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04-22-2021, 11:20 PM | #9861 |
Browncoat
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Ohio. For now.
Posts: 4,266
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04-22-2021, 11:28 PM | #9862 |
Stockings and heels life
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 488
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Quote:
Man, for a bunch of collectors a whole lotta people here seem really ignorant of some of the details of the toy production process and exclusivity agreements.
1. Hasbro can't just shit out action figures at a moment's notice. It's only been at best a couple months since Vipers were in stores. It takes a minimum of about 4 or 5 months to do a production run, and that assumes there's an opening on the factory schedule that isn't being taken up by a higher-priority line/assortment or another company altogether. What went up on Hasbro Pulse today was clearly a tiny amount, and they likely had to get permission from Target to even sell those. If I had to guess, I'd imagine they were "customer service stock." How long was it between Cobra Trooper and Cobra Infantry? Or between the unveiling of Regal Cobra Commander and delivery (and those may well be anomalies because Cobra Commander was already in production at the time and they just needed to do another paint master, and the Cobra Infantry may have been planned before the Cobra Trooper even hit stores). Either way at a MINIMUM that's the amount of time you have to look at before you could have larger numbers of Vipers showing up anywhere, and it may well be even more. Hasbro literally COULD NOT "just produce more" of the Vipers for themselves (or anyone but Target) to sell, because they're an exclusive. That's part of what being an exclusive means. There's likely a time period that has to pass before Hasbro can release a non-exclusive version, and while they were probably already warehousing tons of Snake-Eyes movie figures, they likely didn't want to warehouse a glut of Cobra Vipers that they'd have to wait months to sell. Storage costs money. 2. Contrary to popular belief, Hasbro isn't run by complete idiots. Vipers will be back. Maybe not EXACTLY the same as the Cobra Island versions but no more difference than the Cobra Infantry and Cobra Trooper (if that). Same with Beachhead and Firefly and Major Bludd and Baroness. We might have to wait a year or two for some of them (I doubt Hasbro wants to have movie-Baroness and non-Movie Baroness on the pegs at the same time if they can avoid it...which is also why I suspect we haven't gotten a "main costume" Storm Shadow in the Classified line yet), and they may have minor differences when they arrive, but Hasbro ain't exactly in the business of only using molds once. But the key point here is that it takes TIME. And yes, the movie release is probably disrupting that schedule some. I'd still expect that we start to see more "classic-inspired" stuff in the Holiday season, probably alongside the later couple movie figs. I know we all want our fix but patience pays off. Then again as I've noted a couple times before: Generally when GI Joe reaches the point where it's "meeting demand" the line starts to wither on the vine. Not counting exclusives such as the Amazon Stormy, or the Pulse exclusives, Cobra Island represents something like 40% of the entire in-store retail offerings for GI Joe, the portion that the general populace is going to have most access to. Two of them are THE most popular troop builders inspired by their original colors. The rest are major, popular characters. I'm not going to try to ask people to calm down or to think about how Hasbro works with production and distribution because it doesn't really help one bit. Regardless of what the intention of the Pulse drop today was, it continued to leave a sour taste in people's mouths. It definitely didn't make me feel like my Pulse membership was worthwhile. By the timee I even saw the email I was much too late. The reality is that right now there's literally nothing going on. No new reveals until June. No new product until late summer/fall, and all Joe fans have to see are youtubers getting a figure that the majority of them will never get. I myself take issue with the fact that we have to settle for "lesser" figures. I know I'm pretty guilty of buying the Infantry but why did I even have to? They weren't even really 20 bucks, as I had to buy about 20 bucks worth of stuff for them each, making them 40 dollar figures just to make them comparable to the Cobra Trooper from CI. At that point I'm spending 40 bucks just to make the Infantry complete why aren't I just getting Troopers? Fact of the matter is that any kind of retail versions of the Cobra Island figures would already be repaints. We DON'T also need to lose accessories and I don't understand why the Infantry had to. All the power to you if you don't think it's valuable to you, but Hasbro themselves claim the line is all about detail and accessories. It's a joke of a statement if Hasbro is taking accessories away from a retail version of the CI exclusive. I get that seeing complaint after complaint gets grating. But as I said there's nothing else. People STILL aren't getting Zartan and the Infantry, wave 2 is barely popping up in places and Flint/Lady Jaye have also been delayed. No matter how you cut it there's really nothing good to talk about GI Joe right now. All delays or exclusives you can't get. Hasbro's silence on this, granted they have more info in June, isn't helping. This is the time to get some PR points and actually maybe turn around some of this negativity but they aren't doing so. Last edited by PlanckEpoch; 04-22-2021 at 11:34 PM.. |
04-22-2021, 11:33 PM | #9863 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: Sarasota, Florida
Posts: 1,128
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Quote:
P.S. I confirmed at a store there is NO street date for the MOTU exclusive set in case anyone is wondering. |
04-22-2021, 11:53 PM | #9864 |
Browncoat
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Ohio. For now.
Posts: 4,266
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Yeah, clear as mud - isn't it? I'm guessing that anyone who 'waits' until the 18th will be out of luck. They will be gone by then. It seems that some people have already been finding them - although I would like some more definitive proof. Are they hitting stores now or not?
