My point was more that with such a collector-driven property there's probably a fine line between empty pegs and hordes of pegwarmers - and that stores prefer to fall on the "empty pegs" side of that line.

I think they would probably prefer to go the "no peg" route. You know, to make room for more Bakugan figures. (Seriously, I was at WM the other day and they had their shelf schematic out. There was three or four rows of pegs allocated for TFs, one row for GI Joe single figs, and SIX ROWS for Bakugan.)

I do see your point, though and can kind of, sort of agree with it.

*would still prefer hordes of pegwarmers*

If it were a store issue, I'd think they would just NOT carry the product instead of having the empty pegs they could fill with something else. And empty pegs is all I find, so my guess is the problem lies with the distributor.

FYI, it was easier (for me, anyway) to get the SDCC-Exclusive Cobra Commander than it was to track down a friggin' B.A.T. that was (allegedly) mass-released to retail.

I saw a BAT once. I put it back because it was ugly. (all I got was Barbecue, Snow Serpents and Bazooka from that wave.)

What do you expect? Bakugan is a big children's property right now. That stuff sells out mega-fast. Trust me, I know -- I have kids who want them.

The B.A.T. is not terrible...but I don't like the faux-weathered metal look. General Hawk is my fave from that wave (or G.I. Joe Hawk, or whatever he's called). I've always had a soft spot for Hawk, and I'm crossing my fingers his jet pack/flight suit figure gets an update.

Really? I've only heard of it in passing and stuff. Is it a TV show or a movie? My son's not in to it. He's in to stuff like Transformers and Star Wars and even GI Joe. I can't figure it out. *looks at room full of Transformers and Star Wars and GI Joe stuff*

Maybe Bakugan was a bad example, how about the five rows worth of Eon Kid stuff, then.

I'm sure that the toy companies / license holders push the stuff that's, you know, current.

Where does Eon Kid fit into all this? Or the fifteen rows of Cars cars I saw (Boo to whoever decided to release multi-packs with ONE new car plus TWELVE cars everyone already bought, BTW.) Or the Platoon figures.

I guess I ought to just resign myself to the fact that some random joint Spanish-Korean-American CGI venture is more popular than GI Joe.

EDIT: and I am reading from people who went to JoeCon in Dallas a few weeks ago that Hasbro essentially admitted to not being able to meet demand with the Joe figures and retailers were not placing orders with Hasbro because they were not getting older orders. Hasbro is trying to fulfill the older orders, but right now retailers are reluctant to order more. So see? It IS Hasbro's fault. Kind of.

I know, I saw those and went WTF

I thought about getting one to put in the pose

wait -there are platoon toys?

They're the same kind of Random Soldier Toys that Wal-Mart seems to carry (I suppose to give all the lower income kids career ideas), so it's not like they're all McFarlane or anything. They sorta kinda maybe look like Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, etc...

Dude, weak.

Hunter, they are SW/GI Joe sized action figures, and there are only four made. Sgt. Elias, Sgt. Barnes, Cpl. Taylor, and Johnny Depp. Here's Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger).


And, OMG, Platoon Minimates.

I'll see your Platoon Minimates and raise you A Fistful of Dollars and Silence of the Lambs!

http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/5.-A-Fistful-O...ox-Set___319368

http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/Silence-Of-The...es-Set___316752

P.S. sorry, I misspoke. I meant, "to perpetuate Wal-Mart's carefully crafted illusion of being an All-American Company".

"It puts the Legos in the bin or else it gets the hose again."

Oh. My. God.

Minimate Buffalo Bill may be the greatest toy ever.

Yeah, that's why Target had three exclusive Joe vehicles that quickly sold out and has Target exclusive Cobra Rattler and Conquest X-30 jets coming out this fall. The stores I go to also have a pretty decent amount of space for G.I. Joes as well. I think any lack of new toys on the pegs is just from them selling well.

target usually has the best exclusives...

No! How could this kind, benevolent toy company (which has done nothing but bring joy to us all) betray us with such poor decision making? This is surely the first misstep they have ever taken!

But seriously, I pretty much figured this was the case.

Which causes me great

*Had to get my Classics Skywarp vs Magnus set in Buffalo*


Well hopefully new orders will be placed when the GI Joe film comes out. That should raise the interest in GI Joe enough to solve most problems.

Yeah, just like when the transformers movie came out. Oh, wait...

~Matt Booker

Well to be fair the TF stuff sold out pretty quickly following the movie. It wasn't until Hasbro glutted the market that the movie stuff started to clog shelves.

True. Are there many scalpers for GI Joe?

(I loved the 3 3/4" GI Joes when I was a kid. They had awesome articulation at a small scale even in the 80s. Oh how I wished Star Wars or Marvel figs would do the same...)

~Matt Booker

I'd like to know what the collectors' share of the market for Star Wars and G.I. Joe is compared to Transformers. I started looking it up this morning but couldn't find anything.

I never really cared for either enough to bother with them, but they have their cool points. The fact that G I Joe has got 20 years on TFers and Star Wars has got 7 years on them should dictate a larger following of them by fans and casual buyers alike without even getting into niche market stuff. It seems like a simple fact that more adults farther up the financial food chain have got more disposable income and nostalgic reasons to buy them.

your logic is sound but GIjoe is very much an American thing while TF's and SW are very global so theirs far more money to be thrown around when it comes to developing SW collectables

So right Blitz, (unfortunately) and yea, I have had a got hunt this last week thanks to the SW reset.

