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Why Did ROC toys fail?


revsears

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i dotn think it was a failure......there are just as many 25th anni figs on the pegs at some stores as there are roc. and theres tons more tf2 toys than roc...so is that a failure too?

 

I agree, there is way more TF overstock than Joe over all. That line seems to be slower moving and never really saw a burst like the Joes did at one point. But its way to early for anything to be called a failure, the holiday season is where WM, Hasbro, etc are banking on selling most of the things! Its not to far away, the Spidey 3 figs sat for ever that summer, then boom sold hugly over the holidays and so did the TF movie figs that year. Its the nature of the movie toy beast.

Draven

 

True, but what new product CAN we expect to see in time for Christmas? There is SOME Joe stuff, but most of it is scheduled for 2010 (or, if we are lucky, they will squeeze it out in December). Transformers has it worse though as they don't even HAVE new product shown.

 

So, basically, this holiday season is just going to be a big "clearance"?

 

As for the comparison between the two lines, Transformers never really had the kinda sales that Joes did (specifically those 3 TRU 2-for-10 sales). All the Joe vehicles are shelf-warmers because of the price and other than a sale at TRU for the R.H.I.N.O., has ANYONE seen a sale on Joe vehices?

 

It helped that most of the Transformers characters we got as toys made it into the movie (except the Basic size, but their benefit is that they are the cheapest) and had some differentiation. Joe and "Cobra" chracters, not really. We have 15 different "Viper repaints" essentially, but only 4 of them actually made it into to the movie (and only if you look real hard during the sub battle).

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You forgot one...

10.) Snake Eyes, PP Snake Eyes, Arctic SE, Duke, Duke, Duke, Rip, Rip, Rip, Heavy Duty, Heavy Duty in disguise, Baroness, PP Baroness, etc.

I hope you see the pattern. @orko@

 

 

I could almost agree with you and did until the Rip,Rip, Rip part. there's only been one Ripcord figure released so far (two if you could the just released one in the TRU multi-pack). Sure we'll get more of these characters in the future but that's just how it works. Look at any other toyline and you will see a multitude of variations on a single character, most of which have no real reason for being. Atleast with Joe there's a reason to have Desert, Artic, Jungle or Aquatic themed charcaters and troopers.

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You forgot one...

10.) Snake Eyes, PP Snake Eyes, Arctic SE, Duke, Duke, Duke, Rip, Rip, Rip, Heavy Duty, Heavy Duty in disguise, Baroness, PP Baroness, etc.

I hope you see the pattern. @orko@

 

 

I could almost agree with you and did until the Rip,Rip, Rip part. there's only been one Ripcord figure released so far (two if you could the just released one in the TRU multi-pack). Sure we'll get more of these characters in the future but that's just how it works. Look at any other toyline and you will see a multitude of variations on a single character, most of which have no real reason for being. Atleast with Joe there's a reason to have Desert, Artic, Jungle or Aquatic themed charcaters and troopers.

 

No, there is Ripcord in the Accelerator suit and in the RI Armor, along with the TRU exclusive. So, Rip,Rip,Rip is correct

@smilepunch@

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I see tons of toys in every toy aisle and I constantly wonder "is there still a profit in any of this?" @haha@

 

Like I said...I don't know what's moving and what's not and who's buying what or in what quanities and so on, and if it's been restocked or still the same case.

 

My experience is only based on what I see each and everytime I visit the toy aisles and that's a bad way to judge anything accurately. I don't stick around long enough to do surveys and carry a clip board to document my findings as far as who comes along and buys what, kids buying their own toys, parents buying the toys, collectors buying the toys, employees buying the toys. I'm there in the moment, look for what I want, find it, buy it or don't see it and LEAVE.

 

I like the toys and I'm looking forward to getting most of them eventually. I liked the looks of the Resolute stuff as well and hope to get a few more of those, and if they keep making more, I'm sure there will be more neat stuff I want. Another movie already seems to be underway, so that means even MORE movieline toys to come and it all sounds good to me, even if the movies aren't exactly my cup of tea, the toys always have been.

