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It was Matt Trakker that got me into collecting Joes. I saw it at Target and said... "Well now this I can't pass up." Granted it was in hopes of them doing the Rhino driver Matt Trakker down the road... of course that never happened.






Well as for the figure being boring... like I said first things first... which would be them figuring out how to do it. They would of course have to realize that a surprise figure has to be a FULL-ON surprise... something no one sees coming AND something that's entirely awesome.

I don't think I'd get too excited. I don't go out hunting figures very often, I'd hear about something like this LONG before I'd ever just happen across the figure...and by then it'd be a full on Scalper Frenzy, So unless the figure was UBER common right from the word GO I think it'd cause more of a negative reaction than any positive vibes it'd create

#1: My biggest wish along these lines is that Hasbro would expand its definition of "core characters." Duke, Snake-Eyes, COBRA Commander, Destro and Storm Shadow are great, but there are a ton of other iconic Joes and COBRAs out there that don't get nearly enough love. I understand that with a small window to sell toys to kids these days, you have to keep sending out the same characters (kids have typically moved out of toys and into video games by the age of 10 these days, as opposed to 12 or 13 a generation ago), but why is it five characters and not twenty-five? Kids are simply not that dumb... actually, they're not dumb at all, and they need to not be marketed to like they are.

I was pretty excited when PoC was first released because I didn't mind getting the same characters. Of course, with a relaunch there's going to be a Duke, Snake-Eyes, et al, but we also saw some B-list characters that don't get revisited too often. Beach-Head and Dusty stood out as Joe "rehashes" that everybody cheered, for example. They just went back to old tricks very quickly. The first four waves of PoC saw 22 single-carded releases; included were two Dukes, three Snake-Eyeses, two Destros, two Storm Shadows and one COBRA Commander. That's ten in all... a whopping 45.5% of all PoC single-carded releases. I can forgive a new "stock" version of each character for the line relaunch, but no kid I know is so dumb that they need that much of a reminder of who Snake-Eyes is. Even if you're not confident in new characters, where is Gung-Ho? How about Roadblock? Major Bludd, anyone? Remember *gasp* Scarlett?!?

There are new Joe characters, but they are vehicle drivers and while they're generally serviceable (I dig Night Fox), they're all 100% kitbashes and none of them screams out as being particularly memorable. We've seen a few new COBRA Troopers, but the faceless hordes don't hook the kids like fresh characters do. Army building is strictly for us old dudes. Shadow Tracker is the one new single-carded character we've seen in PoC (that's 4.5% of all releases for you math geeks), and I'll give partial credit to Skydive because he was so incredibly obscure that only the most ardent fans would've remembered him at all.

It's splitting hairs, but since we're never going to convince Hasbro to abandon the "core character" concept, maybe we should approach them about expanding it.

#2: It'll never happen, and Lord knows I don't want it to. Hidden figures in each wave would turn into Scalpageddon. I'd have to go back to work for Target just to insure I'd be the first one into the shipping boxes and be able to finish my collection and nobody needs that to happen, certainly not Target and definitely not me.

As an aside, it's interesting that Matt Trakker, of all figures, got you into Joes, Gary. I was hoping they'd spin off a wave of MASK characters, too... it was one of the few lines besides G.I. Joe that I was really into as a kid. My favorites were Hondo MacLean and Brad Turner.

Joes were always my favorite as a kid. I always told myself that one day I would collect the vintage Joes from my childhood. So in 2009 I was bumbling around Target and saw
the Trakker. M.A.S.K. always appealed to me as a kid. But I didn't have a lot of the toys. But I've always loved the Rhino driver version of Trakker. But when I saw M.A.S.K. in a new Joe form... I had to have it. Of course it got me to pay attention to other Joe things on the racks. I hadn't paid attention to toy racks in like a decade really.
Music had absorbed my life in '98. So then I saw the Extreme Conditons pack in an independent toy store
window... and I kept going back to the toy aisles etc to see the Joes. But it was Trakker that caught my eye initially.