I'm pretty sure that fans of the original GI Joe toys would look at the cartoon/comic/toys from the 80's and puke.

No doubt that's true about some (maybe many) of the original GI Joe fans and the 80's toys because they're so radically different, but those people had kids, and bought them something. Case in point---my dad is a rabid Lionel trains fan---he has a 40 x 40 basement stuffed with a ton of the classic stuff from the 50's. He hates what they make now because it's not from back then, but still buys it for me, my brother and my kids because it's still Lionel and good stuff. Brand name has power. It was powerful enough to get me to buy those ridiculous Animorphs things and several poor somebodies bought them off me, thank God. That brand name power snowballs with generations. All I'm saying is that Transformers is the new kid on the block and will gain more power as it goes, at least for a while.

you know I dont know why GIjoe never really did well maybe if they had made more out of the satire when marketing it oh well I'm happy with my 2 imported box sets

There are two distinct sets of collectors within the GI Joe fanverse, 12-inch figure collectors and 3-3/4 inch figure collectors. Typically they don't tend to mix their collections between the two.

IMO, 12-inch figures are ghey. They're Barbie dolls in fatigues. *looks at 12-inch Stormtrooper figures*

Never underestimate the nostalgia factor. I bet those distinct sets of collectors show a distinct age segregation, with those over 35 liking the 12 inchers, and the under-35 crowd in favor of the 3.75 inch guys. I'm a little too old for 80's Joe, which, for me, just seemed like Hasbro's answer for the Star Wars figures (remember, at the time, SW was sold by a different company).

Heh, I remember when "kung-fu grip" was an exciting new development.

I just can't see anyone who was into army dolls being all excited about the 80's GI Joe... since it's like, a gay fetish circus version of the military or something.

BTW ST53: SW dolls are all right because they have helmets to hide the ghey... so I tell myself

* wonders if there's a picture of some 80's Joes doing the "YMCA" out there in the interwebz pipes *

I wonder if GiJoe fans ever complain about repaints....

Wha? its just the same figure in green cameo but with different hair!

Well, I would have said that the 80's Joe was what a 7-year old kid would have thought the military was if it was cool. But yeah, your description works, too.

FACT: the 12-inch Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes figures do not have helmets. *owns Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes figures*





As a matter of fact, they do. Incessantly.

The funny thing about it is, the original 13 Joe figures (not counting the distinctive ones like Snake Eyes, Stalker, and Scarlett) were made from a combination of three or four different styles of heads, torsos, arms, legs and crotches (diapers). Three or four of those 13 had the same friggin' head. But there's all this nostalgia and OMG THEY WERE TEH BEST THING EVAR!

Now if Hasbro DARES to use the same foot from one figure to the next all you hear is "GOD D*MN HASBRO AND THEIR REPAINTS!!!11ONEMILLIONONEHUNDREDELEVENTHOUSANDONEHUNDREDELEVEN!

IMHO they have used repaints fairly effectively across the entire line.

that sounds familiar to me somehow... if only I could place it

http://www.freewebs.com/fourth_heir/artwork/seekers2.jpg

I'm generally really cool with it when I spot reused arms/legs/torsos in my G.I. Joe figures because - hey, guess what - they would occasionally wear the same or very similar articles of clothing as each other.

You know - I wish they did that a bit more with TFs.

Like instead of a straight repaint or (if a new head mold is too expensive?) then why not character A with head mold B?

something similar to what they did with CL-Screamer/Ramjet

I'd imagine the engineering on that sort of thing is much harder on Transformers than a bunch of same scale army dudes.

Yeah, there's not going to be any mixing Sunstreaker's legs with Prowl's torso and Classics Bumblebee's arms. Not without a freakish result, at least.

Oh right more Starwars figs. yay.

Walmart here has basically not bothered with any new toy merchandise since June.

I'll be pretty pissed if they stock an entire endcap with Clone Wars and no Transformers.

Also has yet to see anything from Indiana or the Dark Knight.

Stupid, useless Walmart.

Although, that does add up to all the proper car kibble...

The thought originally came to me during Alternators, and there were all those repaint decisions.
Like put Meister's head on Subaru repaint and BAM happy fandom.

hmm, maybe some of those 7 year old kid thought a gay circus fetish military was cool?

But Hunter does have a point, if we're talking about robot heads. All the robot head does is tuck away somewhere, so in theory they could use different head moulds for repaints as long as the new head still fits in the designated area on the repainted body.

I never understood why they couldn't have had a unified head peg size for Alternators... ah well, chalk it up as another eventual disappointment with the line.

Actually I would like to see a unifed peg size among size classes. Like all Deluxe heads being interchangeable.

yeah so figures like swindle and hound - why is it every Jeep repaint has to have one of THOSE heads?
couldn't they just as easily have given it a Skids head or something?
Point is you now have many possible variations on the standard repaint. In fact most of the fandom was doing that pretty consistently (I sill have my "overdrive" with Decepticharge head = Windhcarger)