 

Waves and themes come and go (maybe that's considered "failure"?) but G.I.Joe and Cobra seem to present in the toy aisles all the while?

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It's all about the price. Drop the prices a few dollars or pounds, as it is for me, and people would have gone crazy for them. No way in Hell I'm paying out £30 for an Alpha vehicle. £20, maybe.

 

 

I would agree that the vehicles aren't selling mostly because of the price. But the figures wouldn't benefit all that much from a price drop.

 

Heck man, Toys R Us had 2 for 10 sales THREE TIMES already, and I still didn't see people buy too many. I bought a few just to maybe exchange for other figures later.

 

But even at 5 bucks a pop, they just weren't cool enough for me to collect them

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At the TRU's here in Central FL, every time they had a 2 for $10, they blew them out in a hurry. By the second day, you'd see only a few Heavy Dutys and Barbecues. Then they'd get a truck, and blow them out in a couple days.

 

My nearest Wal-Mart was doing really well, until they got suddenly inundated(sp?) with 12 cases of Waves 1/2, all the same asst. Magically, a single case of Wave 3 found it's way on to the pegs. Wave 4 has required some driving, and I haven't seen wave 5(?) yet, with the variant Artic SS and White Dr. Lewis.

 

Targets are sitting on a lot of inventory, but their stockrooms are mostly empty. So, that means they have sold through and/or stocked what they initially predicted, but without ever having a decent sale on them, they're going to be the last stores to get new items.

 

The vehicles are priced too high, I totally agree, they just aren't moving. The Alpha wave is moving fairly well, but we've got enough Mole Pods to dig up my yard. Even the Dragonfly(-hawk) sat at Target the first time I saw it back when. They're just not worth $25. I can't believe I bought the Cobra Gunship, what a waste of money. The best way I can describe that toy is this: have you been at a yard sale and seen the back piece or such of a Joe vehicle and you get excited, then you pick it up and its only half complete, with like the canopy and/or wheels missing? That's how I feel everytime I pick up the Cobra Gunship.

 

I was stoked for the Dragonfly until I saw how small and disproportionate it is.

 

The upcoming Alpha wave stuff looks better, and I like that we're getting fed small doses of Resolute stuff to hold us until the boxed set next fall. I broke down and bought a Res. Destro, Baroness and Roadblock off eBay a couple months ago. It cost an arm and a leg, but at least I have them. And with the addition of more "classic" characters, i.e. Recondo into the waves, I think the line will be a steady seller, as long as we can clear some more of the first couple waves out of the way.

 

It's nowhere near as bad as TFs are in this area, where they can't give them away. I'll prob pick up Devastator after Christmas when he's on clearance for $20,lol.

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We're in a recession folks...

 

Wait. You mean you are admitting the nation is in a recession?

 

That's interesting, because just a couple of months ago on another discussion forum you were telling someone that the sales of RoC were going to go out the roof because there was no recession and things were as bad as "some people" made them out to be.

 

But now that RoC is failing, there is a recession and it's all because of that?

 

Interesting.

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We're in a recession folks...

 

Wait. You mean you are admitting the nation is in a recession?

 

That's interesting, because just a couple of months ago on another discussion forum you were telling someone that the sales of RoC were going to go out the roof because there was no recession and things were as bad as "some people" made them out to be.

 

But now that RoC is failing, there is a recession and it's all because of that?

 

Interesting.

 

Feel free to point out the direct quotes you're referring to. I know it's oh-so-easy to make snide remarks without context to back up either side.

 

I know it's hard to conceive, but there's also this occasional thing that happens with human beings called "being wrong." Yeah, it even happens to me. Surprise!