Okay, I'm gonna be the first to give this a go on my own...

If Hasbro: Say Hasbro could decide upon (and figure out a way to build) a REALLY large scale item, like say the Broadcast Energy Transmitter, or the Cobra throne room, or hell dream big even the USS Flagg, but took the "build a figure" to create it, would you go for it, and do you think it would be successful?

Now I'm not talking about like a wave of figures here, I mean you would literally have to buy EVERY single figure and vehicle in a calender year in order to complete what this item would be, it would require serious dedication and would be mucho expensive, but it would also likely get us a vehicle/playset we otherwise never would.

You could even take it a step further and have a package of parts be a mailaway for sending in UPCs, to get bigger attachment pieces they couldn't include with the in-store items. OR maybe each part could come packaged with a serial number you have to collect, and when you enter them all in to a website along with postage you could get an exclusive figure for the vehicle/playset. They could dub this something like "vehicle scavenger hunt" or "Build a ___ quest: 2012" etc.

I know I for one, would likely get sucked in to this ploy big time and end up buying a ton of stuff I didn't want, because if you miss anything you can't complete it, and I don't think I'd be the only one so it would certainly help Hasbro to empty out some of the Arctic Destros of the future.

What do you guys think?

I figured if they ever did a Terrordrome again they'd have to either segment it off in like 4 or 5 pieces that act as their own mini-Cobra base/battle station and sell them as small play sets OR they'd have to just release HALF a Terrordrome which would make people have to buy TWO in order build a full Terrordrome and since I think most people would eventually buy TWO halves (although in this particular toy line community maybe not) and so buying TWO of each somewhat large play set would actually pay for the tooling I'm sure. Anyways... but as far as what you're talking about...
I'd be all for it. However, it would probably raise the price on those figures (and we know how that goes with Joe fans).

Hasbro Tried this...Mass Device/DVD sets.

They were unable to successfully deliver...I would have no Faith in them trying anything bigger, and wouldn't "Buy In" until I could be assured all portions of the "BAF" were released.



Also, It may be better for the flow of Conversation and Discussion if separate threads were made for different "If Hasbro" ideas.

Totally agree with nova on this. 4/5 Mass Device sets made it to brick and mortar retailers. The last one ended up being a de facto online exclusive and then showed up sparingly at discount chains. I wouldn't trust regular distribution to get us all the parts during a calendar year.

Which brings me back to the If Hasbro #2. Make that surprise figure be a mail away figure and people would buy into it. Set up the storyline of a distress signal rescue operation and who do we find? A retail release won't get people excited. Casual fans won't care unless they recognize it. Hard core fans will just get it as they see. Scalpers may jump on it if there is a mad rush for the people who pre-order or completionists need to get it. But if there is even distribution then the heat will fade. If the club had a better track record they might be able to pull it off, but at their prices and with their track record they honestly need to show anything and have it ready to go before people jump on board. No one is going to hand them money blindly on faith alone.

I have a confession.

I am so tired of the whole "Build a FILL IN THE BLANK" concept being used as a way to try and get playsets produced. It will NOT work. It has NOT worked.

Hasbro can't even sell Alpha Vehicles at $15 a pop, what makes anyone think someone beyond a hardcore collector would be willing to buy FIVE different miniature sets, just to make one big one? To say nothing of retailers agreeing to stock it, and your every day customer being willing to buy it.

Not gonna happen, especially not for something like the Terror Drome. What would be the incentive for someone to pay $25 for a fifth of a Terror Drome? It just doesn't make any retail sense whatsoever.

And like others have said...its easy to point fingers at Rise of Cobra for the product failing at retail, but the fact remains that cellar-dwelling sales almost cost us the final piece of the MASS Device, and those sets came with 3 separate figures to boot. I have no confidence that there's enough retail support for anything like this in the G.I. Joe realm.