Hasbro's Opinion of Canadain Collectors

[darthhenning]

As a Canadian collector, I've been looking for 25th anniversery Joes and 30th anniversery Star Wars figures lately, and I couldn't help but notice a distinct change in many of Hasbro's methods in dealing with us lately. And I was hoping that someone on these boards might be able to expalin the reason for these changes.

 

The first and most obvious change is distribution. In years past, Canadians had an equal chance as Americans to find the figures they wanted. Now, I know that 25th Joes are hard to find for everyone, but things are much worse here. One store that ordered 10 cases of wave 7 Joes received 1 one week and a second (2 total) the next week. THis second came with a letter stating that Hasbro would not be fulfilling the rest of their order and the payment would be used as credit towards future orders. Similar situations have occured at other stores, one local Wal-mart has tried to order more joes through their Hasbro representatie, and been told they are a "non-replenishable" item, ie. that the store could not request them in an order, they would be only be shipped if Hasbro had enough to go around. Now please note, I do not live in a small town where this could be expected, but in Calgary, the third largest city in the country. These shipping restrictions are not due to lack of population.

 

Secondly, there are the inferior cards that both Joes and the 30th Star Wars shipped on. In the 80s/90s Hasbro would shrink the text size on cards so that they looked almost the same as their American counterparts. I have Joe and SW cards from that era that have both English and French on them, but still have the same images as the US versions. Now, both lines bear a generic immage on the front of the card, instead of a depiction of the actual character in the package, and instead of having a writeup or filecard on the back, it is printed on magazine stock and folded inside the bubble on the card where it often rips, or irreparibly creased. On the back, there are enlarged immages of the other figures available. In the case of Joes, they can print the indivudual card art for them, there but not on their cards? Even though I am not a MOC collector I like to keep the card backs for these figures because of their uniqueness. However, in recent years there has been no point as they all look the same.

 

Back during the early years of G.I. Joe Hasbro even changed the birthplaces of their Joes to Canadian localles for their Candian release. But now they simply have a single generic set of Joes for distribution outside of the US (Canada, Brazil, and Argentina that I know of).

 

And, just to throw in a personal pet-peave, when they released Wave 7 Duke Hasbro happily messed up his card, but instead of printing a sticker with the Canadian flag on it for the Canadian release, the retained the American one. If they can print separate cards, why not separate stickers? Due to this fact, myself and many other Canadian collecters have passed on this figure on principle. Does Hasbro think that America is more important than its northern neighbour? If so they need to get a grip.

 

With the free trade agreement between Canada and the US, I don't think that it makes sense to say that they could not ship properly carded Joes to Canada, or that, with the dollars on par, it is not worth their while.

 

Does anyone know why Hasbro treats Canadian consumers like this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

@can@

[DPrime]

I don't care about Duke's flag, but I agree with everything else. It sucks to be a Canadian GI Joe collector sometimes!

[steelbrigade1]

wow i didnt know it was that bad in canada.

you pose a good question

in the past of collecting i have seen my share of french

cards.

i even own a snake-eyes v-2 with a french file

and i thought it was cool

this was my first international variant

 

but i thought it was hard to find waves here

just hearing that you live in one of the largest cities in canada

you guys have gotten the shaft

sorry guys

[darthhenning]

but i thought it was hard to find waves here

just hearing that you live in one of the largest cities in canada

you guys have gotten the shaft

sorry guys

 

Did I mention that the entire city has seen two cases of Wave 8 and not one of Wave 9.

 

 

 

 

@can@

[Blackmada]

I thought the Canadian cards were because Canadian officials are picky about what is on toys packaging so it has to be changed.

 

The part about Hasbro sending two cases and not six, alot of American online stores are getting shorted too. If online store are getting shorted there is a good chance American retailers like Wal-Mart are getting shorted also. I don't think it is just happening in Canada.

 

Another thing to consider is that Hasbro is first and formost an American company so it makes sense that American stores would get more than other countires. If someone is going to get shorted they would likely go with international orders first.

 

I bet if the tables were turned and Hasbro was a Canadian company and could not meet the demand with a big enough supply they would short American stores and make sure there was more for Canadian stores.

 

When you are an American busines it makes sense to have American stores be the top priority.

[darthhenning]

I thought the Canadian cards were because Canadian officials are picky about what is on toys packaging so it has to be changed.