 

Now do you have something meaningful to add to the conversation, or were you just here to snipe? Would you care to address the relative success or failure of the RoC line in comparison to other comparable toy lines on the shelves at the moment? You know, the whole point that I was bringing up earlier?

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I think its presumptuous to say that the toy line has failed.

The article claims its sources tell that the line has sold under expectations, but underselling it of itself, not a signature of failure.

The Christmas shopping season is almost upon us, and GIJOE has, perennially sold well during that period--much to Hasbro's equally-perennial chagrin.

 

IMO, the line IS flawed, and I point the spotlight on the vehicles. They are half-assed at best with a great deal of reuse and repaints.

Consumers are not stupid, and they know when something is a retread--and I think that is why the line is floundering a bit.

Let's face it, most movie lines tank......and they do so because they are restricted to designs limited by what "works on screen".

That tends to limit the really fanciful possibilities, especially in terms of toys.

Design wise, the toys for those properties blow GIJOE clear out of the water--which says a lot.

 

I do think that the upcoming figures look much better, mostly because they veer away from the movie designs in a lot of ways.

The vehicles though...are great disappointments.

I think they missed out on a level of intricacy and detail that could have become a hallmark of the brand. The figures reflect this kind of thinking, but the vehicles remain very toy-line and nonsensical. Most of the stuff are throwbacks to the 80's--and while the tooling has served in reasonably good stead up until now......its overused.

Seriously.......did anyone else not groan when they saw the "Panther" mini tank was really just yet ANOTHER Armadillo, re-dressed with a couple of incongruous looking missile launchers. It screamed half-hearted, and worse........it screamed "cheap".

The figures get more love, more attention.....and they seem to sell much better because they are truly different product........but the vehicles, the bigger ticket items....they glue themselves to the shelves.

 

So, I'm not surprised to hear the claim that the line is not doing as expected to date, I personally think the product is somewhat underwhelming.

But that said........Christmas is coming and THAT is the real deciding factor.

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I think the toys themselves were excellently executed for what Hasbro designed. I don't like the ROC theme, but the figures were excellent renditions of them.

 

I mean look at something like the Doctor figure, you can easily tell that Hasbro put in much more effort into that figure than many of the 25th figures. The 25th line is full of reused bodies and minimal effort to make a new character using old bodies. I didn't see much of that for the movie line. It seemed like they tried pretty hard with these figures. They were made with quality all around, and had plenty of accessories.

 

 

Where they failed is the design. The figures could only be as good as the designs they were based on.. and the ROC stuff pretty much stinks. I don't know how many new figures they put out for the ROC line, but I only bought a few of them (PP Snake Eyes, TRU Firefly, Paratrooper)... that is a huge drop off for me from buying at least two of every 25th figure.

 

The accelerator suits, the reactive armor or whatever.. the blue camo... it all just sucks ballz. The Vipers were equally terrible. I didn't buy a single one of those fugly neovipers, commanders, elites.. whatever. they suck.

 

 

the vehicles also suck. The only ones I wanted were the RAH reissues, and they were mucked up with action feature accessories and extremely high prices.

 

 

Plus, I think Hasbro again WAY overproduced the first waves, and the new stuff doesn't have a chance to hit the pegs. Nobody is ever going to buy the 40 Heavy Duty figures at Target, no matter how long they sit there.

 

 

So yeah, I think if Hasbro wants to make some money, they are going to have to have classic characters in the ROC line... not like how Shipwreck is in there in ROC gear... more like how firefly is in there in kinda a resolute look.

 

Or even better, give us a classic line concurrent with the ROC crap. Just like Starwars has their Saga and Clone Wars stuff

 

 

I agree with most of this but let us not forget that Hasbro has always reused old molds for other figures and even did so with the movie line when they used the 25th Dusty for the mold for the Pit Commando just as one example.

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Not meeting expectations and a failure are two different things. I think most if not all toy lines are performing below expectations these days and as stated by others I think that is primarily due to the state of the economy more than anything else.

