Not exactly true. They have obviously bungled the way they handled this line. If they needed retail contracts so much they could have just stuck to the regular releases and not even done exclusives. They understocked the regular releases even. And yes I read the argument you can find them online easier, etc.. but the fact of the matter is this was a general release toy line that was even sold in drug stores (walgreens) and yet not one single store has been able to keep stock or even get restock to the point that some chains (walmart specifically) have put the line out of their Floorplan because they dont want a constant empty peg left for a company that isn't gonna fill it. If retail was so important because they want joe blow to get into the line, then the product has to be in the store for joe blow to find. Top that with years of market research would show 6inch sells, and that even a quick scour of the net would yield results of people asking for 6in joes going back years as well. Add to that you took army builders and main characters and gave them an even harder release being exclusive AND rather than address the fanship with any discernable care of comment and it is pretty easy to say they screwed up and are stupid without it being considered backlash or insult. It is fact. BTW I am curious in retailers eyes, specifically target, if they can even accumulate the data of whether this line hurt them worse than helped. I know for one myself if I go to target specifically hunting the line and it isnt there I am more likely to end up upset and leave than I am to buy other things in their stores. I have read time and time again that many people feel like boycotting target and very few actually say that their fruitless trip to the store for the figure results in a different item purchase. In other words, it is probably a drip in the bucket but money normally willingly spent at that store may never come back to that store if someone actually never wants to return there.
Went to Target for some Kingdom figures and for the 5th time since the line has launched, I saw Classified figures on the pegs! They had Duke, Scarlett, and three Firefly's. I already have Duke and Scarlett and Firefly honestly never appealed to me, so they all stayed on the pegs. Besides, I really only had the money for Kingdom figures so better to leave the Joe's for someone who wants them more than me.
No to NECA unless they change their plastic for the better. They can sculpt with the best of them but their plastic quality leaves a lot to be desired.
If you go back and firefly is there I can do cost plus shipping and even add a bit for your trouble. They still aren't around me as far as I can tell.
Not gonna make excuses for them. They may not see things the way you do literally because some on the brand haven’t been there that long. Brand manager has changed 2-3 times since 2015. Classified was made using some digital sculpts Boss Fight Studio provided years back, not sure if it was when some of their members were still Hasbro employees. Newest manager as far as last year was someone who AFAIK, was from a different branch of Hasbro altogether, for board games or something. Meanwhile, some previous designers and managers were laid off. Others like Dwight Stall, moved to Marvel Legends. So the way I see it, it’s a largely newer team using older assets and seeing where it goes while making some tooling improvements like going pinless with Classified Zartan. It does not help that Hasbro has been skiddish with GI Joe outside of movie years since the return to mass retail in Fall 2002 and that the movie they were relying on got pushed back.
So if you went looking for Viper and didn’t find it but found another toy you wanted, you would not buy that other toy out of anger of not finding the Viper and leave with nothing despite actually wanting the other toy? most customers would not behave that way.
No, that isn't what I meant. What I meant is if I go for lets say viper and I dont find it (and I dont find any other figure I want either) then I am less likely to actually take the time to grab a basket and shop gor toiletries, canned goods, home goods, etc. After all the entire argument thus far has been the main reason they have exclusives is to drive foot traffic but it may be having less of a positive impact than they realize.
When the retailer aims to have you buy something else it could be anything, and thus if you would buy the toy one of the benefits of the exclusive worked even if you didn’t find it — you bought something else. Mission accomplished. the idea that they hope you’ll buy something else isn’t dependent on your buying something unrelated to what you were looking for, it’s anything at all. They got you in the store and you spent your money.
But I'd wager that if they put out 6inch GI Joe RAH figures next to the Classified ones people would gravitate to the former and not the latter. But as it is there is only one option to buy so people do. That doesn't make it the right choice, that makes it the only choice.* * Please note this is all conjecture on my part. Obviously I'm not a marketing strategist for Hasbro. You can tell this because if I was I'd have better things to do then post s#!t about them on the internet.
Thanks man. I figured last year I would’ve spent that money going to bars and shit on a good weekend. At least I got 6 months to pay it off this time around.
So bad news. I guess Hasbro has shipped out every case of Firefly and Viper to Target that they were going to produce, so it's unlikely many stores are going to get another set in, if they get one at all.
After all the Targets in my area sold out of Cobra Island wave 1 before the August 14 on sale date, nearly all my stores received a restock of Troopers around the time Baroness showed up on August 25. I took this pic on August 28th.
