[captain mal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IzzyTipsy

BTW, I noticed in the Philly Area Ross are getting a bunch of Marauders BBQs recently. Kind of hilarious to see these leak after seeing a pile of BBQs for $7 at Ross this weekend.

A part of me wonders if the sublines are doing well or not? I almost never saw the Crimson Viper or BAT at retail, but as we go on I notice more and more TF and PP waves rotting away at Target.

Obviously Night Force is an exception since Walmart DOESN'T EVEN STOCK THEM.

I think the strategy of exclusives and pre-orders is going to kill things in the long run. Python Patrol, Tiger Force, Night Force, Crimson, Retro Cardback, etc. THESE are the mainstream Brick N Mortar releases - and none of them seem to sell very well. I think they need to end pre-orders, cut back on exclusives - and make mainline waves that fans need to hunt for like the good old days.

Just my two cents...

[captain mal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ash Talon

Star Wars are way more nitpicky and obsessed with accuracy. SW fans obsess over lines on Stormtrooper helmets.

Star Wars main problem is their lines have become BORING. Boring sculpts. Dull designs. Lackluster execution. Just going through the motions.

I really fear that Hasbro will look at Lenny and the Joe team - and how incredible their designs, sculpting, and execution is... and poach them for a rebooted Star Wars line. I could imagine a rebooted Star Wars line, done in the quality and attention to detail and with the amount of love that goes into the Joe line.

[Mer Jim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain mal

Star Wars main problem is their lines have become BORING. Boring sculpts. Dull designs. Lackluster execution. Just going through the motions.

I really fear that Hasbro will look at Lenny and the Joe team - and how incredible their designs, sculpting, and execution is... and poach them for a rebooted Star Wars line. I could imagine a rebooted Star Wars line, done in the quality and attention to detail and with the amount of love that goes into the Joe line.

Heaven forbid!!

the problem here, of course, is the need for constant re-use and not so many new sculpts for Star Wars, plus Disney's meddling, plus licensing costs, plus people hating the sequel garbage... the list goes on and on. TVC and Black series in the past have had loving quality and detail, etc.... if they did that again they'd just be like... redoing old figures.

me, I want NEW characters in TVC . New, weird characters . and i don't buy Black Series. but they could use some more diversity of sculpt. but of course, the sales and numbers aren't there for them to invest in all that. So it's a vicious cycle of catch 22's!

in other words... our wonderful Joe pals couldn't fix these problems... so don't poach 'em!

[captain mal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toa Maximus

Well we'll probably start seeing variants of characters once they burn through main guys. It could be a dud or it could be the next Pursuit of Cobra

I think Classified has a ton of depth still to mine. The comic series has barely been mentioned. And yes, they can start transitioning to new versions of classic characters... maybe they don't match any ARAH figure exactly - but they could be inspiration. So many A-level characters can have new variations for outfits and new figures:

Zartan w/ mohawk.
Rock n Roll with gattling guns.
Stalker - either Tundra or Black and Yellow
Roadblock w/ turtleneck sweater
Storm Shadow v2
Major Bludd - talking battle commanders

[DFender]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desperad07

I think a lot of people underestimate us purists. For one, a great figure is a great figure. Also, a key thing is if we are purists, it?s been nearly 40 years since the iconic era and this is one of the first tastes of GI Joe figures being hot again. I?m certainly apt to ride it for a long time. It?s been such a rush to collect again.

I also don?t have issue with figures from the later 80s. 1986-1988 have a lot left to released and there?s a lot of iconic figures in there. 1989-1990 also have a lot that could either be adapted closely to their originals or evolved into something better. Throw in what?s left of 1982-1985 and vehicle drivers as well as new characters or new versions of characters we?ve gotten, and that could easily go beyond 2025.

My issues really didn?t begin until 1991-1994 but that?s mostly related to the goofy colors and clunky weapons. If there are good characters in those years, I trust the design team to port them to becoming iconic Classified versions.

It sounds like you might not be a purist after all! But either way, I agree with you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain mal

I think the strategy of exclusives and pre-orders is going to kill things in the long run. Python Patrol, Tiger Force, Night Force, Crimson, Retro Cardback, etc. THESE are the mainstream Brick N Mortar releases - and none of them seem to sell very well. I think they need to end pre-orders, cut back on exclusives - and make mainline waves that fans need to hunt for like the good old days.

Just my two cents...

No offense, as I feel like we're often aligned on a lot of topics and tastes, but the above suggestion sounds like an absolute nightmare. I couldn't disagree more. I don't want to hunt for anything. I want to easily acquire the toys I like. The beginning years of this line SUCKED from that stand point. I almost had a physical altercation with someone over a Baroness figure. No thanks.

I want to pre order my figures, sit back, and have them delivered to my door. I get absolutely no satisfaction out of searching for figures and I couldn't care less if these toys were in stores or not as long as I get the ones I want.

[Toa Maximus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain mal

I think the strategy of exclusives and pre-orders is going to kill things in the long run. Python Patrol, Tiger Force, Night Force, Crimson, Retro Cardback, etc. THESE are the mainstream Brick N Mortar releases - and none of them seem to sell very well. I think they need to end pre-orders, cut back on exclusives - and make mainline waves that fans need to hunt for like the good old days.

Just my two cents...

Well but we as collectors don't want things like Cobra Island as exclusives and retailers demand some form of exclusive.

Tiger Force and Python Patrol stuff actually seems to sell pretty decently from what I've actually seen on shelves. They stick around longer but they generally sell through (more so python patrol).

Retro did well enough for them to make it it's on subline within the line.

