But still you would figure the bottom line in any Business (We all know Hasbro ain't no charity or non-profit organization) is money!! If these guys had HALF a brain, they could keep the profit margin and please consumers...(I know, there are ALWAYS some people you CAN'T Please no matter what!). Take the DTC line......4 individaul figures and two Army builders per wave.....let's face the facts...army builders typically sell better than individual figures. How many viper pits and shadow guard packs are still warming pegs? And how long does it take any noob to this hobby to figure that out? 10 min?

why didn't they do a 4 army builder / 2 individual Character split? That would mean MOST collectors would buy more of 4 of the figures, rather than 2? Why? Probably because it would take imagination and foresight on the part of Hasbro! I love the way they don't Advertise the Joe Stuff (other than collectors who knows about HTS??? And Have you seen the Hasbro catalog? pages of Star Wars and Transformers stuff..and barely one of GI Joe??) and then cry it doesn't sell good! And funny they are having distribution problems with GI Joe but NOT Transformers, Star Wars or Spider Man!! Hell, the Spider Man Movie opened in the spring and the shelves are STILL overflowing with THAT crap!!

They would have to research and come up with NEW army builders! Notice how almost all of the DTC Army builders were nu-sculpt remakes of OLDER figures (Range-Viper, Snow Serpent, Crimson Guard, Cobra Soldier, Saw Viper).

How about a Sniper-viper? Or mortar Viper? How about a drop ship (Ala Aliens or StarCraft...you could modify a DragonHawk to have a cargo crate for personnel)? Or Mech-Vipers and Mechs for them to Drive? How about an update to those incinerators? Or Flak Vipers with reloadable Stinger missiles? How about Arctic Frag Vipers? Or Jungle Heat Vipers? It's not that hard to come up with something new or at least a variant that people will buy......why run ONE questionaire on their website every 6-9 months with only ONE question?? Why not a HUGE questionaire with a TON of new ideas asking what we like/wanna see?

Well, because that would be like work and we're hoping the GI Joe line will fail so we can move our resources over to StarWars and Transformers and make BIG MONEY!!!

When a Dumb-@$$ Marine can figure out how to give the people what they want AND boost profits and their high priced marketing/research teams can't...Huston, we have a problem!!!


..

ive saw this posted on more then one thread. im not saying their not, but does anyone really think they want GI Joe to fail so they can focus on star wars. i mean many have mentioned that the star wars figures are everywhere. heck, in my wal-mart theres like a whole section of the stuff that never sells. although there are collectors out there, it seems that only they buy star wars. no wonder, at 8 or 9 bucks a figure who beside the die hard would. they dont sell here. i would like to have some, but not gonna pay that. from what i know of what ive saw at my local stores and the guys who are now selling the ones they bought around here for 3$ each they seem to be losing money on star wars. maybe its not like that everywhere, just here. thats why when i see people say that hasbro wants GI Joe to fail makes me wonder. if the star wars and transformers arent selling and they cant keep the 25th on the shelves does anyone really think they want the line to fail? there wasnt any joes a few months ago and the star wars still didnt sell, i can take some pics of the section of my wal-mart and show you. they've been there for a year now collecting dust.not saying anything here, just wanting to know if people are using that as an example or is that what so many really think.

I was gonna bring up the lil fact that maybe George Lucas is pushing his weight around again.

GI Joe vs Star Wars
 

I can't quite figure out what Hasbro is doing with the GI Joe "brand." They're not producing crappy product in order to kill off the whole line. I mean, why bother with the crappy product when they could just kill it outright. They could do that at any time.

The brand itself is a valuable asset. Plus with the movie on the horizon it simply doesn't make any sense. But there is obviously a huge difference in the way the company treats GI Joe as compared to Transformers or Star Wars. They kind of treat GI Joe like the ugly step-sister. I don't see why they needed to switch to yet another construction format for the 25th stuff. (Its not like the VvV stuff wasn't selling because the figures had an o-ring. Its not like the increased detail in the 25th stuff required the deletion of the o-ring. You can't tell me the public was clamoring for spindly legged, fragile figures with goofy looking heads that couldn't sit or hold their guns.) If Hasbro really wanted the line to succeed we wouldn't see these distribution problem, and they would already have new vehicles and new playsets on the shelves. Instead we're waiting for a re-issue of the Shark and Hiss tank. Come on. If they were serious they would be giving us some fresh stuff, like a new Tomahawk, Whale, or Terrordrome. Instead were getting small cheaply produced remakes.

