Yup completely agree with you both. I've been really laying off buying figures these last few years because the hobby went from a cheap and easy going one to one that is sucking up far too much of my funds.

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Arctic Destro really shouldn't have been a peg warmer. That's a great figure. No one can predict what figures will sell and what ones wont. They have no way of knowing when planning out cases and retailers don't track each individual figure like that.

As for the whole wave system, that's something imposed on companies by retailers. Retailers don't WANT to keep track of individual figures and only order what they need of each figure. That's a real headache. They just want to order more of "GIJoe" or whatever and take what comes to them. They also want it in waves to keep fresh product coming in to entice shoppers to come to their store.

I think the problem was it wasn't so much a peg warmer, it was more of just not finding anything else.

Yeah, I know that sounds the same, but when I was going in every day for weeks, all I saw was Arctic Destro. It was like they didn't get any other figures.

It seemed like more and more showed up on the shelves and they were nothing but Arctic Destro.

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This never happens.

Retailers have no interest whatsoever in keeping fresh product coming into their toy depts.

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The trend I've noticed is that stores seem to prefer full pegs to product that sells. I suppose full pegs just look better.

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Not bothering to do the research isn't the same as having no way of knowing.

Assuming Hasbro doesn't want to spring for focus groups (and that they wouldn't know who to focus on anyway, because they refuse to admit adult collectors are a significant driver of the Joe brand), and assuming retailers can't or won't for some reason provide detailed sales breakdown (the technology certainly exists), the simplest thing for a Hasbro market researcher to do would be to look at eBay on any given weekend and see which figures are selling for the most out of past waves. Cross referencing that data over a span of several weeks with actual production, release and case pack out numbers for those waves would help paint a picture of which character types have sold well relative to others in the past.

But Hasbro wouldn't even need to go to eBay, as it has access to direct sales data from Hasbrotoyshop going back several years. It knows exactly what sold out and how fast and can probably even tell them how often folks have checked back to see if something is in stock. You can get an indication of interest if not flat out demand from that information.

With all of these numbers to crunch, it would really only take a nodding familiarity with the Joe mythos and character base to realize that -- unless the production numbers were wonky and resulted in a serious shortage of a particular figure (like machine gun/cash briefcase Destro) -- alternate environment or specialty versions of named/core characters do not generally sell as well as army builders.

Of course, Hasbro's market research probably consists more of eavesdropping on boards like this and seeing someone say "I'd buy a hundred of (insert troop type here)" based either on fan wish listing or reactions to early concept images, and that's why we end up with pegs full of Shock Troopers, Alley Vipers and Jungle Vipers during PoC after all those boastful fans got the four or so they were actually willing to pay for.

Arctic Destro was never going to sell more than two units max to any one collector, and that's the rare MoC completionist. I'm even willing to bet someone at Hasbro said that to someone higher up (and probably got placed on double secret probation for his trouble). But that wouldn't change anything, because Hasbro knows that any character featured in a recent movie will sell in truckloads, and the more different and outlandishly colored the alternate outfits (maroon and gray for a winter op?) the better.

Even if Hasbro had known arctic D wouldn't sell like gangbusters, that just means they would have underproduced him, making him impossible to find for those who did want him. Because Hasbro only has two speeds on production runs for individual figures: You either get a paltry few, making figures impossible to find on pegs, or a metric arse-load, making them the only figures you find on pegs.

My personal opinion of Hasbro is that they don't much care, and it's really because Brian Goldner doesn't care. He only cares about Transformers. 2011 saw very little G.I. Joe in stores because retailers didn't buy it, and Hasbro's official answer was "we didn't know". I just don't believe that. I don't believe these stores were ordering regular amounts and then not sending it to their stores. They chose to air Renegades a year before the toys were ready just to launch their new TV network when they could. They also let the store chains practically dictate what gets made. I'm aware that these stores are Hasbro's main customer but if the toys don't sell at retail then the retail stores don't buy more from Hasbro. I also don't buy into the "females don't sell" line because MU has plenty of them, and Mattel never skimps on female figures in the DC lines. If anything, these toy companies need to say "look, this is what we're making, take it or leave it". If one chain doesn't buy, offer it to another at a discount and say it's an incentive over a competitor.

But well... Hasbro. People want MASK and COPS back, but no. We get Matt Trakker in G.I. Joe as a nod but that's all. TF gets a MASK vehicle wannabe subseries but that's the best they will go. COPS may as well be sold off to another company for all Hasbro will ever do with it again. But they're bringing back Jem, and did anyone honestly want that back? If they're trying to compete with Monster High I don't think they have a hope and the original show was just too gaudy even back then and I'd imagine now it's a genuine 80s relic and I don't mean that in a good way. They're not even updating it.

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so every other post you make has a pro MLP statement, but you can't tolerate JEM?

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Jem has a huge following and even a MLP tie in. There's no way that Jem and Monster High could ever be considered in the same category. Monster High is girl monsters in high school. Sort of a goth girl's High School Musical. Jem was a holographic character that had ties into military secret weapons and a girl that used rock music and holograms to support her orphanage.

Actually I'd go as far to say there's just as many people that want COPS and MASK as there are JEM fans. All three are not extremely popular but they all have a large loyal fanbase.

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Aside from the discount, which I really don't know if they offer that or not, this is what they do. If retailers or whatnot aren't interested in an item, they shop it around until someone else is but sometimes other places don't want it either. That's why we haven't gotten Kwinn. That's why a classic themed Jinx is an SDCC exclusive. That's why it took 4 years for the repaint Seacon set they wanted to release during the Energon line to come out and only then it had to be through the club. A G1 themed set came two years later but only as a BBTS exclusive. They can't just say "Here Wal-Mart. Stock this or else." That's a good way to put themselves out of business. Look at what happened to Rubbermaid. They didn't want to play ball with Wal-Mart so Wal-Mart pretty much destroyed them. Also, of course they put more attention on TFs. That property makes truckloads of money for them. GIJoe does not. They've tried but retailers just aren't as interested. That's why they've had to make the cuts they have when it comes to the next movie line as disappointing as those cuts are, which they aren't happy with either.

My local Target still has some (7-9) of those on the pegs at regular price. I get a good laugh every time I see them.

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So, looking at the figures coming out, does this mean there is no Destro? Is he not in the movie?

Also, the VTOL Skydragonhawk MK II, is there a rear hatch like the Quinjet has?

Hasbro does tend to echo itself. I bet it does.

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Destro has been hinted at, but it'll likely be a cameo at best. Also, since a few of the waves only have a figure or two announced for them, there are figures that haven't been revealed yet.

Like all the good ones...

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