I knew they'd under-produce Zarana because it's a female toy. Forget the rapid sell out, Hasbro probably made less than 5K and will insist it didn't sell well because it sold less than 5K units, as they always do. I think the fan community just needs to air their clear frustrations to this company, cutting female characters down, packing the line with variants and all that. I don't care if the stores want it, we don't, and if we don't buy then they're going to get the message. I really think the best way to send the message is to show them we won't give brand loyalty blindly and we won't give them oru money blindly if they can't produce anything up to par like they did back in 07-08.

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Up to par would be more like 84 - 87. 07 - 08 had plenty of issues too and only when that stuff has been showing up lately in ROSS, Marshall's, and TJMaxx has it been a little easier. Some people never saw the figures until they hit the outlet stores.

These exclusives would never go away until all fans just let it sit and rot. Let Ebayers buy it up and not buy from them. That'll never happen though so it would realistically require a new brand manager to create a new idea that the industry sees as a better solution to whatever it is exclusives gain toward these companies.

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the thing is, they obviously won't care or even try to make more of them even though they sold through at a profit on each item despite the lower runs. who did have the final say in production #'s anyway?

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Well I had a Pink Zarana preordered from BBTS. Was at HTS when they had everything instock and never go past checkout. But I finally managed to get me a Indy set.

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I like G.I. Joe but what is it now, to me?

*figures I can't find in local stores
*figures that I feel are not worth the extra shipping cost to buy online
*a lack of female characters because the current brand manager, or maybe Brian Goldner himself, doesn't want to make them(and no I don't buy the "they don't sell" excuse, I never have).
*Snake Eyes, Duke, Destro, and Storm Shadow with a couple of other characters

it's not a line I want to buy, not that I can buy it because few stores even carry them. If the figures I want are old then I buy second hand. If they're exclusive I can either hope for a deal, pay the insane markup or not buy. If they're not in stores then it's not a consideration. I really don't want to buy most of what is coming to stores because it doesn't interest me. I think the "modern update to old toys" is what drew me in but Hasbro is turning away from that. I get that much of them were made but when a true update like Kwinn is canned so we can get another Storm Shadow then I lose interest. Yeah, we get a few more here and there- Low Light, Airtight- but it's an exception and starting to sound like much of that will go to an expensive "club" which I can't justify paying to join.


what did Transformers get for their exclusive? 2 bad toys that can only be called exclusive because of special packaging. Same toys that'll hit retail, just new boxes. Rodimus is not an exclusive because it'll be in stores, it just debuted at SDCC.

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I don't buy "females don't sell" either. I bet they sell more than the average Duke, Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Destro, or Cobra Commander. I remember when Helix came out. She was a new female that wasn't even in the movie, and right away it seemed like she'd be super-scarce. It evened out for her after all, but that ROC line was like an upside down pyramid as far as wave distribution, and most of the crap was near the top. At the bottom were scarce figures that then become more valuable, and then even rarer because scarcity drives value, which then drives even more demand.

Anyway, my point in all this? I just spent more on the variant Zarana than I ever have on a single Joe. (Night Force Repeater was my previous record-holder). Wouldn't Hasbro rather collect all that money I spent on her? I imagine the overwhelming majority of us are on a Joe budget that doesn't get bigger just because the new figure we want costs ten times what it should at retail. And all the comic con exclusives since 2007, and this year more than ever, are must-haves!

My pitch for the next Hasbro DTC seven pack: Crimson Twins in Con Destro's suit. Zarana, Sgt. Slaughter, Dial-Tone, and Low-Light repaints. And Cobra Mortal, just 'cause.

I tried to give Hasbro approx. $77 today. They ended up with approx. $14. It was a frustrating experience but I finally got one pink Zarana which was the thing I wanted most. I wonder what immensely popular, oft-requested character will be nearly impossible to get next year.

