Hasbro Updates Us On The Status Of G.I.Joe Retaliation Toys

[Wheeljack35]

Here's my commentary on the matter:

 

 

Now they have time to go back and make Joes, not this.

 

 

Ok whats this? I seen this on Facebook earlier I though the GI Joe figures have better articulation?

 

And in 1978 Kenner did Star Wars,Hasbro was still making the old 12" Joes at that time

[MikePrime]

Here's my commentary on the matter:

 

 

Now they have time to go back and make Joes, not this.

 

 

Ok whats this? I seen this on Facebook earlier I though the GI Joe figures have better articulation?

 

And in 1978 Kenner did Star Wars,Hasbro was still making the old 12" Joes at that time

 

 

A member on another board I use posted this regarding a recent purchase, the new HISS Tank and its driver Cobra Commander.

 

The new hiss tank is huge!

 

The cc figure has no articulation

[CaptainTriumph]

Here's my commentary on the matter:

 

 

Now they have time to go back and make Joes, not this.

 

 

Ok whats this? I seen this on Facebook earlier I though the GI Joe figures have better articulation?

 

And in 1978 Kenner did Star Wars,Hasbro was still making the old 12" Joes at that time

 

 

A member on another board I use posted this regarding a recent purchase, the new HISS Tank and its driver Cobra Commander.

 

The new hiss tank is huge!

 

The cc figure has no articulation

G.I.Joe need to have articulation!

[Noodles]

A member on another board I use posted this regarding a recent purchase, the new HISS Tank and its driver Cobra Commander.

 

The new hiss tank is huge!

 

The cc figure has no articulation

Really? None at all? That's bollocks...

 

Noodles

[yojoebro82]

Ok whats this? I seen this on Facebook earlier I though the GI Joe figures have better articulation?

 

It's the new Hasbro cost cutting practice. All vehicle drivers now have 5 points of articulation just like a 34 year old SW figure, justified by the claim that they're "more for the kids than the collector". Sounds insane but 100% true.

 

I'm suprised there's more than one person who didn't seem to know about this. It's getting bad, people, make no mistake.

[Noodles]

So, Hasbro's argument is that you need less articulation when you actually let loose your fantasy and play with this stuff than when you put it in a showcase? Yeah, seems legit.

 

Noodles

[CLAM]

Ok whats this? I seen this on Facebook earlier I though the GI Joe figures have better articulation?

 

It's the new Hasbro cost cutting practice. All vehicle drivers now have 5 points of articulation just like a 14 year old SW figure, justified by the claim that they're "more for the kids than the collector". Sounds insane but 100% true.

 

I'm suprised there's more than one person who didn't seem to know about this. It's getting bad, people, make no mistake.

 

you mean a 34 year old Star Wars figure. That's how bad it is. Their new vehicle drivers have the same technology figures had 34 years ago.

[Dake]

Ok whats this? I seen this on Facebook earlier I though the GI Joe figures have better articulation?

 

And in 1978 Kenner did Star Wars,Hasbro was still making the old 12" Joes at that time

 

It's less about the company making them and more about the fact that Hasbro has gone back in time for the sake of cost-cutting. The reality is, Micro-man had ARAH levels of articulation in the seventies. One of the things that made Joe so popular in an action figure market that had been dominated by Star Wars for so long was low price coupled with added articulation. I don't understand how Hasbro can say kids don't care about articulation when it was what set GIJOE apart from its inception. But hey, five-points was good enough for the golden years of GI JOE: EXTREME! right?

 

If we want to cut costs I'd rather the driver was removed all together and released full-priced and fully-articulated on a card later. This is a waste of tooling and manufacturing dollars and results in a waste of my money paying for a piece of junk. I've bought vehicles just for their drivers (i.e Green VAMP for Steel Brigade Delta), and I would have bought my fourth version of the Sting Raider in the Fang boat just for that driver if it had been a normal figure. Now? It's not worth it.

[Pharmacoviper]

In a sense, I can understand why Hasbro cut the articulation on the driver figures. When I was a kid, I usually never took the driver out of the vehicle, so articulation wasn't really that important. Maybe Hasbro was thinking along these lines.