 

As long as it has English and French on the card, its fine. The image does not matter.

 

Another thing to consider is that Hasbro is first and formost an American company so it makes sense that American stores would get more than other countires. If someone is going to get shorted they would likely go with international orders first.

 

I bet if the tables were turned and Hasbro was a Canadian company and could not meet the demand with a big enough supply they would short American stores and make sure there was more for Canadian stores.

 

When you are an American busines it makes sense to have American stores be the top priority.

 

And yet car companies world wide (Nissan, Honda, etc.) have most of their sales outside their country, and Canadian companies like the makers of SeeDoo, Bombardier and others sell most of their goods to the USA. Besides, there is an entire division of Hasbro, Hasbro Canada, based in Toronto that deals with Canadian toys, if we weren't that important to their business, there probably wouldn't be. I know for certain that they don't have major offices in Euorpe or South America.

 

 

 

@can@

[Tom-1]

Does Hasbro think that America is more important than its northern neighbour? If so they need to get a grip.

 

In the American Youth Values Program all children of our glorious nation must attend, we are instructed that America always comes first. Canada second, but America first still.

 

Tom

[Blackmada]

I thought the Canadian cards were because Canadian officials are picky about what is on toys packaging so it has to be changed.

 

As long as it has English and French on the card, its fine. The image does not matter.

 

Another thing to consider is that Hasbro is first and formost an American company so it makes sense that American stores would get more than other countires. If someone is going to get shorted they would likely go with international orders first.

 

I bet if the tables were turned and Hasbro was a Canadian company and could not meet the demand with a big enough supply they would short American stores and make sure there was more for Canadian stores.

 

When you are an American busines it makes sense to have American stores be the top priority.

 

And yet car companies world wide (Nissan, Honda, etc.) have most of their sales outside their country, and Canadian companies like the makers of SeeDoo, Bombardier and others sell most of their goods to the USA. Besides, there is an entire division of Hasbro, Hasbro Canada, based in Toronto that deals with Canadian toys, if we weren't that important to their business, there probably wouldn't be. I know for certain that they don't have major offices in Euorpe or South America.

 

 

 

@can@

I guess I was wrong. Hasbro must hate Canada.

[FlyingFigg]

but i thought it was hard to find waves here

just hearing that you live in one of the largest cities in canada

you guys have gotten the shaft

sorry guys

 

Did I mention that the entire city has seen two cases of Wave 8 and not one of Wave 9.

 

 

 

 

@can@

 

It's never as simple as that. Due to many factors (one being those international cards we get) our retail stores (as far as Joes go anyway) are a month behind the States minimum. For example; If Americans started posting wave 9 sightings on July 1st, we'll see wave 9 on August 1st at the earliest.

 

I thought the Canadian cards were because Canadian officials are picky about what is on toys packaging so it has to be changed.

 

The part about Hasbro sending two cases and not six, alot of American online stores are getting shorted too. If online store are getting shorted there is a good chance American retailers like Wal-Mart are getting shorted also. I don't think it is just happening in Canada.

 

Another thing to consider is that Hasbro is first and formost an American company so it makes sense that American stores would get more than other countires. If someone is going to get shorted they would likely go with international orders first.

 

I bet if the tables were turned and Hasbro was a Canadian company and could not meet the demand with a big enough supply they would short American stores and make sure there was more for Canadian stores.

 

When you are an American busines it makes sense to have American stores be the top priority.

 

There's also the numbers to consider. Canada is over twice the land mass of the States with around 1/10th of the population. They sell way more product in the states and always will regardless of distribution. Shipping is also more expensive in this country (again more ground to cover, and higher gas prices with less stops to be able unload). It even cost Hasbro more to get their product out to their customers (Walmart, TRU, etc.) In the states, the boat from overseas docks in California, and Hasbro's DC (distribution center) is in the same town / close to there. In Canada, the boat comes in to B.C. (BTW the cost of bringing a C-Can into Canada is around $8000.00. That's just to take it off the boat.) Hasbro's DC in Canada is in Montreal, so they got to ship it all the way across the country, then ship it back to retailers on the west coast. Which cost more time and money. It also explains why we pay $10-$12 plus a figure instead of whatever they pay in the states, despite the fact that the dollar is on par.

 

Whether Hasbro is an American buisness or not, there's way more sales to be made (higher volume, and cheaper cost) to the States. It just makes more sense for them to take care of the U.S. first.

