GI Joe is only not viable because of Hasbro's own self fulfilling prophecy. Pursuit of Cobra and 30th Anniversary shows that all Hasbro needs to do is focus on detail and adding a lot of love that fans can hook on to. Unlike Transformers which has successfully hooked a whole new generation of fans and consumers, GI Joe is reliant on keeping the old school fanbase, but there's a ton of decisions that alienate that fanbase. Choosing to cut 25th Anniversary and 30th Anniversary in favor of the movie lines, for instance. Green lighting Rise of Cobra, which I felt was disastrous for the GI Joe line image and profitability, and cancelling GI Joe Renegades. Then there's issues of lame repaints, bad case ratios, stores not ordering product, as well.

GI Joe Renegades is a sore point for me. For all it's worth, it was a great show, and it was on the Hub. It had the potential to draw in a ton of new GI Joe fans and create a whole new mythos like how the Bayverse Transformers movies and Prime has done. But because of Retaliation it got cancelled. At the time, the THOUGHT of another GI Joe movie made my stomach churn, and I just didn't understand it. But since Retaliation looks like a much better GI Joe movie than Rise of Cobra could ever have been, I accept the movie...but I still can't accept that a show with so much potential like Renegades was killed so early. Just another long line of bad decisions that has put GI Joe into this state.

All this stuff I feel could be handled at the top level(Hasbro) much better than they can do. I still feel GI Joe is still a relevant line...I doubt they'd pimp GI Joe Retaliation as much as they do if it wasn't the case. I doubt they'd put so much effort into the movie and toy line if they just wanted to pump out something to show GI Joe is on life support, nothing more. Still, Hasbro just needs to put a little more effort into it, I think.

 

*Sigh* Subtle attempt at humor during a post meant to clear shit up: lost.


Also, PROFESSOR. LAVA. HOT.

 

No it won't be cancelled. They will just make future lines have smaller toys to make prices cheaper.

 

[Sarchasm] Yes! And people will stop buying cigarettes too...and then the economy will really be in the toilet !

 

What's a sarchasm? Is that what you jump on your motorcycle while snarking?

 

I agree getting rid of Renegades was a horrible idea.

Since the Hub often showed GI Joe Renegades and Transformers Prime back to back that was a good chance to use Transformers Prime as a way to piggy back GI Joe to the attention of the target market. With kids getting an action fix from Prime they would be likely to keep watching when Renegades came on.

Now Hasbro has no new cartoon series to sell kids on the brand. A movie that has been moved to a bad month for action films so that hurts selling the brand to kids. No product on the shelves, so how exactly are kids going to buy the brand if it's not the shelves at places like Wal-Mart?

Hasbro might not be perfect with the Transformers brand, but thank goodness Hasbro is handling Transformers better than they have GI Joe. At least Transformers has a little something for almost everyone instead of exclusives only.

 

Cancelled? No, probably not.

I live in the Netherlands where prices are higher than in the US (no, don't stop reading) and I do think this is part of the reason why Transformers aren't a big hit here. Probably also has something to do with the lack of advertising (like, none) or tv show (none or very early).

Wave 1 we usually get (although in limited numbers) and most stores won't sell all they've got. Wave 2 and 3 usually appear as well, but in far limited numbers (many stores won't order them since they still have so much from wave 1). And then we don't get anything else anymore because stores still see all their wave 1 figures still on the shelf (not to mention all the RPM's they ordered).

However, as soon as the figures are clearanced (10 euro approx $ 15) then they often do sell -- unless the stores ordered way too much.


So, cancelled? No, not very likely. But there is a chance that the higher prices will reduce sales meaning stores won't be as eager to order next waves.

 

(someone said this earlier, I messed up on the reply, quote thing.)With the price of everything else going up I can't say that I'm shocked to see the price of Transformers go up during the slow time of the year for toys. But heck I'd pay $1 extra if Hasbro could have something on the shelf other than Bumblebee and could offer up a Generations Blitzwing.[/QUOTE]

I then replied:
In this regard it is not Hasbro's fault, it is the store's fault. Wal-mart for example has space for twelve Prime deluxe figures. There is one SKU for the deluxe size. If there are 12 Bumblebee's, then thats it. They don't sell, the computer does not order more. What needs to happen is that all of the characters have their own SKU, then they could see what sells, and that Bumblebee does not. But remember, it's the store that orders this stuff, I am sure that Hasbro would like a lot of their stuff out, not just Bumblebee, they wouldn't want that because stores order less from them. BTW, the deluxe size has a 60 percent mark up. I asked.

 

You know something interesting? Back when the Commemorative Series was running but selling slowly, somebody here claimed that Hasbro was only getting $12 for every $30 figure. Toys R Us must've been making OK money on the toys it sold to fans like me to let half a dozen waves pile up. I don't know how it was everywhere, but they never tried, say, $25 or $20, but went straight $5 (losing $7 on each one), at which point they practically disappeared at Warp 9. Given that Sideswipe later showed up at KB, the most overpriced toy retailer ever, for just $15, I can't help but assume they took a bath on those too. Meanwhile, BBTS was importing most of the same toys from Japanese distributors in smaller quantities and managing to move them faster at a steady $30 all the way.

 

Well August is ending and retailers in Australia ( I check about 9 different places here in Sydney ) are still only holding Cliffjumpers and Bumblebees. I would say that retailers have cancelled Prime for Hasbro whether they like it or not.