Yep, it was, but you paid and wait and nothing happens. I guess it was a bait and switch nevermind what I said earlier, but still I'm getting my money back. Since they have that "ebay money back guarantee".
re: storage for toys, I used to use the old Hovercraft, which I had begged and begged my parents for for a long long time. I loved that thing. My favorite thing about the 3 3/4 Joes (since I was too young for the 12 inch ones) was the vehicles, so in that sense I have the same problem with a bigger line that I do with Star Wars: the vehicles either are impossible to get, are scaled wrong, or are prohibitively expensive/too big to play with. But I doubt many of these are going to actual kids anyway.
I guess I'm feeling a little better about the whole Cobra Trooper thing when I realized that Hasbro will most likely do a "Cobra Infantry Officer" somewhere, somehow. The casting is there for the goggles, armband, and long rifle, and there's no way Hasbro won't run those molds again. Part of me is getting all pissed off all over again that I never even had a shot at the CI Troopers, but I guess since we're getting a Cobra Infantryman without the officer kit, then it's likely we're actually going to get an Officer at some point with the missing stuff. Beating a dead horse at this point but I wish this line wasn't so unfun and painful to get. I don't often complain or get too angry about toys after Combiner Wars but I think I might have to sound off next time Hasbro does a GI Joe Fan Friday.
I don’t have any doubt the Cobra Infantry will get multiple releases and repaints, same with the Viper, so long term there shouldn’t be much concern about our building our armies. Short term collector fear and impatience is what we have to battle.
Definitely the hype of getting a completely new, and pretty amazing GI Joe line is also fueling this as well. The product was there, it was made, it was shipped, but it feels like literally a chosen elite ever got anything. If you can't wake up at 6AM just to go to a Target and camp out there, you don't have a shot at anything. I can't afford to do that as I work early in the morning. Yeah it's just kind of beating a dead horse at this point, but damn just kind of waking up in a bad mood really made me just frustrated about GI Joe all over again. Any kind of good news from Hasbro would do everyone good I think.
I'm still salty about not having Baroness with her COIL or the others. Canada got hosed worse than you lot in the States. It hasn't made me quit collecting yet, but if Pulse doesn't make good and release some new production runs of the CI figures, even if they have to alter the package to get away with it or make new paint jobs, I'll take Blue Baroness if I have to, to at least own the mold WITH bike.
At worst we will likely see all of these molds again when the movie finally gets released, even if in different decos. This is Hasbro we are talking about — every mold they design is done so with multiple planned product uses from the get-go. They didn’t go through the expense of creating Baroness and the Coil cycle for just a single, likely small, production run for Target.
That's beside the point. Hasbro should have known better than to make any of these things limited run. And if they had to make them limited run for cost reasons or some other BS, make it ONLINE instead of at box retailers. Because box retailers can't handle exclusives worth shit and at least there's precedent. BBTS had the Cobra Island multipacks back in the day as Exclusives.
No it’s not. Hasbro’s primary necessity with this line is get it into retailers. Target says they’d buy these figures as an exclusive and that is what the Joe team needed as the line was launched — retailer support. logical arguments are not made by finding similarities between examples but examples that lack differences. There is a huge difference between your online exclusive examples during the 25th era and these Classified launch — those online exclusives vane years into the lines existence when it was already established and stable. These exclusives are like the original 25th vehicle exclusives which were also Target exclusives — the HISS, Vamp and Sharc. All of which were released again in the line, just like these will be. Retail support is more important to a toyline at launch than whether each and every potential consumer can buy them with ease. This is such a basic fact of the toy business that it shouldn’t have to be explained.
You're right on with how important retail support is initially. Customers can always come back as the market saturates. I think the importance of physical big box retail versus online retailer is dependent on larger considerations. Physical big box is crucial if the amount of mainline classified and/or other Hasbro products Target buys is dependent on getting an exclusive. Online retail is smarter if the exclusive has no bearing on the amount of product Hasbro sells, GI Joe or otherwise. More people are buying online than ever and they're better at servicing the end user than the big boxes in this situation. If quantities sold are the same, end user satisfaction should be the deciding factor. After initial retail support end user satisfaction is what will keep the line alive.
Absolutely. Ultimately the Joe team has to answer to a CEO who has to answer to shareholders, and that CEO has to be convinced the time being put into Joe is financially worth the effort, which requires showing large PO’s being written in advance of product shipping. Selling figures one at a time to the consumer has up come after that.
