Yep. Hasbro should know better than that.
I do not think it's a good idea to have 3 versions of Duke on the pegs all at once and about 3 to 5 copies of each version. You're going to see nothing but Duke's, Ripcord's and Snake Eyes' and an occasional ReconHo or Zartan.
I'd be surprised if these ever made it to the b&m stores anyway. They are scheduled for 2010 and that's still 4 months away. RoC needs to sell well and keep moving for PoC to hit stores. The way it's going, I don't see that happening. The movie is still struggling to be in a surplus and I seriously doubt it's going to. TRU and Walmart are having sale after sale in attempts to get interest and sell product. There's just not enough interest there. Walmart and maybe Target and TRU has already shown disinterest in selling G I Joe. When they take the movie out of the theaters in a week or two and there's no absolute concrete word from Paramount that there is going to be a sequel (why would there be? as it stand they are $175 million in the hole still. Do you really think Paramount is going to say we're $175 million in the hole, but what the Hell? Let's lose some more money and try to sell some more toys for Hasbro and maybe it will work the second time) and it's considered one big failure, look for Walmart and TRU to put them on clearance and tell Hasbro no thanks on G I Joe.
What happens after that will be interesting. Will Hasbro decide that the bulk of G I Joe buyers are in the older collector camp? Will the 25th line return and will Hasbro distribute Joe online? Or will they just drop it entirely and let it die for a few years?
Kids obviously aren't buying these. Sure, everyone has seen a kid or two buy some (except me). What I mean is overall like Hasbro wanted. So that means collectors and scalpers are buying them. If you don't believe that look at the fact that Target is raising the price of Joe $1 dollar. They are the store with the newer waves. Who's buying the newer waves? You think some kid who saw the movie 3 weeks ago is skipping school and running to Target every morning to find arctic storm shadow or looking for night adder? Of course not.
So if you consider interest for all of this is not great, you can count out the scalpers. Don't believe me? Check E-Bay. So who does that leave? It leaves the collectors. That's who's keeping it up. Has there been an onslaught of little kids coming to all of the forums to talk about the new cool movie and it's toys? No.
I watched on sites dedicated to G I Joe as RoC apologists told people who asked for more 25th classics this past spring and summer and even last year that they were living in the past. They were being ridiculous and silly to think that RoC wasn't going to be a huge success and that's where everything was and that a toy line couldn't be supported by collectors.
First of all I would point those people to Mattel's He-Man and Ghostbusters line.
Second, I would remind them that the 25th line went from 25 figures to 2 years of product. And oh yeah, by the way, until RoC accomplishes that feat, it's inferior to the 25th line.
And third, while collectors certainly can keep a line alive, something that is produced on such a much more massive scale like RoC is a different story. They are about to find out just how right they were. And they aren't going to like it.
Dude I see kids buy these figures and second you just don't see it. Don't post a topic that will get people upset.