 

As long as it has English and French on the card, its fine. The image does not matter.

 

And yet car companies world wide (Nissan, Honda, etc.) have most of their sales outside their country, and Canadian companies like the makers of SeeDoo, Bombardier and others sell most of their goods to the USA. Besides, there is an entire division of Hasbro, Hasbro Canada, based in Toronto that deals with Canadian toys, if we weren't that important to their business, there probably wouldn't be. I know for certain that they don't have major offices in Euorpe or South America.

 

 

 

@can@

 

It's not as simple as just French and English on the cards. Yes, that's required by law. So that's why they do it with the international ones. Also they only need to print two seperate cards, as opposed to a unique card per figure which helps meet their minimum production run numbers (somewhere around 30,000 of each figure if I remember correctly).

 

Sure Nissan, Honda etc. have a good market share here, and Hasbro Canada, does well too. But that doesn't mean that if all the stores were flooded with Joes 60% of it won't be sitting there a year later.

 

Remember in the 80's and finding Joes was about as hard as finding your feet? Well if the new line of Joes is a collector driven line (it's not, but let's say it is anyway) and for every one of us that had the RAH Joes back in the 80's that collect them now, there's 100 people or more that had them back in the 80's that don't today. Are Joe's selling very well? Yes. Are Joes selling as well as the did in their Hayday in the 80's? No, not even close.

 

We're not un-important, there's just not enough of us.

 

Just do what I do. Order from BBTS or another online retailer of your choice, you'll get it faster and cheaper, with no headaches. I do not recommend CMD store, they're Canadian and very slow to get Joes, just like retail)

[FlyingFigg]

And, just to throw in a personal pet-peave, when they released Wave 7 Duke Hasbro happily messed up his card, but instead of printing a sticker with the Canadian flag on it for the Canadian release, the retained the American one. If they can print separate cards, why not separate stickers? Due to this fact, myself and many other Canadian collecters have passed on this figure on principle. Does Hasbro think that America is more important than its northern neighbour? If so they need to get a grip.

 

With the free trade agreement between Canada and the US, I don't think that it makes sense to say that they could not ship properly carded Joes to Canada, or that, with the dollars on par, it is not worth their while.

 

Well to be fair the flag is movie acurate and Duke is American......

 

As far as free trade goes? Free trade nothing. I had to bring in an order of parts for a customer from the States and I got hit with a 170% tarif, to bring it over the boarder. Happens all the time in my buisness. it' a joke.

[Viper Hunter]

Hasbro just plain hates...EVERYONE! @smilepunch@

[Ares6009]

Actually, it all about gas. And transportation costs. I work in the distribution business (food, in my case) and I can say we've had to make some dramatic cuts in order to pay for the diesel it takes to bring stuff anywhere. I would imagine it is the same for Hasbro. It is also refective in when and how waves show up anywhere in the US as well - it's now by bulk, rather than constant replenishment. Canada gets it worse because there are transnational fees to pay, so they will only ship when they have a full load, so to speak. Your best bet seems to be mail-order. Hell, you'll get it before we do in that case. Only thing is army building is really hard by mail, so there's the drawback.

 

That's how I see it, anyway. For God's sake, I live one state over from where Hasbro's main site is, and we always get the sh... stuff last out of the 50 state Union! Go figure!

[darthhenning]

It's never as simple as that. Due to many factors (one being those international cards we get) our retail stores (as far as Joes go anyway) are a month behind the States minimum. For example; If Americans started posting wave 9 sightings on July 1st, we'll see wave 9 on August 1st at the earliest.

 

I know thats the case with many things, but I actually haven't found that with Joes here. I got waves 1-2 at the same time as the states (+/- three days), the comic packs the following week, and Wave 5 a few days before anyone posted sightings here or on Hisstank.

 

Part of the reason I'm annoyed is that Diamond was supposed to ship Wave 9 with Wave 1 vehicles this week to comic stores, including the Canadian ones. Of the 5 comic stores I visit in the city, one got two cases of the vehicles (got one), and one other got one case wave 9 (sold before I got there). It isn't that they can't ship them in this case, but that they didn't, and thats why I'm annoyed.

