[hahoo3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cobracobra

Also kids bought GI JOE in the 1980s I can safely assume 80% of the GI JOE populous is adult collectors like us. I dont think GI JOE has been the driving consumer force that Hasbro planned on or didn't plan on and that is easily proven with the lack of GI JOE in the aisle and lack of care and investment in the past 2 years of action figures we have been shown.

I agree with this. I was just at the stores and saw the new Superman movie figures and they're the same crap as those non-articulated Batman ones!!! It got me thinking, since Joes are the most articulated figures sold in stores, it's because they're adult collector driven. If Hasbro started making them like the shitty 5 points of articulation drivers we just got, we'd stop buying them and Joes would go buy, buy.

I'm pretty sure they were sold in waves in the 80's. I wasn't able to go out and buy all the figures and vehicles release in '83 at the beginning of the year. It keeps us wanting, chomping at the bit, looking forward for whats to come.

[Scoop]

Wow this is freaky because I was going to make a thread about this same topic today.

I just received a MOC Scoop figure in the mail today so I was reminiscing about the good old days when this same exact idea popped into my head.

Sadly I feel those days have come and gone.

The way the industry is today I can't see any company going for this, especially when less and less kids are playing with toys and the fact that stores only want to sell things that have a cartoon or movie attached to them.

Now if Hasbro would start an adult collectible website like Mattel has with Matty Collector then maybe we could get something like that.

Unfortunately I don't ever see this happening in retail stores ever again.

[cardensb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaedryl

$2.99 in 1982 = $7.30 today. So there is some price inflation beyond just general inflation. This almost might be why figures still seem to sell well at $7.99 but not as well at $9.99 (the pegs and pegs of SW figures at my local target would support this)

Except in 1982, they were less than $2.99 each (at least in Ohio). I paid $1.99 each before tax for my first figures. I remember this because my allowance $2 a week and I renegotiated my allowance so I could cover the 7% sales tax.

[Python_Puckman]

I wondered that too. Then I saw all the figures they made in 2009 alone, and then compared that with all the figures made in 1986, which I consider is about when Joe was at its peak.

Waves seem to allow them to keep pumping out the product rather than letting the same stuff sit around for a year. Not saying one is better than the other, just something I noticed. Waves sure make it harder to collect considering the windows of opportunity are so short.

[Riotheory]

There used to be a fellow called gunslingercbr around here that could explain all that kind of stuff in a detailed, eloquent manner, but I've not seen him around in a while.

R.

[jestermon]

When were vehicles only made int he USA? I don''t remember this ever beign on any of my Joe stuff.

And if they were made in the USA today they would more than likely cost 4 times as much since factory workers would want $40 an hour instead of a decent wage.

Also workers used to actually be able to have some kind of control over their department now the stores are soved full of warm bodies that can't even tell where things go even with a scanner and labels telling them where to put the item.

Hasbro can't control what happens to their product on a store level, if WM wants it to sit int here warehouse and waste money they do.

[BlazerZR5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardensb

Except in 1982, they were less than $2.99 each (at least in Ohio). I paid $1.99 each before tax for my first figures. I remember this because my allowance $2 a week and I renegotiated my allowance so I could cover the 7% sales tax.

^X2!

I can back that statement up,I lived in a suburbs of Cleveland,Ohio(Bedford then Solon) during that time. I'd get my GIjoes from Kiddie City,Woolworths(also got a hamster there once)&Gold Circle for under $2 each,and tax was 7% in Cuyahoga County back then.

[Blaster'spunchingbagg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

Yep, as noted with the Wal-Mart comments.

To clarify the strategy: If the same figures shipped all year, then basically the toy collectors would get all the figures they want within the first month or two of the figures being released, and potentially wouldn't even go into their stores without new product in their to entice them.

With the wave system, yes, there is the problem of pegwarming (which would still exist with the "One wave a year" system), but at least the chance of finding new product keeps collectors coming into the stores year-round, and when they're in the stores, there's a reasonable chance they might buy other things along the way.

TL;DR - New product coming in at semi-regular intervals year-round keeps people coming in at regular intervals.

I like this comment because it's realistic. About a year or two years back I used to specifically got to Target on "hunts" but now I go to Target for printer paper, hand soap, frozen meals and gym shorts and maybe check the toy isles if I feel like it. Bu honestly my search 90% of the time is fruitless. I don't buy current Transformers, I hate starwars now, they have the same old Marvel Legends for the past 4 months and the same joe figures too, what is there for me to buy?

[Xenos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardensb

Except in 1982, they were less than $2.99 each (at least in Ohio). I paid $1.99 each before tax for my first figures. I remember this because my allowance $2 a week and I renegotiated my allowance so I could cover the 7% sales tax.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlazerZR5

^X2!

I can back that statement up,I lived in a suburbs of Cleveland,Ohio(Bedford then Solon) during that time. I'd get my GIjoes from Kiddie City,Woolworths(also got a hamster there once)&Gold Circle for under $2 each,and tax was 7% in Cuyahoga County back then.

I'm pretty sure the MSRP was $2.99 in '82. Maybe you were just shopping at places that sold them for less, but if you look at Yojoe's carded images of the '82 figures, the ones with price tags on them range between $2.50 and $3.00.

[TheLongestDay]

WAL-MART has no soul...