Stevy Maximus

The Targets around here just put out WAVE 4. @firedevil@ It was weird. I saw parts of wave 10/11/12 (whose in which wave? I dunno). Now all I can find is a single mutt, a handful of TF Duke. I've never seen Trakker, for example. So, WHY I'm suddenly seeing the Wave 4 stuff, I don't know. Which wave 4? Hasbro reckoning (which would be the revision wave with TF Flint, et al) or fan reckoning (the 5 pack repacks)? If it is the 5 pack repacks, there was a case assortment solicited with second runs of the "core characters" of the 5 packs, so are the cards silver backed or yellow backed? Thus far, there hasn't been any confirmation that the revision cardbacks of those had reached retail.

Hound, G1 Starscream, Cyclonus, and Cheetor were part of 2009 wave 1, and have been shipping since before Christmas. Smokescreen and Dinobot are part of wave 2 09 and have had sporadic sightings since right after Christmas, but the case carrys overs the previous 4 figures IIRC.

Well, we kind of are. The Battle Damage BAT from the next assortment has appeared online "through overseas sources", and the cardback featured a new Falcon figure, Night Force Themed with what appeared to be gloves. I for one, am not adversed at all to more Cobra La, and I think the DESIGNS and many of the concepts are quite workable into the GI Joe mythos. I think what hurt Cobra La more than anything was how it handled the origin of Cobra and Cobra Commander. Pythona and Nemesis Enforcer were both very neat characters, IMO, and hopefully, the movie will do well enough that Hasbro might gives us more from Cobra La. I mean seriously, Transformers fans are getting freakin' GOBOT homages in the toy releases, nods to late year Micromasters, characters that I had as a kid and had forgotten about!

Something else to keep in mind with Power Rangers is that as a concept, it is FAR more fantasy based than GI Joe. GI Joe is very "grounded" compared to many toylines, and as such is subject to political cultural concerns Power Rangers (or Transformers, or STar Wars) doesn't face. That is a BIG reason I see the more scifi bent in new GI Joe concepts from VvV to the movie, as a way to insulate the brand from some of the political issues the brand has dealt with for years. Another thing I think many collectors don't realize is the "casual collector". There are THOUSANDS of new people buying GI Joe who didn't during VvV or Sigma Six. And not one are on the message boards. I saw it with Transformers Classics in 2007, older guys who haven't touched a toy in 20 years were out buying Transformers classics because 'they were like the ones I had as a kid". Nostalgia is a powerful tool, and I wonder how much of the early sales can be attributed to the guy walking buy and seeing "those Joes like I had as a kid" and buying one or two. Problem is, the casual collector isn't a longterm solution, and like Star Wars (which had a similar situation in 1997), many of these casual buyers will get board or decide "enough is enough" and those inflated numbers will carry through, causing overfull shelves.

Spam link, he just posted for the little "survey" link BS

Actually, Hasbro's MSRP on Star Wars has been $7.99 since last summer, and if you have bought online from HTS or even the other online stores like BBTS, the price increase has already filtered down through them. Retailers just haven't followed MSRP for competition and Christmas reasons. Even if a company raises prices in the summer, retailers won't follow until after Christmas because it could effect sales.

I like that DC and Cartoon Network are willing to make a Superhero program that ISN'T all dark and gritty. I think it is a nice throwback to the old 50s era comics when they were meant to be FUN and not bogged down in SERIOUS BUSINESS and these massive storyarcs

No, the actual movie will be released on August, the toys will be out at retail likely by the end of May if not early June.

So basically: Because they're not doing a MOD reset in SPRING for a movie that's a late mid-late SUMMER release, you don't think one's coming? I stand by my "due to be updated" statement. Wait until their SUMMER circular comes out, which will probably mention an early "summer season" MOD reset for G.I. Joe. Because, y'know, the toys probably aren't making it out until early-mid summer anyhow. Having worked at Walmart during 2007, I can tell Ccav right now that each of those modulars will have more than one change. Wolverine and Transformers are simply ones being cited as being the big drivers in each update. Back in 07, those same mod planners talked up the releases of Pirates 3 and Spider-Man 3 with nary a mention of Transformers, and look how that turned out. More than likely, the March update will cycle in the early movie lines (Wolverine, Fury Files, Star Trek, Terminator) with the May reset bringing in GI Joe and Transformers (with Transformers being the core push)

AWESOME. Can you check and see if the fixed crotch has two pegs on the stand? Don't have pics, or the figures myself, but it was my understanding that there were a few fixed crotch Snake Eyes in 25th cardbacks with 1 peg stands, and the rerun of wave 2 last March got some of the figure with a fixed crotch with 2 peg stand out on the market.

