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Who's buying the Joes..?


Viper Hunter

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I was just curious to what everyone thought on this much speculated question, of who EXACTLY is buying or "driving" the line now?

 

We have some that claim the kids are really supporting the line, and Hasbros numbers from last year are good in the Joe area, but how does that demonstrate WHO the buyers really are?

 

Collectors seem to be a very large part of the market, I would certainly think, and we buy in bulk, in cases, multiples, armies, spares, customizing fodder...you name it. Then you have to take into consideration the collectors who buy up cases to store away for X amount of time, in the hopes that when the wave is obsolete and no longer available at the stores, they can get an extra buck or two from bidding it out on ebay (however profitable we think it may or may not be..you know that people are doing it)

 

Collectors, and/or adult buyers, of the G.I.Joe toys have MANY different reasons for buying what they do and in the numbers that they buy it, whereas mom and dad usually do the buying for the most kids, and those that are old enough to make a decent allowance and use it to get the Joes they want on their own, are only buying what they really want and usually just one of it.

 

Who has the numbers and facts on this...? We all can speculate till we crap the bed in exhaustion, but I'd like to know where the reports are drawn up, and how they figure the main buying group. Do they have cashiers in select toy stores taking notes? Are the toy isles being videotaped? ( :wink: ) Is it just better for the line to claim "the kids" are into it again, and all the Hasbro banner wavers are helping spread the myth?

 

Just curious as to what some of you thought on the matter. :D

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I too wish i had the facts.

 

I do beleive it is more geared toward kids and i have seen plenty of kids buy em.

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It's how you look at it. Like say 10 people buy 24 Joe's, 6 are kid's and 4 are adult collector's. Each kid's buy 2 total of 12, But the 4 adult collector's buy 3 each total of 12. There are more kid's that buy joe's but the collector's buy more so I'd say it's 50/50. Only for the fact that there are more kid's into toy's then adult's.

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I don't have any solid facts either, but I too believe they're aimed at kids instead of the older fans. This sucks if you've cared about the Joes for two decades of your life only to feel like you're Hasbro's ass-wipe, but the bottom line is that it shows no matter what they always will be a kid's toy company first and foremost.

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Well though companies in the last year or so have come to take collectors into conideration more than they had, they still gear these lines more towards kids and the fact is whether you believe it or not the number of kids buying toys still out weigh that of collectors.

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I do beleive it is more geared toward kids and i have seen plenty of kids buy em.

 

Oh don't get me wrong Naz, I believe that the "toys" are obviously "geared towards the kids"...as they should be, but times have changed, and toys have become so interesting and great, that the adults like us, who refuse to TOTALLY grow up, are in a large portion of that buying market now, and I think it does somehow effect what is showing up on the shelves in some form or another. G.I.Joes are easily one, (IMO) that can keep a larger audience of collectors and enthusiasts supporting the line, well into their adulthood.

 

Actually, I hope that the Joes ALWAYS have a more "kidlike" quality and playability to them and never become as boring or overly posed or even detailed, like a McFarlane statue (however cool looking they are) and are made with then same fun and imaginative capabilities as always and, of course, with the KIDS always in mind, but the knowledge of their popularity with us big kids, somewhere in the mix as well! :wink:

 

Of course toys are for kids, but this "silly rabbit" was wondering who dishes out the most dollars for Joes?

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I really think and have always thought that the collectors were driving the line for all the reasons you said VH! we army build,we buy one to keep mint and one to have loose, we customize! some of us horde them away! kids just dont!!! every time a kid goes into walmart w/ moms she aint buyin him a joe every time. maybe every once in a while... if he really does a good job of begging. (i can remember that from when i was a kid :D ) i gotta say even though i see more kids buying them then i ever have.. until we see these numbers that hasbro apparently has saying kids do more buying. i will say collectors 70, kids 30

 

i will say this i go to walmart TRU and target everyday and nobody ever asked me to fill anything out about who i was and why i was buying! how about you guys????????

 

TM

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Oddly enough, I've never been in the aisle looking at Joes at the same time someone else has. No kids, no parents, no fellow collectors. Obviously they're being bought, but I've never been witness to it.