 

I bit the bullet and bought Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow from Target. I have to say that they're pretty good overall, despite being "movie" figures. Storm Shadow has full articulation, including double-jointed knees, wrist joints, and ankle joints. The zipline accessory is pretty decent.

 

Cobra Commander only has swivel wrists, single jointed knees, and no ankle articulation. However, the sculpt is good and he poses pretty well without the missing articulation. His staff accessory is pretty lame, though.

 

PharmV

[Dake]

In a sense, I can understand why Hasbro cut the articulation on the driver figures. When I was a kid, I usually never took the driver out of the vehicle, so articulation wasn't really that important. Maybe Hasbro was thinking along these lines.

 

I bit the bullet and bought Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow from Target. I have to say that they're pretty good overall, despite being "movie" figures. Storm Shadow has full articulation, including double-jointed knees, wrist joints, and ankle joints. The zipline accessory is pretty decent.

 

Cobra Commander only has swivel wrists, single jointed knees, and no ankle articulation. However, the sculpt is good and he poses pretty well without the missing articulation. His staff accessory is pretty lame, though.

 

PharmV

 

I think that's their reasoning precisely. That being said, even as a kid my vehicle drivers were often out in the mix. Why hide someone in a cockpit where you couldn't see them? Maybe I was the exception to the rule.

 

The problem for me is we are now paying the same or more for less. It would be one thing if the figure prices all dropped a dollar. But nope, ten bucks remains the average now and we are getting less product. Many of the single-carded figures aren't bad... but they could be great. Zartan, Roadblock, Cobra Commander - wow, they stand straight up well (assuming the packaging didn't warp a leg of course). Or, you can perch them on the edge of a foot (maybe). Anything more than that, sorry, out of luck.

[Wheeljack35]

I just snagged the blue CC today at Kmart

[Doom Saber]

Ok whats this? I seen this on Facebook earlier I though the GI Joe figures have better articulation?

 

And in 1978 Kenner did Star Wars,Hasbro was still making the old 12" Joes at that time

 

It's less about the company making them and more about the fact that Hasbro has gone back in time for the sake of cost-cutting. The reality is, Micro-man had ARAH levels of articulation in the seventies. One of the things that made Joe so popular in an action figure market that had been dominated by Star Wars for so long was low price coupled with added articulation. I don't understand how Hasbro can say kids don't care about articulation when it was what set GIJOE apart from its inception. But hey, five-points was good enough for the golden years of GI JOE: EXTREME! right?

 

If we want to cut costs I'd rather the driver was removed all together and released full-priced and fully-articulated on a card later. This is a waste of tooling and manufacturing dollars and results in a waste of my money paying for a piece of junk. I've bought vehicles just for their drivers (i.e Green VAMP for Steel Brigade Delta), and I would have bought my fourth version of the Sting Raider in the Fang boat just for that driver if it had been a normal figure. Now? It's not worth it.

 

Microman is what gave birth to the o-ring and the ARAH articulation, hence the ARAH line. Without Mircoman, there wouldn't be an ARAH line.

Likewise, without the original Joe toyline, Microman wouldn't have existed. Microman was made because its parent line, the Henshin Cyborg line, were too large for Japanese households; the Henshin Cyborg line are retooled Combat Joe (the 12 inch G.I. Joe line in Japan) dolls.

[Nguyen_Dragon]

I picked up the dojo set with Roadblock at TOYSRUS today... Not bad for $19.99...

[Devilbat]

Me too...I was tickled to death since I was prepared to pay thirty-bucks or more for it on eBay, 'cause I just knew I'd never see these sets at retail. I wanted it mainly for the Beachhead first, the Roadblock second. Kamakura was a nice litle bonus since I love the character so much. The star of the set for me is Beachhead though, and he looks even better in person than he does in all the pics I've seen. I had read reviews where people were kinda complaining about his boring tan and/or gray colors, but I think he looks fantastic. He looks like what a real-life, modern-day Beachhead would look like, or like he might look like had he been in a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game. I love it. Roadblock looks to me like a Night Force figure, so that makes him cool in my book.