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Just as some were saying, stores expect this line to continue to perform well, especially as we near Christmas and the DVD release. Here is a photo of the "new" Wal-Mart toy dept plan-o-gram cover sheet. It details their plans to continue to push G.I.Joe and Transformers, including their exclusives.

 

CIMG0062.jpg

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The vast majority of the ROC figures are generic. The non-movie characters, like Shipwreck and Firefly have lost all their personality and are rendered unrecognizable to many collectors and kids. The absurd price is an issue as well, but the biggest problem is simply not being able to find all the figures I want.

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The vast majority of the ROC figures are generic. The non-movie characters, like Shipwreck and Firefly have lost all their personality and are rendered unrecognizable to many collectors and kids. The absurd price is an issue as well, but the biggest problem is simply not being able to find all the figures I want.

 

 

Have you ever tried to collect DC Universe Classics, lol. Finding Joes is like finding sand in a desert compared to trying to get even just their regular releases.

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I tend to agree with Rev. Obviously this is not an opinion which is validated by facts and figures. Duh. So no one should come down hard on Rev for stating his opinion.

 

What I'm seeing at my locals stores backs Rev up. I see pegs totally full of RoC product. I myself haven't bought any, and I bought most of the classic characters at least once in the 25th line. I even bought a few Resolute dudes.

 

But for me personally, the biggest factor is the boring costumes. Kids respond to color, and that goes for my inner child too. GI Joe had so much color. Barbeque is orange, Crimson Guard is red, Cobra Commander is blue. Practically every color gets represented.

 

To have everyone in black is probably more realistic (for night missions at least), but it really detracts from the visual interest of the line. And besides, like I said, I already have cool versions of my favorite characters from the 25th line. Why would I buy this new boring remakes?

 

I think the movie would have been a lot more successful if it had been rated PG and stuck to the original look of the characters.

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i probably shouldn't lay any comments here because i only have two ROC toys one neo-viper and one viper commando but i thought that they were better made than the 25th anniversary figures

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I tend to agree with Rev. Obviously this is not an opinion which is validated by facts and figures. Duh. So no one should come down hard on Rev for stating his opinion.

 

What I'm seeing at my locals stores backs Rev up. I see pegs totally full of RoC product. I myself haven't bought any, and I bought most of the classic characters at least once in the 25th line. I even bought a few Resolute dudes.

 

But for me personally, the biggest factor is the boring costumes. Kids respond to color, and that goes for my inner child too. GI Joe had so much color. Barbeque is orange, Crimson Guard is red, Cobra Commander is blue. Practically every color gets represented.

 

To have everyone in black is probably more realistic (for night missions at least), but it really detracts from the visual interest of the line. And besides, like I said, I already have cool versions of my favorite characters from the 25th line. Why would I buy this new boring remakes?

 

I think the movie would have been a lot more successful if it had been rated PG and stuck to the original look of the characters.

 

Well one interesting aspect is that, in the movie, the delta suits were shiny and silver. The toy line has them dull and dark.

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I just got back from my nearest WM, and I thought that magic had occured, until, like with most magic, I looked more closely and found the trick. I thought that around 100 of the first two waves worth of figures had disappeared, maybe been pulled off the floor and shipped back to Hasbro, as Hasbro has been known to do on a couple occasions. The regular section of the aisle was the same as yesterday, filled to the gills, but the whole endcap was gone. I asked the stocker what had happened......they moved them around the other side of the aisle by the bicycles and bicycle seats.... So, there goes any chance of ever seeing anything new there that I don't pull from a case on a pallet. *Le'Sigh*...

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I forgot to add, Pesatyel, in reference to the comparison with TF movie toys, maybe it was a regional thing, but my TRUs around me Did have big sales on the movie toys, twice. Either 2 for $11 or $12. Very similar to what they did with the Joes, percentage of original price-wise. Problem was, they only ever had the very first wave.

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