problem isn't universal. In some towns there are pegs of current waves. Then are places that get nothing. When a new case finally arrives it one from waves 2, 4 or comic wave 1. I think the blame lays on Hasbro and the retailers. Hasbro builds demands by showing things you just gotta have at cons/toy show but then underproduced. There seems to be a order of importance of what stores get their cases first. At the stores there doesn't be enough Joes to go around. At Targets & TRU pegs are either empty or other toys are placed on them.

I once had a job that sold cigarettes among other things. We would sell out specific cigarette from a major brand a lot. An order would be placed with our warehouse. Order is filled and a new box would arrive. I would open it and inform a manager that we got the wrong kind. Same brand,wrong type. A very unpopular type. If we placed
an order for 10 cartons of different types from the same brand we would get 2 cartons of what we asked for and 8 of the unpopular one. This would happen many times. What was happening was other stores ran out of the popular types as well. Our warehouse just didn't have enough product from the manufacturer to fill all the orders. So, we got substitution. When a stores runs out of Joes I think it is the same situation.

HTS was solution but those bastards magical didn't have enough Vipers. I had preordered one on the day of the first preorder and Hasbro can't get it to me? I send an email to their customer service a week ago and still no answer? Other online retailers might work but you pay a premium on single figures. Buying complete waves can get expensive if you're someone who doesn't want to collect them all. Joes aren't only thing that I collect. If I can't find the product. I'm not gonna buy the product. It is as simple as that. The less I see at trips to the store or online the less I'm going to visit those places in the future. I'll end up seeing that other toy lines I collect have product and
my money will go to them instead.

Yea I've got to admit there are days I want to just throw my hands up and give the heck up myself. Not sure what the local Wal-Mart did to piss Hasbro off but it's the world's worst store when it comes to Hasbro products. Not just GI Joe, while ever one else has Transformer Animated figures on the their shelves we've gotten next to nothing.

Yes there are days it bites when people post their current haul knowing it could be two or three months before the figures trickle down to the local level.

Sort of in same boat about buying off the web. Most of the time the waves have figures I can skip over so no need to buy a whole wave, or to buy an extra set of a wave just for the figure I've missed because it was scalper gold for some reason. Plus I'm a nut for the old days and it's just not the same ordering things off the internet as going to the store and finding them. Somehow internet ordering just takes the fun out of it and shouldn't a hobby be fun.

I solider on though because on those rare days that something does trickle down to the local Wal-Mart or toy gods forbid I actually find a store exclusive then on those rare days it all seems worth it some how. Oy, the old toy shelf though is starting feel more like thropy shelf given the work that goes into tracking down some of them.

Getting the product to everyone who wants it can be a problem with the 25th line, but I will say this: Hasbro at least gives us opportunities to get the harder to find figures later with their battle packs and refreshes. I would never have found a Torpedo if he wasn't a refresh. Also, they're going to do that wave of most popular figures a la Star Wars' Fans' Choice.

As a Canadian Joe-fan we've been experiencing terrible distribution for years! And it never made sense to me because at least 70% of our economy involves trading with the States. I've always wondered what role Hasbro Canada played in overall distribution considering G.I. Joe is one of the company's flagship brands. And for years all we've heard is that the big box stores control the market/distribution ~ and to what extent? I don't know for sure. If it wasn't for evilBay, forum traders, and nostalgia I would have quit a long time ago - but they got me by.

Now things look promising, with the movie being released next year I'm seeing plans starting to set in motion. The same dedication they showed to Transformers seems to be translating to joes. The Hasbro Canada rep at the Canadian Joe Con talked about stepping up their distribution, producing generic cards with French/English to get the product out faster, and eventually coinciding future wave releases. So things are definitely looking on the up.

Where does this put me for wave 9? Frustrated has heck! After two very poorly executed waves, wave 9's line-up are all winners. My favourite Army Builder , a popular army builder , my definitative , my favourite Joe , and another class member of 1985 - how can one go wrong. Whelp, I've been to Wal*Mart & TRU about 4 times in the last week staring at the same single empty peg on the peg boards. We should be getting wave 9 by the end of this month on the generic cards, but the end of this month isn't coming soon enough!

Heading south to Buffalo this weekend for some outlet mall shopping but not keeping my hopes up on the local Target or Wal*Mart having wave 9 because for some unknown reason NY sucks at getting new Hasbro product and Rhode Island is blasted right there!!! Still hoping against hope I can cross that border Saturday night with a big haul.

Seeing massive armies of yet-to-be-released products be it from China or the west coast in the States makes my heart sink a little each time because it's that much less product heading east and north and I dread thinking about doing battle with other toy collectors here. So that sometimes makes me feel like quitting.

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Honestly, yes. Money's tighter than before and vehicles will be a nightmare to find. Just not sure how much longer I can go...

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I had to look back to find when was saw a new Joes. The wave was #7 add it was 7 weeks ago. It has been that long.

When Hasbro shows pictures of upcoming figures I don't know if I should get excited or depressed. It is like they are teasing us.

"Here's some cool stuff we know you'll love. Too bad we are only making three of them."

They did say that they were uping production to help with the distribution problem at the con.