Hard to judge night force because it just never hit brick and mortar. It seems to have done pretty good online though.

[Trigue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain mal

Star Wars main problem is their lines have become BORING. Boring sculpts. Dull designs. Lackluster execution. Just going through the motions.

I really fear that Hasbro will look at Lenny and the Joe team - and how incredible their designs, sculpting, and execution is... and poach them for a rebooted Star Wars line. I could imagine a rebooted Star Wars line, done in the quality and attention to detail and with the amount of love that goes into the Joe line.

But would Lenny do it though? His heart is very clearly in everything hes doing with GIJoe. I can't see him, or anyone having that same drive if their heart isn't in it. I think thats part of the problem with most of the Star Wars brand team. Thier hearts are not in it, they've been broken.

Hopefully with Patrick gone and Steve back in, things will change for the better with the Star Wars team. Of course, too I'm sure alot of what kills the drive of anyone working on Star Wars is Disney. After hearing what the guys at GTP toys went through with them, I can't imagine how much of a pain it is to make anything for a Disney owned brand.

[Mr Wolf 12000]

[QUOTE=captain mal;5752442 I think they need to.... cut back on exclusives - and ....
Just my two cents...[/QUOTE] (Edited for specificity)

You arent wrong about exclusives

Of the 113 available numbered releases (00-110,113,788)
9 Carded and 5 repaint/field variants
69/127 are exclusive.

Haslab 5
Pulse/Pulsecon/sdcc 12
Target 22
Walmart 16
Amazon 5
Fan Channel 9

And we know of at least 5 haslab, 1 target, 1 fan channel and 2 Pulse exclusives for this year between preorders and leaks.

Fun fact EVERY vehicle is an exclusive

[DarthBrett]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobra Agent 66

I agree. I think 2024 will be the last "great year" of Classified. Once they start burning through the Dreadnoks and Iron Grenadiers, there's really just a few gems left. If it hadn't been for all the Python Patrol and Tiger Force, it would have peaked earlier.

I respectfully disagree 100% and think there's easily another 2 years of greatness in Classified!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desperad07

I think a lot of people underestimate us purists. For one, a great figure is a great figure. Also, a key thing is if we are purists, it?s been nearly 40 years since the iconic era and this is one of the first tastes of GI Joe figures being hot again. I?m certainly apt to ride it for a long time. It?s been such a rush to collect again.

I also don?t have issue with figures from the later 80s. 1986-1988 have a lot left to released and there?s a lot of iconic figures in there. 1989-1990 also have a lot that could either be adapted closely to their originals or evolved into something better. Throw in what?s left of 1982-1985 and vehicle drivers as well as new characters or new versions of characters we?ve gotten, and that could easily go beyond 2025.

My issues really didn?t begin until 1991-1994 but that?s mostly related to the goofy colors and clunky weapons. If there are good characters in those years, I trust the design team to port them to becoming iconic Classified versions.

I always think of 1991 as the last great year of ARAH, not 1990. There are some really fantastic figures that came out of '91: Snake Eyes, Big Ben, Cobra Commander, the Incinerator, the Desert Scorpion, Red Star, Interrogator, Dusty, Tracker, Mercer, Low-Light (just rename him someone else since he looks nothing like v1 Low-Light), Heavy Duty, the Night Vulture and the Crimson Guard Immortal. But I can see why some folks don't care for 1991, but most of the characters didn't have the crazy colors just yet (save for the v2 B.A.T.) and most of them had some really great accessories, though the over-sized spring-loaded and colored weapons did start cropping up that year too. 1992 is when things really got super zany though and then 1993 it went full TMNT. I think Classified will have to tone down some of those color decos down a little from those later years and give some of those characters completely different weapons (which should be easy enough). But even 1992-1994 have quite a few gems and if Hasbro makes the colors more subdued and gives them better weapons, a lot of those will make for great Classified figures.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFender

You know it's a slow news period when the "death of the line" topic comes back up.

And how. Although we did just got a full day of renders not even 2 weeks ago and are about to get a live stream in another 2 weeks so we have lots to talk about! Speaking of which, I am really excited to get to see Wave 16 in its final form and see the packaging and artwork and official product diorama photos on the next stream!

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain mal

I think the strategy of exclusives and pre-orders is going to kill things in the long run. Python Patrol, Tiger Force, Night Force, Crimson, Retro Cardback, etc. THESE are the mainstream Brick N Mortar releases - and none of them seem to sell very well. I think they need to end pre-orders, cut back on exclusives - and make mainline waves that fans need to hunt for like the good old days.

Just my two cents...

I prefer online pre-ordering. I really don't have the time nor the patience anymore to go out hunting on wild goose chases for toys at age 45 lol

[Toa Maximus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFender

It sounds like you might not be a purist after all! But either way, I agree with you.



No offense, as I feel like we're often aligned on a lot of topics and tastes, but the above suggestion sounds like an absolute nightmare. I couldn't disagree more. I don't want to hunt for anything. I want to easily acquire the toys I like. The beginning years of this line SUCKED from that stand point. I almost had a physical altercation with someone over a Baroness figure. No thanks.

I want to pre order my figures, sit back, and have them delivered to my door. I get absolutely no satisfaction out of searching for figures and I couldn't care less if these toys were in stores or not as long as I get the ones I want.

Oh I missed the end preorders part of that message. Killing preorders would basically kill the line for most of us. If you hate preorders, you don't have to preorder. You can still hunt the line on retail shelves. Hel even without night force technically hitting shelves, I still saw most of the line on shelves because of returns.