I haven't seen this as a discussion topic on here before, so here goes. . .

I was looking at someone's opinions about what characters will be retail repaints and which ones will be botcon or club exclusive repaints (i.e. Smokescreen and Red Alert, among others), and it occurred to me that it's a shame we don't get exclusive mail-in figures from Hasbro anymore. If they did short runs of exclusive figures that could be gotten through the mail it might help to spread the love around, so to speak. As a kid, I did the mail away thing on Jazz through Cookie Crisp cereal and Reflector, Thundercracker, Sunstreaker, Wheeljack and maybe one other through the "Reinforcements from Cybertron" promotion (or whatever). What do you think?

After the hassle I went through to get my GI Joe Doc, I'm-a going to have to say no.

Don't like the idea so much. It's not terrible, but I'd rather have more figures be a general release. Exclusives kinda annoy me. And I mean exclusives. Retail store exclusives (like Universe release of Armada Unicron at TRU only, the WalMart Legacy of Bumblebee three pack, or the Target exclusive movie Scout class figures) don't bother me as much.

I think with the Internet you might as well do something like the new Universe special edition toys that are exclusive to the online Hasbro toy store.


unless its robot points they f**king owned

IF: (and this is key here) they properly stock the 'exclusives' in reasonable quantities & make them availible to everyone interested.

As I experienced with the Omnibots in 1984 & again with G.I.Joe Doc last year (with many others); that "Sorry, we're out of X figures"
can become a real sore point after investing / opening the prerequisite retail merchandise & sending in your hopes with coupons...

Though if properly handled, could also bring a cool surprise in the mail for early participants.

man this would be a great idea but after what happen with the doc fig . i say no

Not a Joe collector, so I have no idea what the Doc debacle was. I *was* thinking of this exact scenario the other day though. It seems like a total win for everyone. I mean, Hasbro gets us to buy toys we don't even want just for the UPCs, then makes a quick turnaround on repaints fans want. Or, for original molds, they could just hike up the requirements like mad - like the old Camel Cash pool table. "Enjoy your emphysema - shoot some pool on us!"

C'mon - did anyone NOT feel totally like the MAN when he got to show off his Emperor Palpatine figure back in the 80s??

Ordering Doc was a perilous experience for us G.I. Joe collectors.

Here are some of them:

1) The Comic Packs. The sticker and order form to get Doc was available in G.I. Joe comic packs which had two figures and a comic book in them. Some people found comic packs that had missing proof of purchase stickers. Others didn't care for the figures in some of the comic packs and resented at having to buy something they don't really want just to get the stickers.

2) Waiting. It took so long for my order, and the orders of others, to be processed that it was very easy to assume that my submission got lost in the mail. I did get my Doc figure but the long wait was a bit unsettling. And that's with only one figure. Some collectors sent for more than one figure and often got partial orders, but did end up with everything they ordered.


In the end, I don't care to go through this with Transformers nor would I want anyone else to either.

Nah.. with the internet around, the whole "mail us coupons" seems kind of prehistoric. If Hasbro wanted to do something like what EHobby does, that would be pretty sweet.. but.. probably lack of interest from the primary market. (kids) Plus, we got Ehobby to order from anyway. I don't think Hasbro could compete with them anyway.. after all regardless of exclusivity of it all, they would need to comply with standard safety regulations and so forth.

Oooh but what would be kinda cool would be like "electronic robot points" like.. some kind of promotional code you can go online and enter.. and save up.. and choose what they have from in their inventory and they ship it out to you. That way you know what you're getting and what there is to pick from.

My experience has been slightly diff. I sent in my redemption towards the end of the final date and lucked into getting in after the "all sold out" scare. It's still been a hassle. And I still have memories of never having gotten the cookie crisp Jazz during the '80s, much less all the rebates I've sent in and NEVER gotten back at all.. Mail seems to completely fail only when it comes to rebates/mail-ins.. (and jury duty summonses)