 

 

 

It's not as simple as just French and English on the cards. Yes, that's required by law. So that's why they do it with the international ones. Also they only need to print two seperate cards, as opposed to a unique card per figure which helps meet their minimum production run numbers (somewhere around 30,000 of each figure if I remember correctly).

 

I meant to illustrate the legal regulations. As explained above, in the 80s/90s Hasbro attempted to provide the same images on the cards, and the filecards, but used smaller text to accomodate both languages. You hit the nail on the head with your comment, the change in card art is only used to save them money, but shortshrifts the consumer, and thats the problem.

 

 

 

Remember in the 80's and finding Joes was about as hard as finding your feet? Well if the new line of Joes is a collector driven line (it's not, but let's say it is anyway) and for every one of us that had the RAH Joes back in the 80's that collect them now, there's 100 people or more that had them back in the 80's that don't today. Are Joe's selling very well? Yes. Are Joes selling as well as the did in their Hayday in the 80's? No, not even close.

 

We're not un-important, there's just not enough of us.

 

Just do what I do. Order from BBTS or another online retailer of your choice, you'll get it faster and cheaper, with no headaches. I do not recommend CMD store, they're Canadian and very slow to get Joes, just like retail)

 

Admittedly we're a smaller market than in the 80s, but Hasbro should still attempt to meet demand.

 

As for online ordering, I lack a credit card, unless I can bum one off a friend who uses E-bay, and can't preorder like that. Also, given experiences had by relatives and friends, I have little trust for mot online retailors.

 

 

 

@can@

[ARROW]

I think the focus here is misplaced.

 

It has nothing to do with Hasbro and everything to do with Canadian retailers.

 

Military themed toys have not sold big here in a very long time. There's a triple misconception on the part of retailers, retail toy buyers ( the staff that buy the stock to sell at the stores) and consumers regarding war toys. There's a dichotomy regarding "war toys" because in the eyes of some, violence/conflict based properties like Star Wars are NOT seen as war toys, they are seen as fantasy or sci-fi toys.

 

Here's the story as I have been told it twice now......a story I heard about 10 years ago, from two different sources in the industry, one a Habsro rep, the other a toy buyer for a major retail chain up here.

Apparently, about 20 years ago, some of the major toy buyers for Sears Canada, Eatons, Woodwards, Toys and Wheels, Consumers Distributing, and the Bay (and probably a few other chains) were women.

These gals had the job of picking out the toy selections for the big players up here ( this was before Walmart arrived here, and before TRU gained ground) and APPARENTLY, some of them knew each other.

Be that as it may, or may not......these gals apparently were all moms, and were concerned with the tenor of way the world was working then. Reagan was still in office, the US military was gaining prominence again after the demoralization of Vietnam, and the blood-glories of Rambo/Commando? Missing in Action were pretty popular. To be interested in military things was to be interested in blood-letting and death etc.

Now, obviously, these moms frowned upon this stuff, and as a result.......so the story goes......they used THEIR judgement, and the judgement of their corporate brethren and the small amount of consumer feedback, and started reducing the orders for military toy products.

 

Now, remember that dichotomy........other action-adventure based toys did not suffer much because they were not MILITARY figures with US affiliations. Instead, they were Star Wars Jedi, Ninja Turtles and Toxic Crusaders etc.

GIJOE-type toys started seeing less shelf-space because of that bias. Add to it that for much of the late 80's and through the 90's the popular political thrust was that of the Liberal party, a administration that sat just left-of-centre for the better part of about 12 years, iirc.

Now, unfortunately, ever since that time.......the bias has held strong.

The bias is not strong enough to totally deny the market up here, but it is strong enough......pervasive enough that it does meter what is ordered.

 

The bias remains a hold-over that still resides over the retail of toys in Canada, despite the fact that Hasbro, Lanard and ( until about 7 years ago) Twenty First Century Toys sold product here.

True, Twenty First Century Toys fielded massive amounts of product up in Canada--but that was ONLY at one retailer: TRU.

TRU choked on that stuff, a great deal of it was discounted after about a year, because it was not as popular as expected, and TRU ( by that time one of the more prominent toy retailers in Canada) realized it was because the market was just not here.

 

That, again unfortunately, has been borne out every time a military toy line gets a major retailer push up here. Time and time again, various products ( a sizable amount of GIJOE mostly) appeared up here, and time and again, some would move.........most of it would stick to the shelves.

