Is availability this bad everywhere?

[hobobellew]

Hi. Need some feedback, if you all don't mind.

 

I used to be a Joe collector, but I stopped collecting awhile ago; now I'm trying to help a buddy of mine serving in Afghanistan keep his collection current by finding him the new stuff as it comes out. Problem is that I can't find jack #$## anymore. I see tons of other Hasbro lines like Indy, Hulk, Star Wars and T-formers, but Joe stuff has dried up... I have yet to see Red Star comic pack wave and had to have his mom buy find him the Major Bludd wave. I need to know if this is a nationwide thing or just a local issue because, if it is a local issue, he'd be better off having someone else in a better stocked area doing the looking. Thanks for any input. It's all appreciated.

[Dagger]

Haven't seen either of those series in PA. We're still on the Viper series.

[JoeRhyno]

seeing they just came out? You're not alone

[hobobellew]

seeing they just came out? You're not alone

 

Ahhh... going off of the info from my friend and some of these other sites, I've been under the impression that the stuff has been available for awhile now. Thanks!

[hobobellew]

Haven't seen either of those series in PA. We're still on the Viper series.

 

Thanx for the info.

[hoganvibe]

Still no signs of the comic packs. We just started getting the Vipers in Iowa but they are still hard to get (I just saw my first Duke with Jet Pack). With the floods I bet it will take even longer.

 

I think Brian's Toys has some sort of club that will help you get one of each new figure (for $7.99 each figure). I'm not sure of the details... as I don't collect every figure.

[Zanzibar]

Only comic packs Ive seen are old ones, mostly issue 1, still numerous at Targets. Havent been to Walmart in a few weeks.

[DOCHOLIDAY56]

this stuff should be out better in a couple of weeks,my issue in this area is , WALMART has 32 OLD comic paks, im not gonna see the new ones there, kmart has a few but they suck anyways,

 

DOC

[Viper Hunter]

I think "availability" is the KEY word though.

 

They're "available".....just hard to FIND sometimes, or should I say hard to find before somebody else GETS to them. For a lot of the stuff, it's here today gone tommorrow and the window of opportunity to find it when you happen to be looking for it, is very narrow. Other items (various bum single packs and the comic packs) seem to clog the pegs forever.

 

It's a nasty business, this G.I.Joe collecting thing we do!

 

 

Good luck on your hunting and give a hello to your buddy and express my gratitude to him for his service. #US1#

[GPM in ICT]

I think a lot of stores are thinking the the fact that Joes keep selling are a fluke. With so many other summer movie toy lines the stores banking on them. Me personally, I'd rather have to hunt a little for them then having older series clogging the pegs and stores thinking this line isn't selling.

[NightCreeper]

At TRU here, once we get them in, they fly right off the shelves. So it is hard to keep them in stock as is, thus making them hard to find.

[ransomz]

The last two waves have been pretty scarce here in Eastern New York. I haven't seen Wild Bill yet, and that's the one I'm looking forward to.

[Rama Sha]

I have no trouble finding....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cobra Commanders.

 

Pretty much everything else is a pain in the butt to track down.

[xhairs]

its like that almost everywhere.

[slim19722]

Everything ha been easy to find in my area, except wave 4 comic packs. So I ordered them from HTS and the right after they shipped, I saw them at my local Target and a SS/FF pack at K-Mart. I know Wal-Mart has them, but the pegs are over flowing with waves 1-3 comic packs, so it'll be a long time before they put any out.

[Draven79]

They are hard to find because they fly off the shelves as soon as they hit. The two WM and Target near me get a few cases a week between them and they usually are gone withing a day or two.

Draven

[DPrime]

Distribution a problem? Man, I've found a "full" stock of Joes ONCE at a local Walmart. Now, bear in mind I live in Canada, and even though it's a fairly large one (about 375,000) we have it MUCH worse up here. A "full" stock of GI Joes (Wave 8) consisted of TWO of each character. That's IT. So I guess this Walmart figures, what, two people will be interested in these and buy them? The whole thing is so ridiculous. Naturally I took a set (plus an extra PP Officer). Even though I was pissed at the distribution, I felt really lucky.

 

Of course anything with a movie is still clogging shelves, so once the GI Joe movie previews start happening, we won't need to worry about this. This will be mostly movie figures but hopefully it will happen with classic waves as well, if we're lucky.

[joenubb]

Y'know I hear a lot of people talking about distribution issues and how it's so hard to find the new Joes, but I guess I'm lucky up here in upstate NY. I've never had a problem finding GI Joes. I've always found the ones I'm looking for and have seen most of the hard to find ones multiple times in the stores. I'm not trying to brag or anything, I guess I just live in a good distribution area. Who knows? I still can't find a HISS Driver, and have only seen Flash once at KMart. As for the Red Star comic wave (wave 4), be patient as these are brand new and will soon be out in abundance.

 

That's cool that you're helping your friend in the service collect too. Yo Joe!

 

#US1#

[hobobellew]

Thanks for all the replies, it definitely helps. Common consensus (here and on other boards) seems to be that the newer stuff is just not out there in force yet, for whatever reason. I've told him that I'll keep looking when I can, but that he can't really count on me to be his number 1 source any longer. Things have changed here and I think we have more collectors and scalpers than we used to... the 25th line is just too cool to not draw additional collectors and scalpers are just too opportunistic to pass the limited availabilty up. The turds! I suggested he get his mom involved (she lives in the Phoenix area) and that he may have to go back to pre-ordering.

