>>11887583
G.I. Joe didn't struggle to compete, at least not in the 80s, it was very popular. The older G.I. Joe fandom back then in like the 90s early internet days was pretty serious too, rivaled Transformers in terms of dedication and tism.

Problem with G.I. Joe is they just didn't follow it up. People always theorize "war shit just isn't cool to kids" but I can tell you, that isn't true, especially since G.I. Joe was also scifi/fantasy with ninjas, cool vehicles, cyborgs etc

Joe almost had a 90s rebranding like Beast Wars but it didn't happen, and the series just kept sinking in relevance to the point that when they finally tried reviving it 2010s, it didn't get a ton of attention cause theres now a generation of kids who didn't grow up with it making a gape in interest

TMNT has had about....one third of the number of cartoons Transformers had, and its why the Transformers brand is now bigger than it, despite the opposite being true in the early 90s, it's all about visibility as a brand and how many kids grow up to be nostalgic, Transformers never stopped, TMNT peppered shit in, MOTU and GI Joe tried but they dropped the ball and became more B list