With stuff like this, almost certainly not. We'd be lucky to get one via Selects or at a con.

I do get the frustration with exclusives like Earth mode Hound or Thrust. That's stuff that definitely may be sped along by an exclusive slot opening up but would probably happen a year or two later without one.

 

I think that’s a very cherry-picked example. When do you think we would get this red G2 Jazz in a general retail line?

 

I don't think anyone can definitively say what a world without exclusives would look like, because that world would just never exist. I know very few lines that have no form of exclusive product, and the popularity of the concept didn't materialize out of thin air. Exclusives make a lot of sense for Hasbro and the retailer, so I can't ever see the practice disappearing in a healthy market.

Does it make a lot of sense for us? I dunno. It causes a lot of headaches, but it does increase the amount of different products made. These capsule lines have been somewhat impressive in their missions. By default, the availability issue is a net negative. Hard to tell really.

I wouldn't use Ironhide as an example, though. Ironhide will always get more renditions as long as the brand is profitable like it is now. Now Tow Line? Toy colors Blackarachnia? The Guardian Robot? Those I think are more relevant to entertain on this topic.

 

I think it's conceivable we might get one of these as a Selects release. Maybe even a few if Pulse replaced Shattered Glass with G2.

We definitely wouldn't be getting all of these and probably wouldn't get 2+ leaders as Hasbro tends to be very reserved about Leader+ redecos.

 

years I'd guess

But then again, they are putting characters with no history in the main line, like those deluxe Junkions, so who knows. Those shelfwarming Fossilizers were in the main line. Skids, who was barely even in two episodes, is in the main line.

 

Okay, so by your logic, in three years we're going to get a non-exclusive new mold general retail Tiger Stripes Yellow Grimlock.

Sure.

 

No one (to the best of my knowledge) is talking about not getting "characters" (sloppy word usage, including by myself, notwithstanding). We're talking about not getting specific TOYS (distinctive representations of characters, if you prefer). My apologies for my own part in that confusion.

 

I mean, Junkions and Fossilizers have a couple of things going for them. One of which is a play pattern for kids.

Junkions as a group are one of the more recognizable things you can do, maybe moreso than stuff like Animated or Transmetals.

I would expect G.I.Joe Classified to be more likely, for example, to get new Dreadnoks at retail before we'd see unproduced stuff like Ninja Commando Flint or the Manimals. Dreadnoks as a concept are probably more famous than a lot of things in G.I. Joe but I doubt many people could name more than five.

Junkions as a concept are probably one of the more famous elements of Transformers. Millions of people know them. I also doubt many people could name more than one so it isn't like it's all that noticeable when you invent a new one as long as the design language carries over.

A lot of people I grew up with don't have any knowledge of G2 beyond green tank Megatron and MAYBE Laser Optimus. My best friend from grade school remembers those two and black Sideswipe and he's memorized the weapons loadout and social security numbers of the early G.I. Joes. It's not that he wasn't into Transformers. It's just that it mostly ended for him with the cartoon and the Power/Target/Headmasters and maybe the final issue of the original comic. He knows tank Megatron from the Joe comics.

The crazy neon glory years are kind of obscure.

It's probably worth remembering what I like to point out:

Movies > TV > Toys > Comics

At least in terms of audience size. And within each of those are better and worse known phases.

By the time you get to unproduced stuff, it's only forum dwellers and wiki editors paying attention. Hasbro actually has to explain what they're doing. Hell, look at this thread. Every half dozen pages, you have another 3-5 people asking WTF these designs are.

Hasbro could probably gaslight us all by releasing fake unproduced designs and we wouldn't know the difference.

With a Junkion, nobody really has to ask what they are. I bet a lot of people don't even know these designs don't come from the 86 movie. There are DOZENS of Junkions.

 

Even if that were true, I'm not okay with saying "don't worry. It'll still get made. Just wait three years." All we can know for sure is what we're actually getting now (or in the visible future), and that we're able to get them because certain circumstances allow them to exist (i.e., exclusives).

 

Okay. I’ll wait then. Per your own example, ER Ironhide didn’t prevent SS86 Ironhide from being made. By your logic then, this Walmart red G2 Jazz won’t prevent him from being a general retail release in a few years. Let’s see if you’re right.

Selects and Pulse are still exclusives, though

 

Oh. Sure. I think getting anything unsupported by media or retail toy release during one of the glory periods of a franchise is tricky.

It's easier to make up recognizable LOOKING stuff.

If you exclude exclusives, I bet more people would go with a random horned dude in a loincloth in a He-Man line than the New Adventures space stuff. (Even WITH media, it's just not the phenomenon that the 80s toys were.)

But even then, even just among exclusives, how many leader redecos does Hasbro do in a year?

They budget for about three Leaders in the actual retail lines.

I don't think Buzzworthy has gotten any new decos in that class. Walgreens definitely hasn't. I don't think Amazon has.

Fan Channel gets maybe one a year. Pulse gets maybe a couple. The Pulse ones are generally themed to Shattered Glass.

Walmart is the ONLY brick and mortar retailer that opens up new leader class slots. Even WITH exclusives existing, there doesn't seem to be a huge call for Leader or Commander redecos.

I'm very curious where we get G2 Motormaster. I'm thinking it has to be Pulse.

 

I don't disagree with almost everything you said, but I had just enough St Patrick's Day cheer to be pedantic enough to state that the early Joes didn't have SSN's on the file cards.... 

 

Skids was a very prominent character in the Marvel Comics for an entire year. Not everything is the cartoon.

 

He's also one of the very few remaining 1984 toy releases to be done since WFC.

 

He was voted best erotic scene for that run, too.

 

but Skids' toy was a 1985 release.

 

Actually, no.

G1 Skids was released in 1984 and probably isn't quite as rare as previously believed!

 

We've discovered recently that he was shipped in 1984. It's nuts, I know.

 

I miss Siege, when Selects was thriving and there were just over 10 exclusives for the whole line (their nonexistent availability in the UK not withstanding) rather than 3 Selects and a fifth of the output being exclusive (the fact that they’re somewhat easier to get these days not withstanding).

 

Huh, interesting.