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I have never seen a child by any GI Joe item in the past year I've been looking for stuff... I HAVE seen children and adults looking at star wars and hot wheels. Lately, just hot wheels though and some transformers.

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From what I've observed it seems like the parents know the brand more than the kids. Even the mothers would suggest it rather than the child saying that he wants a G.I. Joe figure. Same with the Turtle toys at the moment but at least that line has a Saturday morning cartoon tie in so I'm sure kids have requested those more often now. I just know that the Joe line has been warming pegs while the TMNT line has been flying off the pegs.

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Well though companies in the last year or so have come to take collectors into conideration more than they had, they still gear these lines more towards kids and the fact is whether you believe it or not the number of kids buying toys still out weigh that of collectors.

 

That is true, but some toy companies are entirely collector-driven (Art Asylum) while others barely scratch the surface (Hasbro). I don't mind Hasbro making these things for kids because we were kids when we first got into th Joes, but I wish they would do more than an occasiolal TRU exclusive or some over-priced con-exclusive boxed set.

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We bring up the difference between Kids and Adults buying Joes but the question should come up of what age group do kids fall into?

 

Is this 12 and under and 13+ would be considered adult or would kid still be 17 and under and adult is 18+ :-?

 

You have to look at it if stats say that 60% of kids are buying Joes then that means that there parents (Adults) are actually buying them for the kids so does that mean that goes into the adult category or the kid category? :-?

 

I better call Mulder & Scully in on this... 8)

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i think it is mostly adults actualy.

 

but that 60 - 40 speculation could be right. personally, i dont think ive seen a single child looking at or buying any gi joe stuff, as opposed to personally seeing about 3 or 4 cases of kids with their parents bying MOTU [He-man] stuff, or their parents buying it for the kids.

 

But that could be skewed because MOTU is pretty much guaranteed to have SOMETHING on the pegs at all time, usually a bunch of jungle attack hemans getting stale on the pegs, while GVC sales out quicker, so maybe they pass it by because they dont want to buy that 12" doll garbage.

 

I hope that Hasbro uses panel groups and stuff to try to get a feel for who is buying what. That is where a bunch of people volunteer to record everything they buy from stores with a little hand held device provided by marketing companies. I know they use it for food; maybe they use it to record EVERYTHING they buy. But theres also other observation methods companies can use. Honestly i doubt hasbro uses it, but who knows? This way they could determine the age groups of people buying stuff, whre they live, how many kids they have, how often they buy it, etc.

Its not exactly a dead on science but it gives the company a good feel of whos buying what by using the sample.

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Well for my whole hunting grounds in search of toys... I goto Wally World everyday and hit TRU every other day...

 

I can see we'll say for the sake of argument about 15 Joes on the pegs. During the course of the day... 5 might sell but those are too collectors/dealers and the rest might sell over a span of 2 weeks...

 

I personally don't see kids buying the Joes... I mean the age groups I see in Wally World & TRU are between the ages of 1-7 and 18+ and any kids in TRU or Wally World between the ages of 8-17 want video games or sports equipment...

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...........from what i've seen V.H. around the c.t. area.....

 

TrU mostly men [collectors] ages 20-30...i know cause i eavesdrop on thier conversation and they talk about collecting....nearly everytime in TRU, KB, WAL-MART, TARGET........there are a few male collectors,,,,maybe a mother w/kid browsing....maybe a father alone looking for his kid....so it seems to be 2-1........i can believe the earlier mentioned percentage

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....speaking of the devil...

 

today i heard 2 little kids come in to walmart, and the younger one, probly about 4 was telling his older brother, about 7 or 8 that they had " inja turtles, inja turtles", and batman i think, and even something about GIJOE...so thats a first.

 

I have no idea what they bought but at least there was some interest.

 

Then again, it may have been over the 12 inch trash :-?

