Ok. We all know that SDCC is going on and we have most likely also seen the interviews with Derryl DePriest on various websites.
I would like to quote part of these interviews:



Now I shall post two quotes (not mine) from other boards that mirror my own thoughts on this statement:





I will now quote myself from last year:



So Hasbro is constantly giving one reason after another why they can't do this, that, or the other thing with GI Joe, but when they experience success, they have "no specific plans" to continue the items that were successful? Even though the discount retailers want said items?

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It's a longevity problem. What if they just keep coming? Yeah, we get lots of toys in the short run. But 5-10 years from now, G.I.Joe is "that cheap discount store toy." That may sound like an exaggeration, but is exactly what needs to be avoided.

I'm not saying that I am happy there aren't more planned. I love these figures and it is disappointing. But I totally get why.

Is that before or after all of the unreleased stock is found at Big Lots/Ross?

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, and I lurked these boards long before I ever registered here, so I've seen the many cries of "End of the line!", but I feel like it doesn't bode well that everything in the "main" line was pushed back, and then this highly successful line is not being continued.

Of course they keep rebooting the line, so I'm curious what the next iteration is going to be. Will they go back to 5" figures like Savage, or bigger like Sigma?

Selling to discounters is a way of cutting your losses, not a way to keep G.I.Joe around. Clearing out stock to discount stores is an entirely different thing than manufacturing them specifically for that purpose.

That's not really what cast is talking about, imho. He's saying there's an endemic pattern of failing to capitalize, not one specific instance of why they won't continue this one project. Its bled over to the MU line as well.

As to this DG issue, I think its more due to factory scheduling issues. That's more central to Hasbro's problems across all their non-movie lines and distribution overall. Hasbro apparently has difficulty finding additional factories to expand production, and has to squeeze manufacturing of the smaller lines in between the movie-supported lines.

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I have one question. Does Hasbro sell these cheaper to the discount stores or do they sell them at the same price as mass retail? Dollar General sells them for 40% less than mass retail, but are they taking that hit or is Hasbro? If it's Hasbro I can see why they would be weary about continuing until they see the final sales numbers of the second wave.

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Hasbro sees the final sales numbers as soon as DG's check clears. What happens to the figs once they're DG's property has no bearing on Hasbro's income. Since the line is built around minimally-accessorized repaints, the only consideration should be whether Hasbro gets enough money from the materials, labor, and shipping to warrant fitting the figs into their production schedule; which they apparently don't.

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Hasbro may receive their income once they sell to Dollar General, but the final numbers for Dollar General still very much has an impact on Hasbro. Dollar General may want a wave 3 because of the popularity of wave 1, but what happens when Hasbro goes through the 6-12 month process of producing wave 3. Meanwhile wave 2 doesn't sell as expected so Dollar General declines to purchase wave 3. Now Hasbro is stuck with product and no retailer.

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Yup, to Notpicard you listen.

Would you count a success as selling a product that normally goes for $10 each to one retailer for 50% of MSRP to be a success? How many of those could they have really sold? How much profit could be in selling one product to one store? Hasbro works on a global scale.

The old figures could be cranked out at $3 each because they had:

Wal-Mart
K-Mart
Sears
Med-X
Eckerd's Drugs
Service Merchandise
Venture
TG&Y
OTASCO

And thats just a few of the places I personally bought Joes back in the day. I think maybe the DG runs were just to keep the factory lines open and engaged for additional product later. You quit using those lines they are gonna gear up to produce something else and you've lost them for your needs later.

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I don't have any idea about the why's, but this is kind of disappointing. It would have been neat to see another wave with different characters.

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There have been figures at Dollar General since Valor Vs Venom. Why start worrying about 'image' now?

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Pretty much this. And discount exclusives like the Dollar General things aren't really going to probably make money for hasbro as much as help them not lose money or "recoup" I suppose in a very indirect and complex manner. Maybe they reap a profit from it I dunno. I'm just guessing they don't OR it isn't a black and white thing.

Don't get me wrong..... I think continuing it is something they should do but it is not even remotely their bread and butter I don't think by any means nor could it ever be.

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Thank you for getting what I'm saying.

As far as factories and other such issues, I believe that Hasbro may have grown too big and is trying to produce too many lines at once. Notice that a few years back, Marvel Universe only got two waves that whole year because Avengers and other Marvel tie-ins were the focus. It seems that Hasbro lines are competing not with other companies' lines, but with each other.

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We don't have access to sales numbers, just our best guesses based on what we see lingering on or flying off of pegs. Is it better to wait until a toyline causes retailers to lose money to pull the plug or is it better to stop while you are still ahead?

I still don't see the window of opportunity that Hasbro has missed, at least not a big one. I often feel that companies tend to think too short term, only looking at how well they did this year vs last year. But this isn't one of those cases. If they want to be able to revitalize G.I.Joe, they need to make sure they don't burn bridges.

Wal-Mart had dropped the 30th line. That doesn't sound like Hasbro passed an opportunity to me. It sounds like the opportunity wasn't there. Retaliation was tied up in the delay. Not much opportunity there. If you aren't talking about the DG figures specifically, what great opportunities do you mean?

And they did have the VvV repaints at discount stores years ago, but...that was years ago...almost a decade now. The world has changed a lot in that time.

Several of my local DGs still have the JvC figs. Picked up another TeleViper not six months ago.

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