yes, but with things like buying in bulk wholesale and things of that nature, they can do it. Alyosha is a one man shop. If he had 1,000 employees and a manufacturing machinery, he could drop the price by making stuff in bulk. But there's not enough of a market for his goods in the mainstream.

How can Hasbro sell figures for $6.00 a piece? they have the manufacturing resources that Aloysha and GTG customs don't!

Keep in mind too that Alyosha is infringing on Hasbro's rights. He said that if Hasbro comes down on him, he'll change the names of the figures. ;)

To kinda of get back to the original topic, I can't see anymore comic packs. Hasbro is in business to make money. The 3 3/4 stuff wasn't selling well so the line got canceled. Hasbro recognized that although the line wasn't selling well, they had a small loyal group of collectors. Hasbro understood that we collectors have very different tastes than the kids to whom they were marketing the toys. The result was the DTC line, which was designed with collectors in mind. lThe survival of the DTC line was totally in our own hands, but as it turned out we didn't buy enough and the line got canceled. We can't blame hasbro for not continuing to make and sell figures at a financial loss. But we can blame them the non-existent marketing, the horrible distribution problems. TRU distribution of GI Joe product is a joke. My local TRU never got the two six packs last fall, or the last two comic packs. And they only got a handful of the DTC figures. When you can't get your product to the shelves its not gonna sell.

I think the 3 3/4 line is dead unless the 25th stuff does really well and I don't see that happening.

Hasbro used DTC to say to collectors, "See, there's not enough of you guys to justify keeping the "3.75" line alive." They put it online because they knew that unlike being in a store where a kid can see it and beg a parent for it (thus generate "non-collector" sales) the parents usually don't impulse buy stuff for kids online. They knew from the begining we could never carry the line. You're right, crappy distribution, no marketing, they set it up for failure!

What killes me is how they claim the S6 is selling. It must be selling somewhere other than Southern California. Everytime I walk into TRU, the shevles are loaded with S6, but all the 3.75 stuff is sold out! maybe they just have a ton of S6 stock, but I see more kids on my block playing with 3.75 inch then S6. I guess it's easier to sell 1 $15.00 figure in 3 days and say it's selling vs. selling 3 $5.99 figures a day! I dunno. I'm glad I'm not in business! LOL!

I think many of us overestimate the degree to which we affect Hasbro. ;)

I say just make new molds and keep us fans Happy & Broke!!! ;)

comic 3 packs
 

I say to Hasbro, keep the assembly line of sh*t coming!! If it doesn't sell, it'll probably be a collector's item.

No, 3 3/4" just wasn't a break-out super hit. I've heard that VvsV did decent business. Hasbro wanted major business and something that Wal-Mart, the bully of retail, would go for. Hence Sigma Six, which originally was the replacement for 12" Joes, became the "it" brand that Hasbro focused all significant Gi JOE funding on.

But that's what I heard. I'm not a market analyst industry expert, and I'm bit tired of every other fan acting like an arm chair economics and marketing expert.

IMO, the market forces are too great for Hasbro to keep GI Joe 3.75" going forever, despite the strong loyalty of fans. Action figures as a whole are selling less and less each year replaced by XBoxes and Playstations. Star Wars 3.75" figures are starting to fade, and with the end of all the Star Wars movies, the pressure of cheap imitations from China, I don't see any reason to think that the GI Joe 3.75" line will continue forever. The reason that Hasbro may have even re-designed and brought out the 25th Anniversary guys is for collectors--- I doubt they really have any great visions of sales beyond the core collectors and a few other impulse shoppers.

I meant to comment on this a few days ago. LavaBoss pretty much hit it on the head. VvV sold well. Or sold evenly. The problem is that GI Joe Hasbro wanted everything done in a very short amount of time. If their 100,000 units didn't sell in one month, they were pissed. Doesn't matter if it sold over 2 months. 3 months. 6 months. They wanted an overnite success. I don't know WHY they felt they need a 'flash in the pan' type of sales. Maybe it was Walmart.

Sigma6 ended up being the next theme. They still wanted instant, over-nite sales. Did they get it? Nope. But I think S6 did better at the start than VvV. And it's strong enough to give up the S6 theme and go 3 directions! But here's the kicker. Hit the link and scroll down a tiny and check out the new packaging!

April's wave of Soldiers