That's it, I'm calling you 'narcedrone' now...

Have a headache? Stomache pain? IBS? Suffer from depression?

Try new 'narcedrone'!

The new pill that's not hard to swallow, just good luck getting into the bottle...

Merry Christmas, narceron...




I never had the cartoon either, only managing to catch a few episodes here and there (well, mostly there).

I relied on the comic and the filecards too. (No Airborne with ESP, no Duke/Scarlett).

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That is what I don't get, why they were overproduced AND at the higher oil prices (remember those? those slowed sales too). But not just that there were so many already, but that if/when the figures sold, they also were replaced, in most of the Atlanta area, not with Wave 10/11, but more refresher waves.

So I've seen wave 13 once, and haven't seen the "army builder wave" yet. Not that I'm dying for a Python CG or anything, but it'd be nice.

That, and they've grossly overproduced the first wave of smaller vehicles (THEN had the nerve to send out refresher waves of these instead of wave 2 to the Atlanta area) and also overproduced the DVD sets. The first 2 DVD sets are still sitting on store shelves all around me, despite everything else selling through except US Flag Duke, '86 Roadblock, Wild Bill, and Spirit.

Who loves Wild Bill this much at Hasbro? Who are they fooling thinking people will buy him b/c he's a "cowboy"? Who is the Mattell hire that is fooling people into making him and Spirit their smash blade he-man & skeletor?

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I think that is a pretty accurate report nationwide. We went from having nothing on the pegs to having a glut of the same stuff stagnating there for months. When anything new does get put out, it is gone in a day or two.

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In my area, TRU is out of Singles and a few vehiceles, at my local Wal-Mart, some peg warmers, no vehiceles and with my local KB Toys closing, there aint not one to be found, so in my area, they are doing very well.

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I got one of my nephew's the first DVD pack, and when he opened it, he asked, "What's GI Joe?"

I think that might be the answer to some of the problems.

As for product, my local Target added a few new figs to their already semi-full pegs, but there are a lot of TF Flint and Wild Bill's on those pegs, plus a few of the large battle in a box, that's now on clearance for $44 and change.

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Ditto. Growing up in the 70s you had a lot of toy lines (Johnny West, GI Joe, Big Jim to name a few) that had no media presence whatsoever and were HUGELY popular. Star Wars changed that somewhat. But with Joes, my interest came mostly from having the original 12" line as a kid--now as a teen here was this smaller line, curious yet neat.

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I'd have to say the comic and word of mouth drove my initial interest in Joe. The cartoon was just icing on the cake, and ran tertiary to the comic and my imagination.

He-man, however, had no media support that I cared for. They were just fun to play with! I guess word of mouth got me to notice those too.

My overall interest in the new line has diminished mainly due to hindered arm poseability and rising costs. We've seen about a 40% price hike on single carded figures in the past year, with vehicles constantly inching up as well.

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It is true that the lack of media is hurting the 25ths. As we all remember back in the 1980s, GI Joe had a daily cartoon show and toy stores were filled with figures. Unfortunately, toy sales are linked to what children find exciting and new. We are only 10% of the market. Toy companies look at the bottom line, Money! We all would like to see our favorite figures rereleased but unless children are as enthusiastic as we were about them it won't happen. To some degree the toy companies are to blame. Why repackage a previously released a figure and fill the hooks? Toy manufacturers care about making money.
The market is geared to children's interests and not those of collectors or customizers. If you have a child, ask them what is the coolest toy? Then ask them if they like it because they watch a cartoon based on that toy? We were the same when we were young. Ask your self this. If GI Joe did not have a cartoon show to tie in with the figures, would we be as excited about them as we were? Probably not. We would have lost interest after the first year.
Media plays a major role in toy sales. Next time you go to a toy store looking for the new wave of GI Joe figures, ask a parent what they are buying for their child and if that child wants the toy because of a cartoon they watch? If the GI Joe line is going to continue and grow as big as it was in the 80s, multimedia marketing is needed. New cartoons or reairing of classics, videogames, comics (yeah, we still have those but how many children are reading them?) and commercials. Yeah commercials.
Has anyone seen an actual commercial for the new GI Joe line? Think back to your past. It was 1985, you were sitting on your living room floor. A bowl of Capt. Crunch in your lap. The GI Joe cartoon was on the television. You were enjoying watching your favorite cartoon and then a commercial came on. In the commercial children, the same age as you, were playing with new GI Joe toys. They were happy. They brought the cartoon to three dimensional reality. You lept up so fast that you spilled your bowl of cereal. You ran frantically arround the house shouting for your parents. Your battle cry, "MOMMY, DADDY, I WANT THAT, I WANT THAT, BUY ME THAT, BUY ME THAT!" So yes, it is true that the lack of media presence is hurting the new GI Joe line.

Pretty much the same reaction from my g/f's 5 year old cousin had yesterday when I gave him a DVD pack as a present. I wasn't surprised by his reaction. How else is a 5 year old kid suppose to know what G.I.JOE is today.

Segnett and I collected the five dvd packs, I've yet to hear how his little boy reacted to them.

My infant just stares blankly at the screen, not enough movement or bright colors.


Thats what GIJOE needs, neon colors!

Wait, seems all too familiar. . .

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I guess to be fair, when I was 5, I knew the answer to that question because of this:

http://yojoe.com/television/commercials/82/intro82.rm

They should just make TV movies for these sort of things. They don't have to fund a whoe series that way, but still get advertising. Imagine if they'd have done that for Transformers Classics and Universe, Classics already sold pretty well.

I think what Hasbro should do is make a modern series to coincide with Resolute, with a revolving team based on the mission (ex: water mission has Torpedo, Shipwreck, and Deep Six, but use the classic uniforms and vehicles! That would be great!

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Sure, lack of media presence hurts. Joe doesn't even have a comic out right now.

There is a lot of competition out there.
Even for adult collectors lines, Star Wars and TF at least have cartoons out.

I expect the new Comic, Resolute Cartoon and the movie to help joe out a lot in 2009.

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