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02-19-2021, 02:49 PM | #9221 |
Browncoat
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Ohio. For now.
Posts: 4,265
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Quote:
I cannot do any of those things if I can't find it or the figures I want can only be acquired 5 times the price from a reseller who has a dozen of them. As well, I vastly prefer hunting toys physically. Plus, it's fun as hell to get to a store and see a whole shelf of things you're looking for. I definitely feel the positivity slipping away. At least for me, the prospect of missing out on everything, or getting less for the same price just isn't fun or exciting.
I also agree that a big part of the fun of this hobby was hunting and finding stuff in the wild. Toy stores are gone now - and Target / Walmart have horrible toy departments. They just don't care. The shelves are always 1/4 stocked at most. They would probably make more money for their stakeholders if they just scrapped the toy department all together and sold something else in that space. Retro line is a joke. Complete missed opportunity and idiotic decision making. But the worst part of all is Hasbro's lack of communication, planning, or caring. In this era of online communication and marketing, they should be all over this. |
02-19-2021, 03:08 PM | #9222 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: PA
Posts: 4,692
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One thing to keep in mind is that no single consumer unit keeps a brand going on its own. Not collectors, not casual consumers, or (whatever the segments are). The entire ecosystem is necessary.
Pure speculation, but if Hasbro's GI Joe sales targets w/r/t Classified are (less precisely) "oh hell, let's see if these still sell in 2020," then as long as they've exceeded expectations, they're satisfied with themselves. The numbers will certainly contradict the "you're simultaneously delighting and infuriating the collector base," but an executive who only wants topline results will see "sales targets blown the fuck away" and be excited by that alone. We focus on a small community who is actively looking for what's coming out soon, reading the tea leaves of website updates and box art to see what's potentially in the pipeline, and interacting with other people about Joes daily. We're not the average consumer - we're likely a small % of the overall consumer numbers (and, yes, a much larger per-capita spend on the brand, of course). This is all to say Hasbro needs to satisfy all those groups. They can't fully dedicate resources to ensuring the collector base is satisfied over everyone else. Making Target happy means having enough to put on shelves so you go there to find the product and pick up laundry detergent, diapers, and a sodastream cannister on the way out. That last point cuts across all of their brands. Again, this is stuff we all know, although it's tempting to reduce this down to "why don't they just open up pre-manufacturing preorders?" (waiting for ages on my Snake Supreme Cobra Commander, I can assure you I've nearly forgotten I ordered those, and consequently doing zero for my interest in the line). I want to empathize with Hasbro, but their continued silence on the issue - again, there's easy PR framing they can use on this that focuses on delivering to the consumer and doesn't need to place blame anywhere - their silence is inexcusable. Target can leap off the highest cliff. The last person I spoke with on the phone (when my 2X Viper preorder delivered with 1X Viper in the box and 2X Viper on the invoice, GAHHHHHHHHHH) assured me several times over that Target Apologizes For The Inconvenience™ and We Are Listening To Our Customers™. But I firmly but politely insisted that until we actually see any tangible change in behavior or fulfillment, the words mean absolutely zero.
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Trading for Nothing; Have: Nothing http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...-baroness.html |
02-19-2021, 04:12 PM | #9223 |
That Ruined Face
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: magical mid-tn
Posts: 4,823
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Quote:
I work as a web developer so it wasn't too difficult to sort of reverse engineer it, especially since they (until recently) didn't have any kind of authorization check on it.
Not all websites work like this but a lot of websites render such that it will load an initial skeleton of a page and then once that is loaded the page itself will fire off lots of other requests to fetch data to fill out the page asynchronously. So when you load a listing on Target it's just a template that then asks other endpoints for data such as the images on the page, similar product suggestions, inventory, etc. You can tell a page does this by opening your browsers developer console, switching to the Network or whatever equivalent tab is and reloading the page, which will then list off every network request made by that page plus what the server responds with. I think I figured since clicking the inventory for figures brought up an in page modal box with locations and their inventories I figured Target's web page must have an API endpoint for inventory. Sure enough I found a two request to two different API URLs containing the word fulfillment in it (one for retail, one for online) and looking at the responses in the dev console I could see it was JSON (a data data format often used when clients talk to servers) and that there were breakdowns of locations and their inventories. From there I could sus out how to build a request to check for specific figures because you just needed to change the TCIN in the URL for whatever figure you wanted. And then I just built out a script that runs automatically on an old Raspberry Pi I had, hits the api for relevant figures, parses the responses sent by the API (it's human readable in the console but it's not quickly digestible) and sends me a text if there's stock to get my attention quickly so I can check for an accompanying e-mail that gives me a more detailed breakdown of if a figure is in stock online or the qty and locations of retail stores that have them, since texts are limited to 180 characters and cost money (at least if I go over 100 texts a month using the Amazon Web Services integration I'm using for texting). I figure popfindr also works this way but like I said they only update every two hours, I assume to keep from getting their requests throttled by Target since I assume hundreds of thousands of people use popfindr, whereas I can get away with checking every five minutes for a handful of figures. Another perk of doing this is that when a figure is still only available for preorder Target hides retail inventory on their web page. However if you hit the API directly it will show quantities at stores before the preorder period ends, which can be very handy if you're willing to try to get a figure before the streetdate. Also this isn't the same inventory that Target employees have access to that tells you if something is on the truck, in the back, on hand, etc. This just tells you if an item should be at a Target and from the few times I've used it to buy figures it takes about 10-15 minutes for their online API to reflect something being sold. If you're interested in toying around with something like this, you can drop this URL in your browser for retail inventories to get the JSON response used by the page. Just change the TCIN, ie the 81817613 in "fiats/81817613?key", to the figure you want and change the value of "nearby=12345" to your zip code. This particular URL checks for the Marvel Legends Retro Storm. https://api.target.com/fulfillment_a...am_member_test Like I said, they've locked these down for the current GI Joe figures and I assume they might do that for other figures as well, if not sunset this endpoint altogether, so your mileage might vary. Also they can change the API whenever which can cause this URL to stop working (usually because it's expecting a new variable), although they recently changed their online inventory endpoint so that they're now exposing numbers for their online inventory for figures when they weren't doing that before.