I have been critical of Hasbro with classified. This exchange is giving time to reflect on the realities of the situation. Marketing and upper management must of been very worried about this line to offer initial releases of major characters as exclusives. Most of these high status characters are in they're most recognizable outfits on top of them being exclusive. We really haven't seen this situation much with black series or legends exclusives. I guess it's hard to believe Hasbro did this out of stupidity and not necessity. Hasbro has gotten better in many regards in the last decade. I'm still not going to excuse the lack of communication through their various outlets.
Yup. Jumping to the conclusion that Hasbro is simply stupid is nothing more than someone venting their frustration through unneeded insults but it is ultimately neither enjoyable for ones self or discussion.
Well gi Joe has been off of the shelves since the last movie? And I remember those figures by and large just shelf warming for about a year and then having to be clearanced out. And six inch isn’t a scale that gi Joe has been in before so that’s another thing that they were probably thinking about. no movie or cartoon = little Timmy not caring about Gi Joe What about collectors? Who knows if they will want six inch Joes or just more 3 3/4 inch stuff. Think back a year or two on Hasbro Overwatch. It kinda bombed, And the main reason it bombed? Timing! Hasbro was just about a year and a half late getting on shelves, by the time they rolled out Overwatch was old news.
I'm going to have to disagree here, I feel Hasbro failed astronomically with Classified. They did not plan accordingly for the numbers, they failed to realize just what a big deal this could turn out to be. They did not produce enough. Granted it's possible this is because Covid affected things, but I have to believe that most of the early Joe Classified product was produced in large enough quantities before the Pandemic hit since to launch the line the way they did wouldn't have worked out well if they didn't have initial product ready to go. Now granted I could be wrong about that, but in this case getting retailer support was not as important as it apparently could have been and I have to believe this is a direct result of how poorly Joe ended with their 3 3/4inch offerings. Or 4 inch line. Whichever you prefer. Because Retaliation fell far from expectations, retailers were not really committed to much, so to offer exclusives, yeah I'll guarantee they didn't order nearly as many exclusives for their retail locations like they would for something already well established like with Star Wars, Marvel Legends or Transformers. First they had to get the retailer support, then they could have started with exclusives once they got their foot in the door. Unless the retailers themselves threatened not to support Classified at all without exclusives. That being said, if that is the case, exclusivity has proven not to be as helpful as it could have. Too many figures wanted, not enough to go around and I have yet to see a single Classified figure on actual store shelves. All of my purchases have been through BBTS. Mostly because Amazon cancelled my Storm Shadow on me, so I in turn cancelled the extra Red Ninja I tossed in to get the free shipping because I refused to give them any business for Joe products if they can't even be bothered to honor the Pre-Orders on their own fucking exclusive. I have not gotten a single figure at retail. It was all online pre-orders so far. Hasbro Pulse for the Regal CC and BBTS for everything else. Cobra Island should have been a shared exclusive line. Target could have got initial batches or initial product of that line, but after a few months to a year everybody else should have the figures online Pulse, BBTS anybody willing to take them. If Mattel can do that with their MotU line, starting off in Wal-Mart only for 2020 and then everybody gets it in 2021, then Hasbro could have done the same thing for their Classified Exclusives. As it stands, my Cobra collection right now is one Red Ninja, two Cobra Commanders and two Destros. Not exactly what I would call the ideal display options I would have preferred for my Joe six inch line.
I don't get Hasbro's logic to this line compared to their others. Their Transformers is G1 galor. Their Star Wars line is stuffed full of original trilogy figures but for GI Joe they do this "all new, all different" thing. Why?? You clearly knew what your customer base was for the other two, did you really think it would be a different set of consumers for GI Joe?
Well it varies from franchise to franchise. When Black Series first launched, it was mostly OT characters because that's what sold. Plus, Lucusfilms (and now Disney) are the license holders so they get to approval what gets made so it isn't entirely Hasbro's decision. Transformers only started the trend towards G1 starting with Classics which was more G1 inspired as their purpose was to bring back old characters with new designs. And it worked. GI Joe has for the most part followed the TF path, mainly because they are franchises both owned by Hasbro. So here comes the new updates, and despite any fan complaints, those same fans are buying them (just look at those who complained on this site about the designs when they were first revealed who now own most of the line). For Hasbro, a brand refresh is usually a winning formula. Eventually, TF got G1 with Earthrise and so, if the pattern follows, one day Classified will get ARAH. This is all just guesswork though.
Hasbro must have some real idiots working for the company. It is easy to see where the money is, right now toys from the 80s is mostly bought by the 35-55 year old male demographic, therefore; for Star Wars original trilogy, for Transformers G1, and for G.I. Joe the A Real America Hero line. Hasbro should buy Super 7 or Neca, at least they have a better understanding of where the money is.
