The Mercs set Cobra figures aren't all that popular on the aftermarket, except Mortal and that's because of hype...from what I understand the figure itself is so fragile as to be useless for anything beyond display (making it an exercise in pointlessness IMHO).

From a "universe" standpoint, the Mercs set smacked of wasted potential. Cobra recruits the world's baddest mercenaries...which amounts to Bludd and some Cobra-trooper looking goons who all have the same hair color, Overlord (a merc?) and green TARGATS sans helmets, and a recolored Snake-Eyes. Imagine if it had been 15 different characters, many of them new.

Dreadnok set had bright colors for the Joes and Noks that made for ugly figures. It was mostly a waste of the molds it used, sadly some of which will probably never see a retail release again.

I think a mix of new and underappreciated characters/troopers is appealling. The 2007 set had a mix of both.

You can repaint Destro, Cobra Commander, Bludd and put 12 Crimson Guard in blue and someone will like it, but for the $$$ they're asking? Not appealling. The Crimson Viper set was the first of its kind, to just do that again would meet with a collective "meh."

Look at last year's offerings. What does it add to the mythos? A Headhunter....DRIVER! They have no vehicles (due to bad planning). The mixed-up BATS are big whoop. The Joes looked fairly decent, especially Long Arm. But for a real addition to the GI JOE universe one had to get the BAT MECH with Hotwire.