The answer was "It's not certain at this point that this wave will make it to Target and Wal-Mart before the end of the year, and your best option might be seeking it out online at this point." So will they release next year? From all indications, with the possible exception of Toys R Us, NOBODY will be carrying Indiana Jones come the Spring 2009 resets. The line effectively bombed at retail, so retailers are not likely to carry it forward into their new resets.

Both the Skyhawk and Water Moccasin are NEW MOLDS, based on the originals, but designed to be compatible with the larger/bulkier 25th figures.

Hasbro pretty much came out and said "ToD may not hit retailers in appreciable numbers, order them online if you want them" http://www.cooltoyreview.com/story/front/H...wers_119109.asp

Dude, last I checked with Wally World, they still had some 5 cases of Indy toys sitting in the back. I tell you, this store is SO unorganized...probably have a hell of a clearance next month

Dude, last I checked with Wally World, they still had some 5 cases of Indy toys sitting in the back. I tell you, this store is SO unorganized...probably have a hell of a clearance next month

Ironically, Hasbro completely owns the names to the Go-Bot brand from the concept to the characters, but they DON'T have any access to the molds of the actual toys (produced by Takara's rival, Bandai)

Didn't realized you were talking about the 12" guys

More than likely, Hasbro has the tools all ready and done for that assortment. But if no retailer will carry the line next year, it makes no financial sense to put the resources into a full production run. I recall a number of Wave 8/Robot Rebellion GI Joe production level samples made it onto eBay AFTER the announcement of the line exiting retail (notably the 3.75 Sigma Six Cobra Commander and a Valor vs Venom firefly with newly tooled retro gear) Just because an assortment gets cancelled, doesn't mean the toys weren't ready to go.

I don't see Hasbro as "falling short" so much as "not catering to the whims of fans" as tightly as Takara does. Futhermore, I really don't see a point in comparing the two as they both serve VASTLY different markets and needs. Hasbro will market to a mix of kids and collectors, and generally releases more than TWICE the number of toys Takara does in a given year (especially since 2004). Takara will MAYBE run a central line, a few reissues here and there, and a couple one-off toy projects (like Alternity). Transformers' only real competiton in the US is Power Rangers, Takara fights against DOZENS of giant robot toylines. The "quality" argument is subjective: the toys are made AT THE EXACT SAME FACTORIES. Takara might slap a few more paint apps here and there, but they also don't have to worry as much about staying within a given pricepoint as badly as Hasbro needs to. To be brutally honest, the sales of Henkei and Universe have no bearing on each other. Hasbro sells a LOt more Universe to kids who don't even know henkei exists than to even care a few hundred collectors are importing Takara's version.

More than likely what happened was that cases of 10-12 got backlogged with all the christmas stuff stores are being loaded with. Since action figures are not a FIFO item (first in, first out), I'll bet REAL money that those older cases got pushed behind newer product (in this case, wave 13). Come a month or so, I fully expect to see many complaints about the deluge of wave 12 instead of wave 14 or whatnot.

Why the eff are you preaching to the choir so to speak? Really, 99% of your posts basically devolved down to "scalpers sucks, you are idiots buying from scalpers, etc, etc" And several assumptions are made: 1. That every store will get these in even amounts. I know for a FACT not every market gets the same number of exclusives. Bigger markets tend to get more. 2. That these will even make it to clearance. Will they in some markets? Oh sure, but will they do so everywhere? Nope. I distinctly recall numerous complaints from the Star Wars fans LAST year about not finding the UBPs on clearance locally. Even at $70, it is still a hefty value, and during Christmas shopping season, you'd be AMAZED at what will end up selling at a good pace. 3. That scalpers will even be a factor with this set. I don't think they will be (not at this point). At this point, figure swapping "collectors" are likely going to represent more of an issue than scalpers.

It's just the Armada Unicron in the 2008 style Universe packaging, same colors and everything.

They say it gets damned cold up there @smilepunch@

I am saying this now: I will mock and say "I told you so" to the first person that posts about not being able to find this set on clearance after Christmas. Star Wars, Transformers, GI joe, the same crap happens all the time. Hasbro reveals repaint store exclusive, fans #$#@# about it being repaints or it being too expensive, and one of two situations happen: 1. Fans DO wait and get it on clearance, but because it had to be clearanced to sell, stores' opinion of the brand has been diminished (see Transformers Universe after the big Walmart push in 2004) 2. The item (in this case, released at the height of the christmas shopping season) ends up selling at most markets and the fans that waited are left in the cold (see the GI joe Desert team TRU set released in 2004, or even last year's Star Wars Ultimate Battle Packs) From what I've seen, Hasbro is fully committed to running this toyline like Star Wars, which means in another year or so, we WILL get a new Short Fuze, and if fans make enough fuss, I'm sure Hasbro would be more than happy to churn out a repaint of the trooper in this set. After all, fan fussing get us single packed Dreadnoks

Umm....isn't Baylock a writer?