 

I also snagged a Retaliation Roadblock, Snake Eyes, and Storm Shadow, and then I realized these were the same three figures I already had in the Amazon "sneak-peek" set. (lol) Oh, and I did see the new H.I.S.S. too, and I wanted it so bad, despite coming with the Kenner throw-back Cobra Commander driver figure. I think the new Retaliation Cobra soldier looks like he'd make a better H.I.S.S. driver than a grunt, so I think I might get one somewhere down the road as my driver...if I ever see these again, that is. But it was nice to find exactly what I was looking for in the first store I went into today; my goal was to find some Retaliation figures, and I did just that.

 

Oh yeah!! I almost forgot to tell you guys...before I went to Target, I went to Walgreens to get my meds refilled, and what do I find in the toy section inexplicably? (Wait for it...) I found a POC Shadow Tracker!! I remember saying out loud under my breath as I grabbed it, "Oh...my...WORD!!" (lol) I just couldn't believe my luck in finding it. It was $10.99, but that's still far cheaper than I've seen it go for on eBay.

[Dragonrider1227]

@loll@

 

Just what I suspected......grab up what's out now kiddies, because it's limited and won't be back until early next year. Brilliant way to make crappy looking toys suddenly seem worth buying after all?

 

Maybe Hasbro could throw us a bone and re-release a few of the POC and 30th annv waves that barely saw life at retail??

I get the feeling those Dollar General repaints are supposed to be the "bone."

[revsears]

be honest, how many of us would grab more marvel universe, or star wars figs to cope with the loss of Joe?

 

To be honest, not me. Only SW I care about is original trilogy stuff, and every character for that has gotten made long ago. As for Marvel, I keep my superheroes 6" because I started with Marvel Legends and I ain't rebuying them all in smaller scale.

 

I would spend more cash on marvel, mostly stuff like Kraven,or baddies I could get for my existing Joes. But I think it's a significant enough portion of us that would spend more cash there that is bad for hasbro compete with itself.

Heck, if someone else was doing cap. America, they may have done a better job at capturing the potential military feel of that line. All the brands are probably hurt by the others, as nothing is hasbro's major focus.

[Viper Hunter]

@loll@

 

Just what I suspected......grab up what's out now kiddies, because it's limited and won't be back until early next year. Brilliant way to make crappy looking toys suddenly seem worth buying after all?

 

Maybe Hasbro could throw us a bone and re-release a few of the POC and 30th annv waves that barely saw life at retail??

I get the feeling those Dollar General repaints are supposed to be the "bone."

 

If so, they need to throw a few more.

[Dragonrider1227]

HA HA indeed >>

As for focusing more on Marvel, this does free up my wallet to start picking up some Avengers stuff

[iacon45]

I mentioned this over in the Dollar General Joe Repaint thread. If these aren't set exclusively to Dollar General and other smaller discount chains it would be nice to see these guys at Wally and other stores and maybe throw in a few more to boot.

 

I know during 2007, Transformers movie toys became a little hard to find and either Wal-Mart was using older warehouse stock or Hasbro sent them older stock to pad the pegs until more movie toys arrived. It would be awesome if Hasbro could send some older waves to keep Joes a presence in the toy aisle after the initial Retaliation waves dry up. There were a few I am kicking myself for missing or passing on.

[Devilbat]

Yeah, I agree. And I'll echo what VH said earlier about wanting to see some of the older POC/30th Anniversary figures re-issued. It would soften the blow of having the Retaliation stuff pulled since there are several of them I didn't get. I found a Shadow Tracker the other day completely by accident at Walgreens, of all places, and it was great because I was prepared to pay twice or even three times maybe what I paid for it. I was thrilled to say the least.

[Draven79]

Thing is I am not sure they actually have the time to do so. Production wise. If they new ahead of time they might. But it does not sound like it. Best case imo is another set of DG repaints as seen on Ebay.

Draven

[spystreak]

the retaliation figures just hit my wal-mart today managed to grab the tan variant of the GIJOE trooper