They sell well in Star Wars and Marvel Universe. They don't sell well in Joe when it's something like pilot Scarlett- hey, it's based on Glenda, the rare Argentina variant of the original Scarlett? Nah, paint the hair wrong and sell it as a variant that doesn't make sense. No black Baroness on cards? Just the blue one with green glasses? Yeah it's based on the first episodes but it was ugly. Helix sold well, ROC Baroness did not because it had an ugly face. PP Baroness sold better because, even using the same head, they somehow made it less ugly.

I think Brian Goldner needs to go. Transformers has shifted almost exclusively to the movie "shredded parts" style because the movies did well while the way things were is just given a sort of "here you go, now shut up" treatment. I don't like the movie aesthetic much, some of the toys are okay but I don't care for it on the overall scheme of things. I still think a proper film could be done with more traditional designs but no one wants to try it. Now that it's successful we'll probably never see traditional designs in full media again. Joe has degenerated from a military force to an underground group that's not even acknowledged to exist, officially. And forget being a fan of the new MLP cartoon, Hasbro all but refuses to make toys based on the cartoon so we get pink Celestia toys when shes white in the cartoon, and Applejack driving a truck.

I'll support with my dollars when they make stuff I want, but if they won't make stuff I want then I feel no need. That's how you speak to them, not by letters, but refusing to buy what you don't want. If the brand dies, well... it died because you didn't want it anyway.

I can understand slaughter being an exclusive due to the rights issues, but Zarana was just a big middle finger to the fans.

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Today was the first day I hated my beloved iPhone. I knew it wasn't its fault that HTS kept popping up "cannot display page," but that still barely kept me from throwing it into traffic. I have a part time job where I go to stores for advertisements, so my phone was my only option after I hit the road at 9:30am. I checked at the right time to miss out on CS Zarana by a few minutes but was able to get a regular Zarana. I'm pleased about that, but I will only believe I actually got it the figure when it arrives. I'm fully expecting an e-mail saying "sorry, our bad" even though I already got a confirmation e-mail.

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Got there right as the exclusives went up....twenty reloads later, got a Starscream in my cart. Thirty reloads later, successfully got to the checkout page, aaaaaannnnnddddd.....

"This item is currently out of stock."

All I have to say to Hasbro can be summed up by this (language warning).

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I still don't get how you can lose an item in your cart. And I lost my Starscream because I didn't realize my CC on file had expired. Man, I had it. Well, almost had it.
Now I've just had it.

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This sums up perfectly my (and probably many other people's) feelings. While I love the products, collecting itself has become way more frustrating than fun. While I had no interest in Zarana, I can certainly relate to the frustration expressed in this thread. Even finding figures that are supposed to be mass retail releases has become unlikely to impossible. If not for a helpful member of this board (big shout out to roguetiger!) I would have never gotten my hands on Low-Light, which would have been a shame, since he is one of the coolest figures of the line.

As has been stated countless times, Hasbro's Joe management team hasn't got a clue about what they are doing. Especially egregious are the marketing and production numbers incompetence. I don't want to go into a long detailed rant, I've written on it plenty before, but yes, I feel their clumsy, embarrassing ineptitude is really damaging the brand. It must be like a vicious circle: their actions (or lack thereof) contribute to weak sales, and the weak sales are then used to justify lack of initiative or effort or investment in the Joe line.

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This is more of the true nature of what an exclusive should be. Special packaging, special paint style, alternate versions, etc. Full out characters that you can't get elsewhere and are core characters are just bad business. Halmark did a stupid move with their Star Wars choice. Mattel actually did pretty good this year by offering Marlena just in an alternate package style, or the Monster High doll that was a character on the shelf, just in different clothes.

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I love that the scalper market is keeping right in step with all of this...the starscreams they were scalping for $120 each yesterday are now all listed at $200 or more.

This honestly may be the end of getting new product for me...I was slowing down anyway, and Hasbro really seems to not want my money. We haven't seen new figures since the shock trooper wave (and only got one case of that) anyway. Seriously, I never thought it would be so hard to get someone to take my money.

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The one character that will make the entire JC board explode when it too sells out:







You know it...







You love him...








I shouldn't even have to say it...








Big Brawler