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04-22-2021, 11:59 PM | #9865 |
Browncoat
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Ohio. For now.
Posts: 4,266
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Quote:
If this is what it takes to get great figures like Baroness, Major Bludd, Trooper, and Zartan - I guess I accept it. I don't like it - but the alternative of having no line at all isn't fun either. |
04-23-2021, 12:00 AM | #9866 |
High-Voltage Specialist
Join Date: May 2020
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 1,884
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Quote:
I stopped by my Target this evening to check for that MOTU set. When I walked up to the door there were several people camped out and this was around 7:00PM. With actual camping gear. I have never seen that before at any Target in my area. There were signs up all over the place and the signs said something to the effect of "To keep our employees safe we are only giving out Pokemon cards Fridays at 8:00AM." So WTF?! I think I was too old for Pokemon so I don't know anything about it. Their cards are still a thing? Still a thing where people are camping out for them 12+ hours overnight in advance?
To me this shows we G.I. Joe collectors are not the worst. I am guessing something must have happened involving the safety of some Target people and people are crazy enough to camp out for cards? I don't think a Joe collector has done that yet. Just kind of surprised by this. |
04-23-2021, 12:05 AM | #9867 |
Browncoat
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Ohio. For now.
Posts: 4,266
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Now that we have seen Major Bludd, and he continues the succession of top-notch figures : Baroness, Zartan, Firefly, Cobra Trooper, Viper, Flint, Lady Jaye. Does anyone else notice the widening 'quality' gap between the initial Classified figures and the newer releases? Duke, Arctic Storm Shadow, Red Ninja, Roadblock, Scarlett - they all look like 'toys' compared to these 'works of art' we are getting now. Amazes me how quickly the line has improved.
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04-23-2021, 12:06 AM | #9868 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Florida
Posts: 1,486
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You know what could help. We all agree to pretend that this line is like some exclusive clothing brand, where drops are limited, and supply even more so. That way we can all be happy that GI Joe is doing really well and selling in the manner it was always meant to be.
Remember the days when there was stuff on shelves? That was for the plebs, this is the new era of collecting. Last edited by Stormtrooper12; 04-23-2021 at 01:49 AM.. |
04-23-2021, 01:08 AM | #9869 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Apr 2020
Location: California
Posts: 43
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Quote:
Now that we have seen Major Bludd, and he continues the succession of top-notch figures : Baroness, Zartan, Firefly, Cobra Trooper, Viper, Flint, Lady Jaye. Does anyone else notice the widening 'quality' gap between the initial Classified figures and the newer releases? Duke, Arctic Storm Shadow, Red Ninja, Roadblock, Scarlett - they all look like 'toys' compared to these 'works of art' we are getting now. Amazes me how quickly the line has improved.
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04-23-2021, 02:17 AM | #9870 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: Denver
Posts: 478
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Quote:
Man, for a bunch of collectors a whole lotta people here seem really ignorant of some of the details of the toy production process and exclusivity agreements.
1. Hasbro can't just shit out action figures at a moment's notice. It's only been at best a couple months since Vipers were in stores. It takes a minimum of about 4 or 5 months to do a production run, and that assumes there's an opening on the factory schedule that isn't being taken up by a higher-priority line/assortment or another company altogether. What went up on Hasbro Pulse today was clearly a tiny amount, and they likely had to get permission from Target to even sell those. If I had to guess, I'd imagine they were "customer service stock." How long was it between Cobra Trooper and Cobra Infantry? Or between the unveiling of Regal Cobra Commander and delivery (and those may well be anomalies because Cobra Commander was already in production at the time and they just needed to do another paint master, and the Cobra Infantry may have been planned before the Cobra Trooper even hit stores). Either way at a MINIMUM that's the amount of time you have to look at before you could have larger numbers of Vipers showing up anywhere, and it may well be even more. Hasbro literally COULD NOT "just produce more" of the Vipers for themselves (or anyone but Target) to sell, because they're an exclusive. That's part of what being an exclusive means. There's likely a time period that has to pass before Hasbro can release a non-exclusive version, and while they were probably already warehousing tons of Snake-Eyes movie figures, they likely didn't want to warehouse a glut of Cobra Vipers that they'd have to wait months to sell. Storage costs money. 2. Contrary to popular belief, Hasbro isn't run by complete idiots. Vipers will be back. Maybe not EXACTLY the same as the Cobra Island versions but no more difference than the Cobra Infantry and Cobra Trooper (if that). Same with Beachhead and Firefly and Major Bludd and Baroness. We might have to wait a year or two for some of them (I doubt Hasbro wants to have movie-Baroness and non-Movie Baroness on the pegs at the same time if they can avoid it...which is also why I suspect we haven't gotten a "main costume" Storm Shadow in the Classified line yet), and they may have minor differences when they arrive, but Hasbro ain't exactly in the business of only using molds once. But the key point here is that it takes TIME. And yes, the movie release is probably disrupting that schedule some. I'd still expect that we start to see more "classic-inspired" stuff in the Holiday season, probably alongside the later couple movie figs. I know we all want our fix but patience pays off. Then again as I've noted a couple times before: Generally when GI Joe reaches the point where it's "meeting demand" the line starts to wither on the vine. |
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