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I've been pretty 'meh about the 25th: It seems to be all the rage now. I'd feel kind of bad customizing a figure I could only get one of.
We have lots of empty pegs around here as well, so one can't even experiment.
I don't count waves or anything, but I know we've missed alot. Isn't it weird for a retail store to have completely empty shelves for such a long time? So many store across the board! I mean, wouldn't you expand the other toys on the rack to cover the holes? Are they selling out so fast that they won't reset their shelves?
Isn't the Christmas buildup coming soon?
Meanwhile the Indiana Jones and Star Wars figs keep me busy. I've been able to find SW 'Fans choice figures on the peg, and paid retail for them! Take that scalperscum!

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Of course they said the same thing last year.

The part that got me was a couple of weeks ago my bud at wally world called about a new shipment (like he always does) I get there and its wave 3 (from last year).

What got me about it is the fact that the order was cancelled last year due to "lack of stock" implying that there was a shortage, which of course is when the scalpers struck everywhere else.

Wave 5 was when things started to improve, of course I had all those, Wave 6 appeared once, wave 7 had a presence, after that nothing beyond wave 2 and 3 has shipped. Why, apparently they are filling orders from last year, why, I have no idea.

But its that level of BS that makes me throw my hands up and say to hell with it. Its been over a year, more than enough time to have production meeting demand.

I've been very close to quitting a few times now.
I'm lucky that the TRUs, Targets and Wallyworlds I go to are on my errand routes, otherwise I wouldn't even be looking.
We've just been "refreshed" with the Viper/Duke jetpack wave. Hoo-ray
I haven't see any vehicles aside from a beat up Night Specter that I grabbed at a Target 40 miles from where I live. I asked at my local Targets and they told me they never got them (not that I totally believe 'em ).
Plus you've got to fight to find the figs with the corrected molds: fixed crotches, backpack holes etc. And you're left wondering if at some future date Hasbro is gonna released fixed versions of guys like Duke, Flint and Cobra Trooper in their original colors or if you should go through the trouble of fixing them yourself. And like Luftshutze said, its hard enough to find one, let alone enough to experiment with, especially with the semi-destructive disassembly required and the price premium.
Ordering by the case seems to be the only way to ensure that I'll get any figs. I never saw the complete wave 5 at retail. And with Target running $8 for figs, that's fairly competitive now. Of course there are unique dangers on that front as well. I was a little pissed at EE, I was looking to order wave 9, and the assortment with the 2 Snow Serpents and Bats was pre-sold out. So I said "drat" and ordered the Wave 9 v1 assortment with Torpedo and Wild Bill and 1 of each of the rest. I figured I'd been looking for Extra Torps and Bills anyway, and the extreme environment sets (14 figs for $57!) would fill my SS needs leaving me to BAT hunt on my errand runs. Of course right after I get my order shipped confirmation email, EE lists Wave 9 v2 with 2 SS and Bats.
Now we hear that Comic pack Black Destro and clear Wraith are gonna be chases. Hell I'll be lucky to see either regular version at retail. I haven't even seen comic wave 4. And $60 is a lot to drop on a slim possibility of getting one in a case, what with all the other figs coming competing for my dollar. Its taking the fun out of collecting, that's for sure.
I understand that Hasbro has three of the perennial hottest seller lines out there, but the fact that major retailers barely have any joes, even going onto year two of the line is sad.

It's a problem that is hardly exclusive to G.I.Joe, and while not enough to make me quit, it is enough to be a source of considerable frustration, especially when I hear people finding stuff and then I hit half the stores in town and come up empty.

Sometimes I have to console myself with the fact that a given item EXISTS. That means that it is not theoretically impossible to acquire it. Sometimes just very difficult.

If need be, I will turn to online resources, but I really don't like to do this because oftentimes the price is higher, and as I have expresed elsewhere, I do not like to buy toys "sight unseen" if I can help it.

I have no problems finding stuff. I mean when new stuff first hit's, it's a scramble cuz it seems everyone in my area gets caught up and we all are waiting on the samething. But then things cool down and you can find what u need. I have 6 Super WM's and the distibution with them is hit and miss. 2 stores may get 3 or 4 cases of a new wave, 2 stores may get 3 cases of a old wave, and the other stores don't get anything. Same thing with Target-1 Super Target and 3 regular stores. 3 K-Mart's and they aren't worth crap. 1 TRU and it's hit and miss there, but they are alot better now than when the 25th line first hit. They had no Joe's from July of last year to January of this year.

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It's making me fall off track of what I'm getting. I got too many from the last wave not realizing what I already had. There's too many at one time coming out and having them so hard to find, you tend to grab as you see them which causes you to forget what you have. Not finding them is getting old, but then ordering them and then finding them in store is getting even older.

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MOTU 2000

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Uh really, ok what else cause I can find TF's SW is no problem, even chase and "rare" figures I have found at least one of. Indy is a piece of cake so far. hulk and Iron man have been in bulk it seems. Batman seems to be everywhere. Marvel legends are everywhere. WWE Bulid and Brawl is the only one I can think of that comes close, and still you can find them fairly easy given time, but nothing on the level of joes. So what other lines are effected by this?