JoeDeclassified.com

There's really only so much that can be said on each topic. Most of them will wash out I think. Eventually responses would dwindle down to "I agree" or "I disagree." And honestly a few things will end up harking back to one another and where fluidity of convo is lost... some things will come together like Voltron I think. Besides... it's hard enough to get more than five people to respond to one thread than five. HAHAHAH.

Agree completely.

RoC failed but the main reason was the overordering of the first waves.

But the 25th wasn't that big a seller and was starting to sink towards the end (the reason why the last couple waves end up at Ross and the last wave of vehicles was canceled at retail and Hasbro threw us a bone to release 'em online).

"Build-A-Playset" doesn't work, but as an aside I wish there were more small, almost-modular sets for the line. Wal-Mart's RoC exclusives were pretty cool and got out of the stores pretty fast, and they were just straight-up rehashes.

I think the first step to marketing G.I. Joe would be to get it all on the same page visually. In the '80s, the comic, cartoon, and figures had nothing to do with one another short of using the same names except everyone looked the same. (This is where the Sunbow cartoon started behind the curve... hence the very different takes on Ace, Wild Bill, Breaker, and Cover Girl in the first 1983 miniseries.) Duke looked like Duke in every incarnation, Snake-Eyes looked like Snake-Eyes, Scarlett looked like Scarlett, and so on... there was no doubt who you were getting off the rack when mom and dad took you to Toys R Us. Be rehashing the same characters on top of one another like they have been, Hasbro is effectively destroying their core characters because they are too tough to recognize for casual fans of any age. PoC is set to release a single-carded Snake-Eyes that doesn't even look like Snake-Eyes, for pete's sake. How can you establish any continuity or brand loyalty when only your most ardent fans can recognize the main characters?

I'm not so sure...depends on where you were. I remember reading multiple reports of these being clearanced out at over 50% off, and in fact, that's when I bought mine.

So yeah, they did fly out, but only after the price was dropped.

Yeah, only the Outpost seemed to be the one to fly off the shelves around here (one store had a very healthy supply of all the sets (3-4 of each or more) but only 2 stores in my area seemed to get any of the sets at all)

Wow. I saw them all of once in Indianapolis, and then a second time in Effingham, IL, when I was en route to St. Louis to visit friends.

In the Midwest we know quality. Actually, we (as a whole) just shop too much at Wal-Mart.

Ding ding ding ding ding!

They were available at 1 of the local Wal-Marts for about 3 weeks, then they must have sold through. Luckily I found the two I was looking for.

I do wonder if the sets would have done better at retail released all at once instead of reshipping sets 1 and 2 with 3 and 4 clogging the shelves.

I honestly don't think the clearance had to do with poor performance. At least it didn't around where I was living. Wal-Mart just clearanced it after Christmas. Probably to cut down toy shelf space after the holidays. In a few stores people reported not even seeing them on the shelf until they ended up on clearance.

I agree whole heartedly about not wanting to see a build-a-playset, but I do think small playsets have merit.

I completely agree. We (the fans) seem all gungho for new characters and vehicles when the prospect is dangled before us. Our imaginations run wild and then once we actually get a look them it's "pass" or "I'll wait until it hits Ross".

Out of all the newly designed craft or original characters since the VvV very few of them have caught any real steam as far as collector support goes. Maybe the latest HISS? The brown one though sure caught enough flack. Bombstrike? I think that had more to do with people giggle about the implied booby joke in her name.