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I really think and have always thought that the collectors were driving the line for all the reasons you said VH! we army build,we buy one to keep mint and one to have loose, we customize! some of us horde them away! kids just dont!!! every time a kid goes into walmart w/ moms she aint buyin him a joe every time. maybe every once in a while... if he really does a good job of begging. (i can remember that from when i was a kid :D ) i gotta say even though i see more kids buying them then i ever have.. until we see these numbers that hasbro apparently has saying kids do more buying. i will say collectors 70, kids 30

 

i will say this i go to walmart TRU and target everyday and nobody ever asked me to fill anything out about who i was and why i was buying! how about you guys????????

 

TM

 

i totaly agree with you TM!

i don't see how kids could be the majority especialy since almost none army build. do you think that parents know to keep buying the same packages over and over to help there kid army build?? also, i'm not even sure kids understand that these are troopers there buying but feel like they are actualy individuals that they are purchasing.

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i doubt many parents let they kids army build, unles they are filthy rich and spoiled. with most kids its all they can do just to get A Figure, let alone numerous ones.

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Y'know, it's funny you brought this subject up VH: I'm an elementary school teacher (3rd grade to be exact (Suprise! Devil Bat's a teacher!! :lol: ) ) and I'm in an interesting position, because I can't remember if I had turned on my boy students to G.I. Joe, or if they were already discovering it, but they are very excited about GvsC, and seem to be buying it. They have brought some C.O.R.P.S. toys to school, and it's funny because they are eager to show me their toys since they know I'm a collector and like Joes too. But I've talked about Joes occasionally (I have to teach SOMETIME! :lol: ) and they think it's really cool.

 

Incidentally, this past week we had our school book fair, and when I took my class to it, I found a GvsC coloring book. I snapped it up so I could have my kids some Joes and Cobras to color on occasion. ( I wanted it for myself too. Who am I kidding?! :lol: ) And today one of my students went back to the library to buy something at the fair, and he brought back another GvsC book. This one was a picture book, and it was actually well drawn and seemed to have a great little storyline! It had the feel of a classic Marvel comic book story; not at all goofy or silly like you might expect from a GvsC scenario! I was impressed! ( I sent another student to get me one too, and he grabbed one for me just before the book fair closed! Score! :lol: ) And amongst all of these GvsC discoveries, they had a different Joe logo on some of the pictures. It has now become my favorite Joe logo, and I would like to see it used more often. The lettering looks very similar to the logo on those GvsC prototype stands we all saw way back when (Remember those?), but the stripes were coming straight down from the bottom of the logo, ending with the stars with the middle star running down the furthest. It looks very cool, almost like a patch design. Maybe one of these days I'll take a picture of it and post it here for you guys.

 

So I'm doing my part to train the next generation of Joe fans. And in light of the kids excitement and appeal of the line for them, it's beginning to seem cooler to me for some reason. Does that make sense? :D

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WOW! That's VERY interesting DB! I would definitely like to see some pics of those coloring books and other images of the books you mentioned. I haven't seen or heard anything of these (that I can recall) but I know my kids would love to do some coloring on a G.I.Joe picture, heck, I could make copies of them and let them go to town (error free) :wink:

 

Maybe I need to check online, to see if these are available anywhere for purchase.

 

Anyway, great to hear you're sharing some Joe stuff with you're students, as they must think you're the COOLEST! :D I have done my part to a certain degree as well, as all my kids and step grandkids and my ex-wifes kids and ALL their subsequent friends have gone bonkers over my Joe collections and therefore gotten hooked themselves!

 

I'm still of the opinion that the collectors are buying up the larger percentage of these Joe toys and the collectors with children of their own, are buying twice the amount. "New business" (as we'll call it) of kids educated through either commercials or word of mouth, about the cool world of G.I.Joe, is still a growing number, but not yet the larger of the two (imo of course..no facts, just speculation :wink: )

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I've seen a few kids look at the 4" stuff, but most go for those 12" figures NOT of the RAH variety. I think mostly because their parents are into those.(The parents of these kids are slightly older than those of us who bought RAH in our youth.)

 

When the revamped MOTU first came out, I saw EVERYBODY in all age groups either looking at or going completely bonkers over them. That has passed. The kids seem somewhat interested in Transformers, but I think that's just because my local Target puts them next to Zoids and YugiOh. And nobody BUT collectors care about Star Wars or LOTR. This is just observation of my area.

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