Combined with the retailer and consumer bias there is a PERCEPTION that American Military themed toys are NOT popular in Canada, simply because its the American war machine being celebrated.

Hasbro has said to me on two occasions in emails, a few years back that they would LOVE to sell more GIJOE product up here, but retailers consistently under order, and convey to Hasbro that they are NOT INTERESTED in placing large orders.

 

Ironically, specialty market stores, like comic stores and collectible toy stores apparently place LARGER orders as a collective whole than the major retailers do for GIJOE products, simply because those smaller retailers are more in tune with their customers.

 

That, as I understand it, is where it stands to date. Its not Hasbro's fault, and never has been.

Blame the retailers and the misconception/perceptions of the Canadian consumer.

[PhoenixSword]

so is captain America captain Canada over their? is he red and white with the maple leaf on his uniform :/ Its gi joe... a real AMERICAN hero... don't know why your complaining about that part of it. . . duke with a Canadian flag? blasphemy! Unless there was a canadian version of the comics/cartoons there that i don't know about i think your being a bit selfish on that side of it.

 

The other stuff though, the crappy cards and file cards and what not is a shame, but if hasbro did make them the way you want them to be it would most likely cost you a lot more money to get them and Hasbro probably thought it would be better to half ass it to keep costs down and sales up because, as stated, there isn't as much of a demand in canada for american military style toys as there is in america...

[ARROW]

so is captain America captain Canada over their? is he red and white with the maple leaf on his uniform :/ Its gi joe... a real AMERICAN hero... don't know why your complaining about that part of it. . . duke with a Canadian flag? blasphemy! Unless there was a canadian version of the comics/cartoons there that i don't know about i think your being a bit selfish on that side of it.

 

No, that's not it.

Think about it, how popular is Captain Canuck stateside? Have you ever heard of the character or seen the comics? Probably not, because he's Canadian.

 

Captain America is not as popular up here because........well...........he's American.

 

Let's face it, nationalized heroes are only truly popular in the nations they are sourced from. Americans don't wave a Canadian flag around because they are Americans, and vice versa. GIJOE is largely a reflection of US Military heroes, not Canadian heroes....so its not as popular up here as it would be if it featured some.

 

Which, btw, it did. There were versions of the file cards in the ARAH line that had Canadian themes for some of the characters ( mostly altered birthplaces) and quite a few GIJOE Vehicles featured Canadian flag stickers ( often in addition to American flags) on the sticker sheets.

Also, alot of the Canadian packaging dropped the "Real American Hero" byline early on ( and with foreign releases as well) so for a sizable part of the GIJOE audience, that byline means little or nothing. GIJOE is NOT a "Real American Hero" to quite a few of us.

 

Based on my experience, a character like Grunt IS Canadian ( birthplace Longueuil, Quebec--where Hasbro Canada is located)), because his file card says so.....hey, if Hasbro printed it as such, it must be canon, right?

I know...I know..........he's not really "Canadian"........ but its a moot point anyways, fans debate stuff like that ad nauseum.

 

 

 

The other stuff though, the crappy cards and file cards and what not is a shame, but if hasbro did make them the way you want them to be it would most likely cost you a lot more money to get them and Hasbro probably thought it would be better to half ass it to keep costs down and sales up because, as stated, there isn't as much of a demand in canada for american military style toys as there is in america...

The different file cards are just a cost-saving measure by Hasbro--its a clear indicator that they intend to open up the foreign markets for the line by having multi-lingual packaging.

I've seen all three style of packaging up here, in both specialty and major retailers.

 

I've had many an experience with US collectors turning their noses up at Canadian packaging, simply because it has French text on it. It borders on a ( comical) allergic reaction for some.

For me, its means not a lot........because I open everything I get, so the toys themselves are what matters--and they are the same regardless of what the packaging looks like.

[JohnnyRebelV2]

As a Canadian collector, I've been looking for 25th anniversery Joes and 30th anniversery Star Wars figures lately, and I couldn't help but notice a distinct change in many of Hasbro's methods in dealing with us lately. And I was hoping that someone on these boards might be able to expalin the reason for these changes.