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Complete and Total Classified Super Fan |
02-19-2021, 05:14 PM | #9224 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2020
Location: America
Posts: 1,414
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Over on Toyark they showed the new Marvel Legends Fan First friday stuff.. just really makes Classified look even worse..
regularly releasing figures, 6 figures per wave, spot on designs that actually look like the characters they represent, and you can actually buy them! |
02-19-2021, 05:30 PM | #9225 |
OG Joe Collector Since 82
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 103
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Quote:
Over on Toyark they showed the new Marvel Legends Fan First friday stuff.. just really makes Classified look even worse..
regularly releasing figures, 6 figures per wave, spot on designs that actually look like the characters they represent, and you can actually buy them! |
02-19-2021, 05:49 PM | #9226 |
That Ruined Face
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: magical mid-tn
Posts: 4,823
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Quote:
Over on Toyark they showed the new Marvel Legends Fan First friday stuff.. just really makes Classified look even worse..
regularly releasing figures, 6 figures per wave, spot on designs that actually look like the characters they represent, and you can actually buy them! I collect both. But, it's become harder for me to get as excited about more ML figures with very little texture that use a smooth 12 year old buck for the majority of the "costumed" releases. After handling GJC figures ML figures actually seem limited. Sure, GJC reuses parts too. But I think they hide it better. I truly understand your frustration. And share it. Marvel just enjoys off the charts worldwide popularity. GI Joe? Not so much. Right.
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Complete and Total Classified Super Fan |
02-19-2021, 05:53 PM | #9227 |
Official know it all
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,797
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Quote:
Over on Toyark they showed the new Marvel Legends Fan First friday stuff.. just really makes Classified look even worse..
regularly releasing figures, 6 figures per wave, spot on designs that actually look like the characters they represent, and you can actually buy them! |
02-19-2021, 06:10 PM | #9228 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: NJ
Posts: 240
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I’ve experienced it on and off with other toy lines. The first Star Wars attempt at deluxe figures (Unleashed), plus a few of their usual releases, LEGO, etc. But GI Joe was always my favorite toy franchise as a kid growing up in the 80s and absolutely something I have supported forever. It absolutely is just too much frustration to have at every turn with these releases. They have to match the frustration with an equal amount of hope and they’ve made no attempt at that.
Quote:
My thoughts exactly, thank you.
I really don't like to be super negative about toys. That happened to me for a span of two years in 2014-2016 with Transformers Combiner Wars and it legit fucked me up on a emotional and mental level. I feel the same is happening to GI Joe Classified for different reasons. I WANT to be excited. I WANT to be hanging around every bit of rumor or news for releases. I WANT to be ready to open my wallet and support a brand that I love to death. I cannot do any of those things if I can't find it or the figures I want can only be acquired 5 times the price from a reseller who has a dozen of them. As well, I vastly prefer hunting toys physically. I'm a bit anal and I like to inspect for obvious paint flaws and gaffs, so ordering online robs me of a level of OCD that I kinda need when I'm toy hunting. Plus, it's fun as hell to get to a store and see a whole shelf of things you're looking for. Happened to me yesterday for Transformers and it's a feeling that just isn't replicated getting a package at your doorstep. I definitely feel the positivity slipping away. I've been doom scrolling about GI Joe the past week and all the talk all over the place has either been about Classified being hard to find, continued complaints of Cobra Island, Retro Line kinda sucking, or people just talking about the vintage through PoC stuff with fondness. I never want to be anyone bringing people down, so since I'm out I'm just gonna go back to lurking. I've already aired my negativity and that's enough for everyone. For those staying positive and in the Joe game, good luck, good hunting. I don't know how you do it. At least for me, the prospect of missing out on everything, or getting less for the same price just isn't fun or exciting. |
02-19-2021, 06:39 PM | #9229 |
ha!
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Earth?
Posts: 3,437
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I get that hasbro wants a retail presence, but it seems like a lot to do about nothing if figures aren't on the shelves.
On a positive note, this scale has gotten me buying limited marvel legonds figures. They have some really amazing figures, but about 5 times as many turds. So I'll pick and choose in that line while I wait to see if GI Joe gets it together by the time the movie drops. |
02-19-2021, 08:42 PM | #9230 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Michigan
Posts: 2,346
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Quote:
Good luck to Star Wars fans that have a more casual interest in the toy line ever getting their hands on Mando. EDIT: I should have specified "brick and mortar", I didn't mean at retail in price only or anything like that. Last edited by wmichben; 02-19-2021 at 08:46 PM.. |
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