I seen all three of the sets at several W-Ms and TRUs around and right after Christmas, so they were definitely out there. Too bad they were short-packed, I would've liked a few more of those Cobra paratroopers, although I did end up getting 3-4 of them, before I knew it was impossible to find.

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One night right before Christmas my wife and I got a sitter for the kids and went out to get our shopping done. The first Wal Mart we stopped at had two each of sets 3-4 (the Wave 2 case assortment). One dusty had straps, so I convinced my wife to buy me both sets for my Christmas present. Later that night, while my wife ran into Barnes and Noble before they closed, I had to run into a different Wal Mart to pick up some diapers we needed that the first Wal Mart didn't have. I was pressed for time but I stopped by the toy section and found this set. Earlier in the week at a third Wal Mart I saw the set but a repacker had switched out a bunch of pieces and swiped the MASS device piece. Needless to say, I didn't want to risk not finding this set so I bought it and told my wife I found another present for her to give me. I haven't seen the set again, even though for quite a while I was checking a Wal Mart and Target by my office daily.

The inexplicable thing is that this is probably the best of the sets. Out of all of the sets, this is probably the only one I'd consider buying multiples of because it has an awesome troop builder, a cool camera, and a CLAW thrown in (which sucks compared to the original, but for free is great). Not to mention, this is the best of the DVDs, in my opinion. I'd love to give one to each of my two nephews to give them a taste of GI Joe. With the other four sets, it's one story. This way you get four stories. Again, why this was short-packed I don't understand. Yet set two, which didn't even have a troop builder and had one less figure than most of the sets, saw the widest distribution.

I never understood this line of thinking when people have made this sort of assertion on a manufacturer's secret agenda... Why would they even bother to do it that way on purpose? What good would all this extra hype do them, as the product being hyped isn't available to be bought by the consumer? It's not like they have a secret deal with the Scalper's Union (Local 666) to drive up demand so that THEY can make some extra scratch... In fact, it's more often than not counter productive, as when people can't find the whole set, they give up and may not buy the other, more readily available sets either.

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Yes hasbro did screw up on the case assortments for these. They figured by the time #5 was out, #'s 1-4 would most likely be long gone. And as we know, that isn't the case.

Sadly I too wish I'd picked up more of these back when I saw them instead of the few I got.

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I can understand what the marketing idea is. I mean I'm in the t-shirt industry and have people buy from me to re-sell. Many have told me several times how they do it. It's a product as a whole and not seen as individual items. We see individual items but the people selling do not. Back to the customers I've had...

The way they have done it is they buy a large amount of the initial order of one design, then purposely by lower stock of the next few designs. By doing this, they sell out "faster". They do not have as many so they sell out. When the next batch hits, they get even less. After a while people see they "sell out" so they rush to go buy the shirt as soon as the next ones hit. Once they see a nice increase in customers they up the order.

Now I don't know exactly how hat formula fits into the toy world with the manufacture, resellers, and also scalpers, but I know it's a formula they practice. It doesn't always work, but most of the times it does. It sucks on the consumer end because like I said, we see the line as individual items.

But yeah, it doesn't have to totally make sense but it is something that's done on mot every resell market. It's sad that it's come to that, but it's something people figured out how to "make" customers buy a product. Create a false demand and you have customers that you may not have knew you'd have because of the "gotta buy it" craze.

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The hype can benefit the company (from their point of view, anyway) by appealing to a specific customer base, namely resellers, scalpers, and "investors". A recent item that fetches multiples of its retail value in the very short term will get the attention of such people. Believe me, I know a local guy who used to live by this doctrine, and likely still does to some degree.

In the case of the MASS Device and the way it was released, shortpacking the last one is an easy way to keep from being burned at retail by the negative backlash that is equally sure to follow such a tactic. People like me have already purchased and opened all four previous sets, so their sale has already been made.

I can't stand it either, the leeching off the genuine enthusiasm of others, but the mentality is out there. Thanks for explaining it more thoroughly and eloquently than I could, J-Man!

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Well, maybe they'll release a repainted version as an entire set to match the Joes' reddish rust color MASS Device