Maybe it has to do with a lack of creative ability. With both Star Wars and Transformers, Hasbro is producing figures from movies someone else has made. Not a lot of creativity involved on Hasbro's part. Or, maybe the Star Wars and Transformer fan base is less fragmented and fickle than the GI Joe fans.

I don't know. I wish someone would really hold the Hasbro-execs feet to the fire and find out what they are really thinking.

Actually Lehsreh, there are supposed to be upwards of 3 live-action SW tv shows. Or maybe it's 2 cartoons and a live-action. I don't remember, I'm not a SW fanatic.

IIRC, when VvV went down the tube, we had that 'hiatus'. IF I can remember the timing, Star Wars Ep3 was due to come out and there were many stories of how Lucas wanted to pave the way for HIS toys and have no competition. We would later see the online campaign called DTC pop up a few months later. I DO remember buying a lot of Clone Troopers because there were NO small Joes available for retail.

It's my belief that the GI Joe fans are quite different than SW fans. We can say we want army builders, but are "WE" really gonna jump at a yellow webgeared Cobra Trooper, a gray Cobra Trooper, a gas mask trooper, etc? That might work for Star Wars, but I could care less about those 'variants'. I'd rather see them put out a bunch of black-webgeared, red chest Blueshirts. Screw the collector's base and forget the scalpers. They make THOSE suckers easily available, I'll build.

And hey... Wasn't the head of GI Joe the head of Star Wars a few years ago? Or is it vice versa? In any case, what works for Star Wars doesnt' necessarily mean it works for GI Joe. And yes, the #s for GI Joe are considerably smaller than TF or SW.

I think in the future, we'll see ideas that Frank has thrown down. But for now, it's about revisiting the past. We already know that the Big 3 didn't seem overly excited by what was being down with the 'theme' years, yah?

BTW, anyone notice that MOST of the current Joes available were all part of America's Elite? Flint. Snake Eyes. Scarlet. Roadblock. Storm Shadow. Duke. Shipwreck. Stalker. The only no-show would be Kamakura and I DOUBT Hasbro will make him anytime soon.

I'd agree with you except this movie has been in and out of "In the works" since like about 1987!!!





No kidding! I AM Sooo tired of Remakes! And worse yet....New Versions!! I mean who needs a "Special Missions Siam" Duke? Make some new Characters and vehicles!! Glad to see I'm not the only one not gobbling up Hasbro's crappy excuses!!





Please...these guys are like all exec's....they pay them outrageous salaries for their "expertise" ...then when they run the company into the ground, they get seven figure severence packages....Think "Disney, WorldComm and Enron"

Knock on effect..
 

The knock on effect is that disinterested fans (even new fans) can be disinterested enough to turn their attentions to the PS3 or X-box instead..
kids will undoubtedly grow up quicker / faster and therefore the chance to please them has gone.. partially because the executive types aren't really bothered about putting in 100%
If the line had 100% effort put into it, we
A) Wouldnt have the distribution problems
B) wouldnt have the production errors.. pur-lease hasbro has made figures for over 20 years.. so the mistakes these guys are making are first time run errors that should be sorted in the R&D stage.
C) Wouldnt be getting cheap repaints every wave
D) wouldnt be sat on a forum bitching about how crap the line is, instead we'd be discussing how great the toys are and be eager for hasbro to please us more.

I think GI JOE fans.. aren't fickle.. i think they were spoilt really too early on.. we got a great product from 83 onwards and had some good figures, no we did didn't we?
Sure some of them sucked.. I mean raptor was never going to be a big hitter but even some of the neon figures had a cool design and sculpt.

Hasbro has the muscle to give us what they want, but they continue to churn out
A) Gash, B) Pish and C) Tosh.
Why? I don't know why.. as fans we can only speculate, we aint in control and they are.. but it speaks volumes when Transformers or Star Wars fans dont have the same production or advertising issues.. :(
I'd like to say forget it.. and I don't care.. I have done.. but thats far from the truth.. it breaks my heart to see the line so wrecklessly abused and cast aside.. :mad:
Rich

Amen Brother.

D :D

WELL not too much really , i hate 25 th figures , but i really love the comic ( well marvel era rules) DDP isnt bad at all , i always want the joe team more realistic and really like VvV lines , ( WELL the humvees rocks) old school figures are so cool why Hasbro why ? , im going to wait for the movie ( well maybe as cool as tears of the sun )