 

The first and most obvious change is distribution. In years past, Canadians had an equal chance as Americans to find the figures they wanted. Now, I know that 25th Joes are hard to find for everyone, but things are much worse here. One store that ordered 10 cases of wave 7 Joes received 1 one week and a second (2 total) the next week. THis second came with a letter stating that Hasbro would not be fulfilling the rest of their order and the payment would be used as credit towards future orders. Similar situations have occured at other stores, one local Wal-mart has tried to order more joes through their Hasbro representatie, and been told they are a "non-replenishable" item, ie. that the store could not request them in an order, they would be only be shipped if Hasbro had enough to go around. Now please note, I do not live in a small town where this could be expected, but in Calgary, the third largest city in the country. These shipping restrictions are not due to lack of population.

 

Secondly, there are the inferior cards that both Joes and the 30th Star Wars shipped on. In the 80s/90s Hasbro would shrink the text size on cards so that they looked almost the same as their American counterparts. I have Joe and SW cards from that era that have both English and French on them, but still have the same images as the US versions. Now, both lines bear a generic immage on the front of the card, instead of a depiction of the actual character in the package, and instead of having a writeup or filecard on the back, it is printed on magazine stock and folded inside the bubble on the card where it often rips, or irreparibly creased. On the back, there are enlarged immages of the other figures available. In the case of Joes, they can print the indivudual card art for them, there but not on their cards? Even though I am not a MOC collector I like to keep the card backs for these figures because of their uniqueness. However, in recent years there has been no point as they all look the same.

 

Back during the early years of G.I. Joe Hasbro even changed the birthplaces of their Joes to Canadian localles for their Candian release. But now they simply have a single generic set of Joes for distribution outside of the US (Canada, Brazil, and Argentina that I know of).

 

And, just to throw in a personal pet-peave, when they released Wave 7 Duke Hasbro happily messed up his card, but instead of printing a sticker with the Canadian flag on it for the Canadian release, the retained the American one. If they can print separate cards, why not separate stickers? Due to this fact, myself and many other Canadian collecters have passed on this figure on principle. Does Hasbro think that America is more important than its northern neighbour? If so they need to get a grip.

 

With the free trade agreement between Canada and the US, I don't think that it makes sense to say that they could not ship properly carded Joes to Canada, or that, with the dollars on par, it is not worth their while.

 

Does anyone know why Hasbro treats Canadian consumers like this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

@can@

 

Haha Redneck Hillbilly Hickland Calgary is not the third biggest city in Canada. My hometown Vancouver is third. Calgary is 5th. Distribution here is ok lately. Lots of wave 7 and 8 showed up at Toys R Us and Walmart. And Zellers has gotten all the comic packs.

[ARROW]

Haha Redneck Hillbilly Hickland Calgary is not the third biggest city in Canada. My hometown Vancouver is third. Calgary is 5th. Distribution here is ok lately. Lots of wave 7 and 8 showed up at Toys R Us and Walmart. And Zellers has gotten all the comic packs.

 

You'd be surprised how Calgary is growing, same with Edmonton. I'd be surprised if Calgary isn't matching Vancouver in terms of civic population now.

I hail from Vancouver myself, and the Lower Mainland is pretty limited as to how it can grow now. Calgary and Edmonton can keep expanding in all directions into the surrounding land.

Likewise with my next household destination: Saskatoon.

Thing about the other three cities, the collector community is vibrant and savvy.....and finding toys there is a challenge. In S'toon, my intel says the collecting community has not changed much since I last lived there, about 4 years ago.....so finding stuff should be easier.

 

Heck, I'm in the Cariboo right at the moment, and finding stuff is no problem at all.....it practically comes to me!

The thing about GIJOE product is that the specialty stores have been able to get stuff from day one, via Diamond, and the mark-up hasn't been that much with my local Mistah Sugah ( I get my for $7.99).

[darthhenning]

As a Canadian collector, I've been looking for 25th anniversery Joes and 30th anniversery Star Wars figures lately, and I couldn't help but notice a distinct change in many of Hasbro's methods in dealing with us lately. And I was hoping that someone on these boards might be able to expalin the reason for these changes.

 

The first and most obvious change is distribution. In years past, Canadians had an equal chance as Americans to find the figures they wanted. Now, I know that 25th Joes are hard to find for everyone, but things are much worse here. One store that ordered 10 cases of wave 7 Joes received 1 one week and a second (2 total) the next week. THis second came with a letter stating that Hasbro would not be fulfilling the rest of their order and the payment would be used as credit towards future orders. Similar situations have occured at other stores, one local Wal-mart has tried to order more joes through their Hasbro representatie, and been told they are a "non-replenishable" item, ie. that the store could not request them in an order, they would be only be shipped if Hasbro had enough to go around. Now please note, I do not live in a small town where this could be expected, but in Calgary, the third largest city in the country. These shipping restrictions are not due to lack of population.