 

Thanks again!

[imthebigdawg]

Ordering Online....the only reason I have anything....the local stores around here (Northern NJ0 are terrible....Nevertheless, I enjoy the figures not the hunt. As long I get them, I don't care how.

[Snow_Serpent]

They are hard to find because they fly off the shelves as soon as they hit. The two WM and Target near me get a few cases a week between them and they usually are gone withing a day or two.

Draven

 

I'd agree with this. My Wal-Mart has been getting semi-regular cases and they do fly off the shelves. They got 5 cases last week and within 48 hours 90% were already gone. AFAIK, there is only 1 regular scalper around here and he seems to leave Joe alone. Interest is pretty high around here, so I can only assume that 'fans' are snapping these up pretty quickly.

[Jaxxon327]

Down here in Orlando, I have had a hard time finding them. Heck I have yet to see WIld Bill wave. I did pick up a couple of vipers but no hiss drivers and the others.

[darthhenning]

From what I've heard the supply is hard to get a hold of everywhere. Quite simply, its not any fault of your own or even of you're retailer, but a Hasbro issue.

 

I can't blame the local retailers due to personal experience: I know the toy department manager at my local walmart and she will order in waves of figures based off recomendations - just before wave 6 came out she ordered 6 cases of Joes, she received 4 and then was unable to order more than one case of each future wave, despite the fact that those cases sold out within 5 days. Secondly, another store in my area ordered in 10 cases of wave 7 Joes the week that they were released - they received ONE case that week and a second the following with a letter saying that the rest of the request could not be filled and that they would be refunded the difference - and those cases sold out on the same day they were received!?!

 

Hasbro's operating system is disgusting but predictable.

 

If you look around you're local toy department at the available toys you'll quickly notice something - the VAST majority is based around some current television show, electronic game or video that is widely available and marked to children. I challenge you to find toylines (baring hotwheels and barbie) that are not based off something on television or the movies. Because these provide built-in marketing Hasbro (and other toy companies) choose to produce large numbers of these toys intending for parents to buy them for their children's birthdays, christmas, etc. Toy lines such as G.I. Joe, Transformers and even Star Wars that have numerous collectors are only seen as a priority to Hasbro if they can market the same line to children.

 

For example:

 

Star Wars had the Saga Line just prior to Episode III: it was closed out for about a year and a half to market toys from the movies to children, and even the new Saga line that followed was heavily biased on Episode III characters.

 

Transformers had several successful lines - Generation1 reissuses, Universe, Cybertron and especially the Alternators (collectors based G1 characters that transformed into replicas of real vehicles)- then the movie came out: all of these lines were closed down, two and a half years later the movie line continues and so does a new line based on the cartoon show. For collectors to find the Universe figures which are updates of G1 characters is almost impossible.

 

 

And now there is G.I. Joe.

 

No matter how many collectors there are for this line, they will never be the same number as the number of children that Hasbro can market a line of Movie based figures to. Ergo, they produce a limited number of 25th G.I. Joes because few to no children will buy them, but when the movie comes out I can assure you that you will find racks of G.I. Joes that rival the current surplus of Batman and Hulk figures in stores - however good luck finding classic Joes until at least the middle of 2010.

[PrometheusX]

In my area of St Louis County, Joe availability is crap! The three Targets around me haven't had anything new since Feb. No vehicles, and comic packs are all Wave 1 from LAST YEAR! :angry: Wal-Mart's pegs--all 2 of them --are full of Hooded Cobra Comander. TRU had the Command 3-packs for a week, and are apparently the only place that has been able to get anything new, though the last comic packs were the Twins and Noks...

 

I don't know if the Targets are only getting in one case of figures and they are selling as soon as they go out, or they just never ordered the Target Exclusive Vehicles. WM is in the middle of a remodel so maybe that is their excuse. TRU just seems more selective in their toy restocks since they can't be bothered to restock anything other than McFarlane SportPicks, Power Rangers, Cars, Indiana Jones and Star Wars crap. Transformers, Marvel Legends, and Joes get the shaft basically...but they have been the only place around me with anythying Joe related that is newer than 4 months ago...

[FlyingFigg]

Distribution a problem? Man, I've found a "full" stock of Joes ONCE at a local Walmart. Now, bear in mind I live in Canada, and even though it's a fairly large one (about 375,000) we have it MUCH worse up here. A "full" stock of GI Joes (Wave 8) consisted of TWO of each character. That's IT. So I guess this Walmart figures, what, two people will be interested in these and buy them? The whole thing is so ridiculous. Naturally I took a set (plus an extra PP Officer). Even though I was pissed at the distribution, I felt really lucky.

 

Of course anything with a movie is still clogging shelves, so once the GI Joe movie previews start happening, we won't need to worry about this. This will be mostly movie figures but hopefully it will happen with classic waves as well, if we're lucky.

 

As a fellow Canadian, I'm pleased to see that Wave 8 is on the shelves around here. WM and TRU have lots, and have seen several cases (judging by the large amounts left over of Vipers and PP officers on the pegs). It's definatley a step in the right direction as it used to be next to nothing in stores at all. Used to be I'd see a wave 1 CC, or a SE once every month or two and that was it.