 

Secondly, there are the inferior cards that both Joes and the 30th Star Wars shipped on. In the 80s/90s Hasbro would shrink the text size on cards so that they looked almost the same as their American counterparts. I have Joe and SW cards from that era that have both English and French on them, but still have the same images as the US versions. Now, both lines bear a generic immage on the front of the card, instead of a depiction of the actual character in the package, and instead of having a writeup or filecard on the back, it is printed on magazine stock and folded inside the bubble on the card where it often rips, or irreparibly creased. On the back, there are enlarged immages of the other figures available. In the case of Joes, they can print the indivudual card art for them, there but not on their cards? Even though I am not a MOC collector I like to keep the card backs for these figures because of their uniqueness. However, in recent years there has been no point as they all look the same.

 

Back during the early years of G.I. Joe Hasbro even changed the birthplaces of their Joes to Canadian localles for their Candian release. But now they simply have a single generic set of Joes for distribution outside of the US (Canada, Brazil, and Argentina that I know of).

 

And, just to throw in a personal pet-peave, when they released Wave 7 Duke Hasbro happily messed up his card, but instead of printing a sticker with the Canadian flag on it for the Canadian release, the retained the American one. If they can print separate cards, why not separate stickers? Due to this fact, myself and many other Canadian collecters have passed on this figure on principle. Does Hasbro think that America is more important than its northern neighbour? If so they need to get a grip.

 

With the free trade agreement between Canada and the US, I don't think that it makes sense to say that they could not ship properly carded Joes to Canada, or that, with the dollars on par, it is not worth their while.

 

Does anyone know why Hasbro treats Canadian consumers like this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

@can@

 

Haha Redneck Hillbilly Hickland Calgary is not the third biggest city in Canada. My hometown Vancouver is third. Calgary is 5th. Distribution here is ok lately. Lots of wave 7 and 8 showed up at Toys R Us and Walmart. And Zellers has gotten all the comic packs.

 

Vancouver may have a larger METROPOLITAN area, but both include 14 other smaller 'cities' or 'villages', and additional municipal census areas. But in terms of MUNICIPIAL area, Calgary has a civic population of 988,193 (2006 census) the third largest, while Vancouver's is 578,041, the eighth largest. As for finding stuff, yeah it shows up, and yeah I've found everything so far (bar wave 9) but very few cases, and thats my problem.

 

 

 

@can@

[darthhenning]

so is captain America captain Canada over their? is he red and white with the maple leaf on his uniform :/ Its gi joe... a real AMERICAN hero... don't know why your complaining about that part of it. . . duke with a Canadian flag? blasphemy! Unless there was a canadian version of the comics/cartoons there that i don't know about i think your being a bit selfish on that side of it.

 

Fair enough on Captain America. But G.I.Joe as a real AMERICAN hero is kind of pushing it. Even hasbro's dropped that line. I wouldn't mind the concept, but they take time to design new cardbacks for Canada, a different sticker based off an existing flag shouldn't be that difficult. Standardization would be nice. Its just a personal pet peeve.

 

 

The other stuff though, the crappy cards and file cards and what not is a shame, but if hasbro did make them the way you want them to be it would most likely cost you a lot more money to get them and Hasbro probably thought it would be better to half ass it to keep costs down and sales up because, as stated, there isn't as much of a demand in canada for american military style toys as there is in america...

 

The better cards don't drive up the price in the US, why should it here? I might observe that many people on these boards were furious when Targer 'hiked' their price to $7.99. Thats the cheapest price I've EVER seen in Canada, usually its between $8.50 and $9.99. We're already paying more (keep in mind the dollars are on par +/- 3 cents) so can Hasbro still not afford the better cards? Thats laughable.

 

And you bet there is demand, no G.I. Joe on its first release has sat on the shelf anywhere in Calgary beyond 6 days. On second or third, never beyond 2 or 3 weeks, and those are the pegwarmers: Vipers, flag Dukes, Breaker/Destro, and...well... thats it, nothing beyond that.

 

 

@can@